Los Cerrillos rustler. (Cerrillos, N.M.) 188?-1891, 1889-01-10
CAUGHT In THE SWAMP.
Experiences of an Old Lumberman
on the ocklawaha-
W. Tells of the Trials and Trumphs of
Himself and Family Will. Living In
the Florida Back-woods
Years Ago.

The pleasing picture Of profits TO be
made in numbering in the Ocklawaha
river region has It's offset in the hard
ships to DO endured. That word hard
ships must be taken In a somewhat diff
fercnt sense from its meaning asapplied
20 the life of a settler in the far West.
Or. II the word is the same, the hard
ships are different. Cold and hunger
stare the Western settler in the face,
but severe cold and actual hunger are
never 10 be feared In Florida, While IL
Is very unusual for people to have the
luxuries there that most OF us enjoy in
the North. it would be impossible for
them to starve, and when cold and hun
grr are abolished by the bounty of nat
ure the hardships of poverty are great
ly mitigated. l realize this myself
severely when I think of my coal bill.
Stsll, there are hardships to be- endured
even in Florida, and they make the re-
wards Of labor perhaps taste all the
swrcter.
The experiences of a new settler are
always interesting, and ! listened with
gAessure TO the stories Of an old lum ber-
m.u who took his family to the shores
of thh Ocklawaha some years ago, after
being nearly ruined by a boom" in
North5rn Pennsylvania. IL was not the
sort OF boom that is supposed TO build up
a new town, but a boom made OF timber
aud stretched across a river to hold back
the logs hat we're gathered behind it.
He had a few thousand logs in the river
ready for sale when there came a heavy
frcshet. and boom and logs were swept
away together. The logs were all brand
ed, OF course, but they were scattered
for untold miles along the shores of the
Tioga and the ~Susquehanna rivers, from
the New York line to Chesapeake Bay,
and to find and claim them would have
cost more than they were worth.
This was the beechwood straw that
broke the numbering camel's back, for
il was not the first nor the second time
that his logs had thus gone voyaging
of without his leave; but this time they
went in such numbers and wen so far
beyond recall that they settled a ques.
ton which had been in dispute in the
llUlill ~ boHle bAtlts dhu - htN WtttN7
later the lumbermau and his family
we're off by schooner for Florida. This
WAS twenty years ago, before Florida
was any thing like the State IL is now,
when Jacksonville was only a little
town, and Palatka still smaller. Ishall
tell the lumberman's story as nearly In
his own words as possible.
80 - ~ .s.sd a.. G6fh.t .,ntt ,nn ual
in the cars in New York nov and ride
right down TO jacksonville in a few
hours, but you could not do that wheI
| came. We got passage in a lumbe.
schooner for jacksonville, and 1t tool
ms about five days. 1t was early in thu
fall, and the weather was good, so WI
had a pleasant little voyage that we en-
ioyed very much, for zone of us ha'
ever seen the ocean before. Their
were five OF us-my wife and myself
two girls, and a sixteen-year-old DO.
big enough 10 do almost a mans work
We we're bound for the 0cklawaha rive
country, and you will van TO know hoy
we came to 20 there. One of our neigh
bo=s in Pennsylvania had come dow
here a few years before. and was doin
we'll, and we thought we might get
little more ahead of the world her
than there. | was doing well enoug
with hard work in the North. but ther
did not sec to be much ahead for tn
boy, and ae was anxious to try his luc
in FloridG, so we came.
s'NYhen we reached Jacksonville "
found a little steamboat running up tn
NJ. Johns river as far g. Palatka-r
such fine boat rs they have nowaday
but a small stern-wheeler that mao
very slow time against the cdrren
There were no boats at all then runnir
up the Ocklawaha river, and we had
get here the best way we could. l h'