John Burleigh hauling supplies to the store, Midland, Florida
A loaded stake-bed motor truck standing on bare sand, its bed piled with sacks and crates under a slatted canopy. Four men and boys are with it — one standing on the running board of the bed, one at the wheel, two beside the front wheels — and a dog stands in the foreground. Lettering is painted on the side of the hood, too worn in this print to read.
This is the only known photographic image tying a Burleigh to Midland, the extinct Polk County community where the builder of the Avon Park wooden railway is said to have begun.
A problem with the date
The State Archives dates the photograph “1900 (circa),” but the vehicle is a chain-drive motor truck with pneumatic front tires and solid rears, a type not in commercial use until the middle 1910s. The picture is very unlikely to be as early as 1900, and is probably from between about 1915 and 1925. The archive’s date should not be repeated without this caveat.
Credit line
State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, image RC09877.
Full citation as the archive gives it: John Burleigh hauling supplies to the store - Midland, Florida. 1900 (circa). State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory.
Rights
The State Archives marks this item with the Creative Commons Public Domain Mark 1.0, confirmed on the item page on 31 August 2026 through a browser session. Free to reuse with credit.
Original item: https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/32637
The file held here
The archive’s public reference copy, 600 by 424 pixels, black and white. A larger print exists — the physical original is an 8 by 10 inch photoprint, shelf number 11826 — and can be ordered from the State Archives if a higher resolution is needed.
Related
Where this comes from
- Review
- unverified — Drafted from sources but not yet checked by a volunteer.
- Rights
- public-domain — Marked Creative Commons Public Domain Mark 1.0 by the State Archives of Florida; confirmed on the item page 2026-08-31 Held by State Archives of Florida. Rights statement
Sources
- State Archives of Florida, John Burleigh hauling supplies to the store - Midland, Florida
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