CRESTVIEW — As the Pensacola and Atlantic Railroad line pushed eastward, depots — really, just railway workers’ and materials camps — advanced almost every 5 miles.
First in the area came the stop railroad men called Milton. Holt and then Chaffin — today's Milligan — followed.
And then, pushing on, surveyors eyed the highest spot east of the Yellow River, just about midway between it and Shoal River. It was suited to situate a camp and maybe, one day, a depot.
It was high and dry, but had a couple of nearby spring-fed ponds for watering the locomotives. Given its proximity to the rivers, the site was destined to grow into more than a whistle stop.
Crest View was born.
SHIPPING STATION
At first, the small camp was just a shipping station, with a railroad agent working out of a boxcar that served as a depot.
“It is a small settlement,” the 1885 “Webb’s Historical, Industrial and Biographical Florida” stated. (Chaffin, on the other hand, was “a thriving lumbering town of 450.”)
But Crestview — its name now condensed from two words — already had a post office, which opened March 15, 1883, and its first citizen, Hamner “Doc” Powell, served as shipping clerk and railroad agent.
The population grew to 100 folks by the time the 1889 edition of “Elliott’s Florida Encyclopedia” was published, which noted the town now had four general stores, a school and the post office.
A drug store, hotel, congregational church and more small businesses followed. As the turpentine and lumber industry geared up, mills and stills began springing up around the town.
When the Yellow River Railroad organized between Crestview and Florala, Alabama, in 1887, the little town became Crestview Junction.
CRESTVIEW GROWS
Crestview — which dropped the “Junction” in the late 19th century — soon outpaced neighboring communities in size and population.
By the time voters approved Okaloosa County's creation in September 1915, the town was positioned to contend with Baker and Laurel Hill as the county seat.
Florida state Rep. William Mapoles, who shepherded the county's creation through the legislative process, was sure Crestview would win the votes to become county seat.
To show his confidence, he packed up his family and his newspaper business and moved them to town. Once settled in, he threw his clout behind the movement to incorporate the city in preparation for it to become the county seat.
After an April 11, 1915, vote, conducted beneath the oak tree near the Congregational Church — which stood where Casey’s Electric is now — Crestview was incorporated.
Two years later, in an April 3, 1917, runoff election with Baker, the city was selected as the county seat.
Since then, Crestview has grown, becoming the county’s transportation “hub” with the addition of a major general aviation airport and one of the South’s primary east-west interstate highways.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: CENTENNIAL: Crestview started small but outgrew its neighbors