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Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida
1860 - Great Jacksonville Fire of 1901

Click on the pictures below to view full size photos.

            Ben Upton and his wife Adaran Walden arrived in Duval County Florida and settled in the town of Baldwin sometime between April 1867 and July 1868, remaining until death. Adaran died in 1891 and Ben died in 1895.
           In 1880 Milton M. IVEY is living with his wife Eliza and their four children in the 5th precinct, Duval County, Florida. Milton committed suicide on January 14, 1884, but Eliza remained and later married Owen Travers.
          Irish Catholic Owen Travers immigrated to the United States from Donegal, Northern 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. 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, the Windsor Hotel, before relocating his family to Savannah, Georgia around 1896. Owen and Eliza apparently moved back to Jacksonville around 1901 and were the proprietors of the Inn Hotel until 1903.
          All these ancestors and their children knew well the Jacksonville that existed prior to the Great Jacksonville Fire of 1901. They got their marriage licenses at the Court House and some were wed at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church. Owen and Eliza live in Jacksonville where Owen managed hotels, billiard parlors and saloons. Neil Gildea lived with them for a time and worked in the saloon at 105 North Hogan. It was in Jacksonville that Neil rescued Mary Ivey from the "scoundrel" and where he bought her the gold pocket watch that he presented to her on their wedding day 29 February 1892.
           All this was destroyed in one afternoon in May 1901. The images below are from the time when these ancestors walked the streets of the great tourist destination of Jacksonville, Florida. If you're one of my Fischer or Russell cousins, look closely, one of those men might be your Great Great Great Grandfather, Ben Upton or your Great Grandpa Neil Gildea!


Miscellaneous photos Pre-1901


Immaculate Conception Church

Neil Gildea and Mary Ivey, Owen Travers and Eliza Upton Ivey, Ben Upton and Elizabeth Smith were all married in this church. Eliza Upton Ivey, Asa and Thomas Ivey were baptized Catholic in this church.


Immaculate Conception Church

In this view notice the statue in the alcove just above and below the round stained glass windows. After the fire, the statute and the front wall supporting it and a small portion of one side wall was all that was left of the church.


Jacksonville from the Everett Hotel

Owen Travers was the proprietor of the Everett Hotel from 1891-1893 according to Webb's 1891, 1892, 1893 Jacksonville Ciity Directories.

Antique print entitled "Southern Scenes - A Street Scene in Jacksonivlle, Florida" from 1879. This is a genuine, 126 year old print which appeared in a periodical entitled Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly. One can just imagine one of the onlookers to be Neil Gildea, Milton Ivey or Ben Upton.

Everett Hotel c.1875
 1890-93 Owen Travers was proprietor Everett Bar & Billiards Saloon and West End Sample Rooms, 95 W. Bay.


The Florida Heritage Collection

A Souvenir of Jacksonville  
[20? leaves : chiefly ill. ; 14 x 22 cm. A. Wittemann New York 1888. Photos/drawings of buildings and streets as they appeared in 1888.

Souvenir: Warren F. Leland Windsor Hotel, Jacksonville, Florida 
[28] p. : ill. ; 11 x 19 cm.Jacksonville, Fla.,1895. According to S. Paul Brown's, The Book of Jacksonville, A History (Poughkeepsie, NY: A. V. Haight, 1895. pg. 120) and Webb's 1895 Jacksonville City Directory, Baker and Travers are proprietors of the Hotel Windsor and it is also Owen's residence.The souvenir booklet above has photos of the manager's office, parlor, dining room and veranda along with advertisements. When you look at the veranda of the Windsor  just outside the manager's office, perhaps where Owen worked, you can certainly imagine that one of the gentlemen in the photos could have been an Upton or Travers relative.

Florida Sub Tropical Exposition January to May 1888
Description: [1] folded sheet ([8] p.) : ill. ; 21 x 10 cm. Publisher: The Exposition, Jacksonville, Fla. Date: 1888. This was a major event in Jacksonville drawing people from around the county. It is certainly reasonable to think that our Upton Gildea Ivey Travers relatives may have visited the Exposition. Perhaps it is merely a coincidence, but there was a large yellow fevor epidemic which struck the city in 1888-1889. One wonders if the exposition was some how involved.


Jacksonville after the Great Fire in 1901
The three images above form a panoramic of the city and are part of the Report of the Jacksonville Relief Association published in 1901 on the devastation created by the fire of May 1901. It is interesting to note that the commission was meeting in the Everett Hotel which was the location of one of Owen Travers many businesses, so it did not burn. Note Hogan Street. Neil Gildea was Bar Keeper at 105 Hogan Street.

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