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February 26, 1939.
Mrs. AUlalla MoOranie
114 Atte% 6th -et.,
iNativ• noridian)
Rose shepherd, Writer.
LIFi BLIVHY
of
MRS. AULALIA MoORANIS
It was a rather oold February day when I kept my 2 o'clook
appointment with Yrs. MoCranio. rers 14 one of the earlier homes
in the Springfield *elation of Jacksonville, white she nus lived
for tlenty-fiva yours. bright variegated &status whose bloom tops
the handrail of the steps, leading to the front poreh are as yet
untouched by the cold winds prevailing for the Dust two days.
Flowers and plants are grin4 in greatest profusion, the well -kept
lawn dotted with beds of hardy annuals, while rose bushes flank the
lonr: sun room on the oust. The house fronts the north, and is near-
btiw
ly opposite the :..pringfield fothodist Church on the oornor of fth-
tilo.oht4
're. MoCranie !erealf answered the doorbell. A tall, ereot
woman, with kindiy face und brimht blue eyes, only her snowy white
hair would :I.vos u hint of her age of seventy-two years. net akin
is clear and delicate.
she oordially welcomed me, while the house seemed comfort-
ably warm, -she said:
"to will go on into the dining room. I suffer very muCh from
arthritis of the spine, Laid have a favorite chair 'tour the heater
where I can rest better."
;lie Seated h:rself in u straight-baoked dining °hair near the
partition Wall close to the circulating opal heater, plaoing me op-
posite in a well p-dded rocker, tatri taking a suare pine board from
26046
Urs. MoOranie
from the top of the heater, she said:
''You hove had a long walk in the cold, uud if ;)ou will plow,
your feet on this board, you'll be surprised how ,it will send the
warmth up throu4h our
I did as ahe suggested, more to test ,the novelty of madh
"foot -warmer," than from any need of euuh comfort, and, us she said,
it did give an agreeable warmth. The board was a tielve-inoh square
of inuh-thidk fat pine, whioh mi-4:ht be slit up later on and used
for kindling.
"Just an old 'orookar. custom," she said, as I thultked her for
her solioitousuees.
"Mrs. MoCrunie, is it true that you are a desoendant of the.
Indian Prinoess, Ulelik, whose romantics interest in Juan Ortiz four
hundred years ago gave rise to one of the earliest historical lovo
Uteri's of Ylorida?' I aeked..
"No." she eaid,laughing, "tut /woe named for a Spanish Prinoess,
of tha early days, ulalia.She loter beoame ,:ueen of SPuin•
"My father', R. S. Williams brought my mother to Plorido from
South Carolina just before the War between the States, locating
near the present town of Melrose, *hare I was born in November, 1866.
This is about sixty mil3e from Ju,lkeouvillo.
"When I was four or five yours old, a oolony of south Curolin-
lane settled in Columbia County, between laiuseville and Lake City,
and re moved there.
"In this 'motion and all i,round Lake Santa pi were beautiful,
aell-produsing orange grovas at that time, and my father °parotid
one of these groves.
"An I Trew up in that emotion, Melrose, Waldo, Hawthorne, and
Starke were popular us tourist towns. Canals were Aug eonneoting
Mrs.MoCranio 3.
Wu.l.do with the towns mentioned and others looted in Lake sautu 1141,
anc. 1.1 steamer made r tgular daily trips between these points.
This was• the onlw eat vs of traneportation, Us there were 140 ruilroadn
that section.
'At garleton, mould 'or the Harle family of uirly settlers on
the swat* 7e River, there was a popular old hotel, called the
/t acoommoduted minty famous tr4.4vellrs to Plorida. in
the )a,r1y d,..ys. I saw he wreckage of this old hostelry when I was
a very small child, just aft or the war, but our fortunes Were eo
dieasteuusly 1,ffocted by tho aftermath o:C the V, ar that I luev,e trie&
to forget e• lrythine. eonuerninR it, so do not ron ember the :lames
of any of those travel ire, or tkho operated •the hotel.
'Sixty years ago, Waldo was nrobably a, better tourisV teem
than Jackson,-ille. south .1.orida, of course, had not then beau
developed.
"There ware no *mai fruits or vegetables grown in that Vicin-
ity then. strawberries dame in cionmoroially in the Starke, seetion
about forty-eight years to. They were grown and shinped from there
for a ..zreat many ;,.e ..rs before the Plant City region was developed.
'The =out frees' in 1889 destroyed the line oraLge grove*
urou.d Lake Santa Pe and on down to Dade City. grove °vinare did
net thou understand oultivation, propagation, oaring for with
fertilisation, smudging in mad weather, and other things like
they do now, and the destruction of tha citrus groves was complete.
"I was educated in the early Aorida schools zt went to' a
girls' school in Columbia, C., where I was graduat.ed in 1036.
Mrs. MeGranie 4
"I net my husband, Hugh J. MoCranie, aud we were married. in
1844. My husband wma a .stive of Georgia, and we boated at war-
t:stows, where we lived for fourteen years. He was in the lumber ousi-
mealy and beoame avec) iated with Mr. George Drew, one of the early
4overnore of .lorida, and they operated a sawmill at New Branford,
on the Swans* River, near the present town of Allaville in 1887
and 1888. G. B. Porter had oharge of the planing mills.
"By this time the railroads were being developed in Florida,
The early H. B. Plant System came in by way of DuPont and Live Oak,
and went on to lainieville, then down further South. 4 husband
beoame an auditor for the railroad company.
"In 18V8, during the ‘,;panish Amerioan Nur plria, he was trans-
ferred to Tampa, taking charge of the ofil.oe there.
"At that time ti.eAt we just one paved street in the city of
Tampa, an. that was Franklin Street, hiCh was pulled with oyprese
blooke. Two or three streets later were paved with these heavy
bloake, but the leaded drays, and the Jonstant trumping of the
horses to the delivery wagon!' broke up the blocks and wore them
down, so tut they were very unsatisfactory, then during heavy
rains they would wash out ,atd tould have to be replaced.
"It wae after the ;:punish t.merioan Nur that Plant Avenue, Hyde
Park, an the oldIr *motions were paved with
"While we were living in Wayorose my husband purchased's beau-
ti.Cul bay saddlehoree, which he enjoyed riding. 4;fter we moved to
Tampa he had little i e or riding and wished to sell the animal.
Learning that Col. Theodore Roosevelt wan desirous of securing a
Mrs. MoCronie S.
mount, hr. 3pottswood, father of our local oommeroiol Photographer,
Ja4lk Olottswood, relayed the information to Mr. MoOrmnie, who got
in tou:h with the populur eTeddY.' with the result that the sole
was oonousimated, and it was this horse whioh led the popular hero
up in Juan rill.
Yes, I um u firm believer in the Ward' ant I do not believe
its influenoe is woning. It is just that there are so ritwif people
in the world nowodays and there are diversified interests, so that
they do not devote the time to religious observanoees so mauh as
in former yours.
"Do I vote? Yee, I haws voted Awe it 11:As keen psrmissible.
I tett a little strong,' at Arst, but now that so many women vote
and serve us Jlerke and tellers at the polls, one feels right at
home. It is o privilege to express one's prePJrment by voting, and
I believe everyone should avail themselves of this privilege oil a
duty.
"I am heortily in favor of the Hew Deal, und its results ors
app re;.t even in my Leighborhood. In fo:mar 4ears, my'paator who
live, morose the street, adjoining the apringfield -ethodist Churoh,
was often hurt put to it to take oure of some of his flock. But the
work fur-ished and the wogs. paid to those in our neighborhood on
the iNI'n are upproent, and if it is so in this emull elation, what
must its aisoompliehments and rehobilittive effeote be throughout
the United :Autos?"
on leaving my ottes.tion was milled to ths lovely paintings
adorning tha wulls of Mrs. MoOrmais's M, the work of nor peplum,
Hugh Colwell, a local artist of ability. Ho has one in lately for
pgrtroiture Luld hL.s just =plated a life -like portrait of Arnator
J. Turner Butler, und is engt.ged on another of T. T. Phillips.