Easier Way To Make A Living

There was a guy who lived in Cedar Key.  Everybody poked fun at him and they all said he wasn't quite right.  But Chuck liked him and always got along just fine with him.  His name was Charles Rogers. 

Please, please do not confuse him with Mr. Charlie Rogers, who was the Pastor of the Methodist Church for many years.   They are two entirely different men with the same name.

One night Chuck and some of his friends were out boogalooing.  They happened to bump into Charles downtown somewhere.  Chuck’s friend Wilbur (Chuck always called him Red) Allen, and Charles, disliked each other considerably.  They started making snide remarks to each other, and that led to a scuffle. 

Chuck got between them trying to break it up. The next thing he knew Wilbur said “Damn Charles, you cut me.”  Chuck looked around, and sure enough Charles had reached around Chuck and had cut Wilbur’s belly open.  Charles always carried a knife and he kept it razor sharp.  He had been known to use if before.

The fight stopped immediately.  Wilbur grabbed his stomach trying to hold it together and keep his guts from falling out and said again, “Damnit Charles, you cut me!” 

Charles said, “Wilbur I tried to git you to leave me alone and you wouldn't, you a lot bigger’n me and I had to stop you the only way I know how to.”  They loaded Wilbur into a car and took him to a hospital and got him sewed up.  He carried that scar the rest of his life.

A Bird's Eye View Of Cedar Key

The time Chuck spent in Cedar Key before joining the Navy was always treasured by him; those were some of the happiest and most care-free days of his life.

On the last ice fishing trip with his Uncle’s, they were fishing up on the western shore, up toward the mouth of the Suwannee River.  They had the hold about half full and a nor'easter hit. It pushed all the tide out and left them hard aground on a sandbank.

And there they were stuck, till three or four days later when the tide came in enough they were afloat again and could get out of that area.  During the time they were stuck there, Chuck said, “It was as cold as a well digger’s a** in the Klondike, and I decided there ought to be an easier way to make a living.”

Photo Courtesy of Carmen Day Williams
 this is the back corner of the Fish House

After they came in and settled up at the fish house, and Chuck settled all of his open accounts with those he owed money to, he went and found Wilbur (Red) and Jake Campbell.

They took off up to Gainesville, got rip roaring drunk, and joined the Navy. Jake was the designated driver and he stayed sober. By the time they made it to the Recruiting Office they were almost falling down drunk and Jake was sober, but when he got nervous he stuttered; the Recruiting Officer wouldn't let Jake join because he thought Jake was drunk.

Of course Chuck and Wilbur thought this was just hilarious!  And they teased Jake about it, here he was the only one sober and they could barely stand up.

This  story concludes the stories of Chuck’s fishing and turtling days in Cedar Key before he joined the United States Navy and spent the next twenty + years sailing the seven seas in a submarine.

Grandpa Collins Prize Green Turtle

One of Chuck’s favorite stories was a story he told about his Grandpa Collins back in the day when Grandpa fished with a fourteen foot sailboat.  He took his turtle net one day and sailed down around Corrigan’s Reef on the eastern shore to one of the turtle sets that he knew was a good set.

Chuck's Grandpa Nard Collins

Even though he was primarily a fisherman, till the Fiber Factory opened and he became a foreman at the plant.  He did go every now and then to a catch turtle for the family dining table.  Grandpa’s name was Monardy, but most people called him Nard.

When he got to the right place he let his net out.  When that was finished he went back down the cork line tripping it to make sure the net was hanging straight in the water.  Finished, he backed off a ways to wait and watch the cork line. 

I don’t know how long he waited, but when the turtle hit the net he knew whatever had hit it was big by the reaction in the cork line.  He waited some more till the action calmed down. 

He didn’t want to wait too long, if it was a turtle and it drowned no one would eat any of it and that would be a waste! At last the cork line calmed down and he went out and started taking up the net.

When he got to it he knew this was the biggest green turtle he’d ever seen in his life!  Green turtle is the most delectable of all the sea turtles because they are vegetarians.

Green Turtle

They graze on the grasses and algae that grow on the sea floor.  All of the other turtles eat crabs, snails, fish and whatever else they can catch.  Their meat tastes stronger, and fishy, totally different from a green turtle which taste much like veal.

He tied a line around a flipper and secured it to a boat seat.  He worked the net off the turtle and untangled it as he went along.  He let the turtle swing out from the boat and then finished taking up the net. 

He knew there was no way he could boat that big turtle by himself and it was too far back to the fish house to tow the turtle that far.  So, he sailed up to one of the many oyster bars in the area, and eased the bow up over the edge.

He sat there awhile studying the situation.  He knew for certain he was not going to let the turtle go; there were too many hungry mouths to feed, and this was too much food to let it go. 

As he thought about it he got an idea that if it worked would solve the problem, at least it was worth a try.  He off loaded his net, and then backed the boat off enough so that the bow was just at the edge of the oyster bar. 

He bailed water into the boat and sunk the stern to the level he needed it to be able to guide the turtle far enough into the boat and across the seats. 

As long as the big turtle was in the water he could manage it. He had tied lines around both front flippers to use as reins; he could stay behind the turtle so it would move forward and help in loading itself.

He lashed the turtle to the seats to secure it and keep it from thrashing around and possibly escaping, and then came the long arduous task of bailing all of the water out until the boat floated again.

That done he reloaded his net; he couldn't afford to take the chance of leaving it there and loosing it.  The next incoming tide would wash it away and if he ever found it again he would never get all the tangles out.

He sailed in with very little free-board.  The turtle took up a lot of the space and then with himself and the net, he had a full load! 

He knew if he made it back in to the fish house he would have a lot of help to offload.  He was fortunate that the weather was good.  Had a squall popped up he more than likely would not have made it in.  He and his prize green turtle would have been lost at sea!

No one knows exactly how much that turtle weighed.  The scales at the fish house in those days were not big enough to handle that much weight.  But everybody said it was the biggest Green Turtle ever caught in the waters around Cedar Key at that time!

They guesstimated it weighed more than six hundred pounds.  For many, many years all of the older folks that remembered seeing it, (and the entire island turned out to see it) told that story again and again.

Green Turtles get their name from the green fat inside their upper shell. They are classified as large sea turtles. I found an official record for the largest ever caught and it weighed in at 395 kg which converts to 871 pounds.

The Barefoot Artist and The Cross

Before I posted the ‘Stop Fishing’ story I was wishing I had a copy of this. I searched and could not find it. And then a few days after I posted I received this email. I thought wow; even though I have already posted it I can edit and add this in.

I wrote and asked, and permission was given, and then I decided this is such a great short story in its own right I would write it, and again permission was given.

Oftentimes our greatest inspiration will come from great inner turmoil of mixed emotions which are a result of whatever the trauma in our life is at the time! Such is the case with this beautiful painting.

During the process of the Net Ban there was a lot of anger, anguish, hurt and turmoil in homes of commercial fishermen all over the State of Florida. A way of life was being destroyed in the voting booth.

 When it was over there were thousands of people out of work. Some felt a few hunger pains for awhile; there were empty spaces under a lot of Christmas trees where presents should have been for the children, among other needs.

One more trial for this tiny fishing village whose livelihood has always been from the harvest of the sea to overcome, but Cedar Keyans being such a resilient people  have survived.

In the midst of all that was happening she remembered a friend had said to her, whenever there is a problem you can’t solve, just bring it and lay it at the foot of the cross.

With pen in hand she began to draw and this first picture above is the result, the first draft was published in the Cedar Key Beacon and the Gainesville Sun.

On the editorial page this inscription was added: “Father forgive them, they know not what they have done.”

Painting by Carmen Day Williams, Cedar Key, Florida

And then someone, I don’t know who; made a large a cross with a net draped around it and it was posted at the mainland side of # 4 Bridge and it is still there.

This next picture, is a beautiful painting of what the first drawing evolved to over a period of time!

This painting has never been put up for sale!

For the benefit of those who would like to read about the Net Ban go to Florida Marine Net Fishing, Amendment 3 (1994) click on this highlighted title.

The Divorce and the Move

 Chuck had many fond memories of growing up in West Lake Wales.  The family lived there till his Mom and Dad began having marital problems, and they leased the property out, and the family moved into town to a house on Cohasset Avenue.  They lived there for less than a year.

His mother decided to move back to Cedar Key and after the move she and Papa got a divorce.  Chuck and two of the sister’s were still living at home moved with her.  The older sister, Ilene had married Varnell Campbell and lived there, and Hoyt had joined the Navy. 

The family had always visited Cedar Key as often as possible while Chuck was growing up.  His dad and mom were Native Cedar Keyans and still had numerous family members living there. When he was growing up he used to spend a lot of time in the summer during school vacation in Cedar Key.

Chuck was fourteen when his mother moved back to Cedar Key with him, his sister Delores (Teeny) and sister Barbara Helen (Bobbie), his daddy had bought the building on Second Street (everyone calls Main Street) which years later became the  L&M Bar.  It was not a bar when Papa owned it. 

The Building is the one on the front right.
Photo courtsey of Carmen DayWilliams

Several years later he sold the building and at some point Lawrence & Melrose Clark bought the building, and built the bar in downstairs and that’s when it became the L&M.  Their family also lived upstairs where Chuck, his mother and two sisters had lived. Other families lived there between the time Papa sold it and the Clark’s bought it.

His mother’s, brother’s Chester (Chetter), Leotis (Bum or Odie Boy), and Leo Collins taught him how to hook ‘n’ line fish and how to net fish.  His daddy had a boat built for Chuck, and Chuck named it the ‘Seabo’.  He had to pay Papa back on a percentage basis out of what he made fishing.

Whenever he was not in school he was fishing and he made good money.  He didn’t quite finish the tenth grade before he quit school.  He and the Principal had a misunderstanding one day. 

The Principal started hitting him with a long cane switch and Chuck jumped up and punched him in the stomach and ran out of the school building and never went back.

To be continued

Chuck's Roots

I am not exactly sure what year the Haven Family came to Cedar Key. Chuck’s great grandmother Sarah Bryan Haven is listed in the 1880 census on Depot Key which was later named Atsena Otie.  Her youngest son Henry is listed with her, great grandpa William G. Haven was born in 1820 in Georgia and died in 1870, in Cedar Key. Henry the youngest son was born in 1860 in Columbia County, Florida also died in Cedar Key.

Uncle George Haven, also one of her sons lived on the island that is now called Sunset Isle. Aunt Mable one of the younger daughters of Charles W, and Louisa Haven used to say they could only walk over to visit Uncle George when the tide was out and the shell road was exposed. Sunset Isle is the next island past Haven Isle, heading into Cedar Key.

H. B. Haven, Chuck’s dad’s Railroad career began in Cedar Key, after he returned from WW1; he started working on the train that came into Cedar Key as a fireman, before it was shut down. 

His father, who was Chuck’s grandfather, Charles W. Haven was the section foreman on the tracks between Cedar Key, and Waldo, and when they closed down the Cedar Key Train I believe it was about 1932, Charles W. Haven was transferred to Waldo.

Henry Burroughs Haven married Gussie Collins and they went south before the Railroad closed down, and in the beginning he worked out of Sebring, Florida.

Henry B. Haven was born on Haven Isle which is the first Island as you are leaving the mainland at the end of the # 4 Bridge. He was born in 1893 and even though he was only three years old when the ‘Tidal Wave’ of 1896 hit, and because it was such a traumatic experience, he remembered it vividly!

His dad, (C. W.) was gone at the time, working on the line. His mother and the five children were home alone. They had no idea what was coming, but they knew something was! There was very little communication in those days, and they paid close attention to the signs of nature.

All the birds left, and the tide dropped so much it was bone dry, and there was not a breath of air it was so still.

Grandma Haven figured there was a ‘big blow’ coming, their name for hurricanes in those days. And she figured the old house might blow away, and so she decided it would be best to take her children and herself out to the top of the railroad trestle which was higher ground.

She lashed all of her children and herself to the highest point of the trestle with rope. Papa told us he could hear the freight train coming, but it confused him at first because the sound was coming from the wrong direction and it was dark, the roar he was hearing was the first wall of water coming in. 

He said, “It came right up to the bottom of the tracks that we were tied to, and then it receded, and a smaller wave came back in, and then a third wave as large as the first one, and then it began to blow”!

Their small family survived due to grandma Haven’s wisdom. Charles W. and Louisa Haven lived on Haven Isle for many years after the great storm and had six more children before the Railroad was closed down. Their little house didn’t blow away, but the roof did blow off, so many others were not as fortunate.

It was a very destructive storm; with an immense storm surge that some estimated to be about 32 feet wall of water which was about 5 feet more than the storm of 1842. Many lives were lost, and there was tremendous property damage, numerous sponge boats were sunk along with the entire crews as well as fishing boats which were sunk along with their crews.

Among the fishermen that were drowned were uncle George Haven and his brother Henry and his son Frank. Their bodies washed ashore on a small island called Five Brothers, and you can see that island from # 4 Bridge to the west. They were out fishing when the storm hit, and were anchored down near the mouth of the Suwannee River. They were last seen alive at a fish camp on Ax Island.

Their bodies were found by Mr. Orlando Robinson’s daddy. He buried them on that Island, and as long as he lived, out of great respect, he took care of keeping the graves clean and replacing the clam shells that he had covered them with when he buried them to mark the grave sites. He also blazed a cross on one of the Sabal Palms that was growing on the island, but that Palm has been gone for many years.

After he died Mr. Orlando took over the care of their graves, and when Mr. Orlando, died his son, Curley, continued the tradition. After Chuck and I moved back to Cedar Key Mr. Orlando told us this story and Curley was going to show us where they were located, but never got ‘round-to-it’ before he died.

Cedar Mill on Depot Key
later named Atsena Otie

People had lived on most of the barrier islands until that time; there had been a Cedar shingle factory on Atsena Otie Key and the township was located there, but most everything and everyone were wiped out in the storm, and no one has lived on the outer islands since then except for brief periods of time.

 The township was relocated to Way Key which is now called Cedar Key. The entire group of islands was called Cedar Keys.

The story of their drowning was written up in a newspaper article in the Atlanta Constitution, October 8, 1896, page 4, and can also be found in “The Search for Yesterday” a Levy County, Florida history publication. Cedar Keyan’s are a resilient people, they rebuild after the storms pass.

Chuck’s dad, Henry Burroughs Haven, was a railroad man.  When he retired from the railroad, he had worked for the Railroad forty four years.  Many years of that time, was spent as an Engineer.

West Lake Wales where they lived was a Railroad Community. Almost everyone who lived there worked for the railroad in some job capacity. 

To be continued with more of Chuck’s Roots . . . .