Tag Archives: Graveyard

Evergreen Cemetery

July 28, 2012 6:00 am ,
Evergreen Cemetery

Entrance to Evergreen Cemetery

After the City of St. Augustine closed the Protestant (Huguenot) Cemetery, a new location west of the city was selected as its replacement. Evergreen Cemetery opened in 1886 and soon became the largest Protestant cemetery in northeast Florida. The plan for Evergreen was influenced by the Rural Cemetery Movement of the 19th century. The National Register Bulletin describes this style:

In the early “rural” cemeteries and in those which followed their pattern, hilly, wooded sites were enhanced by grading, selective thinning of trees, and massing of plant materials which directed views opening onto broad vistas. The cemetery gateway established separation from the workaday world, and a winding drive of gradual ascent slowed progress to a stately pace. Such settings stirred an appreciation of nature and a sense of the continuity of life.

The older sections of the cemetery are shaded with old palms and live oak trees. Spanish moss sways in the breeze and many azalea and camilla bushes provide color in the spring. A meandering pond splits the cemetery in half and adds to the tranquility. The newer sections are a stark contrast – flat with almost no shade.

Among the cemetery’s notable residents is Randolph Caldecott, the 19th century British artist noted for his beautifully illustrated childrens’ books. Mr. Caldecott died suddenly on February 12, 1886 while visiting St. Augustine and was one of the first burials at Evergreen.

The cemetery office is located just inside the gate and the staff was very helpful, providing maps and information on the cemetery’s history and features. This map provides an aerial view of the cemetery as it looks today. A cemetery survey is available at the St. Augustine Genealogical Society site.

View Larger Map

References:

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Henry Morrison Flagler

July 17, 2012 6:00 am ,
Flagler Memorial Presbyterian Church

Flagler Memorial Presbyterian Church

The beautiful Memorial Presbyterian Church was built by Henry Morrison Flagler as a memorial to his daughter Jenny Louise Flagler Benedict who died from complications related to childbirth.

Portrait of Henry M. Flagler hangs in Memorial Presbyterian Church.

Portrait of Henry M. Flagler hangs in Memorial Presbyterian Church.

Flagler (January 2, 1830 – May 20, 1913), a founding partner in the Standard Oil Company, also built the Florida East Coast railroad which opened up the east coast of Florida down to the Keys.  In St. Augustine, he created a winter resort with three elegant hotels.

When his daughter died soon after the birth – and death – of her child, he chose to build a church as a permanent memorial to her.  The Presbyterian congregation that benefited from his largess is the oldest Presbyterian congregation in Florida and at the time of the church’s dedication numbered only 40 members.

In addition to Jenny Louise and her daughter, Marjorie, Mr. Flagler and his first wife, Mary, are also buried in the family mausoleum at the church.

 

A view into the mausoleum. The mirror shows the ornametal detail of the mausoleums dome.

A view into the mausoleum. The mirror shows the ornametal detail of the mausoleum’s dome.

The mausoleum is the domed structure in the foreground.

The mausoleum is the domed structure in the foreground.

Sources:

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Mission of Nombre de Dios

July 8, 2012 9:12 am ,

One of St. Augustine’s most historic sites, the Mission of Nombre de Dios also served as a cemetery for a short period in the 19th century. This is the story of that cemetery and some of the people who are buried there.

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Hiding the Dead

March 31, 2012 8:00 am ,

The earliest date on a gravestone in St. Augustine belongs to Elizabeth Forrester. Elizabeth was born in 1732 and died on December 20, 1798. She is buried in Tolomato Cemetery.

In 1798, St. Augustine was more than 230 years old. We already know there are a large number of dead heretics buried in the dunes at Matanzas Inlet, but what about the deceased residents of this settlement over the years?

It’s quite likely that the Tolomato Cemetery site contains graves from the first Spanish period (ending 1763) when the location was an Indian mission. Several other sites have been identified as burial locations including the current headquarters of the Florida National Guard at St. Francis Barracks. Prior to the arrival of the British in 1763, this location was a Franciscan monastery/convent and mission. Recent excavations on the property have found remains of a non-European individual. Other cemetery locations include Nuestra Senora de la Soledad located on what is now part of the convent of the Sisters of St. Joseph and the Parish of St. Augustine cemetery located off Aviles Street.

How did these cemeteries become “lost”? The settlement endured several large fires in its early history. First Drake then Moore burned the town during their attacks and Oglethorpe later bombarded the town for six months. Another factor could be the lack of stone available to mark the graves. The only stone found in this area is a shell-rock called coquina which really isn’t suitable for gravestones. Even if fires didn’t get them, graves marked with wooden markers would soon be lost to the climate and termites. Even 19th century graves in the Huguenot Cemetery can no longer be identified because their wooden markers have rotted away.

Huguenot Cemetery 1904

Huguenot Cemetery about 1904. Courtesy Florida Memory.

Although the graves may be lost, their souls are not. The St. Augustine Historical Society has translations of early church records going back to 1594, along with many other historical documents covering the many periods of St. Augustine’s history.

Sources:

  • Buker, George E., and Jean Parker Waterbury. The Oldest City: St. Augustine, Saga of Survival. St. Augustine, Fla: St. Augustine Historical Society, 1983.
  • Thompson, Sharon and Marsha Chance, A Survey of Forty-Six Historical Cemeteries in St. Johns County, Florida. Jacksonville, FL: Environmental Services, Inc., 2004.
  • Wittemann, A. St. Augustine. Thomas and Georgine Mickler collection. Brooklyn, N.Y.: A. Wittemann, 1904. <http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/tc/fhp/CF00001677.pdf>. (photo of Huguenot Cemetery)
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William Wing Loring

February 9, 2012 6:39 am ,
Loring Monument

Loring Monument from the author's collection

This imposing monument presides over the plaza to the west of Government House and overlooks the busiest intersection in downtown St. Augustine.  In actuality, it’s more than just a monument.  It’s also the grave of William Wing Loring, a man who served in three armies including as Pasha in the army of Egypt.

William Wing Loring

William Wing Loring from Florida Photographic Collection

Born December 4, 1818 in Wilmington, North Carolina, William moved to St. Augustine with his parents in 1823 – just two years after Florida had become a United States territory.  At the age of 14 he enlisted in the Florida Militia and fought in the early skirmishes of the Second Seminole War.  He was promoted to lieutenant before he left the militia to finish his schooling in Virginia.

After school, he passed the bar exam and spent some time as an attorney and even served in the state legislature from 1843 to 1845.  He joined the Army and served in the Mexican War where he lost his arm during battle in Mexico City.  In 1849 he took command of the Oregon Territory as part of the Mounted Rifles and served in the west until 1859.  When the Civil War erupted, he resigned to join the Southern cause serving at Vicksburg, in Tennessee, North Georgia and in the campaign against Nashville.  In 1865 he surrendered to General Sherman in North Carolina shortly after Appomatox.

A group of Confederate and Union veterans later served in the Egyptian army after being recommended to the Khedive of Egypt by none other than William Tecumseh Sherman. Loring served for nine years, attaining the rank of Fereek Pasha (Major General).  On his return to the states, he wrote a book about his experiences titled A Confederate Soldier in Egypt (1884).  He co-authored another book, The March of the Mounted Riflemen, which was published after his death.

Upon his return from Egypt, Loring spent his time working on his book and traveling between his Florida home, New York and the western states.  From a profile in the New York Times dated October 17, 1886:

One evening I heard a fine looking old gentleman extolling the United States Government, and saying many kindly things of Lincoln and of Grant. I also noticed that he carried upon his right side an empty sleeve, which he at last alluded to indirectly by saying: “I lost one arm in the service of my country at the storming of the citadel of the city of Mexico, but I have another left which is always ready and loyal to do her bidding.” I then asked who the gentleman was, and I was informed that it was “old Billy himself”….There is no man more warmly embosomed in the hearts of Floridians than Gen. Loring.

General Loring died in New York on December 30, 1886 from pneumonia.  Robert Hawke tells the rest of the story in Florida’s Army:

Loring’s reinterment and public funeral in St. Augustine during March of 1887 was one of the grandest events in the city’s history for that decade. It was used as an occasion for a combined encampment, and week-long meeting, of the Union and Confederate veterans organizations of northeast Florida. Both groups, in conjunction with other local civic organizations, sponsored the erection of a memorial obelisk and monument, in Government House Square, inscribed with the details of Loring’s life and military service, and emblazoned with the flags of the United States, the Confederated States, and the Ottoman province of Egypt. It is a fine memorial to the local militiaman who became a pasha of Egypt.

South side of Loring Monument

South side of Loring Monument from the author's collection.

References:

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The Strange Story of the Picolata Cemetery

February 3, 2012 11:00 am ,

Today, Picolata is little more than the intersection of State Road 208 and State Road 13, but throughout Florida’s history, Picolata has been a strategic military and transportation location. The name is derived from the Spanish terms describing a “broad bluff” that looks out across the St. Johns river. From the early Spanish period, this area was used as both a crossing point and a defensive location. Many military operations took place here, from early raids by the British to later battles with the Seminoles.

It was during the Seminole Wars that yet another fort and military cemetery were established here. At the end of the Second Seminole War, General William J. Worth had the U.S. Army collect all the war’s casualties from throughout the territory and move them to the post cemetery (now national cemetery) in St. Augustine (see The Dade Monument). This included the casualties interred at the post cemetery at Picolata.

Lithograph of Fort Picolata (1837) courtesy of the Florida Archives

Sometime later, a group of people requested and received military markers from the U.S. government, placed them at the old Picolata cemetery and re-dedicated the site as a cemetery. A small piece in the St. Augustine Record, dated May 23, 1937 states:

Most impressive were the services conducted yesterday morning at the Picolata National Cemetery, by the St. Augustine Post No. 2391, Veterans of Foreign Wars, paying tribute to the memory of those who fell in battle at Picolata.

Thanks to events like this, there is confusion regarding the original cemetery and the recreated cemetery. Recent development along the St. Johns River focuses again on the issue. A recent “Homes” feature story on Jacksonville.com states:

Perhaps the most important and touching part of the estate is the Indian War Memorial of Picolata, erected in the early 1900s to commemorate those who lost their lives during the Second Seminole War. Restored by the Taylors, its wrought ironwork surrounds 50 headstones inscribed with the names of those soldiers, although they are buried in the St. Augustine National Cemetery.

Because it is now on private property, there is no longer public access to the cemetery site. Even local historians have been denied access. While it is private property and there are often hard feelings related to development around historic cemeteries, it is regrettable that this historic site is off limits to both historians and the descendants of the people who died there – regardless of where their remains are now located.

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Tolomato Cemetery

January 4, 2012 11:30 am ,

In 1777 a group of survivors from the failed New Smyrna colony arrived in St. Augustine. At the time, Florida was under British rule, but the majority of these survivors were Catholics of Minorcan ancestry with some Greek Orthodox also in the mix. Known collectively as the Minorcans, these people had their own priest who moved their parish from the Smyrna colony to their new home in St. Augustine.

The northern part of the town near the Castillo de San Marcos was largely uninhabited since the time the British took over the Florida territory from Spain. It was this part of the town that the Minorcans settled and began building a new life. During the first Spanish period, a Guale Indian village and Franciscan mission called Tolomato was located just outside of the town’s defenses next to this new Minorcan Quarter. When the British came, the Indians evacuated to Cuba along with the Spanish residents of St. Augustine. Father Camps, the Catholic priest who had served the Minorcans throughout their New Smyrna ordeal, petitioned the British governor to use the mission burial ground at Tolomato as a graveyard for this new Catholic parish in the middle of Anglican St. Augustine. His petition was granted.

Tolomato Cemetery

Florida was returned to Spanish control at the end of the American Revolution in 1783. Although most of the British left the colony, the Minorcans chose to stay. Their make-shift parish church was soon replaced with a proper cathedral facing the town’s plaza as more priests arrived to minister to the growing colony. Tolomato Cemetery continued to support the community. Florida would change hands several more times – becoming a U.S. territory in 1821, a state in 1843, a part of the Confederacy in 1861 and finally a return to statehood. By the early 1880s, St. Augustine had grown substantially and Tolomato Cemetery was now surrounded by residences. In 1884, bowing to pressure from local citizens, the city passed a resolution closing both Tolomato and the Public Burying Ground (Huguenot Cemetery) located just a few blocks away.

Although officially closed, two more burials would take place here. Catalina Usina Llambias died in 1886 and her son granted her deathbed wish to be buried at Tolomato. In 1892, Robert Sabate was buried next to Mattie and Marcella Sabate. In both cases, family members were fined $25.00 for these illegal burials.

Tolomato Cemetery - a sketch by Henry Shaw Wyllie

The mortuary chapel at the back of the cemetery contains the remains of Father Verot, the first Bishop of St. Augustine, who died in 1876. Father Camps died in 1790 and was buried here. Ten years later his remains were re-interred at the newly-built cathedral.

References:

  • Griffin, P. C. (1991). Mullet on the beach The Minorcans of Florida, 1768-1788. St. Augustine, Fla: St. Augustine Historical Society.
  • Quinn, J. (1975). Minorcans in Florida: Their history and heritage. St. Augustine: Mission Press.
  • Buker, G. E., & Waterbury, J. P. (1983). The Oldest city: St. Augustine, saga of survival. St. Augustine, Fla: St. Augustine Historical Society.
  • Harvey, K. (1992). America’s First City: St. Augustine’s Historic Neighborhoods. Lake Buena Vista, FL: Tailored Tours Publications.
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Huguenot Cemetery

November 30, 2011 8:00 am ,

Huguenot Cemetery entranceIn 1821 control of Florida changed yet again – this time the Spanish flag was replaced with the American flag as Florida became a United States territory. How this came about is a story in itself, but that’s not what we’re discussing today. Instead, we are here to discuss the history of the Huguenot Cemetery located just outside the city walls in St. Augustine. Although there was a transfer of government in early July of 1821, not much else changed right away. St. Augustine was still a very Spanish and very Catholic town. While Americans had been migrating to Florida during the years of negotiations, there were no civil systems to support them. Land ownership issues had not yet been addressed and the only religious institution – and cemetery – in town belonged to the Catholic Church. When a yellow fever epidemic hit in September, no one was prepared. Read More →

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