1874 Pictures - Jacksonville, Ocklawaha, Mandarin, St. Augustine, GC Sprgs, Etc.

[stjr]

Pictures of Jax in 1874!:





There are also pictures of Ocklawaha (didn't know he was so old), Mandarin, Green Cove Springs, Palatka, Silver Springs, shooting at gators, etc.  There may be older depictions somewhere, but these are the oldest I recall seeing.
From this fascinating and extensively detailed account of riding the rails and other travels in the South in 1874:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/king/king381.jpg&imgrefurl=http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/king/king.html&usg=__wyRLABhMZ0DCzUPdWGtFARcP7Fw=&h=300&w=862&sz=76&hl=en&start=28&um=1&tbnid=3ABuwI8uOHEEnM:&tbnh=50&tbnw=145&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmyrtle%2Bavenue%2Bviaduct%2Bjacksonville%26ndsp%3D18%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26start%3D18%26um%3D1

[Jason]

Jackpot!  That is one amazing fine StJr.

[Jason]

It is 263 miles by the present rail route from Savannah to Jacksonville, the chief city of Florida, and the rendezvous for all travelers who intend to penetrate to the interior of the beautiful peninsula. The train traverses the distance at the comfortable speed of twelve miles an hour; from time to time, half an hour is consumed in wooding up,--an operation performed in the most leisurely manner....

[BridgeTroll]

The site takes some time to load...

Here is another passage.  It is a shame people cannot write like this anymore...

A good many people fancy that, in going to Florida, they are about to absent themselves from all the accessories of civilization,--that they must undergo considerable privation. Nothing could better correct this impression than a stay of a few days in Jacksonville. Such good hotels as the St. James and the National, such well-ordered streets, such charming suburbs as "Brooklyn" and "Riverside" and "La Villa" and "Wyoming," where the invalid can find the coveted repose and enjoy the delicious climate; such an abundance of newspapers and books, of carriages and saddle-horses, and such convenient access to all other desirable points along the great river, are sufficient to satisfy even the most querulous. Jacksonville is filled with pleasant houses where lodgings are let; and from December until April its population is doubled; society is active; excursions, parties, and receptions occur almost daily; gayety rules the hour. For it is not invalids alone who crowd Florida now-a-days, but the wealthy and the well. One-fourth of the annual visitors are in pursuit of health; the others are crusading to find the phantom Pleasure. Fully one-half of the resident population of Jacksonville is Northern, and has settled there since the war. The town boasts excellent public schools for white and black children; the Catholics have established educational institutions there, and there are several fine churches. The winter evenings are delightful. In the early days of December, on my first visit, the mercury during the day ranged from 79 to 80 degrees, but at nightfall sank to 70 degrees, and the cool breeze from the river produced a most delicious temperature.

[stjr]

The site takes some time to load...

Here is another passage.  It is a shame people cannot write like this anymore...

A good many people fancy that, in going to Florida, they are about to absent themselves from all the accessories of civilization,--that they must undergo considerable privation. Nothing could better correct this impression than a stay of a few days in Jacksonville. Such good hotels as the St. James and the National, such well-ordered streets, such charming suburbs as "Brooklyn" and "Riverside" and "La Villa" and "Wyoming," where the invalid can find the coveted repose and enjoy the delicious climate; such an abundance of newspapers and books, of carriages and saddle-horses, and such convenient access to all other desirable points along the great river, are sufficient to satisfy even the most querulous. Jacksonville is filled with pleasant houses where lodgings are let; and from December until April its population is doubled; society is active; excursions, parties, and receptions occur almost daily; gayety rules the hour. For it is not invalids alone who crowd Florida now-a-days, but the wealthy and the well. One-fourth of the annual visitors are in pursuit of health; the others are crusading to find the phantom Pleasure. Fully one-half of the resident population of Jacksonville is Northern, and has settled there since the war. The town boasts excellent public schools for white and black children; the Catholics have established educational institutions there, and there are several fine churches. The winter evenings are delightful. In the early days of December, on my first visit, the mercury during the day ranged from 79 to 80 degrees, but at nightfall sank to 70 degrees, and the cool breeze from the river produced a most delicious temperature.

I wish Jax could garner a review like this today... and this is without the benefit of air conditioning! With all that "beneficial growth" demanded elsewhere on these boards, I don't recall a modern day review of Jax with the level of fervor featured in this 1874 description of "paradise". So much for growth assuring an improvement in our quality of life. 

[Dapperdan]

What could have been had  the city not decided to shut the doors on the movie studios filming here or had places such as Miami, Daytona, and West Palm not been more appealing to the Northern visitors?
One question, what is the neighborhood of " Wyoming"? It is mentioned in with Riverside and La Villa and Brooklyn.

[riverside_mail]

I found a map from 1874. Wyoming is the Talleyrand and Longbranch area.

[civil42806]

Never heard of wyoming either, have a link for that?

[civil42806]

 few years back a group came through our Neighborhood and was asking some questions about Lackawanna springs resort.  They thought that they might be located in our neighborhood on the westside off lane avenue.  Turns out my current home is actually located on what was the "Graverly Plantation"  Can't imagine what the area was like in the 1840's.  Our neighborhood does have some natural springs. some houses have sump pumps to drain there plots.  Though from what I can find out I think the spring was actually over at Londentowne apartments.  Its amazing what you can find out about and area, and even as a young country we do have some history.    The pictures and cards in this post are amazing

[riverside_mail]

here's the link:

http://www.davidrumsey.com/maps1489.html


Click and enlarge the Duval County area. You'll see Wyoming marked on the map.

[stjr]

Here is but a sample of more pictures from this 1874 account of the South followed by a partial quote describing the greater Jacksonville area:

We will not be too statistical. Imagine yourself transferred from the trying climate of the North or North-west into the gentle atmosphere of the Floridian peninsula, seated just at sunset in an arm-chair, on some of the verandas which overlook the pretty square in Jacksonville. Your face is fanned by the warm December breeze, and the chippering of the birds mingles with the music which the negro band is playing in yonder portico. The lazy, ne'er-do-well negro boys playing in the sand so abundant in all the roads, have the unconscious pose and careless grace of Neapolitan beggars. Here and there among the dusky race is a face beautiful as was ever that of olive-brown maid in Messina. This is the South, slumbrous, voluptuous, round and graceful. Here beauty peeps
from every door-yard. Mere existence is pleasure; exertion is a bore. Through orange-trees and grand oaks thickly bordering the broad avenues gleams the wide current of the St. John's river. Parallel with it runs Bay street, Northern in appearance, with brick blocks on either side, with crowds of smartly dressed tourists hurrying through it, with a huge "National Hotel," with banks, with elegant shops. Fine shell roads run out beyond the town limits, in either direction. Riding toward the river's mouth, which is twenty-five miles below the town, one comes to marshes and broad expanses of luscious green thicket. Passing the long rows of steam saw-mills,--Jacksonville is a flourishing lumber port,--one comes to the point of debarcation for millions of feet of pine lumber, shingles and staves, and great quantities of naval stores. The fleet of sailing vessels used in this trade find at the new city as fine a port as the country can boast.

        The St. John's, at Jacksonville, makes a crescent bend, not unlike that of the Mississippi at New Orleans. Nearly two miles broad directly in front of the wharves, it widens to an expanse of six miles a little way above, offering superb opportunities for commerce. The bar at its mouth is nearly always practicable for large ocean steamers, and they run with ease to Palatka, sixty miles above Jacksonville. The journey is charming from the river's mouth, past Baton island, the residence of the hardy river pilots, and the site of two excellent light-houses; past the mounds of oyster-shells, through which tangled shrubbery has pierced a difficult way; past the intensely white dunes, glistening under the sun, and ghastly and weird under the moonlight; past the little eminence known as St. John's Bluff, the location of old Fort Caroline, where Menendez massacred the unfortunate Huguenots; and past Yellow Bluff, with its ancient Spanish ramparts. Along the river-side, on elevated ground beyond the commercial part of the town, many New York and Boston gentlemen have erected elegant residences, and the climate has already seduced them from even a summer allegiance to their Northern birthplaces. The view from "Riverside" is charming.

        It is not a score of years since there was a corn-field on the site of Bay street, now the chief avenue of a city of twelve thousand inhabitants. Jacksonville was once known as "Cow Ford." There the "King's Road," in the old days, crossed the river, and connected the northern settlements with St. Augustine. During the war it ran to decay; it was strongly fortified, and was clung to desperately by the Confederates. The Union troops occupied it then several times, and on the third assault a fire sprang out, which did much damage. At the close of the great struggle, the grass stood waist-high in the streets, and the cattle had taken refuge from the sun in the deserted houses. But the North has swept on in such a resistless current that, so far as its artificial features are concerned, the city has grown up according to the New England pattern, though foliage, climate, sun--all these are the antipodes of those of the North!

[BridgeTroll]

here's the link:

http://www.davidrumsey.com/maps1489.html


Click and enlarge the Duval County area. You'll see Wyoming marked on the map.

It looks like it may have been in the Tallyrand area.

[civil42806]

Anyone have any information on the origin of that name?  Ocklawaha, sounds like thats a job for you!

[stjr]

Everyone should find a few chuckles in this account of Florida politics, taxes, and education in 1874 per another excerpt from this book.  Imagine Republicans and Democrats talking with each other to garner the best ideas for all!!  Or, the land owner getting to set his own valuation on his property for tax purposes  .  And, how about those backwoods Florida crackers.  Aaaah... the simple days:

The Republican party of the State has suffered a good deal at the hands of some of the men who have been intrusted with its interest, so that many citizens of the State who, on national questions, always vote with Republicans, array themselves so far as regards their local interests with the Conservative faction. The balance of power in the State is at present held by the blacks, led by a few white men; but the Conservative element is rapidly gaining strength, and it is noted as somewhat remarkable that Northerners who settle there gradually find themselves leaning to Conservatism, as they are compelled to do to protect themselves against a torrent of ignorance and vice. Congressman Cox, of New York, was one day at a Republican meeting at Jacksonville, and was invited to address it. He professed great surprise, and inquired how it was "that a Democrat was asked to make an address in a Republican caucus?" He was thereupon informed that it was not a party meeting, but that it was an effort to secure the best men and the best ideas for the service of the State, even if they were found outside party limits. There has been a great deal of fraud and plundering on the part of county officers who, dazzled by the possession of newly acquired power, have not hesitated to put both hands into the public purse. Many have been detected, but some have been so adroit as to completely cloak their iniquities. A firm and thoroughly honest administration of State affairs would bring Florida into front rank among the prosperous States in a short time.

        Taxation is about $2.38 on every hundred, but the property owner is allowed to fix his own valuation. This includes a school and county tax amounting to one cent on a dollar. The various railroad enterprises into which the State has been urged have done considerable to embarrass it. The present State debt is nearly $1,350,000, exclusive of a contingent liability of $4,000,000 of bonds, issued by the State to those insincere adventurers who pretended that they desired to complete the Jacksonville, Pensacola and Mobile railroad. This important route is now finished to the town of Chattahoochee, in Florida, the location of the State Penitentiary. The road would be of great advantage to the State, if it were possible to get it freed from the endless litigation surrounding it, and to put even the section which is already completed into decent running order.

        It was an enterprise of too much magnitude for the capital or the management of the clever adventurer who got it into his possession, and who obtained everything that he desired from the reconstruction legislature. He having sunk beneath its weight, without having made the tremendous progress anticipated, the project languishes. An act of the last Legislature but one has prohibited the further issuing of bonds for any purpose whatever. The Administration of Governor Stearns has thus far been satisfactory.

        At the period of my visit to Florida, the State Superintendent of Education was a negro, and a gentleman of considerable culture and capacity. But neither he nor his predecessors had succeeded in doing much for common schools. The same prejudice which existed against them elsewhere in the South was felt in Florida up to a very recent date; and possibly exists in some degree now, because of the lurking fear of the whites that some day mixed schools may be insisted upon by the black masters of the situation. In such counties as Duval, where the influence of a large and flourishing town has been felt, there are many schools, well supplied and well taught; but as a rule, throughout the back-country, there are no schools, and there is no immediate prospect of any. The scrip which came to Florida, as her share of the national gift for the founding of an agricultural college, was swallowed up by some financial sharks in New York; it amounted to more than $80,000. The establishment of such a college would have been of great value to the State, giving an impetus to effort in exactly the necessary direction.

        The educational affairs of each county are managed by a "board of public instruction," consisting of five men recommended by the representatives of the Legislature, and appointed by the State Superintendent. There are about 700,000 acres of "school-lands" in the State, and there are some funds which are used in aiding counties to start schools. There are about 63,000 pupil-children in the State, not more than one-fourth of whom are supplied with good facilities for instruction. The amount annually expended for free education by the State, including donations from the Peabody fund, is $100,000. It was claimed that in 1873, 18,000 children attended the schools. At Gainesville, Key West, Tallahassee, Pensacola, and Madison, there are successful schools for both colored and white children, and at Ocala, Quincy, and Appalachicola, there are colored free schools; liberally aided by the Peabody bequest.

        In the backwoods there is an alarming amount of ignorance among the adults; there are hundreds of men and women who have not the simplest rudiments of education, and many amusing stories are told of the simplicity and boorishness of the "crackers." They are a soft-voiced, easy-going, childlike kind of folk, quick to anger, vindictive when their rage is protracted and becomes a feud; and generous and noble in their rough hospitality. But they live the most undesirable of lives, and, surrounded by every facility for a luxurious existence, subsist on "hog and hominy," and drink the meanest whiskey.

        The Florida Constitution, adopted under reconstruction, contains some novel features. One clause provides that the Legislature shall enact laws requiring educational qualifications for electors after the year 1880, but that no such law shall be made applicable to any elector who may have registered and voted at any election previous to that time. The Governor is elected for four years. The blacks predominate in the tiny Senate and Assembly, composed of twenty-four and fifty-three members, respectively; and during the sessions, Tallahassee, the capital, situated in a rolling country, in the midst of a beautiful spring region, is the scene of tyro legislation such as at present distinguishes the capitals of Louisiana and South Carolina.

        Quincy, St. Mark's, and Monticello, all offer attractions to the traveler; the latter is the site of a sanguinary fight between the forces under General Jackson and the Miccosakie Indians, and there, too, De Soto is said to have encamped on his way to the northward.

[stjr]

Anyone have any information on the origin of that name?  Ocklawaha, sounds like thats a job for you!

here's the link:
http://www.davidrumsey.com/maps1489.html
Click and enlarge the Duval County area. You'll see Wyoming marked on the map.

It looks like it may have been in the Tallyrand area.

Here is what Wikipedia says about the origins of the word "wyoming" in reference to the State so named.  I suspect its meaning "at the big river flat" may correlate with the geography of the area so named in Jacksonville:

The region may have acquired the name Wyoming as early as 1865, when Representative J. M. Ashley of Ohio introduced a bill to Congress to provide a "temporary government for the territory of Wyoming." The name Wyoming derives from the Munsee name xwé:wamənk, meaning "at the big river flat," originally applied to the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania, made famous by the 1809 poem Gertrude of Wyoming by Thomas Campbell.

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyoming

Here is a link to the poem, Gertrude of Wyoming (WARNING:  This is one long poem!): http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/gertrude-of-wyoming/