The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1952-03-17

No ghosts bring the flowers,
Susan. Real live Cuban and
American fishermen do"
One old fisherman, said Ford,
had come in only yesterday TN
noticed and left a bouquet of
blossoms on the little grave in
the parade grounds.
A more imposing monument
stands near the lighthouse keep
er's grave. 1t is that of Brevet
Maj. Joseph Smith, the Fort sur
geon who died of yellow fever in
September. 1867 while treating
the hundreds of yellow jack
victims on the little island.
DR.. Samuel Mudd, until then in
solitary confinement in Bastion
ID. for an escape attempt, was
called into service to save the
remaining victims from the vel
low jack.
Mudd took over and admins
tered TO the dying men and the
four dying nurses. Though the
nurses died and 80 men. his
selfless services so endeared
him to the surviving officers
and prisoners. that they signed
petition demanding his re-
lease.
The petition never reached
Washington. But President An
drew Johnson pardoned him N
1869 after Mudd had served foul
years of his life sentence.
To-day Mul:d's cell, clean swept
but damp, shows the stalactits
formations caused by the steady
drip of rain water that seepee
through his cell end caused him
great anguish.
Today where once fortress
teemed with hundreds OF sol.
diers, manning scores of guns
remains only the silent beauty o.
the second largest brick struc,
ture nthe Western hemisphere
Battered by hurricane, storm
ant' fire. the heSagonal fortres.
which encompasses seven acres
is composed of three stories
Slave labor originally hired a
$40 month to build the Fort il
1916 was replaced by skilled Irish
masons.
The magnificent arches which
still stand in all their beaut,
are a monument to the skill o
the workmen who built on
country.
Bricks of all sizes are fitteS
into geomeuic curves; six EN-
inently satisfying granite stair
ways lead from the first deck o
the Fort to the ..terraplane'
deck, from which cannon pointed
out TO sea TO defend the Fort.
Those cannon never had 70 be,
used for the defense Of Fort
Jefferson. They lie today. 10
Of them. on the grassy top deck
Of the fort. enormous and silent
reminders Of the days whom
enemies from the north and
south Of Dry Tcrtugas might
attack.
II was from Fort Jefferson
that the Battleship Maine EN-.
barked for Havana, one montl
before she was blown up, the
precipitating factor of the Span,
ish-American war.
Eighteen years before that
however, the invention of a can
non that could breach the eighr
foot thick brick walls of Tho
Fort, made Fort Jefferson OBJ
solete as a military stronghold,
The magnificent structure die
not end its usefulness in 1870
Instead. ii served from 1888 unit
1900 as a quarantine station. AL
yellow fever cases aboard ship.
We're brought to tiny Garder
Key. Then the Fort. served sast /;
Navy coaling station. In Worls
War |, the equipped be-
for q seaplane base The military
moved out following the war.
The Fort entered a period d
solitary decay From 1920 unit
1888 her only inhabitants wer,
hurricanes and fires. Her sol,
neighbors the 100000 noddy anr
sooty terms who spend eaci
spring and summer at Bush Key
and then leave for unknown
regions. Only the ghosts Of DIR
Mndd, the dead army nurses, thu
lighthouse keepers Of the lett
century, the soldiers, the suffer,
ing prisoners Of war and quarani
tined passengers remained in tho
brick ruins.
Fort Jefferson might have
passed into the limbo Of for.
eofent ruins. had II not been
for q world famous fisherman
who eruised bv the magnificent
structure ono day in 1895. He
fell in love with the beauty Of
the Dry Tortugas and len gem.
like Fort. He resolved 10 DO
somefhins to salvage the mag
nifirent Fort. 10 conserve il