Fort Taylor under construction.
1840 – The lightship stationed at Carysfort Reef near Key Largo arrived at Key West for extensive repairs after having been removed from its station two days previously.
1845 – Construction began at Fort Taylor off the western end of Key West.
1855 – The Democratic Party of Key West met at Browne’s warehouse, and Fernando Moreno was elected Chairman and Philip Fontane, Secretary. Speeches were given by Senator Stephen Mallory and Peter Crusoe. The group passed a platform denouncing the Know-Nothings and their anti-immigrant stance and religious bigotry.
1887 – Key West was in the midst of a terrible Yellow Fever outbreak, with many sick and dying. Ideas of the source for the disease varied. “There is no doubt that the yellow fever was brought to Key West from Havana in some bedding that was deposited in the rooms back of a restaurant on Duval Street,” said one local businessman. Dr. B.F. Ridgell saw a different cause: “Key West is upon a coral formation. It absorbs nothing. When refuse lies on the ground it does not sink in, but the sun, beating down with the heat of a thousand Dutch ovens, causes this stuff to taint the atmosphere,” he theorized.
1891 – Captain Ross of Jacksonville had the contract to build the first jetties in the Northwest Channel and he used stone quarried from Ballast and Sawyer Keys.
1936 – Judge H.H. Taylor fishing with attorney William V. Albury caught a barracuda that measured seven and half feet and weighed 80 pounds.
1959 – The Monroe County Library Association presented the Monroe County Commission with the title to the land and their new Library building at 700 Fleming Street. The land was donated by Karl Thompson and the Association raised the money to build the new Library.
1995 – Keys Air added a second Cessna Caravan Amphibian, doubling its carrying capacity. The small airline served Key West, Marathon, and Key Largo. In Key Largo, where there was no airport, its planes landed in the bay and taxied to the Marriott Hotel.
Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Fort Taylor under construction. From Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, August 9, 1856. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.