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8/11/2019 Newsletter Fall 2014 (1)
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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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4 Apalachicola History
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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5 Apalachicola History
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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7 Apalachicola History
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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8 Apalachicola History
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.