Pensacola Law Heritage in St. John's Historic Cemetery

Elmore Dixie Beggs, Sr.
Elmore Dixie Beggs, Jr.
Alexander Clement Blount, Jr.
Forsyth Caro
Leroy V. Holsberry
J. Dennis Wolfe

Elmore Dixie Beggs, Sr.
Distinguished Lawyer, Judge, Community Leader and Educator
Contributed to growth of Pensacola and State Schools

E. Dixie Beggs, Senior and Junior, were two of the most highly respected names in Pensacola in their times. Since Beggs, Sr. was born July 26, 1861, just as the Civil War began his parents called him “Dixie” in honor of the Southern nation.

Dixie Beggs, Sr. was born in Madison, Florida and received his early education at public and private schools. After attending South Georgia Agricultural College in Thomasville, he entered the University of Georgia. Returning to Madison, Beggs went into the newspaper business when he became editor and publisher, then bought “The Madison Recorder.”. He soon tired of the business and turned to law. After studying under Judge E. J. Vann, Beggs opened his own office and remained an attorney in Madison for one year before moving to Kissimmee, Florida for 10 years .He was town council president and mayor before moving to Pensacola where he married a Pensacola woman, Lily Clubbs, daughter of A. V. Clubbs. In 1899, the Legislature of Florida appointed Beggs one of the Water Front Commissioners to adjudicate claims of submerged lands and other waterfront lands under dispute; Beggs was elected chairman. In 1902, he was appointed judge of the criminal court of record to succeed Judge A. C. Blount Jr. and was elected several terms.

Following the example set by his father-in-law, A. V. Clubbs, Beggs became interested in the educational system. He became a trustee for the Florida Agricultural College in Lake City, which became the University of Florida. In 1918, Beggs was elected to the Escambia County School Board. He served a dozen years on the board, the first four as chairman. The county passed a $500,000 bond for building and improving schools and many were built under Beggs’ leadership. Among them were Pensacola High School, P. K. Yonge, Agnes McReynolds, Annie K. Suter, Brent, Ernest Ward and Beulah Schools.

Beggs resigned from the bench and gave up his school board seat in 1931 to concentrate on his legal practice, specializing in real estate law. He was joined by his son, and for a short time in a firm known as Beggs and Beggs. He retired from the active practice of law in 1937 and died Feb. 13, 1940.

Beggs was an active member of the First Baptist Church where he was clerk, deacon and deacon emeritus, Men’s Bible Class teacher, Sunday School superintendent and chairman of the Board of Deacons. He was a member of the Board of Trustees of Columbia College at Lake City and a moderator of the Pensacola Bay Baptist Association. He was a Rotarian, vice president of Banking Savings and Trust Co., which became First Bank and Trust, and a founder of the YMCA. Beggs and his wife, Lily, had five children: Mary, Emily, Dixie Jr., Annie and Charles.

He is buried in St. John’s Cemetery 4 North, Section 47.

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Elmore Dixie Beggs, Jr.
A "Giant of the Law Profession" with State, National and International Influence;
Highly Decorated as Officer in WW II ; Civic, Church and Hospital Leader

Submitted by John Appleyard

Elmore Dixie Beggs, Jr., was a Pensacola native born to E. Dixie Beggs, Sr., and the daughter of contractor/school board leader A. V. Clubbs. Dixie was educated in public schools, playing on the tennis team, and he was also a debater. At First Baptist Church he was a Sunday School leader and also played in
a church band. Dixie graduated from the University of Florida, and also from the university’s school of law. Again he was a student leader and a member of a successful interscholastic debating team. He also served in the ROTC.

Once he had passed the Florida Bar, Dixie joined his father in legal practice, then ran for and won the office of state attorney. Upon failure of his father’s health, he succeeded to the school’s roles in the Pensacola Rotary Club and on the board of directors of the First Bank & Trust Company, positions he  would maintain for decades. Dixie’s first marriage, to Sara Strickland, ended in her tragic death and that of their newborn child in 1941. The beginning of World War II occurred shortly thereafter, and Dixie promptly volunteered for active service. He entered the army with his ROTC commission and thereafter served brilliantly with the 88th Division in the Italian Campaign.

The war over, Dixie joined the law firm which had been started half a century before by W. A. Blount. His success was almost immediate, and shortly he remarried, Margaret Walker Ridley, a union which produced their son, Dixie, III, and daughter Caroline Cornelia. In this same period he began an active role in the creation of Baptist Hospital. In years that followed, he would become the hospital’s president, and would provide the institution’s legal work without charge.

Throughout his life Dixie Beggs was a dedicated member of First Baptist Church, serving as deacon, teacher, funds raising leader and spokesman. In activities related to his profession, Dixie Beggs was truly a man for all seasons. He held all major offices in the regional bar association. At the state level he was  president of the Bar Association, served on numerous committees, and contributed to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures. At the American Bar Association he was a three year member of the Board of Governors, and held half a dozen major committee chair assignments related to judicial conduct and ethics of the law. On one occasion he joined almost 100 leading legal figures in meetings in London and Paris with peers from European countries.

As a volunteer, and in client relationships, Dixie Beggs related to the establishment of the Santa Rosa Island Authority, the Pensacola Port Authority, the Hugh Fellows Memorial Fund for special education, the YMCA, the Community Chest and United Way, the Fiesta of Five Flags and even Mardi Gras organizations. Following his third marriage, to Leonora Risher, he continued in practice, leading the ongoing firm which by then had become Beggs & Lane to its appropriate level of prominence. In later years the Beggs traveled extensively, to major world points of interest.

At his passing, Dixie’s legal peers recognized him as one of the giants of the profession in his time. Elmore Dixie Beggs, Jr. was buried in St. John's Cemetery 4 North Section 47.

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Alexander Clement Blount, Jr.
Leading Lawyer; Respected Citizen; Judge; School Board Member;
A Founding Member of one of State’s Oldest Law Firms

Alexander Clement Blount, Jr. and his brother, William Alexander Blount founded one of the oldest and most respected law firms in the state, Blount & Blount. Their father, A. C. Blount, Sr., and William A. Blount (both interred in St. Michaels Cemetery) were early leaders in Pensacola and the state. Among many other accomplishments, W. A. Blount developed the Blount Building, a cornerstone in downtown Pensacola.

A. C. Blount, Jr., according to Garnier Blount Minnich, was born in 1860 in the original Tivoli House at which time it was a boarding house and meeting place in Pensacola. (The Tivoli House, built by the Spanish in 1805, later burned down and was partially reconstructed at 205 East Zaragosa Street in 1976). Although he was “sickly a lot of the times” with a congenital heart condition he lived a very productive life to the age of 63 years. He received his preliminary education in Pensacola. After graduation from Peabody College in Nashville he returned to Pensacola to study law in the office of his brother, W. A. Blount. In 1887 he married Clara Garnier Dorr (see vignette about her family on this web site). He enjoyed poetry. A collection of his poems along with other papers is preserved in the Special Collections Library at the University of West Florida.

Their son, A. C. Blount, III, married Mary Ida Saunders, also a member of a very distinguished Pensacola family (see vignette of John Richard Saunders on this web site). A. C. Blount, III became a Captain in the Infantry in WWI, a lawyer and, later, Secretary
& Executive Manager, Executive Vice President, President, then Chairman of the Board (later, Emeritus) of Mutual Building & Loan (this became First Mutual; then Am South bank); he was a member of Christ Episcopal Church, a 33rd degree Mason and a member of the Society of the Cincinnati; as a member of the City Council and for many civic endeavors, he received many honors and awards.

When Judge Blount retired in 1921, The Pensacola News editorial stated:
“The well-known law firm of Blount & Blount & Carter has dissolved, Judge A. C. Blount retiring from the firm. The late firm will be succeeded by the new firm of Blount, Carter & Yonge, consisting of W. A. Blount, Francis B. Carter and J. E. D. Yonge.

Judge Blount has not been in the best of health during the past two years and has not been taking an active part in the affairs of his firm. He is regarded as one of the state’s leading lawyers and is recognized as one of Pensacola’s best citizens. His friends and the public in general have learned with regret that he has decided to retire from the practice of his profession and he takes with him the esteem and good will of his fellow-citizens and the best wishes of the members of his profession.

Judge Blount has been a life-long resident of Pensacola. He has served as judge of the criminal court of record and as a member of the local school board and in other capacities. And in his private life, as well as in public office, he has been all that a good citizen and a faithful official should be.”

The firm, started by the two brothers later became “Yonge, Beggs & Lane”, then “Beggs & Lane” and, today, remains one of the largest and most highly respected firms in the area.

A. C. Blount, Jr. died July 5, 1923. His ashes are interred in St. John’s Cemetery in 3 North, Section 37. In the same section of St. John’s, the ashes of A. C. Blount, III (1889-1978) were sprinkled between the graves of his first two wives Mary Ida Saunders Blount (the mother of his four children) and Viola Ard Blount (no children).

A. C. Blount, Jr. & Family

A. C. Blount, III & Family

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Forsyth Caro
Exceptional Lawyer and Humanitarian was a Member of a Distinguished Family Represented in Pensacola Since The Spanish Colonial Period

The Caro family has played important rolls in the history and development of Pensacola since the Spanish colonial period. In recent years the Caros' have continued to serve the community with educational, professional and civic endeavors. A few of the examples are: Paul W. Caro, Sr., an accountant, was one of the founders of Pensacola’s Baptist Hospital; a public elementary school was named in honor of teacher Hellen Caro; Forsyth Caro was a prominent lawyer, as described below. The Caro family representation is one of the largest in St. John’s Historic Cemetery, with approximately fifty monuments giving insight into the lives and stories of individual members of this distinguished family.

Ambrosia Caro was born in Spain and married Ann Gutierrez Moreno of Malaga. They had a son, Benito Thomas Caro, who was born in Yepes, District of Oceana, Toledo, Spain. In 1786 Benito married Maria del Rosario Machado, who was born in the Canary Islands. Benito’s uncle, Fernando Moreno preceded him to Pensacola. Fernando Moreno became the patriarch of the large and well-known Moreno family. Benito and Maria may have met in Cuba where Benito served as assistant attaché to the Governor General. Benito owned property in Pensacola as early as1787 but he and Maria also lived for a time in New Orleans and later, in Mobile where Benito was engaged in shipbuilding. In 1813 they moved to Pensacola. Benito died on April 8, 1814, as a result of an adze cut he received cutting a ship timber. He is buried in St. Michaels Cemetery.

Benito and Maria had 10 children: Catherine, Joseph E., Gregory, Sebastian, Annette, Benito, Ambrosia, Merced, Dolores and Philip Anthony. All married and established themselves in various professions. Joseph E. Caro was keeper of the Spanish Archives and interpreter of court documents written in Spanish and French. Philip Anthony loved the water and followed the sea. He built and owned the Powhatan, which carried passengers and cargo back and forth to Mobile and New Orleans.

Philip Anthony Caro and Mary Ann Weaver married and had ten children. They built a large home on Bayou Chico, and Phillip continued shipbuilding; he received a contract to build a bridge over Bayou Chico. The toll rates, posted on the gates at each end of the bridge, were as follows: cattle per head 5 cents, man and horse 5 cents, horse and buggy 15 cents, 2 horses and buggy 20 cents, 4 horses and buggy 40 cents. Years later, after Philip's death the Caro residence was moved west to accommodate a new draw bridge over the bayou; the house subsequently served as a studio for artist Manny Runyan and then became Perry’s Seafood Restaurant. Phillip’s daughter, Mary Elizabeth Caro Gormly gave an invaluable account of the early days of the Civil War in Pensacola in her personal diary beginning in 1861.She described life in occupied Pensacola, Confederate attacks on the Navy Yard and Fort Pickens, conduct of the Federal troops, and her brother, James Weaver Caro's participation in the Confederate Army when they attacked Fort Pickens.

Six of Phillip’s sons were active harbor pilots, including Benito G., George W., John H.,. Philip T., Thomas S., and William S. Caro. Thomas Sullivan Caro, nicknamed "Sully" married Laura Caroline Berner and they moved to their own home on West Chase Street. He continued to provision ships and serve as a harbor pilot. Fishing, lumbering and shipping were big industries at that time and he prospered, ”Sully” and Laura had five children: Kate, Allen, Thomas S, Jr., Albert Reed, Yvette (Brown) and Forsyth Caro. Kate and Yvette went to Palmer College; Albert and Forsyth graduated from Stetson Law School.

Forsyth Caro, born September 11, 1897, graduated and passed the Florida Bar examination at age 20 years. He petitioned the court to be allowed to practice law at age 20, since the minimum age required was 21 years. His petition was granted and he opened his own law office. He had a very successful law career for 56 years. He became president of the Bar Society. Forsyth married Lela Seymour of Mobile, Alabama on February 21, 1924. They had four daughters: Lela Mary Caro Morey, Catherine Allen Caro Shrouse, Laura Caroline Caro Watson and Flora Anne Caro Hardiman.

His partner, Attorney Joe Harrell, once said that Forsyth Caro was one of the most brilliant and effective trial lawyers in the country. Family members state that Forsyth Caro’s philosophy of life was "All that justifies our very life and living is the good that we can do for others” and that he applied this to his law practice, as well as to his private life. During the Depression he ran an employment agency in his office, charging no fees for these services. He worked to improve the W.P.A. wage scale; to draft the first Workmen’s Compensation law and, later, include all state and county employees; to revise the jury system; and to curtail medical quackery, illegal gambling and moonshining. He was blessed with a photographic memory and shared with all his love and scholarship of the Bible, poetry and music, especially, opera.

He died on September 19, 1982 and is buried in St. John’s Historic Cemetery 3 North, Section 33

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Leroy V. Holsberry (1873-1958)
Prominent Lawyer and Founder of a Leading Law Firm in Pensacola; Gentleman Farmer

Leroy V. Holsberry was born in Barbour County, West Virginia in 1873. He graduated from the University of West Virginia and served as Superintendent of Schools in Barbour County. In 1900 he opened a one man law firm in West Virginia.

Leroy moved his family to Pensacola in 1913. He began the practice of law and established the firm which is today Emmanuel, Sheppard and Condon. For many years the firm was Holsberry, Holsberry and Emmanuel. His son, J. Edwin Holsberry was a member of the firm until his death. Leroy was the first president of the Pensacola Kiwanis Club, a member of the Board of Stewards of the First Methodist Church and a member of the Escambia Masonic Lodge and the Scottish Rite Masons.

Leroy was also a gentleman farmer. He owned a large local dairy farm, Beverly Farm, which supplied milk to the Pensacola Dairy.

Leroy practiced law and managed his farm until his death in 1958.

He was buried in St. John’s Historic Cemetery 4 North, Section 49 alongside his wife Eugolia Parsons Holsberry who preceded him in death.

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J. Dennis Wolfe (1821-1897)
As a former Union Army captain, lawyer and fiery newspaper
editor he was a colorful Pensacola character in the post-Civil War era

Submitted by J. Earle Bowden, editor emeritus of the Pensacola News-Journal and Pensacola author. Used with permission of the Pensacola News-Journal.

Wolfe who led Maine Regiment company of African-American troops during Pensacola's Federal occupation, was branded a "carpetbagger." Yet he greatly admired Jackson, saying some of Pensacola's ex-Confederates were too dumb to know that Old Hickory is now dead.

Yet Wolfe, emulating Jackson, fought duels, engaged in a street shootout and in fisticuffs on Pensacola streets. He was shot at more than once, and carried a loaded, easy-trigger Navy Colt by his side while traveling by buggy on Pensacola streets. Shying away from Carpetbaggers and registering as a Democrat, Wolfe is admitted to the Florida bar.

Wolfe counted among his enemies, Florida Gov. Edward A. Perry, a Massachusetts native, Pensacola lawyer and former Confederate brigadier general; Stephen Russell Mallory, Confederate Navy secretary; and Chipley, former Confederate lieutenant colonel who built the Pensacola & Atlantic Railroad.

After the Civil War, Wolfe and several of his army friends, among them Mayor Sewell C. Cobb, stayed in Pensacola. Wolfe pushed for imprisoning Geronimo at Fort Pickens as the city's first tourist attraction. When the Apache and his fellow captives arrived in 1886, Wolfe's Commercial began a bonanza of headlines and stories in hot competition with the Pensacolian.  The editor of Milton's Santa Rosa Press suggested that Geronimo be kept in Wolfe's office so he would be the first scalped.

Lawyer Wolfe found himself engaged in and 1869 gun battle with Escambia County Judge William Kirk at the corner of Palafox and Intendencia streets. Kirk had forbid Wolfe from practicing in his court. Crossing paths on Palafox in front of a store operated by Jasper and Viola Gonzalez, the angry Kirk who had no love for Northerners drew his pistol and fired at Wolfe; both men emptied their revolvers. Wolfe scrambled inside the Gonzalez store; Kirk kept firing and Wolfe retreated on Palafox Street. Kirk's friend, Raymond Knowles, handed the judge his own pistol, and the jurist continued firing at the fleeting lawyer. None of the gunshots hit either man, but Kirk and Wolfe met again—in the courtroom, where the county judge was charged with intent to commit murder. Trial witnesses vented anger at Wolfe, dubbing his a "liar" and "carpetbagger." The jury found Kirk innocent.

Yet it was Commercial Editor Wolfe's poisonous editorial vendetta against Chipley and railroad power, coupled with Chipley's political ambitions to become a U. S. senator, that led John O'Connor, founder of the rival Pensacolian, and John C. Witt and a group of Pensacola businessmen in January 1889 to organize the News Publishing Company. Pensacolians read the first Daily News on the morning of March 5, 1889, a four-page, $5-a-year newspaper produced by a 10-person staff in the Armory Hall at the corner of Palafox and Intendencia Street.

The Daily News, blessed with a high percentage of advertising, led to Wolfe's welcomed retirement. Then, by 1898, the News had its own competitor, Frank L, Mayes' Pensacola Journal. By then Wolfe was mellowing into old age, his many Jackson-emulated exploits and poisonous pen that had drew enemies by the hundreds have gone into the hellbox of frontier newspaper history; yet he was reading what would become in the 1920s the News Journal.

He is buried in St. John's Historic Cemetery 1 North, Section 5

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