Pensacola Business Heritage in St. John's Historic
Cemetery
Henry G. S. Baars
(1844-1909)
Highly successful International Lumber Exporter,
Businessman and Land Developer
The story of the Baars family and four generations of active real estate
development is one of the fascinating sagas of Pensacola. Henry's son, Theo and
subsequently Theo, Jr.; then Theo, III and his brother, Bryan, have continued
the family real estate promotion tradition.
Submitted by John Appleyard
The life of Henry Baars began in Oldenburg Province in Northwestern Germany
in 1844. His father, a prosperous lumberman and farmer, had prepared his son to
become a proper heir to a landed fortune. But then came the new order of Kaiser
William and his chancellor. Otto von Bismarck. Their efforts to unify and erect
the many provinces which then made up Germany involved creation of a large
conscript army. To avoid having his son become a soldier the elder Baars
purchased a military substitute for the boy, and also arranged a small
partnership for him in a British timber trading company. That firm, operated by
Carl Epping & Sons of London, had a Savannah office, and it was there that Henry
Baars went in 1860.
The youth had barely arrived and begun his business career when the War
Between The States erupted. Henry Baars enlisted in the Southern army, and four
years later was discharged, older, wounded, penniless. Within months he had
reopened the Epping office and had wooed a beautiful if impoverished Southern
belle named Mary Ellison Dunwody. The couple were married shortly thereafter,
and in 1870 Baars elected to move to Pensacola, where prospects for lumbering
and the timber trade seemed far better.
After a brief time he left the Epping company and opened his own firm.
From 1871 forward fortune smiled upon the Baars. They had eight children
(four survived infancy), and their business enterprise soared. Soon Baars was
acting as agent for up to seventy-five mills cutting and sizing timber
regionally. These materials were being shipped to four continents and nearby
islands. Baars was joined in the enterprise by his brother-in-law, Brian
Dunwody, and as they grew older, by his sons Theo and John Ernest. A second
firm, Baars, Dunwody & Company, was formed to facilitate lumber exports. Then
the group founded a company to operate tug boats related to local shipping. This
was called the Dunwody-Aiken Towing Company (Aiken was a Baars family in-law).
Decade after decade, these enterprises were profitable.
Throughout their married life Henry and Mary Ellison Baars enjoyed a unique
"game". On gift giving occasions he would ask "...and what would you like this
time...?", ...and she would respond: "Just buy me a piece of land." Time after
time Baars did. By 1890 there was much cutover property near the city's
boundaries, and Baars would acquire a modest package for each occasion.
Ultimately Mary Ellison's holdings exceeded 6000 acres, all in the path of the
city's growth. At one time, as they built a mansion on the city's perimeter.
Henry and Mary Ellison attempted to create and market a concept which would
later be known as condominiums, handsome furnished villas in a protected area
near Lake Texar. However, this project, which they called Cordova Park, proved
one of the family's few failures.
At the end of the War with Spain young Theo Baars took advantage of an
opportunity and employed the foresight to acquire warrants issued to discharged
service personnel. Those pieces of script were exchangeable for acreage on
Northwest Florida's Perdido Key, a place totally unknown and thus unattractive
to most discharged soldiers and sailors. From this effort the Baars clan
acquired some 12,000 acres for very little; then they clung to the vacant land
for almost seventy years, until the property had appeal for development.
Henry Baars continued his successful role until 1909, when he passed away. In
his lifetime he was both a highly successful businessman and a patron of his
adopted city. An Episcopalian, he worked with his wife and others to fund
construction of the new Christ Church building erected in 1903-04. A member of
the Chamber of Commerce, he strove to fund and build improvements in a downtown
area which, at the turn of the century, was still considerably behind in life's
niceties. He was (perhaps at his wife's prompting), a patron of the arts, and
was also a backer of many of the organized outdoor sports for which the area was
becoming known (sculling, horseback riding, fresh water fishing). His Palafox
Pier office, for many years at the water's edge, became a Pensacola landmark,
and the Baars home was the city's showplace. The family traveled extensively in
later years.
Baars also was astute in recognizing that lumbering and the timber trade
would end, thus he encouraged his sons and associates to begin planning other
business interests. Their ventures into real estate and land development
followed. The firm which Henry Baars originated in the 1870s continued to
operate into the fourth generation.
Henry G. S. Baars is buried in the Baars Lot of St. John's Historic Cemetery,
2 North Section 15.
Frasier Franklin Bingham
(1872-1953)
Progressive Leader in Business, Lumbering,
Real Estate, Shipping, Shipbuilding and Civic Affairs
was a Writer, Artist, Family Man and Booster of Pensacola
These two articles were submitted by Brian Bingham of San Diego; F. F.
Bingham was the older brother of Brian’s grandfather
"Log of the Peep
O'Day", by Frasier Franklin Bingham, Patagonia Press,1991, page's xiv-xxv
contain a biography of Frasier Franklin Bingham by Brian Rucker and Nathan
Woolsey:
"Frasier
Franklin Bingham played a prominent role in Progressive Era Pensacola. Born in
Yankee Springs, Michigan, in 1872, he was the son of Amos Reed and Caroline
Merry Bingham. F. F., as he preferred to be called, was proud of his roots and
could trace his forebears back to New England colonists of the 1600s. He
received an education in the public school systems of Chicago and St. Louis and
worked at many odd jobs as he matured.
His early
job experiences included work at a printing office, a wholesale grocery, a
rubber factory, a wool warehouse, a hay press factory, a metal and mineral
brokerage, and a railroad refrigerator car service. Driven by an intense desire
to succeed, Bingham took night classes at a business college and became trained
in stenography.
In 1890, at
the age of eighteen, Bingham left Kansas City and came to Pensacola, Florida.
There he obtained a job as a stenographer and clerk at the Southern States
Lumber Company. Pensacola was the center of a thriving market in yellow pine,
and the Southern States Lumber Company was one of the largest firms in the area,
holding approximately 400,000 acres of timberlands in West Florida and southern
Alabama. Bingham performed many tasks in the firm; he served as purchasing
agent, participated in foreign and domestic lumber sales, handled shipments, and
assisted in land sales. By 1913 he was assistant general manager of the company
and continued to Play a crucial role until the firm closed in 1930.
F. F.
Bingham dabbled in other business and social activities as well. He was
vice-president of the Pensacola Finance Company and took an active interest in
the field of real estate, serving as a land appraiser and a local real estate
expert until his death in 1953. Shipping was another sideline for Bingham, one
which he relished perhaps the most. Fascinated with the sea and with ships,
Bingham invested his money in the local ship-building industry. He was part
owner of the tugs Willie C. and Florence and of the barges Marjorie, Dorothy,
Robbie, and Ida. In addition, F. F. was the sole owner of the sea-going
schooners, Davy Crockett, Richard A. Bingham, Carrie A. Buckman, and City of
Baltimore. Not content to sit by, Bingham made a number of voyages in these and
other vessels to the West Indies and Central America.
During World
War I, Bingham opened a shipyard in Pensacola for the construction of wooden
motor schooners. Over $200,000 worth of vessels were turned out from this yard,
including several sold to the French government.
As if the
business world was not enough, Bingham threw his inexhaustible energy into a
host of community affairs. He was an active member of the McIlwain Presbyterian
Church and belonged to such organizations as the Masonic Lodge, Sons of the
American Revolution, Civitan Club, Florida State Troops, Young Men's Christian
Association of Pensacola, Sons of Federal Veterans, Concordia Club, and Woodmen
of the World.
In politics
F. F. Bingham was less successful. On the other hand, any staunch Republican in
a deep South city, as Bingham was, would have had a difficult political row to
hoe. Bingham served as Chairman of the Escambia County Republican Committee for
several years and on a number of occasions tested the political waters himself.
In 1907 he ran for the Pensacola Board of Public Works; in 1908 he sought to
become the new Escambia County Representative in the state legislature; and in
1929 he ran for the Pensacola Board of City Commissioners. The Republican label,
however, thwarted his political hopes. Though Bingham was a well-liked member
of the community, the "solid South" was still too formidable an obstacle for
most Republican aspirants of the early twentieth century. Bingham deserted his
political affiliation only once -in 1912 when former Republican president
Theodore Roosevelt sought reelection under the newly formed Progressive or Bull
Moose Party. Fellow Pensacolians teased Bingham's enthusiasm for Roosevelt and
nicknamed him "Mr. Bull Moose of Pensacola." Yet, despite his lack of success
in political campaigns, Bingham's energy and progressivism did not go unnoticed.
From 1910 to 1913 he was appointed -by a Democratic City Council -as a member of
the City Board of Bond Trustees.
As a
dyed-in-the-wool Progressive, F. F. Bingham was very concerned for his adopted
home of Pensacola and West Florida, and consequently was involved in numerous
organizations to benefit the region. Bingham served on the Pensacola Chamber of
Commerce and was secretary and director of both the Carnival Association and the
Pensacola Hotel Company. Bingham actively pushed for such varied projects as
the San Carlos Hotel, new railroad lines to Pensacola, improved public docking
facilities, shipbuilding plants, and diversification of industry. Working for
years in the lumber industry, Bingham had astutely realized that the vast
forests of virgin pine were being rapidly depleted. He increasingly urged West
Floridians to convert to industry, agriculture, and tourism as a remedy for the
"passing of the pine."
Perhaps more
than anything else, F. F. Bingham was known publicly as one of the most
enthusiastic promoters of Pensacola and West Florida during the first half of
the twentieth century.
In 1896 F.
F. Bingham married twenty-year old Miss Fannie Augusta Oerting. Fannie Oerting
was a native of Pensacola; her father was Charles McKenzie Oerting who served as
both the Danish and Swedish vice-consul for Pensacola at the turn of the
century. F. F. and Fannie Bingham eventually had seven children -Dorothy (b.
1898), Marjorie (b. 1900), Richard (b. 1902), Hilda (b. 1904), Charles (b.
1907), Harry, (b. 1911), and Thomas (b. 1913). In the early years of the new
century, the growing Bingham family lived in the East Hill district of
Pensacola. Along the high ground overlooking Bayou Texar, near the junction of
East Gadsden and 20th Avenue, the Bingham children discovered the joys of
childhood."
Frasier Franklin Bingham -1872 -1953
Submitted by
Marjorie Bingham Hewitt
My grandfather was a seafaring, boat-building, artist and writer who loved to
play games, tell tales and cook up pots of mystery gumbos. He was an adventurer,
politician, businessman, church pillar, and a Yankee who was passionately
devoted to Pensacola, Florida. He was born Frasier Phelps Bingham but had
trouble spelling "Phelps" so changed his name, at age 6, to his idea of a better
name, "Franklin". As an adult he was known as "F. F.", or "Bud", but to his
children and grandchildren he was "Chief".
I grew up as one
of nine cousins (later there were two more) who knew him as a grown-up who was
always ready for a swim, a ride in High Noon (a cabin cruiser he had built in
his back yard on Bayou Texar) or a story-reading session. The story was always
a chapter from his favorite novel, "Don Quixote". He taught us the alphabet
using the fancy initial letters that started each chapter of the heavy
leather-bound volume.
Chief was
born in Yankee Springs, Michigan and went to schools in Chicago and St. Louis.
His family made frequent trips to New York City. When he was 18 working as a
salesman for the Burroughs Company he sold a calculator to the Southern States
Lumber Company in Pensacola. Burroughs sent him down to deliver the big machine
and teach the employees how to use it. While here, he met and fell in love with
young Fannie Oerting. They married, and he didn't make it back to visit Michigan
for nearly 50 years.
His parents,
Amos and Caroline Bingham, decided that life in Pensacola suited them better
than Michigan winters, so they built a home and lived here the rest of their
lives. Retirement was too mild for Amos, so he started Bingham Transfer Company,
which flourished for nearly a century. He built some homes, and made at least
one extended trip to the Virgin Islands to buy mahogany for Southern States
Lumber.
The younger
Bingham's owned the home at 1020 East Cervantes for a decade until their family
outgrew that charming cottage and built a rambling home on Bayou Texar. Their
family eventually included seven children. Chief always kept journals, some of
which were printed in installments in the Pensacola newspaper. Two have since
been published as books edited by Dr. Brian Rucker. Somehow, Chief found time to
write a novel based on a Santa Rosa Island legend. "Ashore at Maiden's Walk"
was written in the flowery style beloved by the Victorians.
Chief was
rather proud of his cooking ability. Gourmet it wasn't, but exotic and
filling it certainly was. Every meal was called "Jambalaya" and consisted of
whatever was in the refrigerator, lots of onions, bacon, cans of beans,
tomatoes. Seasonings might include strong coffee, beer, sugar, salt and pepper,
and the whole delicious mess ladled over rice. Fannie conveniently never learned
to cook so on their cook's night off, dinner was Chiefs jambalaya.
An American
flag always flew in the front yard of the Bingham home. Patriotism and civic
responsibility were important elements of Chiefs character. He served as
Chairman of the Escambia County Republican Committee for many years, was active
in the Chamber of Commerce and the Carnival Association, and served the City in
appointed jobs.
Genealogy
was another interest. Chief was the Historian for the Florida Sons of the
American Revolution, Secretary of the national Bingham Association, and proud of
his ancestors who had arrived on the Mayflower. He was a member of McIlwain
Presbyterian Church. His parents were among the early members there. Caroline
was known as "Mother Bingham" and was famous for her cornet playing in the
church band, and for her delicious potato salad that was requested for every
church event. She never divulged the secret ingredient, but one of her daughters
says that she chopped an apple into every bowlful of potato salad. After her
death, the church dedicated a stained glass window to her memory.
Somehow, F.
F. Bingham the businessman managed to work at Southern States Lumber Company,
the outfit that had originally brought him to Pensacola as a teenager, until he
reached retirement. He was ultimately Vice President and General Manager of the
exporting and timberland company. On his own, he built a shipyard that turned
out many vessels. Some were sailing cargo ships that he retained ownership of,
others were built for the governments of France and the United States. As each
ship was being constructed, he would make a model of it at night, at home. Added
to the miniature fleet were models of historic ships and early sailing vessels
that interested him.
Photography
was an enthusiasm, and he made beautiful black and white prints and hand colored
them. A sketchbook was always handy, and the black manual typewriter that turned
out so many thousands of eloquent words.
Fannie, "The
Missus", died in 1931. Some years later Chief married again, and he and Anna had
a daughter, Annette. Today his descendants include eleven grandchildren, nine of
whom still live in Florida. It's in our genes ...we love the water, art,
genealogy, family ties. There's even one well-known chef in our bunch, but can
she make jambalaya like Chiefs?
F.
F. Bingham died in 1953 at his home overlooking his beloved Bayou Texar. He's
buried at St. Johns Cemetery in Pensacola in 2 North, Section 27 along with
other family members.
Lola Lee Daniel
Bruington (1896-1990)
Businesswoman, Historian, Patriot, Nurse
Gave Dedicated Service to Her Nation and Community From WWI to 1990
Lola Lee Daniel Bruington served her country with compassion and dedication
during World War I and World War. She was an early leader in historical
preservation in Pensacola and recorded valuable inventories of St. Michael’s
Cemetery and some rural cemeteries in the area.
Lola Lee Daniel was born Sept. 18, 1896, to Robert Lee and Lola McQueen
Daniel. She was raised and educated in Pensacola public schools and was a
graduate of the University of Kansas, where she majored in Spanish.
She became a nurse during World War I, first attending Vassar Summer Training
Camp for nurses. She then enrolled at Bellevue Hospital in New York and was
assigned to care for injured soldiers and sailors in New York and New Jersey
hospitals. After the war she headed enlisted men’s schools at Fort Dix, N.J.,
and Fort Hamilton, N.Y.
She returned to her home in Pensacola where she was a very successful
businesswoman and was president of Daniel Insurance Company and vice president
of Title Insurance Company for more than 40 years. Bruington never stopped
learning and was widely traveled abroad in Europe and in the Far East and Latin
America. She was married late in life to her college sweetheart, Clarke
Bruington; although she had no children, she was a devoted aunt. She joined the
Daughters of the American Revolution in 1931 and was devoted to its objectives.
She worked to make genealogy more accessible. With the help of her husband,
Clarke, Lola Lee copied the grave inscriptions in St. Michael’s Cemetery and
numerous small cemeteries around the county. The information was published in
two volumes of St. Michael’s Cemetery and Rural Cemeteries in Escambia County.
Her careful copying of county marriage records was also published.
During World War II, Bruington was appointed as chairwoman of information for
the Escambia County Defense Council. Tirelessly, she spoke at state and local
meetings about helping the war effort.
Bruington was an Episcopalian. She was a founding member of the local branch
of the American Association of University Women and, at one time, an active
member of the American Legion Auxiliary. She was a member of the National League
of American Pen Women and served as state president in 1952-54. In addition to
the DAR, other lineage societies to which she belonged included Daughters of
1812, Daughters of American Colonists, United Daughters of the Confederacy,
Dames of the Court of Honor and Daughters of Colonial Wars.
She worked with the Health Council, Crippled Children’s Home, and the
Community Chest as well as many other community organizations. An editorial in
the Pensacola Journal after her Oct. 27, 1990, death called her a legend who
left her mark as a businesswoman, historian, club leader and patriot. She was
called a living record of Pensacola who could recall and report passionately an
account of 20th century growth of Pensacola as well as its past history from the
beginning.
She was buried in St. John’s Historic Cemetery in 4 North, Section 45.
Richard Miles Cary
(1861-1925)
Early Business, Railroad and Banking Leader;
Grand Marshall of Pensacola parades for years
Members of the Cary family and related families, Wright and
Abercrombie, have played major roles in the growth and development of Pensacola
for over 130 years. Henry Cary gave a talk to the Historical Society in the
past. His grandfather, the senior Richard Miles Cary(1825-1898) also is buried
in St. John’s. Henry Cary submitted the following story about his father, the
junior Richard Miles Cary.
Members of the Cary family and related families, Wright and
Abercrombie, have played major roles in the growth and development of Pensacola
for over 130 years. Henry Cary gave a talk to the Historical Society in the
past. His grandfather, the senior Richard Mils Cary (1825-1898) also is buried
in St. John’s Cemetery. Henry Cary submitted the following story about his
father, the junior Richard Miles Cary.
My father's grandfather -was Gill Armistead Cary whose family
had lived on the peninsular between the York and James for five generations.
After service in the War of 1812, he married, and had four sons, each of whom
fought on the Southern side during the Civil War.
My father's father, Richard Miles Cary, was a school-teacher.
Late in the last months of the War he joined the Confederate armies defending
Petersburg, was wounded and returned to his students. After the War he moved
first to Eufaula then to Mobile and then to Pensacola, by which time his son, my
father, Richard Miles Cary, the subject of this paper was 12 to 14 years old.
The senior Richard Miles Cary died in 1898 and is buried in St. John's Cemetery.
On his tombstone under his name is written "A native of Virginia"
My father, Richard Miles Cary, was born in 1861 in Isle of Wight
County, Virginia. Although we have his picture in the uniform of a military
academy, we think he was schooled mostly by his father. He was good in
arithmetic: I have been told he could add a column of four digits by going
straight down-the- column.
At the age of eighteen he began his business career when he was
employed as a bookkeeper by the L&N Railroad. He was in the right place at the
right time.
To summarize John Appleyard’s account: " With the end of the War
had come the need to rebuild many (railroad) lines damaged by the War and in
addition there was later the drive to '.link Pensacola to the national system
being assembled by the L&N. There was also the project in the late 1870"s
supervised by Colonel W. D. Chipley to establish a line from Pensacola to River
Junction to connect with the one headed East from Jacksonville.
I think my father must have been Chipley's protégé because one
of my earliest memories is that of a large portrait of Chipley in our living
room.
At any rate my father was first a bookkeeper- then paymaster at
the age of 20 for the construction of the Pensacola/ River junction road.
Appleyard's account continues: "Cary was preparing pay envelopes
for 2278 men... was paying the cost of operating two engines... two boarding
cars- one caboose and (several) handcars... (As paymaster he drove through the
back country in a buggy delivering money to the workmen. He carried a pistol
under the seat.)
"When the railroad began operations in 1883 it added 10
locomotives, three first class passenger coaches two second class passenger
coaches, two mail and baggage cars and 20 freight cars..... Chipley was general
superintendent and Richard Cary was upgraded to secretary and auditor and also a
director."
During this time he saw that coal and no longer fat pine and oak
was the coming source of heat and energy. So in 1886 he resigned his position
with the railroad and opened a business along with one associate, one driver,
one dump wagon and one mule to sell coal and ice. Cary & Company was first
located near Tarragona and Main and then later to Chase and Tarragona and then
to the block of Tarragona and Gonzalez and Guillemard and Brainerd.
Three years later, seeing another need he and several other
leading citizens established Pensacola Home and Savings Association. He was its
secretary.
He had become active in the Florida State Militia and by 1894
was Captain of the Chipley Light Infantry. Appleyard: "The men... often drilled
on Sunday afternoons in Seville Square... on bicycles!"
When the Spanish American War broke out my grandfather took on
the management of Cary & Company, and my father was mustered with his company
into the Florida militia. They got as far as Tampa when the War ended. He was
promoted to Major then later to Colonel. It was about this time that he
incorporated Cary and Company along with A. C. Blount and Fannin Chipley.
And now, after the Spanish American War my father added another
venture: Bunker Coal.
The change from wind to steam as a way to move a ship from here
to there, and from pine knots to coal as a source of energy was now well under
way. Bunker Coal was a big business for Cary and Company from 1900 to 1925 when
serious competition from fuel oil mostly ended the bunker coal business.
It was a fascinating business. We would receive a cable from
Hull Blythe and Co, our connection in London that a ship would arrive on such
and such a date, and could need so many tons of coal. It could take a small
train to meet this order. The ship would arrive at the L&N Muscogee Wharf coal
tipple (its remains are still to be seen in the bay off Bay Boulevard at 12th
Avenue) Each loaded car would be picked way up- turned upside down- the coal
would flow down a chute into the ship's bunkers and trimmed there by laborers.
The captain would sign two drafts for foreign exchange (in case one was lost)
which my father would hand to the C&P Bank for collection.
Of course the retail coal business was the main source of
revenue first with mule and wagon and then with trucks until after World War II.
In 1893 my father was one of those who joined with Simpson Reese
to merge with the Peoples Bank & form the Citizens and Peoples National Bank. He
became the Vice-President of the new corporation.
In addition to his business interests he was a director of the
Chamber of Commerce, a vestryman in Christ Church, a 32 degree Mason, and Knight
Templar He was King Priscus and my mother was his Queen.
He loved horseback riding and until his death was the Grand
Marshall of all the local parades. He loved to tease. One of my earliest
memories is that of how shocked I was at the age of 5 or 6 when he appeared in
the living room completely dressed hat coat and tie--but no trousers and
announced he was on his way to the office!
In 1903 he married Mary Ethel Wright. They had five children. In
1925 he went to Mobile to be initiated as a Shriner. While there he was the
victim of a fatal heart attack.
He & other family members are buried in St. John’s Cemetery in 2
North Section 17. Under his name on his tombstone is written: "I have fought the
good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith."
James Monroe Fleming
(1885-1965)
Family Man, Manufacturer, Inventor, Civic/ Agricultural Leader Loved Pensacola
I like to see a man proud of the place in which he
lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him.
Abraham Lincoln
On
the beautiful Fleming fountain in Pensacola’s Fountain Park is an inscription,
"Dedicated to the memory of James Monroe Fleming and Ernestine Smith Fleming who
loved this city."
Raised
on a farm in Roberts, Florida, currently Thousand Oaks community, he and his
father, a farmer and justice of the peace, had to spend the night enroute when
bringing a team and wagon into Pensacola for provisions. This was the beginning
of his life-long love for this city. His education began in Escambia County
rural schoolhouse #5, Tate School, at Gonzalez, Florida under the inspirational
Professor James Madison Tate, and continued throughout his life. His Horatio
Alger story was punctuated by evening business school and a series of jobs,
which included Chief Clerk in the United States Marshall's office in Pensacola.
In 1921, he purchased Pensacola Mattress factory, which provided well for his
family (seven children) and insured opportunities to serve as a leader on the
local, state and national scene. Professionally, he became active with the
National Association of Bedding Manufacturers and served on its board for years
.Later, he was on an advisory board to the University of Florida School of
Business Administration.
His background gave impetus to his service to
agriculture in the area. He was Chairman of the Escambia Extension Council for
many years and President of the Pensacola Fair Association for 12 years; he
promoted 4H Clubs. His close colleague, T. T. Wentworth, Jr. said on Jim
Fleming's death, "a faithful worker, a happy companion, and a trusted and
sympathetic friend has passed".
As
a young man, he was an inventor and received several patents, including one for
an early recreational vehicle in 1913: "It takes only a minute with this
automatic device to convert a touring car into a bedroom or dining room". With
the top and side curtains in place, a tourist has greater privacy, larger bed
and better dressing room than the one who travels by rail." (Leslie's
Illustrated Weekly Newspaper.) He had a lifelong interest in and appreciation
for music, from Classical to Barbershop to Broadway. He sang in church and
community choirs, with directors including E. S. Northup, W. S. Garfield and
John Boschen.
Quoting from an editorial that appeared in The
Pensacola Journal, December 3, 1965, after his death:
"His many achievements reflect his enriching
fulfillment of civic duties. Mr. Fleming was past president of the Pensacola
Exchange Club; member of the Pensacola Housing Authority for 25 years; member of
the Santa Rosa Island Authority; and active in Pensacola Chamber of Commerce
activities, the Propeller Club and the American Red Cross.
"He was deacon of the First Christian Church and
served on the Board of Missions for Christian churches in Northwest Florida,
Alabama and West Georgia.
"Mr. Fleming showed his high interest in quality
education and made many contributions to state government. He originated the J.
M. Fleming trophy for the outstanding Pensacola High School athlete-scholar
(awarded for over 40 years) and was Trustee of The Florida Governmental Research
and Educational Foundation. He was President of the Florida Taxpayers'
Association, Vice-Chairman of the state Constitution Committee in the 1940's and
District Chairman for the Hoover Report, an organization, which conducted an
educational campaign for more efficient government."
"Mr. Fleming left a legacy of good citizenship. His
many activities during an enriching life should serve as a beacon to others who
desire a better environment. We need more community leaders with his high
character and citizenship qualities."
He is buried at St John’s Historic Cemetery, 5 North
Section 71 (1885-1965)
William Swift Keyser (1856-1934)
Outstanding leader in Lumbering and Milling Businesses
Submitted by John Appleyard
One account of Northwest's Florida's late19th century
industrial development stated that by 1890 there were sixty-five lumber mills
operating in Escambia and adjacent counties. Most of the operators were first
generation to Florida, but a few were not. One whose family had entered this
field regionally in antebellum days was William Swift Keyser, banker,
manufacturer, philanthropist.
The Keyser family emigrated to the United States from
Holland in 1688, at the time of the Glorious Revolution which brought Holland's
king to England. The Keysers' were residents of the Germantown area of
Pennsylvania from that date until 1818, when William S. Keyser's grandfather
moved to Pensacola. Why the move? We do not know. The Keyser of that period had
married a New England lady, and his son had been born in Connecticut in 1821
(again the disparity in dates and locations is not historically explained). In
any event, young William Judah Keyser was raised on the Gulf Coast and
established the firm of Keyser, Judah & Company, lumberers, in 1857. The plant
was destroyed by retreating Southern forces in 1862 but was rebuilt soon after
the war. Meanwhile, young William Swift Keyser had been born either early in or
just before the war's beginning. He was a freshman at Yale University when his
father died; that death was followed two years later (in 1879) by the passing of
the firm's other partner, Judah, a lumberman and ship builder. Within a year W.
S. Keyser had been graduated at New Haven and returned home to become the firm's
manager.
Young Keyser had planned to follow the law, but the
excitement of the lumbering industry of the 1880s was great, and so he remained
at the firm's helm. The company name was changed to Keyser & Company, and within
fifteen years the enterprise was much enlarged. By then Keyser & Company owned
two large mills outright and had operating interests in twenty others, with
foreign exports of over 150,000,000 feet of timber annually. As this growth
occurred a young clerk named James M. Muldon joined the firm, demonstrated
managerial skills, and contributed significantly to corporate growth and
success. In 1904 the firm was renamed Keyser-Muldon & Company, with Muldon as a
partner.
In 1888 Keyser married the former Mary Eliza
Campbell, daughter of a local judge. They had seven children, four of whom
survived infancy. The family belonged to Christ Church, where Keyser was a
longtime vestryman.
Keyser was a Democrat and a strong party supporter,
but he never sought office himself. He was not a prolific joiner. Those
organizations in which he did retain memberships included New York's Yale and
University clubs, and he was a member of the local Osceola and Country clubs.
Keyser also was active in the Sons of the American Revolution, as a lineal
descendent of Samuel Peace of Connecticut.
Keyser-Muldon followed the trend of other local
mills; it was hard hit by the beginning of World War I, and by the recession of
the early 1920s. When Keyser died, Muldon turned his interests to other forms of
business, and the firm was closed.
William Swift Keyser is buried in 2 North Section 17.
Harry A. Lurton (1887-1951)
Business Genius, Civic Leader
Business genius went into the enterprises directed by
Harry A. Lurton, one of the younger men of Pensacola who made a success in
several directions, and whose progress was marked by an interest in the
upbuilding of his home city, as well as by his own individual advancement.
Harry Lurton was born in Pensacola, January 14, 1887,
son of James W. Lurton and Aline Lurton. His father was a Kentuckian, but for a
number of years was with the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, as
Superintendent Harry Lurton was educated in the schools of Pensacola. He was an
employee of the Louisville and Nashville, next representing the J. P. Williams
Company of Savannah, Ga., at the Pensacola headquarters of the company, which
conducted a local grocery in connection with the business. A connection with the
Jennings Naval Stores business followed, and he remained with this company until
the outbreak of the World War.
As a second lieutenant of infantry, Mr. Lurton was
stationed at Camp Hancock, Augusta, Ga. He held the rank of major in the United
States Reserve Corps.
After the war Mr. Lurton organized the Lurton-Hardaker
Company, a Naval Stores concern. In 1924 the present company was organized, with
a capital of half a million dollars, and the business was greatly expanded. The
Lurton Company, of which he was president, was one of the largest naval stores
and wholesale grocery businesses of the South. The company owned thousands of
acres of timberland in Santa Rosa, Okaloosa and Escambia counties. When the
Lurton Company was organized it took over and expanded the Lurton-Hardaker
Company and also absorbed the business of the Consolidated Naval Stores Company,
in the west Florida territory. The company's offices and merchandise department
were located in its own two-story brick building, adjacent to the yards of the
Louisville and Nashville Railroad and with the tracks of the Frisco system in
front, these being the two roads that served Pensacola and its territory.
Handling its own large receipts on its own yards, the Lurton Company also
provided facilities for the naval stores handled at Pensacola for Taylor,
Lowenstein and Company of Mobile, Ala., and E. C. Hughes of Mobile. Its
wholesale trade covered the Pensacola territory and in addition, the company
owned and operated three "Piggly Wiggly" stores in Pensacola and one in DeFuniak
Springs.
Across the railroad tracks from the main warehouse
the company had an additional warehouse, 60 by 160 feet in size, where the
produce business was carried on. This building was equipped with a cold storage
plant, and otherwise adapted for the satisfactory handling of fruits and green
vegetables. At the naval stores yards the company had in operation four
five-thousand-barrel tanks, a total capacity in use of twenty thousand barrels,
with three other reserve tanks for turpentine, with capacity of five thousand
barrels each. In the storage shed there was capacity for twelve thousand empty
barrels, while the storage capacity for rosin was enormous. All of the naval
stores coming by water to Pensacola were landed on the dock near the Lurton
offices and warehouse.
Mr. Lurton was a member of the Pensacola Chamber of
Commerce, of the Rotary Club, and of the Pensacola Country Club. He was at the
head of the West Florida Receiving Home, a part of the Florida Home Society for
children.
He was married at Pensacola to Miss Georgia Boyer;
they had two children, Carolyn and Harriet Ann. Harry A. & Georgia Boyer Lurton
are buried in St. John's 5 North Section 65.
Frank L. Mayes (1873-1915)
One
of The Pensacola's Most Substantial Citizens of the Early 20th Century
Leader in Newspaper and Printing Industries
Frank L. Mayes was one member of an army of young,
talented men who found Pensacola attractive in the waning years of the 19th
century. He had been born in Rockford, Illinois in 1873, the son of James 0. and
Jennie T. (Johnson) Mayes. The father was a farmer, and young Mayes spent his
boyhood on modest size acreages in Illinois, Iowa and South Dakota. The senior
Mayes died when young Frank was thirteen, leaving the widow with five children
to support on a small Dakota ranch...no small task. For the next half dozen
years young Frank assisted his mother, attending school during winter months.
During those difficult times he developed a love of history and of writing,
poring over the lives of such favorite figures as Moses, Caesar and Napoleon.
A succession of years of drought and crop failures
decided Frank Mayes against a career in farming. With a few dollars in his
pocket he entered Dakota University at Mitchell, working his way through. Then,
for two years he taught at a rural school, an experience he later recounted as
"very difficult..."
In 1896 Mayes made his first trip to Pensacola (what
brought him here is not known) and began an eighteen month stint as a reporter
for the Pensacola Times. With some ink in his blood Mayes returned to Dakota to
become part owner of the Mitchell Gazette.
That too was a sobering experience, and in 1899 he
returned to Pensacola, poorer but wiser. Again he began working for local
papers. A sober, hard working man, Mayes saved his earnings and soon was able to
become the controlling owner of the Pensacola Journal; he was also the company's
president. Following a logical track for those times he established a new
venture, Mayes Printing Company, and allied it with his newspaper. Profits from
the two firms were used to buy controlling interest in the Meridian
(Mississippi) Dispatch. Later, Mayes also became owner of the Perdido Land
Company.
Socially and politically Frank Mayes became one of
the city's most substantial citizens of the early 20th century. He was president
of the Chamber of Commerce for 1906, was a member of the Osceola Club, the
Concordia Club, the Knights of Phythias and the Knights of the Maccabees. He was
a longtime member of the First Presbyterian Church, and in 1903-04 was one of
the founding members of the YMCA. A Democrat, he was active in many local
campaigns and was a delegate to the 1908 national convention in Denver, where he
helped write the party's platform for its candidate, William Jennings Bryan.
On December 25, 1899, Mayes was married to Miss Lois
Kingsbery of Hartford, South Dakota; the couple had three children, Howard Lee,
Charles Albert and Margarita Mayes.
Frank L. Mayes is buried in 2 North Section 27.
John A. Merritt
(1864-1937)
Influential Member of the community and of the
port
was a booster for the city and early Rotary Club President
John
Abercrombie Merritt served on both the Escambia County Commission and Pensacola
City Council and was one of the founding members of the Pensacola Area Chamber
of Commerce.
Merritt
was born on March 16, 1864, in Russell County, Ala., where his mother lived on
the farm of Dr. Charles Abercrombie, while his father was in England seeking
supplies for the Confederates. His father, Lucius M. Merritt, had been a
political prisoner at Fort Pickens in 1862 for refusing to sign an oath of
allegiance to the federal government. His father, however, was released in early
1863 and rejoined the Confederate cause and his family.
He was 5 when he arrived in
Pensacola in July 1869 aboard the ship Mine Lizzie. John received his early
education at Episcopal schools in Pensacola, in Sewanee, Tennessee, and a school
in North Carolina. About 1880 his father arranged for him to study law with E.
A. Perry, who later became Florida governor. Merritt soon decided law wasn't for
him.
At his father's death in January
1893, young Merritt took over his shipbroker business, calling it John A.
Merritt and Co. Richard H. Turner Jr., his brother-in-law, joined him as a
one-third partner around 1900. In Pensacola Supply Company, a sister company
that did stevedoring for the Merritt Company, he was joined by Manuel (Guy)
Palmes as a partner.
Merritt was an influential member
of the community and of the port, working quietly to help promote the city. He
was recognized throughout West Florida as a business leader. In 1900 he served
three years on the board of the Citizens National Bank. He was a partner in the
Bluff Springs Gravel Company and a director of the new Hotel Company, which
operated the San Carlos. He was also one-third owner of the Bayou Chico Land
Company.
Joining with J. Simpson Reese of
the Citizens and Peoples Bank, Merritt worked with the group of Chicago
engineers and bridge builders to form a shipbuilding company to build merchant
ships for the government. Although no ships were finished before the end of
World War I, the company began building ships on Bayou Chico. Prior to the
completion of the first ship, the firm built a new bridge across the bayou that
would open for the ships to reach open waters.
At the height of the lumber boom,
Merritt and Co. arranged charters for the export of lumber around the world,
later turning to coal with the decline of local pine timber. He developed a
relationship with a London company for the export of coal and circa 1933 he
began a lucrative partnership with Weis Patterson Company for the import of
mahogany logs from Central and South America.
Although Merritt was not
interested in the practice of law, he became deeply involved in the politics of
the city. In 1894 he was elected tax assessor for two years; from 1896 to 1904
he was secretary of the Pilot Commission; and from 1907 to 1908 he was Chairman
of the Board of County Commissioners. In 1931 he served on the first city
council under the city manager form of government, our present form of city
government.
Merritt was a
founding member of the Pensacola Area Chamber of Commerce and in 1923 was its
president, a position also held in later years by his son Richard and his
grandson Ted Nickinson. When the Pensacola Chapter of the American Red Cross was
organized in 1917, Merritt was a member of the finance committee. Since then,
several members of his family have served on the chapter's board of directors.
Merritt
helped found the Rotary Club of Pensacola, serving as its second president. He
was a president of the Pensacola Country Club and member of the YMCA. He told
the Rotary Club in an early 1930's talk that he had given up some of his social
outlets after his marriage. These included membership in the Osceola Club,
Knights of the Pythias and the Dudes, a young men's baseball team in the 1890's.
Sometime
after his 1892 marriage to Mary Turner, daughter of another prominent Pensacola
family, Merritt joined his Scotch Presbyterian in-laws in the Presbyterian
Church. He and his wife raised five children to adulthood and had 13
grandchildren. Merritt and several members of the Turner and Merritt families
are buried in St. John's 1 North Section 5, Lot 18.
William Hazard
Northup (1848-1925)
Ship’s Captain, Businessman, Collector of
Customs, Postmaster,
Mayor of Pensacola (1897-1898)
William Hazard Northup made major contributions to the
development of commerce and public service in Pensacola at the turn of the 20th
century. His family members played important roles in the early development of
musical organizations in the community.
According to his grandson, Dr. Aldrich Northup of Pensacola,
William H. Northup was born on a farm near Tower Hill, Rhode Island in 1847.As a
teenager he ran way to sea. By age 21 he had become captain of a coastwise
schooner. There was a big demand for shipping of ice by coastal schooners.
Eugene E. Saunders, an acquaintance of Northup’s in Rhode Island
also was a ship’s captain and had moved to Pensacola in 1868, establishing E. E
Saunders Fishing Company. Saunders probably encouraged Northup to move to
Pensacola in the early 1870’s. Captain William Northup left the sea, married
Saunders’ sister, Harriet, and became active in business and politics. William
and Harriet had a son, Edwin Saunders Northup, born in1873.
At that time, there was a demand for livery services since many
could not board and care for their own horses at home in the city. According to
Dr. Northup, William H. Northup opened Northup and Wood Livery Stable. One could
call by telephone and have his horse and carriage delivered to his home. Some
might lease a horse and buggy, a sort of “Hertz” of the times. Since funeral
processions required a horse-drawn hearse and multiple carriages, undertaking
and funerals were part of the livery business.
According to John Appleyard, in the mid-1890’s when the
Pensacola Street Railway Company went out of business Captain Northup, with
others, formed a successor company. They immediately filed requests with the
City of Pensacola to enlarge an existing electrical generating plant to
electrify street railways, and then double-track the system along Palafox
Street. Later, the local electric generating company and the street railway
company were merged and the process of further electrification began.
Thereafter, there were several mergers, climaxing in 1905 when the Pensacola
Electric Company, direct ancestor of Gulf Power Company, acquired the
organization.
William H. Northup was elected Mayor of Pensacola in 1897-1898.
President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Northup Collector of Customs at the Port
of Pensacola in 1907 and President William H. Taft appointed him Postmaster at
Pensacola. According to Dr. Northup the above appointments were probably awarded
for Northup’s services as one of the few local Republicans! Captain Northup sold
his undertaking business to T. M. Lloyd just before Northup’s death in 1925.
When Harriet Northup had a serious illness, their young son
Edwin S. Northup was sent back to New England to be raised by his grandparents.
He studied at St. Paul’s in Long Island, N.Y. and graduated from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He had considerable training in music. In
1925,he was serving as an engineer in Albany, N.Y. when his father, William H.
died. Edwin then moved to Pensacola with his wife, Louise, and two sons, Eugene
S. and William H. A third son, Aldrich, was born the next year. Edwin Saunders
Northup managed the affairs of his father, William H, and was very active in
community music activities, both instrumental and choral. Meetings of musicians
in his home on West Gregory Street were the vestigial beginnings of the
Pensacola Symphony Orchestra. Edwin was the director of the choir at Christ
Church and community choruses. Edwin S. Northup’s son, Dr. Aldrich, has carried
on the family music tradition for years as a tenor soloist at Christ Church and
in the community.
William H. Northup is buried at St. John’s in 1 North, Section 9
1848-1925
Edwin Saunders Northup is in 4 North, Section 9 1873-1940
Ashley D. Pace
(1896-1984)
Outstanding business and civic leader;
pioneer in pulp and paper production;
naval stores and land developer; yachtsman and golfer;
Fiesta DeLuna for Quadri-centennial Celebration in 1959
(This information was
submitted by Ashley D. Pace, Jr. (Dick).
Ashley D. Pace
was born 1896 in Hazlehurst, Georgia. He moved to Pensacola with his father, two
brothers and one sister about 1902, following the death of his mother. He
attended several schools (Bell Buckle Academy, Stone Mountain Academy, and
Riverside Military Academy); he graduated from Wake Forest College in 1918,
where he was football captain and quarterback. He entered Naval Aviation flight
training at M.I.T. in Boston, but was released for recuperation following a near
fatal case of flu.
He married
Grace Owen of Pensacola in 1918, and they had two sons, Ashley D., Jr. (“Dick”)
and Thomas M. (“Tom”). In 1929 he moved with his family to Savannah, Georgia.,
to engage in the turpentine and rosin business. While there he learned that the
Savannah paper mill of Union Bag and Paper Co. was making paper out of Southern
pine by a new process. This gave him the idea of a paper mill in Pensacola,
using his father’s cut over and reforested timberlands.
After four
years in Savannah, he moved back to Pensacola, where he continued to pursue his
dream of a paper mill. Finally, with his brother John and Jim Allen, an
experienced paper executive, they founded at Cantonment, Florida the Florida
Pulp and Paper Company which commenced production in 1941. This was merged with
St. Regis Paper Company in 1946, but the two Pace brothers remained active and
were members of its board of directors for many years.
Dick Pace also influenced Monsanto and
Escambia Bay Chemical to locate plants in the area; he helped facilitate land
acquisition and negotiations with local officials.
He was an avid golfer and yachtsman; a
long-time member of the Pensacola Country Club and the Pensacola Yacht Club. He
located and arranged for the purchase from the Muldon family of the present site
of the Yacht Club. He was given the honor of portraying DeLuna in the Fiesta of
Five Flags for Pensacola’s Quadri-centennial in 1959.
Mr. Pace died in 1984; his wife, Grace,
preceded him in death. They are buried side by side at St. John’s Historic
Cemetery in 5 North, Section 65, Lot 7.
James G. Pace
(1867-1948)
Extraordinary leader in forestry, lumbering and
business; civic leader and benefactor to many causes;
Pace, Florida and Pace Boulevard were named after him
(This information was submitted by Ashley D. Pace, Jr. (Dick),
grandson of James G. Pace.)
James
G. Pace was born in 1867 and was raised in south Georgia. He married Caroline
Ashley in 1890, and had four children: H. Burgess, Myrtice, Ashley D. and John
C. Pace. Caroline died in 1901. He moved to the Pensacola area about 1902, and
bought a large tract of timberland (approximately.100,000 acres) in Santa Rosa
County from a Mr. Skinner. Later, he married Winona Rabb, and had five children:
Mary Catherine, Virginia, James G., Jr., Winona, and Frances. He founded the
community of Pace, east of Pensacola, where he established his sawmill.
In the late 1920’s, Mr. Pace was sent to France by the U. S.
Government to study modern forestry techniques. This led him to stop further
cutting and undertake reforestation on his land. By the late 1930’s, this
timberland was the foundation of the Pensacola paper mill, now the International
Paper Company. He was also engaged in farming, banking and the wholesale grocery
business. He was a benefactor of local churches and charities.
During World War I some of the local banks failed. A British
lumber broker was unable to cover his drafts, and the bank became insolvent. The
American National. Bank was allowed to re-open when Mr. Pace pledged his entire
personal assets to restore its solvency. He was temporary president of the bank
for about a year. After things were back to normal, he stepped aside and turned
it over to the permanent officers.
He was an avid international traveler, visiting destinations in
Europe, Africa, Asia and South America.
In
addition to the nearby town of Pace, Florida, also named for him are Pace
Boulevard and the Pace Temple CME Episcopal Church, both in Pensacola. The Pace
Temple CME Church was named for him because, when he lent them the money to
build it, Mr. Pace was so impressed by the faithful way they made the early
payments that he cancelled all the remaining ones and tore up the mortgage. He
was known to be a very sharp and capable businessman, but “with a very good
heart.”
He died in1948 and was buried in St. John’s Historic Cemetery 4
North, Section 55, Lot 7.
Francis R.
Pou (1865-1923)
Businessman, Livery Stable and Funeral Director,
Civic Leader, Mayor of Pensacola 1918
Submitted by John Appleyard
Francis R. (Frank) Pou was Pensacola's mayor for the single year
of 1918. The Pou family, with two branches, is first listed in the city's
initial directory in 1885, in this way:
1) Pou, Lewis A., (Pou & Company) general store, Palafox near
Intendencia; home, Gregory St. near Alcaniz.
2) Pou (Francis G.) & Co., general store, Palafox near Intendencia, home Gregory
near Alcaniz.
Apparently the two were brothers; the directory listed no other family members.
In 1897 the Bliss Quarterly Magazine lists the Levy &
Pou Company, Wholesale and Retail, clothing, gents furnishings, shoes and
hats.
509-511 South Palafox Street
L. M. Levy was President and treasurer, while H. O. Anson was secretary.
The next available listing was for F. R. Pou in the L&N
Railroad's magazine dated 1905. The copy said:
Mr. F. R. Pou Feed and Livery Stable and Funeral Director.
Nos. 13-17 West Intendencia Street. Office Phone: 31, Residence Phone 673. The
Above Enterprise is the Largest of its kind in Pensacola, In Every Respect. The
Business Has Been Established Here for Eight Years, and Gives Employment to a
Force of Eight Men, All of Whom Are Practicable in the Various Departments. The
Capacity of the Barns and Stables Are Extremely Large, Having Facilities of
Accommodating Sixty Head of Stock, and a Number of Fine Vehicles of the Most
Fashionable Style. They Make a Specialty of Boarding Horses and in This
Department Every Effort is Put Forth to Give All Customers Proper Attention to
Their Stock. Mr. Pou is a Businessman of Fine Ability, and Under His Able
Management the Business Has Met with Increasing Success Each Year it Has Been in
Existence. He is a Practicable Embalmer Himself, and in This Particular Line He
is Undoubtedly the Best in the City. Courteous Treatment Is One of the Principal
Features of the Establishment.
Unfortunately other available data does not carry this personal
account farther. The funeral service later became Fisher-Pou. He was buried in
St. John's Cemetery 2 North Section 16.
John Richard Saunders
(1862-1908)
Outstanding Business Leader of Pensacola
John Richard Saunders, was born Feb. 12, 1862, in Somerton, Va., and received
his education there. When he was 23 years old, he moved to Georgia where he
learned the sawmill and naval stores business. He came to Pensacola in 1899 and
organized the West Coast Naval Stores Company which was later merged into the
Consolidated Naval Stores Co.
With the vast forests of pine trees, West Florida was at the forefront in the
production of turpentine, lumber and naval stores. By World War I Pensacola's
port was third in the world market. Naval stores were products from timber that
were an essential part of wooden ship stores such as tar, pitch, masts and
spars.
In 1905 he established a stock company, J. R. Saunders Co., dealing with
turpentine and rosin. He established branch offices and yards in New Orleans,
San Francisco, and two inland ports in Illinois. With others, Saunders founded
the German-American Lumber Co. with a sawmill at Millview, on Perdido Bay. He
was president of several businesses including the Saunders Grocery Co., Export
Lumber Co., Saunders Mill Co., Southern Brick Co. and the Pensacola, St. Andrews
and Gulf Steamship Co (owner of the Tarpon). Saunders was a director in the
American National Bank and a vice president of the Escambia Land and
Manufacturing Co. Saunders acquired large holdings of real estate in the area.
Early in 1883, Saunders and Ella Day Smith were married in Nansemond County,
Va. They were parents of four children - a daughter and three sons.
He was an active member of Pensacola's Methodist Church on
Palafox and Garden and was building chairman for the "new" First Methodist
Church on Wright Street. He was considered by many to be one of the most
outstanding citizens of Pensacola. Saunders died Aug. 9, 1908, unexpectedly at
the age of 46, before the church building was completed. The Saunders family
contributed the magnificent "Saunders' window" in memory of John Richard and
Ella Day Saunders. They were buried in St. John's Cemetery 2 North Section 19.
Pauline Mirabella Robson Whitwell
(1881-1935)
Early Pensacola musician, businesswoman and
mother of educators/historian.
The
stories of Pauline Mirabella Robson Whitwell, her predecessors and her children
sound like the scripts of several gripping and romantic history-based movies.
Pauline, nee Mirabella, was born in Milton but lived in Pensacola most of her
life. She had excellent training in music and played the piano for performances
in the old Pensacola Opera House. There she met William Thomas Robson, who was
traveling as an actor and musician with a troupe from the uniquely creative
town, New Harmony, Indiana.
William’s grandfather Dr. Robert Robson was born in Scotland and
educated as a physician at Edinburgh’s Royal Academy of Medicine. Later he
taught at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He moved to New
Harmony, the site of an Owenite utopian community where intellectual and
cultural activities flourished. Thus, William was a product of this unique
environment. Pauline, a creative musician, joined the New Harmony troupe and
they toured widely. Later, William and Pauline married on the stage of a
theater. They had two children, Juanita (Nita) Robson Callard and Mary Lou
Robson Fleming.
William died when Mary Lou was 3 years-old, and Pauline returned
to Pensacola where she worked in Rew’s Music Store on Garden Street just West of
Palafox Street. Later, she bought the store and was an astute businesswoman in
this and other ventures. Both of her daughters were educators, Nita in the
Sacred Heart School of Nursing and Mary Lou in the high schools of Pensacola,
Atlanta and Indiana. Mary Lou, a scholar and historian, attended Florida State
College for Women and Columbia University. She was a leader in The American
Association of University Women as well as art, historical, musical and literary
activities of Pensacola. She created the first historical pageant, entitled
“Flags Over Pensacola”. A cast of hundreds performed it at old Legion Field. She
also wrote an exhaustive survey of the arts in Pensacola and was asked to
deliver this to a national convention of AAUW in Denver. In addition, Mary Lou
Robson Fleming wrote dozens of books and articles, mostly in-depth biographies.
She was honored at an international meeting of INHIGEO (a society for the study
of history of geology) in Vermont when she presented a paper on the history of
geology of Indiana based on published articles in established journals. The
State of Indiana, recognizing her contributions to historical literature,
presented her the Golden Rose Award. Mary Lou married James Monroe Fleming, Jr
.in 1939 and they had three boys: James Jr., Richard, and Robert.
Pauline, nee Mirabella, a very strong woman, inherited that
trait from two strong, maternal grandmothers and passed this independence on to
her daughters Nita and Mary Lou.
Pauline’s grandfather, Captain Francis Aloysious Boghich, was
born in Vienna, Austria and was the owner of one of the hundreds of sailing
ships which made their way to Pensacola during the cutting of the yellow pines
in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. The port of Pensacola was a major shipper
of lumber and naval stores to ports around the world.
Enterprising Captain Boghich traveled inland to Burnt Corn,
Alabama and bought land at the prevailing low prices ; then he cut his own pine
trees and shipped them down river to his ship in Pensacola Bay. While in Alabama
he visited the Mayo home and saw the arms of a young woman reaching out of a
window to throw out a pan of water. According to family members, he fell in love
with her arms. He courted her and later her father agreed to their marriage.
Catherine Mayo was only 14 years-old, but she was a vigorous young woman who
later grew to a height of six feet. When Captain Boghich brought his bride to
his ship, the crew members had climbed to all levels of the ship’s rigging, and
the sails were unfurled. Catherine surprised and delighted everyone when she
came aboard and climbed up the rigging to the highest mast.
She sailed with Captain Boghich and learned how to sail the
ship, which could be a rigorous ordeal. The crew came to respect her and called
her “Miz Cap’n Boghich.” They had five children and later, when the children
were grown, she bought five houses, all in her name, since she liked to be in
charge. Her children’s families lived in these houses, but when she went to
visit them, she wanted to be in her own home.
Captain Boghich met another shipowner, Captain Pasquale
Mirabella of Sicily on his travels and invited him to visit his family in
Milton. Captain Mirabella fell in love with one of the daughters, Mary, and
subsequently they married. Pauline was their daughter.
When Captain Boghich died, his widow, Catherine, “Miz Cap’n
Boghich”, who loved the sea, sailed on some of the trips with her son-in-law,
Captain Mirabella. While the ship was in the Gulf, near Mexico, Captain
Mirabella died. The crew members were superstitious and wanted to throw
overboard the body of the dead captain as well as the lone woman, who they
thought might have brought on bad luck. “Miz Cap’n Boghich” stood up to them,
ordered them to put the body on ice and get back to their posts. She would sail
the ship! Sail it she did all the way back to Pensacola Bay and then on to
Milton. Captain Mirabella was buried in the pioneer cemetery at Milton.
Pauline Mirabella Robson later married Henry A.Whitwell and they
had a daughter Beatrice (Graham) and a son, Henry A. (Sam) Whitwell, Jr.
Pauline (born September4,1881; died on November 27, 1935) is
buried in St. John’s Historic Cemetery, 4 South, Section 52. Mary Lou and Jim's
son, Bobby, died in infancy and is buried beside his grandmother, Pauline.
Ashley D. Pace
was born 1896 in Hazlehurst, Georgia. He moved to Pensacola with his father, two
brothers and one sister about 1902, following the death of his mother. He
attended several schools (Bell Buckle Academy, Stone Mountain Academy, and
Riverside Military Academy); he graduated from Wake Forest College in 1918,
where he was football captain and quarterback. He entered Naval Aviation flight
training at M.I.T. in Boston, but was released for recuperation following a near
fatal case of flu.
After four
years in Savannah, he moved back to Pensacola, where he continued to pursue his
dream of a paper mill. Finally, with his brother John and Jim Allen, an
experienced paper executive, they founded at Cantonment, Florida the Florida
Pulp and Paper Company which commenced production in 1941. This was merged with
St. Regis Paper Company in 1946, but the two Pace brothers remained active and
were members of its board of directors for many years.
He was an avid golfer and yachtsman; a
long-time member of the Pensacola Country Club and the Pensacola Yacht Club. He
located and arranged for the purchase from the Muldon family of the present site
of the Yacht Club. He was given the honor of portraying DeLuna in the Fiesta of
Five Flags for Pensacola’s Quadri-centennial in 1959.
James
G. Pace was born in 1867 and was raised in south Georgia. He married Caroline
Ashley in 1890, and had four children: H. Burgess, Myrtice, Ashley D. and John
C. Pace. Caroline died in 1901. He moved to the Pensacola area about 1902, and
bought a large tract of timberland (approximately.100,000 acres) in Santa Rosa
County from a Mr. Skinner. Later, he married Winona Rabb, and had five children:
Mary Catherine, Virginia, James G., Jr., Winona, and Frances. He founded the
community of Pace, east of Pensacola, where he established his sawmill.
In
addition to the nearby town of Pace, Florida, also named for him are Pace
Boulevard and the Pace Temple CME Episcopal Church, both in Pensacola. The Pace
Temple CME Church was named for him because, when he lent them the money to
build it, Mr. Pace was so impressed by the faithful way they made the early
payments that he cancelled all the remaining ones and tore up the mortgage. He
was known to be a very sharp and capable businessman, but “with a very good
heart.”
Francis R. (Frank) Pou was Pensacola's mayor for the single year
of 1918. The Pou family, with two branches, is first listed in the city's
initial directory in 1885, in this way:
William died when Mary Lou was 3 years-old, and Pauline returned
to Pensacola where she worked in Rew’s Music Store on Garden Street just West of
Palafox Street. Later, she bought the store and was an astute businesswoman in
this and other ventures. Both of her daughters were educators, Nita in the
Sacred Heart School of Nursing and Mary Lou in the high schools of Pensacola,
Atlanta and Indiana. Mary Lou, a scholar and historian, attended Florida State
College for Women and Columbia University. She was a leader in The American
Association of University Women as well as art, historical, musical and literary
activities of Pensacola. She created the first historical pageant, entitled
“Flags Over Pensacola”. A cast of hundreds performed it at old Legion Field. She
also wrote an exhaustive survey of the arts in Pensacola and was asked to
deliver this to a national convention of AAUW in Denver. In addition, Mary Lou
Robson Fleming wrote dozens of books and articles, mostly in-depth biographies.
She was honored at an international meeting of INHIGEO (a society for the study
of history of geology) in Vermont when she presented a paper on the history of
geology of Indiana based on published articles in established journals. The
State of Indiana, recognizing her contributions to historical literature,
presented her the Golden Rose Award. Mary Lou married James Monroe Fleming, Jr
.in 1939 and they had three boys: James Jr., Richard, and Robert.
Pauline’s grandfather, Captain Francis Aloysious Boghich, was
born in Vienna, Austria and was the owner of one of the hundreds of sailing
ships which made their way to Pensacola during the cutting of the yellow pines
in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. The port of Pensacola was a major shipper
of lumber and naval stores to ports around the world.
