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St Joseph Research Paper

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Deep in the thick swamps and woods of Northern Gulf County, amidst the buzz and sting of mosquitoes, chirps of squirrels, and swirls of the Apalachicola, is a long-lost story. One hundred and eighty years ago the town of Iola sprang out of the cypress swamp of what is now north east Gulf County. That small community, was, and still is an enigma in the wilderness of territorial Florida and has all but faded from the memory of Gulf County and is nothing but a boat ramp now. You cannot discuss Iola without first discussing Saint Joseph. Saint Joseph began its short life in the mid 1830’s after a Supreme Court decision on the Forbes land grants in nearby Apalachicola. Forbes & Co. was formerly the Panton & Leslie Co, located in Pensacola. The Panton & Leslie Co. was a trading company that acquired a substantial amount of land along the Apalachicola River and surrounding area of lands prior to Florida becoming a United States colony. By an agreement …show more content…

Businessmen E.J. Wood and Rev Peter W. Gautier started to plan for a way to gain access to the “Apalach”. Lake Wimico, about eight miles away, could access the river by bayous, so the Saints, as the Saint Joseph businessmen began to call themselves, first decided on a canal to bring the cargo from the steamboat to the wharf. The Lake Wimico and St. Joseph Canal Company was chartered by the legislative council of the territory of Florida in 1835 and later renamed to the Lake Wimico and St. Joseph Canal and Railroad company. The canal never made it off the drawing table before a railroad replaced it. In October 1835, Lake Wimico and St. Joseph Canal and Railroad Company broke ground on the first steam railroad in Florida. It ran from Depot Creek on Lake Wimico, to Saint Joseph. In May of 1836, the first steam powered locomotive traveled from Saint Joseph to Depot Creek. Eight miles in twenty-five

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