Walter Thomas Galvin, Locomotive Fireman

By Donald J. Mabry

Walter T. Galvin, ca. 1980 Courtesy of the Beaches Museum

Too little is known of the late Walter Thomas Galvin of Mayport even

though he was associated with the village for a decade before moving there in

1913. There are those alive who knew him; he was “only” 94” in 1980. He was

friendly to all. Dyle Johnson was one of those friends. Others came to visit Galvin

in his later years because he knew Henry M. Flagler, the Standard Oil founder,

who became a railroad man and hotelier who opened up the Florida East

Coast. Besides Johnson’s notes, we learn of Galvin’s life from his Railroad

Retirement Board records and from a tape of the November 29, 1980 interview

by a student.1

Walter T. Galvin, Dyle R. Johnson

Soon after it opened on June 1, 1901, Walter Galvin began working as a

hotel bell boy or porter at the luxurious Continental Hotel in Atlantic Beach; he

was just a kid of fourteen. His father, Jefferson Galvin, found work as a

groundskeeper there after much of Jacksonville was destroyed by the Great Fire

of May 3, 1901. When asked, he opined that Flagler built the Continental for

1 Dyle R. Johnson Collection, Beaches Museum & History Park contains his handwritten and

typed notes about Galvin. The taped interview of November 29, 1980 is on cassette tape in the

Oral History Inventory, OH-06, Side B. Railroad Retirement Board files from the National Archives

and Records Administration are also used in this essay.

Jacksonville area and Southern tourists; Northern tourists came to Florida in the

winter but headed farther south where it was warmer.

Continental Hotel

Details of his beginnings are not readily available. Galvin was born on

November 25, 1886, according to his Railroad Retirement Board records.

Johnson wrote November 20 or 28, 1879 (the day is unclear) by hand but

November 25, 1881 in a typewritten note. Galvin said, more than once in his

interview that he was born on November 25, 1879, a date which conflicts with

other life events. For example, he said he was 18 in 1903 but the 1879 birthdate

would have made him 23. Johnson wrote that Galvin was born on Old Plank

Road, corner of Tyler and Beaver, but the corner of Old Plank Road and West

Beaver Street is five miles west of Tyler Street and West Beaver. Both, of course,

are west of the city center. Human memory is inaccurate and often self-serving.

We tend to remember how we wanted things to have happened; we want to

be the hero or heroine of our stories. We come to believe. The memory of a 94

year-old man is suspect. His claim to be 101 years old should have been

checked. He supplied the names of his parents, Joseph and Ellen Mack Galvin,

to the Railroad Retirement Board.2

No doubt he observed many events during his two years as a bell boy in

the summer resort hotel but he mentions only one in his interview. He took a

telegram from the Atlantic Beach Hotel depot to Samuel B. Hubbard, Jr. who

was staying in Room #3 in the hotel. The Great Fire was consuming the S. B.

Hubbard Hardware Company on Bay Street, one of Jacksonville’s most

prominent businesses. Hubbard received the telegram and did not hide the fact

that there was a woman in his bed. Bell boys were discreet, of course, and

Galvin was telling the story over 70 years after the event. He found it amusing.

Hubbard couldn’t rush to Jacksonville because the train didn’t leave until 5 PM.

2 His draft registration in 1917 and the US Census of 1940 show November 20, 1886 as his

birthdate whereas the 1900 census showed that he was born November, 1887. The 1945 Florida

State Census recorded him as 54 that is, born in 1891. Census data relied upon testimony by

someone in the household. Walter T. Galvin, Application for Employee Annuity under the

Railroad Retirement Act, November 27, 1951. He was 65 years of age.

Atlantic Beach Depot, west side of the Hotel Courtesy: Beaches Museum

The fire was a boon for Galvin. He made extra money by selling

newspapers that night. It was the first and last time he ever sold a newspaper.

He achieved his goal of becoming a railroad fireman on Easter Sunday,

April 12, 1903, when he was hired as a substitute locomotive fireman on the

Florida East Coast Railway. He was underage because the railroad set 21 as the

minimum age but he was large and able to pass himself off as older.

After a stint working for the Atlantic Coast Line railroad, he became a

regular fireman on the FEC. He continued living in Jacksonville for a decade

before moving to Mayport in 1913. Until the FEC switched to diesel locomotives,

he worked on the coal trains that loaded coal from schooners at Flagler’s coal

docks in Mayport. At times, it took two to three days to unload the coal from the

schooners. Then the coal was taken to St. Augustine where it was stored on four

to five acres while awaiting redistribution along the main line.

FEC Depot and Coal Docks. Mayport, FL, 1900 Source: Beaches Museum

George and Hugo Estell on coal schooner Source: Beaches Museum

The FEC began switching to diesel power, phasing out the coal trains.

Galvin made the switch as well and began working on passenger trains as well

as freight trains. When the Mayport Branch of the FEC ended in 1931, he worked

the last passenger train out of Mayport. The tracks were removed from Mayport

to south Jacksonville. Even though bankrupt, the FEC still ran trains south from

Jacksonville.

Galvin married at least twice. His first wife was Blanche Brown whom he

married on October 16, 1915. She had been born in 1898. The marriage

produced two daughters, Ellen and Marian, but they divorced in 1932. Working

on trains meant being absent from home often. For example, he was the

fireman on the train that carried Flagler from into Key West on January 22, 1912.

He remarried on April 1, 1941 to Thelma Bell, a cousin of Jackie Robinson. Walter

T. Gavin, Jr., was born in November of that year but the marriage failed. They

divorced the next year. Both parents continued to live in Mayport. In the 1945

Florida census, father and son lived together.

Florida, Marriages, 1830-1993," index and images, FamilySearch

(https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/V651-BR3 citing Clay, Florida, United States,

county courthouses, Florida; FHL microfilm 1,986,999.

Galvin knew Flagler as an employee, having met him when he was

working in Flagler’s Continental Hotel. He was impressed that Flagler treated

“whites and blacks alike. “ He shook hands with everybody. He passed out

cigars and dimes to employees before his death in May, 1913. A dime was real

money then. He admired Flagler and kept his picture on a wall in his house until

someone stole it. He thought Flagler was smart in inspecting his railroad by riding

the Flagler Special each year from St. Augustine to Mayport and then south to

St. Augustine to the end of the line, Key West.

Galvin was proud that he was able to meet Presidents of the United States

when they rode on FEC trains. He shook hands with Calvin Coolidge, Warren G.

Harding, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Harry Truman. He also had the opportunity to

see Woodrow Wilson and Herbert Hoover. Few Americans have had such an

experience.

He was acquainted with other luminaries who did business in Mayport or

Atlantic Beach. B. B. McCormick, a contractor, did work at the Continental

Hotel. P. Sanford Ross owned a large dredging company based in Jersey City

and Savannah and dredged the St. Johns River including the Mayport part so

coal ships could dock. He knew Elizabeth P. Stark and her husband Jack who

had his legs cut off. He admired her Wonderwood Estates and her ownership of

lots of horses.

He enjoyed working for the railroad, for he earned enough to buy a nice

house. His was the first brick house in Mayport; he moved into it on November

25, 1936. It was a two-story structure located at 1402 Ferris Street. Here is a 2015

Google Maps photo of it. By 1940, he had opened the Blue Moon Café next

door on the east side of his house. It was a restaurant; at night, it was a place to

party.

1402 Ferris Street, Mayport, Florida Source: Google Maps

Tragedy struck on May 18, 1951 when he was severely injured in a train

accident. He lost sight in an eye and part of his left leg. He stayed in the Florida

East Coast Railway hospital until December and received full credit for his FEC

service. He would spend time again in the Flagler Hospital in St. Augustine in July,

1958. A close look at the photo below shows his artificial left leg.3

3 Florida Star, July 5, 1958.

Walter Galvin, 1980 Courtesy of the Beaches Museum

Fortunately, he received a pension from the Railroad Retirement Board

when he officially retired on November 1st. The RRB was established in 1935 as

part of the New Deal. Since railroads were (and are) essential to national

security, railroad workers were exempt from the military draft. They had Social

Security numbers but received larger pensions from the Railroad Retirement

Board. They were given credit for railroad service prior to January 1, 1937. Galvin

received 29.5 years credit. Not counted was his service to the Continental Hotel,

a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Florida East Coast Railway. He also worked for

the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad from November, 1904 through March, 1909. He

also began to receive Medicare in 1965 when it started. In 1980, his co-payment

was nine dollars a month. He lived alone, handicapped by his eyesight,

prosthetic leg, and inoperable bladder problem. A visiting nurse came each

Thursday and a woman cleaned his house once a week; he had moved from

the larger house in 1974. Relatives, particularly a daughter, would visit.

In his interview, Galvin never engaged in self-pity; he had enjoyed his life.

He did remark that he would recall some things when asked about a specific

person or event. When asked a question to which he did not know the answer,

he said he didn’t know instead of making something up. He was kind, especially

to neighborhood children regardless of race.

He died on August 6, 1986, two months and nineteen days short of his

100th birthday. Mayport lost a fine citizen.