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A History of Columbia County Florida (1996) Edward F. Keuchel 118/340

A History of Columbia County, Florida
Madison County planter he met in Jacksonville. Hart’s letters of
this period offer an excellent description of logging operations in
East Florida at the end of the war. Lands for logging were
purchased from the federal government for $1.25 per acre, and the
pine timber areas along creeks which emptied into navigable
rivers were the most highly sought. Camps were established along
the creeks complete with shanties, mules, timber carts, cooks and
supplies. In Hart’s own words:
Choppers fell the trees and log them up in lengths of 19,
25, 29 or 35 feet. These are hauled to the creek by the
timber carts each being drawn by four mules. These carts
are made very large, high and strong with six inch tire
[iron] on the wheels, the logs being raised beneath them by
a tackle attached to each cart. . . . When the log reached
the creek it is dropped and rolled in. . . . The logs are
allowed to float down the creek to the point where the
rafting is done; this point is where the creek is wide
enough. About 500 logs (making 150,000 feet of lumber)
are usually put in a raft. After the raft is put together a
licensed surveyor measures every log, when the bill of
survey is taken down and sold to some saw mill, the raft
being towed down to the mill by a small tug.9
Hart and Thompson’s operations required an investment of
$5,000 of which Hart provided $1,000, while the balance was
borrowed at eight percent interest. Expenses for choppers and
mules ran $30 per day. The 15 Negro choppers were paid $1.00 a
day per man, while it cost 75<? per day for each mule. Hart
lamented that corn and hay to feed the mules cost about twice the
New York price. Hart’s crew was cutting $60 to $75 worth of
timber per day. It was difficult work and Hart remarked that
most operators abandoned it after sufficient money was made to
buy a plantation.10
In the spring of 1868 Hart and Thompson moved to Columbia
County and managed the “Echotucknee” [sic] plantation described
9Hart to Father, June 2, 1867, Letters of Ambrose B. Hart.

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