The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-08-24

3
! and beat her with the breach, breaking the
stock short off and giving the barrel
| severe bend Finally the bear gave up the
/ fight and ran. Then il was that he sa"
one Of the cubs up tree and be resolved 10
have 1t. His only means of getting II vas
70 repair his gun for use again.
and this he did by flashing sticks on eacn
side of the break with his sgspenders- linen
he put his gum barrel in the forks Of tree
and Strengthened it and killed the cub, then
carried il home and went on his way re
ioicing: and by this time his hair, which he
said had fairly stood on ends" doubtless
fell gently back into its normal position.
| Ora CARPENTER was the first steamboat
captain on St Johns river after the Indian
war of $3.50. He commanded the Sarah
Spaulding. His boat did not run on
schedule time Sometimes he was early and
then he was late. He had ample time to
indulge with the passengers in shooting ALI
gators.
He killed as many as thirty-one alligators
| on one trip, between south end Of Lake
| George aud Lake M)lroe, and he inYaria-
| hlv SHOT with "A uha, while his boat was IN
! motion He would often wait until the
| passengers had tried in vain to bring Gown
| their game before he lifted his trusty rifle.
| He carried on one Of his trips the dis
| tirguish statesmen. Alexander Stephens and
Robert ToombS. They we're coming to
| Mel Juville no an inspection and pleasure
! tour; the greatest amount of brains he
/ ever had on his boat, ne thought,
Notwithstanding be had carried many more
| passengers on other sir gle trips In 1916 he
! saw the st. Johns river so low in the month
| of MAY that at the 10 yer. or south, end of
! Lake Monroe, he crossed in brogan shoes,
and without getting his feet wet, the water
being only an inch or an inch a d quarter
deep and only twenty feet across. Ordi-
narly 1t Is more than 100 yards across.
Then was the most extensive
drought he has ever seen in this
country, before or since In the
following October he saw the highest water
ever seen in Florida, before OF since, within
his knowledge. So high we're the winds
and tides that the water ran for two days
in the opposite direction from its usu ii
course-that is, II ran south instead of north
into Lake Monroe; and carried away every
wharf in the country except the old govern
ment wharf at Jacksonville. TIE brig
Virginia was landed in the middle of Bay
street, in front of where the Ledwith block
now stands. THIS boat was owned by Capt.
Charles Willie.
Mr.. Carpenter every inch of the st.
Johns river from its mouth to Melonville,
having run upon its waters for nearly two
years. Mr.. Carpenter can tell great deal
about the most noted men of that day,
among them Capt. Douglass Dunn
mtt, Bohemian, who was living
then, in 1913, opposite New smyrna.
on shell hill known as ''Happy-go-
lucky; and then settled in a hammock near
the head of Banana river, where he lived
four years, and began to plant the famous
Dummitt grove, the most noted orange grove
In all the Indian river region, ard the one
that has done most to attract men to those
parts with pluck and capital. Another of
the noted men of the day was Capt Mills
o. Burnhan, who came from Ney York,
on the Hudson river, to Jacksonville, Fla.
with lot of rifles from tue gun shop in
which he had been working, for sale He
opened shop in 1915 Here he lived until
Capt. John j. Marshall established
his sugar plantation at Dun Lawton.
when he took charge of the plantation
machinery in 1913. lie afterward went to
Cape Canaveral in 1853 and kent he light
house there until his death few years ago,
ana was said t. be the Oldest keeper that is,
longest in the bnsi iesSD If any keeper on
the United States coast at his death. An
other man of the period was Capt. Titus
who founded Ii usvile, toward the close of
his life. He came t. Jacksonville about the
time the expedition to Cardenas, Cuba, was
gotten up for the purpose of captur-
ing tue island Of Cuba He
was commander of the steamer
Pampero, and was engaged in that expedi-
ton with about $50 men aboard MS boat
When they arrived at Cardenas they found
the fort in charge of Spanish troops, and so
the expedition proved to be a failure. He
then won't ont into Missouri as voluntary
anti-slavery agitator and while there he was
engaged In one or two skirmishes with pro-
slavery men. Afterward he came back to
Jacksonville and married Miss Hopkins, a
daughter of Col Frank Hopk ms,
noted as large COTTON planter
In East FLORIDA. Later still he
moved to Iitusvile and founded that now
hourishlug town of thousand inhabitants.
| All these men were known to Ora Carpen-
| ter, who kept well abreast of the times.
While still living at Enterprise there was
| an outbreak of Indians Aug 4, 1919 which
alarmed the whole country, and which led
the men at Enterprise to send their families
TO Palatka. which was then but a small
| settlement, while they built fort on Camp
bells wharf at Enterprise, and, with rifles in
| hand, waited with bated breath the approach
OF inturiated red men, but they did not
| come. SO, after two months, their families
returned The nature of this Indian odt
| break was as follows: A mal by the name
| of Barker was killed at Fort Capron,
seventy-tive miles below Cane Canaveral, by
trading Indians from the Everglad
| Whisky was at the Oot tom of the killing anc
outbreak. Maj. William a. Russell wa.
! also shot in the left arm, which afterwards
| naQ 20 te taken on. IulS outbreak led {
the abandonment of Fort Capron, some Of
the families stopping at Smyrna anC
some at Dun Lawlon, on the coast
This brings Us to another epoch IN Ora Car
penter's life, viz: His removal to Cape
Canaveral to take charge of the lighth ouse,
which had been abandoned by Nat Scobie
on account of the aforesaid Indian out
break, and which had not been open for
three months. Mr.. Carpenter kept the
| lighthouse during the term of PreSiden,
Fnlm res administration, from 1919 tc
1858.
HIS NEAREST NEIGHBORs
lived at New Smyrna, sixty five miles
northwarl. aud at Fort Capron, seventy
five mi es southwark, along the coast from
CanaveraL The eastern and western shore;
| of Indian river constituted an unbroken
! forest, without an inhabitant, ex-
cept now and then an In
| dian to commit some depreciation
| 1t is supposed that an IniIal. or that In
dians, killed ScoOie's COW that he left, seven
miles from the lighthouse. No white man
was there in all the country to do it. Game
was plentiful in all that country, deer
bear, tiger, panther, etc. Mr. Carpenter
| hunted his game from the top of the light
house with spyglass, with which he could
see deer bat his eyes mile, and black
fly chase a deer and run into small switca
grass the same distance. He could see q
deer plainly for three miles anywhere
around. When he located his game he
a ID hfz