Name/Title
Story of Ortega, TheEntry/Object ID
Library.2133Tags
Library Rare books collection as of June 4 2023Description
12 pages ; 16 cm
The Story of Ortega by One who lives there. Read before the Story-Tellers' League of Jacksonville, Fla., 1923.
According to Ancestry.com, Merrydelle Hoyt was born in March 1860 in West Virginia. She married Edward Hoyt about 1879, and lived in Duval County with her family. She died in 1933.
Summary from the book: I was interested to find out about old slave times & hunted up some of the old Negro descendants of the ante-bellum days. There was an old colored man whose name was Morris Moore. He said he loved Ortega because it was so free from all kinds of serpents ... He could remember the slave scaffolding with its 3 heights for men, women ,and children from which the slaves were sold. The whole Ortega Point was dotted with little windowless , shuttered cabins, the slavery quarters he called them. There was a church and the master ordered a spike team hitched up to take them to the meetin. The negroes tilled the soil. A certain portion of the vegetables were given out each day, and on Sunday night they received an extra bit to be used in trade at the village store. Moore said his grandfather could remember the wreck washed ashore full of negro slaves just landed from Africa. The wreck lay at the point in front of the present country club. His master's name was Hiram Sadler. Hiram bought the old plantation from the McIntosh family. He gave it the ugly name of Sadler's Point. Then the war broke out. Hiram had to go and he left all his Ortega possessions in care of his faithful slave, the father of the said Morris Moore. Morris said his father was given the custody of $40,000 which he hid in his own little cabin. When Hiram returned from the war, he found his fields flourishing and his $40,000 intact. Now we come to Senator Call. He is said to have borrowed $50,000 from J. Pierpont Morgan and bought a claim on Ortega. He moved into the mansion and was in debt for $75,000. He sold the claim to Mr. Bettes and Mr. Stockton for $130,000. He paid all his debts but then he died. Near Ortega there are some Indian mounds and from which I have pieced together a story.
There was an Indian whose maiden name was Altamaha which means Many Rivers. She was a celebrated guide. Her father, Chief Ortega, taught her forest lore. So when Ferdinand DeSota wished to discover Fernandina she showed him the way. Now this is the true story of Pirates' Point.Collection
LibraryLexicon
Nomenclature 4.0
Nomenclature Primary Object Term
BookNomenclature Sub-Class
Other DocumentsNomenclature Class
Documentary ObjectsNomenclature Category
Category 08: Communication ObjectsSearch Terms
Jacksonville (Fla.) -- History., Ortega (Jacksonville, Fla.) -- History., African Americans -- Florida -- Jacksonville -- History., Slavery -- Florida -- History.Publication Details
Author
Hoyt, Merrydelle.Publisher
[author]Place Published
* Untyped Place Published
[Jacksonville, Fla.]Call No.
Rare Book F 319 .J13 H69 1923