1851 – The steamer J.W. Rabun, sailing from Savannah to Mobile, ran aground on Big Conch Reef, but after several days the crew freed the vessel by jettisoning 200 barrels of rosin. The vessel was damaged, though, and the boiler leaked, which scalded three men, one fatally. In the aftermath, the captain purposefully ran the Rabun aground a second time near Loggerhead Key in the Dry Tortugas. Wreckers refloated the steamer and towed it to Key West.
1833 – Alexander Patterson was named Postmaster of Key West.
1898 – William Curry Son’s electrical company had a contract to install electric lights in the Monroe County Courthouse on Whitehead Street.
1901 – N.M. George on the yacht Privateer fishing in the Bahia Honda channel landed a tarpon that weighed 213 pounds and measured 7 feet 2 inches in length and 46 inches around.
1902 – The three-masted schooner Cactus was successfully hauled out on the marine railway at Curry and Sons shipyard. The schooner’s hull had been badly damaged, and the repair was expected to employ many men.
1907 – Dr. Robert J. Perry died in New York at the age of 68. He was a native of Tennessee and served a mayor of Key West from 1881 to 1882 and again from 1891 to 1895. He also served as state representative and superintendent of public instruction for Monroe County.
1949 – Secretary of National Defense Louis Johnson left after two days of meeting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
1950 – President Gonzalez Videla of Chile arrived at Boca Chica on President Truman’s plane the Independence and was taken to the Little White House for a night’s rest.
1951 – Elliott Roosevelt, son of the late president, bought one and a half acres of land in Marathon for $35,000. He planned to build a home and motel on the property that stretched from the Overseas Highway to Florida Bay.
1963 – Key West charter boat captain Douglas Trevor and his son Edward, who served as mate, were killed by 17-year-old Roger Foster, who had chartered the boat. Foster stabbed the two Trevor men near the Marquesas Keys and threw their bodies overboard. He was found on the boat Dream Girl drifting off the coast of Cuba. Foster pleaded insanity, and, after treatment, he was tried for murder in 1977 and sentenced to prison.
Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Monroe County Courthouse and Jail at 500 Whitehead Street circa 1900. Wright Langley Collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.