A New History of Jacksonville?

[stephendare]

The History of Jacksonville.

Over the past few months, and especially with the insights of posters like Stjr, Ocklawaha, Heights Unknown and a few others, Ive begun to feel that its about time that a new, and far more complete history of the city and area deserves to be written.

The common history that we all accept as "The" history of Jacksonville is essentially a racist perspective, told from the point of view (mostly) of 20th century confederate sympathizers who did as much retelling as they did telling, and does not include the experience of most of the people living here. 

It is also unselfaware in as much as the various books that together create the common story begins very late, misses whole parts of what happened and does not preserve a clear picture of our cultural, intellectual or business achievements, which have been substantial.

There is too much emphasis on the Civil War and Consolidation in the various narratives of the area, both very important events, but not necessarily the most important to dwell on.

There is little to no accounting for the influences that created the city prior to 1901, largely because of the Great Fire, ---outside the retellings of the Civil War stories and mythologies--- and the areas history prior to becoming an American Territory in 1821, is almost completely ignored despite the permanent cultural and political connection with the French and Spanish settlers of the area.

As Shine points out the entire histories of the creek, seminole and black seminole Native Americans is left out and told only from the point of view of conquest, despite the fact that there are many descendants of these people living amongst us.

Most of the Early history of Jacksonville is sourced through the writings of a single man writing in 1925 at the height of the historical revisionist period.  The account glosses over or ignores major events and groups of the early history of Duval County.

And these are but a few of the more important reasons why a new History of Jacksonville needs to be written

The emergence of the land plat maps over the previous weeks has confirmed this fully in my head, for in the process of researching the new information gleaned from them I have made several surprising discoveries.

Perhaps foremost is the unintentional miracle of the Google books project.

It is a revolution in the way historical research can be done.

A few years ago, if you had a random name from a record dating from the 1800s, you were pretty much screwed if you didnt already have a bibliography of the persons life and travels.  But googlebooks has changed all that.

For those who do not know, googlebooks is a project initiated by Google to copy into a digital and searchable format ALL of the books in the libraries of the world. 

This project has been going on for a while, creating a lot of controversy in its wake.  However it has a real outcome in the area of history.

Consider this.

People leave behind a paper trail of themselves.   They buy and sell land.  They travel to other states and countries.  They win little prizes.  They are given substantial honors.  They get married.  They have kids.  They are witnesses to crimes, they file complaints.  Friends and relatives print journals and books and mention them in their memoirs.

There are hundreds of little ways that we are mentioned or recorded that it never occurs to us provide this trail of minutia.

However, now, starting about 70 years ago and working backwards through time all of these little mentions and traces are available for people who have been dead so long that no living people even know they existed.

It is possible, depending on the part of the country and which libraries have already been scanned by google to create fairly complete biographies of people that we never knew existed.  They come out of the ether like a modern pygmalion.

I learned this from dealing with the recently disovered Land Platts.   After taking the names off of the properties we ran the most ubiquitious ones on google and began to dig.

Its easier than a modern search because people who died that long ago dont have facebook pages, or a million listings on dead myspace accounts of friends who listed their names.

One of them was the name of Paran Moody, a character only briefly touched by the History of Jacksonville.   What emerged was one of the most dyamic individuals of 19th century Jacksonville.

Similarly the headstrong and lovely Elizabeth Hendricks, the creator of the City of Oklahoma on the south bank of the river.

With the cross referencing of the old jacksonville names with the french records of the House of Talleyrand, even more interesting connections came up.  F.F. L'engle, the old surveyor's full name was Francis Fatio L'engle.

A recent visit to the Old City Cemetary to find Paran Moody's grave brought the discovery of the Fatio family plot just a few yards away.  The Talleyrand's took prominence in Italy, becoming the Duc (Duke) of Dino.   They list an Alessandro Fatio as a steward of the family affairs..

Fascinating stuff.  Im reading right now of the unfortunate adventure of Senor Toledo in his intrigues in our county as he tried to work with, then double cross Napoleon Bonapartes men as they tried to take control of Florida.   Amelia Island paid the price and this Toledo fellow was a tremendous ass in all respects.  Everything he touched turned in to pure liquid shit.

The very first time this searching of the old records to create a biography happened when Bridge Troll, Stjr and I were trying to find out background information on old photos provided by Stjr of Regency.   Instead, we created a life story of a local inventor and mine owner that none of us previously guessed had ever lived.

This new ability is going to change everything I suspect.

Especially for a city like ours that lost almost all trace of its roots prior to 1901 to a fire, and whose knuckleheaded leadership has destroyed an equal amount of our heritage by razing the buildings and literally tossing whole portions of our history in the trash cans.

I think that the true story of Jacksonville is probably going to be much different than the one we presently agree on.

[sheclown]

I never realized how involved Jacksonville was with the civil rights movement.  Nor did I realize that it began with a 16 year old student and member of the Youth Council NAACP, Rodney Hurst, Sr.  I just finished reading his book "It Was Never About A Hot Dog and A Coke."  WingSpan Press 2008.  I highly recommend it.

[stjr]

Stephen, I can vouch for the ease of access to information using Google and the resources of the internet.  Almost all my contributions to the history section of MJ are fueled by Google searches of names, locations, documents, maps, images, etc. that can be done in mere minutes (though they can add up if one gets lots of "hits"!).  I would also mention as a good example my thread on historical figure Solon Robinson (see http://www.metrojacksonville.com/forum/index.php/topic,4638.0.html ) which began with a hit for "Jacksonville" on Google News finding a mention in an Indiana newspaper of his Jacksonville connection.

I think our understanding of the world about us will increase dramatically as more libraries and periodicals further digitize their book volumes and rare and historic documents and images and post them to the internet.  We have only scratched the surface to date.

Even though I have lived here all my life and try to stay well versed in local history, I have found no limits to the new and enlightening information revealed to me by the internet and the assemblage of same here on MJ and other web sites.  It appears to be a nearly endless source of new points of interest and connections.

An area with a history going back as far as North Florida's should have a lot more than "one definitive" history to describe it, that's for sure!

[stjr]

I might add that someday a service such as Wikipedia may become the defacto definitive history of our world if developed to its fullest potential.

[heights unknown]

Yeah, there is much more to Jacksonville, Florida, and the nation than meets the eye.  If we knew fully of the contributions of other races and ethnic groups, outside of the notorious white Americans, we would be shocked, surprised, and awed.  And yes, American Indians had more of a play in our history than we can ever know outside of them being conquested.  And also, black Americans were equally inventors of a lot of machines, organizations, political movements, etc. within Jacksonville and the nation as a whole. 

Though things were bad racially back then, numerous ethnic groups, had they not been here or contributed towards helping to shape our nation, America would not had been as great as it is. I often wonder what kind of nation we would have become had American Indians been conquested to the point of non-existence, or African Americans had never set foot on our soil, or the Hispanic people had remained in their own lands and never had migrated to America (Mexicans, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, etc.).

I often think about that.  Some say it would have been a better nation for whatever reason for their opinion and thinkings; others say it would have been a bland, boring, and colorless nation without any spice in the recipe whatsoever.

Whatever has happened, we are all Americans, and we must be proud of our heritage and the contributions made to this hodge podge, rag tag, bunch of citizens that have helped to form one of the greatest nations of all time...the "United States of America!"

Heights Unknown

[BridgeTroll]

Whatever has happened, we are all Americans, and we must be proud of our heritage and the contributions made to this hodge podge, rag tag, bunch of citizens that have helped to form one of the greatest nations of all time...the "United States of America!"

Well said!

[BridgeTroll]

This may help... someday.

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2009-08-10/story/jacksonville_historical_society_buys_old_st_lukes_to_expand

Jacksonville Historical Society buys Old St. Luke's to expand
By Charlie Patton Story updated at 6:18 AM on Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009


Jacksonville Historical Society
The Old St. Luke's complex located on Duval Street

The Jacksonville Historical Society announced Monday it will purchase the Old St. Luke’s Hospital complex  and convert it into “a premier research and exhibition center.”


The $5 million project, which includes about $600,000 for the purchase of two buildings and 1.2 acres of land, will enable the society to consolidate its scattered archives, provide lots of exhibit space and create a place where the society can teach people how to preserve historic artifacts, said Jerry Spinks,  the society’s president. It will house the offices and library of the Southern Genealogical Exchange Society.


The property, owned by the Arthritis Foundation of Florida, is at Duval Street and Palmetto Avenue behind the Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena. It is one block from the Historical Society’s headquarters in Old St. Andrews and the adjacent Merrill Museum House, both on A. Philip Randolph Boulevard.


The three-story hospital building, constructed in 1878, was probably “the first building in Florida designed specifically as a hospital,” Richard Martin wrote in a 1973 history of the hospital. St. Luke’s moved to a new site near Springfield in 1914.


Demolition on the former hospital began in 1975 as a wrecker’s ball took down the north and south wings. But a last-minute campaign by Old St. Luke’s Restoration saved the rest of the building, which subsequently became the offices of U.S. Rep. Charles E. Bennett, who served in Congress 44 years before retiring in 1993.


The adjacent three-story building was constructed in 1882 as a factory for the Florida Casket Co.


Spinks said the old hospital building is in good shape though upgrades like a new air-conditioning system must be made in order to house the Historical Society’s archives.

Currently some of the archives are at Jacksonville University and the rest scattered in several storage facilities.


While the archives will be kept on the hospital’s second floor, the first floor will have exhibit space and a book store. That store will also sell supplies needed to preserve old family photos, papers and other artifacts, Spinks said.


The third floor is unfinished but could eventually be turned into exhibit space, he said.


The first floor of the old factory building would be devoted to programs and services designed to help teach preservations techniques, Spinks said. It would include a studio equipped to record oral history.


“We want to show folks what to keep and how to keep it,” Spinks said. “Our big mission is to make sure stuff survives so it can eventually be donated.”


The second floor would be used for archive processing and would house the headquarters and library of the genealogical society. The top floor will have 5,000 square feet of exhibit space.

The two buildings have a total of 21,000 square feet.


Spinks admitted that embarking on a fundraising campaign in the current economy will be difficult.


“But this is an incredible opportunity,” he said.


charlie.patton@jacksonville.com,
(904) 359-4413

[BridgeTroll]

OK history buffs... found this book in PDF format.

Colonial plantations and economy in Florida By Jane G. Landers

http://books.google.com/books?id=WFaWIDIJ1MEC&pg=PA67&lpg=PA67&dq=florida+diaries&source=bl&ots=wOrIa_UuBB&sig=azqrOfygQWiZ7sU3zvvKz32ashY&hl=en&ei=JbOBSt_LHdu_tge104jOCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9#v=onepage&q=florida%20diaries&f=false

Did anyone know that Zephaniah Kingsley... of Kingsley Plantation fame... also owned a very large plantation along the north west side of Doctors Lake in Orange Park?
There is a map on page 104.

[BridgeTroll]

This document lists voting districts many of which I recognize... I cannot remember hearing about Hansontown or Lewisville...

[BridgeTroll]

Jacksonville land for sale... 1867.

[Dog Walker]

[quote author=BridgeTroll
Did anyone know that Zephaniah Kingsley... of Kingsley Plantation fame... also owned a very large plantation along the north west side of Doctors Lake in Orange Park?
There is a map on page 104.
[/quote]

The current site of Moosehaven retirement center in Orange Park was also one of Kingsley's plantations or rather the plantation of his African wife, Anna Njai.  Theirs is a fascinating story and well documented by a UNF professor in a fairly recent book.  You can get a copy at the Kingsley Plantation on Ft. George Island.

[BridgeTroll]

A description of Jacksonville to people who may wish to settle here.  Wages and jobs...

[BridgeTroll]

The next page of previous document...

[stjr]

Stephen, here is the "rest of the story" in Arlington where Anna Kingsley and her family lived and are buried and where the Kingsley's, Baxters, and Sammis's had plantations:

The mill was operational in 1820 and was operated by the Richard family in the beginning. There was reportedly a shipbuilding venture in the Clifton area, which built seagoing vessels from timbers cut at the mill. The Richards hired an overseer for their operation whose name was John Sammis. Sammis was from New York and was married to Mary Kingsley, daughter of Z. Kingsley and his wife Anna, a princess from Africa. Another of Anna's daughters, Martha was married to another New Yorker, Oran Baxter, who was a ship builder. The Baxters lived in the area just north of what is now JU known as St. Isabel.

When F. Richard Jr. died around 1840, his will stated that his estate would be sold and the proceeds divided among the heirs. The executor of Richard's will was a man named Bigelow who became the owner of a large tract of land just north of the Richard tract. Sammis purchased some 5,500 acres and build a home in what is now Clifton and it can be seen on Noble Circle today. Richard's grandson had a home south of Pottsburg Creek and can still be seen on what is now Oak Haven Road on the north side of Atlantic Blvd. Sammis operated the mill and plantation and became a wealthy man until the coming of the Civil War in 1862. Sammis was a known Union supporter. He sold his land to a friend for a nominal fee and went to New York and Washington DC during the conflict. There is a legend from the 1800s that he buried his gold at "Tree Hill" before he left and never recovered it.

There were other grants in the "Historic" Arlington area, one to John (William) Richard (believed to be the son of Francis) who had a 250 acre farm south of Strawberry Creek in 1805; one to Peter Bagley's Heirs between "Little" Pottsburg and "Big" Pottsburg; one for 700 +/- acres to Fatio on the south shore of the St. Johns where New Castle Creek enters the river north of Ft. Caroline Road; one to George Atkinson for 400+ acres on the east bank of the St. Johns at the west end of Ft. Caroline Road; and several small grants along the river to F. Richard including Chaseville Point.

It should be noted that in general the plantation owners traded and relied on each other and with others. Kingsley's ties to Richard through his son-in-laws are well known; Kingsley had the Ft. George Island plantation and also had the St. Johns Bluff (Ft. Caroline) Grant. The community of Fulton just west of St. Johns Bluff was a combination of several grants to the Sanchez and A. Atkinson families.  There were two Sanchez grants (brothers) and there was two grants to an A. Atkinson. What is now Queen's Harbour was the "Don Juan" McQueen grant. Mayport and a large part of the beaches area was the Andrew DeWess grant.

Sammis returned after the Civil war and reverted his title from his friend. His family including the Baxters and Anna Kingsley who had acquired a small plantation called Chesterfield (believed to have been at south end of JU) near the Baxters all lived a fairly peaceful existence in what was to become Arlington considering the racial feelings of the time. Proof of their existence and history can be found in the public records and old Cemeteries. There is a very historic little Cemetery in Clifton within sight of the Sammis home, which contains both marked and unmarked graves of Anna Kingsley and her family. There is also a cemetery on Floral Bluff Road for the Bigelow family, whose mansion could be seen on River Bluff Road until it was destroyed by fire in the early 50s. The Fatio Grant contains the Parsons Cemetery and there is a small cemetery for an old black church on the JU campus. There is a black cemetery at the end of Schakelford Road near Bruce Park from the early days and also one at the Mt. Zion (Lone Star) Church near Mill Creek Road, which is still active.

From: http://oldarlington.org/MD-CP-BriefHistory.php

[Dog Walker]

Stephen,  Riverside had Banana and Coconut Streets too.