The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1940-03-13
KEY WEST WOMEN
Their Homes and Gardens
BY MYRTLE coScRovE
MRS. LIVINGSTON w. BETHEL

The ladies of the Old South, re-
nowned in song and story, are
passing; few indeed are left.
Among them is. Mrs. Livingston
w. Bethel. AT the age of 90
years she is said to be the. oldest
person living here who was born
in Key West. She traces her
lineage back to Pozzo di Borgo
of Corsica, statesman and COM
panion of Napoleon. When
Napoleon left the isle of his birth
to embark on a career of world
domination, the di Borgos went
to Spain. There the granddaugh-
ter of Pozzo di Borgo married
Joseph Ximinez, nephew of the
renowned Cardinal Ximinez.
Shortly after, the young couple
came to America and settled in
st. Augustine. Here two daugh-
tiers, Mary Moves and Frederick,
were born. "A few years later
the family moved to Key West,
where their descendants, Mrs. Liv-
ingston Bethel among them, still
live. Local history tells of Mrs.
Joseph Ximinez's untiring efforts
in nursing the victims of the yell
low fever epidemic, which, in
those days, frequently swept the
island, and of the charm and
vivacity of her two dark eyed
daughters. When Mary Moves,
the elder of the girls, reached
young womanhood, she married
Joseph Beverly Browne, scion of
the prominent Virginia family.
They lived for some years at the
corner of Whitehead and Caro-
line streets, where the u. S. Nav
al Station now stands. Later
they erected a large and preten-
tious house on Simonton street
on space at present occupied by
the Coral Apartments. Joseph
B. Browne, during his lifetime,
played a prominent part in both
local and state affairs. He was
territorial U. S. marshal, mem
Der of the state legislature and
both mayor and postmaster of
Key West. Being a close friend
of John Tyler, tenth President of
the United States, he and Mrs.
Browne were, on more than one
occasion, honored guests of the
White House. Four children
were born to the Brownies, Ann
Elizabeth, Leonor Ximinez now
Mrs. George w. Allen, Jefferson
B. Browne who became judge of
the Supreme Court of Florida,
and Mary Moves who married
Livingston Bethel. Mrs. Living
ston Bethel, the subject of this
sketch, was born in Key West,
December 10, 1847, the year after
the great hurricane swept this
island and the Bahamas. She
was educated at the Misses Ed
wardses School, in New Haven,
Conn. AT the outbreak of the
Civil War, her father, Joseph B.
Browne, was a large slave owner.
1t is said that a number of his
slaves were employed in the con-
struction of Fort Taylor. De
spite the fact that the sympathy
of a majority of the inhabitants
lay with the Confederacy, the
island was held by Union forces
for the duration of the war. :.
Mrs. Bethel relates with high
glee, how, during this trying pc
riod, she and her sisters made
tiny Confederate flags and stuck
them in their bird cages hanging
on the front veranda. AS White
head street, at that time, was the
main thoroughfare along which
the Federal soldiers daily march
ed, it was not long before the
fluttering flags caught the eye of
Major French, the commanding
officer. Needless to say that the
irate commander lost no time in
dispatching a note of protest to
the father of the mischievous
girls and that the gay, Haunting
stars and bars were hurriedly
stripped from the bird cages.
Mrs. Betheps husband, the late
Judge Livingston Bethel, was
son of Judge Winer Bethel, who
came to Key West from Nassau
in 1847. He (Winer Bethel built
a home for his family situated at
what is now known as 421 Duval
street. This house was burned in
the big fire of April, 1885, and re-
built two years later. When
Livingston Bethel, then a rising
young lawyer, married his child
hood sweetheart, Mary Moves
Browne, they came to this house
to live. Here their eight children
were born and here Mrs, Bethel
still resides. OF the eight chill
dren, two live in Key West. Mrs,
E. M. Phillips and Otto Bethel. :,
Judge Livingston Bethel was one
of Key Vests most brilliant jur-
lists. He was lieutenant governor
of Florida and served for many
years as u. S. district attorney
and Judge of the Criminal Court
!. Following in the steps of her