Josef Henschen

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Savior of the Orange Belt Railroad

While a thick fog drifted over the landscape in 1886, marsh rabbits, as if hearing a sound from another world, stopped in their tracks. Bobcats turned an ear ,and alligators sought cover. "Florida's piney woods resounded to the clash of steel, for it seemed that nearly everybody was building a railroad," author George W. Pettengil noted in his book, The Story of the Florida Railroads, 1834-1903. But the Orange Belt Railroad that was owned by Russian émigré Peter Demons was silent, stalled by economic distress hundreds of miles from Tampa Bay. Then came Josef Henschen, a Swedish immigrant who opened his pockets to save the railroad and ensure its arrival in what became St. Petersburg.

When the first Orange Belt passenger train arrived in the obscure fishing village on June8, 1888, the area was enveloped by wilderness and populated with more rattlesnakes and pelicans than people. The train consisted of a locomotive named Mattie, which pulled just one passenger car and one empty freight car as it chugged into the dusty development then known as Wardsville. One traveler, a shoe salesman, was on board. If there was an event that marked the city's emergence as a future municipality, it was the Orange Belt's arrival. And if there was a person who significantly influenced the railroad's arrival, it was Henschen. "Had it not been for Henschen, the railroad project probably would have fallen through, and in all probability there would be no St. Petersburg today," noted historian Karl H. Grismer in The Story of St. Petersburg.

Henschen was born in 1843 in Upsala, Sweden. His noble Norse family swept him into preparatory school at age four, and he later attended Upsala University. While there and engaged in final exams about 1871,he was summoned to Florida by his brother to help build the city of Sanford. Henschen brought with him more than 100 Swedish workers to assist in the construction. Weeks after his arrival, he set out to explore native Florida. On Christmas Day 1871, Henschen and artist Hasse Bergman camped in the Everglades with Seminole Indians and their chief Halleckjustengee, who was then reportedly more than 100 years old.

As he later traveled north on water, Henschen's boat was repeatedly racked by waves. All of his supplies were lost, and he nearly died of thirst. While in Jacksonville, Henschen decided to leave Florida and never return. An overdue steamer kept him here, however, and he spent many hungry days near Lake Jessup and then later at Lake Maitland. But like a rock unconquered by man or nature, Henschen vowed to stay at least 10 years to see if his luck would improve. A Forest City orange grove investment in 1885 changed his fortune. "Having so much cash, I moved to Lake Apopka and bought 1,444 acres from the government at S1.25 an acre," said Henschen, who married that same year.

One year later, the Swede was summoned by attorney Andrew Johnson to join Demens, Henry Sweetapple, and A.M. Taylor of the Orange Belt Railroad. Grismer recorded that Demens had assumed control of the railroad in 1886,when its owners couldn't pay him $9,400 in back charges for lumber ties. When Henschen first viewed the stalled operation, he wasn't impressed. "The road looked anything but good, but the men were full of hope and enterprise," Henschen told the Tourist News February 16, 1924. "However, their cash was spent and their stock of goods in the mill store was nearly gone."

After experiencing a damaging frost in northern Florida, Henschen decided to forego citrus farming and invested $10,000 in the railroad headquartered at Oakland, Florida. He later contributed another $10,000 and more than 1,000 acres of land. "I was received with open arms as the savior of the railroad," Henschen said. "The grading of the railroad would have stopped." The Disston Land Co., the Florida Land & Improvement Co., and others donated acres to further the project. Some land deals were contingent upon the railroad reaching Florida's west coast by December 31, 1887. Heavy rains slowed progress. A yellow fever epidemic struck, and workers had to be persuaded with vast amounts of liquor to remain.

Demens frequently traveled to New York to solicit funds, leaving Henschen, Taylor, and Sweetapple to battle other tribulations. Supplies arrived at a snail's pace; angry creditors placed a lien on Orange Belt property: In September 1887, the engines running between Lake Monroe and Oakland were chained to the tracks. This caused Sweetapple to die from a stroke. When Demens returned on October 1, he was nearly lynched by more than 100 men who demanded their wages.

Money trickled in, and the railroad continued. Gamblers and immoral women entered the camps, and wild orgies ensued. The bad characters revisited after they were chased away, and gunfights were almost daily occurrences. Through it all, the railroad kept moving south. Then on April 30th, 1888, the first work train arrived. It was pulled by engine number six, and Bob Kennedy was the engineer, noted Rita Straight Gould in Pioneer St. Petersburg: Life In and Around 1888. On June 8 that year, the first passenger train made its way into the village. Historian Walter P. Fuller paid Henschen and his associates this tribute: "They were creators. They were doers. They could hold their heads with pride."

After the first year, the railroad owned 200,000 undesirable acres. It owed a Philadelphia syndicate including H.O. Armour & Co . and Drexel & Company $900,000. To erase the debt and $55,000 in interest, the railroad was sold to the syndicate for $25,250. Henschen received $8,850, Demens claimed $14,400, and Taylor collected $2,000. "These payments represented only a small part of the capital which the men had invested," Grismer wrote. "[Henschen] lost heavily himself, but thousands others have gained" as residents of the Sunshine City.

While Henschen was still with the railroad, local postmaster E.R. Ward asked him one day to name the Village. "We'd already named a town along the road after Taylor," the Swede explained. "Couldn't call a town after Sweetapple-- it would be doomed from the start. And my name-Henschen-no one could spell it. However, I knew Demens wanted a town named St. Petersburg [after the Russian city of St. Petersburg]. I signed a petition, got four of five others to sign it, and we sent it to Washington. That is the way St. Petersburg got its name."

In 1924, Henschen's only image of the city emanated from a picture, c. 1886, that he kept at his home in Oakland, Florida. Palmettos and straggly pine trees towered above sand flats in the photo, and the scene unleashed a flood of memories within the former Orange Belt financier."One of these days, I am going to visit St. Petersburg and see what it is like," Henschen said. "I thought it would never amount to anything, but I was wrong."

FROM Scott Taylor Hartzell, "St. Petersburg An Oral History"

Weiss, Rebecca: A Florida Pioneer. The Adventurous Life of Josef Henschen, Swedish Immigrant in the 1870s. Boken finns, eller kommer snart in, hos Hedengrens Bokhandel i Stockholm.