The Beaches Museum has announced its Legends honorees for 2022.  At a reception on the patio of the Beaches Museum Chapel, past Legends, Board Members and Museum supporters gathered to hear those deemed to be “making tomorrow’s history, today.”

The Legends will be honored at a gala event on September 16, 2022 at TPC Sawgrass.

This year’s honorees are Bill Hillegass, Herb Peyton, Mary Watson and Dr. Percy J. Golden.  (As Pictured)

Herb Peyton

Herb Peyton, a self-made man, started Gate Petroleum as a 1-gas-station company in 1960.  It has grown into a large regional corporation with multiple divisions, including hospitality.  In 1981, Herb was heading out on an around-the-world trip, having decided to semi-retire.  Then he heard the oil company that owned the historic Ponte Vedra Inn and Club was selling that Ponte Vedra property and 8,000 acres of primitive woodlands on the Guana River.  Having no experience in running a resort, he decided to jump in with a bid against large national companies; and he won.  Today, the Ponte Vedra Inn and Club is considered one of the top oceanfront resorts in the country, having received the coveted 5-Diamond Resort Rating in the luxury tourism industry.  The miles of coastline he purchased are now owned by the state of Florida to be preserved for future generations.  

Bill Hillegass

Bill Hillegass was raised in Jacksonville Beach as one of 9 children.  He lost his father at an early age and watched his mom raise their family on her own by establishing a bookkeeping business in her living room.  Bill and all his brothers pitched in with early morning paper routes, 7 days a week.  After attending the Air Force Academy and working for a large accounting firm in Jacksonville, Bill established his own CPA firm in Jacksonville Beach.  Throughout the following years, Bill was committed to helping others at the beaches through his involvement with The Exchange Club,Deck the Chairs, and numerous other organizations; as well as silently helping many individuals with their needs. He has always had a love for preserving beaches history and became involved with Beaches Area Historical Society in its early years; running the annual auction, fund-raising for the relocation of historic buildings to the history park and being a driving force behind building the beautiful museum we enjoy today.  

Mary Watson

Mary Watson has been part of beautifying our community and preserving natural environments for decades.  She is actively involved on the Garden Committee at the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens. Mary routinely decorates Christ Episcopal Church for the various Holidays and special events. Additionally, she was instrumental in bringing a national organization, The Garden Conservancy, to Florida. However, these efforts are all eclipsed by her work on Bird Island Park.  Located in Ponte Vedra Beach, it took 8 years of planning, fund-raising and construction; but she and a group of hard-working volunteers dedicated the 4.2-acre wildlife and native plants park in 2010.  As a St. Johns County Master Gardener, Mary is proud that all the plants in the park are native, not requiring much maintenance; except for WEEDING, which she and others continue to do 12 years later! Mary was integral in the fund-raising and construction of Bird Island and currently coordinates local Boy Scouts pursuing Eagle Scout projects to continue to beautify the park. 

Bishop Percy Golden

Dr. Percy Golden grew up in the church his mother founded in their living room in 1976 and he took the lead in 1992 to build and grow the congregation over the past 30 years where he serves as Bishop of the Holy Church of the Living God Revival Center in Atlantic Beach.  Dr. Golden not only ministers to the Beaches communities from the pulpit but also serves as the Chaplain and Critical Incident Officer (CIO) of the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department where he provides support, counseling and encouragement to the first responders and their families that serve our entire county. In addition, he serves as Chaplain of the Atlantic Beach Police Department.  Dr. Golden has been instrumental in preserving the history and culture of his elementary school through the Rhoda Martin Cultural Heritage Center and was a visionary behind “Gospel in the Park,” held in Atlantic Beach annually since 2004.

The gala is the largest annual fundraiser for the Museum whose mission is “to preserve and share the distinct history and culture of the Beaches area.”  To learn more about Legends or the Museum, visit  www.beachesmuseum.org or call 904-241-5657.

The 2022 Beach Legends Gala is sold out!  If you would like to be added to the waitlist should tickets become available, please email Chris Hoffman at director@beachesmuseum.org or call 904-241-5657 x 113

By Johnny Woodhouse

You may have noticed some royal blue street signs around the Beaches dedicated to the memory of local military personnel.

Known as the Fallen Wartime Veterans Street Sign Program, the project is a labor of love for Atlantic Beach resident Lenny Jevic, a historian with Beaches Veterans Memorial Park and a retired U.S. navy command master chief.

Jevic got the idea of honoring Beaches veterans who have died in war with a street sign listing their name, rank, branch of service, and highest military decorations after seeing the same program adopted in his hometown of Edison, N.J.

The street signs, created by Florida Transcor, a traffic safety supply company, are 30 inches in length and sit atop or below existing street signs. Many of the signs are sponsored by area businesses.  

Jevic, a former police sergeant in Atlantic Beach, first approached the City of Atlantic Beach with the proposal in 2019. After the City Commission approved the project in October 2020, street signs were installed to memorialize a quartet of World War II servicemen and one Vietnam veteran with ties to the city, including heroic Navy aviator Richard Bull, who died in the South Pacific in 1942.

In October 2020, Jevic brought the street sign program to the attention of the Jacksonville Beach City Council. It was unanimously approved in May 2021 and incorporated into the city’s Honoree Street Sign Ordinance.

The first round of memorial street signs went up in Jacksonville Beach soon afterwards, including two dedicated to the memory of brothers Stanley and Roger Harrell, a pair of U.S. Marines who died in Vietnam in 1968 and 1969, respectively.

But Jevic didn’t stop there. Within weeks of Jacksonville Beach approving the street sign program, he pitched it to the City of Neptune Beach. A resolution was quickly passed authorizing the placement of signs at four locations around the city, including on the corner of Hopkins Street, the last home of record for Army Staff Sgt. Jody Pierce, a decorated paratrooper who lost his life in Vietnam.

A second round of signs may be going up in Jacksonville Beach later this year, including one for Marine Cpl. Marcus Preudhomme, a 2004 Fletcher High School grad who died in Iraq in 2008. Each colorful street sign in Jacksonville Beach includes a scannable QR code that can be read by a Smartphone and links to bios of each recipient. Bios are also located at jacksonvillebeach.org, under Parks & Recreation.

By Johnny Woodhouse

The oldest headstone in Lee Kirkland Cemetery, the historic African-American graveyard in Jacksonville Beach, belongs to Jessie Butler, a native Floridian who performed back-breaking work in a seaside mining camp known as Mineral City before serving his country overseas in World War I.

The upright marble headstone, issued by the U.S. Government, denotes the little-known unit he served in during the war, and, most importantly, his rank – that of wagoner.

Born in Fort White, Fla., in 1892, Butler moved to Jacksonville with his mother and younger siblings on or before 1910, according to U.S. Census records. Fatherless at the time, Butler, then 17, and his family members lived in a boarding house where both his mother and younger sister earned money washing clothes.

According to census records, Butler worked two jobs in 1910, including as a carpenter for Jacksonville resident Pleasant Niblack. A skilled laborer for most of his short life, Butler listed his employer as Buckman and Pritchard, Inc. on his 1917 WWI draft registration card.

Henry Buckman and George Pritchard began mining the beach for rare minerals in 1916 after discovering a huge vein south of the St. Johns County line, according to “Turning sand into gold” by late historian Don Mabry. “World War I was raging in Europe and these elements were extremely valuable in weapons of war,” Mabry wrote. “Extracting it from the sand required machinery and men.”

And mules.

According to a 1918 Duval County draft board record, Butler, then 25, listed his occupation as teamster. In those days, a teamster was not a truck driver but a driver of a team of animals.

At the Buckman and Pritchard mining operation, mule teams were used to pull slip pans across the sand in order to unearth raw minerals like ilmenite, the most important ore in titanium. In all likelihood, Butler honed his teamster skills at the Buckman and Pritchard sand plant in Mineral City, which later became Ponte Vedra Beach.

Driving mule teams was a skill that was sought after by Army supply units during WWI.

A rifle and a shovel —

Butler was inducted into WWI service on August 4, 1918, with orders to board a train for Camp Devans, Mass. After about a month of stateside training, he was assigned to the 807th Pioneer Infantry Regiment, a replacement unit formed late in the war to construct roads, bridges, and railroads, often behind enemy lines.

Of the 37 Pioneer Infantry Regiments formed in WWI, 26 served overseas and 15 saw combat, according to “A Guide to U.S. Pioneer Infantry Regiments in WWI” by Margaret M. McMahon, Ph.D.

The 807th was one of 14 African-American units that served overseas and one of seven that saw combat, taking part in the infamous Meuse Argonne Offensive in October 1918, the last major battle before the armistice was signed on November 11, 1918.

Pioneer Infantry Regiments were typically comprised of more than 3,500 enlisted men trained in basic infantry tactics and combat engineering. They strung and removed barbed wire, filled holes left by enemy shells, and found and buried the dead from both sides, according to McMahon’s self-published book.

“They paved the way so troops and supplies could reach the front-line trenches, and they opened the way for advance troops moving forward to the attack,” the book said. “It takes a certain kind of soldier to go to war with a rifle and a shovel.”

Served under the French flag —

Of the 37 segregated Pioneer units formed in WWI, 17 were all-black with white commanding officers. The units were broken down into several companies. Due to his stateside skills as a teamster, Butler was designated a wagoner, a rank just below supply sergeant.

A supply company in a Pioneer unit included three sergeants (ordinance, supply and stable), and ranks for wagoner, horseshoer, and saddler. Mules were used to pull carts, wagons and mobile kitchens.

“The mules were used for draft. In some cases, the troops doing road repairs requested that trucks be replaced by wagons with mules because they were less dependent on road quality and could be pulled off the road more easily,” McMahon’s 2018 book said.

African-American units like Butler’s 807th served under the French flag, with some of its men earning the Croix de Guerre medal, awarded to foreign troops allied to France. As a unit, the 807th was awarded a Sliver Band by the French to wear on its regimental flag.

The unit was famous for its 52-piece regimental band led by Lt. Will Vodery II, a classically trained pianist who composed songs for the Ziegfeld Follies before the war.

After the armistice was signed, a number of Pioneer units, including Butler’s, remained overseas building new roads and other infrastructure.

An early demise —

According to a passenger list for the USS Orizaba, a Navy transport ship, Butler and the rest of his regiment departed France on June 25, 1919, at the port city of Brest, a staging area for U.S. troops returning home. The 807th was officially discharged from service in July, 1919, at Camp Jackson, S.C.

After his WWI service, Butler listed his occupation as a laborer on 1920 census records. He resided on South 8th Street, Pablo Beach, listing his mother as a dependent.

His paper trail picks up six years later with distressing results. According to 1926 death records, Butler was the victim of homicide on Oct. 17, 1926. An autopsy report listed the cause of death as hemorrhaging from a shotgun blast to the abdomen.

Butler succumbed to his injuries at the county hospital in Jacksonville. He was only 32.

Four years later in February 1932, Butler’s younger brother, Joseph, applied for a government marker from the War Department. The marble stone was shipped to Butler’s mother on April 2, 1932, for placement in what was then known as the “colored cemetery” in Jacksonville Beach.

During WWI, more than 200,000 African Americans served with the American Expeditionary Force on the Western Front.

Jessie Butler, wagoner, was one of them.

By Beaches Museum Archives Manager Karen Lamoree

For many of us, our “coworkers” during the COVID-19 crisis, have been our dogs, cats, birds, and in some cases, snakes. We bounced ideas off our dogs and voiced our complaints to our cats. We may have taught our birds words they did not previously know. The snake probably has seen everything before.

For the most part, our pets have been locked up in quarantine with us. One hundred years ago, pets and children enjoyed a free range lifestyle. In February 1933, the Jacksonville Beach Town Council passed an ordinance forbidding dogs from running loose, but it was vetoed by the mayor. Children and dogs breathed a sigh of relief and went on their rural ways.

Dogs were common coworkers and companions, whether invited or not. A dog answered a casting call for a 1940 Fletcher High School production, along with a mule. Lifeguard Ernest Porter posed in 1925 his car, his buoy, and his dog. Countless coon dogs led the way on hunting trips.

Naturally, a Dalmatian rode on the Neptune Beach firetruck. Neptune Beach’s Town Marshal Jimmy Jarboe was famous for his canine partners. He was not the only Neptune Beach city official who brought his dog to work, as this circa 1955 photograph shows.

Chickens were kept for their eggs and meat. A young Gerry Adams, however, was able to train his chickens to do tricks. I wonder if they could be trained to answer my emails…

The Casa Marina Hotel and Restaurant opened on June 6, 1925. The hotel had 60 rooms, each with a closet, telephone, hot and cold water and a connecting bath with tub or shower. It cost $150,000 for the building and furnishings, it was exquisite!

“The new Casa Marina is perhaps one of the finest hotels of its size in the South,” boasts an article in the June 6, 1925 issue of the Pablo Beach News. “The $150,000 seaside resort is ideally located, being in the heart of beach activities.” Two hundred guests attended its opening that same day, dining and dancing until one o’clock in the morning.

Under the management of Gene Zapf – a popular restaurateur, city-council member, and banker – the 60-room hotel was an instant hit with locals and out-of-towners. The likes of John D. Rockefeller, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jean Harlow, and Al Capone are rumored to have been guests during its early years.

Guests spent their days on Jacksonville Beach, the most exciting tourist town in northeast Florida. It had a boardwalk, dancing, casinos, amusement rides and wide beaches. At night guests dined and danced in the elegant ‘salon’ at the Casa Marina.

We are happy to announce the reopening of Beaches Museum on Tuesday, June 30! We look forward to the return of docent guided tours and for all of you to see and share our permanent and art exhibits.

Since we first began reacting and adapting to COVID‑19, the Beaches Museum has let safety inform our re-opening plan. Our concern for our visitors, volunteers and staff has been at the forefront of all of our decisions.

With this in mind, we would like to assure all of our returning visitors that we are taking appropriate actions to make sure everyone is safe, healthy and comfortable in the Museum.

• We will be limiting the number of people in the Museum and the size of groups in tours.
• Masks are strongly recommended and we will have some available for guests who need one.
• Hand sanitizer will be available.
• A regular routine of sanitizing public spaces, surfaces and highly trafficked areas is in place.

We welcome any questions or suggestions about our procedures.

While closed, we have been busy installing a new exhibit, Our Land: Indigenous Northeast Florida, making our buildings and collections more available online, adding to our collections and preparing to welcome you back!

We are proud to continue our mission “to preserve and share the distinct history and culture of the Beaches area” and we hope to see you at Beaches Museum soon.

Senator Duncan U. Fletcher

By Linda McCauley

Duncan U. Fletcher Middle and High Schools are landmarks of the Beaches. With so much needed attention focused on the naming of our public schools, I wanted to address the history of Senator Duncan U. Fletcher.

Born in 1859 in Americus, GA, Fletcher attended Vanderbilt University and was admitted to the bar in 1880. He moved to Jacksonville and set up his law practice, where he became a founding member of the Jacksonville Bar Association and its first President. In 1896, Fletcher was one of three attorneys appointed to administer the bar examination to James Weldon Johnson, who in addition to his many other accomplishments, was the first African American man admitted to the Florida Bar by examination. It was Duncan Fletcher who moved that Johnson be admitted to the bar over the objection of another examiner.

Fletcher served as the 21st and 25th Mayor of Jacksonville and was instrumental in rebuilding the city after the Great Fire of 1901. He also served five consecutive terms, from 1909 until his death in 1934, representing Florida in the United States Senate as a Democrat. One of his most notable achievements while in the Senate was introducing legislation in 1928 to create Everglades National Park, which was signed into law by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1934.

Fletcher died in 1936 from a heart attack while still in office. His remains are interred in Jacksonville at the Evergreen Cemetery.

In addition to having our two schools named in Fletcher’s honor, a dormitory at University of Florida is named after him. It is part of the historic Murphee area and it forms half of the “F” in the iconic “UF” buildings. Fletcher High School was built in 1937, after Senator Fletcher’s death through a federal grant he received to build it.

Right: Photo of Senator Fletcher and two constituents, John and Lena Cypress, 1931. Photo courtesy of Florida Bureau of Archives and Record Management, Florida Photographic Collection.

Left: First graduating class of Fletcher High School, 1938. Beaches Museum Archives.

Rhoda L. Martin was born a slave in Abbeville, South Carolina in 1832. In late 1891, she moved to the beaches area as a free woman.

By 1905, enough African Americans had moved to the area for Martin and other Christians to found St. Andrews African Methodist Episcopal Church. Martin ensured that members of her community had access to education and faith from her own home until the founding of Ole school #144. This school provided desegregated education long before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and would bus older students to the difficult to reach high school in Jacksonville.

Rhoda L. Martin passed away in 1948 at the age of 116. Ole School #144 is now the Rhoda L. Martin Cultural Heritage Center and provides free academic assistance to elementary students three days a week.