In the rainy months of 1917 the path between the schoolhouse at the Roeville timber camp filled with mud. It was not a great result for the limited conservative wardrobe of the school ma'am to be exposed to the red and brown hues of the natural wet earth. Dessie, who was a widow woman with a recent
Dessie with brother, Harry and Mae
teaching certificate from the Florida State College for Women, stepped up onto the log train rails to make her way to the schoolhouse.
The widow Dessie received funding from the Brock family in Pine Log, Florida. Their son, Thomas, who was a teacher, died of pneumonia before many years of marriage had passed. So, they funded an education to provide Dessie a livelihood. In a letter dated October 1917, Dessie wrote to an admirer in Chumuckla to describe some of the rain issues and the use of the rails to avoid the mud. She would, in late 1918, marry the admirer who was to become my Grandfather.
Jim Campbell and Dessie Lee Howell (Brock) Campbell celebrated the birth of my father, J.Lee Campbell in 1920, in Pace, Florida. From there, another logging rail ran North into the pine forests to transport raw materials for the Pace Lumber Mill, where Jim was a millwright. They lived in a manager's style company house that stood behind what is now Alyssa's emporium of shops.
The muddy road adventures faded from memory but the letter survived in a box discovered by Kittye Campbell Norris some 35 years since the death of Dessie. That railroad ran from the Bagdad Land and Lumber Company, north through Milton and several logging camps (including Roeville) up to Munson. All these main rails had branches that fed logs of Yellow Pine out of the entire landscape.
That Bagdad Land and Lumber Rail is now the base of the Blackwater Heritage Trail. But, before it became the scenic trail it is today, it served another roll. To meet the demand for Naval Aviators in WW11, Whiting Field was established.
The rail was then rebuilt from an unused base to handle larger cars and freight. IT became the main route to deliver aviation gasoline and supplies to Whiting Field. It was a roll it accomplished well for decades, until more efficient deliveries by truck became practical. Then, the rail again fell to disuse. It lay unattended and bare of any traffic. The vigor of Florida vegetation was fast erasing all traces of the once critical lifeline to aviation excellence.
in 1987, the National concept of RAILS TO TRAILS became a thing. Richard Collins - a recent transplant to the area, saw a vision for the old rail to Whiting Field. From there, he began to marshall information and resources to pursue what would be a capstone project of his retirement.
..........................
