Document text
February 2, 1939
Life History
Montgomery Gorse,
(Wood &nal Dealer)
1801 Goodwin it.,
Jacksonville, Florida
1.-ritten by iose Shepherd
MAR= CROSS, WOOD AND FUEL DEALER
Mr. Gross, retired wood and fuel merchant, lives in a splendidly
substantial brick home near the foot of Goodwin Street in Jacksonville
Where he can hear the lapping of the waves of the incoming and outgo-
ing tide in St. Johns River which hse figured so ?rominently in his
life history.
Hose, a happy-faoad colored maid, with the assuivnee and proprietary
manner of a well trained family servant of an old-time Southern family,
ushered me into the spaeious living room, with *Mr. Cross hash's the
lsdy you's expectin.*
There he sat, a kindly man, with his eighty years resting lightly
upon him, with the exception of partial deafness and a 'Light stoop in
his shoulders, his hair snow-white, his skin clear, a faint pink in his
cheeks, and the twinkly blue eyes not covered with glasses.
He rises, shakes hands in a cavalier fashion, and ?laces a rocking
chair which from its size and oonfortable cushions must be the favor-
ite chair of Mrs. Cross end says:
"My memory is failing and I'm not sure I can give you the informa-
tion you wish, hut I'll do my best, and perhaps when we get further
along in the interview, more will' cone to me.
"I came to Florida from Virginia in the early 1880's and settled
with my family on nn orange grove near Picolata, a prosperous river
town on the honks of the St. Johns, about 18 miles from St. Augustine.
26024
Martin Cross -2-
was thee twenty-two years of age.
"At that time, the St. Johns River valley was the center of the
citrus growl rr ineustry of floria. Our °ranee grove had been well
established, and we lived in e frame house aot log built by the
former owner. The house was Larts sod roomy and most ownfortable for
th,?.t period, t fire -place in the sitting room, but the kitehen had a
fine wood-burnine range, whieh furnished most of the heat when noses
sari snd on which sll the cooking wws lone. There wore no sereens,
hlthough the beds were fitted with a canopy overhead on 'thigh netting
was hung to keep out the mosquitoes which were numerous in the were
months and most troublesome.
"The orani:e trees, for the most part, were budded fro* the native
sour -orange trees, although there were nurseries from which specially
grafted stock could be obtained. However, grower. supervised their
groves carefully, attending to their own planting, budding, etc. The
trees were not sprayed. ge did not know much about fightiag scale,
pests, etc., in the early days. Later a popular emulsion composed of
whale -oil and soap, thinned with kerosene, was used with considerable
success in combatting scale. No, there were not any Yediterranean fruit
flies to worry ut nothing but quantities of the ever-present mosquitoes.
"when the trees were young, we planted crops of cow pets, corn,
sugercane, beans, etc., between the rows. But, of course, *hen the
groves of trees grew larger, there was too mush shads, and this crop ro..,
tatioa had to be abandons!.
"The oreages, when matured, were pecked in erste* Birchwood
Martin Cross
shipped from Maine, curiously enough, like the materiel used now by
cabinet makers and builders for venserine.
"The fruit was shipped to Charleston, Baltimore, New York and
other Atlentle ports. There was daily shippine aerate*, as water traf-
fic on the St. Johns was then at the helpht of its popularity. There
were no railroads south of Jacksonville.
"The meet prominent passenger. boats in that period were the Jelin
8/tweeter, and the Sylvan Glen. They ran from Jasksonville to Palatka
every day. These boats carried no freirht.
7Freight boats were the ?later Lily which ran from Jacksonville to
Crescent City, and tha City of Jacksonville, a freight and passenger
boat which went et, far as Sanford, the farthest point of river shipping.
"Captain Tillie= Hallowes of Croon Cove Springs, *emended the
Sylvan Cleu, and perhaps could easily give the muse of tither boats on
the Zt. Johns in the carl:i days.
"Freight was billed at so much a box to the growers, tecording to
the quantity of the shipment and its destination.
"In addition to (minas, sugarcane and corn, we raised quantities'
of sweet potatoes. Strange to say, the idea was prevalent that vege-
tables could not be ;,7rovn in Florida, hence we were eompello0 to sup-
plement our other fool requirements by Grit:. on Jacksonville, which
were promptly exeeutee and 1.ippe.4 to us at the boat landing at Pleolata
by daily boat.
"Bach family made its own syrup from the sugarcane, and brown
sugar was also manufactured locally from the same source. This was the
usual Camily commodity. We had no means of refining the sugar, although
Martin Cross
at any time we wished we could obtain the granulated sugar from Jackson-
ville. Also powdered sugar, in large irregular ained lumpa, was popu-
lar with the ladies when serving tea.
"we enjoyed rather good health, with exceptions of occasional fe-
vers, especially malarial fever in the summer months and early fall. I
suffered with malaria for a period of two years, ask finally overcame it
with quantities of quinine. This drug some in bottles about the sine of
'beeline bottles familiar to us now, containing two or two and one-half
ounces. I carried a bottle in my pocket, and took it throughout the day
placing a queatity in a cigarette paper and dropping it dolma my throat
as far back an possible, washing it down with ester taking sometimes
as much as forty or fifty grains a day. It made me deaf as a post at
the time, and turned my hair white.
One experienee I'll never forget wait the ease of a laborer, work-
ing for a neighbor of mine neighbors then were on adjoining orange
groves, four and five milee away. This young MAU jumped over 8 fence
and ran a garden -rake through his foot. It made a bad wound, and noth-
ing was thought of it at the time, home remedies being applied; but
later in the week he became violent and we sent for the dostor at Green
Cove 4rings nine miles away. Mien the doctor cams, he said at ogee it
was a ease of tetanus, or look -jaw, and there was no hops. The man had
to nave constant care and was kept under Aba influence of ohlorn1 to
allay his pain and keep him quiet. In order to relieve my neighbor, I
sat up with the natient at night, long nitOts they seemed. The dostor
gave me the bottle of chloral, which was really mit according to medical
ethics, but he said it did not make any difference who administered it
to the -patient, as he was bound to die anyway, and to (live it to him
whenever he became restless.
"A wick poem* like this, and ono night %mooning worn out with
my vigil, I dosed off. I was rudely awaked by tho grip of the patient's
hands on my throat, and he began touting 'You are trying to kill mel
You've been giving me poisoW
I shook him off, as he was weak from having nothing to eat for
seven days, and gave him another does of ehloralt
The young non's parents earns from Palatka about this time. They
were ignorant people, and thought we were not doing all that should be
done for their son, *specially in keeping his under the influence of an
anaesthetic, or rather opiate. They took him home, and the doctor at
Palatka advised giving him morphine. The parents seid they did not wish
their ODA to acquire the morphine habit, and refused to give him the
drug. The young man again bosoms violent, and the authorities took pos-
session of him and carried him off to the county jail declaring him
insane.
"The authorities at Tallahassee and Chattahoochee wore notified,
but mails traveled slowly and transportation, Wooten limit**, so that
before the proper authorities arrived a seek later, the young men, from
his close aonfinement in jail and *ming kept quiet and unannoyod, had
entirely recovered.
"This la an illustration of how country people lacd to look after
thamsolves in those days.
-It took throe hours to drive from Picolata to 6t. Augustine. The
sand and the corduroy roads made transportation tedious, cad often in
Martin Cross
cold weather, I would get out of the buggy and walk to keep warn, and
in preferenee to the jolting over the rough roads.
*There were no sawmills is 'Isolate. The nearest was at Green
Cove Springs. There was wonderful timber in that seetion. Nobody paid
any attention to land ownership if one wanted timber and saw a see-
tlon of likely trees, he Just moved in and started cutting.
'The out timber was healed away in log wagons strongly built
and with high wheels, six or eight feet in diameter, and taken to
Jaeksonville which was a sawmill town in those days, with many large
mills in constant operation.
"Sad to say, the ruthless Gutting of timber has depleted Florida's
splendid forests, the sawmill business is dying out, and the pulp mills
moving in to take advantage of the scrub pines, as it will be years be-
fore the present reforestation plan will enable the lumber business to
recuperate and attain its former magnitude.
rI came to Jacksonville in 1893. It was then a sprawling little
town, confined mostly between abet is now Hogan Street and Hogan's Creel.
It consisted of five separate municipalities Jacksonville, East :sok-
Danville, Fairfield, Lavilla and Nrooklyn the letter extending from
what is now Myrtle &venue to the St. Johns River, and bounded on the
south by the present Forest Street.
"I established by business on East Duval Street, and right across
was the early St. Luke's Hospital, started, financed and run by the
women of Jacksonville, including Mrs. Alexander Mitchell, a wealthy rail-
road executive's wife, end other prominent ladies of the town.
"My help were the ordinary Negro laborers, who bombe familiar
figures on the streets of Zasksonvills, with the sule-dran arts de-
liveries wood ad other tail to the salsas of Zaskehaville. There
was sone owl used in fLre pleas is those days, but soot of the tool
was antive mod. I obtained my supplies trma the Kea Crook amities
and other nearby wake end streams *ilia are heavily wooded. A great
deal as from seer cliddleburg.
There were so farrago of sours., or ther methods of artifioial
heating then.
"People in the eountry built a fire is the yard, and stood around
it to keep warm.
"Awn I first sea to ieskevaville, the streets are deep sand.
The streets -or tasks stood up a toot or as, and all vehieles had to gross
the tracks at the street sprays on raised board crossing.
*But it was a delightful pinee to live. Iverybody Mew everybody
else, and all are friendly and neighborly. I miss the old °estate, so
any have passed atty. Rat every moraine, I go bask to sy old of file for
as hear or se, as that my old friends was some to vialt while we talk
over the old balsas days in Iasksormllle.
lAwn the tees has beano so assopoliten, it iamb almost tilled
with stress/ars, end if I walk along the streets there are tee teas whieh
ors familiar. claimer, the other day I stagged the tumoral at a proni-
seat /gear, shariable, well liked mom, and I knew nearly everyone
there. bo the Old-timeil are 81111 here, theeth they way au, always he
in *videos'.
"lhe old lending at I -isolate is a ghost of the past. where our home
stood is a turpeatimo still. The orange grove* era all gone, as citrus
Martin Oross
culture has oonsentrated farther south in Tlerida. There are oaly two
houses stealing, and they are in bad repair.
"Two brothers, Boaters Sollaoe and Meal Mitchell, were the promi-
nent physicians in Jacksonville when I same here in the early 1890'0
They were well educated, and had had the advantages of the best train-
ing in the United States and abroad. Both were kept tremendously, busy,
and were the first physicians I knew of that had the modern method of
keeping in constant touch with their offices by telephone. They could
always be located promptly. Eash had imams practices and both died
from the strain of overwork when they had barely reashed middle life.
In early times, it took hours to reach or locate a physician, death or
anything might happen ill the meantime.
"One would hardly believe the immense quantities of fish and other
seafood. that were taken out of the St. Johns River in those days. The
fishermen would go out with seines and rowboats and come in loaded to
the water's edge with their catches.
"Ducks well, ducks in season settled on the bosom of the St.7ohns
by the aere.
"No, there were no hyacinths in the river, but there were quantities
of water lettuee, an aquatic growth a pale yellow in solar and coarser
than the garden lettuce. The sowing of the hyacinths crowded and killed
out the water lettuce, so it is not seen now. Cattle will *et hyacinths,
but they would not eat water lettuse, which is tough and rather hard
and stishery
"The Seaboard Railway ran from Ternendina to Lake City, Tallahassee,
Cedar Keys; and a bransh sane into Jacksonville. The old tracks may now
Ntirtia Cross
be seen at the foot of Hogan Street, where the Logan Coal Company
yards are now loeated. The passeager station was there when I came
to Jacksonville.
"In the old days we used berosens leaps fbr lighting. They made
a aise soft light, but were lots of trouble to keep filled and in
order. They used to smoke, and the ehimneys had to be washed sad pol-
ished every day. The housekeepers had to eontend with a lot of dis-
advantages in the early days.
"The good old days? well probably as good as any of their kind,
but I like the present, with its modernity ami improvements.
"To I regret the passing of my business? No, we are living in a
different age, and must keep abreast of the times. Tuel oil, gas and
electricity have suppinoted the old methods, and to most all are a
weleome change."