 The P&A was organized to connect the terminus of the L&N at Pensacola to the western terminus of a predecessor of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad at River Junction—now Chattahoochee—in the 1880s.The town was named after Frederick R. De Funiak, a vice-president of the L&N.Like much of Northwest Florida, DeFuniak Springs was settled mainly by Scots from Virginia and the Carolinas.