Page 76 - PC Living Jan-Feb 2017

"Unearthing the past is one of the greatest joys of my life." Robert (Bob) HurstAs if the citizens of Iola didn't have enough problems with the economy and disease, the Second Seminole Indian War was underway (1838-42). I do not intendto ignore the su erings of the Seminoles, but the worst incident in Iola was the massacre of Harmon G. Harlan's family. On January 29, 1840 Mr. Harlan arrived with 21 armed men and found his settlement on the Apalachicola River burned and his family killed. Probably as a result, Lt. Col. William J. Bailey was ordered to send troops to protect Iola. A rumor was reported to Tallahasseeon October 13 that Iola was entirely destroyed by Indians.The following year, St. Joseph, like most of the South, was seriously hit by a yellow fever epidemic. Thecity may also have been hit by a series of hurricanes. These tragic events were too much for the settlers to sustain. By 1842, the railroad was sold and scrapped. In 1845, the Iola Post O ce was discontinued. Iola faded from history.Revisiting the site of the now abandoned town of Iola, I thought it symbolic that even the Apalachicola River has altered its course and left the old place. On my rst visit some 56 years ago, all that remainedof the river was a small pond in the ancient bed. Today it appears that the river may be attempting1838 Florida survey map of Township 4 South, Range 9 West showing the St. Joseph and Iola R.R. route across Dead Lakes up to the terminal at Iola, FL on the Apalachicola. Twenty-two structures are shown in the town.to retrace its old course and once again ow by the banks of this fateful site, now nothing more than a marshy ood plain inhabited by cypress knees, trees, mosquitos, and water moccasins.There is only one visible sign that this was once an enterprise of man. Four beds, spurs of the terminus of the St. Joseph and Iola Rail Road, have miracu- lously survived the numerous oods that must have inundated this site over the past 179 years. The railroad was an attempt by "The Saints," citizens of old St. Joseph, to siphon o the cotton trade that owed down to their rival port of Apalachicola. It was the third railroad established in Florida and was a replacement of the failed Lake Wimico and St. Joseph Rail Road (Florida's rst) that didn't o er direct berthing on the river.As I stood there looking at an often ooded river plain, Sam Walker's "paradise," I wondered what pos- sessed people to settle in such a place. Was it sheer vanity or the desire of disa ected citizens for revenge against the competition in Apalachicola that blinded them to this apparently hopeless venture? Perhaps it was faith or just speculation that this new invention, the most powerful man-made land force yet, the steam locomotive, would surpass all other modes of transport, including river trade. Beyond this silent overgrown jungle land where mother nature reigns su- preme, the slow and steady river owed on its eternal journey, ignoring what man had tried to make.Robert (Bob) Hurst's research of the railroads of old St. Joseph culminated in the discovery of a pair of locomotive wheels and axle from those railroads, along with the publication "Mapping Old St. Joseph, Its Railroads, and Environs" published in the April 1961 issue of the Florida Historical Quarterly XXXIX, no. 4.ABOUT SAMUEL HAMILTON WALKER.Samuel Hamilton Walker was born in Prince George County, Maryland. He enlisted in 1836 in the Washington City Volunteers for the Creek Indian Campaign in Ala- bama, but was stationed in Florida. In 1837, he appar- ently remained in Florida after his service, and worked as a scout and possibly became involved with the railroads of St. Joseph. He was hotel proprietor at Iola. After Iola, he distinguished himself as a Texas Ranger, Captain and military o cer of the Republic of Texas and U.S. armies, and co-inventor of the Walker Colt revolver along with Samuel Colt. He was killed in 1847 at the young age of 32, while leading a charge into Huamantla, Tlaxcala, Mexico. [Robert Nieman, "Sam Walker," Texas Ranger Dispatch 9 (Winter 2002): 21-26. (Authors note: Nieman incorrectly associates Walker with the Geor- gia, Florida & Alabama Railway. This could not be since the GF&A was not chartered until 1895.]76 • January - February 2017 • www.PanamaCityLiving.com