Page 83 - a-history-of-columbia-county-florida-(1996)-edward-f-keuchel

A History of Columbia County Florida (1996) Edward F. Keuchel 72/340

An Expanding County in a New State

David Ridgeway, Jordan Swindle, Daniel Trezvent) in 1845. Of the
fourteen persons who paid the highest taxes in the county ($20 to
$40) eight were saloon keepers and whiskey merchants. Of the
whiskey merchants John Dalany paid $30.95 while Allen Histon
paid $31.05. William B. Ross, who also owned 28 slaves, paid
$46.54, the highest tax in the county. Thomas Dexter, who also had
20 slaves, paid $35.68. Of the saloon keepers Daniel Trezvant paid
$40.75 while Jordan Swindle, David Ridgeway and the saloon of
Noyes and Cole each paid between $30 and $31. Merchants not
handling whiskey paid much lower taxes. Dowling, Cole and
Company paid $5.00 while George Colt paid $8.20. A. H. Miller,
who also owned slaves paid $5.67.23
Even after statehood, transportation was almost as serious a
problem as it had been during the territorial period. The few roads
were still little more than trails through the forest, scrub and
swamp areas. Problems of passage alternated between desert-like
sand and swampy bogs, both making any wagon passage ex­
ceedingly difficult. Florida’s first railroad, a mule-powered opera­
tion, dates back to 1836, and was one of the nation’s oldest, but it
only functioned for the twenty-three miles between Tallahassee
and St. Marks. Two additional rail lines were built during the
territorial period out of St. Joseph. One ran to Lake Wimico, and
the other ran to Iola on the Apalachicola River. Neither railroad
survived the yellow fever epidemic and hurricane which devas­
tated St. Joseph in 1841.
In 1851 the General Assembly chartered the Florida Atlantic
and Gulf Central Railroad projected to run from Jacksonville west
to Alligator. Also in 1851 state assistance was offered for railroad
construction through the creation of the Internal Improvement
Board. The Board was to manage the 500,000 acres of state lands
granted from the federal government when Florida became a
23Tax Returns Columbia County, Florida 1845, “The Early Years of Columbia
County.”
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