Page 134 - John Anderson

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of dirt were dumped into the marshy ooze, only to sink out of sight,
and the pressure caused the ground to rise on either side of the right
of way until palmetto trees 200 feet from the right o; way were
uprooted. The railroad workers repeatedly tried to fill in the marsh,
but each time they failed. Then there came the day when they
believed the marsh had yielded to their efforts, and the workers left
to drink and celebrate. The next morning they returned to the site of
the filled-in marsh — and discovered the fill had sunk out of sight.
The problem was finally solved by criss-crossing logs to serve as a
"mattress" on which the fill was dumped, and by September 9, 1886,
the railroad bridge had been completed across the Tomoka River.
Before the bridge was completed passengers on the St. Johns and
Halifax Railroad were ferried across the Tomoka River, and then
taken to Ormond in hacks or wagons. When construction reached the
south end of the Tomoka Bridge, White's engineers ran into another
difficulty. There was a large deposit of coquina rock there, and no
machinery available for cutting through it, and the work had to be
done by hand. Heavy rains, and striking workmen, also delayed
construction, and when the rails finally crept closer to Ormond in
October, 1886, the construction locomotive was ditched in a saw
grass pond.
The rails were laid into Ormond, and "freight was moved into and out
of that town in November, 1886." A delighted witness to the arrival of
the railroad at Ormond was Loomis Day, who at that time was a
member of the twelve-piece Ormond Brass Band. This band had been
organized by Captain J.B. Wardwell, but the members could only play
two selections. The band greeted the arrival of the train, and Loomis
humorously remarked that, "The track layers were frantically placing
the ties, and spiking down the rails ahead of the train. Late in the
afternoon we heard the whistle and saw the engine and cars come
wobbling across the flat woods to the station. It acted as if it had had
several drinks on the way over from Palatka”
When the railroad reached Daytona, in December, 1886, the Ormond
Brass Band played again to celebrate its entry, because Daytona had
no band of its own. Nearly all the population of Ormond had boarded
the train to join in the celebration at Daytona, and about 800 people
were awaiting its arrival there. In order to get the train on time to

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