CAPTAIN
EDWIN SMITH’S GRAVE
Federal Point, Florida Home Page
Courtesy of Charlotte Brubaker
Johns and John Brown
Is located at Federal Point on Parcel #37-09-27-0000-0340-0000,
owned by Virginia Atkinson in what is commonly known as the “Captain’s Field”
on the south side of Commercial Avenue, across from the home of Donald Sweat
under some trees. See Ben or Sharon
Maltby,
The older residents of the area say that
Captain Smith did not want to be buried below ground, but above ground in a
hollow log. They say this is how he
was buried. N 29o 45.152 W
81o 32.333. Appears to be
on the RIVERDALE QUAD, close to the adjoining HASTINGS QUAD. (Neglected).
From
Memories of Florida, an unpublished manuscript, by
E. Stuart Hubbard, comes the following reminiscence:
“One of the earliest settlers at Federal
Point after the Civil War was Captain Edwin Smith.
“We knew him, when little children, as a
tall, slender bachelor with a long, slim, white Pharaoh beard. He lived in a large building, which he built
near the wharf on
“The title, ‘Captain’, was earned when he
was a captain of sailing ships. He
also, formerly ran a ship chandler’s shop in
“When
I grew big enough, my mother would send me down, occasionally, with a covered
dish of hot dinner. I would knock on the door and hear a chair pushed back and
his footsteps come towards me along the hall, echoing on the bare, plaster
walls. Then the key would turn in the lock, the door would open, and Captain
Smith would give me a cordial, courteous greeting and take the proffered
covered dish, place it on the table of his front room office, open his iron
safe, take out a cigar box and give me a nickel, a dime or, on Christmas, a
quarter all the while humming a themeless tune. My mother objected to his
“paying” from his scanty funds as the ‘95 freeze had frozen his precious orange
trees to the ground and his strawberries and garden truck were his only source
of income.
“Captain
Smith practiced organic gardening as fully as possible. Besides the rank growth
of weeds and grass he worked into the ground and used as mulch, he secured all
the cow and horse manure he could get.
His main source of manure was the droppings, which littered the street
where the local milk cows and the woods cows pastured, and where the saddle
horses, buggy horses and the horse and mule teams traveled or were tied near
the store.
“Each
morning and
“During
church service, Captain Smith provided interest for us, children, during long
sermons, by using a leafy switch, which he gathered along the way, to shoo away
the flies which alighted on his bald head during the service. The hungry
gallinipper mosquito would call for a louder, more vicious swish, to our great
pleasure...”
“When Captain Smith died, he left the
hotel to my father and his grove to the church. He stipulated in his will that he should be buried in a certain
spot in his grove and provided money for a modest monument. A mound of soil, four feet high, eight feet
wide and ten feet long, crowned with the stone is always to remain as his
resting place, whoever may own the land…”
“And,
so passes the memory of an interesting character, a sturdy individual, a
pioneer who wove some of his independence, his adventurous initiative, his quiet,
religious faith into the pattern of our family. May he rest in peace.”
[Captain Smith was the author’s paternal
great-uncle. Mary E. Murphy-Hoffmann,
Unfortunately, the hotel referred to in
the article burned on May 7, 2002.
Thanks.
MEM-H
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Many thanks to ARLYNN GANTZ for
this map. He loves cemeteries and
their history also. |
Last updated 6/27/2005