A Key West “jack-of-all-trades”: The Strange Life, and Peculiar Death, of Dr. Daniel W. Whitehurst

Perhaps the easiest source to find about Whitehurst is his short entry in Who Was Who in Florida (“WWWF”). After giving the years of his birth (1807) and death (1872), it summarizes his life as follows:

A native of Virginia, [Whitehurst] came to Florida and settled in St. Augustine. He served as a major during the Second Seminole War of 1835–1842. After the war he practiced law and became editor of the St. Augustine News. Whitehurst then studied medicine and in 1843 received his degree as a medical doctor from New York University. He moved to Key West to become post physician at Fort Taylor and later was the post physician at Fort Jefferson. While serving at Fort Jefferson he assisted the famous Dr. Mudd during the terrible yellow fever epidemic of 1866 [sic].

Henry S. Marks, Who Was Who in Florida 261 (1973). Marks incorrectly gives the date of the 1867 Fort Jefferson yellow fever outbreak as “1866.” As has been explained elsewhere:

The dreaded yellow fever invaded Fort Jefferson in August, 1867. It was brought by Captain George W. Crabbe from Havana, Cuba. Unknowingly, he had carried on his person or in [his] luggage several Tiger mosquitoes that quickly multiplied into millions of virus carriers.

By late September the epidemic reached its peak. Of the approximately 400 people then at the fort, 275 were seriously infected. Of these, 38 had died, including two prisoners, the Post Surgeon, and four hospital nurses. Dr. Samuel Mudd had been fighting the scourge since September 6 when he was released from confinement. Dr. Daniel Whitehurst joined Mudd on September 7 when the latter returned from Key West. Both doctors performed heroic work and survived. They were credited with containing that particular epidemic which ended with the last case reported.

There likewise is a brief description of Whitehurst in the Florida Historical Quarterly. In an article about early Florida newspapers, Douglas C. McMurtie explains that Whitehurst “established the St. Augustine News in November, 1838[,] published [it] until the end of 1840[,] and remained as editor through part of the next year, when he left Florida for New York.”

Douglas C. McMurtie, The Beginnings of Printing in Florida, 23 Fla. Hist. Q. 63, 72 (1944).

In the News’ first issue, Whitehurst penned a long editorial in which he laid out his goals:

A paper, bearing the title of “The News,” is this day issued, and seeks from the countenance of the public, such support as its merits may deserve. In thus adding another newspaper to the many which are already on occupied ground, the Editor candidly admits he feels the extent of the responsibilities, which necessarily attach to a faithful discharge of the duties incurred, and enters upon the field with no little solicitude, as to the success of an undertaking, in which more able and experienced hands have not unfrequently met with failure and defeat. . . .

Three years have now passed by, and the territory is still the theatre of war. Her people have ever shown a ready zeal to encounter any danger, which the exigencies of the times have demanded; and have repeatedly given proof in action of their fidelity and courage. Yet, with this amount of suffering and privation endured, her inhabitants have been misrepresented and abused, and error perpetuated, by ex parte statements, which have had their full influence aboard. To correct these impressions, and exonerate our people from the sweeping charges of anonymous or avowed authors; to disseminate such intelligence as will best develop the capabilities of our soil, and advance the agricultural interests of the country;—to support a system of education, which shall embrace every free white citizen of the country,—and to allay the discordancies of party, by a mild and equable course of conduct, will be his anxious and studious effort. . . .

The Editor disclaims all attachment to party, other than the cause of correct principles, the truth, and morals.

His columns are open, therefore, to all temperate communications, which do not entrench on private character, or which would strike at conscientious obligation.

These are the landmarks which shall guide him in the conduct of this paper.

D.W. Whitehurst, The News, St. Augustine News, Nov. 3, 1838, at 2 (capitalization and italics as in the original).

Whitehurst quickly abandoned the neutrality promised in his editorial. Like most East Floridians, he was a supporter of the Whigs,

For a history of the Whig party in Florida, see Herbert J. Doherty, Jr., The Whigs of Florida 1845–1854 (1959).

In operating the News, Whitehurst showed a distinct taste for yellow journalism:

Established in 1838 by Peter Sken Smith and Daniel W. Whitehurst to promote Whig party principles, the News was generally more a purveyor of sensationalism than its arch rival, the St. Augustine Florida Herald. Most articles and editorials were written by Whitehurst, who had served in the Indian war as a staff officer for Brigadier General Joseph M. Hernandez, a commander of the East Florida militia. Thus, his interest in and knowledge of military affairs came naturally. Whitehurst depended on the ship captains who entered St. Augustine harbor enroute to and from southern military posts like Fort Lauderdale for much of his information about the war.

Cooper Kirk, Ambush on the New River, 1 Broward Legacy 8 (July 1977). As Kirk reports, Whitehurst's partner in the News was Peter Sken Smith. The scion of a wealthy family, Smith, like Whitehurst, was a lawyer:

[Smith] was educated at Hamilton College and became a merchant before he had reached his 21st birthday. He established a large store in Utica . . . [but] soon became [overextended] and failed for upwards of $100,000 and took the benefit of the bankruptcy act. He then entered [various New York] law office[s] . . . as [a] student . . . until he was admitted to practice. . . . In 1829 he removed to Oswego, and afterwards resided in Pennsylvania and Florida, where he was an officer in the U.S. Army, bearing the title of Major-General. For several years he was a prominent politician in Philadelphia, but his eventful life was ended May 6, 1858, in an insane asylum at Springfield, Mass.

On January 15, 1841, Whitehurst sold the News to Aaron Jones, Jr., and Thomas T. Russell.

This turned out to be the first in a series of changes for the paper:

Whitehurst was succeeded on the News by Thomas T. Russell and Aaron Jones, Jr. Russell, a southerner by birth, published the News until the spring of 1845, when he left St. Augustine for Jacksonville, where he published for a short time the Florida Whig, a party organ which existed solely for political purposes. Jones came to the News from the Jacksonville East Florida Advocate, but he remained with the St. Augustine paper only a few months. From 1842 to 1844 Russell had as a partner Charles E. O’Sullivan, previously a compositor on the Savannah Republican of Georgia. After his two years in Florida, O’Sullivan returned to Savannah, where he was printing as late as 1869. When Russell left the News in 1845 he was followed by Albert A. Nunes, a foreign-born printer who was brought to the United States in 1819 at the age of two. He came to Florida about 1838, and his career after 1845 is not known. The News was moved to Jacksonville in 1846.

On March 5, 1841, however, Whitehurst resigned as editor. He subsequently bid the paper's readers good-bye by writing:

The Subscriber's connection with “The News,” was dissolved on the 5th inst. In withdrawing his association from a Press, which he controlled over two years under much difficulty and opposition, he has reason to congratulate himself, that the strenuous efforts of personal and political enemies toward its destruction, were alike fruitless, and have left him unscathed from the combinations of undisguised malignancy. To his friends, he owes much for their forbearance and cordial assistance—to his opponents, nothing. With his brethren who have interchanged a friendly relation, he extends the warm hand of attachment—all that he can offer; and to those who have stood by him in “good and evil report,” the assurances of his gratitude.

D.W. Whitehurst, To the Public, St. Augustine News, Apr. 2, 1841, at 2. Whitehurst's principal nemesis while running the News was James M. Gould, the publisher of the crosstown Florida Herald and Southern Democrat. Matters became so heated between the two men that at one point Whitehurst published a nearly page-long editorial attacking the Herald. See D.W. Whitehurst, The Herald and Its Editors, St. Augustine News, July 3, 1840, at 2. For a brief biography of Gould, see History of St. Johns County Sheriffs, St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office, at https://www.sjso.org/sheriffs-office/history/. As this source explains, Gould “was . . . brash and outspokenly belligerent toward his enemies. [After his newspaper days, he] had a busy life as public office holder [and served as] Sheriff, County Commissioner, Justice of the Peace, State Legislator, and Registrar of Public Lands.” For a further look at Whitehurst and Gould's rivalry, see Jonathan B. Crider, “Printing Politics: The Emergence of Political Parties in Florida, 1821–1861” (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Temple University, May 2017), available at https://digital.library.temple.edu/digital/api/collection/p245801coll10/id/427023/download.

With a bit more effort, a researcher can go beyond Whitehurst's WWWF entry and McMurtie's article and find what until now has served as Whitehurst's biography: an essay by Nora K. Smiley in Martello, the former annual journal of the Key West Art and Historical Society.

See Nora K. Smiley, Dr. Daniel W. Whitehurst, 4 Martello 21 (1967) [hereinafter Martello]. Smiley's essay also appears in newspaper form. See Nora K. Smiley, Dr. Daniel W. Whitehurst, Key West Citizen, Feb. 19, 1967, at 5B.

In addition to mentioning his war record, newspaper editorship, and medical studies, Smiley reports: “As a young man [Whitehurst] was active in the American Colonization Society [(“ACS”)]. It was in connection with this group that he made a trip to Liberia [c. 1831 to 1835], a considerable adventure in those days.”

Martello, supra note 14, at 21. Founded in 1816, the ACS promoted the transportation of freeborn U.S. Blacks and emancipated slaves to Africa. See Eric Burin, Slavery and the Peculiar Solution: A History of the American Colonization Society (2005). Upon returning to the United States, Whitehurst wrote a lengthy article about his trip, which was serialized by the ACS in its monthly magazine. See D.W. Whitehurst, Mr. Whitehurst's Journal, 12 Afr. Repository & Colonial J. 105–11, 144–50, 177–84, 209–16, 241–46, 273–81, and 307–15 (1836).

The exact dates of Whitehurst's trip are unknown. In his article, Whitehurst gives no inkling of when it began, but does say that on May 14, 1835, while in Monrovia (Liberia's capital), he and his fellow commissioners were “informed that our Mission being completed, our services were no longer required for the public benefit.” See id. at 315. It appears that Whitehurst remained in Liberia until the fall, when he booked passage back to the United States. See [News] From Western Africa, Comm. Advert. (NY), Dec. 8, 1835, at 1 (“[T]he brig Ruth[] arrived yesterday at Philadelphia, after a passage of 43 days from Liberia. She brought the following passengers: . . . Daniel W. Whitehurst, Esq. . . .”). Based on various documents discussed later in this article, it seems likely that the trip started in late 1831. But see Patricia Riles Wickman, Osceola’s Legacy 206 (rev. ed. 2006) (listing “mid-1832” as Whitehurst's embarkation date—Wickman, however, gets several other facts wrong: not only does she say that Whitehurst took the trip for his health, she claims he went on it after he attended NYU).

Whitehurst's trip generated considerable interest outside ACS circles, with one newspaper reporting:

Messrs. D.W. Whitehurst, A.D. Williams, and G.R. McGill were appointed commissioners to proceed into the interior for the purpose of negotiating peace among the hostile tribes, and of exploring the country with a view to fixing on a spot for a colonial settlement in the interior. It appears . . . that they were not entirely successful. They took with them some Arabic Bibles for distribution,--a quantity having been received from the British and Foreign Bible Society.

For the most part, however, Smiley focuses on two other events in Whitehurst's life. First, in 1843, Whitehurst received as a wedding present from his new father-in-law, Dr. Frederick R. Weedon, the head of the Indian warrior Osceola. Weedon had treated Osceola during the latter's confinement at Fort Moultrie in South Carolina and, following Osceola's death there in 1838, had taken his head as a trophy. Whitehurst, in turn, presented the relic to Dr. Valentine Mott, one of his NYU professors.

As has been explained elsewhere:

[I]n 1843, [Whitehurst] sent [the head] to Dr. Valentine Mott in New York, along with this short note: “My Dear Sir: Accompanying this, you will be handed the head of the celebrated Seminole Chief, Osceola, a man who in recent years filled a large space in the eye of the American public, if indeed not the civilized world. The strong sentiment which is manifested in the fate of the aborigines of this country and the policy of the government in consolidating them westward . . . is the removal of the Red Man.”

When Dr. Mott received the package, he replied happily, “I am delayed returning you my thanks for the Head of Osceola. . . . It will be deposited in the collection and preserved in my library at home, for I fear almost to place it in my museum at the University . . . temptation will be so strong for someone to take it.”

There is a dispute over what eventually happened to Osceola's head. In 1955, one of Weedon's great-granddaughters said it was lost in an 1866 fire. See May McNeer Ward, The Disappearance of the Head of Osceola, 33 Fla. Hist. Q. 193, 201 (1955). In 2015, however, Seminole medicine man Bobby Henry insisted that the head was destroyed to cover up the U.S. Army's murder of Osceola. See Peter B. Gallagher, Bobby Henry's Story: U.S. Soldier Murdered Osceola, Seminole Trib., Sept. 2, 2015, at https://seminoletribune.org/bobby-henrys-story-u-s-soldier-murdered-osceola/. Henry's claim runs counter to all other sources, who agree that Osceola died from “quinsy” (i.e., a peritonsillar abscess). See, e.g., Thom Hatch, Osceola and the Great Seminole War: A Struggle for Justice and Freedom 236 (2012).

In describing Weedon—who she repeatedly misidentifies as “Weeden”

Smiley gets Weedon confused with his younger brother William, who, following a dispute over an inheritance, changed his last name to “Weeden.” See Wickman, supra note 15, at 201.

After leaving the army in February 1838,

While Wickman in her book uses Whitehurst's initial rank (lieutenant), Whitehurst's WWWF entry uses his final rank (major). The army's own records, however, use his intermediate rank (captain). See 10 Florida Militia Muster Rolls—Seminole Indian Wars 103–04 (1968) (“Muster Roll of Captain D.W. Whitehurst's Company of Mounted Volunteers”). According to this source, Whitehurst's command consisted of one lieutenant, two sergeants, two corporals, and forty-two privates. In addition, it had two “servants” (i.e., slaves), assigned, respectively, to Whitehurst and his executive officer (Lieutenant Joseph Woodruff).

The decision to go to NYU was an easy one. In 1841, Florida had no medical schools.

Florida's first medical school, located at the University of Miami, did not open until the Fall of 1952. See University of Miami Makes Start on Medical School, Tampa Daily Times, Apr. 2, 1952, at 6. See also Overman v. State Board of Control, 62 So. 2d 696, 701 (Fla. 1952) (en banc) (observing, in a decision permitting the University of Miami to use state funds to help pay for its new venture, “Florida is the largest state in the Union without a Medical School. It is the only state in the South without one.”).

As noted in his WWWF entry, Whitehurst received his degree in 1843.

This was a significant achievement, for 76% of Whitehurst's classmates ended up either dropping out or being dismissed. See University of New York—Medical Department, Buffalo Daily Gazette, Aug. 24, 1843, at 2 (reporting that only 65 students from the inaugural class managed to graduate). See also Catalogue of the Graduates and Officers of the Medical Department of the University of the City of New York 34 (1872) (listing Whitehurst among the 1843 graduates).

Shortly after the wedding, the couple moved to Dade County, where Whitehurst was named a justice of the peace.

See A Journal of the Proceedings of the House of Representatives of the Territory of Florida, at its Twenty-Second Session, 1844, at 54 (1844) (indicating that Whitehurst received his commission on September 13, 1843). Whitehurst owed his new position to Governor Richard K. Call, a Democrat who in the 1840 presidential election had crossed party lines to support the Whig ticket. See 1 Harry Gardner Cutler, History of Florida: Past and Present, Historical and Biographical 119–20 (1923).

In 1845, the couple moved again, this time to Key West. After years of dithering, the federal government finally was going ahead with its plan to build a series of massive forts in the Florida Straits. First up was Fort Zachary Taylor in Key West,

For the fort's history, see Ames W. Williams, Stronghold of the Straits: Fort Zachary Taylor, 14 Tequesta 3 (1954). See also Edward L. England, The Fort Zach Guidebook (2017).

Two years later, work began on Fort Thomas Jefferson at Garden Key in the Dry Tortugas, 68 miles to the west of Key West.

For the fort's history, see Albert Manucy, The Gibraltar of the Gulf of Mexico, 21 Fla. Hist. Q. 303 (1943). See also Thomas Reid, America’s Fortress: A History of Fort Jefferson, Dry Tortugas, Florida (2006).

In 1860, however, Whitehurst's Confederate sympathies cost him these jobs.

See Hal Higdon, The Union vs. Dr. Mudd 180 (expanded ed. 2008). Whitehurst was replaced as base physician by Dr. Joseph B. Holder. In 1892, Holder's widow Emily published an anonymous account of their lives at the fort. See At the Dry Tortugas During the War: A Lady's Journal, 1 Californian 87 (1892).

The second event discussed at length by Smiley is Whitehurst's battle to control Fort Jefferson's 1867 yellow fever outbreak. Whitehurst had been summoned from his home in Key West on September 7th after Dr. John S. Smith, the fort's physician, died.

Smith's tenure at Fort Jefferson had lasted less than two months, for he arrived on the island just prior to the start of the outbreak. See Army Personal, 4 Army & Navy J. 747 (July 13, 1867) (“Brevet Major J.S. Smith, Assistant Surgeon, has been relieved from duty in the Department of Washington, and ordered to duty at Fort Jefferson, Tortugas, Florida.”).

Mudd had been imprisoned at the fort following his conviction for aiding in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.

See The Assassins at the Dry Tortugas, N.Y. Times, Aug. 4, 1865, at 1.

In a letter to Major George P. Andrews, dated February 24, 1868, for example, Whitehurst wrote:

I regret to inform you, that I have no copy of my letter addressed [to] you in September or October last, in relation to the meritorious conduct of Dr. Mudd, during the epidemic of yellow fever at Fort Jefferson, last summer. I have subsequently to that letter to you, in a report to the Surgeon General, entered into much detail regarding those valuable services to me as the medical officer in charge, and to the sick, from his unwearied and constant devotion night and day in the wards.

Major Stone, and Lieuts’ Orr + Gordon each spoke to me, in unqualified terms of admiration, of his excellent conduct; and their design to represent it to the government, in the hope that its clemency and justice, would be exercised to his benefit. These gentlemen all fell, victims to the fever, and when I wrote you, I thought it but just to their memories, that their feelings and views on this subject should be made a matter of record.

The services of Dr. Mudd, eminently valuable as they were, derive an additional value, from the fact, that he volunteered them, at a time when the sick were without direction, by the illness of Surgeon Smith, whose attendant he was.

Today's Document, National Archives, Feb. 24, 2020, at https://todaysdocument.tumblr.com/post/191000044354/letter-from-d-w-whitehurst-md-to-major-g-p. On February 8, 1869, President Andrew Johnson granted Mudd a full pardon. For the pardon's text, which describes Mudd's role in containing the outbreak, see https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dr._Mudd%27s_Pardon.

With still more effort, a researcher likely will come across the Weedon and Whitehurst Family Papers at the University of North Carolina (“WWFP”).

See Collection 04057-z: Weedon and Whitehurst Family Papers, 1824-1869; 1932-1966?, University of North Carolina—Southern Historical Collection, at https://finding-aids.lib.unc.edu/04057/.

In response to the question, “Purpose for which Alien came into the Colony[?],” the pass states: “[F]or the benefit of his health.”

Id.

As previously discussed, in 1831 Whitehurst agreed to go to Liberia to conduct a fact-finding mission for the ACS. That he would have appeared haggard to the authorities in Sierra Leone (Liberia's northern neighbor) after nearly losing his life twice is quite believable.

I have found no independent proof that corroborates Wickman's claim that Whitehurst was the victim of a shipwreck and a native attack. Given the frequency of shipwrecks in the 19th century, however, and the pass's reference to Whitehurst's health, her claims ring true.

Another document in the WWFP collection is Whitehurst's September 29, 1865, Amnesty Oath.

Whitehurst's oath was witnessed by George D. Allen, the clerk of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Even in a city with more than its fair share of eccentrics, Allen stood out:

Mr. George D. Allen was short, with a large head, usually surmounted by a silk hat, worn tipped back. He was full of energy, with a finger in everything that was going, or at least, comments to make on them. He had been a druggist, clerk of the United States court, merchant, United States marshal, member of the school board that instituted the first public or “free” school, tax collector and warden of St. Paul's church. His speech[,] while voluble, was accompanied by a kind of hesitating pause in the middle of his sentences and accentuated by a peculiar motion of the lower jaw, as if chewing, from which he acquired the nickname “Gum Drops.” . . . He was a man of great and varied information, good ideas as to every one's business but his own; he was always trotting up and down the streets at something; was always most decidedly in evidence. He had an old saddle horse, with a peculiar gallop, whose rythmical hoof beats suggested the name of the drugs Mr. Allen usually prescribed for all ailments, which caused the old plug to be nicknamed Calomel-Jalap. . . .

Like many other well-to-do Southerners, Whitehurst was a slave owner:

Beginning in 1845 at the Key West fort [Fort Taylor] and in 1847 at Fort Jefferson on Garden Key [in the Tortugas], rented slaves worked ten-hour days in subtropical heat. Harsh conditions and open waters inspired dreams of escape. The first summer, seven slaves . . . disabled nearly all the vessels at the wharf and sailed away. Doctor Daniel Whitehurst organized a pursuit, but another posse caught the slaves. . . .

Doctor Whitehurst's slaves were considered the best workers at Fort Jefferson until the army ruled that as an officer in federal employ, he could not be paid for their labor. To skirt this ruling, he acquired many slaves in his wife's name. . . .

[T]he Whitehursts [later] added Weedon family slaves to their own. Over the years they bought twelve-year-old Sam, ten-year-old Lucy, and seven-year-old Sarah for $500, then Charly, who was thirteen, and Mary, about four, for $550. Contracts granted the slaves to Henrietta Whitehurst and her heirs “for their own proper use and benefit, for ever.” The couple later acquired seven more slaves, including an eighteen-month-old girl, and the rights to “the future issue and increase of the females.”

Mike Pride, Storm Over Key West: The Civil War and the Call of Freedom 18–19 (2020). For additional details regarding Whitehurst's role in the island's 1847 manhunt, see Mark A. Smith, Engineering Slavery: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Slavery at Key West, 86 Fla. Hist. Q. 498, 508 (2008).

In addition to leasing out slaves, Whitehurst profited from slavery in other ways. In the spring of 1860, for example, the U.S. Navy freed 1,432 Africans from the American barques Wildfire and William (the two ships were intercepted off the coast of Cuba). Until the rescuees could be repatriated to their homelands, the Navy arranged for them to be housed in a hastily erected “depot” in Key West. During their stay, Whitehurst provided them with medical care, for which he was paid handsomely:

The expenses incurred by Mr. [Fernando J.] Moreno [the Southern District's U.S. Marshal] in maintaining the depot for eighty days came to $19.14 per capita. The total cost was $45,760. The expenditure for medicines and medical care was $27,650.92, $3,562 of which went to Drs. Whitehurst, [T.C.] Skrine and [Hamilton M.] Weedon [Henrietta's younger brother] for services rendered.

The merging of the Weedon and Whitehurst slaves occurred in 1853, when Whitehurst's father-in-law Frederick Weedon moved to Garden Key. In exchange for Whitehurst and Henrietta's written promise to care for him for the rest of his life, Frederick turned his slaves over to them.

See Weedon and Whitehurst Family Papers, supra note 44 (under “Scope and Content”) (explaining that the collection “include[s] bills of sale or exchanges of slaves in 1848, 1853–1857, 1860 and 1861. The bills of sale or exchange, 1853–1857, stem from a transaction, 1853, between Frederick Weedon and Henrietta W. Whitehurst whereby, in exchange for slaves, Weedon received care and a guaranteed annuity for the remainder of his life . . . .”). Good to their word, Whitehurst and Henrietta took care of Frederick until he died in 1857. See id. (under “Biographical Information”) (“[Frederick] lived the last years of his life with his daughter Henrietta and her husband; he died at Fort Jefferson in 1857.”).

In the 1860 federal census, Whitehurst's real property is valued at $3,160,

See Key West—1860 U.S. Census, supra note 37, at line 21.

General Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox (Apr. 9, 1865) therefore dealt Whitehurst a double blow. Not only did it extinguish the political cause he had so zealously championed (and for which he had sacrificed his government salary), it meant his slaves were free.

As a legal proposition, of course, they had been free since January 1, 1863 (the date set by President Lincoln's 1862 Emancipation Proclamation). But now, they also were free as an actual matter, although it would take another six weeks for this fact to be fully absorbed. See Robert L. Hall, “Yonder Come Day”: Religious Dimensions of the Transition from Slavery to Freedom in Florida, 65 Fla. Hist. Q. 411, 420 (1987) (explaining that on May 20, 1865, Union General Edward M. McCook gathered the residents of Tallahassee and formally declared the Proclamation in effect in Florida).

With much more work, a truly determined researcher will find, in the files of the St. Augustine Historical Society, a typed 10-page report by Robert E. Nichols, an amateur historian, called Who Was Eliza C. Whitehurst?

The report [hereinafter Nichols Report] is attached to a letter, dated Oct. 13, 1998, from Nichols to Charles Tingley, the Society's librarian. Neither the letter nor the report is included in the Society's on-line catalogs (https://sahs.pastperfectonline.com/), and a researcher must know to ask for them. They were located for me by Chad Germany, the Society's assistant librarian.

As Nichols explains, Eliza was born in Georgetown, South Carolina,

“Georgetown” can refer to Georgetown County (founded 1800); Georgetown District (founded 1769); or the City of Georgetown (founded 1729). See Paul T. Hellmann, Historical Gazetteer of the United States 974 (2005). In this article, the name is used to refer to the entire area without further specificity.

Within just a few years of the marriage (neither Nichols nor I can pin down an exact date), James and Eliza moved to South Carolina. Although both the 1810 and 1820 city censuses show them in Charleston, Nichols explains that the couple lived in Georgetown (Eliza's hometown) from 1812 to 1816:

[M]any historical notes concerning South Carolina politics during and subsequent to the British Invasion of 1812 firmly place the family in nearby Georgetown Parish some 40 miles to the north of Charleston during the better part of the 1810-20 decade. Eliza's future expertise as a hostess and innkeeper during this decade are apparent in the 1812–16 journal of Gen. Peter HORRY. It is repeatedly recorded that travelers of note to Georgetown often were guests of the family and were given food and lodging during their stay at the WHITEHURST home. According to his journal, Gen. HORRY frequently corresponded with James WHITEHURST, and his own family and guests were welcomed on many occasions by “Mrs. WHITEHURST.”

Nichols Report, supra note 61, at 3 (footnotes omitted) (capitalization as in the original).

In 1816, James and Eliza moved back to Charleston to run a popular restaurant called the Carolina Coffee House.

The Carolina Coffee House, modeled after the Carolina Coffee House in London's Birching Lane, was founded in 1785 by John Williams. In 1799, the business was taken over by Catherine Coates, who operated it until 1802. From then on,

the property . . . changed hands several times. In October 1816, James Whitehurst announced that he had leased the property and that “the Ball and Supper Rooms are handsomely painted and fitted up for parties.” A year later Whitehurst repeated that “the Ball Room is commodiously and well fitted up for the convenience of Balls and Cotillion Parties.”

During their 16-year marriage, Eliza and James had four children: Daniel; a second son named James (1810?–Apr. 30, 1816); and two daughters.

Id.

In 1822, Eliza's sister Margaret Cook moved to St. Augustine with her husband Samuel, a Charleston tailor she had married in 1810.

See id. at 4.

In describing this part of Whitehurst's life, Nichols writes:

[Whitehurst's] name first appears among the list of unclaimed letters at the St. Augustine Post Office on April 1, 1823. The young Daniel, not yet sixteen years of age, probably was living with his Uncle Samuel and Aunt Margaret COOK at the time the letter in his name was received at the Post Office. Although speculative, but because he was his father's only male heir, the letter very likely notified him of the death of his father.

Nichols Report, supra note 61, at 7 (capitalization as in the original).

Based on subsequent events discussed later in this article, it almost is a certainty that the letter went unclaimed because Whitehurst, having helped Margaret and Samuel move to St. Augustine, already was on his way back to South Carolina when the letter was sent. It also seems likely that the letter was mailed by Eliza, or someone acting on her behalf.

As Nichols explains, in 1826 Samuel died.

Id. at 4.

There are three other interesting tidbits in Nichols's report. First, he gives the location of Whitehurst and Henrietta's wedding—St. Augustine's Cathedral Basilica

Built over five years (1793 to 1797), the Basilica Cathedral has long been the seat of the Catholic Bishop of St. Augustine. In 1970, the structure was designated a national historic landmark, and in 1976 Pope Paul VI recognized it as a “minor basilica.” See Cathedral of St. Augustine, National Park Service—U.S. Department of the Interior, at https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/american_latino_heritage/Cathedral_of_St_Augustine.html.

In fact, Whitehurst had five children, as Wickman reports in her book (as will be seen, some of her other information is wrong):

Henrietta Williams Weedon (1821–1885) and Daniel Winchester Whitehurst (1808–1874) had five children: Clarence (died at sea, no issue); Mason (1853–1881, also a physician); Mary Katherine, or “Kate” (1858–1924); Laura (1860–1925); and Manning. Laura never married. Kate was married to a Spanish military officer, but the two never lived together as man and wife. The two sisters spent the rest of their lives together.

Wickman, supra note 15, at 213.

As is obvious, Wickman misreports Whitehurst's birth and death years. With respect to Henrietta, Wickman correctly lists her middle name and her birth and death years. Elsewhere in her book, she reports that Henrietta was born in Huntsville, Alabama, on January 25, 1821, and that the Weedons moved from Alabama to Tallahassee when she was six years old.

Id. at 201–02. As Wickman further explains, Henrietta's mother was Frederick Weedon's second wife Mary Wells Thompson, the daughter of a well-to-do Alabama planter. The couple married in 1816; moved to Tallahassee in 1827; and moved again in 1834, “almost two hundred miles across the Florida Territory,” to St. Augustine. Id. at 202.

With respect to Whitehurst's children, the following corrections are in order:

Clarence. Clarence was Whitehurst's first child and appears in both the 1850 federal census (where he is listed as being seven years old)

See Office of the Secretary of the Interior, The Seventh Census of the United States: 1850 (1853) (Line 14 of Schedule I.—Free Inhabitants in Tortugas, District No. 3, in the County of Monroe, State of Florida, enumerated Aug. 24, 1850).

Mason. As Wickman reports, Mason (middle initial “J.”) was born in 1853 and followed in his father's footsteps. After graduating from the University of Maryland's medical school in 1875,

See The University of Maryland: Sixty-Eighth Commencement of the School of Medicine, Sun (Balt.), Mar. 2, 1875, at 1 (listing Mason among the graduates). In 1878, Mason joined the Florida Medical Association. See Proceedings of the Florida Medical Association—Session of 1878, at 5 (1878) (“The Committee on Credentials reported favorably on the credentials of Drs. Horstman, Whitehurst, Mitchell, Shine and Kimball.”).

Mary. Mary was Whitehurst's middle child. As will be explained shortly, she ended up having the greatest impact on Whitehurst's life. For the moment, however, it suffices to say that she was born in 1857 (not 1858 as Wickman reports) and that the correct spelling of her middle name was “Catherine,” and not, as Wickman indicates, “Katherine,” nor as her headstone proclaims, “Catharine.” This is made clear by her 1919 passport application, which includes her photograph.

See Mary Catherine Whitehurst in the U.S., Passport Applications, 1795–1925, Ancestry.com, at https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=1174&h=918175&tid=&pid=&queryId=b21476e59ae2a1e15aedc313f187dd10&usePUB=true&_phsrc=KTc35&_phstart=successSource. This web page provides a link to Mary's passport application.

Laura. As Wickman states, Laura (middle initial “H.”) was born in 1860. But contrary to her account, Laura was married. Her husband was an optometrist named Bernardo Gallo,

See U.S., Passport Applications, 1795–1925 for Bernardo Gallo, Ancestry.com, at https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=1174&h=542913&tid=&pid=&queryId=b816db86a2a3319ea53dd0676c19742f&usePUB=true&_phsrc=KTc167&_phstart=successSource. This web page provides a link to Bernardo's passport application.

In addition to stating his profession, Bernardo explains that he is applying for a passport “for myself and wife Laura”; that he was born in Cuba on August 20, 1860; that he immigrated to the United States in 1883; and that while living in Key West, he became a U.S. citizen in 1893. The application includes (on page 2) photographs of both Bernardo and Laura.

Manning. Manning (middle initial “E.”) was Whitehurst's youngest child. He is listed in the 1870 federal census as being nine years old,

See Key West—1870 U.S. Census, supra note 60, at Line 29.

Mason, Mary, and Laura all died childless. If Clarence and Manning also died without children (which, from the available evidence, seems likely), Whitehurst's direct line has died out. As previously explained, however, his sister Anna had six children,

See supra note 70.

In the Fall of 1826, Whitehurst enrolled as a student at the United States Military Academy at West Point.

See List of Cadets Admitted into the United States Military Academy, West Point, N.Y., from Its Origin till September 1, 1901, at 103 (1902) (indicating that Daniel W. Whitehurst, of South Carolina, was admitted in 1826).

I have been unable to find any information about Whitehurst's pre-college education. It is likely, however, that he was reared in the Charleston public schools. In 1811, the South Carolina legislature had passed a law requiring each election district to have a free public school. While this edict was met with either indifference or outright hostility in most parts of the state, in Charleston it was taken seriously:

The free school system gained the most popularity in Charleston where it began. In 1812, the city had five schools. A glimpse of those schools comes from an 1887 account by Charleston School Superintendent Henry P. Archer: “No child under eight was admitted unless he or she had made some proficiency in reading. Students were taught ‘reading, writing, arithmetic, spelling, parsing [study of sentence components and parts of speech], geology, grammar and the pence and multiplication tables. Special attention was paid to penmanship.’”

Following his first semester, Whitehurst was expelled for taking part in the “Eggnog Riot.”

See U.S., Military and Naval Academies, Cadet Records and Applications, 1800–1908, Ancestry.com, at https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1299/images/40487_548227-00116?treeid=&personid=&hintid=&queryId=f83b5f551d898c3067a852a2f2d08f30&usePUB=true&_phsrc=KTc118&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&_ga=2.202856913.1730001549.1611737458-564600014.1608575374&_gac=1.57645400.1611478137.Cj0KCQiA0rSABhDlARIsAJtjfCcixJJIq-UAP9oX_Wb5MIaZz4_w7rCfhOzjMdabPMLXhkve1ksLN6waAuonEALw_wcB&pId=123934 (indicating that Whitehurst left West Point on January 29, 1827).

The immediate cause of the riot was Superintendent Sylvanus Thayer's order banning drinking by the corps of cadets. As has been explained elsewhere:

Before Thayer became superintendent in 1817, West Point hardly resembled the esteemed military academy of modern times. When it first opened its doors in 1802, it was nothing more than a few ramshackle buildings with ten cadets taught by three teachers. Students were admitted at any point during the year, and admissions standards were laughable. All this began to change after the War of 1812, when America's military failings inspired Congress to spend more money on the institution. They instated Thayer as superintendent, hoping he would bring order to the derelict academy.

Unlike many of his fellow cadets, Whitehurst was largely blameless. Indeed, the most damning thing anyone could say about him was that he had gotten drunk.

In his January 12, 1827, appearance before the school's “Court of Inquiry,” for example, Cadet Thomas Drayton testified: “I saw—after breakfast—on the 25th December last Cadet J.F. Davis [the future president of the Confederate States of America] in a state of intoxication and also Cadet Whitehurst, the latter in the Mess-Hall.” 1 The Papers of Jefferson Davis: 1808–1840, at 78 (Haskell M. Monroe, Jr. & James T. McIntosh eds., rev. ed. 1991). Unlike Whitehurst, Davis escaped punishment and graduated in 1828. See Walter L. Fleming, Jefferson Davis at West Point, 10 Pubs. Miss. Valley Hist. Soc’y 247 (1909).

It is not known what kind of reception Whitehurst received when he got home. It likely was not a very pleasant one.

Whitehurst apparently did not go directly home, for Agnew reports that in subsequent proceedings before the Court of Inquiry, “Stocker, in his support of Berrien's story, requested that the court send to New York to order the return of ex-cadet Whitehurst, who he said could confirm Stocker's statement regarding the assault.” Id. at 149. (As Agnew explains, cadet John C. Stocker, Jr. was on trial for assaulting Captain Ethan A. Hitchcock during the riot. Stocker denied touching Hitchcock and identified cadet James W.M. Berrien as the culprit. Berrien willingly accepted responsibility and boasted about his actions to anyone who would listen.)

Whitehurst's whereabouts between early 1827 (after he left West Point) and late 1831 (when he departed for Africa on his ACS trip) are uncertain. However, there is a tantalizing clue in the October 29, 1831, issue of the Charleston Courier:

The Subscriber begs leave to inform her friends and the public, that she has taken that large and commodious HOUSE on Bay-st. formerly occupied by Mr. Whitehurst, which has been fitted up and prepared to accommodate both constant borders and transient persons. Her table will always be plentifully equipped with the best that the Market affords, and every exertion used to render those comfortable who may favor her with their patronage.

This Hotel is in the immediate mercantile part of the town, and conveniently situated to all the public offices.

A share of public patronage is respectfully solicited.

ELIZA W. POTTER.

Georgetown, (S. C.) October 21 [O 22 s3]

On November 29, 1865, Whitehurst was elected to the Florida Senate. A total of 123 votes were cast, with Whitehurst receiving 119 votes; John J. Philbrick netting three votes; and an “H. Albury” garnering one vote.

See Weedon and Whitehurst Family Papers, supra note 44, at https://dc.lib.unc.edu/utils/ajaxhelper/?CISOROOT=04ddd&CISOPTR=462298&action=2&DMSCALE=31.298904538341&DMWIDTH=3195&DMHEIGHT=3996 and https://dc.lib.unc.edu/utils/ajaxhelper/?CISOROOT=04ddd&CISOPTR=462282&action=2&DMSCALE=31.201248049922&DMWIDTH=3205&DMHEIGHT=3999 (certificate of election signed by Probate Judge Winer Bethel and electors John H. Mead and Henry Muhenan, dated Dec. 2, 1865).

Philbrick was a successful local businessman who in 1889 built Key West's first electric plant. See Electricity Comes to the Keys, Keys Wkly., Aug. 10, 2018, at https://keysweekly.com/42/electricity-comes-to-the-keys/. Following his death in 1897, Philbrick's estate was sued by one of his creditors. The case made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which dismissed due to a lack of federal jurisdiction. See Allen v. Arguimbau, 198 U.S. 149 (1905).

Although I have not been able to determine with certainty the identity of “H. Albury,” the reference likely is to Henry Albury, who soon after the election moved to Tampa, opened a saloon and a billiards parlor, and in 1868 became the sheriff of Hillsborough County. See Canter Brown, Jr., Tampa in Civil War and Reconstruction 93, 128 (2000).

Under Florida's 1865 constitution (which Whitehurst had helped write three weeks earlier as a member of the state's constitutional convention), senatorial terms were two years.

See 1865 Fla. Const. art. IV, § 5 (“The Senators shall be chosen by the qualified electors for the term of two years, at the same time, in the same manner, and at the same places where they vote for members of the House of Representatives; and no man shall be a Senator unless he be a white man, a citizen of the United States, and shall have been an inhabitant of this State two years next preceding his election, and the last year thereof a resident of the District or County for which he shall be chosen, and shall have attained the age of twenty-five years.”).

On the same day as the committee's recommendation, Whitehurst introduced a bill reconfiguring Dade County.

See 1866 Florida Senate Proceedings, supra note 128, at 40.

I have found no contemporaneous newspaper stories discussing (or even mentioning) Whitehurst's bill.

The earliest newspaper account I have located regarding Whitehurst's bill is from 1923:

The act of 1866 gave the northern boundaries of the county at the mouth of Broad creek, a stream separating Cayo Largo, now known as Key Largo, from Old Roads key, and extending thence in a direct line to Mud point. This change gave back to Monroe county all the islands from Old Roads key to Bahia Honda, which had been taken by the act of 1836.

Upon his return from Tallahassee, Whitehurst was elected mayor of Key West and served from 1868 to 1869.

See Tom Hambright, Today in Keys History, Key West Citizen, Jan. 19, 2017, at A2.

Whitehurst died at his home in Key West on January 19, 1872.

In his book on pre-statehood Florida newspapers, James Owen Knauss cites this date and explains that it “was obtained for me by one of my students, Miss Mary Weedon, from Miss Mary Whitehurst, Ybor City, Florida, a daughter of Daniel W. Whitehurst.” James Owen Knauss, Territorial Florida Journalism 68 n.288 (1926). Thus, sources that use a different year (such as Wickman) can be said, with a great deal of confidence, to be incorrect.

However, in a paragraph near the end of his 1974 book about Dr. Mudd, Samuel Carter III states:

Whitehurst himself had retired to Key West where his only daughter [sic] became engaged to a visiting European count. The doctor raised passionate objections to this mismatch with “Count No-account.” The daughter insisted on going ahead with the marriage even if it broke her father's heart. Whitehurst refused to attend the wedding ceremony. Instead he stayed home and killed himself by taking poison.

Carter, supra note 30, at 347.

At the back of his book, Carter explains the basis for his provocative statement. In its entirety, it reads: “Whitehurst papers in Dade [sic] County Public Library, Key West.”

Id. at 369 n.9.

There are two obvious problems with Carter's story. First, Whitehurst had two daughters, not one. Second, of course, the Key West Public Library is in Monroe, not Dade (now known as Miami-Dade), County.

At the start of my research, I asked one of my university's librarians to contact the Monroe County Public Library. It responded by forwarding copies of its entire Whitehurst file. See E-mail from Breana K. Sowers, Florida History Department Archivist, Monroe County Public Library, to Alison F. Rosenberg, Assistant Director—Research & Reference, NSU Panza Maurer Law Library, Jan. 22, 2019, at 1:50 p.m. (copy on file with the author). The file contains no information about Whitehurst's death. Of course, it is possible that such information was in the file when Carter looked at it and has become lost.

For the sake of completeness, at the end of my research I contacted the Miami-Dade County Public Library. It advised me that it has no Whitehurst materials. See E-mail from Giselle Alonso, Florida Collection Librarian, Miami-Dade County Public Library, to the author, Feb. 1, 2021, at 2:13 p.m. (copy on file with the author).

Nevertheless, Carter's reputation makes it impossible to simply dismiss his assertion:

Sam died on Dec. 28, 1988, at the Pomperaug Health Center, near his home in Southbury, Conn. His literary career, one of the longest and most distinguished among Princeton alumni, began on the campus with the Triangle Club, which fired his interest in music, the stage, and writing. After study at Oxford and the Sorbonne, Sam lived in Europe and poured out short stories and articles for the Saturday Evening Post, Colliers, and other magazines. He returned to America in the 1930s and began a career of several decades in radio, television, and movies, in N.Y.C. and California. He wrote innumerable scenarios, rewrote popular plays for radio, staged productions with original casts, and was associated with prestigious companies. The editors of the Reader's Digest highly valued his literary prowess and advised him to concentrate on books. The result was a stream of brilliant works—20 in all—on American history, especially the War of 1812 and the Civil War. . . .

Samuel T. Carter III ’27, 89 Princeton Alumni Wkly. 47 (Feb. 22, 1989) (capitalization as in the original).

As will be recalled, Wickman in her book states: “Kate was married to a Spanish military officer, but the two never lived together as man and wife.”

Wickman, supra note 15, at 213.

Further support for Carter's contention is contained in Browne's 1912 book about Key West. While writing about another disreputable local figure he identifies only as “the Spanish Doctor,” Browne says “he was, as Dr. Mason Whitehurst said, a second ‘Count Fosco.’”

Browne, supra note 51, at 183.

On Ancestry.com, a member named Geoffrey Thompson has put up his family tree. Thompson reports that “Elias Moscase [sic] y Marcet [sic]” married “Mary Catharine [sic] Whitehurst” on January 19, 1872, in “Monroe [sic], Florida,” and that the couple had no children.

See Geoffrey Thompson, Elias Moscase y Marcet—1910, Ancestry.com, at https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/173136889/person/252249636329/story. Among his many typographical errors, Thompson misspells “Marset,” substituting a “c” for the “s.” See, e.g., Elias Moscoso y Marset, MyHeritage.com, at https://www.myheritage.com/research/record-1-260562921-1-500367/elias-moscoso-y-marset-in-myheritage-family-trees (explaining that Moscoso's parents were Vicente Moscoso Vasquez and Teresa Moscoso (nee Marset Cucurella) and that he had three sisters: Adelaida (b. 1841), Emilia (b. 1842), and Elisa (b. 1849)). I have not been able to find a birth year for Moscoso. But see infra note 158 (suggesting that Moscoso was born in 1840).

That Kate and Moscoso did get married in Key West on January 19, 1872, is indisputable. The ceremony took place at Saint Mary Star of the Sea, Key West's oldest Catholic church (founded 1852),

See Browne, supra note 51, at 34–35 (describing the church's history). In 2012, Saint Mary was recognized as a minor basilica. See Basilica of St. Mary Star of the Sea, Key West, Florida, USA, GCatholic.org, at http://www.gcatholic.org/churches/northamerica/5328.htm. For a further look at Saint Mary, see https://stmarykeywest.com/.

If one searches for Moscoso in the Hispanic Digital Library,

See “Hemeroteca Digital” at http://hemerotecadigital.bne.es/.

Moscoso deserted the Spanish Navy shortly after the Upton raid. On October 5, 1870, Commander Tomás Valarino y Badino ordered Moscoso to present himself within 30 days and explain why funds entrusted to his care while serving as the executive officer on the gunboat Eco could not be located.

See Comadancia general de Marina del Apostadero de las Habana [General Command of the Havana Naval Station], Gaceta de la Habana [Havana Gazette], Oct. 7, 1870, at 22.

If Whitehurst did kill himself on the day of Kate's wedding, Wickman's reporting that Moscoso and Kate never lived together as man and wife makes sense—it would be hard to imagine a more challenging way to begin a marriage. And it also would explain why, after more than three years of waiting, Moscoso decided to leave Key West in 1875. It appears, however, that the family and Moscoso did not harbor any ill will towards each other. In September 1872, for example, Henrietta had Moscoso serve as one of her two witnesses when she decided to sell a plot of land at the corner of Duval and Greene Streets for $1,000 to a local grocer named Jacinto Borroto.

See Florida Probate Records, 1784–1990 Monroe Deeds 1871–1873 vol H, FamilySearch.org, at https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-99Q5-K4ML?i=185&cc=2046765&cat=296331. I again am indebted to Ms. Hallo, see supra note 149, for bringing this record to my attention.

In the previously mentioned 1880 federal census, Kate is identified as “Kate Moscoso” and is shown living with her mother Henrietta, sister Laura, and brother Mason.

See Key West—1880 U.S. Census, supra note 86, at Lines 9–12. This census incorrectly lists Kate as being married, when we know from her 1919 passport application, see supra note 103, that by this time she was a widow.

Going into the marriage, Moscoso had four strikes against him: 1) he was much older than Kate;

As previously explained, see supra note 147, I have been unable to find Moscoso's actual birth year. However, Moscoso is included in a list of “aspirantes” (candidates) in the book Estado General de la Armada para el ano de 1863 (“General State of the Navy for the year 1863”) 51 (1862). Given the birth years of his sisters, this suggests that Moscoso was born around 1840, making him 17 years older than Kate. Of course, Whitehurst was 13 years older than Henrietta when they married. See supra text accompanying note 30.