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A History of Columbia County Florida (1996) Edward F. Keuchel 75/340

A History of Cohan bi a County, Florida

and her decision is in favor of progress. . . . The friends of the
road worked like men and have triumphed.”29
All totaled, the Florida Atlantic and Gulf Central Railroad
obtained some 200,000 acres of state lands, 200,000 acres of federal
lands, $600,000 of “guaranteed” bonds from the Trustees of the
Internal Improvement Fund, $50,000 in municipal bonds from the
city of Jacksonville, and $100,000 in municipal bonds from Colum­
bia County. Nevertheless, attempts to get the road constructed to
Alligator were difficult and slow. Construction pay was one dollar
a day and work crews usually averaged one hundred and fifty
workers, but still the company had payroll problems. A yellow
fever epidemic sharply curtailed construction during the summer
of 1857.30
It was not until 1859 that meaningful construction was under­
way. By October of 1859 the entire 60 miles of the road had been
graded with 40 miles already in iron track. It was also in October
that the company obtained its first new locomotive, the Jackson­
ville, purchased from the Patterson works in New Jersey.31
Going west from Alligator toward Tallahassee work was
underway on the Pensacola and Georgia. Chartered by the General
Assembly in 1853 to run from Pensacola to some unspecified point
in Georgia, its eastern terminus was later changed to Alligator and
as built it connected Lake City (name changed from Alligator in
January, 1859) with Tallahassee. By October of 1859 the road was
complete from Lake City to the Suwannee River and graded from
the Suwannee to Tallahassee. The bridge over the Suwannee,
which was started in February 1859, was nearing completion.32

29 Florida Republican, July 4, 1855, as cited in Ibid., p. 73.
30Ibid., p. 78; T. Frederick Davis, History of Jacksonville and Vicinity 1513-
1924 (Jacksonville, 1925), p. 342.
31 The East Floridian (Fernandina), October 3, 1859; Floridian and Journal,
October 22, 1859.
Z2The East Floridian, October 13, 1859; Floridian and Journal, February 19,
1860.
72

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