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A History of Columbia County Florida (1996) Edward F. Keuchel 20/340

A History of Columbia County, Florida

Pensacola and Dr. William H. Simmons of St. Augustine to
examine the area between the Ocklockonee and Suwannee rivers
for a new capital. In October 1823, the two officials met at St.
Marks and traveled by horseback to the Indian village of
Tallahassee near the ruins of the old Spanish mission of San Luis.
Tallahassee was approved as the new capital of the territory. To
avoid Indian problems Duval was able to persuade the Indians of
the vicinity to relocate on lands along the Apalachicola River.
The problem of selecting a capital demonstrated that the
territory could not adequately be maintained without some system
of land transportation. The old Spanish road from St. Augustine to
Fort San Luis was nothing more than an overgrown path. In 1824
Congress appropriated $20,000 for the construction of a road from
St. Augustine to Pensacola. The road was to follow the old Spanish
road as much as possible. Territorial roads were usually built by
the army. James Gadsden, a Jackson protege who had engineering
experience as an army officer, thought that the garrison of St.
Augustine reinforced with a company from Charleston would be
sufficient to build the section from St. Augustine to the Suwannee
River.3 John Bellamy, a wealthy planter proposed, however, that he
be given the contract for the section from St. Augustine to
Tallahassee. Bellamy maintained that with his slaves, wagons and
teams he could do the job more cheaply. The army agreed and that
section of the route became known as the Bellamy Road. It was
opened in 1826.
The Bellamy Road was crudely built. Trees were cut in a belt
twenty feet wide, but stumps one to two feet high were often left
standing. Some crude bridges were built, but ferries were neces­
sary for the crossing of all major streams. Occasionally in boggy
areas logs were laid side by side in a corduroy pattern, but this was
not a satisfactory solution. Since the road followed a serpentine

3James Gadsden to Secretary of War, March 16, 1824, in Carter, Territorial
Papers, Vol. XXII, p. 902.
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