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    1 Apalachicola History

    P L CHICOL HISTORY

    APALACHICOLA AREA HISTORICAL SOCIETYP.O. Box 75

    Apalachicola, Florida 32329www.apalachicolahistoricalsociety.org

    Volume 6, No. 2 Fall 2014

    Although there is not currently a Presbyterianchurch in Franklin County, that has not always beenthe case. Two Presbyterian churches previously ex-isted in Apalachicola, albeit for brief periods.

    The first Presbyterian church was organizedin Apalachicola in the 1840s. Incorporated by theTerritorial Legislative Council in 1842, the congre-gation had erected a sanctuary by 1850. The build-ing was destroyed by the 1851 hurricane that struckthe town. It was never rebuilt and the congregationdisbanded.

    In 1904 the Presbytery of Florida once againthought the time was ripe for organizing a church. Acongregation was formed in 1906, and the next yearthe Reverend Jesse D. Rountree was entrusted with

    this new church. The Presbytery of Florida providedfunds to support the ministry and construct a suitablesanctuary.

    Mr. Rountree took to his new ministry with

    gusto. Lots were purchased and Dave Maddox washired to construct the building at the corner of Chest-nut and Walnut Streets (now Avenue E and 13thStreet), across the street from Chapman School. Thefirst service in the new church was held on May 15,1910.

    Mr. Rountree did not confine his ministry toApalachicola. He opened up work in the new com-munity of Port St. Joe and preached at Wewahitchka,Sumatra, Orange and River Junction.

    All was not well, however. Reports began to

    reach the Presbytery of financial irregularities, andan investigation revealed major problems. Neitherthe Presbytery of Florida nor the trustees of thechurch owned the lots upon which the church stood.The deed was made out to Mr. Rountree and hiswife. He had also borrowed money to build thesanctuary but had not been paying off the loan withthe funds forwarded from Presbytery for that pur-pose. At a special meeting of Presbytery called toconsider the matter Mr. Rountree agreed to leaveApalachicola and sign over the deed for the church

    property to the Presbytery.The mortgage holder, C. H. Lind, sued toforeclose on the property. The sanctuary was lost,the congregation dispersed, and the church was for-mally disbanded in 1915. Rev. J. D. Rountree leftthe area, to where nobody knew, although later re-ports placed him in Arizona. The church buildingwas sold in 1921 to The First Born Church of theLiving God and moved to a lot on the east side of11th Street, between Avenues J and K. The buildingno longer exists.

    THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN

    APALACHICOLA

    The Apalachicola Presbyterian Church at the corner of AvenueE and 13th Street.

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    2 Apalachicola History

    G H O S T W L K

    The Apalachicola Area Historical Society is sponsoring a Ghost Walk at the ChestnutStreet Cemetery on Saturday, October 25, 2014, from 7 to 9 p.m. Volunteers are stillneeded to help set up for the event and to act as tour guides during the event. If you canspare a few hours on that day to help make this event a success you can contact DoloresRoux at 653-9081. Funds raised during the event are used for the preservation of thecemetery.

    The Apalachicola Area Historical Society re-ceived a $5,000 grant from Visit Florida in the sum-mer of 2014, to prepare a informational brochure onthe Chestnut Street Cemetery. The brochure will pro-vide a self-guided tour of the cemetery, introducingvisitors to some of the interesting residents interredthere. The grant will also provide funds to establish awebsite for the cemetery, where further information

    about the necropolis and its denizens can be accessed.

    Members of the historical society are collect-ing information on the people interred on the ceme-tery to use in the brochure and the website. If youwould like to assist with this research, or if you haveinformation to share, such as obituaries, photographs,or information on anyone buried in Chestnut StreetCemetery, please contact Mark Curenton at 850-653-9783 x-160 or [email protected].

    C E M E T E R Y H A P P E N I N G S

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    3 Apalachicola History

    State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, http://

    floridamemory.com/items/show/285

    APALACHICOLIANS IN EUROPE

    AT THE START OF

    WORLD WAR ONE

    World War I started rather unexpectedly in

    July 1914 with Austria-Hungary declaring war on

    Serbia. By August 4 all the major powers of Europe

    were at war.

    The sudden outbreak of hostilities found a

    group of Apalachicolians traveling through Europe.

    George H. Ruge (pictured above), his wife, Elizabeth

    Porter Ruge and their two youngest children, Edwin

    and Olive, were enjoying a tour through the continent

    along with Laura Coombs and her daughter, Julia.

    Laura was the daughter-in-law of James N. Coombs.

    The outbreak of war found the traveling party

    in Geneva, Switzerland. From there they returned to

    Paris, the journey taking nearly three times as long as

    it normally would because the French military had

    commandeered all the trains to mobilize the army.

    Along the way they saw evidence of the hor-

    ror that would engulf Europe for the next four years.

    Mrs. Coombs reported, I saw a number of wounded

    French soldiers. They were stretched out in the cars

    on straw. One poor fellow had been shot through the

    hip. He was a mere boy.

    Food rationing had already been implemented

    by that early stage of the conflict. At the hotels you

    were reminded very forcibly of the war by the scar-

    city of food supplies, and particularly of sugar. Each

    guest is allowed but small portion of sugar. It is

    doled out in very small portions, indicating an ex-

    treme scarcity of the supply. continued Mrs.Coombs.

    From Paris the party continued on to London.

    In both cities a blackout was in effect to foil possible

    German bombers. The ship they took to cross the

    Atlantic back to North America, the SS Columbia,

    was also affected by the war. Leaving from Glasgow,

    Scotland, it traveled under blackout conditions to

    avoid possible German raiders.

    One night at sea Mrs. Coombs saw a light inthe distance and was certain it was a German warship

    pursuing them, but it turned out to be a false alarm.

    The party reached New York on September 28, 1914,

    after a nine day crossing. The party arrived back in

    Apalachicola on Sunday, October 4. Two days later

    Mrs. Coombss friends in town surprised her with a

    party to welcome her back to Apalachicola and con-

    gratulate her on her escape from the war zone in

    Europe.

    She commented, Yes, I am glad to get back

    home, although I feel that my experience in Europe

    was worth a great deal to me.

    There must have been a rumor going around

    Apalachicola that George Ruge had been arrested as a

    spy because of his German heritage, because Mrs.

    Coombs took an especial note to state that it was not

    true.

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    APALACHICOLA WATERFRONT

    Recently a gentleman contacted the Apalachi-

    cola Area Historical Society seeking views of the ice

    house from the river. After some research online at

    the Florida Photographic Archives we were able to

    provide four different views of the ice house spanning

    several decades.

    The view above dates from about 1899 and

    was probably taken by Dr. Charles Clark, a dentist in

    Apalachicola at that time. It shows three steamboats

    moored along the riverfront: the Flint, an unknown

    boat, and the Crescent City. Behind the boats are the

    waterfront structures along the lower end of Water

    Street. At the far right is the Apalachicola Ice Com-

    pany building which was just downstream from Ave-

    nue D. Just to the left of it, the long low roof ending

    in the two story hipped-roofed structure, is the Peo-

    ples Wharf building. This building housed the

    Southern Express Company on the first floor with

    offices on the second floor. Behind the Flint can be

    seen the water tower of the Kimball Lumber Com-

    pany.

    The top photograph on the opposite page

    shows the same set of buildings looking upstream.

    This photographs was also likely taken by Dr. Clark

    around the same time period. On the right of the pho-

    tograph, behind the pilings, is the Apalachicola Ice

    Company building. To the left of the ice company is

    the Peoples Wharf building, with a better view of the

    second floor of the two story-section. The buildings

    to the left of the wharf building are oyster and fish

    houses. On river bank at the far left of the photo-

    graph can be seen the Coombs marine way for haul-

    ing boats out of the water for maintenance. The small

    structure at the end of the marine way is the engine

    house for pulling the boats up the way. At this time

    there were several marine railways along the river-

    front.

    The lower photograph on the opposite page

    shows the riverfront in the inset view. The ice com-

    pany is in the center of the picture, directly behind the

    smokestack of the Crescent City. To the left of the

    ice company is the Peoples Wharf building. To the

    right of the ice company can bee seen the wooden

    building that housed the Triangle Saloon. This sat

    across Water Street from the ice company, where

    there is an open lot today. The gabled structure on

    the right of the photograph is a fish house, possibly C.

    H. Linds.

    State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, http://floridamemory.com/items/show/259531

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    State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, http://floridamemory.com/items/show/259508

    State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, http://floridamemory.com/items/show/322

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    6 Apalachicola History

    The main picture on the lower photograph on

    the proceeding page was taken from atop John G.

    Ruges house at the corner of Bay Avenue and 10thStreet looking northeast. The open area on the left of

    the photograph is behind the convent. The steeple of

    the Catholic Church is visible on the right of the pho-

    tograph and the steeple of the Episcopal church is just

    visible on the left side.

    All three of the photographs on the proceed-

    ing pages were taken prior to the 1900 fire. Notice

    that all three of the pictures the ice company has a

    vent that runs nearly the entire length of the buildingand only one smokestack.

    The above photograph was taken sometime

    after 1913, and is looking upstream from the Peoples

    Wharf building, which is on the left side of the pic-

    ture. Next to it is the Apalachicola Ice Company

    building, which by this time has expanded to fill all

    of the space on the lot between it and the wharf build-

    ing. The end of the brick wall that separates the two

    structures can be seen at the end of the wharf build-ings roof. This brick wall is still standing along

    Water Street today.

    Notice in this view the two smokestacks of the

    ice company and the vent that extends along only a

    small portion of the ice companys roof.

    The Peoples Wharf building was purchased

    by Joe Taranto in 1926. He replaced the wooden

    structure with the current block building over a period

    of several years during the 1940s.The Apalachicola Ice Company went out of

    business in 1925. The machinery was sold and the

    building was eventually torn down. A new ice com-

    pany located up the river in a brick building later

    adopted the name of the Apalachicola Ice Company.

    State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, http://floridamemory.com/items/show/218

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    THE CIVIL WAR IN APALACHICOLA150 Years Ago

    In 1860 Apalachicola, like most seaport

    towns, was very cosmopolitan, containing a broad

    mixture of people. Merchants from the North min-gled freely with planters from the South, with a large

    number of foreign-born residents mixed in. When the

    war began everyone was forced to choose sides, often

    in direct opposition to their close neighbors.

    There were many Union sympathizers who

    remained in Apalachicola during the war. The most

    famous was Dr. A. W. Chapman, but other, lesser

    known men, also stayed in town during the conflict.

    Two of these men, William Marr and Stillman Smith,

    would become the center of a controversy that roiled

    the community and went all the way up to the Gover-

    nors office in 1864.

    William Marr was a 46-year old coast pilot,

    born in Scotland, and Stillman Smith was a stevedore

    from Maine, 44 years old. They were active Union

    sympathizers in Apalachicola, frequently in touch

    with the blockading vessels in the bay. When Colby

    Mitchell decided to desert from the Confederate

    Army while he was home on sick leave, it was one of

    these men who rowed him and his father, Thomas L.

    Mitchell, out to the Union ship in the bay.

    In early 1864 Marr and Smith were west of

    Apalachciola gathering cattle, either for the Union

    sailors or for the refugee camp that the U. S. Navy

    had established on St. Vincent Island. When they did

    not return at the expected time word reached the

    U.S.S. Somerset offshore. A party of sailors rowed

    ashore on February 10, 1864, and took Thomas Or-man and John G. Ruan as hostages, leaving word

    that whatever fate befell Marr and Smith would be

    visited on Orman and Ruan.

    Word reached Florida Governor John Milton

    of what had occurred, and he demanded and investi-

    gation of the matter by the Confederate military. In

    the meanwhile a search party located the bodies of

    Marr and Smith near Indian Pass riddled with buck-

    shot. It was obvious they had been dead for some

    time. When word of the discovery reached William

    Budd, commanding the U. S. naval forces in Apala-chicola Bay, he ordered Orman and Ruan to be re-

    leased.

    The Confederate military conducted and in-

    vestigation into the matter and concluded that Marr

    and Smith were not arrested and executed as rumor in

    Apalachicola alleged, but instead they were both shot

    while armed as they were trying to elude a Confeder-

    ate patrol. In the opinion of the Confederate military

    this settled the case of Marr and Smith, but the tra-

    vails of Orman and Ruan were to continue. Confed-

    erate General Patton Anderson ordered their arrest

    and removal to Quincy because of their repeated

    crossing between Confederate and Union lines.

    Governor Milton exploded at the Confederate

    military when this news reached him. Angrily he de-

    manded to know from General Beauregard why Or-

    man and Ruan had been arrested and removed from

    Apalachicola. When informed that Orman and Ruan

    had been released but admonished to stay on one side

    of the lines or the other, Milton testily replied to Pat-

    ton Anderson that Apalachicola is not now and

    never has been within the enemies lines. It may be

    without our lines but it is not within theirs.

    The Union military did not accept the Confed-

    erate conclusion that Marr and Smith were killed in a

    military engagement. At the end of the war the

    troops sent to occupy Apalachicola were ordered to

    arrest Capt. Clinton Thigpen, Lt. Hiram Pace, Wil-liam J. Austin, Charles F. Marks and John Gordon,

    the men allegedly involved in the killing of Marr and

    Smith. It seems likely at least some of the men were

    captured. Marks family lore relates that Charles F.

    Marks was a prisoner at Fort Jefferson in the Dry

    Tortugas after the war. Eventually he was released to

    resume his life in Apalachicola.

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    Apalachicola Area Historical SocietyP.O. Box 75

    Apalachicola, Florida

    You are invited to join the Apala-

    chicola Area Historical Society. Individual

    dues are $10 per year, and the membership

    year runs from June through May. Please

    complete this application, make your

    check payable to Apalachicola Area His-torical Society and mail to P.O. Box 75,

    Apalachicola, Florida 32329.

    Name: _______________________________

    Address: _____________________________

    _____________________________________

    Town: _______________________________

    State: ______________ Zip: _____________

    Telephone No.: ________________________

    E-Mail: ______________________________

    UPCOMING EVENTS

    Saturday, October 11, 2014A musical evening at the Raney House to raise funds for the Ilse NewellConcert Series, 7 to 9 p.m.

    Thursday, October 16, 2014Ed Moore will be speaking on the history of St. Teresa at 5:30 p.m. in theCarriage House at the Raney House.