Page 84 - a-history-of-columbia-county-florida-(1996)-edward-f-keuchel

A History of Columbia County Florida (1996) Edward F. Keuchel 73/340

A History of Columbia County, Florida

state, plus additional federal lands acquired under the Swamp
Land Act of 1850. Florida Senator David Levy Yulee proposed that
these lands be used for railroad construction, particularly for a
railroad running from the Atlantic to the Gulf. In 1853 the General
Assembly chartered the Pensacola and Georgia Railroad to build
eastward from Pensacola, and the Florida Railroad to run from a
port on the Atlantic to another port on the Gulf. In 1854 the
Internal Improvement Board called for the use of state lands to
assist private corporations in the construction of railroads to
connect Jacksonville with Pensacola, and Fernandina with Tampa.
Historian Charleton W. Tebeau notes that two railroad presidents
served on the board at that time. They were Dr. Abel Seymour
Baldwin of the Florida Atlantic and Gulf Central, and David Levy
Yulee of the Florida Railroad.24
In 1855 the General Assembly created the Internal Improve­
ment Fund to be supervised by the governor, the comptroller, the
treasurer, the secretary of agriculture, and the registrar of state
lands. This group, serving as trustees of the state’s lands in the
fund, offered assistance to private transportation companies in the
form of a 200 foot right of way through state lands, and alternate
sections of land (section = 640 acres) six miles deep on both sides of
the proposed route. In addition the trustees were authorized to
issue bonds up to $10,000 a mile for the purchase of rails and
rolling stock. Railroad property and equipment served as security
for these bonds, but the trustees also pledged state lands in
promise of payment if the railroad companies failed to meet their
obligations.25
State assistance was only one aspect of governmental assis­
tance to the private railroads. David Levy Yulee, who served as one
of Florida’s senators in Washington, D.C. as well as the president
of a railroad company, was able to use his influence to obtain
24Tebeau, History of Florida, pp. 189-90.
*>Ibid., p. 190.

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