President's Pen
By Gary Swanson
President
Southeast Volusia Historical Society
As we welcome in 2021, I hope everyone is safe and well. I know we all are glad to be rid of the past year. This new year hasn’t started out the best in terms of political turmoil and the worsening corona virus news, but there is hope on the horizon. The vaccines are becoming more available, though it is very frustrating trying to get appointments to receive the shots. Hopefully, the powers that be will get a better system figured out, and the process will go much smoother. I know that we are all anxious to get back to normal, whatever that turns out to be.
Things are still happening at the museum, just today I observed the walls starting to go up for our new elevator shaft. The computers that our director and treasurer use are getting a much needed replacement, and work continues on updating displays. Brion Reilly has recently completed a video interview with our own history buff Barbara Zafuto, and we hope to have that available on our social media platform soon.
In the past, I have touched on how we can donate tax free funds to the museum, or any other eligible charity, through our yearly IRA required minimum distribution (RMD). Actually, we can donate monies through our IRAs at any time, it doesn’t have to be a RMD. The advantage to this is we can pass the money directly from the IRA to the charity and avoid paying the tax on the withdrawal. If you are going to donate money anyway, why not do it this way, with money you won’t have to pay the tax on? You can also designate, in your estate plan, all or some of your IRA to be passed on to the museum or elsewhere, also tax free. Contact your financial or tax advisor for more details.
Please continue to wear your masks and avoid crowds, and we’ll see each other again soon!
Gary
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Are We There Yet?
At this, point that phrase "are we there yet" seems to summarize everyone's feelings as we all work through trying to get vaccines, feel some sense of normalcy and do our best to not get sick all at once.
Although the New Smyrna Museum of History is currently closed to general public interaction, as a working museum facility there are still activities going on each week.
Like many others that normally invite the public into our facility, we have had to come up with some ways to share information with our members and friends. One of the ways we have done this is through the Museum's Facebook Page.
Using information from the archive of the New Smyrna Beach News and Observer Newspapers, we have had quite a bit of fun sharing information from the paper from 75 years ago and 50 years ago. We have also begun sharing some Facebook posts that feature different components of local area history. We hope you have had the chance to share in some of these. If you haven't yet followed our Facebook page you can simply type New Smyrna Museum of History into the Facebook search bar while you are visiting your own page then click the Follow button on our page.
Here is a sample of one of our recent posts:
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Finally...A Bridge
By Greg Holbrook
What a change it must have brought to the lives of people living in our area, when there was finally a bridge to get to the peninsula.
Today we enjoy two options for travelling back and forth to what is known as New Smyrna Beach’s peninsula or beachside.
The first location to be bridged was the North bridge. The draw bridge that leads to Flagler Ave. today is the 5th iteration of a bridge in that general location. The South causeway that leads to 3rd Ave and the area of Norwood's is the 3rd bridge to be constructed in that area.
Settlers had been working to carve out a life in the area for over 100 years before the first bridge was built back in 1892 and it only lasted 2 years before it was destroyed by a late season hurricane in 1894.
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That first bridge and its toll house is shown in the initial photo for this post. Until that time the only way to get back and forth to the peninsula was to catch one of the ferry boats that serviced the area. |
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This second photo is said to be of the dock that serviced the ferry from New Smyrna to Coronado and was located a few blocks South of where the current bridge is today. The ferries were said to remain a needed resource not only before the bridge, but for many years after, as those first bridges were at times damaged by storms and rendered unsafe for use. |
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This 3rd photo is said to be about 1908-09 and is a photo of the 2nd bridge and its toll house, the bridge mechanism that rotated to create an opening for passage instead of raising, is just visible above the toll house. You might recognize that home on the left in this photo, The Barber house as it was known in those days, is modified in later years and today stands as the Riverview Hotel.
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Those first bridges were toll bridges, costing 1 penny per person to cross whether walking, or riding in a car or in a horse drawn carriage. This 4th photograph is of some of the old toll coupons that were purchased in booklets and then given to the toll tender. Shown here are some of the 1 cent tickets and then a later version after Washington Connor sold the bridge to the local government.
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The 5th photo shown here was taken from the roof of the Barber House with a small section of the roofline visible in the foreground, the subject of the photo being that mechanism that swung allowing boats to pass. The photo is said to have been taken approx. 1910. |
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The ornate toll house for the 3rd bridge is probably the most recognizable from old post card images however, the 6th photo in this share is taken from the shore or perhaps a boat near the shore and gives a different perspective on the ornate building.
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Our 7th photo is again of that 3rd bridge showing a long sweeping curve towards the beach with the ornate toll house with the sign “Welcome to Coronado Beach” prominently displayed above the entry way.
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The next 2 photos were taken during the 1950’s and although that was 70 years ago, the images seem quite modern in contrast to the construction types used on those first 3 bridges. |
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In the 1990’s the Florida Department of Transportation as well as the City of New Smyrna Beach both supported replacing the bridge built in the 50’s with a high-rise bridge like the South Bridge. However, the impacts and changes by such a project raised opposition in locals who understood how much character and history would have to be destroyed to force a modern elevated bridge into the small area.
The modern drawbridge we know today came into service in 1996 and was named the George Musson Memorial Bridge after New Smyrna Beach Mayor George Musson. Musson was Mayor for 18 years and had fought tirelessly to bring local citizens and the Florida DOT to a compromise and our current bridge into service.
A special thanks to Gary Sams of Atlanta GA for recently sending us the photos of the 1950’s era construction project. Because of great folks like him, the Sheldon Research Library and New Smyrna Museum of History can share these photos and the stories of our history with the public.
Do you or a member of your family have an object or photo that could be used to document local area history? Please give us a call at 386.478.0052 or email us at NSMofHistory@gmail.com and a member of our collection management team will be excited to reach out to you.
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Museum Giftshop Now Available Online |
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Something else we have done to try and engage with the public while not having our doors open is by creating an ecommerce site for our musuem giftshop. Cool t-shirts and hats or your favorite Minorcan Datil Pepper products are now available online. Don't forget to check out custom beach and surf themed artwork by Jimmy Lane and Ronnie Dreggors as well as literature featuring topics from the local area.
Several local people have placed orders and selected "Self Pickup" during the check out process and coordinated with us to pop by and pick up their items in person to avoid shipping. Of course we have shipping options for those out of town folks as well.
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Community Support
Although we may have our doors closed for general access to the museums exhibits, the Southeast Volusia Historical Society continues to provide community support and strives to be your local resource for everything history here in Southeast Volusia County.
Along with our Facebook Page and ecommerce access to our gift shop, the New Smyrna Museum of History has staff and volunteers available each week to continue to support our local community. Each week we have people reach out with items to donate, questions about local historic sites and with requests for support from archaeology staff about sites and objects from the local area. Don't hesitate to reach out to us here at the New Smyrna Museum of History so we can see if we can assist with your donation, question or research.
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News and Information for members of the Southeast Volusia Historical Society |
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Your Membership and Support Matters!
New Members
Debra Exum
In Memoriam:
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Check out our new feature, Volunteer Corner. Each month we will try to feature an article about one of our member volunteers at the New Smyrna Museum of History. This is an opportunity to share your history. Tell us where your life started out, how you made your way to New Smyrna Beach, what sparked your interest in history, and what brought you to become a member and then volunteer at the New Smyrna Museum of History.
Reach out to Mark Spradley at drmarks@hotmail.com and he will be excited to put together a safe way to meet with you and gather some details about your interesting history.
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VOLUNTEER CORNER
TURNBULL MET MY 6TH GREAT GRANDFATHER
by Mark Spradley
When I became a volunteer at the Front Desk, I enjoyed listening to the other volunteer's stories about where they grew up and their family's history. I realized that their stories often crossed paths with mine. One of those times was in the 1770's when my 6th great grandfather met Dr. Turnbull to discuss a business opportunity. Since they ran in the same circles of wealthy land owners, I figured they may have run into each other on the streets of Charleston or Savannah. Sure enough, in our own gift shop, I found a link in a book by Carita Doggett, "Dr. Andrew Turnbull and the New Smyrna Colony of Florida".
According to the book, my ancestor, Jonathan Bryan, offered Dr. Turnbull a share of a large tract of land on the St. Johns river which the Indians were willing to sell. He was rebuked by the secretary of the colonies who said "Dr Turnbull and Mr. Drayton have associated with Bryan in his scandalous undertaking." No surprise that he was involved in a scandal. You can't pick your ancestors!
That was on my mothers' side of the family which has a very long history in Georgia and South Carolina beginning with Thomas Smith who was the South Carolina governor and landgrave in 1693. He was my 8th great grandfather and is buried outside Charleston at his Medway Plantation. Jonathan Bryan was my 5th great grandfather. In 1733 he surveyed Savannahs location with James Oglethorpe, the founder of the colony of Georgia.
My fathers' side of history is a little shorter. We know nothing beyond his father. Dad did tell us about moving to Miami in 1921, when he was 10 years old. He said they had to drive down a muddy US1 from Camden, South Carolina in his mother's model T. It took a week. I realized they probably crossed Canal Street at some point to get to Miami!
Dad and mom eventually settled on Key Biscayne, an island off Miami, where I was born in 1953. To this day I keep in touch with kids I went to kindergarten with. Over the years we have shared a lot of stories and pictures which are now being archived in the Historical Society of Key Biscayne. One historian says that a Minorcan family from New Smyrna made it down to Key Biscayne after fleeing the Turnbull settlement.
During my time volunteering at the museum, I have met many of you who share some of my story with links to Miami, Charleston and New Smyrna Beach. That is very exciting and I miss those conversations with you all! So…..I hope some of you are willing to share those stories with the rest of us through this newsletter. If you have some written history you would like to share, you can send it to my email address. If you have a verbal history you would like to share, I can meet up with you in a safe environment to record that history. Simply email me so we can select a time to talk. We miss our volunteers and would love to hear from you!
drmarks@hotmail.com
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The New Smyrna Museum of History
Phone: 386.478.0052
Email - NSMofHistory@gmail.com
120 Sams Ave., New Smyrna Beach Fl 32168
Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 968
New Smyrna Beach Florida 32170
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