On July 6, 2011, the following item appeared in The Breeze newspaper, which was published in DeFuniak Springs:
The following telegram which was sent to the DeFuniak delegates at Moultrie last Friday created no little amusement when read by Mr. Storrs, in his argument before the committee:
“All the world loves a lover” as the good old adage goes, and as Walton county furnished the first bridal couple to traverse the proposed highway, we move that the highway, Moultrie to Pensacola, be established on this the shortest route, and be christened “the honey moon route to the gulf.”
It was signed by the DeFuniak Springs Commercial Club and sounds very much like W. L. Cawthon.
Moultrie is in St. John’s County, west of St. Augustine. In the early 19th century, settlement of many parts of Florida was hindered by the lack of roads linking various sections of the state. Bellamy Road, which was planned to link Pensacola with St. Augustine, was the first planned road project and was completed in the mid-1820s, but many parts of the road were soon abandoned. Much of the road across the Florida Panhandle followed the Old Spanish Trail, which now is on or near Highway 90.
For more about Old Bellamy Road, see Dale Cox’s blog, Explore Southern History.