In the Pensacola News Journal edition of April 1, 2019, there was an excellent article by local historian John Appleyard in reference to the CPA firm of Saltmarsh, Cleavelend, & Gund. In fact, the company is still in business today, long after the original founders have passed on. But the Saltmarsh family is an old Pensacola family that has contributed so much more to our history. The earliest family member to arrive in Pensacola was Ernest Olmstead Saltmarsh who was born in 1848 in Vermont. He eventually was accepted into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), graduating with a degree in civil engineering in 1869. Three years later, he was working with the Louisville & Nashville Railroad and later with several other companies before finding himself in Pensacola as the superintendent of the L&N Railroad Company.
During that same period, he was also the general manager of the Gulf Transit Company and president of the Yellow River Railroad Company. When the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1882 struck Pensacola, he refused to leave his post. Instead, he kept the railways running even though he himself contracted the dreaded disease and almost died. After arriving in Pensacola, he met and married Miss Mercedes Eveline Brent in 1886, daughter of two powerful families, Commander Thomas William Brent and Merced Gonzalez. Commander Brent, as well as his two sons Francis Celestino and Daniel Gonzalez, enlisted in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. Both boys would return home to become two of the most influential men in Pensacola. Ernest and Mercedes had two children; Thomas William and Henrietta Mercedes Saltmarsh. Thomas William would marry Susan Roberts Moreno, from another historical family, who would give birth to the World War II generation of Susan Eveline, Ernest O. II, Thomas W. Jr., and Elizabeth “Betty” Saltmarsh. Mercedes would eventually marry Marine Corps General Harry Lee and it was with Mercedes that Ernest Sr. was living when he finally passed away.
During the height of his career Ernest and Mercedes would settle their family into a magnificent house at #14 West Belmont Street. The home was within walking distance of his beloved railroad station that he built on Wright Street. Their house had a tower on top, where he could look out over the city as far away as Pensacola Beach with the aid of binoculars. Old man Saltmarsh was in charge of the railroad when the depot was built, and he took great pride in keeping it spotless. He even had his office placed on the second floor where he could keep an eye on everything. The depot was finally abandoned before being purchased by the Hilton Hotel, which decided to renovate the old building and build their hotel next to it. The depot became the lobby of the Hilton with the upstairs rooms restored as meeting rooms. The Hilton would finally sell out to another corporation who would change the name to the Grand Hotel. But in the end, it was his health that brought the famous man to retirement on April 16, 1929. As his health worsened he would eventually move in with his daughter and son-in-law where he passed away on December 16, 1933. His mortal remains were shipped back home to Pensacola by train and buried in St. Michael’s Cemetery.

Ernest Olmstead Saltmarsh Sr. (1848-1933)

USMC General Harry Lee, son-in-law of Ernest O. Saltmarsh Sr.

Ernest O. Saltmarsh's beloved L&N Train Depot at Alcaniz and Wright Street 1929