Who Put The Heat On?

Ok, that's better. Now we're hot. I don't know what it was about those two cold days, but the second day I could not warm up. I had layers of clothes on in the apartment, topped by a bathrobe, not to mention 2 pairs of socks (including thick ones for hiking) and slippers and still ended up having to drink hot tea to finally get my core temp to come back from that of a cadaver. When I say I don't like (or can't handle) the cold, I really mean it. Thankfully, the cold snap didn't last long and we're back into the 80s. From electric blanket to ceiling fans.

Sorry the blog's been sort of a dud lately, Michael & I have been pretty busy work-wise for the past couple of weeks. It occurred to me Saturday morning that I had not left the house in two weeks. I'm not kidding. Lest someone accuse me of suffering from agoraphobia, I thought I should get outside for a bit. So, how did I spend my first excursion? Walking through the cemetery. Some of you might know that February is Black History month. While it's hard to top Mississippi's abolishment of slavery 148 years after every other state did, the Historic Florida Keys Foundation and Friends of the the Key West Historic Cemetery were nice enough to give free tours through the Key West Cemetery to introduce us to some interesting historical Key West characters.

Odd

After doing those Toronto presentations, I now have a new appreciation for people who battle their own nerves to enlighten us. Thanks guys! We got there just in time for the last tour (the write-up had said "all day" but what it meant was "last tour leaves at 10am") and had a good time (well, except when planes flew overhead every few minutes drowning out the lectures - yes, it's becoming a pet peeve. I can't wait for the Blue Angels to start practicing for the air show in late March - not!). We went from umbrella to umbrella (grave to grave) and learned a lot about Key West and nine people who helped make it what it is today.

Photo: KeyWester

Back in the 1800s, about 60% of the Key West population came from the Bahamas (2/3rds white/1/3 black). Michael & I missed the discussion of Bahamian Roosevelt Sands, Sr. (1901-1997) presented by his son. There is a rather odd interview of Sands, Sr. online, but it doesn't really tell you much about his accomplishments. A state write-up tells us he's best known for baseball, the Boy Scouts, and the railroad project.





Then we were off to presenter Paster Bernard Lane who gave us lots of "amens!" amidst his story telling of Thomas Romer (1783-1891), also from the Bahamas. Romer had been a privateer working for the Key West Navy during the War of 1812. Anyone who sailed in and hadn't gotten permission from the U.S. Navy was fair game.

Romer is only 1 of 3 to get one
of these Navy seals in the entire cemetery.

The intruders would become prisoners and the ship commandeered by the Navy, but the loot belonged to the privateers as payment for their services. It was a pretty lucrative business. Romer lived to be 108 and must have done a lot of good for the city because his grave stone announced his 65 years as a "good citizen." Even more impressive was the fact that an obituary had been written for him, a black man, in 1891. The writer wasn't sure of Romer's age because apparently before Romer died, he told people he was 114. I wish I had a copy of the obit. It talked about how "presentable" and "well-behaved" the funeral attendees were (you know "for coloreds"). Jeez, talk about one of those "Thanks, I think" moments.

Next up George Adderley (1886-1959) presented by full-of-facts Key West Commissioner and descendent Clayton Lopez.  Adderley was yet another Bahamian who came to the Keys, this time to Marathon, to get out of the cruddy way of life back home. Back in the Bahamas, he'd collect sponges and get paid, but then he would be charged all kinds of "fees" that meant he actually owed money to his bosses, resulting in him forever being in debt (a constant state of servitude). The lower keys were pretty deserted thanks to the bugs (they used stinky smudge pots to try to counter them). Undeterred, Adderley became a naturalized U.S. citizen and bought a few acres of land for $100. When Flagler tried to force Adderley to sell his land to make way for the railroad, Adderley stood up to him, turned the tables, and forced Flagler to create and stop at a station of his (Adderley's) choosing. A black man standing ground to a prominent white man was not a common occurrence back then, but Adderley lived on to become prominent himself as a preacher in his town. Lopez was correct that if you google Adderley, you find out more about the house/town he built (which is still standing - despite time and several hurricanes) than the man himself. They did rename the cemetery section he's in from "Old Colored" section to the "Adderley Subdivision."

Sandy Cornish (1803-1869) had quite a different story, told by one of his ancestors Wilhelmina Lopez Martin. Cornish was born a slave in MD, bought his freedom for $3,200 (thanks to saving money he and his wife made), and moved to New Orleans. Unfortunately, his freedom papers burned up in a fire and a gang of white men tried to capture him again. He escaped, but realizing this would happen again and again, he had his wife wheelbarrow him into the main square, pulled out a knife, and mutilated himself so he'd be useless as a slave. As if stabbing himself in the hip and cutting the tendons on both his ankles weren't enough, he also chopped off the tops of some of his fingers and pretended to smoke his pinky finger like a cigar, blood dripping down his chin. That did the trick. His wife wheelbarrowed him back out and, incredibly, he survived his wounds. Later he and his wife ended up moving down to Key West, planting a successful farm/orchid that became popular with the Union soldiers, especially when he brought in fortune tellers to entertain them. No one actually knows where he's buried, but he's in that cemetery somewhere. Cornish also established a church still active today (149 years later) at 702 Whitehead (the parishioners, including Wilhelmina) are having a Sunday jam today at 3pm - all are invited).


Then we headed for the USS Maine plot so Captain Aylwyn Young, the Commanding Officer of the U.S. Coast Guard, could talk briefly about five Civil War soldiers who had served in the Navy. This section is dedicated not only to those who lost their lives when that ship was sunk, but to anyone who has served in the Navy prior to or after that incident. The five discussed had served from 6 months to 3 years and all had died of disease (the most common way to go back then).

Photo: Florida Memory

Where are the women?! Okay, here's Ellen Welters Sanchez (1902-2003). This lecture was fun because Mona Clark had known Sanchez and had fond memories of her. "Small but strong," that was Sanchez's motto. She was born tiny and stayed petite, but she had no problem climbing a tree at age 45 to track down an errant chicken.
Before Sanchez died, one day before her 105th birthday, she had become an accomplished teacher, composer, accompanist, musician and godmother to 20 children (including popular pianist Lofton "Coffee" Butler). She even wrote the song "The Beautiful Isle of Key West," which was played for President Truman when the city named a street for him.

Photo: Florida Memory

Then we got to hear about Nelson English (1848-1914), in a quick dissertation by an exhausted Darron Leroy Barber (who worked a double shift overnight but hung out in the sun for 3 hours just for us). English was the youngest African American to become Key West's Postmaster, and played clarinet on the side. He now has a park named for him, and a bust in the Memorial Sculpture Garden too (so does Sandy Cornish). You can see that the graves of Barber and his family aren't doing too well. Fundraising efforts will be ramping up soon to come up with money to fix it up.

And lastly, Major Tommy Taylor from the Monroe County Sheriff's Office told us about Deputy Sheriff Frank Adams (1859-1906) who died in the line of duty. Two drunks were fighting in the street and Adams was called to the scene. One of the drunks was being held by bystanders, and when the officer went to arrest him, the drunk's brother Robert Frank got involved. Before it was all over, Frank had shot Adams, a father of 5, to death. Frank had no regrets about what he had done, admitted to the shooting, and even showed up to court with the gun and bullets on him. He said he'd have done it again. I thought maybe Frank was a descendent of Ted Nugent, but then I did some research to see whether Frank had been convicted and found out that Frank was "colored" (so no Nugent connection), and he ended up convicted and given a life sentence.

You'll note a number of these graves have pretty nice headstones. Well you can thank various nonprofit groups for raising funds to create and plant them. Half the battle is trying to figure out exactly where everyone is buried. Many don't have headstones, or the ones that are there have deteriorated. Add that people get buried on top of each other... It took researchers 10 years to locate Sheriff Adam's body. Yep, a lot of research goes into deducing exactly where someone might be (like if he's Catholic, that at least gets you to the right section within the cemetery). And in the section carved out for the victims of the Maine sinking, they didn't even attempt to get the exact location of those buried there. The Navy knows the people are there somewhere, so have gone the "military" route and made the headstones simple and laid out evenly.

Then we were off to another art festival in the same spot as last month's. There seemed to be more local artists this time. Very nice.

After that, we went and got a beer at Louie's Backyard, mainly because it's one of the few places here you can sit outside near a beach (a tiny one) and listen to the waves lap the shore (the other three are Salute, Cayo Hueso Café, and Southernmost Beach Cafe). On my way to a sunburn, we decided to call it a day. It felt good to soak up the sun.

Not through with the sun yet, I think we're going to head to the beach again. After we buy some chairs or towels that keep us from getting ridiculous tan lines.

BTW, for the few of you who comment, I had to add a security feature to the thing to stop an a-hole from spamming me.  Sorry, but you can blame him.