Florida Historical Markers Programs - Marker: Gulf

Gulf

FLORIDA'S FIRST RAILROAD

Location:U.S. 98, East Port St. Joe
County: Gulf
City: Port St. Joe
Description: Florida's first railroad was constructed for the Lake Wimico & St. Joseph Canal & Railroad Company. Work began in 1835 and the first train ran in March 1836. The line extended nine miles from St. Joseph to Lake Wimico. The state's first steam locomotive was added in 1837. Economic distress, shallow lake waters, and a yellow fever epidemic combined to cause the abandonment of the line in 1839 and the decline of St. Joseph by 1840.

FORT CREVECOEUR / FORT CREVECOEUR ABANDONED

Location:U. S. 98 at Columbus Street.
County: Gulf
City: St. Joseph Beach
Description: Side 1: In 1717, on this site, the French began erecting Fort Crevecoeur within Spanish domain. On February 8, 1718, Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne de Bienville, acting Governor of Louisiana, dispatched his brother, Lemoyne de Chateague, to complete this Fort. By May 12, the French occupied St. Joseph's Bay. Chateague reported to Bienville completion, on the mainland, opposite St. Joseph Point, the stockaded Fort Crevecoeur with four bastions and garrisoned. Simultaneously Juan Pedro Matamoros de Ysla, Governor of Spanish Florida, at Pensacola, indignantly protested this usurpation as St. Joseph's Bay belonged to Spain by earlier discovery and previous settlement. Side 2: The French Colonial Council, with unanimous discretion decided to burn Fort Crevecoeur and abandon St. Joseph's Bay. On August 20, Spanish Captain, Joseph Primo De Rivera, reported to the Spanish Governorship, at St. Augustine, the French had retired from their invasion. Whereupon Rivera was ordered to command St. Joseph's Bay. By March 10, 1719, Don Gregorio de Salinas Varona had been transferred to the Spanish Governorship of St. Joseph's Bay.
Sponsors: Florida Board of Historic of Parks and Historic Memorials in Cooperation with the Gulf County Historical Commission

FORT PLACE - ST. JOESEPH & IOLA RAILROAD

Location:South of Wewahitchka on S.R. 71
County: Gulf
City: Wewahitchka
Description: Fort Place, forerunner of Wewahitchka, located one-quarter mile East was constructed in the early 1830's as a refuge from hostile Indians. It consisted of a hewn log blockhouse equipped with portholes for firearms, and was enclosed within a two acre stockade. No remains of Fort Place are visible today. The St. Joseph and Iola Railroad, completed in 1839, was the third railroad to use steam locomotives in Florida, and was the longest in Territorial Florida.
Sponsors: In Cooperation with Gulf County Historical Commission

No Title/ Listed as "BURIAL REGISTER" and "OLD ST. JOESEPH CEMETERY

Location:off of Garrison Ave.(C.R. 384) in Old St. Joe Ceme
County: Gulf
City: Port St. Joe
Description: The following persons are believed to be buried here: Dr. Thomas H. Thompson, native of Charlestown, Editor of the "Apalachicola Advertiser" - 1840 George Clark, of Boston-1841 Henry Langley, of Georgetown, Washington, D.C.- 1844 Captain George L.L. Kupfer, of Boston - 1840 Patrick McDonough and son John of Sligo, Ireland - 1841 William P. Broughton, son of George and Ann Broughton - 1850 Robert H. Stewart - 1837 Jacob A. Blackwell and his sister Amelia - 1841 Mrs. John Richards and her two children, Agnes and John Hon. Richard C. Allen, Calhoun County Delegate to St. Joseph Convention Mrs. Nancy Duval, wife of Ex-Governor W.P. Duval Mrs. George T. Ward and Georgianna, wife and daughter of Major G.T. Ward Mrs. S.S. Sibley, wife of S.S. Sibley, Editor of "The Floridian Mrs. Fleming Hixon, wife of Fleming Hixon, Att'y and Agt., Union Bank Dr. E.R. Gibson, Associate-Editor of the United State Telegraph, Washington, D.C. Thomas Bertrum, former Secretary of St. Joseph and Lake Wimico Railroad Mr. and Mrs. Moses, mother and father of Ralph G. Moses Bro. Hamilton, of the Methodist-Episcopal St. Joseph Station Bro. Seely, of the Methodist-Episcopal St. Joseph Station Editor Joseph B. Webb, Proprietor of the Florida Journal - 1841
Sponsors: St. Joseph Historical Society, City of Port St. Joe, Gulf County Historical Commission and the Florida Board of Parks and Historic Memorials

SAINT JOESEPH CEMETERY

Location:S.R. 384A.
County: Gulf
City: Port St. Joe
Description: This site is one of three cemeteries of Saint Joseph. Many persons interred here were victims of yellow fever which plagued the city throughout July and August, 1841, causing its depopulation and abandonment. The dread disease, sparing neither rich nor poor, was brought into port by sailing ship from the Greater Antilles. Here many prominent territorial Florida statesmen, journalists and merchants succumbed. No markers remain of those buried in trenches.
Sponsors: In Cooperation with the Gulf County Historical Commission

SHIPYARD COVE

Location:Monument Ave.(U.S. 98)& 5th St. in 1st Union Bank
County: Gulf
City: Port St. Joe
Description: With completion of St. Joseph & Lake Wimico Railroad, 1836, movement of cotton to shipside at St. Joseph, from the foremost cotton producing territory in the world, began here, thence to domestic and foreign ports. As a result, the young village soon became metropolitan. For this extensive operation a large shipyard was established. Site recorded, Lieutenant L.M. Powell, Government Survey, St. Joseph Bay, 1841.
Sponsors: Florida Board of Parks and Historic Memorials in Cooperation with Gulf County Historical Commission

ST. JOSEPH CONFEDERATE SALTWORKS

Location:C.R. 30E, 1.1 miles north of C.R. 30A, south of St
County: Gulf
City: Port St. Joe
Description: A major Confederate saltworks, with daily capacity of 150 bushels, before completion, was located 200 feet north. Brick foundations were salvaged from ruins of the Old City of St. Joseph. Salt processed by evaporation of seawater was one of Florida's two chief contributions to the Confederacy. These saltworks destroyed September 8, 1862, by U.S.S. Kingfisher, by bombardment and landing party action. Destruction of Confederate saltworks was a comparable blow "to the Southern cause as the fall of Charleston."
Sponsors: Florida Board of Parks and Historic Memorials in Cooperation with Gulf County Historical Commission