Earliest History

If you thought that our little story has something to do with the great man, Henry Morrison Flagler, you'd be absolutely correct.

 On Dec 27, 1890 Matthew R. Marks, Cecil G. Butt and Willis L. Palmer purchased 4 Townships of 89,600 acres for $.50/acre from Florida's Internal Improvement Fund. A site lying west of the westernmost tip of the Fleming Grant, this vast tract of marshland in the St John's River valley ten miles west of the coast was so raw that it was largely unsurveyed and submerged for at least part of the year. Their thought was that the coming of the railroad would double the value of their investment since men and equipment no longer would have to travel by barge to reach this region and draining the swamp would become practical.

Florida East Coast Railway's first revenue train reached Sebastian on 13 December 1893 as they expected, but a failed balloon payment in 1894 caused these three investors to search for a new owner.









Enter Anthony O. Russell of Hamilton County, Ohio
(Civil War Major, printer for US Printing Corp. and proprietor of Bicycle Playing Card Corp.)  He and partner John Wilmington on Apr 12, 1895 began acquiring 118,000 acres of partially submerged lands and the right-of-way to connect it to Sebastian. By 1896 he was ready to have constructed a narrow gauge railroad called Sebastian & Cincinnatus (S&C RR) {also known as Sebastian & Cincinnatus Farms RR}along Louisiana Ave and then 9.94 miles to the Cincinnatus Farms. It was to be a public service rather than an incorporated railroad and we know of no photos of it. Engineers carefully took a southwest course to avoid crossing a major legal obstacle, the diamond-shaped Fleming Grant, ancient from Spanish colonial days.

His sons, Willis W. and George G. continued after his death in 1900. Drainage work had been done by hand and flooding in 1907 caused Cincinnatus Farms and the Sebastian & Cincinnatus RR to become defunct.


John. J. and Lowe B. Heard conveyed title to E. Nelson and Anne Fell on March 9, 1910.

Fell owned 118,00 acres in Brevard and St Lucie Counties with 3000 of that being the lands lying on both sides of the S&C Farms RR. Fell offered this to the corporation in June of 1910 in his name and the names of Mr. Ordway and Mr. Maroney. Fell was by far the largest shareholder and investor of the corporation.

Sebastian's water tank

Bill, Great question about water. Attached is a screen cap of Indian River County plat from 1933 (apologize for poor quality) now hanging in the Sebastian Area Historical Society museum. In the upper left is a notation about 'north end of pump house' indicated by a small dark square. Across the tracks is the tank (circle). The concrete pads are still there today a mile south of the Sebastian River and about a half mile north of the Sebastian depot site (now vacant). The location surprisingly is in a hollow on top of the sand ridge that the hard curve is taking the railroad over on its northbound approach to the Roseland Trestle. I thought it would be at the river bank itself, but oldtimers tell me that there was a question about brackishness so they pumped clean water up through the sand dune. Fellsmere RailRoad (after 1923 Trans Florida Central) branched off at Sebastian depot and constructed its own water tower ten miles west in Fellsmere (as it never got to this water supply). That one was flow-well fed, no pump at first. Even more amazing, this location is just inside the eastern tip of the ancient Fleming Grant 115,000 acre tract from Spanish colonial days. Wow, what history here in a spot that looks like a desert from the train! Best regards, cabooseMikey.