The morning news., 1894-09-02
A COLUMBUS CHAPEL
"a Story in Stone" in a New Smyrna
(Fla.) Potato Field.

Are Evidences That 1t Was Once an
Ecclesiastical Building.
William Frederick Dix, in the Churehman.
Surrounded by the thick, luXuriant
palmetto hammock" of Northeastern
Florida, in the center Of a potato-held, is
a dismantled mass Of ruins. over which
grow trailing vines and southern MOSES
that deck the crumbling walls with pic
turesque establishment and bestOw upon
them the element of romance. Near the
central square chimney a large tree is
growing, which shows their an
tiquity, and surrounding it are rem
nants of large halls. In a rugged
wall of well-hewn blocks of brown
stone, forming the side of one enclosure,
| is series of three large, Roman-arched
windows; in the end wall are two more.
Opposite this are the remains of a stately
doorway, leading to a hall still lager.
The contour of these walls shows that over
the first hall was pointed gable roof, and
one aged remainder in the form OF
cypress beam betokens the material used.
| The indentations at the top Of the wall OF
the other inclosure show that the roof was
nearly fat. Behind this series of stone
piers or low foundations seems to tell us
that long ago something like an arcade or
cloister once stood here. Beyond these
| relics low foundation walls extend in all
| directions into the potato field, but so
broken are they that they do not give
more than a suggestion of what originally
| was reared upon them. At the edge OF
| the field, on the border of the palmetto
forest, long, high stone wall OF we'll
| squared and carved stones attests at once
| the former size of these buildings and the
| thrift and iconoclasm of some pioneer
! farmer, whose bones now lie probably
! somewhere under the potatoes, and whose
cabin chimney, of the same brown stone
as the ruins, stands not far away.
These ruins, until recently called "the
old sugar-mill," are situated two miles
| back of the little town of New Smyrna, in
! Volusia county, Florida, just where the
waters of.the Halifax river meet the Mos
| quito Lagoon. Hither, in the early days
of Florida settlement came one Turnbull,
! with colony of peasants recruited from
the island of Mirorca in the Mediterran-
can; and even now traditions of his cruelty
| to these people are rife in the vicinity. He
oppressed them till they became almost
slaves, and long canal dug for miles
| through solid rock, for the purpose Of
floating loads of materials in from the
! vessels of the lagoon, is but one OF many
signs of the hard labor wrung from these
| deluded Minorcans. One of the industries
carried on by Turnbull was the making
of sugar; and in recent times the
stone ruins in the hammock near
! by, as remains Of sugarmaking ma
chinery are found among them,
/ have always been supposed to be the re-
mains of what was originally sugar
mill, built by the Minorcans under him.
! His power finally collapsed; his victim S
were scattered throughout the state. so
that even now one frequently meets ma
| tive with the black hair and olive skin
of an alien race; and thick pads of green
moss and cool ferns Overhang the
rock walls of the silent and deserted
waterway.
During the winter of 1893-94, a new in-
terest has settled upon the supposed
| sugarmill, and some inquiring minds have
wondered how 1t was that so dignifed a
structure with Roman arches and other
unmistakable signs of ecclesiastical archi-
lecture could have been needed in a
sugarmill. Detailed examination showed
that around the iron machin-
cry used in the mill were many
additions to the stone and plaster,
of much newer appearance than that of
the original walls. Partitions had been
added, arched windows filled in with
modern brick and inferior plaster, and
other signs were discovered which proved
that the original walls were centuries
older than these newer additions; but all
had been so overgrown with vines that
this discrepancy in the sugar mill theory
was easy to be overlooked.
When I visited the ruins in March last,
it appeared to me, upon examination, that
the first of the two halls described might
have been a chapel, with gable roof, and
with three arched windows on each side,
two at one end, and an entrance door at
the other, leading in from the adjoining
hall, which was perhaps refectory
a tRr,f hn Gil do IA nt.,h
formed a cloister; and the razed walls
all about it-what were they? And
why should so small a chapel have
so many windows Why should
its only entrance come from another
inclosure, and why was it surrounded by
signs of encompassing walls2 These
questions seem to answer themselves, if
we can find any traces of very early ex-
plorers who might have established a
fort and garrison here, which included a
chapel and a monastery with cloisters
and refectory. This would explain the
large windows, which would have been
darGened by outer buildings, the ad join-
ing hall and the remains Of an arcade or
outer gallery.
One of the traditions of Florida. which
| spread through Europe after the first
voyage of Columbus in 1889, was that
somewhere in its tiowery wilderness bub-
bled wonderful spring, that would be-
stow upon anyone who quaffed its waters
the miraculous gift of eternal youth.
Ponce de Leon, we are told, had heard OF
it, and in 1912 he made an exploration of
the state in futile search of it, A study
of his movements seems to show that his
was no mere idle wandering, but the exc
cution of a carefully arranged plan. In
deed, it would seem that he not only had
word of the fountains existence, but of
its location. Whence came this informa.
tionl
Twenty miles exactly west Of New
Smyrna is located the BLUE Spring" a
lovely pool, overhung with dripping rock
and with cold and wonderfully refreshing
waters. 1t is held by many that the
native Indians Of Florida, who were
often poetical in their appellations, re.
garded this as the spring of eternal
youth, and this was what Ponce de Leon
sought. Had he been given an accurate
account Of its location, in latitude and
longitude, he could not have gone
straighter-Yith one exception. He made
a mistake Of one degree in his calcula.
tions, and landed little north of New
Smyrna instead of landing at the spot
where New Smyrna now stands. Thus
he never found the spring; which gradu.
ally lessened in fame and was partially
forgotten.
Columbus, we remember, made a second
! VOVnUn of 1iCpoyarv in 1dQg and - l. {.