Document text
April 11, 1969.
Mrs. (1eaner) tAsull
2112 Vain-Ot.,
Jacksonville,
norida.
ROS4 fcllePherd, WriA0r.
RUBY MACH (Pablo JaaLsonvills beuoh)
Mrs. Soull, aged 78, wAh a sister Miss Hazy Kennedy, two
years her Junior, and her daughter Yarguarite Soull, lives at
the above Main Street address, where she operates u rooming house
for the aceommodation of $ourists.
She is a Val thin woman with lively brown eyes, her gray
hair showin truoes of red, and the oleur fine skin that ft048 with
such a combination. 40f she answered the door, she held in her hand
a copy of ”arjorie Milian Rawl/ages "The Yeurliug."
"That's u graut book," she remarked, ihe she laid the volume
on tha library taills in thl, front hall So true to the loruoker,
life and customs. and I renAombor tha storm she toils about.
"You sit here on the couoh," she direoted me to the long sofa
of the three piece uune-buJk livinK room suite in the hall." and
I'll sit beside you. Ium u little hard of hearing, but you just
ask ma what you want to know and we'll Ket alonK fine. ry father
always said my tongue was tied in the middle and rattled at both
ends," sha lauKhed," no it's no trouble for re to talk ono* I et
started.
'Ty father, H. Kennedy, was u Civil lingineer and tIrveryor.
He had 10311 engaged in doing surveying v‘ork lor u new railroad being
put throu4h the State of Indiana. He was ori;rinally Ircm Delaware
and my mothar from 7irginia. The cold taut/lir of the middle west
vJry,kurd for 'nu. to bear. I reembir she had leen ill wheu
26080
Mrs. &leaner Small
one day the doctor said she could not stand another liana. winter.
It was in Yobruary, 1876, and 20 below zero. ro uhildren hi -I just
oom in from skating on a nearby ()reek, where Or water was frozen
solid. Father had been considering ening west, wh: eh e as building
an in those Lye, and Y. id area& it ar tad selling off the household
goads anti other things ere pare t ory to !lid, iliK. the change. itvwas
Saturday. Jig the doutor left he handed my father a roll of newspaper,
which my father very gingerly opened, the wraeings in a thick layer
of pasteboard disclosing a big, ripe, red strawberry..
"Did Bob Overton send this?" father asked the doctor.
"Yes, it (lame in this -:loming's mail."
"Well, if they grow strawberries in Florida. like this in the
month of February, that's where we are going instead of out west."
"The followini,t Tuesday we left Indianapolis for ilorida. tio
you say it Was a big red strawberry that induced us to come.
My father lived. in.JaAsonville _ or ty enty years afterwards, paesing
away at the age of 76. My mother livid forty years longer, she
too dyinK at 76. There was 19 years di fference In their ages.
"I went to the public schools here, later attending a private
school kept by lire. Smith on the corner of Ocean and. Duval treats
w,.ere the Seneca hotel now is. good many pupils went to school
th)re. taught a few boys, but most cL the pupils were girls.
nbty husband, villiam 4.::441,3 }lire from Ohio in 1872.
We were larr Ind in 1879.
"we built our home in the country in the Lackawanna
Sect:Lon on what is now &dison nvenue, and lived there fi-Ir 44 years.
But when the atlati. ng Ccest Line I shops were established in that see-
tion, my husband bee,..me dissatisfied, so ri:k iy cheap hones went up
ihre. bola'
in the isighborhood, the children were bad and troublesome. w•
sold the pla,ce k)11) -4!.t another home in the 14UO block on 3dgewood
Wave
whiJh I still own. But Mr. 6oull died mkata ;pears :Igo, the deprose-
sion came on, the.- e was not too muoh money, and i decided to run
a tourisk home, so bou4ht this location three years ilgo. I like
the business, not only as a livlihood, but because it is so inter-
esting ia d brin,vv i!,* in contact pith peonle from 411 over the (mull
try. I. wish, thou. -h, people Irould stay longt:r than a week.
"Did you see those throe boys on the Porch as you car la in?
V.311, thoy L.r.e from Haverhill, Vassuchusetts, where they attend
a preparatory school, and, have spent their 'iaster holidays in
florida, their first visit to this state. Thw have a small 04r
and hare almost Torn it out iburniniz up tho Florida higkrrays,'
tryin to lien ev-Irything in suih a short time. Tomorrot' morning
at 4 o'clock the; leave for home. They have been most interesting,
Load I have enjoyed having them hare.
"In 18811 rr. Z. Y. L'iingla had oharF.,e of surve) in the rail-
road right of vay to the beach. He took my father as his assistant.
Hy husband was also a civil ewrineer and surveyor, so in order to
the ec 311* of action, wa closed our Ltickuwanna home, bought
a tent and v. oLt to ho beach, v hem we lived for four years.
"Our oldest baby was alicat a year and a half old. She was so
weleome and so orecious that we had a hard time finding a ntAMS for
her, so finally settled on -,:he mune of Ruby.
"When we went to the beaeh in October, 1804, the town had been
laid out, and wantinF?; to honor our little ;Uri, vs named the settle-
ment :iuby Beach. Later wa opened and operated the postoffice there,
and it we known also as Ruby 7'oetoffice.
"Our little daughter v..s born in 1882, and is now Mrs. Ruby_
Mrs. !.oull 4
44Arby, of Wanblfte, (Indian) ;;outh Dakota. She is a fine, splendid
woman, and hat/ alrays been a preoions jewel of a dughter.
“itt the time we went to the beaeh, our **eon& little daughter,
Bessie, was on1;; six weeks old.
tt firat the r:ail Ok.t!TO to !-port, and had t) be broug.lit over
by' the horse and buggy route, !Is. Saul? drivin over el.. the 1,0aeh„
In the airiar of 1886, th• firt rinwas run to the beach, and
it was then e established the nontoffioe with a weekly service to
an -A f'rom Ja.31:sonville, oallin tho post office 'Ruby.' .iAter the
railrow.1 V 44 -St 30Mnitt) tad and patronaTe established to warrazit a daily
schedtae, the railrmd ,:omeany, knave) Lie the Jaeknonville and neaoh.
Railway chat. 7ed the :.arep to which was later known
sielNy a 'Pablo Beach,* and with &Ally mail sarvi es, the postoffio•
a). so became nown as 7ablri
"In 1884 N -a built the first house at the beach. It is still
staniinz tin(' nag 1, -)en known for several ;years as the 'Dixie House.'
It WWI built of lumber from a beached vessel.
"In the sprine: of 1884, a lerrna., barque, the loaded
with mahogany sprang a leak as it neared !,ayport azi-d the of fit) ern
theught it was eeing to sink. To avert this disaster they beached
it this side of the mouth of the river. The memory of the ship
ae it etruok the beach with all sails set about 4 o'elock in the
afternoon with the kground ,)f the late afternoon sun rirnaine as
one of the erettiest si,thts I have ever seen. It was leaded with
all mahogany lumb.r. Dr. John C. L'-ingle bouTht a lot of it, and
after tha ship struok, th) rer-,aineer waehed overboard, ,his my
husband guth7.red .up, lightered on to rafts to the river to Pablo
Criek, from there 'r:e had it hauled to our bech lot, big wind
struok the second 11 htar, '7•"4.4f4hill,-! it out in the river, so one load
Nrs. „aull
b.
was all he wae able to salvage. Thus it was that our home, the
'Dixie House', has sills el -A ILAlerpinuing of solid :ellogany, and
th3 outside eontains the best hz.rd.wood lumbar it was ossible to
seuure at tiv..A time. The interior of the house was budl damaTed
by fire last summer, but al, examinition shoed the outeide, the
*Alio :aid vu.derpinning kL:d not suffered at -11. The present
ovner h been advised to iirOUlt. 01!itt Landing for ii vuluable
itatorial it 000;k4114, bu thi :!ha rofases to do.
wt4hen the railroad w,A3 cov:Plitod in 18, the first lUmber
ahippod to the beueh wae for t.i ooneti.vketion of the Nurruy Lail
Hotel o4 by r. John Chritepher, ,f Juemonville. it was
not Jowilatad until 1886. The yairray Aell was beautifUll furn-
ished and equipped and 11l the reputation of -being the finest
hotel on the Atlantic uoast. .it %us open the year round and
enjoyed a fine Clientele, but its popularity suffered for luok
of nroper advertising, 13.11 %ell us its inset:sensibility; it was
a long trip to the oeaunfront, there was no amusement of any
_kind, iimA Ilea,11c did not like to .just come down in the v,:oods; vie-
Ltore preferred to remain in Jacksonville. The hotel was oom-
pletely destroyed by fire iu 1891. yrs. uhristophar who assisted
114r hueband in its operation was a very fins intelligent bueinees
woman, but she said. it wile a blessing it burned, s the patronage
at no time approximated the exeense of operation and that mr.
uhristophar lost 4o sideruble money in its four years' existence.
A big deep artesian tell furnished the tater supply for the hotel
and ior a ohoidarable time after the iire the water would spout
two to three hundred feet in the air, spraying down like u foun-
tain.
"Pros the time t• ent to they beaela in uutobor, 1884, until
ioebruary, 1886, we were the only family there. Then. a family
built a small honer, end located in the v oods about a mile south.
...nother family lived at what in now fiopttull 1$34,011, two case's netth•
sine had two tents one in whieh we lived and the other in
v.hiuh we kept a store. or two years L never saw a white wecoAn'e
foe. .the men would .:ome to the store for supplies, and as they
bou,Olt sugar by the 100 -lb suck, flour by the barrel, sides of
meat and bauon, thoy. did not come often. A rather amusing thing
ic.;.s that these early settlers at the beach lived mostly on fish,
yet v•ti did a big business in ()armed salmon caid sardines, we often
laughed at the demand for c:eined fish.
"adjoining the livin tent was a palmetto kitchen, and. e,hen
it rained. I had to cook enough food for several days to last until
the skies Jlete.red ain. One day when it itt,t3 raining, kir. F. F.
Llingle had dinlor with uft, and he asked nay husband. why he aid
not put Lt ti.r,ht roof on the kitchen. 7-fily husband replied: "6 Well,
when it's ra ning, I can't;. ant hen it's dry r.e don't need it.""
"The first winter was glorioan, and how we did enjoy it. We
Wore all so w•ll and happy. The '?inter of 1886, however, was
cold. But than we bed built the house, Ito ,3 did not notice the
cold either. One eold day it was freezing, and y husband tILNya;
"The Lord wants to freeze something, why don't you fix up s.ome
•leeoreuze?"" did, pw.timr the oontainer in a barrel of water
Which froze, and we had ieeoream.
"When we first weLt c the Leach it took two hours to drive
to the boat landinfr at strAyport and three more to ;.1.ake the trip to
eauksonville up the :it. Johns Itiver. The steamboat bringing mail
and supplies from Jacksonville at that tire, was the tatie t)peuoer
tn charge of Captain Napoleon Broward, afterwards governor of Fiorito..
Its. oull7.
*There was a wow by which tar. :5oull used to drive to Jaou.son-
villa by going six miles south through the Palm Valley section
where there was a settlement, but it took two days to oaks the
trip, so that one iii. -ht he had to clamp out. There was no way to
arose Pablo Creek exoept to ford it, and that was the reaeon they
had to go such a roundabout way in ordor to raauh near the saurus
of the strew, where it was narrow and shallo*. Dr. Burroughs had
an orange grove in the Palm Valley section, and kAl used to drive
that route, too, and somatimee he and mr. ou.1.1 would la taiLO the
trip together. There Is still quite a bit of ocean front betveen
Jacksonville and $t. .iugustine which has been slow in developing.
"In 1884 the company had an auution sae of lots at the
beach. PeoPle were brought in from Jauksonville on the steamer,
latie Spencer to Mayport, and at the landing carriages were wait-
ing to drive them to Pablo Beach. About 100 persons took advantage
of this early 'real estate,exoursione' and many lots were sold.
Than, as now, the wonderful hard-paokedsmooth sand beach was an
almost unbelievable reality to these northern tourists. mho
oompay had previously permitted u to select our own lot, aid
our new home was well under way.
"In the fall of 1885 qeneral F. Spinner, United States
Treasurer during the •'leriod of the war between the states, same
.down to the beach with hip two daughtece, tare. Fleoemaker aud
Mrs. Moore. They ,ad two or three tents in which they spent the
winter, and the uext year they built a cottage there. This cottage
was moved around the corner from the uasa Marina libmia that hotel
was built a few yearn ago. I came to know General Spinner and his
daughters very toll, as they took their meals with me the first
year they were at the bean.
Mrs. 60011 n.
"In the enring of .1886 there was a violent windstorm. Tents
were blown down and People's belongings souttered about. There
was quite a village there then, as a number of -lety)le ware living
there, and a lot of meohanios and other workers engagod in building
were also accommodated in tents. People came flodking to our
house for theater until it wae-fillod to overfloting, tut mi husband
assured them they were welcome ana would be eafe, us he knew the
hones was well built and would withstand the severost storms. It
has stood many storms since then and is sUll in Food clondition.
"I do not know from whom the railroad lompany ptu;ting in the
first road secured the land, but it as purohaili0 with th,) idea
of establishing a summer report for the people of-Jui.sonville.
At first everybodi :raid to cross the river on the ferry at Jackson'
villa and take the 1,rain fro tha south side. The first road
was a narrow-guage. Later- the Plorida Aunt Coast Railway took
over this line making it a broad-guage road, extending it to
a terminus at may port, and buil4iag the bridge across the ;t.Johns
which made it much better traveling.
"The first road had excursions on Sundays for white people.
Thi9 was in 188b. On Vondays the colored peoPle had their ex-
cursion, awl great black clouds of them would. roll 6n. Thursdays
was another speoiel-rate dui for the white peoAe, and thus the
beach was popUlarised.
"In 1876-MaypoA was quite a thriving village. There was
a hotel there, thA flaJtic house, and a row of cottages along
the inaoh.
"In 1881 the government started building the ;ietties at the
mouth of the it. Johns River. This widening and deepening of
Mrs. .3call 9.
the ohannel °Dewed the water to wash with gret force -behind the
jetties. The summer cottaees w:re washed into the °cumin. The
Atlantic: 41186 Wa3 moved Lek twice, the last time, &waif tack on
a high beadh where the jetties started, but finally it, too, was
washed away. After the: jetties were completed, that section
filled up with soil, alii no doubt in time there will be trees
there on the mayport side.
"Were the mosqnitoee bad in the earli daysy ho, we did not
eotiee them. 1;verybody had uets over the beds, and if the breeze
are from the ocean, we did not notice them at all, but if there
as a land breeze, the mosquitoes and gnats were annoying.
"The seeond house at the each was built by mr. and mrs,
Diekarson. _They had a store and he was afterwards postmistress:.
In eeptember, 1886, the poet office eao moved to the Murray Mall
Hotel, and ma's Irranoh, who was the manager, acted as postmaeter.
This arrangement WUR not satiefaetory. The guests at the hotel
objected to the riff -ruff then at the beach aoming into this
splendid hotel for mail, Mr. Prenoh thoueht it took up too much
of hie time, awl the eeople themselves did not like the urrunp-
ment. After the hotel turned, it was eetublifted in a store up
town.
"I forgot to ,'ay, the railrowl eomeany built a pavilion at
the tirminue in the :Aret period, and :t h.t a skating rink which
wao quite popular, both with the exoursioniste uud tha people at
the hotel and he teach reeidente.
"After four ;,.eare, mr. oull'e mother who lived in miverside
insieted on our bringing the children to atay with her, thieh we
did, and we wire sick the ehole time. We missed the outdoor
life, und-the fresh clean air from the ocean. A, afterwards went
etre. 6eull 10.
to our own home in Lackawanna when mr. 3oull's Pork with the rail-
road terminated, and only spent the 'tinware at the beach.
"In the early 1890's the Burnside Hotel was built ut the
beach, and there were four cottages nearby. We spelt part of
cna wearier in one of these oottages and sr. ?maim and his
wife from )eth Jacksonville haa one of the neitboring oottages
at eurnside beach, as it was (sailed. This hotel and the four
oottages later were swept into the ooean, evn the land where they
stood is gone.
"Of course the Jetties were a necessity to deep water for
!hipping, but j. often wonder if the Jetties and the new seawalls
recently built will not it vfme destroy the fine irivin on the
beauh by oausinT the sand to drift in behind the jetties and the
washine; f the water to muke plaoes along the shore.
"There was a family by the name of noward bought a lot of
land and looated up in the Neptune 'motion. The* had one son,
Aonzo, who wae quits 4 character. He used to drink a lot. I
reviember one mummer W4 Anent at the beash, Aonso oame driving
ow)r for eLuIPliee with his team of elow mules. We could see him
for a long way off; the mules elodeing along on the reach with the
old riokety wagon, and Alonzo humped over on the seat.lie got his
euepliee, including a lot of red liquor, eo he Tees Pretty drunk
ehen he left for eeptune. Ihen he arrived home, his mother went
out urIA unhituhed the mules, leaving him snoring in the wagonlbed.
In time he roused up, al.tinT out: ""If I'm I've lost a
couple of mules; and if A ain't 'Lonzo, i've Tot somebody's wagon."
"About thie tiae an 3rigliehman built a ;.rand home and put out
a fins vineyard along the banke of Pablo ureek, just before you
aalae to the railroad. ?he creek near here made a perfect '21 so
ere. :-;oull 11
it wus neoessary to bridge the railroad aoron it three times.
"Right near this double miry. was an old xndiau mound that,
to my knowledge, has hevIr beiln exoavuted.
"It wal -trelun in the early days to take, cur friend's and
relativei from the middle west in bathing at the -oeach. They
would want to go in at any tine, tain4. accustomed at home to
swimmin,T in email streams, rivers or quiet 14kee, auA 711en
would say, 'The tiled is not right we'll hare to wait they
oould not understand. Then when we would go in at low tide and
a few hours later they would see the waves four feet over the
spot where they had Jliono in, thoy :Jould hardly understwil it.
Of oourse, visitors from the north aud east, :4Lnsaohunetts 4nd the
other new ngland states,where the tide goon from six to tventy-
four feet at flood time, were not so hard to eonvime.
"I revuaber the first yellow -fever epidemic in 1877, and
the one in 1868, when we refugeed for several mouths to a eamp on
it votteburg Ureek. My father was on the aoard of nnalth at the
time and was on quarantine duty at xey east.
"One dug my husband oar..e to Jaoksonville for supplies at the
illi7tht of thl epidemic, and when he returued i asked if he had
brou,lit a lute larer. He said he had haeu in such a hurry he
forF;ot :t. i civil him u terrible tongue-lashing, us 1 wuz anxioue
to uern the latest neve of the plague and thou° aifected. A few
days lutor word was sent to tin that my t4othor had been were ill
with the yellow fever, but was Low on the road to recovery. The
day r-4, husband )144 'forgotten to buy a ,elpar, her num was pub-
lished among those strioken, 4ued this W43 his way of not -lermitting
Mrs. Small 12.
me to be alarmed. my sister, Mary, who is here with me, helped
take cure of her. There was a nurse, but mury was afraid to
trust her at night, so she slept with my mother, so as to be at
hand when she was imeded. One day,er. Vilely, president of the
board of health, who had come to Jacikeonville to take aha“e of
the situation said; "Mary, your mother is very ill. You hiust not
come in the room. the surest wilw possible for ou to get the fever
is tdgo il jar hl r bed."" mulv sad d, "Doctor. I've slept there two
nights, and 1 am all rieht."" He was astonished, but of course,
we did not know then that yellow fever wue flurried by mosquitoes,
and it so happeilee that my eister wae one of those fortunate peo-
ple whom mosquitole nevJr bothered. There are some, you know, who
are immune, their system hayin a lot of natural sulphur which
keeps tha moequitoee away.
"1 bA.ieve one reason we were all so healthy at the beach
was the oci, water we had. The railroad corporation the very
first thing drilled a well. it rue three hundred feet deep and
it was said cost 04.00 a foot to drill, but the water was splendid.
The well is still there, in the square baoh of here the sox uross
Life buvinR tution now is, near the miniature railroad.
"hen we firet eame to euexsonville, everybody had a dug
well in- their baek yard, but in 1879 the city drilled the artesian
well that was the LeginninT of the Juokeonville waterworks, right
in it Iresent location.
itt this time the noise of di airplane attracted mrs.
attetion.
"Isn't it wonderful," she said as she listened while the
eronii“ of the engine died away," what wonderAil things we have
now, uompared with the primitive life we used to laud in sloridaw
re. gall l3.
"My daughter, iearguerite (we oalled her parguerite beeause
she was such a dainty baby and a1 imih flowerelike fao•,
and re did not fanos the ,44.rrie of 19aisy') left by plane laat
night for Tdasehitift(321 ant rill gomrle to the joarney of over a
thousand miles in l•ss time than it Limed to take us in the 1880Ie
to make the slcs trirl to Jae.14-..sonville from the beauh.
"Marguerite is frAy younl•oat daughter, ant rhile in eusi.ing'.on
rill visit my son, william z-idward boull II. a government aucount-
ant. tie has a son, tilliam sdward 1II,and thus To perretuate the
mane of' my devoted husband.
"ry third daughter. .Aeanor, 1:12AMOi for rre, iou1cL have lieen
the firsi. white chili born at the beach, but Iv old nurse had
died the ,faar before, and L was inAble to ind-ao another to xma
to the beaoh, so 7,;leanor I? as born in Jackuonville in the early eart
of 188C. he
is now Yrs. viii sours Ioung aii lives on Doctor's
bake in the urange rurk district.
"I have alf4cis watited to go up in in airplane. it few yearn
apv, N•ke rare vs-len:1111g the Rummer at the beach, a commeruiel
aviator rould take off from riaptune jeu.ch, makihg the round trip
to Jaekeonvilla xoaor. an r )turn for lb.00. The only thing that
kept 1929 on t}.() 7.round was the lack the olb.G0," she said,
laughing.
huciAttar OW -1.1) ur on the porch rith a lb.r.:0 bucket of
bl,lekberries.
"Blackberries in Aprily V hero tare they from, and how touchy"
she quarried.
"From crly' place in Aandurin. I am sel1in t hem at l u (»it 8 a
qurt" 0tui d t huckster.
"Well, I'll just have to have a quart."
Pry. ',;oull 14.
The purohaee made aiA the berries taken oar° a:fin the eleatrio
refrig-trator, !ire. ret‘xned, c.nd the colw toltio14 VUtl
sumed•
"...nother time tar out At the local a.irport 41.14 an uviy.tor
v.ae taking passengers up far 10.00, but it ViLOS aloudy and i. thought
it would not be any use, as I wouid. not, be atad to see muoh.
oms-
tte everything is going ,te be just right, and get my
plane trial, yet.
"No, 4..am sorry do not have uny papers or early ratio:do
relatinlr. to Jaoksonville and the beach history. In our horns in
naokawanna we had a store -room ov_)r the kitohnn a lure light
room, in thioh j. had old trunks and boxes stored with k.eepsakes,
among 11)-OVI IV* y old el iPpin,Ts 4And 1Evrars v ()aid 'oo valuable
tokitv. But te lad three fires in that house. one
CI. disastrous one etich took the roof off of the storn-room. It
was thouTht fire was set by er‘rks from a defeotive Aue)1 ;very
thing in the room iwe: ruined things not totaLly _destroyed by
fire were so badly darifo7ed by the tater poured in to rut out the
fire the t tre etIre uns.ble to valve.re anything. I have not even a
picture of the beach or Jaol.son-,ille in the early dt48."