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A History of Columbia County Florida (1996) Edward F. Keuchel 76/340

An Expanding County in a Nezv State

In early December 1859, Governor Madison Starke Perry
looked with pride upon the state’s railroad accomplishments. He
noted that when Florida became a state in 1845 the mule-powered
St. Marks line was the only railroad. As of December 1859, he
noted that the state had some 350 miles of road graded and some
200 miles of track laid.33
On March 13, 1860, the Florida Atlantic and Gulf Central was
officially opened between Jacksonville and Lake City. On March
15, a special excursion from Jacksonville carried about eight
hundred of the city’s citizens to Lake City for a celebration with a
free barbeque, long speeches, and promises of future prosperity.
As the locomotive Jacksonville pulled into Lake City, it was
greeted by M. Whit Smith and Mayor J. S. Wood. On March 21, a
similar excursion was made from Lake City to Jacksonville. The
Lake City delegation was entertained at a reception at the Judson
House where Miss Kate Ives of Lake City, fourteen-year old
daughter of Washington and Eliza Ives, mixed waters taken from
Lake DeSoto with the waters of the St. Johns River symbolizing
the fusion of the two regions. The connection with Tallahassee over
the Pensacola and Georgia Railroad was completed in November
1861. After that Columbia County was established as the major
junction in the rail link connecting the Atlantic Ocean with the
state’s inland capital and all of Middle Florida.34
As the railroad lines were being built, Columbia County itself
was changing from a frontier area to an integral part of the
developing state. In 1854 British traveler Charles Lanman de­
scribed his journey from Newnansville to Tallahassee. He stopped
at Alligator on the way which he described as:
a collection of log cabins, occupying a cheerless sandy
clearing in the midst of pine woods. Its leading families * 3
33 Floridian and Journal, December 3, 1859.
3iEast. Floridian, March 18, 1860; Floridian and Journal, March 17, 1860;
Fenlon, “Florida Atlantic and Gulf Central Railroad,” p. 80; Davis, History of
Jacksonville, p. 342.

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