Closure of Dozier School marks end of historic facility

Dozier School from the Air (Bing Map)

The announcement this week that Dozier School in Marianna - now officially titled another name, but still called Dozier School by local residents - will mark the end of a facility that has served the State of Florida for more than 100 years.

Originally known as the Florida Reform School, Dozier came into existence in the 1890s when state leaders realized Florida needed a better facility for housing juvenile offenders. At the time it opened, it was a state of the art facility.

The boys housed there were both black and white. Living quarters were segregated in those days, but the boys of both races worked on a farm and in a number of other industries to learn skills and help support the expense of operating the school.

There was a terrible fire in the early 1900s, followed by the Spanish Flu outbreak of 1918. Those two events alone claimed two dozen lives at the facilities, taking both boys held at the reform school and employees who watched over them.

The media - particularly the Miami Herald and St. Petersburg Times - has delighted in telling stories of alleged horrors at the facility during its early days.  In their search for sensational angles, however, they often do not provide the perspective needed to judge events such as the fire and flu outbreak.

In the fire, for example, a boy died after going back into the burning dormitory to save the life of an employee he thought was trapped inside. It was a sign of the concern that most employees and youths at the school had for each other and was a remarkably heroic act that seems to always be overlooked in accounts of events at the school.

The same is true of the horrible conditions that developed at the school during the 1918 flu outbreak. A federal health official visited the school and found boys writhing in misery in abominable conditions, virtually uncared for and dying rapidly from the ravages of the flu. This report is often quoted in news stories about the school as a way of offering "perspective" on how horrible things have been there over the years.

In fact, what the accounts often do not mention, is that employees of the school were writhing in misery along with the students and that the flu had so ravaged the facility that everyone was sick, not just the boys. In fact, the 1918 flu outbreak killed hundreds of thousands of people in the United States and millions worldwide. Entire cities collapsed during the outbreak and in parts of Georgia towns went so far as to ban church services and all public assemblies as a way of halting the spread of the deadly outbreak. Walk through any cemetery that has been around for 100 years or more and you will see a startling number of headstones with the death date listed as 1918.

In short, history is more than a collection of sensational events. History is a mixture of things, some good, some bad. History proves that most people are good hearted and that those who usually reap what they sow.

Dozier School, not so long ago, didn't even have fences. It looked more like a college campus than a juvenile detention facility. People from all over the region went there every Christmas to ride the train or to see the wonderful animated Christmas displays the students used to assemble each year.

Dozier School, in the early 1980s, had the best success rate of turning juvenile offenders from criminals into responsible citizens of any school in the state. It offered a success story that was studied by other such facilities across the nation.

Over the last couple of years, there has been much negative publicity about both the school and Jackson County. People, many of them long dead, have been accused of attrocities. Many of those allegations were patently false.  Did bad things happen at Dozier?  I'm sure they did occasionally, just as they do in prisons, veterans hospitals, public schools, private schools, college campuses and in our own homes.

Were the so-called "White House Boys" abused at Dozier School four decades ago?  I don't know. They say they were, others say they were not. I do know, however, that many of the allegations made by them turned out to be false.  There are no mystery graves at Dozier School. The little cemetery shown so often on the news and in newspaper photographs actually contained the graves of boys, employees and even animals that died at the school over the years. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigated and found that the large majority of the graves date from more than 90 years ago. FDLE also found that there are no "missing boys." Every offender sent there is accounted for in the records.  Claims of murder and of boys disappearing are simply untrue. The only juvenile murdered at the school was killed by other juveniles.

It is a shame that so much negative publicity was heaped on the facility and our community. It is a shame that so many reporters did not bother to look for the truth behind allegations before airing or printing their stories. It is a shame that reporters from Miami and St. Pete didn't take time to look at the histories of incarceration facilities in their own communities, where I suspect they would find horrors that make anything that happened at Dozier look pale by comparison.

Goodbye Dozier and the jobs you provided. It is a shame that it came to this and that state officials did not have more courage in the face of unwarranted negative publicity.

Jackson County and the Secession of Florida, January 10, 1861

Adam McNealy, Jackson County Delegate

By Dale Cox

 Today marks the 150^th anniversary of Florida’s secession from the Union. It was the first step that would lead to Florida becoming part of the Confederate States of America and set it on the path to take part in the bloodiest war in American history.

Although it is commonly believed today that virtually everyone in the South was in favor of the movement, this was not the case. In Jackson County, for example, even many of the largest plantation owners opposed the move, as did a majority of the farmers and merchants. This surprised many at the time, as Jackson County planter John Milton, an ardent secessionist, was the state’s governor-elect.

Proof of strong Unionist sentiment in the county is easy to come by. When a statewide election was held on December 22, 1860, to pick delegates to the Secession Convention that was to convene in Tallahassee in January, all four of the delegates elected in Jackson County were strongly pro-Union.

James L.G. Baker, Adam McNealy, Joseph A. Collier and Sidney S. Alderman were elected to represent the county at the convention. All were Constitutional Unionists and their election shocked Democratic Party leaders in the state.

When the Secession Convention convened in Tallahassee on January 3, 1861, the Jackson County delegates were among those who waged a fierce floor fight in favor of delaying any attempt to withdraw the state from the Union.

Defeated in attempt to delay the drafting of a secession ordinance, Baker, McNealy, Collier and Alderman all voted in favor of an unsuccessful amendment that would have given the voters of the state the right to decide on secession. When that amendment failed by a vote of 39-30, they then supported an amendment that would have delayed any action until the neighboring states of Alabama and Georgia decided their course. That amendment failed by a vote of 43-27.

In the end, the secession ordinance passed by a vote of 62-7. James L.G. Baker of Jackson County was one of the seven delegates who opposed the move. Adam McNealy in the end changed his mind and voted in favor of the ordinance, as did Sidney Alderman and Joseph Collier. The latter two men issued a joint statement that was included in the minutes of the Convention:

The undersigned wish distinctly to announce to this Convention and the country, that they have been and are now fully alive to the wrongs perpetuated by the North against the South, as any many member of the Convention, and only differed with the Convention as to the mode and manner of redress.

The ordinance was passed and Florida seceded from the Union on January 10, 1861. The bloody War Between the States or Civil War would follow. In Jackson County, most of those who opposed secession ultimately supported the Confederacy. Their loyalty was to their state first.

Note: To learn more about Jackson County during the Civil War, please consider my book, The History of Jackson County, Florida: The War Between the States. It can be ordered by clicking the link at left and is available locally at Chipola River Book & Tea in Downtown Marianna (on the same block as the Gazebo Restaurant).

Andrew Jackson and the Natural Bridge - Part Three

We continue today with our series of excerpts from my new book, The History of Jackson County, Florida: Volume One. We are detailing the story of Andrew Jackson and the Natural Bridge of the Chipola River at Florida Caverns State Park:

(Excerpt)

The army continued forward on the morning of May 11, 1818. Crossing the hills between Blue Spring and the Chipola River, they arrived by around midday at the natural bridge. It was here that the supposed incident involving Andrew Jackson took place, but Captain Young did not record it in his journal. Instead, he wrote that the men were well aware that they were crossing a natural bridge and even offered a theory as to how it had been formed:

The Natural Bridge is in the center of a large swamp and appears to be a deposit of earth on a raft or some similar obstruction. The passage is narrow and the creek, with a rapid current is visible both above and below.

Young, of course, was mistaken about the formation of the bridge. It is actually created by the sudden disappearance of the Chipola River into a series of limestone passages. It flows underground through these for a short distance, before rising back to the surface. Nineteenth century loggers cut a canal across the top of the feature to allow them to float timber across to a downstream mill, taking away some of the unique appearance of the natural bridge, but it can still be seen today.

The absence of any mention of the legendary natural bridge incident in Young’s account is curious. A careful examination of his memoir, however, provides an explanation.

There was an incident involving a natural bridge during Jackson’s invasion, but according to Young it took place between St. Marks and Suwannee Old Town at the Natural Bridge of the Econfina. Jackson and the main body crossed over that bridge, but had to wait for a second column to catch up. When the soldiers arrived, they explained that it had been necessary for them to build rafts to cross a river.

Somehow, over time, the real incident at the Econfina Natural Bridge was claimed by the early settlers of Jackson County and relocated to the Natural Bridge of the Chipola. A number of the soldiers in Jackson’s army came back to settle Jackson County and it is possible that in later years their descendents remembered their story about the natural bridge incident and assumed they were talking about the one at today’s Florida Caverns.

A second legend about Jackson’s passage through Jackson County, however, appears to have more of a basis in truth. According to local tradition, as the army made its way through the area of Florida Caverns State Park, they were carefully watched by alarmed Native Americans who hid in caves and rock shelters as the soldiers marched past. A visit to the park in May, the month during which the expedition took place, reveals that this was clearly possible. The heavy spring growth of the forest obscures many rock bluffs and caves that look out on the route followed by the soldiers.

Native American families still living in Jackson County preserve strong oral tradition about this incident. A representative of one family indicated in 2007 that for many years, older members of the family would take younger members to the area of the natural bridge and point out caves in which their grandparents said they had hidden while the soldiers marched past.

After crossing the natural bridge, Jackson’s soldiers continued on past Blue Hole Spring and the Rock Arch Cave before turning to the northwest again and marching out of what is now Jackson County near present-day Graceville. The trail they followed took them through some of the fine farmlands between the Chipola River and Holmes Creek. The country was impressive and they knew that once the Seminole War was over, would likely be wide open for settlement.

Jackson’s topographer, Captain Hugh Young, clearly had the future settlement of the area in mind as he recorded his observations of the country through which the army passed. Describing the area below and around present-day Grand Ridge, for example, he noted that it was “good pine land with reddish soil.” With regard to the land west of the Chipola River through which the army marched, he wrote that it was “excellent land” with a “mixed growth of oak, pine and hickory with several sinks affording abundance of excellent water.”

(End of Excerpt)

If you are interested in learning more about the history of Jackson County, please consider my new book, The History of Jackson County, Florida: Volume One. The book can be purchased online by simply clicking the title. It is also available at Chipola River Book and Tea in Downtown Marianna. They are located on the same block as the Gazebo Restaurant and are directly across from the Battle of Marianna monument.

Excerpt from New Book: "The History of Jackson County"

The 19th century U.S. soldier shown here was Captain Hugh Young, a topographer or mapmaker assigned to the army of General Andrew Jackson when it marched through what is now Jackson County in 1818.

Young wrote one of the earliest American accounts of the Jackson County area and his description of the area helped attract many early settlers to the region.

The following is an excerpt from the new book, The History of Jackson County, Florida: Volume One. You can obtain information on how to order the book by clicking here.

Excerpt:

"The army turned to the northwest on the morning of May 10th and crossed into Jackson County. Their route led them across the approximate site of Grand Ridge to Blue Spring, where they camped for the night. Captain Hugh Young, Jackson’s topographer, called the spot “Big Spring,” a name it would hold for a number of years. He described it as being “forty yards in diameter and of considerable depth with a rock bottom and a clean rapid current.”

"The soldiers in Jackson’s army marveled at the beauty and richness of the surrounding countryside. Young himself kept careful records of the quality of the lands through which they marched.

"The army continued forward on the morning of May 11, 1818. Crossing the hills between Blue Spring and the Chipola River, they arrived by around midday at the natural bridge. It was here that the supposed incident involving Andrew Jackson took place, but Captain Young did not record it in his journal. Instead, he wrote that the men were well aware that they were crossing a natural bridge and even offered a theory as to how it had been formed:

"'The Natural Bridge is in the center of a large swamp and appears to be a deposit of earth on a raft or some similar obstruction. The passage is narrow and the creek, with a rapid current is visible both above and below.'

"Young, of course, was mistaken about the formation of the bridge. It is actually created by the sudden disappearance of the Chipola River into a series of limestone passages. It flows underground through these for a short distance, before rising back to the surface. Nineteenth century loggers cut a canal across the top of the feature to allow them to float timber across to a downstream mill, taking away some of the unique appearance of the natural bridge, but it can still be seen today."

I will post additional excerpts from the new book over the days to come.

Stories from the new History of Jackson County, Florida

Beginning today, I will start sharing some excerpts from my new book, The History of Jackson County, Florida: Volume One.

If you would like to purchase a copy, you can do so at Chipola River Book and Tea in downtown Marianna (across from the Battle of Marianna monument) or online directly from the printer at www.exploresouthernhistory.com/dalecox.

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Excerpt from Chapter One (Pages 5-6)

(Copyright 2008 by Dale Cox)

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The new people, called the Mississippians because they spread east from the Mississippi River Valley, brought with them new techniques, new styles of pottery and a new religion. Archaeologists and anthropologists debate today whether their eastward movement was due to military conquest or religious fervor, but one thing is clear: they were a powerful, militaristic society.

The Mississippians were the ancestors of most of the Native American nations we recognize today. The Muscogee (Creek), Choctaw, Cherokee, Chickasaw and Seminole people can all trace their history to the Mississippian culture. Some older groups such as the Yuchi and Hitchiti are believed to have descended from the earlier people already living in the region when the Mississippians arrived.

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From A.D. 900 until A.D. 1540, the Mississippians were the absolute masters of the Southeast. In Jackson County, the largest known early Mississippian settlement was the Curlee Site near Sneads. This site was occupied by around A.D. 1000 and consisted of a large village and mound on the banks of the Apalachicola River near where the U.S. 90 Bridge crosses between Chattahoochee and Sneads. Paired with a large seven mound ceremonial center across the river at Chattahoochee Landing, where the remains of a large platform mound can still be seen, the Curlee village was an important center supported by vast fields and a trading network that made use of the Chattahoochee, Flint and Apalachicola Rivers.
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Although it has now been largely washed away by the river, the Curlee Site is one of the best researched Native American sites in Jackson County. Prior to the destruction of the site by erosion, archaeologists conducted numerous seasons of fieldwork at the site and learned a great deal about the lives of its inhabitants. They ground grain and baked bread, grew squash, melons and other crops, made both ceremonial and utility pottery, used tiny triangular points to tip their arrows and made tools from stone, wood and bone. They even made bone fishhooks for use in harvesting food from the Apalachicola River.

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One of the most stunning aspects of the Curlee inhabitants, however, is that they seem to have developed the capability to perform brain surgery. A skull from the site and now in the possession of a private collector in Chattahoochee had a rectangular hole that had apparently been cut using stone tools. Most surprising, however, is the fact that the bone surrounding the hole had begun to refuse, confirming to anthropologists that the unfortunate individual had survived his primitive surgery.
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Although scientists have speculated as to why inhabitants of Curlee would conduct brain surgery on a resident of their village, the best they can do is guess. Some have suggested that the individual may have suffered from migraine headaches or somehow been injured, but we may never know.

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At some point around 1250-1350 A.D., Curlee and other Mississippian sites along the Chattahoochee and Apalachicola Rivers in Jackson County were suddenly abandoned. No one is quite sure why. At the same time, however, a new Mississippian society suddenly appeared between the Chipola River and Holmes Creek in western Jackson County. We know more about this society than any of the ones before it because these people were still living in the area when Spanish explorers penetrated the area west of the Apalachicola River.

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Watch over the coming days for more excerpts from the new book!

The Wreck of the Steamboat Eagle - Neal's Landing, Florida

Coming in this week's issue of the Jackson County Times, I have an article that I think you will find interesting.

It tells the story of the shocking wreck of the great steamboat Eagle near Neal's Landing in the northeast corner of Jackson County.

The Eagle was a 200 ton steamboat that was one of the largest and most elegant paddlewheel boats to navigate the Chattahoochee and Apalachicola Rivers during the years before the Civil War.

On January 29, 1854, she caught fire as she was approaching Neal's Landing and completely disappeared in less than 15 minutes. The fatal fire was one of the most shocking tragedies in the early history of Jackson County and also gave rise to a remarkable story of heroism.

Be sure to pick up a copy of this week's paper to read the story. If you haven't subscribed to the Jackson County Times, please consider doing so. They publish more news about the history of Jackson County than any other publication in the area. You can subscribe online by clicking here. Just look for the "Subscribe" button.

I will post the full article later in the week after this week's issue is out.