Today in Keys History – July 21, 2023
- Keys History Center
- Jul 20, 2023
- 2 min read
A Sue Moore School picture from the early 1950’s. Photo from Erma Stour’s scrapbook.
1836 – The U.S. schooner Motto left Key West with a detachment of marines to visit old wrecks along the reef and remove any lead from them so Seminole warriors could not make bullets with the metal. Once the lead was removed, Motto planned to burn the hulls.
1900 – Dr. J.V. Harris was the chairman of the Monroe County Board of Public Instruction. The other members were George L. Barthum and Alfred Lowe. Dr. C.F. Kemp was superintendent of schools.
1902 – Key West Mayor George Bartlum instructed the City Marshal to notify all gambling establishment owners to close their businesses immediately or face arrest. He also ordered the arrest of any man, woman, or child playing bolito. The mayor said it was an “effort made to free Key West from the gambling evil, which was ruining the city.”
1924 – L.L. Mowbray of the New York Aquarium urged that there be a closed season on stone crab in the Florida Keys. He noted that, though stone crab were not as scarce as spiny lobster, their numbers were dropping at an alarming rate.
1934 – Four lounge cars of the Florida East Coast Railroad newly outfitted with air-conditioning made their debut at Key West. The cooling system would give the cars an average interior temperature of 74 to 76 degrees.
1942 – The merchant vessel William C. Bryant was damaged 44 miles southwest of Key West by the German submarine U-84.
1957 – Sam Goldsmith, chief forecaster and hurricane expert, began terminal leave leading to his retirement on September 30. He entered the weather service on September 23, 1917 and came to Key West on August 20, 1920.
1961 – Governor Farris Bryant appointed Hilario (Charlie) Ramos Jr. to the Monroe County Commission to fill the unexpired term of the late Clarence Higgs.
1961 – Mrs. Sue Marvin Harwell Moore, 86-year-old pioneer school teacher of the Florida Keys, died in Coral Gables. Mrs. Moore first taught in a small one-room school in Marathon.
2014 – The Plantation Key School, built in 1977, was being torn down, and plans were to replace it with a $35 million facility for pre-K through 8th grade students.
Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: A Sue Moore School picture from the early 1950’s. Photo from Erma Stour’s scrapbook. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.