The first Florida railroad was formed in 1831 as the Leon Railway Company. By 1836 it was in operation from Tallahassee to the St. Marks area, on the Gulf of Mexico, a distance of twenty-three miles. The trains on this line were operated solely by mule power.

In 1839, the first steam railroad in Florida, and one of the first in the South, was built from Iola, on the Apalachicola River, to St. Joseph on the Gulf of Mexico, a distance of twenty-two miles. It required two and a quarter hours to make the trip and two trips were made every day. The cost was $300,000.

The rails were brought from England, but the cars and engine were made in the United States. There was a car for passengers who were handled very much as was freight. Each passenger had to: "procure his ticket at the office before the starting of the cars, and no person will be allowed to take his seat without his name is entered on the waybill."

Because the town officials of St. Joseph were afraid that the sparks from the engine would set the town on fire, they passed an ordinance to the effect that: "no locomotive engine shall pass (by steam) into any part of the corporate limits of this city . . ." When the train approached the city the blowing of a whistle announced the fact. A dozen mules with cables were attached to the train, which was then drawn to the depot and warehouses. The destruction of St. Joseph by yellow fever, in 1841, put an end to the railroad which had never been a success financially.

By the time of the Civil War, Florida had over 400 miles of operating railroad, all in north Florida.

(excerpt from Ida Keeling Crisp, The History of Florida Agriculture: The Early Era, pp. 42-43)