The Logan County banner. [volume] (Logan, W. Va.) 1889-1903, 1890-02-13
CAUGHT IN THE SWAMP.
Experiences of an Old Lumberman
on the Ocklawaha.
He Tells OF the Trials and Trfumphs of
Himself and F ainIIy while Ewing m
the Florida Back Woods
Years Ago.

Years Ago.
The pleasing picture Of profits to be
made in numbering in the Ocklawaha
river region has its Offset in the hard
ships to be endured. That word hard.
ships must be taken in somewhat diff
ferent sense from its meaning as applied
to the life of settler in the far West
Or, If thc-word is the same, the hard.
ships are different. Cold and hunger
stare the Western settler in the face,
but severecold and actual hunger are
never TO be feared in Florida. While it
is very unusual for people to have the
Injuries there that most of us enjoy in
the North. it would be impossible for
them to starve, and when cold and hun
ger are abolished by the bounty OF nat
ure the hardships Of poverty are great
ly mitigated. / realize this myself
severely when l think of my coal bill.
Still, there are -hardships to be endured
even in Florida, and they make the re:
wards of labor perhaps taste all the
sweeter.
The experiences OF a new settler are
always interesting, and / listened with
pleasure to the stories OF an Old lumber
man who took his family to the shores
of the Ocklawaha some years ago, after
being nearly ruined by a boom in
Northern Pennsylvania. 1t was not the
Sort of heem=that supposed to buifd up
Z new town, but a boom made of timber
and stretched ACROSS a river to hold back
the logs that were gathered behind it.
lie had a few thousand logs in the river
ready for sale when there came a heavy
freshet, and boom and logs were swept
away together. The logs were all brand
Cd, of COURSE =they@were scattered
for untold miles along the shores of the
Tloga and the Susquehanna rivers, from
the New York line to Chesapeake Bay,
ann to Ind and Claim them would have
cost more than they were worth.
This was the beechwood straw that
broke the numbering eameIs back, for
that his logs had thus gone xoyaging
without his leave; but this time they
went in such numbers and went so far
beyond recall that they settled ques-
ton which had been in dispute in the
family for some time, and a few weeks
later the lumberman and his family
were off by schooner for Florida. This
was twenty years ago, before Florida
was any thing like the State it is now,
when jacksonville was only a little
-tewn, and Palatlsa still smaller shall
tell the lHmhefman' S story as nearly in
his own words as possible.
II hear" said he, "that you can get
in the cars in New York now and ride
right down to jacksonville in a few
hours, but you could not do that when
i came. We got passage in lumber
schooner for Jacksonville, and it took
us about five days. 1t was early in the
fall, and the weather was good, SO we
had pleasant little voyage that we en-
joyed very much, for none of US had
ever seen the ocean before. There
were five Of us-my wife and myself,
two girls, and sixteen-year-old boy
big enough to do almost mans work
We were bound for the 0elslawaha river
country, and you will want to know how
we came to go there. One of our neigh
bors in Pennsylvania had come down
here few years before, and was doing
we'll, and we thought we might get a
little more ahead of the world here
than there. / was doing we'll enough
with hard work in the North, but there
did not seem to be much ahead for the
boy, and he was anxious to try his luck
in Florida, so we came.
"#hen we reached Jacksonville we
found little steamboat running up the
st. Johns river as far as Pafatka-no
such fine boat as they have nowadays,
but small stern-wheeler that made
very slow time against the current.
There were no boats at all then ruhning
up the 0cklawaha river, and we had to
get here the best way we could. had
made up my mind about what part of
the river was going to settle on, al
though / had never seen It, for my
friend had given me some points. One
place was about as good as another as
far as the lumber went, but the nearer
a man was to market the less time he
wasted rafting his logs. The nearest
saw-mill then was at Jacksonville, and
! settled to go up the Ocklawaha to just
above where Orange creek runs in
about ten miles above that sharp turn.
..AYe bought twe-beats- =Palatka..
One was big fiat-bottomed affair to
carry what little we had brought along
and the provisions, and the other fat
bottomed skitf These were both
pretty we'll loaded down, for we had
provisions for six months. The st.
John river gave us surprise when we
IA n
a great river in Florida as big as the
Hudson. But the Ocklawaha surprised
us more None OF, us had ever seen such
muddy river, nor one SO crooked, nor
with such swampy banks But we knew
we were going into a swamp, and were
not afraid of it. Both the girls helped
row the boats, for we were not city
folks, you know, and they had always
lived by the water, and were as strong
and useful as pair of boys.
Eat last we found fine place ten or
twelve feet above high-water mark, and
almost covered with handsome big trees.
We were all agreed that that would suit
us, and there we stopped. We made a
camp on shore and lived there in the
daytime, but. the women folks slept in
the boat every night for more than two
weeks. They declared they were not
afraid Of snakes, but nothing would in
duce them to sleep on shore till we had
a house that would keep the snakes out.
THE first thing was tosget house to
shelter us, and set to work to build
one. There was no mill up the river
where we could buy boards and raft
them, and to bring them from jackson
xillo against-the current was ont Of the