T.H'EBOOK .LOVER'._$.. ·.-GUIDE. TO..... .... .... FLORIDA. ..... •, . ···-·�·-·----· , ,; EDITED BY KEVIN M.MCCARTHY I Pinenpplc Press, Inc. Sarasom, Florida I . I •• �· -¢:i: I i 10 THE FLORIDA ,,,,, .. ... PANHANDLE } DEAN DEBOLT .:,.-:;-,,,.!-~"'-··, Aj,alacf1icola River Valley ··,,~ Drlvingwcsl on lntcrstOlc 10, <i>doy's 1r:welers cross 1he Apnlachi­ ~i~~~i\~'?~~~··· ~- -:. cola River and immediately adjust their watchei. This river mark.s "·'\. n timc.:a2011cbounda,·y placing much of Florida in the c:lstcro time ... :::.,,, z.oneand the Florida Pnnlmndlc in the c::entrultime 1.one. Yet lhis ..... ,j --. river :,nd the Ap:tlochicola River Vall�y hnve played a strategk part in Florida . hhitory. De Soto•s men crossed the river on their trek into the int:rior1 nnd ...... ,. """·- \�I! .... Spanish, British, and Indian residents placed ST<."clt imporl."lnce on the rc­ "·' &ources of the valley. '" "' · ~ . For lhe Indians, lhc vnllcy sm·rounded by fertile londs ond lush forest '"' ' ' ~'.l!..:,..,......., l' ; provided food, ttade goods (fur pelts), and security. During the Seminole Indian wars, 1he Indians used the Ap:tlochicola River valley to evade army • rcgulm·s who found the junglcHkc terrain nearly impm1s:1blc. Robert Wilder's . ~::t;,,,. ~~\\ ~~/ ',;, Brig!UFearkr (New York: Putnam's, 1948) provides n fiction:tlaccount of life I . ~ ,,~~"''''"'' -A\\ . in this region during the Second Seminole Wnl'. ,., ... ;,.::~~- \\',;.. !\ ... In the 1840s, with the growth of King Cotton n.s the predominantsouthern I ,., ._.,. ..... commodity. the v:illeytook on new iinponancc. The Apalachicola River valley ,.,, . provided a transporlntion conduit from the: interior of Alabama nnd Georgia ..... to the Gulf of Mexico. A thriving movement of crops� passengersJ and l>.,.,:t·-•rr.,x,.i}i?~:ir,~~ . commel'CC opened up between Columbus, Georgia the northern terminus of ·A·- J · ..,J -· "· the Ap:.lachlcolnRiver, oml Apolochicola, Florido, 300 miles south on the Gulf •· ..... ... ..... of Mexico. ,.. \ \ When the Civil War broke out, che Confederacy establlshed the Con{cd­ :::~7,., · : crntcNnvy Y:.,rd at ColumbusJ ;-ind mnny of the South's gunboats and ironcfods .... were cOO$lructcd by shipyru·d!i aJ01\g the tlvcr. At the southern terminus, ··" ::..~-··· --- . Apalachlcola had an extensive ,�1lt·m:"iking opcrntion to pl'ovidc provlsion9 for Confederate mlli<>ry forces. Mnxine Turner hos documented the Civil War .. _._.,-,\1:,,· .. history of lhe valley in N(J.VJ Gmy: A Story of the Crmfaderale NaVJ cm 1M Clialla/1ootlm andApalacliicota Rivm (Tuscalooso, AL: University of Alobama Pres.,, 1988). Dr. Fronk Slaughter, n prolific Florido author, used the valley•• a (Garden ,:·.;:-;:>"'·' . setting for his fiction about Dr. Kit Clnrk in Stom, flavcn City,NY: ,. ,, Doublcdny, 195S), which is sci in 18G3. Cora Miechcl's ReminiJcences oftlie Civil ..... ... War (Providence, RI: Snow & famh:un Co., 1916) offers first-hand testimony .... :·-- . :,. ... :) 711E BOOK LOVER� CUil)£1'0 f1.0R1DA TJIE 1'1.0RJDAPANHANDLE oflifcin Columbus and Apol:,chicola up through the Civil Wor by lhc dnughtcr chronicled by Alexander Key (1904- ) in his novel TM Wrath antl tht Wind of Thomas Leeds Mitchel, a cotton mcrchcmt from Connecticut. (Indianapolis: llobbs-Mcrrill, 1949) about lhe fictitious adventures of Maury The Apnlnchicola.River winds its wny sou1h, cutting through the Panhnnd1c St. John, " ,lave-lradcr in Apalachicoln, nnd the destruction of St. Joseph by and broadening ou1 into Apalnchicola Bay before meeting the Gulf of Mexico. yellow fever and a hurricane. It acquired its first newspaper;thc Advertist:T, in Jn 18B2. the county of Faye:Ucw:ls Cl'cated between the Apa1achicoln RivCI' and 1888, to be followed throe years later by the llpulacl,ico/aGazeue, o newspaper the ChipolaRivcr. with a northern boun<.J;u·y of the Alabnma st.1tc Hnc.Just as whose main funcllon was to attack Lhe nearby town of St. Joseph. Il l>ccame quickly, in 1834, Fayette was abolished and became the only Florida county to Florida's fir�t daily newspaper and la.ted from 1839 to 1840. p;LS.$ out of existence; other counties hnvc ci1her been 1·cn.uncd or rccarvcd Alcxnnder Key �lso used Apa.lad,icola as a setting for nnothc1· novel.Island from other countles. Rubylcu Holl's GotlHa.sa Sem,ofHunior(Ncw York, Duell, Light (Indianapolis; Bobbs-Merrill, 1950), which traces the escnpc of Moxi­ Sloan, 1960) is cenlcred on the Apalachicola Rivercountry, including Calhoun milian Ewing,� Confederate prisoner, from Fort Jefferson near Key West to County and Wcwnhitchkn. St. George Lighthouse on Apalachicola llay. Key is perhaps better known for illustrating olher novels and for his fontasy novel Escnf,e ro Witch Mountain Apalachicola (1968), which wa,made into a Walt Disney film in 1975. Apalachicola is also the setting for intrii,ruc, •m inherited house, ,md n countc1·fciting ring in Locnled on U.S. 98 on the weslcrn edge of Apnlachicoln llay, Apalachicola, Dorothy Worley's Encltanr,dHaroor (New York: Avnlon, 1956). The su1Tound· oncc•thriving port city, is tod�y home to Florida's oyitcr industry. The name n ingarca ls also the selling fo,· 17,e Van11irt1S(New York: Knopf, 1916) by Peggy of this beautiful little town comes from nn Indian word mcanirlg the peopk ,,,. Benneu (192� ) nn Ap;,lachicoln writer; the plot. centers on three orphans th,other sidt, referring to the term used by one lnclian tribe- for another, or i growing up in the late 1980,and emphasizes psychological inte,.,.ction among from an Indian word mcnning allies. Known for its Apalachicola Bay oysten, the ch:1r�ctcrs. town w:.sone of the most lrnpormntcomtnercinl centers of Flor ida in 1he the Apalachicola was also the home of Or.John Corrie, who arrived in 1833 third nnd fourth decade:$ of die nincaccnth cc1ltu1y bccnusc of ils loc.,tion , to P"'cticemedicine. 'The 1843 yellow-fever epidemic Jed him to speculate on southwest of Tallatiassce and near the Gulf of Mexico, After its founding in the fuel tluit yellow feve1· docs not •ecm to cxi,l in dry or cold climates. In 1844 1831, Apalachicola quickly bccnmc the third-lorge.<1 couon-shipping port on he developed a device to circulate ice-cooled air throughout a room to red11cc the gulf. It grew even more when the city of St. Joseph (Jocnlcd 25 miles west the probability of yellow fever; chaffing at the lack of lee, he patented an on St. Joseph's Bay) was abandoned during• yellow-fever epidemic in 1841 artificinl ice-making machine in 1850. Tod�lf vishors c.·m learn more about his and its population moved to Apalnchicola. The booming port period is work at the Corrie State Museum (904/653,934'7). Sec Raymond B. Jlccker's John Gorrie, M.D. (New Yot·k; Corhon, 1972) and V.M. (Vivian M.) Sherlock's The Fever Man (Tallaha,sec: Mcdnllion Press, I 082) for more 11bout this Floridian whose statue is in Statuary 1-Inll :,t the U.S. Capilol in Washington, o.c. Life in Apalachicoln from 1900 to 1917 is recalled in II Florida Snnd[Jip,,r. OrA Fool RusMd In Whe,e llngell Fear lo Tnad (Gainesville: Storter Printing Company, 1982), the au1obiography of ngrlcullut·al tcnche,• George Norton Wakefield ( 1899· ). Wakefielddescribes life in Apalnchicoln, the influence of the Episcopal Church, and th<:islands (St. Vincent, Sl. Geo,·ge, »nd Dog Island) as well ns his late!' years al the Unlvcr.dty of Florida and ns nn agdcultu1·c teacher in other parts of Florida. Several significant authors have lived In Apalachicola. Alvnn Wentworth Chapman (1809,1899), who lived In 1he Chnpmnn Honse on the corner of Broad Street and Ch«tnut Avenue, wrote Flom of lhc Soulhcm Unittd Slores (1883), an important early botanical work about Florida. Teresa Hollowcy (1906- ), who was born in Apalachicola, graduntcd from the Florida Sintc College forWomen (1925)- later Florida State University- and worked as City of AJ>olachlcot:i, 18:'\7 manager of Ilic town'• chamber of commerce (1917-1950); she later moved to Jac'ksonvillc. where $he worked as an �,uthor nnd television documentary writer. She has published 39 novels under her own name and the pseudonyms 'rl/E BOOK LOVEii's CU/DE TO FLOIUDA THE FL0k.ID4 PANHANDLE Eli.zubcth Bea1ty and M�rgarct Vail McLeod. Some of her novels nrc: set in Flol'ida Press, 1986) by Willium Wnrrc11 Rogers. The fil'st of two planned Florida, forexample Govemnitnl Girl (New York: llouregy, 1957); River in lhe voJumcsJ it covc:n from early explol'-ation of the area to World W.i.rII. Sun by Elizabeth llealty(New Yol'k: Bourcgy, 1958): Th, N11rse on Dark ls/and (New York: Ace, 1969); and II Nurse for 1/ie Fi.shmnm (New Vol'k: Bouregy, St.Joseph 19'71). Her Hearts Haven (New York: Avalon, 1955} is set spcoilically In To the west of Apalachicola, nlong St. Joseph's Bay, is the site of Old St. Apalachicola. Joseph, a town whose hi,iory is cnlwi11ed with Apalachicola. In 1838, SL Jo,eph was the largest town in Florida with 6,000 inhabitants. !Is loc:ition on the Gulf St. Vincent, St. George, and Dog Islam/ of Mexico made it a booming port and, some say, the 1khes1 and wickede,t To the south of Ap11h>chicola and ncross Apnlnchicola Bay lie a small chnin city in theSoutheast. When yellow fever ardvcd aboal'd aSoulh American ship ofbarrier islands: St. Vincent, St. Geo>-ge, and Dog Island. Only in recent years in the early 1840s, panic enoued; many abandoned the city and moved to ha.1 attention been drawn to preset'Ving these islands. ns unspoiled natural nearby Apalachicola. The port closed, ships avoided the site, and an 1844 vegetation and animal habit:its. St. Vincent Island h:is had a long reputution hurricnnc finishedoff the dcslruction of the town.