August 26: Museum will be closing at 1pm
The Beaches Museum will be closing at 1pm on Saturday, August 26. We hope to see you when we resume normal operations on Sunday, August 27 at noon!
Early Closure
The Beaches Museum will be closing at 3pm on Sunday, July 16 for a private event. We look forward to seeing you from 10am-3pm that day or during our regular hours throughout the week!
Beaches Museum Closed July 4
In celebration of the holiday, Beaches Museum will be close Tuesday, July 4, 2023. We will reopen for our normal hours July 5, 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Beaches Museum 2023 Strategic Plan
The Board of Directors of the Beaches Museum recently adopted the proposed 3-year Strategic Plan for the organization. Chaired by Doris McNeill, the Strategic Planning team was composed of board members, volunteers, staff and community leaders and was facilitated by Jana Ertrachter. The group worked for 6 months to compile data, surveys and other relevant information to distill the next three years of the organizations work in to four main goal areas:
- Cultivate human and financial resources to strengthen the future of the Museum
- Spark and nurture curiosity, conversation, and involvement with the mission of the Beaches Museum
- Create and foster an atmosphere of belonging and ownership for everyone
- Reinvent and transform the current exhibit experience
Funded in part by The Community Foundation, the comprehensive nature of the strategic planning process will help to guide the future of the Beaches Museum. The Executive Summary of the plan can be viewed HERE.
Resources for learning about Black and African American heritage and history in Northeast Florida
Researched and prepared by Sarah Sharp, volunteer and occasional writer for the Beaches Museum.
Introduction
For educators interested in Black and African American heritage and history in northeast Florida, especially in Jacksonville, St. Augustine, and the Beaches, numerous people, neighborhoods, cemeteries, buildings, sites, museums, and special collections are available for covering this topic. Topics and sites are richly woven together across heritage and history, place and time, local and national.
1. Overall:
Ritz Theatre and Museum – Visit Jacksonville
Rhoda L Martin Cultural Heritage Center
African American Collection | Jacksonville Public Library
Jacksonville’s yellow fever epidemic of 1888
Unsung Black women are notable in Jacksonville history | Modern Cities
Historic sites awarded restoration funds | Modern Cities
Jacksonville’s surviving Green Book sites | Modern Cities
Jacksonville, Fla. | National Museum of African American History and Culture
Jacksonville’s African-American history showcased at the Ritz
10 Facts About Jacksonville’s Black History
Florida Memory • Florida’s Black History
History of African Americans in Jacksonville – Wikipedia
11 black Jacksonville stories you probably don’t know
Learning about Black History in Jacksonville – Wave Magazine Online
Black Heritage Trail – Visit Jacksonville
Historic African-American Sites in and around Jacksonville, Fla.
The Harlem of the South: Black History in Jacksonville
Jacksonville’s African American Heritage Trail
Historical Jewels in Jacksonville | Modern Cities
4 racial protests and riots from Jacksonville’s past | Modern Cities
Opinion: Erasing Black history does not erase Black people – Jacksonville Today
Opinion: My Thanksgiving wish for a less divided Jacksonville
Opinion: What are we teaching our children? – Jacksonville Today
Opinion: Annoyance, Irritation, & Rage – Jacksonville Today
Uncovering Jax – Visit Jacksonville
Kingsley Plantation – Timucuan Ecological & Historic Preserve (U.S. National Park Service)
The Jax Red Caps: Florida’s first major leaguers
Norman Studios http://normanstudios.org/
Edward Waters College (now Edward Waters University)
Bethel Baptist Institutional Church
Mother Midway Church in East Jacksonville
Stanton Normal School (now Stanton College Prep)
The Cookman Institute (now part of Bethune-Cookman in Daytona Beach) 5 Lost Colleges & Universities of the Inner City | Metro Jacksonville
2. Individuals:
https://www.moderncities.com/article/2020-oct-harriet-tubmans-jacksonville-story
MaVynee Betsch, Beach Lady | History| Smithsonian Magazine
Johnnetta Cole – Wikipedia, Johnnetta Cole | Spelman College
James B. Crooks: The history of Jacksonville race relations. Part 1: Emancipation and Jim Crow
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Jacksonville | Modern Cities
Abraham Lincoln Lewis (A.L. Lewis)
Rhoda L. Martin (includes information about ‘the Hill’)
Community Leader Margaret McQueen | Beaches Museum
The Pearson Brothers: A Jacksonville Civil Rights Story | Modern Cities
Harriet Tubman’s Jacksonville story | Modern Cities
Museum | Clara White Mission (the Eartha White Museum)
https://digitalcommons.unf.edu/eartha_white/ (digitized portion of the Eartha White Collection, UNF archives)
The amazing story of Anna and Zephaniah Kingsley
The Unlikely Legacy of Zephaniah Kingsley | Jacksonville Magazine
University Press of Florida: Zephaniah Kingsley Jr. and the Atlantic World
Douglas Anderson School of the Arts
Six Zora Neale Hurston Sites In Jacksonville
Ax Handle Saturday protester: ‘No one backed away’
The architectural works of Joseph Haygood Blodgett
Ray Charles On Sax With Ken Knight | Vintage Jacksonville,
Ken Knight helped pave the way for African Americans to get into broadcast industry
Who was Bob Hayes? He’s still the only athlete to do this
3. Jacksonville Neighborhoods:
“Jacksonville’s LaVilla area was once thriving haven filled with Black-owned businesses”
Lost history: Saving what’s left of Sugar Hill | Modern Cities
Six Gullah Geechee neighborhoods in Jacksonville | Modern Cities
LaVilla_Museum-Jacksonville_Fl
Restoration Work Begins On Jacksonville’s African-American Cemeteries | WJCT News
‘Sites of Memory’: Historic African American Cemeteries in Jacksonville, Florida -Dr. Brittany Brown
Two Centuries of Jacksonville: Abandoned African American Cemeteries
Downtown Jacksonville’s Black History: The People and Places They’ve Shaped
Historic LaVilla in color | Modern Cities
A rare look inside Historic Old Stanton School | Modern Cities
Inside LaVilla’s 318 North Broad Street | Modern Cities
Vintage Photos: Vibrant LaVilla | Modern Cities
The Sugar Hill that still survives | Modern Cities
Erased Jacksonville: Historic Mount Zion Community | Modern Cities
Destroyed by Urban Renewal: Hansontown | Modern Cities
Jacksonville’s East Side and creation of an historic district
Durkeeville Historical Society
Ritz Theatre and Museum (also, LaVilla Museum)
St. Joseph’s Mission Schoolhouse for African-American Children
4. St. Augustine and nearby:
James R. Murray, May 22, 2014, photo
https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=74381)
The St. Augustine Foot Soldiers Monument
Lincolnville Museum and Cultural Center
Lynching victim marker to be placed on St. Augustine visitor center grounds
Civil War Photography of St. Augustine
ACCORD Freedom Trail (details about events, sites, individuals)
5. American Beach:
A. L. Lewis Museum | Origins & History
American Beach, Jacksonville, Florida (1936- ) •
American Beach: Only Beach in Florida to Welcome Blacks During Jim Crow | Black Then
A. L. Lewis Museum | Origins & History
6. Manhattan Beach and nearby:
Tim Fillmon, May 25, 2021, photo
https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=173936)
Recovering and Reclaiming Manhattan Beach (contact Jon Wolf, info@beachesmuseum.org, for access to educators’ and students’ activities covering Manhattan Beach)
Manhattan Beach Historic Marker Unveiling
Six Historically Black Beaches to Visit This Summer | by Angela Dennis | Medium
Fletcher High graduate bucked family tradition when he joined the Marines in 1968
By Johnny Woodhouse
Pfc. DeWayne Corbitt grew up in a military family.
His mother and father served in the U.S. Army during World War II, and all three of his older brothers enlisted in the Army during the Vietnam War era.
But Corbitt, a 1967 graduate of Fletcher High School, bucked family tradition when he joined the U.S. Marine Corps in February 1968.
“He loved war movies, westerns and John Wayne,” said Corbitt’s older brother, Dennis, a retired high school teacher who served as an Army medic at Fort Benning, Ga., from 1962-65.
The second youngest of five children, DeWayne Corbitt was 14 when his father, World War II veteran Herbert E. Corbitt, died of cancer at the age of 40.
His mother, Maxine, who served in the Women’s Army Corps, worked as a dietician at Beaches Hospital when the family resided in the 900 block of 13th St. N., in Jacksonville Beach.
Four of the five Corbitt children attended Fletcher High, including Donald Herbert Corbitt, the second oldest, who was stationed in Germany and Korea during his Army service.
Dale Corbitt, a 1966 Fletcher grad, served in Vietnam as a machine gunner with an Armored Cavalry unit.
Frances Corbitt, a 1968 Fletcher grad, played four sports for the Lady Senators and sang in the school chorus.
“Part of her workouts included running knee-deep in the ocean,” said her daughter, Kelly McFarland of Tallahassee.
“All of them loved their time at Fletcher.”
Brothers in Arms
DeWayne Corbitt attended boot camp at Parris Island, S.C., and advanced infantry training at Camp Lejeune, N.C.
In June 1968, before his tour of duty in Vietnam began on Aug. 14, 1968, Corbitt spent a 20-day leave of absence in Jacksonville Beach.
Once overseas, he was assigned to the Marine Corps’ most decorated regiment, the 5th Marines.
During the Tet Offensive, 1st battalion, 5th Marines, engaged in fierce urban combat in the famous Citadel section of the ancient imperial city of Hue.
Corbitt wasn’t the only Jacksonville Beach resident serving overseas that summer. Pfc. William Raymond Gast, who also attended Fletcher, was assigned to Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines.
Both Corbitt and Gast were involved in Mameluke Thrust, a 1st Marine Division operation that ran from June-October 1968.
Gast, who joined the Marines in October 1967, and arrived in Vietnam in April 1968, was a prolific letter-writer during his tour of duty.
“It looks like we will be out in the bush from the 25th of August to the 15th of September,” one of his last letters said.
“It will probably be longer. No rest for the Marines.”
In other letters, Gast described his hatred of C-rations and canteen water treated with halazone disinfection tablets. He wrote that he once went 36 days without taking a shower and suffered from trench foot.
“My feet look like death warmed over,” he wrote. “It seems the other branches have it better than the Marines.”
Gast never made it back from his last mission, which was hampered by a Sept. 5 typhoon that swamped much of Quang Nam province where the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines were based.
He was missing in action for three days before his body was recovered. Gast was officially listed as killed in action on Sept. 10, 1968. He was 19.
Brief time in-country
In late August 1968, a platoon in Delta Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, was ambushed near the Song Tinh Yen River. A dozen Marines were killed and another 18 were wounded.
According to his service record, Corbitt was assigned to Delta company, but it’s unknown if the platoon in question was his own.
“I know my Uncle Dale was in ‘Nam from 1968-1969, but my Uncle DeWayne was not there very long,” McFarland said.
“I’m not sure if he had time to write home from the day he landed until the day he was shot by a sniper on patrol.”
Pfc. DeWayne Corbitt was eight days shy of his 20th birthday when he was killed in action on Sept. 17, 1968.
According to a letter dated Sept. 27, 1968, and addressed to Dennis Corbitt, Lt. Col. Richard F. Daley, the commanding officer of 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, said Pfc. DeWayne Corbitt was mortally wounded by enemy small arms fire.
“A medical corpsman rushed to his aid immediately, but his wounds proved too severe, and DeWayne succumbed almost instantly,” the letter read.
“DeWayne was a sincere, hard-working young man who impressed everyone with his eager manner and courteous demeanor. He took great pride in doing every job well and constantly displayed those
qualities of eagerness and self-reliance that gained him the respect of his seniors and contemporaries alike.”
The letter went on to say that a memorial service held in Corbitt’s honor at the battalion chapel was attended by his many friends in the battalion.
The same day that Corbitt died, Sgt. Ray Hayes of Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, was killed while leading a squad of Marines on a reconnaissance of the same hostile area.
According to Hayes’ silver star citation, “After penetrating the enemy line and disregarding his own safety, he fearlessly moved about a hazardous area until he had pinpointed the enemy emplacements and located an injured comrade.”
After reporting his tactical observations back to his commanding officer, Hayes, a platoon leader on his second tour of duty in Vietnam, was mortally wounded by enemy machine gun fire “while crossing the dangerous terrain.”
Like Corbitt, Hayes had only been in-country a few weeks before his death.
Buried with Honors
A memorial service for Corbitt was held on Sept. 29, 1968, in the chapel of Giddens-Griffin Funeral Home in Jacksonville Beach. The following day, Giddens-Griffin held a similar service for Gast, whose parents resided across the street from the original Fletcher campus in the 2000 block of 3rd Street North.
Gast is buried at Warren Smith Cemetery in Jacksonville Beach.
Corbitt’s remains were buried alongside his father’s grave at Hancock Cemetery in Fort Meade, Fla.
Dale Corbitt, who was serving in Vietnam at the time of his younger brother’s death and was exposed to the defoliant Agent Orange while overseas, was flown home to attend the funeral service.
He died in 2007 and is buried in the Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell, Fla. Donald Corbitt died in 2019 and is buried in the Jacksonville National Cemetery.
When McFarland and Dennis Corbitt learned that the Fallen Wartime Veterans Street Sign Program has plans to honor the memory of Pfc. DeWayne Corbitt with a special street sign in Jacksonville Beach, they were incredibly pleased.
“I wish my granny (Maxine Corbitt), my mom (Frances Corbitt Burke) and two of my uncles were still alive to see it,” McFarland said. “I feel like this is honoring them as well.”
Beach Legends 2022 Honorees
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
Beaches Museum Receives Florida Humanities “American Rescue Plan” COVID Relief Funding
Florida Humanities, the statewide, nonprofit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), has awarded the Beaches Museum a $25,000 grant for general operating costs to help recover from the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The NEH received $135 million from the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act of 2021, which was approved by Congress this past spring. The state humanities councils, including Florida Humanities, each received a portion of the NEH award to support museums, archives, historic sites and other humanities-focused nonprofits. The Beaches Museum was one of 129 organizations in Florida that was awarded ARP funding totaling $1.88 million from Florida Humanities. The grants are intended to meet immediate operational needs in order for organizations to remain viable and maintain delivery of public humanities programming and resources in their communities. Florida Humanities received 188 applications for ARP funding, with nonprofits requesting the most funds for staffing and utilities.
These funds, said Florida Humanities Executive Director Dr. Nashid Madyun, provide a safety net for the organizations so they can focus on other priorities, such as fundraising and creating programming. “For smaller nonprofits, when bills are paid and staff are safe and intact, that type of alleviation is immeasurable,” he said. “Florida Humanities is honored to provide a lifeline to our state’s cultural and historic organizations, ensuring they continue to enrich their local communities, and the Sunshine State at large, for years to come.”
More information about the grant and other awardees across the state can be found here.
Funding for this grant was provided by Florida Humanities with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) as part of the American Rescue Plan (ARP) and NEH’s Sustaining the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan (SHARP) initiative. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this announcement do not necessarily represent those of Florida Humanities or the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Sign of Honor
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.
A rifle and a shovel — As a wagoner in World War I, early Pablo Beach resident made his mark in history.
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.
