Milton M. IVEY was born 17 Feb 1844 in Camden County, Georgia. Milton was the last of at least 8 children born to John G. IVEY and his wife Elizabeth who, according to census records, were born either in Georgia or South Carolina.

The 1840 census shows the family of eight living in Camden County, Georgia at the "Great Satilla River and settlement there". John G. IVEY (40-50), William (age 4), Newton (age 2), Unknown male (11-15), Unknown male (16-20), Caroline (age 6), Unknown female (11-15), and Elizabeth (40-50), (M704, roll 38, pg.10).

In 1850 we find that the three oldest children listed in the 1840 census are no longer in the household, and the IVEY family's home is now described as being in district 9, Camden County. The family has grown with the addition of two children. John G IVEY (age 55), Elizabeth (age 51), Caroline (age 16), Charity (age 9), Newton (age 12), and Milton (age 6), (M432, roll 62, stamped pg.397). John's occupation is noted as "mechanic," indicating that John was skilled in the building trades and in the construction and repair of various types of equipment and implements necessary for everyday use in the home, on the farm or on the plantation. By examining the surrounding families, we can see that the Ivey family was living in the vicinity of other small farmers with modest holdings, but was also in close proximity to the Smith plantation, the largest on the island, with a reported property value of $80,000! It is quite possible that John had a business relationship with this plantation as well as with the other farmers in the area.

There is some indication that Milton and his family may have been of the Methodist faith. In the book History of Charlton County written by Alex McQueen in 1978, the author states: "One of the very oldest religious organizations in Charlton county had its inception in the New Hope Society." In an excerpt taken from an old minutes book from the Society still in possession of a decedent of the Mills Family of Charlton County, Georgia, dated 1840, Elizabeth IVY (possibly Milton's mother) is listed as one of the "Sisters." McQueen goes on to write that the record book also referred to the forming of the Methodist society in London, England in 1739 and indicates that the New Hope Society had quarterly meetings and were admonished to keep the Friday preceding each as days of fasting and prayer. The New Hope Society eventually merged with the Mills Church.

By June 30, 1860 the location of the John G. Ivey family is Centervillage, Charlton County, Georgia, near Folkston. John G. IVEY (age 65) and Elizabeth (age 60) living alone in their home. John is no longer listed as a mechanic but a farmer. William Ivey, age 24, (belived to be son of John G. Ivey) is married to Mary (age 16) with a new son only two months old, also living in Centervillage, (M653, roll 115, pgs.444, 441).

Milton, however, now age 16, is not in either household and nowhere to be found. Milton reappears about a year later at the age of 17, when he enlists in the newly formed Seaboard Guards on 29 July 1861 as a Private in Company F, 13th Regiment Georgia at Satilla, Georgia. The company is stationed at Camp Semmes in Brunswick when Milton is promoted to Corporal on 15 September 1861.

The 13th Regiment was reorganized and their designation changed to the 26th Regiment Georgia Infantry in May 1862. According to the National Park Service Civil War Soldiers and Sailors web site, "The 26th Regiment Georgia Infantry completed its organization in October 1861 at Brunswick, Georgia, and after serving at St. Simons Island and Savannah, moved to Virginia where it was brigaded under Generals Lawton, Gordon, and Evans.

The 26th participated in the campaigns of the Army of Northern Virginia from the Seven Days' Battles to Cold Harbor and fought with General Early in the Shenandoah Valley…" eventually surrendering with Lee at Appomatox. However, Milton's service took a slightly different course.

The Georgia Brigade and their commander, General Clement A. Evans, never had a chance at the Battle of Monocacy on the morning of July 9, 1864. As described in the book "South Georgia Rebels" by Alton Murray, the Union forces discovered the soldiers as they were starting to cross the river and climb the steep banks, and they changed their front to meet them head on. Once they reached the field, the 26th Georgia Regiment found farm fences that they had to climb over under fire. The causalities were high.

Milton's Company Muster Roll dated 4 Nov 1864 has two remarks. First, that he had been promoted from 3rd Sergeant to 1st Sergeant on 15 June 1864, and second that he was "Now in the hands of Enemy." Medical records from Union Hospitals in July and August 1864 show that Milton was wounded at Monocacy on July 9th, and captured July 10th. In "South Georgia Rebels" the author writes, "All references consulted state the Battle of Monocacy ended on July 9th and Early resumed his advance toward Washington on the morning of the 10th. However, a listing of losses in the 26th Georgia showed some occurred on July 10th." Early marched his men 30 miles on July 10th towards Washington and many of the sick and injured, not physically able to make this grueling march, were left behind. It appears Milton was one of them.

After Milton was captured by Union forces at Monocacy, he was admitted to the U.S.A General Hospital at Frederick, Maryland with gunshot wounds caused by a .58 caliber minie ball to the right upper thigh and heel. He was transferred to the U.S.A. General Hospital, West's Building in Baltimore, Maryland on August 5th; to the General Hospital at Fort McHenry on October 19th, and to Point Lookout on October 25th with a note that he was to be exchanged on October 30th. Indeed, he is listed on the roll of 3,024 Confederate Prisoners of War paroled 15 Nov 1864 at Venus Point, Savannah River including four citizens, three surgeons, and 74 officers.

By the age of 20, Milton had advanced to the rank of Sergeant First Class, had been wounded, captured, hospitalized, imprisoned and released. It is unclear where Milton went from here, but he is listed in a Report of Confederates captured at Macon, Georgia, by the 1st Brigade, 2d Cavalry Division of the Union Army on April 21-22, dated 30 Apr 1865. His military records do not indicate when he was released.

By 1868 Milton and William Ivey are back in Charlton County, Georgia as they are both listed in the Index to Georgia's 1867-1868 Returns of Qualified Voters and Registration Oath Books compiled by John Brandenburg and Rita Worthy. The Oaths were administered from 1 April 1867 to 30 July 1868 to every male, 21 years or older, living in the Third Military District, of which Georgia was a part. Because the Oaths and Returns were completed in the county in which the person was to vote, these documents allow us to place Milton back at home sometime during the above dates.

The 1870 Census shows Milton in Centerville, Charlton County, Georgia, living with his brother William's family and working as a farmhand. On 23 July 1870, we find Wm. J. IVEY (age 34) listed as a farmer, Mary (age 25) keeping house, Laurine (age 4), and Milton (age 24) working as a farmhand, (M593, roll 140, pg. 327).

By 1880 William IVEY had moved his family to Hillsborough County where they apparently farmed for the rest of their lives and died sometime after 1900. Milton also left Georgia for Florida and, according to Travers/Upton/Cleary researcher Bernie Cleary of Savannah, Georgia, married Elizabeth Jane Miranda UPTON, daughter of Benjamin UPTON and Adaran Miranda WALDEN of Baldwin, Duval County, Florida, 7 September 1873.

Elizabeth Jane Miranda Upton and Children

Elizabeth Jane Miranda UPTON was born to Benjamin UPTON and Adaran Miranda Walden on 15 April 1857 in the vicinity of Jefferson County, Georgia.

In 1850 Benjamin was still living in his father Asa's house in Jefferson County, but according to Travers/Ivey/Cleary Researcher Bernie Cleary of Savannah, Elizabeth was born in Davisboro which is just across the Ogeechee River in Washington County.

On 9 July 1860 we find Benjamin OIPTAN (age 26), his wife Adaran M (age 25), and Eliza J M (age 3) in Starksville, Lee County, Georgia, (M653, roll 129, pg. 693). At that time Ben was working as an overseer for the Southwestern Railroad. His service to the C.S.A. during the war, according to a muster roll dated July 25, 1863, was with Captain Walden's Company (Railroad Guards) for local defence [sic]. Since the Railroad Guards sole mission was to defend and protect the Southwestern Railroad, it is plausible to think that he remained in that area near his family for the duration of the war.

In 1870 Elizabeth Upton is 13 years of age and her family is living in Baldwin, Duval County, Florida. She is listed with her family in Baldwin on the census dated July 11, by her middle name "Miranda," (M593, roll 129, pg.435B), and also as a pupil boarding at the Convent of the Sisters of Mercy in Savannah on the census dated 25 August, (M593, roll 141, pg. 190). I find it quite poetic that many years later, Eliza's grand daughter, her namesake Elizabeth Jane Gildea, would herself become a Sister of Mercy, Sr. Mary Daria, and for part of her career teach grade school children in the Diocese of Savannah.

On June 8, 1880 Milton M. IVERY (36) is living with his wife Eliza (23) and their four children: May (age 6), James M (age 4), William B (age 1) and Ida E (7 months old born in November) in the 5th precinct, Duval County, Florida, (T9, roll 126, pg. 474). The census states that May attended school during the year. According to The Baldwin History published in 1976, there was a one-room schoolhouse in the community at time. Its certainly possible that this was the school May attended. Milton's occupation is listed as working on the railroads. According to a news article published in the Florida Times Union 15 Jan 1884, Milton was working for Alsop & Clark, a large lumbering concern in Duval County, doing work for them "…some distance from Baldwin on the Transit Road." Author Jan H. Johannes in Yesterday's Reflections Nassau County, Florida published in 1984 explains that the reorganization of the Florida Railroad Company resulted in the renaming of that section of the road which stretched from Fernandina to Cedar Key. The new name was the Atlantic, Gulf & West India Transit Railroad which was referred to as the "Transit Road" for short.

In the years following the 1880 Census, Milton and Eliza had two more sons: Thomas Whitworth (1880) and Asa O. (1882).

Milton's Suicide

Less than 2 years after the birth of his son Asa, Milton committed suicide. Very little is known about Milton and that which is known only leads to more questions. Milton was apparently a loyal soldier of the Confederacy, rising from the rank of private at age 17 to 1st Sergeant by the time he was 20. He also won the heart of the daughter of successful businessman, Ben Upton, who was well known in Jacksonville particularly in Baldwin.

In 1980 when I asked my Great Aunt Honey (Florence E. GILDEA) about Milton she recalled conversations she had with her mother, Milton's daughter. Mary IVEY GILDEA told Honey that her parents always used very polite and proper speech, referring to each other as Mr. Ivey and Mrs. Ivey. She said on the day Milton committed suicide, her mother and father were having a discussion and he stood up and said, "Then I guess I'll have to kill myself." The final scenes of Milton's life were played out on Sunday, January 14, 1884, and reported in the Florida Times Union, Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida, 15 January 1884.

A Queer Suicide.
Siting Down to Dinner With a Poisoned and Dying Husband.
Sunday afternoon, a white man by the name of M. M. Ivey, of Baldwin and a son in law of Mayor Benjamin Upton, of that place, killed himself by taking morphine. He was employed by Messrs. Alsop & Clark, doing some work at their log camps some distance from Baldwin, on the Transit road, but since Christmas had been drinking considerably.

He went home from his work Sunday, partly under the influence of liquor. At 12:30 p.m. He signified his determination to take morphine and thus end his existence and at once put about two spoonsful of the poison in a tumbler and walked to the well for some water to take with it.

His wife went out and begged him not to take the poison. He had his knife in his hand with which he threatened to cut her throat if she interfered. He then turned round and drank the poison. The family went immediately into dinner and while eating he fell asleep. He was removed to a bed and every possible effort made to counteract the action of the poison, but to no effect, and he died Sunday night at 11 p.m. He leaves a wife and four little children.

Life After Milton's Death

At the time of the 1880 Census, the family was living in voting precinct 5 in Duval County. I have not determined exactly where this was located, but Baldwin was precinct 4, so it should have been in the vicinity. It is not known where the family was living at the time of Milton's death in 1884, but newspaper accounts do not indicate that they were living with another family. However, on 20 June 1885 the Duval County Florida State Census shows E J IVEY (age 28), and her children: Mary J. (age 10), Jas M (age 7), Wm B (age 6), Thos H (age 5), and Asa (age 2), living with the George Ford household in Baldwin, Florida. George H. FORD (age 50), Eliza (age 39), SJ [Stonewall Jackson] (age 19), N F [Nancy] (age 17), and Polly A. PLEGER (age 60) (Duval County, pg. 547). Eliza is listed as a RR hand, but I don't know what type of work she could have been doing for the railroad.

The booklet, Baldwin History, mentions a book that listed some of the citizens with businesses in Baldwin during 1883-1884. The names included, "Mrs. E. Ivey, boarding and Anna Upton, saloon and mill." I have not been able to determine the title or location of the text cited to confirm the information, but it seems odd that she would be running a boarding house and move in with the Ford Family. From reviewing the census records, it is apparent that the Fords had been neighbors of the Ben Upton family at least since the 1870 Census. Sometime after the 1880 census and before the 1885 census, perhaps after Milton Ivey's suicide in January 1884, Eliza and the kids came to live with them. This seems odd to me, since her parents appear to be living just next door.

The Fords were prominent citizens in the Baldwin community, successful business people and, according to the records of the United States Postal Service in Washington, D.C., were also postmaster and postmistress for many years. In Webb's Historical, Industrial and Biographical Florida, Part I, published in 1885, it notes that George W. Ford was also a land agent in Baldwin.

Eliza also appears in the 1885 Florida State Census Productions of Agriculture, 4th District, Duval County, Florida (pg. 997C). Elisha J. Ivey reports that the amount of wood cut in 1884 was 10 cords and the value of all forest products sold in 1884 was $20.

Eliza Upton IVEY and Owen TRAVERS

Owen Travers' tombstone in the Travers/Ivey plot in the Magnolia Division of the Catholic Cemetery on Wheaton Street, Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia, shows his date of birth as 17 May 1859. According to Travers/Ivey/Cleary researcher Bernie Cleary of Savannah, Irish Catholic Owen Travers immigrated to the United States from Donegal located in northwest Ireland around 1876 at the age of 17. Where he was or what he did before 1886 has not been established, but in January of 1886 he is in Jacksonville, Florida getting married to Eliza Ivey. As recorded in Duval County Marriage Records Chronologically Listed for the Period 1885-1891 by Mrs. Tyrrell E. Brown, Owen Travers and Eliza Jane Ivey secured a marriage license on 19 Jan 1886 and were married the same day by William J. Kenny, Catholic Priest at the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church. According to an entry in the Baptismal Records of Immaculate Conception Catholic Church Jacksonville, Florida page 139, Eliz. Jane M. IVEY was Baptized Catholic by Father Kenny on the same date, apparently just before she was married to Owen. Father William J. Kenny was a much loved and respected pastor and became the first American-born bishop of the Diocese of St. Augustine.

Eliza's mother, Adaran M. Upton, died 14 June 1891. She and Owen had been appointed executors of her will written on May 25th of that same year, recorded in the Duval County Court House and available on microfilm at the Jacksonville Public Library. Of particular and humorous interest is her bequest to Eliza: "one cow named "Bob" and calf." Eliza also received an equal share of her mother's personal estate and all real estate holdings including property in Wildwood, on Black Creek Road and in Georgia.

Owen Travers was obviously an accomplished business man and quite well known in Jacksonville during his time in the city. At one point or another between 1887 and 1895 he was proprietor for several businesses: saloon, billiard parlor, sample room, and one of the most famous hotels in the city before relocating his family to Savannah, Georgia around 1896 and operating some well known establishments there, as well.

It appears that he and Eliza either maintained holdings in Jacksonville when they moved to Savannah or returned around 1901 (perhaps after the fire) and managed other holdings in Jacksonville for several years. Webb's Jacksonville Directories from 1890-1893 show Owen Travers as proprietor Everett Bar & Billiards Saloon and West End Sample Rooms, fine wines and cigars, 95 W. Bay in Jacksonville. In the 1893 directory it shows Owen was residing at 140 West Adams. The Insurance Maps of Jacksonville Florida 1891 published by the Sanborn Company of New York, show The Everett Hotel with the Saloon & Billiard Parlor clearly defined on the left just off the main hotel lobby. The West End Sample Rooms are shown on the map and are around the outside of the hotel on the right near the end of the block and have been marked with the description, "Gro. Tab. & Cigars." This would indicate that their main business was in the sale of grocery items, tobacco and cigars - the finest Cubans I would think and probably some locally made, since there was a Cuban cigar factory in town at the time. The map indicates that the Everett Hotel is closed in Summer but does not indicate this for the Saloon.

An advertisement appears on page xiii in Richards' Jacksonville Duplex Directory published in January 1887 which does not mention him by name, but does mention the establishment by name and gives a wonderful description of what the sample room was and some of its appointments.

CALL AT THE WEST END SAMPLE ROOM, Helen & Acosta.
Grand Central Position. The Finest Saloon in the State.
Replete with Every Convenience.
Beautifully Finished in Ebony, Mahogany and Linerusta Walton.
Finest Brands of WINES, SPIRITS, BEERS and CIGARS - Old Whiskey a Specialty.
Remember 95 WEST BAY STREET, JACKSONVILLE, FLA.

The 1890 and 1891 Directories show Owen residing at 105 Hogan. With a little imagination and the information provided in the Sanborn Insurance Maps we can get an idea of what their home at 105 Hogan looked like. The map identifies the structure as a private dwelling, two stories with a front porch that wraps around to the right side. Based on historical photos of the period, it was probably frame construction with a cornice and shingle roof. The map shows that the house is located on the same block as the Baptist Church. Neil GILDEA, future husband of Eliza's daughter Mary, is listed as a border.

The 1892 Webb's Jacksonville Directory indicates Eliza and Owen have moved from 105 Hogan to 140 West Adams, perhaps due to the arrival of their first child. The 1900 Census for Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia shows Annie TRAVERS born August 1892 (T623, roll 186, pg. 210). Researcher Bernie Clearie provided her exact birth date of August 14th.

Webb's Jacksonville Directory 1895, pg. 198, lists Baker & Travers as proprietors of the Windsor Hotel, one of the largest and best known tourist hotels in Jacksonville, with Owen boarding at the same location. In The Book of Jacksonville, A History by S. Paul Brown published in 1895, there appears this short descriptive paragraph.

THE WINDSOR HOTEL - Baker & Travers, Proprietors.
The Windsor was built in 1875 by F.H. Orvis, but it has since been greatly enlarged, and has accommodations now for four hundred and fifty guests. It sits opposite City Park, and a block from the Park Opera House. It is only open in winter, and is a popular tourist hotel.

The 1897 Insurance Maps of Jacksonville, Florida published by Sanborn-Perris, show the Windsor Hotel property covering an entire city block with the exception of two dwellings at the rear of the property. From the diagrams, you can see the layout of the three story building with the hotel office, perhaps where Owen worked, located in the front left corner looking out onto a wide veranda at the corner of W. Monroe and N. Hogan streets. Using the map Key you can also see servants' quarters, an artesian well located inside the building, a laundry and carpentry shop in the basement. It is an iron building with slate or tin roof with steam heat and gas and electric lights. Even with the most modern of fire protection equipment, the Windsor burned to the ground in short order in 1901 as fire raced across the city.

Photos of the hotel from an 1895 souvenir booklet, including the office, dining room and parlor with its beautiful appointments and street scenes from the veranda can be found by searching for WINDSOR HOTEL at http://www.susdl.fcla.edu/fh/.

Owen and Eliza in Savannah

Eliza's daughter Mary Jane IVEY married Neil Patrick GILDEA on 29 Feb 1892 at the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Jacksonville. They appear the following year in the Savannah City Directory as proprietors of a bar at 172 Broughton Street and residing at the same location. Eliza's father, Benjamin Upton, died in 1895 leaving a 2nd wife and young child. There is no indication that either of these events had any bearing on the course Owen and Eliza's lives took, but in 1896 they are no longer listed in the Jacksonville Directory. The do appear, however, for the first time in Sholes' Savannah Directory 1896 (pg. 427), as proprietors of the saloon in the famous Screven House and are reported as residing at 5 ½ Whitaker street.

The Screven House was much like the Windsor or Everett, in the heart of the downtown district and very popular with the tourists. This is part of an advertisement, which appeared in the 1887 Jacksonville City Directory.

"…This long and favorably known House is the leading first-class hotel in Savannah, as demonstrated by its receiving a majority of the first-class travel arriving in the City…is pleasantly and centrally located on Johnson Square…and is not surpassed as a strictly first-class Hotel by any House in the Middle or Southern States…There is attached to the House a first-class Billiard Room, Bar Room..."

It would seem reasonable to assume that this is the Billiard Room and Bar Room that Owen managed when he and Eliza relocated to Savannah around 1895. Owen had accomplished all this by the grand age of only 36 years. The 1900 Census of Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia, brings us information about the second and last child born to Eliza and Owen TRAVERS along with other interesting information. TRAVERS Owen, b. May 1858, age 42, married 16 years, immigrated 1876, naturalized citizen, bar keeper, rents home; Eliza, b. Apr 1857, age 43 married 16 years, had 7 children, 7 living; TRAVERS, Thomas, adopted son [son of Eliza and Milton Ivey] b. Mar. 1879, bartender; Annie, daughter, b. Aug [14], 1891 age 8, b. Florida; Elizabeth [Jane], daughter, b. Jan [7] 1897, age 3, b. Georgia; IVEY, James, son, b. July 1876, (T623, roll 186, pg.210).

Something curious to me is the notation that Thomas IVEY has been adopted by Owen TRAVERS and now is Thomas TRAVERS, but James IVEY does not appear to have been adopted. Also, curious is that the d.o.b. for Thomas is given as March 1879 and according to the Baptismal Records of Immaculate Conception Catholic Church Jacksonville, Florida, Thomas Whitworth IVEY he was born 13 March 1880.

In Sholes' Savannah Directory from 1897 to 1900 and Goette's Savannah City Directory for 1901, Owen is listed as owner of the saloon located at 34 Bull Street in downtown Savannah just a block off Bay, near Riverstreet and the City Market. In the 1902 directory, the location above shows Neil Gildea as the proprietor and continues to so list him until at least 1905. I do not know if it was still owned by Owen and managed by Neil or if the business was sold to him. The directory also shows Eliza's son, J. M. Ivey as the person residing at their home at 11 Whitaker Street in Savannah, indicating that they indeed have returned to Jacksonville.

Back in Jacksonville

The great Jacksonville fire began at 12:30 p.m. on May 3, 1901, destroying the city of the Uptons, Iveys, Travers and Gildeas. Gone was the Windsor Hotel that Owen had managed; the homes in which they had lived on Hogan and Adams Streets; the saloons they had worked in or managed. Gone was the County Clerks Office where they had filed and probated wills and where they had applied for and were issued marriage licenses. Gone was the Catholic Church where they and their children were baptized and married. Gone was the jewelry store from which Neil GILDEA bought Mary IVEY a gold pocket watch to present to her on her wedding day. Gone was the Convent of Sisters of St. Joseph on Pine Street [present day Main Street] where Eliza's sister Marietta (Mary) Upton had attended school.

By chance or by fate, the Everett Hotel block was spared and much of the courthouse documents which would give their descendants an insight into their lives, were saved by ferrying them across the river. I have no proof as to whether Eliza and Owen were residing in Jacksonville at the time of the great fire, but based on entries in city directories from both cities, they moved back to Jacksonville sometime in 1901.

The 1902 Jacksonville Directory (pg. 495) shows TRAVERS Owen and Eliza J. as proprietors of The Inn Hotel (European Plan) located at 726 W. Bay, with their residence in the same location. Upon examining the Insurance Maps for Jacksonville 1903, it is obvious that The Inn is not a posh hotel. The neighboring businesses include refrigerator ice works, a cigar factory, wholesale grocers, Chinese laundry, and just down the street is the Anheuser Busch Brewing Ass'n Beer Depot.

The building appears to be at least 50 feet wide and about 80 feet deep with a small attached dwelling at the rear. The building is brick with frame cornice and shingle roof, two stories, with a porch or veranda at the entrance and a saloon at the front of the building on the first floor. The 1903 directory (pg. 523) does not list the Hotel by name, merely that Owen is offering furnished rooms at that address.

Eliza's brother James Alex Upton, died intestate on 2 Feb 1903, and Eliza and Owen TRAVERS petitioned the court and were appointed executors of his estate. A settlement letter in probate file No. 2618 in the Duval County Clerk's Office appears to be written in Eliza's hand to Owen and is written on letterhead from the INN HOTEL. The masthead reads: The Inn Hotel. Owen Travers, Proprietor. 726 West Bay Street. Jacksonville - Florida. It is dated Jacksonville Florida, August 8, 1903, and gives us a glimpse at the prices The Inn Hotel would have charged residents and some of the services they would have provided. The letter states:

Estate of James A Upton.
To Owen Travers.
To room rent for months from October 1st 1902 to February 1st     4 months   Ten dollars per month [line total]   $40.00.
K.Oil [kerosene?] .20, care fair [carriage fare?] .75, Railroad fair (sic.) .60, Medicine .75 [line total] $2.30.
Laundry 1.00, Dry Goods box .15, Nurse 1.00, Laundry .50 [line total] $2.60.
Care Fair [carriage fare?] .35, For clerical work $6.00 [line total] $6.30.
[Grand total] $51.30.

Also charged to the estate of James Upton was the cost of two round trip train tickets from Savannah to Jacksonville and boarding charges in Baldwin for what appears to be Eliza TRAVERS and one of her daughters. This indicates that Eliza had returned to Savannah sometime between the time of her brother's last illness in October 1902 and death in February 1903.

Elizabeth Jane Miranda UPTON IVEY TRAVERS Dies

The 1910 Census of Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia shows the family residing at 510 Bryan Street across from Washington Square, one of the many oak rimmed, azalea laden parks around which the city of Savannah was built. The residence is located in a section of quaint two story frame townhouses which still stand today, and was just next door to Eliza's daughter, Mary Jane GILDEA.

The census gives us this information: TRAVERS Owen age 52, married 25 years, cafe keeper, cafe business, working on own account [self-employed], rents home; Eliza, age 53, married 25 years, had 7 children, 5 living; Annie M, daughter, single 18, Cashier, Biejola [sic]; IVEY Asa, step-son, age 26, policeman for the City; TRAVERS Eliza J, daughter, age 13, attended school during the year, (T624, roll 178, pg. 118).

Eliza died at home on 16 March 1912. She is buried in the Magnolia Division of the Catholic Cemetery on Wheaton Street in Savannah in the TRAVERS/IVEY plot. Her tombstone reads: Mother, Elizabeth Travers, Apr. 15, 1857, Mar. 16, 1912. Eliza's obituary appeared in the Savannah Morning News 17 March 1912, pg. 5.

Mrs. Elizabeth Travers, the wife of Owen Travers died at the residence at No. 510 East Bryan street last night at 9:30 o'clock after an illness of one week. The funeral will take place from the residence some time Monday. The exact hour has not been decided. Services will be conducted from the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. The interment will be in the Cathedral Cemetery. Mrs. Travers was 56 years old and a native of Georgia. She is survived by her husband, Owen Travers; two sons by a previous marriage, T. W. Ivey of Norfolk and Asa Ivey of Savannah; three daughters, Mrs. Neil Gildea, Miss Annie M. Travers and Miss Elizabeth J. Travers and nine grandchildren, all of Savannah.

The 1920 Census of Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia, shows Owen at age 61 living with his daughter Anna M. and her husband George CLEARY in their home at 507 West 44th Street. This census indicates that Owen immigrated to the United States in 1883 and was naturalized in 1890 which conflicts with the information reported earlier indicating that he immigrated from Ireland in 1876. Owen is still employed at the age of 61, but no longer as a tavern or hotel owner but as a watchman.

There is a good possibility that Owen is no longer involved in the saloon business due to the passionate activists in the Savannah area who rose up against the consumption of intoxicating liquors around the time of the First World War. The outcome of this national frenzy was the passing of the Volstead Act by the Congress of the United States in 1919, which provided for the enforcing of a national prohibition of the use of intoxicating liquors thereby causing men who had been saloon owners to become unemployed. Owen's former business associate and son-in-law, Neil GILDEA suffered the same fate.

Owen TRAVERS died on January 4, 1932 at the age of 72. His tombstone located in the TRAVERS/IVEY plot in the Catholic Cemetery reads simply: Father, Owen Travers, May 17, 1859 - Jan 4, 1932.

It's obvious that Owen lived an extraordinary life and probably rubbed elbows with many well known gentlemen of the time when he was managing the Saloon and Billiard Parlor at the Everett Hotel and managing the Windsor in Jacksonville.

To close, I borrow something my Great Aunt Honey (Florence GILDEA) wrote about my Great Grandfather Neil GILDEA in 1980, which I feel, with a few minor adjustments, could also be said of Owen.

"…A real success story, you might say. All it required was a little Irish ingenuity, a lot of integrity, a sense of humor, a masterful personality, brains, and determination, plus a 5th grade education, and, let us not forget his inherent faith in God and his own self-confidence."

1 Elizabeth Jane Miranda UPTON (15 Apr 1857 - 16 Mar 1912)
   Married: Milton M. IVEY (17 Feb 1844 - 14 Jan 1884)
   Date: 7 Sep 1873 - Duval County, Florida

1.1 Mary Jane IVEY (13 Sep 1873 - 1 Jun 1921)
     Married: Neil GILDEA (28 Feb 1854 - 5 May 1934)
     Date: 29 Feb 1892 - Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, Jacksonville, Florida

    All of their children are buried in Savannah, with the exception of Elizabeth Jane who is
    buried in the Sisters of Mercy plot in Baltimore, MD.

     1.1.1 Edward Cornelius GILDEA (15 Dec 1892 - 14 Feb 1953)

     1.1.2 Mary Elizabeth (Mamie) GILDEA (18 Feb 1895 - 31 Mar 1982)

     1.1.3 Catherine Margaret (Kate*) GILDEA (26 Sep 1897 - 7 Feb 1980)
             Married John George FISCHER (1 Oct 1888 - 5 Oct 1941)
             (Grandma Kate is the contributor's Grandmother)

     1.1.4 Florence GILDEA (18 Dec 1902 - 31 Aug 1910)

     1.1.5 Joseph Anthony (Joe) GILDEA (26 Jul 1900 - 17 Jan 1946)

     1.1.6 Francis Joseph (Hawk) GILDEA (28 Feb 1905 - 10 Nov 1969)

     1.1.7 Benjamin Joseph (Ben) GILDEA (30 Nov 1907 - 12 Jun 1935)

     1.1.8 James Francis (Jimmy) GILDEA (13 Aug 1910 - 13 Aug 1971)

     1.1.9 Florence Eleanor (Honey) GILDEA (11 Apr 1913 - 24 Dec 1994)

     1.1.10 Elizabeth Jane GILDEA (5 Apr 1916 - 16 Mar 1999)

1.2 James Milton IVEY (24 Jul 1876 - 20 Apr 1905)  

1.3 William Benjamin IVEY (6 Oct 1878 - 11 Apr 1901)

1.4 Ida or Ada E IVEY (Nov 1879 - bef 1885)

1.5 Thomas Whitworth Ivey (13 Mar 1880 - aft 7 Jan 1920)
      Married: Anna A. (Annie) CONNERS Date: 15 Aug 1903

      1.5.1 Gladys Ester IVEY Married: Guy SMITH

1.6 Asa O. Ivey (9 Oct 1882 - 9 Oct 1948) buried in Savannah
     Married: Annie Olivett RYAN (17 Jul 1891 - 19 Sep 1966)
     Date: 29 May 1910 - Savannah, Georgia

    1.6.1 Gladys IVEY

Elizabeth Jane Miranda UPTON (15 Apr 1857 - 16 Mar 1912)          
Married: Owen TRAVERS (17 May 1859 - 4 Jan 1932)
Date: 19 Jan 1886 - Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, Jacksonville, Florida

1.7 Annie M. TRAVERS (14 Aug 1891 - 1957)
     Married: George Joseph CLEARY Date: 15 June 1915

     1.7.1 Baby Boy (6 Sep 1923 - 7 Sep 1923)

     1.7.2 George Joseph CLEARY, Jr. changed name to Jude George Cleary (23 May 1926 - 9 Dec 2005)

     1.7.3 William Owen CLEARY (21 July 1928 - 19 Feb 1985)

     1.7.4 Baby Boy possibly Robert Reed CLEARY (16 Nov 1934 - 19 Nov 1934)

     1.7.5 Living CLEARY (31 Mar 1933 - )

1.8 Elizabeth Jane TRAVERS (7 Jan 1897 - 27 Sep 1969)
     Married: Charles SCHAUSS Date: 27 July 1915

    1.8.1 Living SCHAUSS (3 Oct 1918 - )