The Oldest City

By George Gardner

St. Augustine, Florida, through the lives and events of those who helped make it the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in the continental United States.
Twenty four 1,000 word accounts of historic figures, like Spain’s admirals Ponce de Leon and Pedro Menendez, England’s Francis Drake, James Oglethorpe and Patrick Tonyn, the Seminole War Chief Osceola, and Standard Oil baron Henry Flagler, creating an American Riviera in St. Augustine, and events like the 23-year construction of the Castillo de San Marcos, the oldest masonry fortress on North America - still standing today after more than 300 years, and the first underground railroad – running not to the north in the 19th century but to the south in the 17th century, and creation of the first free black settlement in today’s America for those escaped slaves given freedom in Spanish La Florida, Fort Mose.
Accounts as well of the cultures – the Africans, Indians, Pirates, Menorcans – who played roles in the enduring spirit that kept St. Augustine going through 450 years of history.
Before Jamestown. Before Plymouth, 200 years before the American Revolution, St. Augustine was a player on the world stage as the Spanish Empire’s North American capital from its founding in 1565 to secure Spain’s claim to this new world.
This e-book is an extension of St. Augustine Bedtime Stories, two series of twelve booklets each, each booklet capturing the story of a famous person or event in St. Augustine’s history. The series are boxed to fit on the bed table for quick reads before bed.
Jamestown celebrated its 400th anniversary in 2007. Eight years later The Oldest City celebrated its 450th - four and a half centuries of lives and events that make it the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in the continental United States.

• Language: English
• Publisher: George Gardner
• Release date: Mar 21, 2016
• ISBN: 9781310432835

George Gardner

Former Mayor George Gardner is a graduate of the University of Rochester, NY, a Navy veteran, and was an award-winning newspaper reporter and editor for 16 years.He and his wife, Sally, owned and operated the Charlotte Street Toy Shop until its sale in 1999. They live in North City with their only remaining “at-home” daughter, Lizzie, a rescue Golden Retriever.George served on St. Augustine’s Vision ’93 Committee, the City’s Code Enforcement Board, was chairman of the Planning and Zoning Board and president of the Historic Area Council of the Chamber of Commerce.He served two terms as St. Augustine mayor, 2002-2006, and one term as city commissioner, 2006-2008.One of George’s proudest achievements in office was establishment of a neighborhood associations program, providing neighborhoods a greater voice in city affairs.Throughout his public service he’s held citizen information and involvement as a priority, informing citizens of city affairs through weekly newsletters. he continues today with http://staugustinereport.net.James Madison (1751––1836) said, “A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy.”The St. Augustine Report is a continuation of that weekly newsletter tradition.PublicationsGeorge published The Schenectadians in 2001, a biographical novel on the public service careers of his father and grandfather.One reviewer wrote: The book is a MASTERPIECE!!! What a brilliant effort! Through his writing talent we could look at the two "STARS" up close and personal. I love his writing style. ... moving from the storyteller stage to something more expert, he has exhibited the ability to understand and to use his knowledge of the human condition - an advanced writing skill! As I have said, he is a WRITER, a professional! ... George has the highly skilled ability to create three-dimensional characters on a two-dimensional page. WOW!It’s available in soft cover and e-book at iUniverse and other outlets.When he and Sally moved to St. Augustine from southern Vermont in 1989, George’s fascination with famous people and events in St. Augustine history brought a series of 1,000-word booklets he calls St. Augustine Bedtime Stories, designed as quick reads before bed.Two series of twelve booklets each are packaged in bedside table boxes and available at major St. Augustine locations and through George. email [e-mail]

Book preview

The Oldest City

George Gardner

Copyright 2016 by George Gardner

Smashwords Edition

Contents

Preface

Series One

Ponce de Leon de Leon - Founder of Florida

Menendez – Man and Legend

Matanzas - Conquest of a Colony

Castillo - Spain’s Legacy

Siege - The Attack of 1702

The Menorcans - The Tragedy at New Smyrna

Huguenot Cemetery - At Eternal Rest

Osceola - Seminole Patriot Warrior

The Dade Massacre - Preamble to the Seminole War

Escape - Flight from the Castillo

Henry Flagler - Oil Baron / City Builder

Trivia - A quiz on St. Augustine history

Series Two

The Asiento - Menendez’ Contract

The Voyage - An account by Father Lopez

The Africans - Deep roots in America

The Indians – ‘They Seem a Noble Race’

The Pirates - Scourge of the Seas

The Lighthouse - St. Augustine’s beacon

Drake’s raid - Assault on San Augústin

The Sack of St. Augustine - Searle’s Raid Of 1668

Oglethorpe - The Siege of 1740

The British period - 20 years of rule

Fort Mose - America’s First Free Black Settlement

Tolomato Cemetery - Colonial Catholic Cemetery

Acknowledgements

About the author

Preface

What began and continues as St. Augustine Bedtime Stories, a collection of 24 briefs on famous people and events in 450 years of history of the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in the continental United States, has gone cyber in Smashwords’ eBooks.

The goal remains the same, to narrate fascinating history in.

The name St. Augustine Bedtime Stories, 1,000-word highlights of famous people and events, is the idea of quick reads before bed, and the print stories are individual booklets boxed to fit the bed table. The print stories are available in two 12-booklet series, priced at $15 each. You can preview those series and order either or both through http://staugustinereport.net.

My experience as an author began as a journalist for 16 years after graduation from the University of Rochester NY. My granddad, George Richard Lunn, was Schenectady NY mayor and New York congressman and lieutenant governor, while my dad, Carroll ‘Pink’ Gardner, was a world champion wrestler (in the serious days) before entering public life as Schenectady sheriff and then, for 33 years, Schenectady county clerk. Both were Democrats in a county where, they say, Democrats are kept for breeding purposes only.

Good fodder for a story, so I wrote The Schenectadians, a biographical novel on their careers. Published by iUniverse, it’s available at Amazon.

On the 90th anniversary of my granddad’s first election as mayor, I was elected mayor of St. Augustine in 2002. … but that’s another story. St. Augustine Bedtime Stories and The Oldest City it spawned are the result of that newspaper and novel writing as well as fascination with living in – and having served as mayor in – St. Augustine.

I began writing a weekly newsletter to keep residents informed about city affairs during my two terms as mayor and have continued those weekly reports both as email newsletters and online at http://staugustinreport.net.

Of course each newsletter features a History’s Highlight, because we can never outrun history in the nation’s oldest city.

I know you’ll enjoy meeting some fascinating real people and events in The Oldest City.

George Gardner, nee George Richard Lunn Gardner

St. Augustine Florida, 2016

Ponce de Leon - Founder of Florida

. . . There is an island about 325 leagues from Espanola. . . in which there is a continual spring of running water of such marvelous virtue that, the water there being drunk, perhaps with some diet, maketh old men young again.

Secretary, Council of the Indies, ca. 1512

Juan Ponce de Leon was born to nobility about 1460. As such he was destined to command ships and territories. He was to join Columbus in his discovery of the new world at San Salvador in 1492. He was to discover Florida in 1513.

And he was destined to be remembered as the man who sought the fabled fountain of youth.

With the marks of nobility and experience upon him, he was appointed by King Ferdinand the Catholic of Spain in 1508 to explore and gain a foothold in Puerto Rico in the newly discovered Caribbean. With strong administrative skill, he quickly befriended the natives of the area and put them to work on plantations. He was equally adept at repelling the cannibalistic Caribe Indians of nearby Guadaloupe.

His greatest problems came from the sons of his former seamate, Christopher Columbus. That discoverer had died in 1506, and after arguing their claims through the Spanish courts, his two sons were declared heirs to his discoveries, including Puerto Rico.

In 1511, Ponce de Leon was relieved of his command. Smarting over his setback and worse, Diego Columbus’ efforts to undo his work in Puerto Rico and discredit him, he sought new regions to explore and a reputation to recover.

Current research suggests he did not set out to find the fountain of youth – in fact might not even have been aware of it. While the legend of such a fountain was well known and believed in that age, the first mention that Ponce was on this quest was from the historian Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo in 1535, fourteen years after Ponce’s death.

A king grateful for his past services granted him commission to explore the northern lands, specifically Bimini at the northern tip of the Bahamas. Bimini best fit the description of an island where Indians suggested it would be.

The very thorough Ponce prepared three ships - as had Columbus, stocked them well - as many explorers before and after did not, and set out from the northern tip of Puerto Rico March 4, 1513.

His course was set northwest, an easy setting on land, but one difficult to maintain on the tossing seas. He would sail along the east coast of the Bahamas to the northernmost islands. On Saturday, April 2, Ponce was confident he had traveled far enough northwest, and sure enough, land was spotted off the port bow. It was not Bimini. He could not identify this island, but thought it so beautiful and peaceful and, prophetically it was sighted during Spain's annual Feast of the Resurrection, or Flowers, that he named it La Florida.

He turned his ships landward. His navigator recorded a latitude of 30 degrees, 8 minutes, a point along the Florida coast some 18 miles north of what would become St. Augustine.

He did not realize at the time that he had discovered not an island, but the penninsula of a vast new world, Florida and the North American continent.

It seems certain that he remained here for nearly a week, possibly refitting his ships. On Friday, April 8, he departed, continuing briefly northward. There are reports he sighted Indian huts on Wednesday, April 20, possibly at the mouth of the St. Johns River. Now he came about to circle south around this island, and discovered the phenomenon which would shape early development of this new world.

As he proceeded south at full sail, a good wind at his back, his ships slowed, then began going backwards. He was in the Florida Straits, the Gulf Stream driving north at speeds of two and a half to four and a half miles an hour, around the tip of Florida and up along the east coast. This was to become a catapult for treasure ships leaving the Caribbean for Spain.

Finally able to maneuver through the straits, he sailed into the Gulf, exploring the west coast to the area near present-day Sanibel Island. The Calos Indians of that region were not pleased; sketchy reports established that there were battles, but lacked in detail. On June 24, two months after his historic founding of La Florida, he sailed back to Puerto Rico, arriving October 15, 1513.

He continued back to Spain, to report his findings and learn that the Caribe Indians were raiding Puerto Rico and disrupting affairs there. Outfitting a fleet once again, he sailed back to Puerto Rico in the fall of 1514, with orders to resume his command.

He stayed on at Puerto Rico until 1521 when,