Travel On The City Of Jacksonville In 1917

First, Helen finished the poster for Barbara’s Art Show display which I mentioned yesterday; Here is a copy. I think it’s terrific!

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For the past four days I’ve suffered with a sinus headache so I’ve not been able to concentrate on work.

Yesterday I got caught up answering an e-mail request instead of working on my fire history. At least it gives me something to blog about:

Can you tell me what travel would have been like on the “City of Jacksonville” in 1917? My grandmother traveled to Enterprise, Fla and stayed in the Benson Springs Inn when she married my grandfather in 1917.

Thank you,

Robin
Asheville, NC

Hi Robin,

The source you want is First Coast Steamboating Days by Edward A. Mueller. Published by the Jacksonville Historical Society. © 2005. ISBN 0-9710261-3-0. If your local library does not have it, ask the librarian to arrange an Interlibrary Loan for you.

This book contains page after page of information on the City of Jacksonville. Attached is one of several photos of the ship.

The coal-powered, side-wheeler City of Jacksonville, built in 1883 by Harlan & Hollingsworth of Wilmington, Delaware, was 169 feet long and 52 feet wide with a draft of 7 feet. She ran 459 gross tons, with a passenger capacity of 275 people

In 1917, Woodrow Wilson was President and the U.S. was in the First World War so your grandmother may have encountered uniformed doughboys on her trip. The Spanish Lady flu epidemic had not broken out yet, but there may have been some early indications, health posters, etc. There may have also been No Smoking signs on the salon deck as gentlemen’s cigar smoking on shipboard was a controversial topic that raged back and forth.

Ladies back then never smoked. (At least not in public) although they may have dipped snuff at home.

In those days travel was a special occasion and people dressed their best for it. Your grandmother would likely have worn gloves, her Sunday best, a travel cloak and a hat with a veil. The cloak and veil were to protect her from smoke — not from the gentlemen’s cigars but from sparks, ashes and smoke from the ships boilers. Although the ship’s stack should lift smoke high above the deck, passengers sometimes complained about flying sparks burning holes in their travel costumes.

If your grandmother was a Suffragette, she may have worn a sash or pin advocating women’s right to vote (not passed till 1919) or denouncing U.S. involvement in the World War and “Kaiser Wilson”.

The ship consistently left Jacksonville about 3 in the afternoon and arrived in Sanford the next morning.

The ship changed owners and configuration several times over the years.

The City of Jacksonville, then owned by the Clyde Line, ran her last trip on Memorial Day, 1928, She was converted into a dock-side dance hall and finally broken up and scuttled in the Intercoastal Waterway just prior to World War II.

Hope this helps.

Be sure to get the Mueller book; it’s chock full of information.

John Cowart

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Five Quick Historical Notes For The Kid In The Attic:

1. The Space Shuttle Discovery launched yesterday with seven astronauts aboard. They plan construction work to expand the International Space Station. I’d planned to watch the launch from our backyard but I forgot the time and missed it.

2. Wild fires along a hundred mile front have forced the evacuation of between 500,000 and a million people in Southern California. The fires, driven by Santa Ana wind gusts up to 100 miles per hour, jumped a ten-lane-wide Interstate highway. Over a thousand homes and businesses have burned in the past four days. No end in sight. News reports are calling this the worst disaster in U.S. history.

3. Staph infections have broken out of hospital environments and are appearing in public schools and college campuses around the country. More commonly known as MRSA, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is blamed for several deaths.

4. For ages high school football games in Jacksonville have been played on Friday nights. But a recent spat of shootings during high school games have resulted in night games being canceled. Yesterday, officials announced that games will have to be played during daylight hours.

5. Recently Florida chose to hold our Presidential primary earlier than we have before. Both Democratic and Republican parties threaten to ban Florida delegates from national conventions because of the change (although both parties continue fund raising drives here). If either party does override state law and bans our delegates, many of us vow not to vote for any candidate they pick without our representation but to vote for some third party candidate. Our votes ought to count.