Florida Keys Sea Heritage Journal VOL. 22 NO. 4 SUMMER 2012 USS SHARK OFFICIAL QUARTERLY PUBLICATION OF THE KEY WEST MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY Woodcutters and Charcoal Burners - Forgotten Pioneers By John Viele. Copyright 1993 This article appeared in the Island Navigator 1993 For over one hundred years, a handful of forgotten men labored in the dense, mosquito-infested woods of the lower and middle Keys to keep the housewives of Key West supplied with wood and charcoal for their stoves. The majority of these woodcutters and charcoal burners A Charcoal Kiln on Sugarloaf Key in May 1939 that was approximately 25 feet in were black Bahamian immigrants, diameter and 12 feet high with a yield over 200 sacks of charcoal. Photo credit: who usually lived alone or with Stetson Kennedy. one or two other woodmen in crude when set on fire at one end, will the 1880 census showed a significant driftwood shacks. burn to ashes before the fire goes increase in lower Keys charcoal As the population of Key out and generate an intense heat.” burners and woodcutters. There West grew, the supply of suitable Buttonwood was also used to make were 13 charcoal burners, all but stovewood on the island was charcoal and, according to some three of whom were black men, and soon exhausted. One of the first sources, makes the best charcoal of six white woodcutters. The 1900 suppliers of wood to Key West was any wood in the world. census reported only seven charcoal Henry Geiger of Boca Chica. Henry The first charcoal burner for burners and no woodcutters, but ten employed a 63-year old black man which there is any record was a man years later there were 24 “woodmen” named Robert Allen to cut the wood by the name of George Wilson, who living between Cudjoe Key and No which he sold for $3.50 a cord in was the sole inhabitant of Big Pine Name Key and nine men who were Key West in the 1850s. Key at the time of the 1870 census. both spongers and charcoal burners The best-burning wood was Unlike most of his successors, in the middle Keys. buttonwood, a dense, hard wood George was a white man. The 1870 The process of making charcoal from trees that grow near the census also listed two woodcutters, was a long, arduous, and lonely shoreline on most of the Keys. A both located on Sugarloaf Key. one. While buttonwood was the Keys traveler in the late 1800s As might be expected because of reported that, “A log of buttonwood, the growing Key West population, (Continued on page 3) SocietyNews by Tom Hambright Key West on the Edge Inventing the Conch Republic By Robert Kerstein This excellent new book describes how Key West invented an economy based on mass tourism after major cutbacks in the once- thriving military which had been The Florida Keys Sea Heritage the driving force in Key West life Journal is published quarterly. from 1940 to 1970. After years of Subscription is available through research and countless interviews membership. Copyright 2012 by with everyone that would talk to the Key West Maritime Historical him, Dr. Robert Kerstein documents Society of the Florida Keys, Inc. how the changes occurred without The art on the masthead, the USS destroying the things that make Key Shark, was drawn by Bill Muir. West unique. The first part of the book covers Editor: Tom Hambright the history of the Island up to the closing of the Naval Station Letters and articles are welcome. in 1974. Kerstein documents in Please write to: Editor, Florida Keys detail the failed attempt during the Sea Heritage Journal, KWMHS, Great Depression by the Federal P.O. Box 695, Key West, FL Government to create the “Bermuda publicity, which helped make the 33041 or visit our web site of America”. Florida Keys one of the top tourist Keywestmaritime.org. He accurately explains the destinations in the country. These challenges of the major recession and many other stories are in this Key West Maritime of the 1970s and the oil embargo fine book. Historical Society with resulting gasoline shortages A must read for anyone interested Board of Directors and price increases. At the same in Key West history and economy. time, Key West’s thriving shrimp Solares Hill wrote “The best book President: Corey Malcom industry began its steady decline on our town since Joy Williams’ Vice President: Bill Verge and disappeared by the late 1980s. classic on our place, ‘The Florida Secretary: Andrea Comstock Despite all the obstacles, the Keys: A History and Guide,’ now in Treasurer: Tom Hambright tourist industry was growing its 10th edition.” when the adverse publicity from The book was published by The the Mariel Boatlift destroyed the University Presses of Florida and is George Craig business in 1980. The next blow available at all book sellers. Shop J. Gregory Griffin came when the Federal Government through this Amazon link http: Bill Grosscup created the roadblock at Florida City //amzn.to/O8GVcg to benefit the Mary Haffenreffer with traffic delays that killed travel Monroe CountyLibrary. John Jones from South Florida to the Keys. We plan to have Dr. Kerstein Sheri Lohr Key West countered with the Conch speak to the Society members Joan Langley Republic and received national during our winter lecture series. Julie McEnroe New Members John Viele Cori Convertito, Key West; Fred Marblehead, MA;Captain Curtis Covan, Key West; Premiere Racing, William Erling White, Key West. 2 - FLORIDA KEYS SEA HERITAGE JOURNAL - SUMMER 2012 A Charcoal Markers’ Shack on Sugarloaf Key in May 1939. Photo credit: Stetson Kennedy. (Charcoal from Page 1) ten days to reduce the wood to A few charcoal burners continued preferred wood, other trees such as charcoal. During that period, the to build their kilns even into the the red mangrove could be used. charcoal burner, if he did not have post-World War II years. One of After locating a thick stand of a helper, or did not live near by, had the last of them was Bertram Cash, suitable trees, the charcoal burner to remain at the site, catching short a black man who came to the Keys cut them down, trimmed the cat naps on the ground or in a crude from the Bahamas when he was branches, and “stood up” a kiln in a shelter. 17. Bertram burned his last kiln on cleared area. He constructed the kiln After the charcoal had cooled, Cudjoe Key in 1960, having made by stacking the logs in a tent-like the charcoal burner packed it in charcoal for 40 years. structure, leaving a small opening at sacks and loaded it aboard small Today, those with the energy and the top. He set up the large logs first sloops for transport to Key West. the interest to fight their way through followed by successively-smaller A cord of buttonwood would yield some of the dense buttonwood limbs. Next, he covered the entire about ten sacks, and a typical sloop growths in undeveloped sections structure with a thick layer of grass could carry about 150 sacks. of the lower and middle Keys, may or seaweed followed by a layer of Some idea of the extent of come upon a large circular area of sand or dirt. this trade can be gained from the barren ground, a reminder of the From a separately-started fire, narrative of a Keys cruise made in lonely, back-breaking, mosquito- the burner picked up glowing coals 1885. The author reported passing, infested days of the charcoal and dropped them into the kiln in one day, eight sloops outbound burners. through the opening in the top. He from Key West, all engaged “in the closed the opening with more wood, stovewood and charcoal trade with John Viele has been a member grass and sand, thus forcing the heat the Island City.” of the Board of Directors of the Key to spread throughout the interior. Charcoal burning did not West Maritime Historical Society The kiln had to be tended day and completely die out with the advent of of the Florida Keys for the past 20 night to keep it burning slowly gas and electric stoves in Key West. years. He is the author of three books and evenly and to prevent the fire Many Key Westers, particularly on the history of the Keys published from breaking through at any point. those of Cuban ancestry, enjoyed by Pineapple Press of Sarasota: The burner maintained control by the flavor that buttonwood charcoal “The Florida Keys – A History of strategic placement of more sand imparted to roasted meat, and at the Pioneers,” “The Florida Keys, or dirt. least one Key West coffee mill used Vol. 2 – True Stories of the Perilous Depending on the size of the the charcoal to give a distinct flavor Straits,” and “The Florida Keys, kiln, it would take from three to to its Cuban coffee. Vol. 3 – The Wreckers.” SUMMER 2012 - FLORIDA KEYS SEA HERITAGE JOURNAL - 3 The House That George Adderley Built By John Viele. aside $100, enough to purchase a period of some 40 years. Very little Copyright 1993 32 acres of wooded hardwood is known of their life. Sometime This article appeared in the hammock on the northern shore of before 1920, George’s brother John Island Navigator in 1993 Key Vaca next to Rachel Key. Soon and his family emigrated from the thereafter, George began building a Bahamas and settled nearby. With house in the typical Bahamian style the addition of John’s family, there Around 1905, two men, a he was familiar with.