 |
An Aycock Brothers locomotive on the tracks at Aycock,
Florida. This may have been the locomotive that brought the
bodies from the logging camp back to the sawmill town. |
Aycock was a prosperous lumber mill town that once stood along the L&N railroad between Cottondale and Chipley in Northwest Florida.
The town took its name from the Aycock, timber and naval stores barons from& Georgia. They secured a massive timber tract in western Jackson and eastern Washington Counties in 1904 and expanded existing sawmills on the railroad near today's intersection of Aycock Road and Historic U.S. 90. A mill town soon grew around this operation.
Little remains of Aycock today, but an incident associated with the town gives it special significance in U.S. history.
The following is excerpted from my book,
The Ghost of Bellamy Bridge: 10 Ghosts & Monsters from Jackson County, Florida.
-Excerpt-
 |
A stand of longleaf pines in the Florida
Panhandle. Aycock was in the business
of turning hundreds of thousands of
such trees into lumber. |
IN OCTOBER OF 1905, NEWSPAPER READERS ACROSS THE NATION
learned with horror that one of the largest mass murders in Florida history had
been enacted at a logging camp just west of the Jackson County community of
Steele City. The incident
claimed the lives of eight county inmates and a man employed to stand watch
over them.
On visiting the site of the camp today, it is
difficult to imagine the horror once enacted there. The surrounding scene is one
of farms and woods, with no visible trace remaining of the camp where the crime
took place. Few people in the vicinity know the horrible history associated
with the site or of the ghostly figures long said to haunt the woods there. Truth be
told, however, if there is any place in Jackson County with the tragic
potential for a real mass haunting, this is it.
The story of the Aycock Ghosts begins with the purchase of a vast tract of
timberland in the area by the Aycock Brothers of Georgia. Already
well-known lumber barons, the Aycocks lived in the city of Moultrie but chartered
their Florida operation in nearby Cordele in 1904:
…Application for a
charter for the Aycock Bros. Lumber Co., composed of W.E. and T.J. Aycock and Evans Reynolds, has been filed with the county
clerk. The capital stock of the proposed corporation is to be $50,000. The main
office will be in Cordele, but the principal operations of the
company’s manufacturing department will be in Florida.[i]
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Aycock Road crosses today's CSX Railroad west of
Cottondale in Jackson County, Florida. The town of Aycock
once stood in this vicinity. The 18-wheeler visible in the
background is on U.S. 90. |
Construction began almost immediately on
an industrial complex at the small railroad siding of Allie, located four
miles due west of Cottondale on the L&N Railroad between that town and Chipley. It was the
railroad, in fact, that had drawn the attention of the Aycock Brothers to the site. The trains provided a way for them
to get their lumber and rosin out of the woods and to market. By the spring of
1905, construction of the massive plant at Allie was almost finished:
The
Aycock Bros. Lumber Co. have now nearly completed their large saw mill
at Allie, six miles east of town (i.e. Chipley). This will be one of the largest and most
modern saw mills in West Florida with a cutting capacity of one hundred
thousand feet per day. With three large brick dry kilns and a big planning mill
they will work about 150 hands.[ii]
Even today, an operation of the size and
scope of the Aycock mill would be considered impressive. The initial hiring of
150 hands to run the mill and harvest the timber also created the need to house
them, preferably on-site. The firm handled this by building one of the largest
“company towns” ever constructed in Jackson County. In addition to homes for
perhaps 500 people (workers and their families), the community also included
stores, a railroad station and a post office as well as the various mills and
other facilities associated with the company’s operations.
With the completion of its houses, stores,
sawmill, drying kilns, railroad station and planning mill, it was logical that
the company owners would stamp their name on the community itself. Allie ceased
to exist and on May 31, 1905, the Pensacola
Journal reported that, “The Aycock Bros. Lumber Co. have changed the
name of the post office and telegraph office and railroad station to Aycock,
Fla.”[iii]
 |
Another early 20th century photo of one of the two
locomotives that operated on Aycock's logging railroad. |
To support the industrial facilities at
Aycock, the company built or acquired a system of
logging roads, a naval stores camp and a small railroad that ran south from the
L&N tracks for about ten miles through the edge of
Washington County and then back into Jackson County again. It carried
rosin and timber from the outlying naval stores camp west of Steele City and
just north of Alford to the main complex at Aycock.[iv]
Although they hired more than 150 people
to run their operation, the Aycock brothers were as interested in securing
cheap labor as other timber barons of their day. An opportunity presented
itself to them in the form of the convict labor leasing practice then in
operation across much of Florida.
The convict leasing system had been
initiated in 1877 and allowed counties to lease convicts from their jails to
private businesses. The money gained from the practice went into the county
Road & Bridge Fund and was a vital source of revenue for local government.
The practice also eliminated the need for counties to maintain large jail facilities,
since the employers leasing the inmates were responsible for housing and
feeding them.
 |
Florida convicts leased as laborers to a timber company. The
victims of the Aycock fire were attired much like these men.
State Archives of Florida |
The Aycock brothers entered almost
immediately into leasing contracts with the Board of County Commissioners for
Jackson County. The use of convict labor may even have been part of their
business plan before they ever started building their company town west of
Cottondale. To house the inmates turned over to them, they established two
convict stockades: one on the grounds of the main operation at Aycock and the other 10 miles south down the logging
railroad at the remote naval stores camp. These locations allowed the company
to house convicts at both ends of their massive 25,000 acre timber tract. Both
stockades, generally described as wood-frame buildings, were finished and in
use by the end of the summer of 1905.
The convict leasing system was not without
its critics. The early 1900s were a time of great social reform in the nation
and newspaper editors and private citizens alike railed against the system,
which they equated with slavery. Counties were literally leasing human beings
to private companies and these individuals were then worked, often in
substandard conditions, with no choice in the matter and receiving no
compensation for their labors.
The conditions at the Aycock stockades were
far from ideal. Not only were the convicts worked long hours under harsh and
dangerous conditions, they were chained inside the stockades at night to
eliminate any possibility of escape. It was a recipe for disaster and that is
exactly what happened in the early fall of 1905:
On
the night of October 7, Aycock Brothers Lumber Co. convict camp burned in Jackson County. In this
fire, James Longino, the guard on duty, and eight
convicts, were burned to death. Four or five of the bodies were cremated. The
only two remaining victims…barely escaped with their lives and are now lying in
Aycock’s stockade at Aycock, Florida, in a badly burned condition.[v]
 |
Aycock can be seen on the railroad just west of Cottondale on
this 1909 map of Jackson County, Florida. |
One of the two survivors, identified as
William McCoy, was so severely
injured that there seemed but little chance that he would recover. His escape,
and that of his fellow survivor, was gruesome almost beyond imagination:
I
remember hearing how some of them climbed as far as their leg chains would let
them through the windows and begged witnesses to cut off a foot to free them
from their chains and from being burned alive.[vi]
News of the fire stunned people in Jackson
and Washington Counties and as the story spread, the nation was
equally appalled. The cause was first thought to be accidental, with
speculation focusing on the explosion of a faulty oil lamp. The theory was so
convincing, in fact, that a coroner’s inquest was considered unnecessary.
Information came to light over the coming
days, however, that quickly changed opinions about the fire. Alarmed by the
horrible tragedy and undoubtedly concerned over their own liability in the
matter, the Aycock brothers hired a private detective from Chipley named Tom
Watts to look into the fire. Watts had established a reputation
investigating cases of fraud against the L&N Railroad and quickly became convinced that the fire was not accidental at all, but was “one of the
most horrible crimes ever committed in the state.”[vii]
 |
Two railroad spikes from the site of Aycock are among the
artifacts from the town on display at the Washington County
Historical Society Museum in Chipley, Florida. |
Watts discovered something that the
failure to empanel a coroner’s inquest had prevented from emerging already: the
heads of James Longino, the guard over the stockade, and an
unidentified convict had been smashed with a blunt object. Sam Jones, a misdemeanor
convict who served as the trusty of the camp, told the detective that he had
seen a man named Jim Glassco enter the guardroom at the entrance of the
stockade. A few seconds later he heard two heavy blows, saw fire suddenly rise
up from the building and then watched Glassco come out and run away.[viii]
Convinced that Glassco was involved in
starting the fire, Watts arrested him and took him first to the Washington
County Jail in Chipley. From there the suspect was carried
by rail to the Jackson County Jail in Marianna:
I
find the motive for the crime to have been robbery. Longino had on his person
$48.10 and the convict had $5. Longino had drawn a gun (for cause) on Glassco
the same night of the fire. The weapon used by Glassco was a spike maul, such
as commonly used by railroad trackmen.[ix]
A first appearance was held for Glassco at
the courthouse in Marianna and the county grand jury was ordered to
convene. Although Detective Watts believed that a “strong case was made out”
against the suspect, the grand jury did not agree. No indictment was returned
against Glassco and the grand jurors instead recommended that the county commission
cancel the Aycock Brothers’ contract and do everything possible to bring those
responsible to justice..
 |
A sawdust chain from the site of Aycock is now on display at
the Washington County Historical Society Museum in Chipley. |
One of the Jackson County Commissioners,
J.M. Barnes, went out to the
naval stores camp to view the scene of the fire firsthand. After conducting a
brief investigation of his own, he determined that “whiskey was very much in
evidence.” It was his conclusion that the “guard being drunk probably caused
the fire.” Strangely, there is no indication in county records that the Sheriff
of Jackson County was ever asked to investigate the matter.[x]
Detective Watts, as might have
been expected, vehemently disagreed with Commissioner Barnes. He wrote to
Governor N.B. Broward in Tallahassee, calling for a state
investigation. Expressing his belief that eyewitness Sam Jones was somehow
involved in the crime, the company detective warned that time was of the
essence:
The
scene of this terrible crime is some ten miles from the railroad in the logging
woods of the lumber company. There is much yet to be learned in this case by
careful investigation, and I am sure you will appreciate the importance of looking
into the matter fully.
The
witnesses, some of them, have already scattered off – one of the most important
ones now being in Atlanta, Georgia.[xi]
The company detective expressed his view
of the incident plainly to Governor Broward, “I regard this as being one of the
most horrible crimes ever committed in the state.”
 |
Gov. Napoleon B. Broward of Florida, for whom
Broward County is named, ignored a request for
a state investigation of the Aycock fire.
State Archives of Florida |
The determined detective’s efforts aside,
no justice was ever obtained for the nine men who died as a result of the
terrible fire at the Aycock Brothers naval stores camp. Their bodies were taken up
the logging railroad to the main community of Aycock where they were buried in
a now forgotten plot by the L&N (today’s CSX) Railroad. The most any of
the fatally injured men ever got from the county or the Aycock company was the
money paid to the doctor who amputated their legs in an unsuccessful effort to
save their lives after axes had been used to cut off their feet so they could
be pulled away from the chains that attached them to the burning building. Dr.
J.S. McGeachy of Chipley was paid $624 for “amputating Six Legs,
Visits, Dressing.”[xii]
The survivors of the tragedy, along with
the family members of some of the dead, brought suit in federal court against
Aycock Brothers Lumber Company for their losses. John Bryant, who had lost his
feet when they were cut off to free him from his chains, sued the company for
$25,000, as did the families of several of the others. After two years, the
Aycock Brothers settled with Bryant for $5,000. Of that amount, $1,500 went to
the lawyers who represented him. The unfortunate former convict received
$3,500, the apparent value that the parties agreed to place on the legs and feet he
left behind at the naval stores camp:
Upon
a consultation of the counsel for the plantiffs and defendants to these suits a
compromise was effected by the company paying to Bryant and the other
plaintiffs a sum of $3,500 and bearing the costs of the litigation. The suits
were based upon injuries received by Brant and the deaths of a number of
convicts in a stockade, which was destroyed by fire a year ago. Relatives of
some of the men burned to death in the stockade, brought actions for damages,
but settled for very small amounts.[xiii]
At the time the Aycock Brothers paid John
Bryant $3,500 for the loss of his feet, their company
was worth roughly $500,000. In fact, their mill town four miles west of
Cottondale continued to thrive for a number of years, at
one point even boasting a jewelry store. The old growth longleaf pines were
finally all harvested, though, and Aycock faded into history like so many of the Florida
Panhandle’s other sawmill towns. Not a single building stands today.
Aycock may have faded away, but the
terrible tragedy enacted 10 miles south of the town lingers. The publicity over
the fire helped end the practice of convict leasing in Florida and elsewhere,
but no formal law enforcement investigation of the incident ever took place.
Was it mass murder, as Detective Watts believed? Or was
it a case of drunkenness gone bad, as a Jackson County Commissioner concluded?
No one can really say.
Perhaps it is this lack of concern as to
their fate that keeps those unfortunate men lingering close to the place they
died. Local legend holds that both the old naval stores camp site, where the
tragedy took place, and the cemetery where the unfortunate men lay buried are
haunted by their spirits. At the secluded stockade site, it is said that
the ghosts of the dead still walk in the night. Shadowy figures have been seen
moving through the trees and on certain nights it is said that the moans of
dying men can be distinctly heard echoing through the bays and swamps.
At Aycock itself, legend holds that blue
lights can be seen in the night at the spot where most of the unfortunate
victims were buried. The graves themselves are unmarked, even though the men
were the prisoners of Jackson County and under its protection at the time they
died. The simple wooden markers placed on the graves by coworkers rotted away
long ago.
Some believe that the ghosts appear in two
different places because their legs and feet rest in the dirt at the site of
the naval stores camp, while the rest of their bodies lay forgotten under the
dirt of Aycock itself. Perhaps they continue to appear
because justice for them has never been done?
Artifacts from the site of Aycock are on display today at the Washington County Historical Society Museum in Chipley, Florida. The museum is open on Fridays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
If you are interested in reading the true stories behind this and other ghost stories from Jackson County, Florida, please consider my book:
The Ghost of Bellamy Bridge: 10 Ghosts & Monsters from Jackson County, Florida
.
[i] Augusta Chronicle,
September 20, 1904, p. 4.
[ii] Pensacola Journal,
April 19, 1905, p. 1.
[iii] Pensacola Journal,
May 31, 1905.
[iv] E.W. Carswell, Washington: Florida’s Twelfth County,
1991, p. 313.
[v] Tom Watts to
Governor Napoleon B. Broward, October 1905, Carswell Collection.
[vi] Gilbert Keener,
Washington County Commissioner, 1978, quoted by E.W. Carswell, Washington: Florida’s Twelfth County, p.
313.
[vii] Watts to Broward,
October 1905.
[x] J.M. Barnes,
quoted by E.W. Carswell, Washington:
Florida’s Twelfth County, p. 315.
[xi] Tom Watts to Gov.
Napoleon B. Broward, Octonber 1905, Carswell Collection.
[xii] Bill of Dr. J.S.
McGeachy, November 6, 1905, Jackson County Archives.
[xiii] Montgomery Advertiser, March 14, 1907, p. 5.
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