The Ocklawaha Valley Railroad and
The Rodman Lumber Company
By
Donald R. Hensley, Jr.
As
we covered in previous chapter, “The Rentz Lumber Co. & its Ocala
Northern Railroad” both the lumber company and its railroad entered
bankruptcy protection in May of 1913, separate receivers were put in place and
both the companies were ultimately split apart from one another. I have since
found out that a lumber wholesaler in Atlanta that went bankrupt early in 1913
set in motion for the failure of Rentz and his railroad. This wholesaler owed
Rentz for a very large shipment of lumber and of course owed the railroad for
the transportation. The lumber company’s sawmills and lands were sold to
other concerns and disappear from the public records. The railroad limped along
under Receiver J. Boyd until April, 1915, when the Assets Realization Co., the
major owner of the $155,000 in mortgage bonds was the high bidder when the
railroad was put up for public auction. The Ocala Manufacturing Company
made a deal to buy a 2 mile logging line built by Rentz across the Ocklawaha
River south from Silver Springs along with two locomotives and twelve
logging cars for nearly $10,000. This line would be use by Ocala Manufacturing
to log pine from that area. Later on the
Wilson Cypress Company would also utilize this line for their
own logging purposes.
The Ocklawaha
Valley Railroad was born on April 16, 1915 with Charles Marshal of Assets
Realization as its President and Treasurer, W.B. Denham (former superintendent)
as 1st Vice-President, S.P. Hollinrake (former General Freight
Agent) as Superintendent & General Manager and A. K. Spencer retained his
job as Mechanical Superintendent. The railroad was reborn with a hope of a
bright future and plans were made to expand toward Leesburg, but the mortgage
company needed to see if the railroad was able to make its bi-annual mortgage
interest payments first. Unfortunately the answer was ultimately no.
The OV inherited
three steam engines from its predecessor. The 109, 110 and 112 kept the
same numbers on the OV. Four wood coaches, one wood combination coach and
baggage (Jim Crow car) and one baggage & express car rounded out the roster.
Traffic sources
on the OV included the Arlo Box Company which was logging the small trees left
behind by Rentz and the Wilson Cypress Company
logging in the cypress ponds south of Silver Springs.
Rodman Lumber Co.
In 1830 before Florida was granted statehood,
John Rodman petitioned United States and Spain for a land grant of about 16,000
acres. This grant became known as The Rodman Grant. Between 1892
and 1954 the property changed hands several times and was subject to numerous
timber leases and naval store leases.
In 1892 John J. Cummings purchases the
property and begins large scale timber and naval stores production. In January
of 1900, the town of Rodman is created and the town grows to contain churches
and a school, a commissary, a hotel, and housing for the several hundred men
who worked there. A short railway line connected the town with the St.
Johns River which provided all the transportation for the area. All supplies
came in by boat and all the timber and naval stores went out the same way.
Rails and locomotives were brought in by boat and logging tram lines were built
into the woods. It wasn’t until the Ocala Northern crossed one of their logging
lines in 1911, and a junction was built, that Rodman was finally connected to
the nation’s rail network.
Henry Spurgin Cummings the brother of John Cummings,
was the youngest son of William and Olive Cummings. Henry S. Cummings spent his
childhood in Colleton County, South Carolina, and later learned the sawmill
business under his father and older brother in Hampton County, SC. Henry
Cummings traveled south in March,1900, and he settled in an area
southwest of Palatka, Florida, where he took over the family sawmill business
in Florida. His brother John returned to manage the family sawmill in South
Carolina.
Henry S. Cummins
supervised the building of the first mill in January of 1900. Said to be the
first all steel and concrete sawmill in the state of Florida. It is a double
circular, cutting 80,000 feet of long leaf yellow pine a day. There is also a
most modern planning mill and three kilns. The first timber was taken around
Rodman, some hundred thousand acres having been cut over, much of which is now
in use for farming and ranching purposes.
There are about
fifty million feet ready for the return from Dunnellon where logging is now
going on. This timber runs about 2500 feet to the acre at present; while that
around Dunnellon averages around 3500. Dunnellon is the county seat of Levy
County, in which the company has some hundred and fifty million feet of fine
long-leaf, cutting upon which was commenced in 1916. Eighty-five thousand feet
a day arrive at Rodman from the woods, where it is sawed and shipped out to all
parts of the country. Seven miles of company rail-road connects the mill direct
with the Ocklawaha Valley Railroad, while water shipments are made possible by
the proximity of the St. John's River, only four miles away. Four locomotives
are employed about the plant; two of forty tons and two of twenty-five.
Some of the
structural timbers turned out from the mill would be eye-openers to the man who
thinks that all Florida long pine needs is a dipping in phosphorus to make good
matches. One day there was one piece 24" x 26", thirty six feet long;
while another 27 inches square passed out the day before. All sales are made
out of the Rodman office and shipments are made direct to the customer.
Trip to Rodman's operations around Dunnellon. Winter of 1916-1917.
Published in June-July of 1917 Logging magazine. By the "Log Gink".
“Our train on the Ocklawaha Valley
RR pulled away from the depot at Rodman where we inspected the mills and farms
of the Rodman Lumber Co. We are now en-route to Ocala, were we will turn
ourselves over to the Frantic Ghost Line (sometimes alluded to by pendants and
in timetables as the Atlantic Coast Line) to be taken on to Dunnellon. A few
miles outside of this city, we shall come upon the woods from whence comes all
this longleaf yellow pine timber which we have seen under the saws at Rodman.
But first we must
get to Ocala, which is no sixty-minute sprint although' the actual distance
from Rodman is only forty miles. In the course of the forty, it becomes
necessary for us to stop at some score stations long enough to handle a flock
of freight and to inquire after the health of the population, individually and
collectively. But finally we did arrive some time well after noon, after
passing through the famous Silver Springs, the town, not the spring’s self,
where the water is wonderfully clear. They have a flat bottom boat on the
springs, provided with a pane of plate glass through which one may watch the
gambols of turtles, alligators and other inhabitants of the Floridian
waterways. Unfortunately, although' on this occasion our train remained at the
Spring's long enough for its passengers to have taken the window boat out one
at a time, we were informed that it would leave "any minute" and so
discreetly remained aboard.
After lunch at
Ocala - an exceedingly attractive little city by-the-way, very prosperous, and
well worth a visit if you happen to be in those parts- we connected with the
Frantic Ghost and entered upon the last leg of our outward bound voyage. The
left rear truck of our car was suffering from flat foot and added greatly to
the rhythmical charm of the journey, striking the rail regularly once a second
or less. And so it was nearly supper-time before we arrived at Dunnellon;
although the train at one time must have acquired sufficient speed to kill a
couple of cows. We passed their corpses lying beside the right of way; but of
course there is always a chance that they died of old age or natural causes while
waiting for the train to pass!
At Steen: In the
vicinity of Steen and evenly deployed over Levy County, the company owns one
hundred and fifty million feet of standing long leaf yellow pine. The country
is comparatively level, but low and inclined to swamp in spots. Except in the
swamps, where almost anything may be expected, the undergrowth is confined to
palmetto. The timber averages thirty-five hundred feet to the acre and is cut
in forty foot lengths for the most part, averaging about a hundred feet to the
log. Forty-five logs constitute a car-load, and twenty cars are dispatched
daily to Rodman under a contract with the Coast Line. Work in the woods at
Steen started in August of 1916, so that the greater part of the hundred and
fifty million remains to be removed.
Fifty-six pound
steel on seventeen heart pine ties to the rail length opens up the timber;
Coast Line cars being used, operated by the company's own locomotives. One thirty-ton
and one forty-ton Baldwin are engaged in the woods work. They also have five Kilby cars and a track laying machine, which last was not
in service at the time of our trip.
The logging
operation is carried on with a Clyde Universal Logging Machine and a McGiffert Loader of the modern four-wheel truck and steel
swinging boom type. Both of these machines are used for skidding and loading;
going back a thousand feet from the track. The Universal is in charge of J.R.
Campbell and captures some six hundred logs a day with its two lines. The McGiffert is in charge of W.B. Redcliff and secures the
needful balance of about three hundred logs; with a single line, so that honors
are easy.
In round figures,
it costs three dollars a thousand to lay logs on the cars at Steen, including
all expenses plus some heavy railroad work for the far future. Future costs,
without this railroad overhead, will show a more material reduction. The total
cost of logs in the stacks at Rodman was five dollars a thousand at the time of
our trip.
Our immediate
objective was the Universal, and lofting lightly from stump to stump, the
Leaping Lizzie burned down the miles until we arrived at a synthetic lake
caused by floods. Here we descended from the decks and hearing the McGiffert snorting away about a mile to the west, changed
our objective long enough to hoof it over and watch Loader-man Redcliff
skid and load a few logs in past-professional style.
And then we
followed the track, as the only alternative to swimming for which neither of us
was properly attired, for miles and miles and miles. Finally, around a little
curve, we came upon the critter whooping logs in on both lines and loading them
with her teeth. The resulting photographs are scattered thru this article.
Five-eighths inch
skidding lines are in use, mules being employed in re-hauling the lines to the
timber. One hour's work and one hour's rest was the law of labor accepted alike
by employers and mules.
On the return
journey, we paused long enough to pose the proud line which appears upon this
page, as a sample of the sort of sticks they can raise in Florida when they
settle their minds on the job.”
Back to the OV RR
World War One or
the Great War as it was called back then was going full blast with the entry of
the United States in 1917, and one of its consequences was the upward
swing of steel prices. Rail steel was at an all-time high in 1917, and
with freight and passenger revenues dropping and no chance that the OV could
make any of its interest payments on the bonds, Assets Realization Corporation
suddenly decided to shut down the railroad and sell the whole thing for scrap.
The poor OV was now worth more dead than alive.
So early in
November of 1917, the railroad had posted notices along the right of way,
alerting the general population that they would cease operations after November
30, 1917. On November 6th, the railroad petitioned the State RR
Commission for permission to abandon the railroad. A hearing was held on
November 14th and on the 16th they issued an order
forbidding the OV to discontinue operations. Management of the OV threaten to not only cease operations, but to dismantle the
road. Judge Willis of the 8th Circuit Court granted the RR
Commission an order on November 27th to restrain the OV from abandoning
operations. The railroad shut down completely on December 6th,
though the RR Commission did not learn of this until the 8th. The
Commission applied to Judge Bullock of the 5th
Circuit Court for appointment of a receiver, which he appointed Hollinrake. On
December 10, 1917 the bondholders started foreclosure proceedings setting
February 4, 1918 as the sale date.
The Commission appealed to W. G. McAdoo, Director General
of the Railroads to intervene, as the Rodman Lumber Company was moving a large
amount of lumber from the West Coast to Rodman for the war effort. McAdoo
suggests taking the company to court. The Commission with the help of the
Courts then was able to appoint H.S. Cummings as receiver on January 26, 1918,
as he promised to operate the road financing his own receiver certificates and
to pay for a $15,000 personal bond to protect the bondholders from a loss from
his operations. One of Cumming's first actions was replacing the steam
passenger train with the dual end motor car shown above, built from two REO
buses. This freed the railroad to concentrate with its shrinking locomotive roster
on the log trains running to and from his mill. With the US Railroad
Administration in charge of the Nation's railroads, traffic had been diverted
from the OV and through freight was now non existent.
On February 30,
1919 the OV was sold under the decree of the Circuit Court of Marion County,
FL, with the authority of the purchaser to junk the property, but only after
the Commission gives permission to abandon the property. H.S. Cummings
continues to operate the railroad as receiver and general manager until his
death in August of 1922. Cummings never paid taxes during his operations
and the bonding company had been called upon to make good the loss of $17,000.
A. Christensen
was appointed receiver from August to December 1922. Both the Rodman Lumber Company
and the Wilson Cypress Company finished logging in September of 1922. All
the timber near the railroad had been cut and operations ceased on December 31,
1922.
Rodman Lumber Company Equipment Roster
5
4-4-0 Lima 1039 5/07 12x16-48” 56,000lbs
sold to Bond Lumber Co. 5 to Putnam Lumber Co. 5
in 1920 at Shamrock, Fla to SI&E 2107 scrap 1927
10
2-6-0 Rogers 16x24 GC&L 210 in 1913
12
2-6-0 Baldwin 53234 5/20 16x24 to OV12 to BSCC 18, to Lee
Tidewater 18 to John Thompson to Illinois RR Museum
Rodman Lumber Co., Rodman (Putnam) In 1907 had a
30 mile logging
railroad with 5 locomotives and a 100,000 foot capacity mill,
the same reported for 1910. In 1912, 1917 and 1920 show a 35mile logging
railroad.
1917 six locomotives total
Rodman Mill - four locos (2 of 40 tons and 2 of
25 tons) & 1 Clyde Universal Logging Machine
Steen Logging Camp (Levy County)(nearest PO at Dunnellon) with 1 30 ton and 1
40 ton Baldwin
1 Clyde Universal Logging Machine (600 logs a day with two lines) & 1 McGiffert
Loader (300 logs a day with one line)
Roster for Rentz Lumber / Ocala
Northern / Ocklawaha Valley