Document text
March 3, 193v.
William a. Platt (83)
Former Caretaker
"Keystone"
441antic Bah Rd.,
South Jacksonville,
Rose Shepherd, Writer.
WILLIAM A. PLATT.
Rev. a. r. Blackford, Director of Keystone Home for Boys,
said: "a quarter of a mile down to the Johnson Store on atlantic
Beach Road then turn to the right and down the.little lane in the
third, house you'll find him a relict of the past, but %-ith a mind
ae: keen a.,3 one fifty years youngir."
"The third house" is u well kept .cottage with a hospitable
Zront porch ha, in several rockers, the air filled wi th the fragrance
from the wild orab-apple tree in fall bloom by the gate, .vines over
a. trellis on the ri -ht side of the walk from the lane, and a figtree
10 the left.
A knock on the door brought Mrs. 7'latt, who replied in answer
to cur inquiry, "Yes, he is attendin,r to the chickens. Come in and.
I'll ;rat hi; X know he'll be anxious to give ...ou his life history
and tell i..11 about 'Keystone.'"
In a few minutes she was back, with Mr. Platt a small sized
man, frail looking, his light hair and graying moustache, his sailor
gray eyes showin7 his iinglish lineage. Fe was dressed in a blue denim
suit, with a black sweater, with dirk nap pulled well don on his
head.
"I was born in Liver!), ol, ngland on October l, 18CC, and came
with my father and mother to ameriou in 1873. Ve landed. in Rhode
Island *where we li -ad for three ;le, rs. We suffered terribly from
the cold.. You know that section of the United States is much odder
26O6
i1lL. .t. Platt Eaystone
than .inglend where there is onlo about 17 degre.oe difference in the
climate of winter ond summer, the summer temperature ranging 4.i.round
78 degreee. Pi mother duffer ed terribl;y from the extreme cold, 444,1
finLl dfr•eloped a bud °axe of. rheumatism.
"One lay in a V oonsocket, Ahode Island newspaper I re d un
article about Florida, its warm climate giffering a haven for those
doeiring to ',soar° from the cold. We made immediate plans to leave,
and on February 10, 1876 we landed in Jaakson.ille.
"My father and I were brickla;yers. Ve found a brickyard at
t. Hicholu.s thich :lad been abandoned. Tie bought it, started making
brick from the (314 in the atid burning it in the ad-t.lanionipi
way into hard al,:t caused bricks. We found Yxl.iiity of outlet for our
Material ri-ht in the Leighborhood.
"About this time the ilorida :;14.et Coast was de -eloping in
aoridu and the :Line from ...outh Jackson illa to the lilitah was estab-
lished. I s loured the contract for tAncl, built a pavilion for the
au-
roat terminue at the boaoh.
"In the meantime, Hr. Hurry Puck or whose father WtLe a stock-
holdir of the Lehigh Valley -,.o.1.1roul. o. of Philadelphia,, came to this
section and bau.rht the dstate across the rou:i here (1(0;;;stone) „which
I knew us the stows place, for a hunting preserve. He built the house
still is use there -sett& the high -tables and 'gingerbread work' aroun4
theeo-es and porches. "his was in 1878. On 0111 of his annual trips
dawn here, a few years later, he eontrauted pneumonia and died in the
house there.
"In ()losing out the astute of Hr. Pu.o.t.e.r the nroperty was
sold to Miss Vary Packer, his sister, of Maw:hunk, Pennsylvania.
Miss Paoker was middle-aged, but a short after she came into pos-
session of the place, she met and married a Mr. Cummings about three
Platt Keystone
3.
years her senior. Mr. Cummings, for some reason or other, ulways
wished to appear younger than his wife, dressing in dapper fashion,
and always trying to attract attention.
"Mrs. Cummings was very sincere and a devout &pisoopalian.
,re. Cummings ht a u secretary, a Mr. Pearsall, who attended to many of
the details of her Investments, for she inherited u vast fortune.
Mr. Pearsall's son tug through Jaoksonville last year and came out
hereto look me up, and w e had a fine visit. He is now manager of
a Steamship Line thioh has headquart re in the West Indies.
"Ur. Cummings was u Gunadian, and not u mun of teulth; his
only property oonsisted of a amall fishing camp on one of the
Thousand Islands in the St. Lawronoe *liver, at the time he married
1•'iss Paoker.
"She gave him large sums of money, hovADver, u,ld he bouame known
as a developer of suburban electric railways. I remember hearing
him tell of one of his contracts for placing u railtay through
section 4round laughing, :dew York. There was vehement objection
by the residents on uccount of the noise it would cause, but he had
secured the right-of-way, and one Sunday %hen nil the villagers
were in ohurch, he had his building crew run the rails through the
town, and in a short time the suburban train was in action. He
was rather a Nod business man, baring an estate estimated at :'„,600,000
when he died at the age of 79.
"Ur. Cummings had heard of my work on the brick pa ',lion at
the Beach (Pablo, it was called then) so one day h.) sent for me
to do soma work on the estate which had Lean christened °Keystone'
by Mrs. Cummings f,.r her native State Pennsylvania, always known
i1liuma. Platt Keystone 4.
am the 'Keystoue State' in the Union.
"1 builtseems flues and ohimneys till repaired a fireplaue,
also built the briok ioe-houae and potato bin under the hill to the
left of the road as you drive in.
"Ur. Cummings seemed pleased with my work, and when I fin-
ished he said: 'Platt, where I come from, when a man finishes ono
job, he takes on another. Hot Aould you like to work for Kre Horne,
the oarpenter koreman here?'
"I replied, 'I know nothiag about oaepeatering.'
'That makes no differenoe you'll learn.'
'so, tho next morning I started laying floors undor kr.
Forum's directions.
"That night Cummings came around, aad he usi.ed: 'Horne,
what kind of a oarpenter did Platt make?'
'Isn't he a oarpenter?' said ;:r. Horne, 'I did not know he
was not a first claos r:!euhatii..; he sure does all right.'
Iidid my best, and in 1869 1,r. Cummin,cs said to me
one day, 'How would you like to eome here and ,manage this plaoe.
You cup build yourself a house right there by the gate.'
"So that was my beginnin4. as superintendent Yor the Curamings'
at 'Keystone.'
"The estate before the Stew family Lad it had belonged to the
Buokman's, who had a sawmill there on the river. It was destroyed
during the Viar between the states, a Federal fort was eructed
on the high bunk, whe2e a huTe battery wae erected.
"V;A, made the bluff all over using some of the slabs from
the old sawmill or bulkheating. The old stow° home on the point
was also burned durinT the vfar with all i e contents. It was a
rather large story and a half house.
a. Platt
"The Stowe title oame from the Christopher's, the family of
which Mr. Arthur Christephor, of Jacksonville is a. descendant. The
Christopher's were owners of a Tkett plantation taking in this, *hole
section known as 'St, Joseph Plantation.' They had SOO slaves.
"During the boom, Mr. Charles C. Strickland and his aesooiutes
()hanged to name to 'San Jose,' but it was known in the surly days
as 'St. Joseph,' and 'St. Joe.'
"Mr. Cummings was high tempered, diotatorial, and very bur&
to get along with. He was always in u fags with one of the servants.
I remember ono incident of a colored servant, a girl he claimed. had
stolen some insignificant thing, and he routed her out and made her
leave the place at 11 o'clock at night.
"Mrs. Cummings was a fine woman, always cali and self-possesuoi
oven under the most trying circumstances.
Ones
"I built all the houses at 'Keystone,' and kept the An al-
ready there in repair. mr salary to start was #86.00 per month, and
there were two old men on the place who were paid $6.00 per *ook each.
They had always lived there, one said he had beam borh on the place,
und he lived to be 106 yours of uge. the other one died at 87.
"When TAr. Cummings engaged me, I told him I did not know much
about farming, and he said: 'It will not be to much a matter of
farming, it's mostly bookkeeping.' Zo, I started in, and with the
two old men, looked after the large orange grove and gardens. There
Was altays much danger. of fire, so te kept the forested part raked
clear of leaves and did not allow the dead wood to accumulate; the
puthe were kept open and the walks clear.
'The orange grove was u fine asset. In the season of 1898
we packed and sold 2,000 boxes. There were also pear trees and fig
trees, but those fruits, as well as the gardimprodnotion of vegot-
Platt Keystone 6.
ables, "'Lee used for home consumItion. There were always visitors
at 'Keystone' a.nd it took a number of servants to ce for the house.
During the fruit packing season we always had extra men, sometimes
white, acI t other times colored help. V..e raised strawberries also.
"During the winter of 1.893 there wa a heavy freeze and we
lost all the. Ora.1.170e, lid in 1896 came a harder freeze that killed
t e trees. It vas two years afterwards before they Atm, up from
the roots. I budded these saplings to sa.teumas, and the trees there
now are the result of this culture. v,e had frequent frosts then,
the same j.EI CLOS but only those two hard freezes.
"Mr. 011111Min ill had frequent quarrels *i tit the neighbore, and
as the result o one of th as with .krms-trow: who had the tidjoin-
in,z. estate on th) @oath, he 'built the recreation building within four
feet of the property line, so tnt he would get the full benefit of
th,.) noise from the bowling alleys and the card games, which sometirdes•
were juite hilarious .ind lasted far into the night. He al so built a
high board partition fence, entirely obstructing the 2,rmstrong's
view of the beautiful t. Johns and the river traffic.
"Finally, 141rs. Cummings could no longer stand his bud temper
and. cruel ecoentrioities, and there was a separation after twenty-five
years of married life. In the settlement she gave hint -fl 20,000 to re-
lease all claims on 'Keystone,' and thus it passed into her hands
again us sole owner.
"Immediately ”rs. Cummings raised my wages to -.70.00 per month,
and. I continued as sup !rintendent until her death at tie age of 73.
lier body was taken back. to Bauohu.nk, Iennsylvania, where %she was
buried., her funeral being held from the .';piecopal church there which
she had endowed. She willed the property to St. John's Parish.
Platt Keystone 7
"After the separt,tion, Mr. Gummings came down fro. jew York and
packed up hie personal belongings, mostly Japanese trash, and we never
saw ilirl
"Mrs. Cummix“sLts very fond o.f children, aud the :,,i)la.oe was
Utayo epen to parties und Iviek-end visits by- the younger set of
t. Johns Parish. They would climb the big tree, dation, swi'iin
th.) pool, and 1 tennis.
"There were many dietinguished Yisitors also. I remember
the ieverend
I),..,.rticult-rly/Pr. and lffre. `yroxi ',Ander bhields and their family- owns
tAriii (I oteed 00L1-3 tit...' ftr the Lig fire of 1V01, ix Ifitlieh the hud
lost all thoir no =eassio las
"Judge an 7alkenberg owned the adjoining pL.00,Nhieh tad
inherit Id b,y ratirphow, a r. Vorly,es. Ho sold it te the ,,ruistrong
fa!A.tly. r. and Prs. Jalnetroi_g died en th! oaran day ea p11011.2.1iLle
fey hours a art, ancl erii buried on th3 :RATA!) Ita;‘, tiLici it the same
T,r ve in old livergreen Comet3ry. They had no children. They al-
ways had young ,locele abvut thm,, and ado-;)ted (ate, a iiiss butler,
who vas a niece. In the settleriaht of th 3 estate, the place vs
purchased by rr. (Ohiok) 4,.aosta tv silty -eight y ears ago.
He used it f1rt as a summer home, hal ha* lived there continuously
for the past twelve years. I did the bricicwork in that old house
aaeo.
"You'll have to OX012.1113 Lie not I hal.* to c_;ive
chickens some green stuff."
It was xetting dark noi, and I followed him through the neatly
kept six -room bungalow to the back -yard chicken pens. i'here were
two -pine of beautiful white leghorns, xid r. Platt 'v as busy throwing
them vegetable refuse ond shreds .ef lettuce as a finishing touch
to their e ening feed.
illiAxn;L. Platt Keystone 8.
"Forty-nine hens and only forty-six eggs. I'll have to
check up tomorl:ow, there Ltre three holding out ou 1e," he chuulded.
"Do, I vote? Yes, Mat WS. hen I first came to Jaconyille
in the early 18701s, it was still in the Reconstruction viltriod. There
were ouly two white men in the city governmeilt, one, a VAllehman,was
the mayor and the other was the °Lief of police. All the others
were
same
negroes. mho population contained 6,000 nagrosseand about the
number of white persons.
"'Alen 4. was twenty-one, I was allw4ed to vote, although I had
only received my first naturalization papers, ilnd I voted on those
PaPers for thirteel, years* As affairs were in such a chaotic condi-
tion, I was afraid to say anything, and made no effort to get my final
ppere until later.
"In 192b, (-Luring the boom, i• sold the briokyard for a i;ood
sum, and used the money to rurchase nl-me of five ticres and
build my home. W• na-e lived here since.
"My four children, two boys /Ind a girl, were all reared at
'Keystone. "elle y,)unrcest daughter was ;,:arried five years ago to an
..;piscopalian teetor in Philadelv.hia. he all souttered, all
have done LL1, nd all re ;rood s&merican citizens. My wife aLtl. I
re alone, but ve ha7)-py, rict enjc.4 our little home here. ?or
sixty-two years I have seent my life within a radius of two miles,
with 'Keystone' (1. a the hub.
"Yes, I remember Alla dexandirtas as well as ?re. 1exzdsr
Litcliill her charity. foind .also 1 r iuvish entertainments.
There vas SOMI misunderstanding betweei, her and Mr• i4itchell, and
they were 1.4 e p r u. t d He never JLIS10 to jucicson\ille. Their son,
13. Mitchell, of ilviaukee, ‘',itsco: sin, was a, United 6tates senator
from that ;.Aate. L'a also hixt bank. in ,ilwalukee. It was the
failure of his bank, in zhioh the Mitchell fortune was involved,
illium a. Platt Keystone 9
resultiw: finaly in the foreclosure of Alla A.exandria.
"Yes, am fond of america, and I havl always enjoyed living
here. I an 4ad I aame as a yaun„77 man, Laid I have no fear of the
future of Jamxsonville.
'I sial 'rut admirer of President Roosevelt. I have never
seen him, but now I am able to do a great deal of reading, so I
keep UP with him in the newspapers. He vanta to do the right thing
by everybody, es-tTeci,lly the Ifor'4ottan man,' and the undnr dog,
,.ind 1 like thia in him.
liould i vote for him ha Jug a third term? Yes, I would.
america oouid not do better, far his policies are for What is
riOt awi honest, and in the end, till prevail. He cannot help it
if there are crooked politicians we it, Lavais Lad those and
they have influnnen ever a certain dlass who allow othnrs to do
their thinking fur than, but prevail,' you knew."