St. Joseph, Florida facts for kids
St. Joseph was a fast-growing town in Florida that started in 1835. It was built on the shores of St. Joseph Bay. For a short time, it became the biggest community in Florida. However, a serious sickness called yellow fever in 1841 ended its success. The town was then left empty. What was left of it was completely destroyed by a huge storm in 1844. Today, the old town site is in Gulf County, Florida, close to the city of Port St. Joe.
Why St. Joseph Started
The town of St. Joseph began because of a land problem in Apalachicola, Florida. Long ago, a trading company called John Forbes and Company made deals with Creeks and Seminoles. They got large areas of land in Florida from these Native American groups. The Spanish government, which ruled Florida at the time, approved these land deals.
The biggest piece of land, about 1,200,000 acres, was known as the Forbes Purchase. This land was between the St. Marks and Apalachicola Rivers. Most of it was sold to a group that later became the Apalachicola Land Company. This happened before Florida became part of the United States in 1821.
When Florida joined the U.S., the ownership of these Spanish land grants had to be checked by American courts. By 1835, the Apalachicola Land Company was confirmed as the owner of the Forbes Purchase. By this time, the town of Apalachicola had grown on the Apalachicola River. The land company offered to sell land to the people living there. But the prices were so high that many residents decided to leave their homes. They moved west to the shores of St. Joseph Bay instead.
How St. Joseph Grew
St. Joseph Bay was a very good natural harbor. In contrast, large ships had to anchor about 16 miles from Apalachicola. Cargo had to be moved by smaller boats between the ships and the shore. St. Joseph Bay, however, did not have any rivers flowing into it. This meant it had almost nothing to ship out in 1835.
The people who settled in St. Joseph wanted to change this. They planned to bring goods, mainly cotton and lumber, down the Apalachicola River to St. Joseph Bay. This would bypass Apalachicola. In 1835, a company was formed to dig a canal between St. Joseph and Lake Wimico. Lake Wimico was connected to the Apalachicola River. Before the canal started, the company decided to build a railroad instead.
Work on the railroad began. In 1836, the company was allowed to build a railroad from any point on the Apalachicola River to St. Joseph. An 8-mile long rail line from St. Joseph to Lake Wimico was finished in March 1836. This made St. Joseph a busy shipping port.
By 1837, St. Joseph had become the most populated place in Florida. It was reported to have between 4,000 and 12,000 people. In 1838, the town hosted Florida's first meeting to create a constitution. This was a plan for how Florida would be governed when it became a state.
St. Joseph was first part of Franklin County. Then, Calhoun County was created in 1838. St. Joseph became the main town (county seat) for Calhoun County.
The town had a mixed reputation. It was seen as a "healthy and pleasant town." Many people from Tallahassee would visit in the summer. One person who attended the constitution meeting in 1838 wrote that St. Joseph was a "striving busy place." He said its citizens were full of energy and hope, with fine buildings and hotels. He also praised the beauty of the bay. However, because it was a busy port, it also had many bars and a horse racing track. This led some to call St. Joseph a very lively and exciting city.
In 1839, the St. Joseph Bay Light was built. This lighthouse was on St. Joseph Point, at the northern end of the St. Joseph Peninsula. It helped guide ships into St. Joseph Bay. The light was used until 1847. After that, its equipment was moved to the new Cape San Blas lighthouse. The old St. Joseph Bay lighthouse was washed away in 1851.
Why St. Joseph Ended
Storms in 1837 and 1839 caused damage, pushing ships ashore and destroying buildings. In 1841, a ship brought yellow fever to St. Joseph. This serious disease caused many people in the town to die. Most of the remaining residents fled to escape the sickness. Robert R. Reid, who was the fourth governor of the Territory of Florida, died that year from yellow fever. He and other Tallahassee residents reportedly caught the disease while in St. Joseph.
Before the epidemic, there were about 5,000 people in St. Joseph in early 1841. After the sickness ended, only about 500 people remained. A hurricane, known as "The Late Gale at St. Joseph", hit the town on September 14, 1841. It destroyed the wharf, but since trade had stopped, no ships were in port. A forest fire later that year also burned part of the town.
By 1843, people from Apalachicola began moving many of the empty houses from St. Joseph. Many houses were taken apart to be moved. Some were even placed on barges and floated whole to Apalachicola. A few of these houses still exist there today.
On May 1, 1844, a ship called the USS General Taylor visited St. Joseph. They found the town mostly empty. Only a few residents were preparing to leave, and some workers were taking houses apart. Later that year, a hurricane struck St. Joseph on September 9. It brought a large storm surge, which is a wall of ocean water. This surge destroyed whatever was left of the abandoned town. Some people who thought St. Joseph was a "sin city" believed the storm was a sign of divine judgment.
The area remained mostly empty for the rest of the 1800s. In 1910, a part of the Apalachicola Northern Railroad reached St. Joseph Bay. It stopped about 2 miles north of the old St. Joseph site. A new city, Port St. Joe, then grew up at this new port.
What Remains Today
The only things left of the original St. Joseph are some old tombstones. These are in the Old St. Joseph, or 'Yellow Fever', Cemetery. This cemetery is in present-day Port St. Joe. It is very close to the current local health department office.
The nearby Constitution Convention Museum State Park helps explain St. Joseph's important role. It teaches about the early history of Florida's government.
