HomeMy WebLinkAboutHenry Wilson History - H. Tucker c. 1926a
TO A FRIEND
Kindred in mind and Love of Florida.
Benj. Harrison
These memoirs are Dedicated by
The Writer.
Note: This Public2tion has been registered
with the librarian of coniress and copyright
duly applied for.
ArranFed, Printed and bound by
T. J. Appleyard, inc,
Tallahassee, Florida, U. S. A.
Op le",c"
PREFACE
I, being the great-granddaughter of Capt.'Burnham, and
niece by marriave to Robert Ranson would like to carry on his
story of the Cape as near and true as it is humanly possible
to do,' and as far as ny knowledge goes.
Most of all the old pioneer settlers have long been gone,
so I have no positive proof of what happened betwern the time
of my Grandfather Wi2son's death and when I became old enough
to realize what wag going on. I never had the privilege of
seeing my Great-Grandfither Burnham, but have heard lots about
him from Ty Aunts and Uncles, and only vaguely remember M-,7
Grnrlfsther Wilson who �ied when i was just three years old.
I woDld love to Ye aiin to net the exacz dates and years on
which each of the happenings on which I hope to write, but as
that would be imposFible, I will put about when each event may
have happened.
This story will be based on largely who came to Cape
Vnvveral and homesteaded and what each one did, and how they
lived.
Helen Wilson Tucker
04/1
k
APPENDIX
These memoirs would hardly be complete without some
mention of Capt. Henry Wilson, whose name so often occurs as
Burnham's son-in-law and partner for over thirty years of his
life in Florida.
He was born May 1, 1830, in Pen Yan, New York State, but
lost his father when quite young and his mother marrying the
second time he failed to get along amicably with his step -father
and at the early ave of 16 he enlisted in the United States Army
and went to Mexico and was present in several of the major
engagements under Zachary Taylor and Gen. Worth.
Being a wel2-wrown lad, he easily paos"d for 18, the age
he 7ave on his enlistment. On the conclusion of hostilities
in MexAco he remained in tKe ArTy and was sent to Florida to
protect th9t State against the indians, who had constantly
ri�en the �-i,rmy ala they wanted to do for many years, but
who Q this time had ceased from any open fighting, only taking
ilvantnFe oT unyrntpctod placps and people to carry out occasional
raids on chrtle ond other kruperty.
IncIdently I might remork Z�at though Lhe original purchase
price or Florida paid to Spain w%s only five million dollars and
h9s often been re-nrd9d as a orcat barFain, the amount of money
necessary for the support of troops to guard it ran into many
m . illions -ore, and hundreds lost their lives, so there was a very
considernble strinn tind to this Spanish transfer, which lasted
"On "0 KhP niftios of the i-t qpntury.
H
At first, Wilson was stationed at Fort Dallas, on the
Miami River, which has since grown to 4e nuite a village; his
headquarters for about two years were in the old barracks recently
removed from Fort Dallas Park to that, near the Masonic Temple,
by the Women's Club and ladies of the Daughters of the American
Revolution, not wishing to see so important an historical relic,
really the first building in Miami, obliterated.
Twice during his stay At Fort Dallas he was sent to Fort
Brooke, where Ybor City is now�btilt, a suburb of Tampa, with
200 head of mules, crossing the State between the head of Lake
Okeechobee and the south end of Lake Tohopekaliga near Kissimee.
In those days a fair military trail existed the whole distance,
a great part of which forms the route for some of the best
highways of to -day,,
This trip took stout six weeks to go and come. After
leivin, Ft. Dallas, he was transferred to Ft. Pierce or Ft. Capron,
and the officer in char -e was no less a man than Tecumseh Sherman,
then a Lieutenant, but afterwards one of the Ereat Generals in
the Civil War.
Wilson beinn a handy man with boats was as,igned the duty of
carrying the majis from Ft. Pier3e to New Smyrna and allowed three
weeKE to mhke the roun! trip, w4ch meant carrying the mail
sacks in his boat to the hend OF tht in&an River, then carrying
them on h1s back norosr the Haulover before the conal was cut
throuFh to the Mosquitoe Lagoon, where he had a second ho9t,
and thence to Smyrna. From here another mail man took them over
to Lake Dexter, a part of the St. Johns River, whence they went
by boat to Jacksonville.
0
UNW11
A little to the north of where Titusville now is, was the
only post office on,the route where one old man lived and acted
as postmaster for some few who lived in the back country, and
whose mail was so scanty that Wilson said the bags seemed to
contain nothing.
Sometime later he called on one trip and found no one to
take the mail as the postmaster seems to have got tired and left
and deserted his post.
Some months later Capt. Dummitt received a letter from the
Postoffice authorities in Washington saying that this man had
left, and defaulted to the amount of sixty cents and as he,
Dummitt, was on his bond they called on him to make good the
shortage. Dummitt retlied that he never remembered goinF on the
man's hond, but rather than have the burden of a lawsuit with
the National Government he paid the sixty cents and thus settled
the claim without litigation.
Henry Wilson was in marW ways a lovable man of affectionate
disposition, short and sturdy in build and for many years with a
red face and -snow-white beard, the living image of Santa Claus.
He possessed what he called horse -sense and his sterling honesty
showed Itself when in 1891 according to the aFe he had given on
enlistmont he va0d have 5 -an rtitled to a pension, sixty-three,
as shown by his discharre, he reCused to accept it till two
years later, by which time he had actuylly attained thot aqe.
Be always struck me as a torn soldier, and having been
through three wars he wur intensely interested in the European
War and hoped to see its end, which, however was denied him.
I As he bluntly one day remarked, it was like all "Ouch," " a rich
Ran's wnr and a poor man's f1wht.11
IV
About the year 1881 a post office was established at
Canaveral with a weekly mail and he was appointed postmaster and
held the office till a short time before he died, when his
sight completely failed him, and he was for many years the oldest
postmaster in the United States.
He lies buried in the family plot at Canaveral and was
followed some eight years later by his wife, both dying at 86,
having being married for 61 years.
They raised ei7ht children, two boys and six girls. Mrs.
Wilson endeared herself to all and was never happier than when
surrounded by her children and grandchildren and her flowers,
of which she had a fine collection, admired by all who saw them.
Captain Dourlas Dummitt mentioned several times in these
memoirs, was formerly a Rritish su1ject from Barbidoes, West
Indies he came to the States, where he could o7n slaves, and
settled with several members of his family in St. Augustine,
where they intermarried with the Hardees, the Madisons, the
Naumans and others of the aristocratic military circle who there
made headquarters, and the graves of many are still to be found
in the military cemetery.
DOuglas Dummitt later went South to the Indian River and
Ptamed th"t celebrited Dummitt Grove which fcr many years was
known far and wide, and ho E2ve a name to two or three of the
best known varieties of oranges grown to -day in Florida. Two
West India hurricanes In 1893 nnd two in 1894 greatly damaged
this beautiful property, and the freeze of 1895 wrecked it so
badly that it has never recovered its former grandeur or value.
V
;�— Dummitt, like his friend Burnham, seemed to be a natural
leader of men and was looked up to and highly respected by
all, and monarch of all the surrounding territory. In the late
seventies or very early eighties he was taken ill and went to
Doctor Whitfield's place at Fairyland about 30 miles South, on
the river, and died and was buried there, whether in a marked
grave or not I could never discover.
Cape Canaveral, round which much of Our story centers, is
situated in North Latitude 28-27-36 and West Longitude 83-31-37
due east of Sharpes on the F. E. C. Ry., and is shown plainly
marked on every map of Florida extant whether ancient or modern,
even in some antedating St. Augustine. For many years I
endeavored to obtain the meaning of the word Canaveral without
sycess till a Cubin friend unhesitatingly said it meant a
"cane plantation! or-perferahly an'bld cane plantation," and I
have since so found it in Spanish dictionaries.
Whether it derived Its name from a nearby sugar plantation
which might have existed dong pripr to the time of our story in one
of the hammock's on the river, or whether from the canes or
re�ds that grew in the savanas near the beach and which still
crow there, is uncertain, but it was lonE a marked point on
all thr old novinitcryl charLs and was seen and noted by the
eirliest of the discovarers Of the New WcQ1.
One very interesting map attracted my attention in Lhe
British Museum some fifteen yeqrs since, that showed a number
Of small Indian settlements near the Cape bordering the savnnas.
This was said to h2ve been made from memory by a Presbyterian
missonary who was shipwrecked further down the Coast about 1708
M
RM
and had been taken care of by the Indians, who, however, never
allowed him to stray far from their camps, so that his knowledge
of the outside world was very limited. Latei he was rescued
and sailed balck to England, made his map and wrote some account
of his impressions, notably as to two great divisions of Indians,
one of which were kindly pepple and harmless, living on or near
the Coast, and those from the interior, very savage and hostile,
who at times raided the Coast tribes and killed many of them.
Up to the time of the fire in St. Augustine in 1914 which
destroyed many of our valuable historical documents, we had a
small book also by an Englishman descriptive of this part of
Florida, dated 1760, in which he records the existence of herds
of small native woolly buffaloes, roaming the savanas, of which
however no traces remain, thounh I have long searched for their
bones.
Ahout ten miles north of tno Lighthouse near the DeSoto
grove Capt, Clinton P. Eoneywell, the present IiEhthouse
keeper, discovered what he took to be the remains of ramparts
or fortifications. It was reported that the few Hugenots who
escaped from the Nenendez massacre at hatanzas, left in boats and
were last heard of near Canaveral, but whether they died of
starvition or escqped tc sea no record so far discovered remains
to tell.
Durim the war of 1812 a fierce engaTement between an,
Enqlish and American ship of wRr was fouEht off the Cape, in
which both were badly damaged but neither wrecked.
For several miles north and South of Cape Canaveral the
ocean beach was always a rich field of exploration. As to the
OHM
wonders of nature, Capt. Burnham often remarked that as many
times as he had walked the same he always noted something he
had never seen before.
Occasional West India hurricanes Grecked many ships and
cost their valuable cargoes on the shore. In August, 1870, a
French steamer, the Ladona, an iron vessel, came ashore stern
first, in a gale in spite of dragging both anchors and with
engines going full speed ahead and for more than fifty years
parts of her hull still marked her grave.
Amongst other things, she carried an immense cargo of
French boats and shoes, and though hundreds of theserere gathered
up by the settlerslin the neighborhood they were so badly mixed
that only one p9ir was found, so odd shoes were in the fashion
for a long time qfterwards.
About the end of the Civil War when cotton was at its highest
.value a schooner named the Tyler was wrecked some eight miles
above the Cape and is the iron ties had all rusted, it was
necessary to erect a homemade cotton -screw and the whole was
rebaled,
which
kept
many
busy
for a longk ime,
but
iTen
it
was
finally
shipped
the
price
hud
dropped to such
a point
that
very
little if any profit came to those who had worked so hard to
save it.
Valuable lumber vas always to he hod, from mqhorany to the
finest of gulf pine, and one wreck of OreFon pine spars of great
length and perfect, destined for the French hnvy, came ashore
and vas Ister cut qnd split into shingles. Burnham and his
friends on one occassion collected a large lot of mahogany logs
into one pile and the night hefore they were getting ready to move
them inland, a poq-rfull ug arrived from Key West at night and
tnwed them all off to sea.
4
=Mm
An occasional barrel of West India rum or a few cases
of French brandy was washed ashore from time to time and
contributed to the convivialty of those benighted days. One,
Captain Ston& who was at home anywhere from Cape Florida to
Cape Canaveral, once found a Spanish chest which contained
valuable clothes and gold coins, though he would never tell
how much money he got.
He went to New York and chartered a schooner and hired a
lot of men and came south again to Jupiter, passed throuFh the
Inlet and commenced to cut cabbage palm logs to carry to Key
West for wharf piles, but about the time he had loaded his
schooner the inlet sanded up &nd he never was able to Eet out
and the boat finally rctted there.
Fe then left to wn1k up the teach to Canaveral and it leing
in turtle e7E seasor, that was all he had to live on, turtle
ev7s and some rum he found, for over tKree weeks, which caused
him to say he hoped he would never see either turtle eggs or
rum again as long as he lived.
He settled on seveial places up and down the coast and
always carried a -small supply of beans and pumpkin seeds, which
he immediste2y 11inted on these claims and which soon gave him
somethinr tc eyz witn vhat vqme he ccu2d shoot, or fish he could.
on tch.
He had two sons, both well off in Me nornh, qnd when Ke
got tery old they cqme down to persuade him to quit his nomadic
1UP Fnd return with them to a good home. Thly found him on
a little clearing on the Banana River with a few green pumpkins
and half a possum hanEing In a bush for his next meal, and
commenced to urge him to leave such miserable life and share
their homes in comfort, which he stoutly refused to do, and
told them he desired they would clearly understand that he was
"An Independent Ean." Not long after he became dependent on
the County and died an ill"Tate of the poor farm'.
It is interesting to note that ever since Capt. Burnham
arrived at Cape Canaveral more than 73 years ago, the care of the
lighthouse has been continuously in the family, and two of its
keepers to -day are of the third generation.
Capt. Clinton P. Honeywell, the present chief, joined more
than 39 years ago and has thus seen a longer period of service
than Burnham. Other of his grandsons have become keepers at
other lights.
Capt. Thos. KniFht being for several years Chief Keeper
of both Jupiter and Hillpkoro Inlet LiFht Stations, whiae others
of his Prandsons have entered the Coast Guard service.
Owirg to the death of both of Capt. Burnham's sons unmarried,
the family
name
hos
become
extinct, except as
a Christian name.
Though
but
few
ofis
contemporaries are
still livinE,
it Is hoped that 1his may revive interest in the doings of his
joy and a mite added to the records of the early settlement
of the Lost Coant before all mencries of these early pioneers
have "ecome oblitnrated by the rvAhless hant of Time.
61,
CONCLUSION
It is the hope of the writer of this little history to see
a tablet, as shown below, erected at some suitable point on the
Aukona Bluff overloohirg that noble expanse of water of the
Indian River on which they hoped to make available for future
Senerations to live happily and safely on, thus to Commemorate
the first white settlpmept on the Indian River, and any profits
arising from the sale of this booklet will be devoted to that
purpose. I
Suggr-ted Decijn for
Mmorial Tablet:
THIS KEUEENT
WAS EHICTED
BY THE CITIZENS
OF ST. LUCIE COUNTY
ANNU DOMINI
TO COMMURATE
THE FIRST WHITE SETTLEMENT
ON !XD1AN HIVER
UNDER TEE ARK&D OCCUPATION ACT
FHCM 1843 TC 049
IN TCIL AM PERILS
ThEY LAID YnE POUNDATICN
FOR lhL 6011Y WE M017
T0101