John C. Burleigh was still living at Avon Park in 1906
Burleigh is the man who moved a twelve-ton Shay locomotive twenty-three miles overland on relaid timber in December 1894, and who was made superintendent of the Avon Park Transportation Company when it was formed a month later to build a wooden railway to Haines City.[harpers-1895-novelty] After the company failed with the freezes he disappears from the record; he had previously been documented at Avon Park only in 1894 and 1895.
The Avon Park column of The De Soto County News for 18 May 1906 puts him there still:
“J. C. Burleigh is having a lot of work done in the upper story of his home, taking out the ceiling and substituting lath and paper, and will raise the roof of the front part to the same height as the new rear part. Mr. Dilley is doing the work.”[dsc-1906-05-18]
What this settles. Burleigh did not leave Avon Park when the railway scheme collapsed. Eleven years later he owned a two-story house in the town, substantial enough to have had a new rear section added to it already, and he was continuing to invest in local property. Whatever became of him afterwards, the assumption that he left the region immediately following the 1894–1895 freezes is refuted by contemporary local reporting.
The notice also identifies local builder Mr. Dilley, active in residential construction in Avon Park during this period.
References
- dsc-1906-05-18 — O. R. Thacher (department editor), The De Soto County News, Arcadia, Fla. The De Soto County News, 18 May 1906, page 8: Department of The South Florida Sun, Avon Park Locals. 18 May 1906. de-soto-county-news-avon-park-department.md
- harpers-1895-novelty — Harper’s Weekly, Vol. 39, No. 2008. A Novelty Among Railroads. 15 June 1895. harpers-weekly-1895-novelty-among-railroads.md
Related
- Entity: John C. Burleigh
- Entity: Avon Park Transportation Company
- Reference: the Avon Park department of The De Soto County News
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
- O. R. Thacher (department editor), The De Soto County News, Arcadia, Fla., The De Soto County News, 18 May 1906, page 8: Department of The South Florida Sun, Avon Park Locals (1906)
- Harper's Weekly, Vol. 39, No. 2008, A Novelty Among Railroads (1895)
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