David Levy Yulee
by D Hackett
Title
David Levy Yulee
Artist
D Hackett
Medium
Photograph - Digital
Description
David Levy Yulee by D Hackett
This statue of David Levy Yulee sits in front of the historic Amelia Island Railroad Station.
David Levy Yulee (born David Levy; June 12, 1810 – October 10, 1886) was an American politician and attorney of Moroccan-Jewish origins from Florida, a territorial delegate to Congress, and the first Jewish member of the United States Senate. He founded the Florida Railroad Company and served as president of several other companies, earning the nickname of Father of Florida Railroads.
While living in Fernandina, Yulee began to develop a railroad across Florida. He had planned since 1837 to build a state-owned system. He became the first Southerner to use state grants under the Florida Internal Improvement Act of 1855, passed to encourage the development of infrastructure. He made extensive use of the act to secure federal and state land grants "as a basis of credit" to acquire land and build railroad networks, on the back of slave labor through the Florida wilderness.
Issuing public stock, Yulee chartered the Florida Railroad in 1853. He planned its eastern and western terminals at deep-water ports, Fernandina (Port of Fernandina) on Amelia Island on the Atlantic side, and Cedar Key on the Gulf of Mexico, to provide for connection to ocean-going shipping. His company began construction in 1855. On March 1, 1861, the first train arrived from the east in Cedar Key, just weeks before the beginning of the Civil War.
Uploaded
November 5th, 2016
Embed
Share