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A History of Columbia County Florida (1996) Edward F. Keuchel 143/340

A History of Cohcmbia County, Florida

the state supreme court overruled him and returned the companies
to Swepson.7
Swepson’s and Littlefield’s schemes continued. In 1870 new
reorganizations created the Jacksonville, Pensacola and Mobile
Railroad Company. The Florida Central was to remain separate
from the new company but Swepson still owned the majority of its
stock. Before the dust had barely settled from all of these manip­
ulations and dealings, it was uncovered that Swepson had made his
Florida railroad purchases with money embezzled from his North
Carolina railroad. To escape prosecution he fled to Canada. Even­
tually Dutch investors came into possession of some $315,000
worth of Florida railroad bonds including the $100,000 Columbia
County issue.8
Matters concerning the bonds issued by Columbia County to the
old Florida Atlantic and Gulf Central reached crisis proportions in
1880. The bond holders had secured judgments against the county
in the United States Circuit Court, and taxes of three and five
percent of the county’s taxable property were levied to pay the
bond holders. Since the principal and accrued interest totaled
some $280,000, the judgment placed the county’s economic future
in jeopardy. The bondholders were willing to settle for thirty cents
on the dollar, however, so the county commissioners resolved to
issue $84,000 of new bonds to settle the obligations of the earlier
bonds.9
An election to approve the new bond issue was scheduled for
July 5, 1880, but was later changed to September 6. In the election
the bond issue passed by a vote of 512 to 424, but there was some

7Paul E. Fenlon, “The Florida Atlantic and Gulf Central Railroad: the First
Railroad in Jacksonville,” Florida Historical Quarterly 32 (July, 1953), 71-80; Paul
E. Fenlon, “The Notorious Swepson-Littlefield Fraud: Railroad Financing in
Florida, 1868-1871,” Florida Historical Quarterly 32 (January, 1954), pp. 231-261.
8Shofner, Nor Is It Over Yet, pp. 247-250.
9County Commissioners Minutes Books No. 1, Meeting of June 1, 1880.
140

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