"Today in Florida History"

for July

JULY 1  

1905                           St. Lucie county was named “for Saint Lucy of Syracuse, saint of the Roman Catholic church.  The name was first given to a fort built by the Spanish near Cape Canaveral in 1565.

1898                  The Battles of San Juan and Kettle Hills occurred on this date during the short-lived Spanish-American War.  The American Army, under the command of General William Shafter, were led by the “Buffalo Soldiers,” African-American troops who were the first troops to reach the top of San Juan Hill.  It was Lieutenant Colonel Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt who received most of the press notices and became an instant military hero.  Based on his military exploits and the publicity surrounding them, Roosevelt was  elected Vice-President in 1900 and assumed the presidency when McKinley was assassinated in 1901.

                  Shafter, who was called “El Gordo [the Fat One],” weighed over 380 pounds and had to use a buckboard in the field because no horse could carry his weight for any extended period of time.

1776                  English reinforcements from St. Augustine were assembled to deal with a successful raid by American rebels from Georgia on the plantations of northeast Florida.

1864         The U.S.S. Merrimac, under the command of Acting Lieutenant W. Budd, captured  the blockade-running sloop Henrietta at sea west of Tampa.  The Henrietta was carrying a cargo of cotton.

         A Federal expedition from Fort Meyers sailed for Bayport on the west coast of Florida, near Cedar Keys.  It was composed of the 2nd U.S. Colored Infantry and the 2nd Union Florida Cavalry [white], some 240 men in all.

1929                  The Radio Corporation of America [RCA] opened the first successful coast-to-coast radio station on Palm Beach’s Rainbow Pier.  Commercial radio first arrived in the United States in 1922 when KDKA went on the air in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

1935                  The first land was acquired for what would eventually become Torreya State Park on the Apalachicola River near Bristol.  The park opened to the public in 1940.

1950                  Governor Fuller Warren took credit for fulfilling a campaign promise made in the election of 1948 when the “no fence” law goes into effect.  This law required livestock owners to fence their animals and to keep them off the state’s highways.

1951                  Mary Hardy Reeser entered the record books and achieved fame of a sort when she became the most famous case of “spontaneous combustion”--that is the self-immolation of the human body because of entirely natural causes.

1957                  Daytona Beach Community College was established on this day.

1958                  North Florida Junior College [Madison] was chartered.

1961                  Author Ernest Hemingway died.

JULY 2  

1693                  Spanish expedition under Laureano del Torres y Ayala arrived at Pensacola Bay by following an overland route from the St. Marks (Apalachicola) area.

1887                  The first issue of the Florida Metropolis was published today.  This paper was later renamed the Jacksonville Journal.

1903                  The Crystal River community was formally organized as a town.

1957                  Gulf Coast Community College was founded at Panama City.

Prominent Floridians born on this day:

1885                  Herman Gunter, first Director of the Florida Geological Survey [1933], was born in Brooklyn, New York. 

1909                  Hoke S. Welch, newspaperman, was born in Atlanta, Georgia.  Welch served as the managing editor of the Miami Daily News for many years. 

JULY 3  

1823                  Monroe County, Florida’s sixth county, was created and named for James Monroe, the fifth President of the United States.

1863                  Boats from the U.S.S. Fort Henry, under the command of Lieutenant  McCauley, captured the sloop, Emma, north of Sea Horse Key [Cedar Key] with a cargo of tar and Confederate mail.

1898                  The U.S. Fleet destroyed the Spanish Navy as it attempted to flee from Santiago Harbor.  Spain loses 800 sailors and all its ships, while the U.S. loses only one sailor.

1896                  Pompano Beach was first settled.

1908                  Pompano Beach was incorporated as a town.

1925                  The “1920s Boom” continued.  Permits were granted for 425 hotels, mostly in South Florida, valued at $27,560,950, a record to that time.  

                  Tourist travel to Florida was reported up 243 percent over 1924.

1968                  Hillsborough Community College was founded in Tampa.

1971                  Melbourne native Jim Morrison of the rock group, the Doors, drowned in a bathtub in Paris on this date.  Morrison was buried in Paris.

JULY 4  

1594         Maria Vicente and Vincent Solana were wed in the St. Augustine Catholic Mission.  This was one of the earliest European marriages in Florida.

1868                  Military government came to an end when civilian control of the state government was restored.  Federal troops continued to occupy Florida until the striking of the Compromise of 1877.  The [Tallahassee] Floridian reported that the Republican Party held a Presidential campaign rally to celebrate this auspicious occasion and that the crowds from all over the state, particularly newly enfranchised freedmen, made up “Probably the largest crowd here, ever before at any time.”

1923                  Bridge over the Banana River [Brevard County] was formally opened with great fanfare.  This bridge made it possible to access the barrier island [present day Highway A1A] by automobile.

1924                  Opening of the Conners Highway across Florida.  More than 15,000 individuals celebrate the event at Okeechobee City.

1955                  Governor LeRoy Collins breaks ground near Fort Lauderdale for the construction of the Sunshine Parkway.

JULY 5  

1824                  [In the matter of the Republic of East Florida] Letter from the Correspondence of Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Adam Smith, United States Army Commander in Florida 1812-1813, to the Adjutant and Inspector General:

         Camp Before St. Augustine

         5th July, 1812

Sir:

         I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your favors of the 26th and 27th of May, 1st, 2nd, and 13th of June.  It transmit herewith a return of the Detachment under my command for June.

         I have been informed by his Excellency Governor Mitchell that at least one hundred and fifty more Volunteers are on their way to join me.  This force with the Marines on Amelia Island aided by six or eight gunboats will be sufficient to reduce the town if authority is received to take active measures in a short time.

         The Volunteers at present with me [are] only engaged to serve twenty days after their arrival, but I expect to be able to prevail on them to remain longer, particularly if I am authorized to reduce the town and the citadel (Castillo de San Marcos].  The [Spanish] garrison has been reinforced with one hundred blacks from Havana.

         I send herewith the copy of a contract made with Maj[or] Long for the supply of rations in this Province during the pleasure of the Secretary of War.

1830                  Judge F. Bethune reported weather conditions for his New Ross plantation five miles north of Jacksonville on the St. Johns River as 82 degrees and fair weather in the morning, but by three o’clock, the temperature had soared to 95 degrees. 

1838                  The United States Congress votes to enlarge the U.S. Army to a strength of 11,800 men as a result of the  demands of the Second Seminole War in  Florida.

1894                  On this day, Elwyn Thomas, Justice of the Supreme Court of Florida, was born at Ankona, Florida.

JULY 6  

1812                  From the correspondence of Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Adam Smith, United States Army, encamped before the Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine.

         “The Spaniards have not altered their conduct since the arrival of the one hundred black troops and it is difficult to determine whether they or the Patriots are the most inactive.  It is unfortunate that the [U.S.] Government did not authorize the taking of the town immediately on my arrival before its walls.  The Spaniards were then so panic struck and badly defended that it would have fallen an easy prey.  If well defended now, the lives of many brave men will make its possession a dear attainment.  However, if prompt measures are even now taken, I conceive the Garrison will not hold out long.”

1864                  A Federal column of black and white soldiers advanced from Cedar Keys on the Gulf Coast into the interior.  After the column had advanced for a few miles, it was attacked by Confederate cavalry and retreated to Cedar Keys.  The Federal force suffered eight wounded.  Confederate losses were unknown.

1876                  The Gainesville Sun was first published as a weekly newspaper called the Gainesville Times.

1885                  Florida’s 25th governor, Doyle Elam Carlton, was born at Wauchula.  Carlton’s term of office was from January 8, 1929-January 3, 1933.  He died in Tampa on October 25, 1972.

1863                  The U.S.S. DeSoto, with Captain W. M. Walker in command, captured the blockade runner, Lady Maria, off the coast of Clearwater, Florida, with a cargo of cotton.

JULY 7  

1835                  President Andrew Jackson approved a measure to prevent traders and runaway slave hunters from entering Seminole territory.  This was an attempt to quickly end the conflict between white Floridians and the Seminoles.  The measure was not successful, and the United State Army was dragged into the Second Seminole War [1835-1842].

1838                  The Territorial Legislative Council of Florida was reorganized by the U.S. Congress into a bi-cameral body with an Upper House [Senate] and a Lower House [House of Representatives].

1862                  The U.S.S. Penquin, under the command of Lieutenant J. C. Williamson, was ordered to Key West for duty with the East Gulf  Blockading Squadron.

1863                  The Trustees of Florida’s Internal Improvement Fund withdrew from public sale all lands lying within two miles of a coast or marsh.  The purpose of this action was to prevent speculators from buying all lands suitable for salt production.  Salt was an essential item for civilian and military use during the Civil War.

1864                  The small schooners,  U.S.S. Ariel [Acting Master Russell], U.S.S. Sea Bird [Acting Ensign Ezra L. Robbins], and the U.S.S. Stonewall [Acting Master Henry B. Carter], accompanied by the 29-ton sloop, Rosalie, [Acting Master Coffin], transported Union troops on a raid on Brooksville.  After disembarking the troops, the Ariel and the Sea Bird proceeded to Bayport, where a landing party captured a quantity of cotton and burned the custom house.

1965                  LeRoy Collins, former governor of Florida, was named Under Secretary of Commerce by President Lyndon Johnson.  He served in that capacity until October 1, 1966.

JULY 8   

1848                  Company C, Florida Volunteer Battalion, mustered out of service at Mobile following service in the Mexican-American War.

1862                  In response to a July 4 letter from S. R. Mallory which informed Governor John Milton that the 2nd Florida regiment had lost 471 soldiers since May 1 and which suggested that the governor start a recruitment drive for that unit, Milton replied to General James Longstreet on this date that an effort would be made.  Milton states that this will be a hard task since so many have already been mustered into Confederate service and that “those who are left are scattered throughout the state.”

1863                  Two U.S. Navy cutters, the Restless and the Rosalie, captured the schooner Ann and an unnamed sloop in Horse Creek, Florida, with cargoes of cotton.

1951                  William Thomas Cash (July 23, 1878-July 8, 1951), first state librarian for Florida, died .  A Teacher and school superintendent in Taylor County, Cash was also a member of the Florida House of Representatives (1909, 1915, 1917) and a member of the State Senate (1919).    From 1925 until 1928, he was the editor of the Perry Herald.   In April 1927, Cash was appointed state librarian, a post he held until his death.  During his administration, he built the library from a small collection of 1,500 uncatalogued volumes to over 50,000 volumes.  Cash was the author of two books, The History of the Democratic Party in Florida (1936) and the four-volume The Story of Florida (1938).

1974                  Dorothy W. Glisson (Mrs. W. E.) appointed to position of Secretary of State to serve remainder of the term of Richard B. Stone.

JULY 9   

1539                  Hernando de Soto inaugurates postal service in Florida when he writes a letter to the Cabildo of Santiago de Cuba from Espiritu Santo (Tampa Bay).

1835                  William Dunningham Bloxham, 13th governor of Florida [January 4, 1881-January 6, 1885] and 17th governor [January 5, 1897-January 8, 1901], was born in Leon County.  Bloxham’s first term of office was marked by the sale of 4,000,000 acres of public land in Florida to Hamilton Disston for $1,000,000.  His second term was consumed with finding solutions to the economic distress caused by the hard freezes of the mid-1890s.

1862                  The Federal schooner Wanderer was ordered to check the Indian River Inlet to determine whether that waterway was being used by Confederate blockade runners.

1863                  A boat crew from the U.S.S. Tahoma, commanded by Lieutenant Commander A. A. Semmes, captured an unnamed flatboat with a cargo of sugar and molasses near Manatee River, Florida.

1888                  Town of Lake Helen incorporated.

1957                  City of St. Petersburg Beach is created when the municipalities of Pass-A-Grille [1911], Don Cesar [1950], and Belle Vista Beach [1949] were consolidated with St. Petersburg Beach [1943]. 

JULY 10   

1861                  Colonel Brown, Federal commander of Fort Pickens in Pensacola Harbor, received reinforcements of New York Volunteers, but informed the Secretary of War that more were needed to hold the fort against an anticipated Confederate assault.

1862                  A Federal ship departs Egmont Key for Key West with a full manifest of Union sympathizers and runaway slaves.

1864                  U.S.S. Roebuck, Acting Master William L. Martine commanding, captured the blockade-running British schooner, Terrapin, at Jupiter Inlet with a cargo of cotton and turpentine.

1892                  Spessard Lindsay Holland, the 28th governor of Florida [January 7, 1941-January 2, 1945], was born at Bartow.  He graduated from Emory College, now Emory University.  A veteran of World War I, Holland presided over the militarization of the state during World War II.  Highlights of his administration include the creation of the Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission and the Everglades National Park.  Holland was appointed to fill the unexpired term of Charles O. Andrews in the United States Senate.  Holland was elected to four additional terms.  He left the Senate in January 1971.  He died in Bartow on November 6, 1971.

1898                  In the Spanish-American War, General William Shafter demanded the surrender of the city of Santiago.  American troops were weak and suffering high casualties from malaria.  The Spanish surrendered the city on July 17.  American casualties were 514 dead from disease and 260 from combat.  Thousands of American troops were sick.

1875                  Mary McLeod Bethune was born.  On October 3, 1904, she opened her school in Daytona.  Since she had only $1.50 in cash, it was necessary for her to scrounge to keep the school open.  Describing the early days, Mrs. Bethune wrote, “We burned logs and used the charred splinters as  pencils, and mashed elderberries for ink....I haunted the city dump and the trash piles behind the hotels, retrieving discarded linen and kitchenware, cracked dishes, broken chairs, pieces of old lumber.  Everything was scoured and mended.”  She achieved national prominence as an advisor to Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Mrs. Roosevelt during the New Deal.  In 1923, her school became Bethune-Cookman College and exists today as one of the great African-American institutions of higher learning.

1947                  Town of Hilliard founded.

1963                  Florida State Symphony and Florida State Opera created by the Florida Legislature.  Both cultural organizations are administered by the Florida State University School of Music.

JULY 11   

1864                  A landing party from U.S.S. James L. Davis, under the command of Acting Master Griswold, destroyed Confederate salt works near Tampa.  These works were capable of producing 150 bushels of salt per day.  The vats, reportedly owned by secessionists “Haygood” and “Carter,” were reported to Federal authorities by a Mr. Johnston of Tampa.

1864                  The following Florida units were participants in the Battle of Atlanta (July-September 1864):

                  Florida Marion Artillery

                  Florida First Cavalry Regiment

                  Florida 1st (Reorganized) Infantry Regiment

                  Florida 3rd Infantry Regiment

                  Florida 4th Infantry Regiment

                  Florida 6th Infantry Regiment

                  Florida 7th Infantry Regiment

1867                  First statewide convention of the Republican Party was held in Tallahassee.

1906                  Tracks of the Miami Electric Street Railway Company begun at the power house and completed to Avenue “B” by a crew of workmen.  Extensions north to Little River and south to Coconut Grove planned.

1969                  Dr. Thomas G. Carpenter was appointed as the first president of the University of North Florida at Jacksonville.

JULY 12   

1861                  The East Florida State Seminary holds its closing exercises for the year.

1862                  The Federal gunboat, Tahoma, arrives at Key West with the Confederate schooner, Uncle Mose, and its cargo of cotton as the prize.

1863                  The 1st, 3rd and 4th Florida Infantry Regiments were part of the fighting near Jackson, Mississippi.  According to official reported, these units, plus the 47th Georgia and Cobb’s Battery, took 200 prisoners and the colors of the 28th, 41st, and 53rd Illinois Regiments.

1864                  U.S.S. Ariel, the Sea Bird, the Stonewall, and the Rosalie transported Union troops for a raid on Brooksville, where they captured a quantity of  cotton.  The troops also burned the customs house.

                  Federal troops advance on Confederate pickets at Cedar Creek at the railroad.  Two Confederate scouts from the 2nd Florida Cavalry were captured and killed.

                  Master W. L. Martine of the bark, Roebuck, report that twenty-six refugees have arrived at Indian River Inlet and ask for transportation to St. Augustine.

1875                  Citizens of Leesburg vote for incorporation as a city.

1944                  Long time congressman, Ira William (Bill) McCollum, Jr., was born in Brooksville.

1958                  Dan Sikes of Jacksonville wins the National Public Links tournament at Chicago.

JULY 13   

1781                  Members of the American Continental Congress recommend “relief payments” for American prisoners of war released from British captivity at St. Augustine.

1861                  The 2nd Florida Infantry Regiment was assembled at the Old Brick Church in West Jacksonville and mustered into Confederate service.  The Alachua Guards, Leon Rifles, Columbia Guards, Hammock Guards (Marion County), Gulf State Guards of Jackson County, St. Johns Greys, St. Augustine Rifles, Hamilton Blues, Davis Guards of Nassau County, and the Madison Rangers. 

         Two detachments of Confederate Coast Guards were called to active duty by Brigadier General J. Taylor.

1863                  Confederate report that they opened fire on three launches in the St. Mark’s River opposite old Port Leon.  Although the men in the launches return fire, no Confederate casualties were reported.

1864                  Union and Confederate troops clash at Little and Big Trout Creek.

1865                  William Marvin was appointed Provisional Governor of Florida by President Andrew Johnson and directed him to call a constitutional convention to write a new constitution for the state as a condition for being readmitted to the Union.  Although the Convention met in Tallahassee on October 28 and wrote a new governing document, the new constitution, which would have become effective on November 7, was never activated because Congress assumed responsibility for establishing the rules for readmission and Johnson’s program was rejected.

1887                  Present day Titusville was incorporated as the City of Sand Point on this date.

1971                  Rhonda Spence became the first Florida citizen to cast a ballot under the age of twenty-one when she voted in a city election in DeFuniak Springs. Twenty-year old Lennie H. Andrews, a sailor, had turned in an absentee ballot on the Friday preceding the election, but the ballot was not opened until after Miss Spence had cast her vote.

1972                  In the first Democratic National Convention held at the City of Miami Beach, Senator George McGovern of South Dakota was nominated to run against incumbent President Richard M. Nixon.

JULY 14   

1832                  Congress appoints a  committee of three men to investigate the country west of the Mississippi River with the idea of finding a suitable area for relocating Indians from Georgia, Alabama, and Florida.

1846                  Augustus E. Maxwell became the Attorney General of Florida and served until April 11, 1848.

1861                  A detachment of the Florida Mounted Volunteers was sent to take up station at Fort Meade.  Under the command of 1st Lieutenant J. R. Durrance, the unit includes a sergeant, a corporal, and fifteen enlisted men.

1863                  The U.S.S. Jasmine, with Acting Master Alfred L. B. Zerega, captured the sloop Relampage, near the Florida Keys.  The Relampage was heading out of Havana with a cargo of copper boiler tubing.

1864                  A detachment of Federal cavalry landed at Broward’s Neck, Duval County.