Floridian vs. Floridian on Hard Labor Creek

Remembering the Battle of Vernon, Florida

Historic marker on the square in Vernon, Florida.

Editor's Note: The Battle of Vernon was a running skirmish fought in Washington County as Union troops returned to Pensacola from the Battle of Marianna, Florida. The encounter was unique in that it was a true "brother against brother" fight. The Confederates involved were from Capt. W.B. Jones' Scouts (Vernon Home Guard), a militia unit raised in Washington County several months earlier. The main Federals actually engaged were primarily from the 1st Florida Cavalry (U.S.), a Union force that included several men from the same county.

The following is excerpted from Dale Cox's book The Battle of Marianna, Florida:

(Excerpt)

Confederate troops were now swarming into Northwest Florida, but it was too late.  The Federals were already well on their way to Washington County before Milton, Jeter, and Chisolm crossed the bridge back into town on the morning of the 28th. Leaving Marianna, they followed the road southwest through present-day Kynesville to Oak and Hickory (Orange) Hills. The plantation of David Porter Everett at Hickory Hill was heavily damaged. The raiders may have been concerned about pursuit by Confederate cavalry, but not so much so that they stopped carrying out the goals of the raid as they advanced. Legend holds that they rested briefly on the grounds of the academy at Hickory Hill (at today’s Orange Hill Methodist Church) before continuing down the hill in the direction of Holmes Valley and Vernon.

A number of the men and boys who fought at the Battle of
Vernon attended Moss Hill United Methodist Church. The
structure is virtually unchanged since the day of the battle.

A courier had gone out along this same route on the morning of the 27th to summon help from Captain W.B. Jones and his scouts at Vernon, then the county seat of Washington County. Jones assembled his company on the morning of the 28th and conscripted every available man and boy in the area, regardless of age.

Exactly how many men he managed to get into the field may never be known. The unit originally included around 30 men, but evidence from pension files indicates that it was expanded when Florida’s home guard was organized in August. A number of men from Walton County later claimed they had been taken to Vernon by Captain J.B. Hutto for service under Captain Jones. In addition, the men were joined on the morning of the 28th by several Confederate regulars home on leave and by a number of other men, many of them over 60 years old, who later indicated they were conscripted into the service that day due to the emergency.

The main fighting of the Battle of Vernon was at
Hard Labor Creek several miles east of town.

The company probably numbered 50 by the time it was ready to leave Vernon, but the actual number could have been somewhat higher. By mid to late morning, they were heading east for Marianna on the same road by which the Union command was marching west. It was a recipe for disaster, and that is exactly what happened:

…Hearing that the Federal soldiers were coming Captain William Jones went to meet them… we suddenly met the Northern soldiers and they demanded that we surrender, fighting opened and a large man by the name of Pierce was killed near me. I was wounded, and was taken home. Captain Jones was captured, and was taken away. [194]

Coming down the hill to Hard Labor Creek just west of today’s Washington Cemetery, Jones and his men ran head-on into the vanguard of Asboth’s column. The Federals were in no mood to be delayed and promptly ordered the home guard to surrender. Whether they declined or had time to do so in the confusion is not known. According to legend, one of Jones’ men verbally taunted the Union soldiers, profanely voicing his opinion of them. The Federals responded by opening fire on the outnumbered Confederates, capturing most of them and scattering the rest. Stephen Pierce, the man who is said to have taunted the Union soldiers, was supposedly dragged away behind a gallberry bush and executed. [195]

Stephen Pierce, a member of Jones'
company allegedly taunted the Union
soldiers in the minutes before his death.

The truth of the incident is difficult to determine. The encounter was officially mentioned only in the activity record of the 1st Florida U.S. Cavalry, but no details were provided in the reports of either side. Samuel Wood Doble of the 2nd Maine Cavalry did not participate in the fight but gave a vague description of it:

Started this morning at seven. The advance guard met and fought a small number of Rebels and took several prisoners. Shot the Captain of the company. He was going to reinforce the Rebels at Marianna, thinking we should stop a day or two at that place. [196]

Doble remembered passing a Confederate soldier who was, in his words, “just dying.” The Federals made no effort to carry him along but instead left him to his fate. This individual may have been Stephen Pierce, who is known to have been killed in the encounter near Vernon, or he may have been some other home guard member whose name has been lost to time.

Pierce’s body was carried to the top of the hill on the east side of the creek and buried at what is now Washington Cemetery. The 1860 Census Records for Washington County show that at the time of the battle, he was a 46-year-old farmer who supported a wife, Jane, and at least six children. He owned no slaves, and his total worth was only $100. Pierce had enlisted in the “Washington County Invincibles” on September 13, 1861. The unit became Company H of the 4th Florida Infantry. Pierce served with his company in the Army of Tennessee, fighting at Shiloh and Stones River. He received a medical discharge in 1863 and returned home to his farm. He enlisted under Captain Jones in August of 1864 when Governor Milton ordered the formation of the Florida home guard. [197]

So far as is known, Pierce was the only man killed in the “Battle” of Vernon. Another man, John J. Wright, was wounded. In an account written many years later for a pension application, he reported receiving two wounds, “I have lost the use of my right arm, never could use it as good after I was shot in the shoulder. I was also hit in the left leg that soon got well and has not bothered me but little.” [198]

Nathaniel Miller, a Seminole Wars veteran, was among the
prisoners captured at the Battle of Vernon. He died at the
Union prison in Elmira, New York.

Outnumbered and completely overwhelmed by the sudden burst of gunfire, the men of Jones’ company broke and ran. The surviving accounts indicate the Federals were hot on their heels:

…On our way to Marianna we met a company of Federals, near Hard Labor Creek, and Jones company was captured and taken to Ship Island Prison. I made my escape on horseback and outran them. I was pursued all the way back to Vernon and shot at many times but escaped without injury. [199]

In either the initial melee or the running fight back to Vernon, Captain Jones and ten of his men were captured. Among these were four Confederate regulars on leave from their regiments: Andrew and James Gable of the 6th Florida Infantry and H.R. and B.A. Walker of the 1st Florida Infantry. Also captured were Enoch Johns, Shadrick Johns, John Nelson, Cary Taylor, Freeman Irwin, and Nathaniel Miller. Irwin had represented Washington County at Florida’s secession convention in 1861 and Taylor was a former Washington County sheriff. 

The story of these prisoners is particularly tragic. Taken away by the raiders, they wound up in the disease-ridden prison camp at Elmira, New York. Cary Taylor and Enoch Johns died there of smallpox less than two months later on December 27, 1864. Shadrick Johns and John Nelson tried to secure their freedom by offering to swear an oath of allegiance to the U.S. Government, stating that they had been, “conscripted, ordered out by the Governor to resist a raiding party, and had been captured the same day.” Although the men were seriously ill and over 50 years old, their request was denied, and they remained at Elmira until the end of the war. Andrew Gable, one of the regulars captured in Washington County, lost his life to pneumonia on January 1, 1865, Freeman Irwin died from sickness on February 7th and Nathaniel Miller followed on March 13th. [200]

(End of Excerpt)

Editor's Note: Copies of Dale Cox's book - The Battle of Marianna, Florida - are available from the Washington County Historical Society Museum in Chipley, Florida, or in print and Kindle e-book format at Amazon. Just click here for ordering information.

Learn more about the Battle of Marianna in this free mini-documentary from Two Egg TV:

References

[194] Statement of John J. Wright, June 4, 1922, Confederate Pension Application File, Florida State Archives.
[195] E.W. Carswell, Washington: Florida's Twelfth County, 1991.
[196] Samuel Wood Doble, A Civil War Diary.
[197] Ibid.; Washington County Census of 1860; Service Record of Stephen G. Pierce, National Archives.
[198] Wright statement.
[199] Statement of M.L. Lassiter, January 1, 1931, Confederate Pension Application File of JOhn J. Wright, Florida State Archives.
[200] Individual Service Records, National Archives.

Woody Nickels: Youngest Casualty of the Battle of Marianna, Florida

"Good-bye all of you, I'm in for it now."

Woodbury "Woody" Nickels was killed at
the Battle of Marianna, Florida. He was a
15-year old student at Marianna Academy.

Editor's note: The following is excerpted from Dale Cox's critically-acclaimed book, The Battle of Marianna, Florida. It tells the story of Woodbury "Woody" Nickels, a 15-year old schoolboy who fought and died on September 27, 1864.

(Excerpt)

[A] fascinating account of the scene in town was written years later by Mary Beeman, who as a 12-year-old girl had been sent from North Carolina to stay with relatives in Marianna. She and her younger cousin were walking up what is now Wynn Street on their way to school but found the people of the town all greatly alarmed. They stopped at the corner of Wynn and Lafayette to admire the roses on the fence of Mrs. Caroline Hunter’s boarding house before continuing up Lafayette Street into town:

…We were now fairly in town and were soon curious to know what was amiss. Something was wrong as could plainly be seen. Women stood bareheaded talking in groups on the sidewalk or at the gates, with a look of startled expectancy on their faces, all talking so eagerly and all at once as in a chorus, while the little children grabbed tight their mothers’ hands or dress skirts, and gave little terrified glances up and down the street. [96]

Beeman remembered that it seemed as if everyone in town was “mad today.” The schoolboys ran excitedly in the streets as if a holiday had been declared, but the men looked angry, and the women rushed to save what possessions they could:

…Wagons, carts and carriages drive hurriedly up the street, while in many yards carts and wheelbarrows even stand at front doors, being heavily laden as on moving-day. Women would rush to the door with sheets tied up full of something, dump it in the carts and fly off like mad for another load. And the men sat impatiently in the wagons, calling out: “Hello! Hurry up there, unless you want them to come before you get these tricks off.” [97]

The Nickels or Bellamy Mansion no longer
stands. This was the scene of Woody's last
farewell to his family. The house is better
remembered for its connection to Jackson
County's Bellamy Bridge Ghost Story.

It became apparent to the girls that there would be no school that day, so they went to the home of her uncle, William Nickels. A prominent Marianna merchant and innkeeper, Nickels lived in the massive old mansion built years earlier by Samuel Bellamy. They were told there by a cousin that 10,000 Union troops were on their way, which prompted Beeman to remark that they would “swallow
Marianna.” Another relative responded defiantly that they would have to swallow guns and bayonets if they did. “We won’t sit ready greased for the eating,” the female cousin proclaimed. It was as this discussion was underway that Beeman’s 15-year-old cousin, Woodbury “Woody” Nickels, appeared in the central hallway of the house:

“What’s that, little Reb,” called out Woody, as he came bouncing in the hall where we were all at work with toungue and hands; “want me to bring you a dead Yank for that bloody speech after the battle?” “Yes, Lot’s of them” returned I, “if you can. Nothing would please me better.” Well, here goes!” cried he, taking Josie’s gun and cap from behind the door and proceeding to don one and load the other [Note: Josie was Woody’s brother, who had been killed earlier in the war]. “Put in lots of shot,” I called to him. “Aye, that I will. Good-bye, all of you. I’m in for it now.” And he gave me a pinch on one cheek, while he laid a hearty kiss on the other. As he went down the steps he called out to me: “Don’t you wish you were a man?” [98]

Dale Cox, author of The Battle of Marianna, Florida, points
out bullet scars on a grave monument for students of
Thomasville Christian School.

(End of Excerpt)

Woody Nickels died that day. He was among those inside St. Luke's Episcopal Church when it was torched by Union soldiers. Running out through the front door, he was shot through the leg. The wound left him unable to walk, but Woody crawled as far as he could from the fire, wrapping his arms around the Robinson monument in front of the church as his enemies closed in around him.

The body of Woodbury "Woody" Nickels was found in the St. Luke's Churchyard after the battle. His hands still clung to the monument. His head had been crushed by a blow from a musket butt.

Just 15-years old, he was the youngest man killed in the Battle of Marianna.

Editor's Note: Read the full story in Dale Cox's book, The Battle of Marianna, Florida. It is available in Marianna at Bespoken Gifts and Antiques (4430 Lafayette Street) or online from Amazon in print and Kindle e-book formats. Click here for ordering information. 

You can also learn more in this free mini-documentary from Two Egg TV:

References

[96] Mrs. Mary Beeman, “Killed in Cold Blood,” Our Women in the War: The Lives They Lived, The
Deaths They Died, published by the Charleston News and Courier, 1885.

[97] Ibid.

[98] Ibid.

William Augustus Bowles and the Wreck of HMS Fox

Part 1: Disaster on St. George Island

By Dale Cox

William Augustus Bowles marker at Dr. Julian G. Bruce
St. George Island State Park in Florida.

Editor's Note: This is Part 1 of a new series by historian Dale Cox the activities of William Augustus Bowles in 1799-1800. 

Fox Point is the name applied to the eastern end of Florida’s St. George Island. Time and the elements have moved the location of this landmark over the years. Its name is a lasting memorial to a disaster that may have shaped the future of the Southeastern United States.

HMS Fox was one of fourteen British warships honored with that name. She entered the service of the Royal Navy in 1799, a time when Great Britain was at war with France and Spain in the Anglo-Spanish and Napoleonic Wars. The 150-ton schooner was armed with 14-16 heavy cannon and on a secret mission when she sailed into the path of a hurricane and was wrecked off today’s Carrabelle, Florida.

The Fox was the spearhead of a British plan to seize control of Spanish Florida. Onboard was one of the most notorious and enigmatic adventurers and pirates ever to set foot on the white sand beaches of St. George Island.

Self-Portrait of William Augustus Bowles.

William Augustus Bowles was a controversial figure on the Southern frontier. A former Loyalist officer who fought on the side of Great Britain during the American Revolution, he settled among the Lower Creeks or Seminoles where he married the daughter of Chief Thomas Perryman. A bigamist, he also had a wife in the Chickamauga towns of the Cherokee. Spanish authorities captured the Maryland-born adventurer and exiled him to the Philippines, but he escaped their custody and made his way to England.

Bowles represented himself as the “emperor” of the combined Muscogee (Creek) and Cherokee nations in meetings with British authorities, convincing them that he headed an army of Native American warriors. This force, he promised, would follow him in a scheme to seize Florida from Spain and hand it over to Great Britain. Then at war with Spain, the British went along.

HMS Fox was to be the instrument of Bowles’s delivery. Captained by Lt. James Woolridge, she sailed from Great Britain to the Bahamas in the summer of 1799, and from there the ship northwest across the Florida Straits and into the Gulf of Mexico. The ship’s mission was to set Bowles ashore near the mouths of the Apalachicola and Ochlockonee Rivers. Also, onboard was a force of nearly 100 mercenaries, arms, ammunition, rum, and an array of other goods intended for distribution to the warriors he expected to call into the service of Great Britain.

This section of a map by Andrew Ellicott shows the site of
the shipwreck at the east end of St. George Island.
Library of Congress

Disaster struck as the vessel entered Apalachee Bay and was hit by a severe September hurricane. High winds tore away the masts of the Fox, and the tidal surge threw her helpless hulk ashore on the east end of St. George Island.

The wreck took place on September 17, 1799. Woolridge, Bowles, and the crew and mercenaries fled to the highest nearby dunes where they stayed, exposed to the elements until spotting a small boat four days later. Woolridge took advantage of the opportunity to send a note to U.S. Commissioner of Limits Andrew Ellicott, who arrived at Apalachicola Bay that day:

On his Britainic Majesty’s Service.
Fox Point, September 22d, 1799.
Sir,
I beg leave to make known to you, that I am at present on a small island on this coast, which is well known to the bearers, with the crew of his Britainic Majesty’s schooner Fox, late under my command, but which was unfortunately wrecked five days since, on this coast. As there is no possibility of saving the schooner, I trust sir, your humanity will induce you to stop here, and devise with me, some means of removing those unfortunate men, who have nothing more than some provisions saved from the wreck to exist on; the island producing nothing; on the contrary, for two days, during the late gale, the sea made a break over it, so that for those two days, we were with nearly two feet of water on the ground. – Lt. James Woolridge, Royal Navy, to Col. Benjamin Hawkins, September 22, 1799.

Ellicott soon met with Wooldridge and Bowles. Caught between his duty to the United States, which was then an ally of Spain, and his humanitarian need to help the castaways, the American authority provided them with food. He declined, however, to help them escape the island.

Editor’s Note: The story of the wreck of HMS Fox and the future of the British effort to gain control of Florida continued to develop over coming days. Watch for the next article in this series on Saturday, September 28. We will post a link here as soon as it is available.

Money Hole on the Florida Gulf Coast

Are pirates responsible for hidden Wakulla County treasure?

by Dale Cox

Spanish treasure on display at the
Florida Museum of History in Tallahassee, Florida.

One of Florida's oldest treasure hunts began nearly 175-years ago in the marshes and wetlands near St. Marks.

The historic coastal community chases its origins back to the Spanish conquistador Panfilo de Narvaez. Its fort of San Marcos de Apalache - also called Fort St. Marks and Fort Ward - was the scene of conflict and international intrigue for hundreds of years. Nearby Apalachee Bay was often infested with pirates and the twisting creeks and rivers between St. Marks and the Gulf often provided a safe harbor for ships fleeing these marine raiders.

Legends of buried treasure abound, but perhaps the most intriguing has led to digs in a mysterious "money hole" since at least the 1850s. The story was attributed to Florida Secretary of State H. Clay Crawford, a treasure aficionado who gave the critical details to the Pensacola Journal in 1906. 

According to Crawford, a gold shipment valued at $5,000,000 left New Orleans aboard a Spanish gunboat at the time of Florida's transfer from Spain to the United States in 1821. The vessel shadowed the coast and was off St. Marks when it was disabled in a storm:

...In fear of pirates, who infested the coast, the captain with several of the crew landed and buried the gold, then returned to the gunboat. They drifted for days and the crew was finally picked up by a vessel bound for Peru. During the voyage the scourge broke out on the ship and the officers and many of the crew died, those who survived landing, penniless, at Peru. - Pensacola Journal, August 12, 1906.

Ruins of the Spanish fortress of San Marcos de Apalache
can still be seen in St. Marks, Florida.

Some 44 years later in 1865, a mysterious sailor named Bell appeared in St. Marks. The War Between the States or Civil War was then underway, and Union warships blockaded the mouth of the St. Marks River. An inland raid by Federal soldiers intent on capturing St. Marks, Tallahassee, and even Thomasville, Georgia, was defeated by Confederate forces at the Battle of Natural Bridge on March 6 of that year.

The sailor was quite elderly and all but helpless:

...He was an old man, feeble and ill, and was kindly cared for by a man named Smith, whose home he reached in his wanderings. He lingered several months and then died. When he found that he was about to die he told Mr. Smith the story of his life. He was one of the crew of the ill-fated gunboat that carried the Spanish gold from new Orleans. He told of the burying of the money after the boat became disabled, and of the crew being carried to Peru. He said he had spent his life trying to get back to St. Marks where the gold was buried. Before he died he gave Mr. Smith a chart by which the spot could be located. He was buried at St. Marks. - Ibid.

The map or chart described the burial place of the treasure as being in a spot marked by three mature trees, one of which had an iron spike driven into its trunk.

Looking south from the fort of San Marcos de Apalache
into the marshes of the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge.

Smith set out for the spot with two African American men and found the trees exactly where the treasure map indicated. Noticing an unusual knot on one of the trunks, the men cut into it and revealed the iron spike. So many years had passed since it was driven into the tree that the wood had grown and covered it over.

Mr. Smith did not trust his two companions and required them to wait near the boat while he stepped off a set number of paces into the marsh and began to dig for gold:

...He was equipped only with a hoe and a spade and besides was an old man, and encountered much difficulty in the work. He decided to return home and get better equipment and assistance, believing firmly that the treasure was buried there and intending to return and dig for it. - Ibid.

The end of the war brought hard times to St. Marks, however, and Smith was never able to fund an expedition to find the treasure. Some years later, however, another mysterious sailor - this one named Ballou - arrived in Wakulla County:

The flag of Spain flies over historic St. Marks, Florida.

...He also was an old man of very secretive habits. He fitted out a boat, bought picks, axes, spades and supplies and disappeared. At intervals he would return for supplies. When his funds were exhausted he taught school during the winter, hoarding his earnings like a miser and spending them for supplies for his trips in the summer. Finally exhausted from labor and the hardships he had endured, Ballou became ill and died at the military hospital at St. Marks. From his papers, it was learned that he was a survivor of the crew of the Spanish gunboat that sailed from New Orleans with the five millions for Spain. - Ibid.

The "military" or marine hospital at St. Marks was built with stone from the old Spanish fort of San Marcos de Apalache. Its surviving foundations provide the base for the museum at today's San Marcos de Apalache Historic State Park.

The story of the treasure by this time had become well known along the coast. Some of Wakulla County's most prominent individuals invested in or led searches to find it, but only one expedition ever came close:

The "Money Hole" site is deep within the marshes of the
St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge in Wakulla County, FL.

Since that day many have sought in vain the millions hidden in the marshes of St. Marks. That it lies there, few who have heard the story from those who lived there in those days can doubt. Various expeditions have been secretly fitted out to search for it even in recent years. One party composed of George Ladd, a son of Daniel Lad, Swamp Angel Bill Denham, Castillo, Bryant and Kennedy fitted out a boat and went in search of the gold. They all got drunk and one of the party thought he had located the money but they got into a fight over the probable division and had to go back to St. Marks for repairs and could never again find the place. - Ibid.

The last major expedition was led by "Col. Slusser and Mr. Geo. Lamb,  Mr. Register, and Mr. Hall." They found the site of the earlier digs and began their own excavation, only to find that the brackish water of the marsh quickly seeped into the hole causing it to fill in with mud. Timber cribbing was installed to hold back the walls and pumps employed to drain the water, but the quicksand still proved too much for the would-be millionaires.

The gold - worth more than $376 million today - was never found. 

The site of the money hole became part of the 68,000-acre St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge in 1931. Treasure hunting there is strictly prohibited.

To learn more about beautiful Wakulla County, Florida, be sure to click www.visitwakulla.com.

Paddlewheel Steamboats on the Chipola River

The Jackson, the Farley, and other boats made the dangerous run.

by Dale Cox

The paddlewheel steamboat Chipola operated in 1911-1926.
State Archives of Florida/Memory Collection

Paddlewheel steamboats offered transportation, communication, and opportunities to communities across Northwest Florida long before the P&A (later the L&N and today the CSX) railroad was built across the region in 1881-1883.

While it is easy to see how the boats could operate successfully on the Apalachicola, Chattahoochee, and Choctawhatchee Rivers, the idea that they navigated the narrow and twisting channels of Holmes Creek and the Chipola River seems much more far-fetched. And yet, the splash of paddlewheels and shrill whines of steam whistles were heard on these streams as well.

Holmes Creek, for example, was navigated by sternwheelers from its confluence with the Choctawhatchee up to a landing just north of Vernon. They carried cotton, timber, turpentine rosin, and other commodities down to Pensacola via the Choctawhatchee River, Choctawhatchee Bay, and Santa Rosa Sound. Vernon actually became one of the world's top shipping points for gopher tortoises, which were considered a valuable food item in the 19th and early 20th centuries. 

The Chipola River in Northwest Florida

Marianna's location on the Chipola River sparked many to dream that it too could become a commercial port. Wooden barges and pole boats carried cotton, rice, sugar, lumber, and other commodities down the river from the earliest days of settlement in Jackson County. The Natural Bridge at today's Florida Caverns State Park was an important port facility. Commerce from the upper river was offloaded there and transferred to larger boats for the trip down to Apalachicola and St. Joseph.

It was not until 1860, however, that the first powered vessel made its way up to Marianna. The boat was the paddlewheel steamer Jackson, which was built in Pittsburg especially for the Chipola River trade:

LIGHT STEAMER.—A neat little steamer—the Jackson, of Marianna, Florida—is just completed and now loading at the Monongahela wharf for the South. The Jackson was built under the superintendence of Capt. Dan Fry, her commander, for the Marianna and Appalachicola Steamboat Company and is intended to navigate the Chipola river—a river never before navigated by steamboat.—She is of light draught, trimming on less than twelve inches, and having a capacity to stow away five hundred bales of cotton. Her cabin is very near and furnished in true southern style and has all the late improvements in her general outfit to make her the boat for the packet trade she is intended for.—(Pittsburg Despatch, July 11, 1860).

The boat's career was short. Just months after she reached Marianna the first time, Florida seceded from the Union and joined the Confederate States of America. U.S. warships blockaded Apalachicola and St. Joseph Bays, prompting Confederate forces to obstruct the Apalachicola River. They also placed heavy cannon along its banks to prevent the enemy from coming upstream.

The steamboat John W. Callahan sank in the lower Chipola
River near Wewahitchka in 1927.

The Jackson stopped her runs to Marianna and was placed under the control of the Confederate army. She was lost in an accident on the lower Apalachicola River late in the war.

The Reconstruction era arrived in 1865 with no boat available to navigate the shallow and twisting channel of the Chipola. The steamers that survived the war were too big. They drew too much water, and their lengths were too long to turn the river's sharp bends. The dream of turning Marianna into a river city was dampened but did not end.

As the community recovered from the economic devastation of the War Between the States or Civil War, attention soon turned to the building a new boat christened the Farley. The sternwheel boat made her first trip up the Chipola in March of 1872:

ARRIVAL OF THE FIRST STEAMER - The little steamer "Farley," built expressly to run on the Chipola river and points on the Chattahoochee and Flint made her first trip up to Marianna on the 16th ult., and created the wildest enthusiasm among the citizens. The Courier of the following Thursday is filled with accounts of pic-nics, dances, and all sorts of jubilees in her honor. - The ladies presented the Captain with a handsome flag for his little craft. "The Farley will no doubt prove a great convenience to the people of Jackson - (Tallahassee Weekly Floridian, April 2, 1872).

The Farley brought commercial river traffic back to Marianna for the first time in ten years. Like the Jackson before her, she could only travel the river during the winter and spring when water levels were high. Promoters, however, dreamed of opening the river year-round and appealed to the War Department which sent Thomas Robinson, Assistant Engineer, to inspect the Chipola and make recommendations:

The John W. Callahan, Jr. was the last commercial
paddlewheel steamer to operate on the Chipola River. She is
seen here passing beneath Victory Bridge at Chattahoochee
on its dedication day in 1922.

The Chipola River, flowing southward from Marianna to the “Dead Lakes,” an estimated distance of 65 miles, is a stream of 2½ feet per second, surface velocity (with the water 5 feet above low), a general depth of 5 feet at low water, and a width ranging from 60 to 200 feet. The obstructions are bridges, shoals, overhanging trees, and logs and snags in the channel. - (Report of Thomas Robinson, Assistant Engineer, included in Annual Report of the Secretary of War, Washington, DC, 1889, Page 1418).

Robinson placed the cost of the river at $48,300. The obstructions he found included the Marianna road and railroad bridges, a road bridge 14-miles south of Marianna, and six rock shoals. The largest of these was Calhoun County's well-known Look and Tremble Shoals:

This last shoal goes by the name of “Look and Tremble,” and is the chief impediment of the stream at low water. At a 5-foot stage of water no signs of the shoal are visible. To clear a low-water channel of 3 feet in depth and 60 feet in width through all of these shoals, I estimate that 8,000 cubic yards of rock must be removed, at an approximate cost of $22,000. - (Ibid.).

Look and Tremble is popular with outdoor enthusiasts today, but it was a severe hindrance to navigation in 1888. The bridges at Marianna were not replaced. Landings were at Turner's Landing on Spring Creek and at today's Hinson Conservation and Recreation Area just south of the railroad trestle remained in use.

The shoals, however, were cut. Channels deep enough and wide enough for small paddlewheel steamers to pass through were cut into the rock. The Look and Tremble cut is still visible on the east side of the rapids.

Another view of the John W. Callahan, Jr.

The steamer Chipola made her presence on the river in 1886. Able to carry 32-tons of cargo plus passengers, she navigated the narrow channel for three years before sinking at Magnolia Landing in 1889.

Other boats operated in the late 19th and early 20th-centuries. One of these was also named the Chipola and was launched at Apalachicola in 1911. The sternwheel boat operated until she struck a snag and sank in the lower river in 1926. She never made it as far up as Marianna.

Paddlewheel boats continued to operate on the Chipola River until the 1930s, but getting them up to Marianna remained a significant problem. The Annual Report of the Secretary of War for 1925, for example, includes discussion of an appropriation to open a 3-foot channel all the way from Dead Lakes to Marianna:

The improvement between the foot of the Dead Lakes and Look and Tremble Shoals is absolutely essential to a section of the State which is not provided with other means of transportation. Below Look and Tremble Shoals improvement has made it possible to maintain regular transportation throughout the entire year. No benefit has been derived from the expenditure above Look and Tremble Shoals. - (Annual Report of the Secretary of War, Washington, DC, 1925, pp. 715-716).

Service never was restored to Marianna, and the last commercial paddlewheel steamer to operate on the Chipola was the John W. Callahan, Jr. The boat remained in service until the early 1930s after her sister vessel - the John W. Callahan - sank near Wewahitchka in 1927. The Callahan, Jr. never came above the Dead Lakes so far as is known.

The emergence of modern trucks and highways ended the need for the boats, and they faded away into the mists of time.

The "Hot Springs" of Cottonwood, Alabama

The Story of Sealy's Hot Mineral Wells

by Dale Cox

Sealy's Hot Sale Mineral Well resort is seen here on a
popular postcard from the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Dreams of oil wealth vanished for Cottonwood as quickly as they had come (please see Cottonwood, Alabama: "Floating on a pool of oil"). 

The Sealy brothers, who invested tens of thousands of dollars of their own money during the craze, were nothing if not determined. They soon realized that their failed oil wells just might pay off after all.

Sealy Well No. 1 penetrated to depths of nearly 5,000 feet before the drilling was called to a halt. One of the last drill bits, however, struck something that proved almost as valuable as oil - hot water:

Nine years ago on the Sealy farm about three-fourths of a mile from Cottonwood, a well was started in search for oil. After almost four years of drilling and expenditure of about $123,000, at a depth of 4,280 feet, just as it had almost reached the top, the drill dropped and the terrific impact of its fall for almost three-fourths of a mile, broke the strata and immediately a powerful stream of hot salt mineral water gushed out and from then until now the hot salt mineral water has been pouring out at a rate of over 10,000 gallons per hour at a temperature of about 110 degrees. - (Mayor J.T. White of Cottonwood, "Oil Drill In Valley Fails But A Mineral Spring Is Result," Columbus Daily-Enquirer, February 13, 1937.)

A small stream of hot water flows from the former resort
grounds and under Sealy Wells Road in Cottonwood.

The artesian well or "hot spring" created a stream of water that flowed off into low spot that soon became a lake. Members of Cottonwood's African American community were the first to test the curative powers of the water. Like most Americans of the early 20th-century, they believed that hot mineral water could cure a variety of illnesses.

One man found relief from rheumatism after bathing in the water. Not long after it was noticed that a dog with the mange cured itself by swimming in the lake. This led another to dig a hole deep enough for his ailing mule to enter and soak itself. The mule was cured of sores and lameness.

These early experiments generated considerable excitement in Cottonwood and prompted a local man named Pete Lambert to see if the water could cure his broken leg. Lambert was driving a mule-team when his leg was broken in an accident. Doctors were preparing to amputate the unhealed limb, but he tried bathing in the lake for 27 straight days. The broken bones healed.

As Mayor J.T. White of Cottonwood reported in 1937, the hot spring suddenly became a sensation:

The hot water pool at Sealy Springs was a popular part of
from the days of its creation in the 1930s.
Alabama Department of Archives and History

The news of the cures began to spread. The Sealy's had the water analyzed and found it contained six valuable mineral elements, some not found in any other hot water wells or springs in America. Then it was discovered that taken internally the water was beneficial for ulcerated stomach, kidney diseases and liver complaints; and still later that catarrh [i.e., mucus buildup in the nose or throat] would be cured by snuffing the water into the nostrils and taking the baths. - Ibid.

The brothers J.R. Sealy and C.S. Sealy realized the potential of their accidental discovery. In the spring of 1936, they started building a resort around their "hot mineral well" that included 55 hotel rooms, cottages, apartments, a large assembly area, and dining rooms. Visitors could "take the waters" in 32 rooms with baths built for that purpose as well as in a 50x100 foot swimming pool. 

So many people came - more than 10,000 in 1936-1937 - that almost the entire town of Cottonwood "was turned into a big rooming house to care for the overflow of people who came for bathing and treatment in the healing waters of the well."

The resort was a stunning success. By 1938 its fame had spread across the nation, and even hotels in Panama City were advertising the fact that they were only 90-minutes from Cottonwood, Alabama:

The gates to the Sealy Hot Salt Mineral Wells resort
still retain a touch of their original splendor.

Cottonwood, Alabama, "the Hot Springs of the Southeast," has become famous the nation over within a comparatively short period of time for its hot salt mineral springs, the healing properties of whose waters are declared to have been beneficial to a great number of people. - (Columbus Daily Enquirer, March 27, 1938.)

Sealy's Hot Mineral Wells or Sealy Springs rivaled similar destinations by the eve of World War II. Many who had previously gone to Hot Springs, Arkansas, or Warm Springs, Georgia, came to Cottonwood instead. Even President Franklin Roosevelt expressed interest in the resort.

Campgrounds with trailer hookups were added, and the resort advertised activities and amenities for visitors to enjoy when not taking the baths. Guided quail and fox hunting expeditions became a significant part of life at Sealy Springs, with the Sealy brothers acquiring access to 43,000 acres of hunting lands.

Visitors came by the thousands. Some arrived by car from Dothan, Panama City, and other points. Others came in the comfort of passenger cars on the AF&G Railroad, which connected the town of Cowarts near Dothan with Malone and Greenwood in Northwest Florida. The doctors and nurses on staff helped those paralyzed from polio as well as sufferers of arthritis, injuries, muscular diseases, and even the measles. Most left convinced that the hot mineral waters had helped them.

Nature has reclaimed the surviving structures of the resort.

The final years before World War II marked the peak of the resort's success. And then Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

The country mobilized for war and trips to resorts like Sealy's Hot Mineral Wells became luxuries in which few indulged. The post-war years did not bring back Cottonwood's glory days. The central administration building of the resort was destroyed by fire in 1947, but there were no injuries as "few guests were registered."

Sealy Springs finally closed as a resort, and the facility later went through uncertain times when a much-investigated medical clinic opened there. Comedian Dick Gregory was also reportedly in negotiations to develop the site as a diet clinic in the late 1980s. A 2001 fire ended the resort's 65-year history, however, by destroying the main facilities.

The site of the hot springs is overgrown and all but forgotten today. An iron gate, dilapidated fence, and a few surviving structures are all that remain as reminders of its fascinating history.

The hot water still flows, filling the warm water lake on the grounds and then flowing away down a creek to eventually make its way to the Gulf of Mexico.

Editor's Note: The grounds of the hot springs can be viewed from Sealy Wells Road at its intersection with Joe Cook Street in Cottonwood, Alabama. The site is private property and is closed to the public so please view from the right-of-way and do not trespass.

Cottonwood, Alabama: "Floating on a pool of oil"

The Cottonwood Oil Boom of 1927

by Dale Cox

The 1927 oil boom is briefly mentioned on the historical marker
that tells the story of Cottonwood, Alabama.

One of the biggest oil booms ever seen in the South hit Cottonwood, Alabama, in October 1927. It started when someone realized that water from local wells would actually fuel gasoline engines:

     There are four wells on an acre of ground near the center of town at Cottonwood that have been showing evidences of oil for several years. All have been abandoned so far as drinking purposes, but recently evidences of oil became more pronounced.
     The oil is refined to a degree, having seeped from the underground strata of oil, which geologists say comes from the north, and which, they also say, cannot be far away.      
     Sam Barker, it is said, has been running a motor which operates a grist mill, the sole fuel used is that taken from his well. 
     Several automobile owners in Cottonwood have been propelling their cars with this fuel, it is said. - Dothan Eagle, May 4, 1927.

It didn't take long for the strange discovery to attract the attention of major investors. J.R. "Bob" Sealy and his brother were convinced of the validity of the strike when Bob filled a car with water from a local well and headed off for Dothan:

Bob Sealy, accompanied by Robert Malone, Calvin Welsh, John McCardle and John Bruner, drove a Ford touring car from Cottonwood to Dothan this morning on what they said was fuel drawn direct from one of the wells at Cottonwood which have been transformed by nature from drinking wells into refined gasoline. - Ibid.

The site of the O'Henry Oil Fields as it appears today in
Cottonwood, Alabama.

The Sealy brothers immediately purchased what quickly became known as the O'Henry Oil Fields, a large tract of land south of downtown Cottonwood. They eventually expanded their holdings to include thousands of acres and mineral rights were purchased for tens of thousands. The mineral rights acquisitions extended miles across the state line into Jackson County, Florida.

An oil geologist named R.G. Worthington was brought in from Oklahoma to inspect the site. He was reportedly a graduate of the Colorado School of Mines and visited Cottonwood in June 1927:

...He expressed his opinion that, beyond a doubt, the product coming into these wells is coming from crude oil. He made the statement that he had seen the same product coming out of the ground in other territories. Mr. Worthington has had eight years of field geology. Part of this time was spent with the Gypsy Oil Company of Tulsa, Oklahoma. His opinion is considered very valuable and correct. The opinion of many other geologists who have visited the O'Henry Oil Fields. - Dothan Eagle, June 17, 1927.

The opinion of Worthington was all it took. J.R. Sealy sent a petition to the Alabama Public Service Commission seeking permission to sell 750 acres of land. Each purchaser would gain one-acre of property and a "unit interest" in Sealy Well No. 1, the oil well that the Sealy brothers planned to drill.

This early Fire Protection Map shows many of the
buildings built during the Cottonwood oil boom.
Courtesy of Troy University.

At the same time, business interests in the community exploded. A committee of investors quickly committed to open a bank in Cottonwood:

The bank will be located next to the Cottonwood post office, on the site where the Rose Team room now stands. The tea room will be moved one lot south. This bank will be Spanish type, stucco building. The interior finish will be of Pecky Cypress, the same finish which has recently been used in the construction of the Cove Hotel at Panama City, Florida, and the dining room of the New Albany Hotel, Albany, Georgia. - Ibid.

Public excitement over Cottonwood oil reached its peak in late September and early October 1927. The Public Service Commission approved the planned land sale, and the town was deluged with people:

During the day Sunday, several thousand automobiles visited the Cottonwood section. In every instance, Bob said, these people were thoroughly sold on the merits of his proposition. They got out of their automobiles and looked into the wells, saw the oily film that covered them, smelled of the water drawn from them, and did every other thing that a curious throng is expected to do.
They were convinced, even as I was convinced last week, that something strange was happening in Cottonwood. In some instances they were ready to place bets that oil would be found. In others they admitted their ignorance even in the face of the things they saw but were filled with hope that oil would be found in commercial quantities. - Dothan Eagle, September 27, 1927.

A barbecue sponsored by the Sealy Brothers attracted 15,000 people to Cottonwood on October 6, 1927. They stood witness as the drill bit of Sealy Well No. 1 bit into the earth and started its way down. A second derrick - Sealy Well No. 2 - was already under construction by then. So high was the demand for information that Bob Sealy opened an office on North Foster Street in Dothan:

The oil boom led to a rush of commercial construction in
Cottonwood, as investors poured into the town.

As all this goes on, the people of Cottonwood continue with their program of building. Stories are being told of the opening of tea rooms, drug stores, warehouses, and various other forms of business...And while all this goes on, nine shallow wells in and around Cottonwood continue to flow a product so pure that it runs automobiles and gasoline engines. - Ibid.

By early October the Sealy brothers invested $40,000 of their own money in the belief that Cottonwood was about to become one of the wealthiest towns in America. In fact, Sealy Well No 1 did strike oil:

At 180 feet, Mr. Sealy said, salt water was struck. At 120 feet and also a depth slightly greater than 180 feet, fine oil showings were found. The oil showing shown at these two depths were similar to the oil in the nine surface wells in the Cottonwood community. - Dothan Eagle, December 13, 1927.

The well eventually reached a depth of nearly 5,000 feet, but the expected gusher never came. There was oil under Cottonwood, and it was from a natural deposit, not a leaky fuel tank as some like to claim today. The Sealy brothers just were never able to find it in a sufficient quantity to pump up for commercial purposes.

The oil boom faded as quickly as it had started and was over by the time the Great Depression hit two years later in 1929.

Despite its failure as an oil well, however, Sealy Well No. 1 did prove profitable. The water struck at 180 feet was not just salty, it was warm, and when the derrick was moved, it continued to flow up from the pipe in artesian style.

Dreams of oil wealth faded, but the story of Cottonwood's famed hot mineral well or "hot springs" was just beginning. More on the Sealy Hot Mineral Wells is coming in the next article!

Massive diamond buried in Jackson County, Florida?

A dream of buried treasure!

by Dale Cox

Site of the treasure dig.

Jackson County is the only Florida county to touch two other states. Perhaps its location - where Florida borders both Alabama and Georgia - makes it a focal point for legends. Whatever the reason the county has more than its share of buried treasure stories.

The tale of the Money Pond is perhaps the most famous. Legend holds that Native American warriors dumped a fabulous treasure of gold and silver into a swamp in the northeastern part of the county to save it from Andrew Jackson's soldiers. Other alleged treasures include one near Little Zion Road north of Sneads and a rumored cache of Confederate gold.

One of the strangest stories, however, emerged from a dream:

Your correspondent has been favored with the facts of a most wonderful dream. The dreamer, Mr. Hardy Lewis of Decatur county, Ga., has for the past seven years dreamed of finding gold and a large diamond buried on the bank of the Chattahoochee river. - Letter dated "Neal's Landing, Fla., May 3," Columbus Enquirer, May 6, 1881.

Chattahoochee River at Neals Landing, Florida.

Mr. Lewis was described as a "highly respected citizen of Decatur county" and regularly told neighbors about his repetitive dream. They still must have been surprised, however, when he announced that his dreams had finally revealed the date on which he would find the treasure: May 5, 1881.

The man was absolutely convinced that his dreams were directing him to the fortune of a lifetime. He prepared supplies, tools, and helpers for a dig and headed for the banks of the Chattahoochee River on May 1, 1881:

...Being so much impressed by such an innocent dream he resolved to go to the spot and try the virtue of his visionary wondering. He came to the river opposite Neal's landing and recognized instantly the place where his treasure was buried, although this was his first visit. He has been digging two days, but states he will not find the object of his search until May 5th. - Ibid.

Lewis's dream was particular as to the value of the treasure. It consisted, he said, of a diamond "valued at $24,000" as well as a large quantity of gold. Taking inflation into account, a diamond worth $24,000 in 1881 would be worth $603,696.47 today.

Fine quality rough or uncut diamonds are difficult to price but currently sell for around $2,600 per carat. Assuming the diamond is of fine quality - and surely a dream diamond would be - then it would weigh 232 carats.

Another view of the Chattahoochee River at Neal's Landing.
The fallen tree was toppled by Hurricane Michael.

The dig took place in the riverbank between Neal's Landing and the mouth of Irwin's Mill Creek on the Jackson County side of the Chattahoochee River. The work was followed with great interest by residents of the area:

...At the time of this writing the digging is still going on, Mr. Lewis is an old and highly respected citizen of Decatur county, and the result of his excavation is awaited, by a large number, with much anxiety. - Ibid.

May 5 came and went, however, with no trace of the diamond or its accompanying gold. The search ended in failure, and all that survives as a reminder that it ever happened is a shallow depression in the riverbank.

In this era, when dreams no longer hold the significance that they did in the late 1800s, it is easy to smile and disregard the treasure hunt as foolishness. Doing so might be foolish as well.

The interpretive sign at Neals Landing survived Hurricane
Michael, while trees all around it were toppled.

The very spot selected by Lewis for his dig is within feet of the point where the paddlewheel steamboat Eagle caught fire and ran aground in 1854. The boat was carrying a season's worth of cotton money from Columbus, Georgia, down to Apalachicola, Florida, so it could be sent by ocean-going vessel to banks in New York. 

The value of the gold shipment in modern terms? $3,048,714.29.

Some of the money was recovered shortly after the wreck of the Eagle, but much of it remains buried beneath a 165-year accumulation of mud and silt. There is no mention of a lost diamond in the available accounts of the steamboat Eagle disaster but aboard the steamer were some of the wealthiest residents from along the Chattahoochee River. The wreck most certainly could contain a lost diamond and other pieces of jewelry.

Before you grab a shovel and head out, however, keep in mind that the site is now the property of the people of the United States. Digging is a federal offense that could send you to a U.S. penitentiary for years to come.

Please click here to read more about the wreck of the steamboat Eagle. 

Burning of the City of Eufaula at Neal's Landing, FL

Floating palace destroyed by fire.

by Dale Cox

The paddlewheel steamer City of Eufaula burned at
Neals Landing on February 11, 1921.
The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County.

Somewhere beneath the mud and water at Neals Landing rest the charred remains of one of the most elegant paddlewheel steamers ever to navigate the Chattahoochee River.

The City of Eufaula was a beautiful boat owned by the Planters and Merchants' Steamboat Company of Columbus, Georgia. The famed boatbuilder Sam J. Johnson built her hull at Apalachicola, signing the construction contract in August 1912. Launched and christened with champagne, the hull was towed to Columbus where construction of the decks, staterooms and other amenities was completed.

Powered by a sternwheel, the steamboat could carry more than 50 passengers and crew in addition to nearly 250 tons of cargo:

The City of Eufaula, built-in Columbus, had been in the river trade on the Chattahoochee between Columbus and lower river points for several years and the shrieking of its whistle had become a sound familiar to the ears of the people living along the course of the stream. - Columbus Ledger, February 13, 1921.

The City of Eufaula at a landing on the Chattahoochee River.
Dale Cox Collection

The boat operated successfully a little over eight years before disaster struck at Neals Landing on February 11, 1921. She was edged up to the steep riverbank taking on additional cargo when the crew noticed a smell of smoke:

No injuries were reported as a result of the disastrous blaze, but the fire had gained such headway and developed so rapidly until efforts to save the boat were fruitless, according to information brought to Columbus. A high river and a strong wind apparently encouraged the flames and soon after the discovery was made the vessel was almost enveloped, it was said. The City of Eufaula was bound for Columbus, but was laden with a comparatively light cargo, additional cargo was being taken at Neal’s Landing when the fire broke out. It was stated that the crew made a strong but vain effort to extinguish the fire, despite the headway of the flames and the disadvantage caused by the brisk wind. - Columbus Ledger, February 13, 1921.

The City of Eufaula is seen here taking on cargo. She was
doing the same at Neals Landing when the fire erupted.

The massive blaze was not the first for Neals Landing. The steamboat Eagle burned there in a fatal fire on January 29, 1854, and General Harrison suffered a boiler explosion near the landing that killed three men in 1842. Please click here to read more about the deadly sinking of the Eagle.

Perhaps the stretch of water was cursed by the Native Americans of Ekanachatte ("Red Ground")? The Muscogee (Creek) town stood on the site of Neal's Landing from circa 1763 to 1818. The extensive village was burned to the ground during the First Seminole War, and white settlers rushed in to claim the fertile fields and townsite.

The river landing is now part of Neals Landing Park, a recreation area off State Road 2 at the west end of the Chattahoochee River bridge. An interpretive panel near the boat ramp provides more information on the history of the site.

This map will help you find it: