Harper’s Weekly, 15 June 1895: “A Novelty Among Railroads”
The single most important known source on John C. Burleigh, his locomotive, and the Avon Park Transportation Company. It is a national magazine article published within months of the events it describes, and it is freely readable in a digitized scan.
“A Novel Railway in South Florida,” drawn by G. W. Breck. Harper’s Weekly, 15 June 1895, page 567. Via Internet Archive. Public domain.[harpers-1895-novelty]
Citation
Harper’s Weekly, Volume 39, Number 2008, 15 June 1895. The article “A Novelty Among Railroads” is on
page 557; the illustration, captioned “A Novel Railway in South Florida.—Drawn by G. W. Breck.—[See
Page 557.]”, is on page 567, ten pages further on, which is why the caption refers the reader
back. The issue is digitized at the Internet Archive as item
sim_harpers-weekly_1895-06-15_39_2008.[harpers-1895-novelty]
Why it matters
Before this item was located, everything known about Burleigh’s steam engine came from a single modern, uncited history blog. This article is contemporary with the events, names Burleigh directly, and independently confirms the locomotive’s make, weight, route, method of transport, and the formation of the railroad company. It converts the story from local tradition into documented history.
Key passages
On the company and the route:
“There is now building in South Florida a railroad peculiarly novel in form and economical in construction. The company constructing it is known as the Avon Park Transportation Company, and the road will run from Avon Park in De Soto County to Haines City in Polk County, about forty miles due north. The capital stock is $25,000…”[harpers-1895-novelty]
On Burleigh himself:
“The credit of originating the new idea belongs largely to Mr. J. C. Burleigh, a Connecticut Yankee transplanted to Florida, and now superintendent of the new line… Last fall Mr. Burleigh was manager of a steam saw-mill in Avon Park… He sent an order to the Lima Locomotive Machine Works for one of their twelve-ton Shay locomotives.”[harpers-1895-novelty]
On the overland haul:
“When word came that she was at Bowling Green, the nearest railway station, twenty-three miles distant, Mr. Burleigh went to Bowling Green with a force of twelve men, a cook, camping outfit, and a stock of 4x6 and 2x6 timbers… Then he slewed the Crosby, as the locomotive was named, round till her head pointed to the east, got her wheels, which have an eight-inch tread, upon the trams… in this way, over creeks, through marshes and swamps… she made her way in nine days to the Park.”[harpers-1895-novelty]
On the wooden track itself:
“For this he took 4x8 beams and laid them in the sand without cross-ties, the ends being joined by wooden fish-plates. Rails and fish plates were held together by wooden pins eighteen inches long…”[harpers-1895-novelty]
On the company’s formation:
“When in January last the Avon Park Transportation Company was formed, Mr. Burleigh was elected superintendent… and the road is now being built through the primeval forest to Haines City, where it will connect with the Plant system for Jacksonville and the North.”[harpers-1895-novelty]
Cautions on use
The passages above were read from the Internet Archive’s machine-generated text of the scanned issue, not from the printed page. Wording is legible and consistent across passes — they were re-checked against the scan’s text layer during the bundle audit of 31 August 2026 and match word for word — but before this material is published or exhibited, the museum should open the page images directly and transcribe from them. The two page numbers were confirmed the same way: the running page number preceding the article reads 557, and the number immediately following the illustration caption reads 567.
The article is journalism, not a record. It reflects what Burleigh and the company told a visiting writer while the line was still under construction and its success still an open question. Its forward-looking claims — a forty-mile road reaching Haines City — describe an intention, not an outcome.
References
- harpers-1895-novelty — Harper’s Weekly, Vol. 39, No. 2008. A Novelty Among Railroads (with illustration “A Novel Railway in South Florida,” drawn by G. W. Breck). 15 June 1895. https://archive.org/details/sim_harpers-weekly_1895-06-15_39_2008
Related
- John C. Burleigh
- The “Crosby” Shay locomotive
- Avon Park Transportation Company
- Report: Burleigh’s steam engine and the Avon Park wooden railroad
Where this comes from
- Evidence
- single-source — One source. Treat as reported, not established.
- Review
- unverified — Drafted from sources but not yet checked by a volunteer.
- Rights
- society
Sources
- Harper's Weekly, Vol. 39, No. 2008, A Novelty Among Railroads (with illustration "A Novel Railway in South Florida," drawn by G. W. Breck) (1895)
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