1884 – Walter C. Maloney died in Key West at age of 71. He was a lawyer and had served in the state legislature from Monroe County and as Mayor of Key West. During the Civil War he was a Union supporter and organized a volunteer corps in Key West to support the Union troops. On July 4, 1876, he gave a speech which was a short history of the island. Later this was published as the first written history of Key West.
1892 – Collector of Customs John Horr was having electric lights installed in the new Custom House as it was feared that odor from the gas lights could cause loss of life.
1901 – An election was held for bonds to improve the public school, build an armory, repair the county courthouse and continued the county road. Only 200 of the 900 qualified voters cast their ballots. All the issues were defeated.
1909 – Charles Morgan of the U.S. Navy retired from the Key West Naval Station. Morgan had been the senior diver who conducted the investigation on the Battleship Maine in 1898.
1924 – A 475-acre tract of Key Largo land sold by Steve F. Lowe to Wm. M. Butler, campaign manager for President Calvin Coolidge, was being improved at a cost of $395,000. The property had a mile of both oceanfront and bayfront.
1934 – The Federal Emergency Relief Administration took over operation of the Monroe County ferry. FERA was conducting a survey of the system and would soon issue a new rate schedule.
1935 – Three hundred and thirty-two pieces of real estate in Monroe County were sold by Tax Collector Frank Ladd because of the failure of the owners to pay 1934 property taxes.
1952 – Artist Harry Sonntag said that he had found the greatest satisfaction and happiness of his life on Key Largo and planned to remain there, running his simply named “Key Largo Art Gallery.”
1981 – Florida Keys AM radio listeners were contending with increased interference from Cuban broadcasts. The Castro regime had increased the strength of their signal transmitters, and the “Voice of Moscow” was readily heard in the islands.
2011 – The Florida Keys commercial spiny lobster season opened, and fishermen were hoping to sell their catch to Chinese buyers, who paid twice as much as domestic purchasers.
Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Charles Gunner Morgan, circa 1898. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.