USA > Florida > Duval County > Jacksonville > History of early Jacksonville, Florida; being an authentic record of events from the earliest times to and including the civil war by Thomas Frederick Davis > Part 6
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Dr. Baldwin was an active man, but he never sought public office. With an unselfish interest in this town, there was no contemplated improve- ment that he was not prominently identified with. It has been repeatedly said that he did more for Jacksonville when the place needed a guiding and
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helping hand, than any other man, and some day, when this becomes a "City of Retrospect," we may see a monument in one of our parks erected to the memory of Abel Seymour Baldwin, died December 10, 1898, in his 88th year.
BIBLIOGRAPHY, CHAPTER VI.
1 See the histories of Fairbanks, Williams, Sprague, and Coe in relation to the Seminole war.
2 History of Florida, Webb.
3 Florida, Williams.
4 Red Patriots, Coe.
5 Mrs. M. C. Powers.
6 C. Drew, in Times-Union, Trade Edition, January, 1890.
7 New International Encyclopaedia, see REPUDIATION, CRISIS, Etc.
8 Letters and papers of J. P. Belknap in possession of M. A. Brown.
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CHAPTER VII.
THE EARLY CHURCHES.
So far as known, religious services were first held in Jacksonville over the store built by John Warren at the northwest corner of Bay and New- nan Streets; this was prior to 1825, and the ser- vices were general rather than denominational. Services were held irregularly at one place and another, and occasionally at the court house, until the block house was built, when that seems to have become the place for general worship, except by the Episcopalians, who continued to use the court house. Early in the 40's the several denomina- tions took steps to provide for themselves sepa- rate houses of worship. The first church building erected in the town was built by the Baptists, on the east side of the lot at the northeast corner of Duval and Newnan Streets, in 1840. The exact location of the building is occupied now by the Methodist parsonage.
METHODIST.
The Methodists seem to have been the pioneers in organized church work in Jacksonville. In 1823 or 1824, several missionaries were sent to East Florida with headquarters at St. Augustine, among them Rev. John Jerry. Jacksonville was on Mr. Jerry's circuit. "From St. Augustine to
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the Cow Ford he traveled on horseback, carrying his change of clothing, books, lunch, and sack of corn to feed his horse2''.
The following extracts taken from the diary of Rev. Isaac Boring1 indicate that there was a regularly organized Methodist society in Jack- sonville in 1829 :
"Sunday, March 8, 1829. Preached at Jackson- ville and dined with Mrs. Hart, and heard that some members of our church had been dancing."
"Sunday, April 19, 1829. Preached at Jackson- ville, filling all the appointments of the week."
"Sunday, May 17, 1829. Preached at Jackson- ville. For the first time I was allowed to preach in the court house. During divine services, a drunken man made so much noise that Mr. Hart very politely led him out of the house. After preaching I met the Society, filling all the appoint- ments of the week."
Very little data are obtainable regarding the Methodist congregation from this time till 1840; but without doubt it held together, worshipping in different buildings until the block house was built. When the Baptists built their chapel at the northeast corner of Duval and Newnan Streets in 1840, the Methodists worshipped with them, but the two congregations holding services in the same building was not a satisfactory arrange- ment. The Methodists bought the property from the Baptists3 in 1846 for the sum of $6004.
The custom in that day was to separate the con-
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gregation, the right hand side of the building be- ing reserved for the women and the left for the men. The pulpit was raised and was several feet in length, with candle sticks on each end. The pastor sat behind the pulpit and was screened from the congregation. Old English pews having doors that could be locked were used; these doors were later removed. There were cross seats on each side of the pulpit, called "amen pews", because they were usually occupied by the faithful, prayerful mem- bers. Instrumental music was not permitted, as it was considered a sinful practice. Congregational singing was fervent and emotional, someone act- ing as leader pitching the tunes4.
The congregation grew and became too large for the little chapel. There being space enough on the corner a larger building was erected about 1858, and was called St. Paul's. It was a wooden build- ing and went safely through the war, being used until 1889, when it was sold to the Roman Catholics for $500, including pews, pulpit, and bell. It was moved away and used by the Catholics as a parish hall.
PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL.
Rev. Raymond A. Henderson, missionary at St. Augustine held the first service of the Episcopal church in Jacksonville April 12, 1829; in 1834, the Parish was organized, under the general act of the Legislative Council of the Territory of Florida for the incorporation of religious bodies". The Epis-
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copal congregation was incorporated by Act 28, of the Legislative Council, approved February 23, 1839, which provided as follows :
Be it enacted by the Governor and the Legislative Council of the territory of Florida, That William J. Mills, Samuel L. Burritt, and Robert Biglow, War- dens, and Harrison R. Blanchard and such others as were elected Vestrymen of the Episcopal Congrega- tion at Jacksonville, and their successors in office, shall be, and they are hereby declared to be a body corporate, by the name and style of the Church Wardens and Vestrymen of St. John's Church at Jacksonville .***
The congregation now began to raise funds for the erection of a church edifice. The ladies of the church added materially to the building fund by means of a sewing society, over which Mrs. Thomas Douglas presided for a long time. Two lots on Duval Street were deeded to the Church by Mrs. Maria Doggett, September 17, 1842, as a do- nation from herself and her husband, Judge John L. Doggett, and these are the same lots on which St. John's Church stands today." The other two lots, on Church Street, were purchased at a later date.
The corner stone of the church was laid Sunday, April 24th, 1842, by Rt. Rev. Christopher Edwards Gadsden, Bishop of South Carolina. The struc- ture was soon up and services were held in it; but it was not entirely completed until 1851, when it
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was consecrated by Rt. Rev. Stephen Elliott, Bishop of Georgia5. The building was burned by Federal troops March 29th, 1863.
In building the first church, every person who contributed a certain sum of money was given a deed to a pew in his own right, and the same was entailed to his heirs. The early choir was com- posed as follows: Dr. A. S. Baldwin, leader, base viol; J. W. Bryant, first flute; William Lancaster, second flute. The singers were, Mrs. A. M. Reed, who also played on a melodeon which a servant carried on his shoulders to the church for each service; Miss Eliza Lancaster, and Mrs. William Douglas. The communion service consisted of two small waiters and two silver cups-family silver loaned by Mrs. Susan L'Engle. A burial plot was provided in the church yard for members of the congregation, and the ashes of some of Jacksonville's early residents still occupy their original graves, although most of the bodies were removed many years ago to the old city cemetery on East Union Street4.
Mr. Henderson continued to hold occasional ser- vices in Jacksonville until the summer of 1834; in the fall of that year he was succeeded by a regular rector, Rev. David Brown. Mr. Brown remained for more than ten years, he being suc- ceeded in May, 1845, by Rev. John Freeman Young. Mr. Young was followed by Rev. Isaac Swart, in 1848, and Mr. Swart by Rev. W. D. Harlow in 1854. Rev. W. W. Bours became the
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rector in 1855. Mr. Bours died of yellow fever in 1857. In the following year, Rev. S. L. Kerr (pronounced Carr) came. Mr. Kerr was followed in 1861, by Rev. H. H. Hewett. Mr. Hewett was a Northern man and he went away with the Federal squadron in 1862, and the parish remained vacant until after the war2.
ROMAN CATHOLIC.
The Roman Catholic Parish of Jacksonville was not established until 1857. Previously, the Roman Catholic residents of the town, few in number, re- ceived the ministrations of visiting priests from St. Augustine and Savannah. The names of some of these priests are preserved in the parish rec- ords of those cities. Worthy of note among them, for their zealous and arduous work, were Fathers Claude Rampon and Patrick Hackett, who resided at St. Augustine and visited Jacksonville at regular intervals from 1836 to 1843; and Fathers Benedict Madeore and Edmund Aubriel, who like- wise resided at St. Augustine and visited Jack- sonville from 1843 to 1858.
During the pioneer years, religious services were conducted at the home of some one of the church members. The first purchase by the church was the northwest corner of Duval and Newnan Streets from I. D. Hart (probably in 1848), the deed being made to Bishop Gartland, of Savannah, and the consideration mentioned be- ing "one penny." The precise date of erection of
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the first church, which was built through the efforts of Father Aubriel, is not known with cer- tainty *. According to the testimony of living wit- nesses (Henry Clark and Mrs. William M. Bost- wick) there was a church building at the northwest corner of Newnan and Duval Streets as early as 1851; here religious ceremonies were carried out with regularity and according to the established rules of the Church. It is an interesting fact to note that if the church was originally dedicated to the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady, as seems to have been the case, the time was several years before that dogma was defined as an article of Faith by Pope Pius IX, in 1854.
A beautiful painting of the Immaculate Concep- tion, said to have been a gift from the French government, was placed behind the altar. This painting was saved from destruction, when the church was burned by Federal troops March 28, 1863; but its history is not traced further.'
In 1857, the former territory of East Florida, which had been included hitherto within the diocese of Savannah was constituted a separate ecclesiastical jurisdiction as Vicariate-Apostolic, with Bishop Verot in charge. The first resident pastor at Jacksonville was Rev. William Hamil- ton, who came from Savannah. He was a man of remarkable organizing and executive ability, at
*Well-founded tradition says the first Roman Catholic church in Jacksonville was built about 1848, at the northwest corner of Newnan and Duval Streets.
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the same time possessing amiable and social quali- ties that endeared him to all, irrespective of creed. After establishing the Church at Jacksonville on a solid basis, he was transferred, in 1861, to a more important field of work in the diocese of Mobile, where he died in a few years. His successor in Jacksonville was Rev. M. Penough, who remained until 1864. After the civil war, Father Chambon and the Very Rev. Father Clavreal, the present vicar-general of the diocese, had charge of all the missions in Florida for several years, Jacksonville being their headquarters.
A description of the burning of the church March 28, 1863, will be found on page 182 of this book.
BAPTIST.
The Baptist denomination was established in Jacksonville in July, 1838, by Rev. James Mc- Donald and Rev. Ryan Frier. Mr. Frier was the State Missionary at that time. There were six charter members, namely, Rev. James McDonald and wife, Elias G. Jaudon and wife, and two colored persons-Peggy, a slave of Elias G. Jaudon, and Bacchus, a slave of William Edwards. Rev. James McDonald was the first pastor, and Elias G. Jaudon the first deacon3.
The congregation increased, and in 1840, pur- chased the northeast corner at Duval and Newnan Streets, where a small chapel was erected®. This was the first church building erected in Jackson-
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ville. It was a small wooden structure, with a seating capacity for about 100 persons. It had a square tower-like steeple in which was a bell. In front was a small piazza; there was but one entrance door. The Baptists sold this property to the Methodists in 18464, and then bought a plot of ground two miles west of the court house (Myrtle Avenue, between Adams and Duval Streets), on which they erected a small brick church3. This building was partially wrecked during the civil war, as it was the scene of nearly all the fighting that occurred near Jacksonville. The little brick church had a war history. Pickets and out-posts were stationed there whenever Jacksonville was occupied by the Federal troops and near it the first blood of the war in this vicinity was shed. Sentinel-like, it witnessed scenes that have never found a place in print.
A few years after the little brick church was built, Elias G. Jaudon bought a piece of ground adjoining the church property and donated it to the church for a burial ground. Finding them- selves too far from the center of the city, it was decided to make yet another change in location, and again Deacon Jaudon came to the assistance of the church, by buying and donating a lot on Church Street, between Julia and Hogan. Here a house of worship was erected, and dedicated February 23, 1861. Soon after this the civil war came on and disrupted the congregation. After the battle of Olustee, the building was taken pos-
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session of by the Federal army and used as a hospital for wounded soldiers, and from this time until the close of the war it was used as a military hospital. The building was left in a deplorable condition, scarcely a pane of glass remaining in the windows and very little plastering on the walls.8
The cemetery that was attached to the "little brick church" still remains, and is the property of the First Baptist Church. After the war, there was a division in the membership of the Baptist Church, the whites buying out the interest of the colored members in the property, renaming their church Tabernacle, while the colored branch re- tained the original name, Bethel Baptist. Taber- nacle was later changed to First Baptist.
Rev. James McDonald was pastor from 1838 to 1846. From 1846 to 1850, there were several un- important short pastorates, in which the church seems to have been unfortunate in obtaining un- worthy or incompetent men. In 1850, Rev. Joseph S. Baker became pastor and served four years, dur- ing which time the church and Sunday-School pros- pered. In 1859, Rev. E. W. Dennison was called. At this time the membership was 40 white and 250 colored®.
PRESBYTERIAN.
The first record of the Presbyterian congrega- tion at Jacksonville was an act by the Legislative
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Council of the Territory (No. 51, approved March 2d, 1840), which, in part, was as follows:
SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Governor and Legislative Council of the Territory of Florida, That from and after the approval of this act, the Presby- terian congregation at Jacksonville, in East Florida, shall be incorporated and be a body politic, by the name and style of the Presbyterian Church of Jack- sonville, and by that name shall be capable and liable in law to sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded, defend and be defended, and to have, hold, possess, and enjoy real and personal estate ;***
SECTION 2. Be it further enacted, That for the better government of said incorporation, O. Congar, O. M. Dorman, Harrison R. Blanchard, Stephen Eddy, and L. D. Miller, be, and they are hereby ap- pointed Trustees of "The Presbyterian Church of Jacksonville", ***
SEC. 3. Be it further enacted, That all the white members of said church shall be deemed qualified electors at any and every election for trustees of said church .***
It will be noted that Harrison R. Blanchard named here as a Trustee, was mentioned as a Vestryman of St. John's when the Episcopal Church was incorporated in 1839.
The following data were furnished by Rev. W. H. Dodge, who was pastor of the Newnan Street Presbyterian Church in this city for 26 years:
The Presbyterian Church in Jacksonville was organized by a committee from the Presbytery of
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HISTORY OF EARLY JACKSONVILLE
Florida, which belonged to the synod of South Carolina and Georgia. The first place of meeting for the Church was a small school house erected probably on the southeast corner of Ocean and Monroe Streets, and it is stated that Mr. Congar often conducted the services. The first church building was erected about 1857 or 1859, the money being obtained first through the earnest efforts of Miss Phoebe Swart, who gave the first $100 to- ward the fund and afterward purchased and gave to the church a lot on Duval Street near Laura, for a Manse. Rev. A. W. Sproull served the Church during 1857-8, and visited the Churches in South- ern cities from which places he obtained much of the money collected. Rev. J. H. Myers, who preached at St. Augustine from 1835 to 1859, oc- casionally preached for the Jacksonville Church also. The Pastor at Jacksonville when the civil war began was Rev. James Little. He enlisted in the service of the Confederate army, and did not resume his pastorate after the war. After the war the Church had a checkered career for a few years. A number of ministerial brethren from the North occupied the pulpit and then arose a desire among the members of the Church who were originally Northern people to change the ecclesiastical rela- tions of the Church and transfer it from the Pres- bytery of Florida of the Southern Assembly to that of Philadelphia of the Northern Assembly. The Southern element of the Church was opposed to this movement and when it prevailed nine
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Southern members withdrew on March 16, 1867, elected new officers, and continued to exist as the original Church of Jacksonville. The church building and other property was held by the Northern members, but the little band of nine members soon increased to sixteen and on June 30, 1867, Rev. W. B. Telford preached to them in the building of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, then called St. Paul's. After worshipping for a few years in a hired hall, a lot was purchased at the southeast corner of Newnan and Monroe Streets, where a small frame building was erected. The two Churches remained separated until May, 1900 when there was a consolidation under the name of the Presbyterian Church of Jacksonville.
BIBLIOGRAPHY, CHAPTER VII.
1 Fifty-two Years in Florida, Ley.
2 History of Florida, Webb.
3 Annual of the First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, 1909.
4 Data collected by Mrs. W. M. Bostwick.
5 Historical Sketches of the Church in Florida, J. J. Daniel.
6 Father J. Veale.
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CHAPTER VIII.
IN THE FORTIES.
With the ending of the Seminole war, and the recovery of the country from the hard times that had prevailed for five years, since 1837, Jackson- ville began a steady growth in population. Colum- bus Drew, Sr., states that in 1842, the population was 450, and in 1847, it was 750, an increase in five years of 67 per cent. The United States Census Bureau made returns separately for Jackson- ville beginning with 1850; the census of 1850 gave 1,045 inhabitants within the corporate limits. If the estimate of 450 in 1842 was accurate, then in eight years the town had increased 132 per cent in population. The following table shows the growth of Jacksonville, as told by figures :
1830
100*
1840
350*
250 per cent gain.
1850
1,045
199
1860
2,018
93
66
1870
6,912
245
1880
7,650
11
66
1890 **
17,201
125
1900
28,429
65
66
1910
57,699
103
*Estimated.
** Corporate limits extended in the mean time.
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HISTORY OF EARLY JACKSONVILLE
EARLY NEWSPAPERS.
The failure of the Courier left Jacksonville with- out a newspaper until about 1842, when G. M. Grovard, of Washington, D. C., came here and es- tablished the Tropical Plant. Soon afterward the Courier (no connection with the former paper of that name) was established, and about the time that Florida was admitted as a State (1845), the Florida News was removed from St. Augustine to Jacksonville. The News was Democratic in poli- tics and held the political field until 1848, when a Whig paper, called the Republican was estab- lished, with Columbus Drew as editor for many years. The News and the Republican did the newspaper fighting of the State for their respec- tive parties', and judging from the few copies that the Author has seen, the fighting was certainly of a sensational character.
The plants of both the News and the Republican were destroyed by fire in April, 1854, but in time the papers were re-established. Owners changed, however, and so did the names of the papers. The Republican became the St. Johns Mirror. Just before the war, the Southern Rights entered the journalistic field in Jacksonville, being for a time conducted by Messrs. Steele and Doggett1.
THE GREAT STORM OF 1846.
Several years ago there were still living in Jack- sonville persons who remembered the great
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gale of October 12, 1846, during which the brig "Virginia," owned by Captain Willey, dragged her anchors and was driven from Market Street into the foot of Ocean Street, her bow-sprit extend- ing almost across Bay. The water from the river backed up nearly across Forsyth Street and was two feet deep in the stores on the north side of Bay. This disaster led to the bulkheading of the river front from Ocean to Pine (now Main). Hewn logs were placed one above the other and were fastened together by chains and an occasional staple. This was called a "buttment" and it proved effectual until wharves were built at that point2.
LOCAL CONDITIONS IN THE EARLY FORTIES.
With an exception here and there, the dwellings were cheaply built one-story wooden structures. The stores were rough buildings with rude fittings. A slab wharf, small and rickety, answered for ves- sels. A small steamer made weekly trips to Savannah and a still smaller one ran once a week to and from Enterprise. There was not a wheeled vehicle in the town. Row boats took the place of carriages; otherwise, the people rode horse-back or walked®.
Primitive as the appearance of the town was, there was yet a good trade and the merchants did comparatively a large business. A great deal of cotton was grown in those days on the plantations hereabout4, and while Jacksonville could not then
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From an old Newspaper Cut.
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FOOT OF BRIDGE STREET, 1843, PRESENT SITE OF VIADUCT
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HISTORY OF EARLY JACKSONVILLE
boast of being an export point, nevertheless the money derived from the sale of this staple was brought here and spent at home.
Denied the advantages of rapid locomotion, with but one steamer arrival a week and only a weekly mail from the North, the residents of the town must have had little to excite their every-day lives. Therefore, we may safely assume that the com- munity was shaken from center to circumference when one day a volley of shots resounded through the streets and when the smoke of the fusillade had cleared away, it was found that a citizen had been killed in one of the stores on Bay Street. Two prominent men were arrested for doing the shooting, and were taken to Tallahassee and con- fined in the jail there. There are residents living here now that remember hearing their fathers talk about this affair; how a lady visited one of the prisoners in jail at Tallahassee; but instead of leaving, she remained and out to liberty walked the prisoner, dressed in women's clothes. He escaped to Georgia, and neither of the men was ever brought to trial, and both in time came back to Jacksonville.
FIRST EPIDEMIC.
In 1849, there was an epidemic of disease in Jacksonville, called the broken-bone fever. It was so general that in many families every grown per- son would be in bed with it at the same time, leav- ing the administration of affairs to the children of
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HISTORY OF EARLY JACKSONVILLE
the household. Fortunately, the period of the dis- ease was of short duration and no deaths occurred as a result of the visitation2. The exact nature of the sickness cannot be determined now; while the symptoms were those of the modern LaGrippe, the period of duration was too short for it to have been this disease.
Less has been published concerning the period 1840-1850 than of any other decade in Jackson- ville's history, and it is, accordingly, the most diffi- cult for which to obtain data. There were no set- backs of serious consequence, however, and the town's growth continued, while the way was paved for the establishment of the enormous lumber in- dustry that followed in the early 50's, when the really rapid growth commenced.
BIBLIOGRAPHY, CHAPTER VIII.
1 Florida Times-Union, February 8, 1883.
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