Traveling through an Orange Grove, Florida

The title of this blog post is the title on the post card. It is one of several post cards that I have in my collection that focus on the orange groves of Florida and California (see May 6, 2012, January 17, 2015 and February 2, 2018). In fact, the January 17th post has the same picture on two post cards. One says it is in Florida; the other says it is in California. This one, though, probably is in Florida. It is published by the Asheville Post Card Company from Asheville, North Carolina. Sound familiar? Two weeks ago (September 11th) I published a blog with a post card from this publisher. Just as I scanned the back of that post card for the handwritten message, I am scanning this one for the same reason.

As far as I can make out, Jack is writing to Mary to tell her that it is cold where he is - Lake Mary, Florida - and he is sending the post card to Mary in Lynn, Massachussets. He has obviously not been in Lynn, Massachussets in November; the post card was mailed on November 30, 1933. The rest of this message is that he has a two-wheeled bicycle and that he is going to give some Christmas presents away.

Going to Florida...

...Key West, to be exact. This post card is number 82 in a series of Florida scenes published by the Asheville Post Card Company in Asheville, North

Carolina. It is a depiction of The Overseas Railroad. This railroad was an extension of the Florida East Coast Railway to Key West, located 128 miles beyond the end of the Florida peninsula. Work on the line started in 1905 and was completed in 1912; the line was in daily passenger and freight service until its destruction by a hurricane in 1935. It was not an easy task building the railroad from one island to the other. Hurricanes in 1909 and 1910 destroyed much of the completed railroad. This was the dream of Henry Flagler. On January 22, 1912, Henry, by then blind, arrived in Key West aboard his private rail car "Rambler". His dream had become a reality. Nine years before the system was destroyed by the hurricane, Frank Etzcorn went from Flint, Michigan to the most southern tip of Florida - sort of following in Henry Flagler's footsteps. It is because of Frank that I have this card in my collection. He sent the message below

to his wife. I know it was his wife because he begins the message with "Dear Wife". He sent the post card on January 3, 1926 - not usually hurricane season in Florida; but, not the best of weather in Michigan. As you can see at the top of the scan here to our right, the post card was published by the Asheville Post Card Company. It was a major publisher of linen postcards that went on to produce photochromes. Their cards were manufactured by many different printers. This firm seems to have been founded by Lamar Campbell LeCompte and J.L. Widman though Widman soon left the company. LeCompte may have been publishing postcards in Ashville going back to 1910, the year he moved there. After LeComte’s death in 1977 the company continued to publish postcards as well as sell novelties, but they were eventually taken over by Aerial Photography Services. They could be found at 31 Carolina Avenue in Asheville, North Carolina from 1921 to 1982.

What is so New about this River?

I am not sure if I see a train in the picture on this post card. There are, however, train tracks and what looks like a puff of smoke.That is good enough for me to keep this post card. It shows a set of tracks following along the New River in West Virginia. https://www.nps.gov/neri/learn/historyculture/index.htm tells us that there is now a National Park along this river. There is a page of history on this webiste and this is what it says: "The New River is like a ribbon tying together all the people, places, and events sharing its course through time. New River Gorge National Park and Preserve protects a rich variety of this history: from the subsistence lives of the native peoples and the later pioneers, to the coming of the railroad and the many peoples involved in the ensuing boom and bust of the coal mining and logging industries. You can visit the remains of the former boomtown of Thurmond, retrace the path of pioneer Mary Draper Ingles' amazing journey, learn of the legend and the facts of the "Steel Driving Man", John Henry, or read the oral history of an immigrant coal miner from the 1800s. The coming of the railroad through New River Gorge and southern West Virginia was the key event in shaping the modern history of this region. The construction of the Chesapeake and Ohio railroad from the Virginia border through the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia to the Ohio River was a monumental undertaking. Working from both ends of the state the workers spent three years digging and grading the rail bed, hand drilling and blasting the tunnels, and building the bridges and laying the tracks. Using hand tools and explosives, with horses and mules helping with the heaviest loads, these men literally carved the pathway for the railroad through the rugged mountains by hand. One of the greatest legends of world folklore was born from these workers and their enormous task; John Henry "The Steel Driving Man". So... what is so new about this river? I did not know that the legend of John Henry was born here!

The post card was published by the Asheville Post Card Company out of Asheville, North Carolina. From 1921 to 1982 they were a major publisher of linen postcards that went on to produce photochromes. This post card is one of their linen post cards. The front is very linen; the back not so much. Their cards were manufactured by many different printers. This firm seems to have been founded by Lamar Campbell LeCompte and J.L. Widman though Widman soon left the company. LeCompte may have been publishing postcards in Ashville going back to 1910, the year he moved there. After LeComte’s death in 1977 the company continued to publish postcards as well as sell novelties, but they were eventually taken over by Aerial Photography Services.

Following the Theme of the Last Two Posts

Just sit back and enjoy the picture on the front of this post card. The train on the front is also from the Southern Railway and the picture is, no doubt, from the North Carolina mountains.

Blue Ridge Mountain Wonder

Southern Railway history: The earliest portion of the Southern Railway was the South Carolina Canal & Rail Road Company, which was chartered in 1828 to build from Charleston, S. C., to Hamburg, S. C., on the north bank of the Savannah River. Its purpose was to bring trade to the port of Charleston from inland points and divert trade that would otherwise move down the Savannah River to the port of Savannah, Ga. When the 136-mile line opened in 1833, it was the longest railroad in the world. By 1857 it was part of a line from Charleston to Memphis, Tenn.—at the time the longest connected system of railroads in the world. (Two of the railroads involved, the Georgia Railroad and the Western & Atlantic, are now part of CSX Transportation.)

he Richmond & Danville Railroad was the nucleus of the Southern Railway. It was chartered in 1847 and completed in 1856 from Richmond, Va., west 141 miles to Danville, Va. Its charter allowed it to acquire and control only railroads with which it connected directly. In 1880 interests connected with the R&D incorporated the Richmond & West Point Terminal Railway & Warehouse Co. (“Richmond Terminal”) to acquire railroads that did not connect directly with the R&D. The majority owners of the R&D and the Richmond Terminal decided the existence of the Richmond Terminal was unnecessary (by then, the R&D’s charter had been amended) and in 1886 leased the railroads controlled by the Richmond Terminal to the Richmond & Danville; then the Richmond Terminal acquired the Richmond & Danville. In 1863 the R&D purchased a majority of the stock of the Piedmont Railroad, under construction from Danville to Greensboro, N. C. The line opened in 1864, and the R&D leased it in 1866. In 1871 the R&D leased the North Carolina Railroad, which was opened in 1856 from Goldsboro through Greens­boro to Charlotte. The R&D contracted to construct the Northwestern Railroad of North Carolina from Greensboro to Salem, and assisted the Atlanta & Richmond Air-Line Railroad with the construction of its line between Atlanta and Charlotte. Both those routes were opened in 1873. The Atlanta & Charlotte Air-Line Railway was organized in 1877 as the successor to the Atlanta & Richmond. In 1881 the R&D purchased the Virginia Midland Railway from the Baltimore & Ohio to get a direct Danville–Washington route about 20 miles shorter than the route through Richmond. The Virginia Midland had begun as the Orange & Alexandria Railroad, opened from Alexandria, Va., across the Potomac River from Washington, D. C., southwest to Gordonsville, in 1854. Through trackage rights on a C&O predecessor and further construction, it reached Lynchburg in 1860. It came under control of the state of Virginia in 1867, and in 1872 the Virginia & North Carolina Railroad was organized to consolidate the Orange, Alexandria & Manassas Gap (successor to the O&A) and the Lynchburg & Danville Railroad, under construction be­tween the cities of its name. The Baltimore & Ohio obtained control and named it the Washington City, Virginia Midland & Great Southern Railroad. The extension to Danville was completed in 1874, and in 1880, a cutoff from Orange to Charlottesville was opened. The company was reorganized as the Virginia Midland Railway in 1881. In 1886 the R&D leased the Western North Carolina Railroad, which had been constructed from Salisbury west through Old Fort (1869) and Asheville (1879) to a connection at the Tennessee state line with the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia.

The Georgia Pacific Railway was chartered in 1881 to build a from Atlanta to a connection with the Texas & Pacific at Texarkana. It was opened as far as Columbus, Miss., in 1887. It was leased to the Richmond & Danville in ­January 1889, shortly before it completed its line as far as the Mississippi River at Greenville, Miss. The Mississippi portion of the GP, which had remained a separate entity, was cast off as the Columbus & Greenville in 1920. In 1892 the Richmond Terminal and the railroads it controlled (Richmond & Danville; Virginia Midland; Charlotte, Columbia & Augusta; Western North Carolina; Georgia Pacific; and East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia) entered receivership. The banking house of J. P. Morgan came to the rescue. In 1869 two railroads out of Knoxville, Tenn., the East Tennessee & Virginia and the East Tennessee & Georgia, were consolidated to form the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Railroad. The East Tennessee & Virginia was built from Bristol, Va., to Knoxville, 131 miles, between 1850 and 1856. The East Tennessee & Georgia opened a line from Dalton, Ga., to Knoxville, 110 miles, and a branch from Cleveland, Tenn., to Chattanooga in 1859. In 1881 the ETV&G acquired and constructed lines from Dalton to Brunswick, Ga., and ­Meridian, Miss. Three other major routes were more or less affiliated with the ETV&G: Chattanooga–Memphis, Mobile–Selma, Ala., and Louisville–Lexington, Ky. Southern Railway The Southern Railway was chartered in 1894 to acquire the properties of the Richmond ­Terminal. The system comprised lines from Alexandria, Va., to Columbus, Miss.; from Chat­tanooga through Atlanta to Brunswick, Ga.; from Memphis through Chattanooga to Bristol, Va.; from Selma, Ala., to Rome, Ga.; and from Danville, Va., to Richmond. The Southern acquired other railroads; among the larger ones were the Georgia Southern & Florida Railway in 1895 and the Louisville, Evansville & St. Louis Consolidated Railroad in 1898. The Southern acquired a number of subsidiaries over the years. Many retained independent status, and the continued existence of these subsidiaries was attested to by initials on locomotives and cars. In the 1970s the Southern was notable for staying out of Amtrak, continuing to run its remaining passenger trains and gradually trimming service to just the Washington-Atlanta-New Orleans Southern Crescent. Amtrak took over operation of that train on Feb. 1, 1979. On March 25, 1982, the Interstate Commerce Commission approved the acquisition by Norfolk Southern Corporation, a newly organized holding company, of the Southern Railway and the Norfolk & Western. Merger took place on June 1, 1982. At the end of 1990 the Norfolk & Western Railway became a subsidiary of the Southern Railway (it had been a subsidiary of Norfolk Southern Corporation),

and the Southern Railway changed its name to Norfolk Southern Railway. I have two post cards with the exact same picture on the front. The backs are somewhat different from each other. I have scanned the backs of both postcards. Although they were both printed by the same printer (Curt Otto Teich) and published by the same publisher, the backs are different. I believe that the top one is older than the bottom one; I say this because the top one contains the price of the postage. It was the same for a very long time, then, with the changes it became more accurate to not post the prices.