Eleanor

Eleanor Kuhlman was the wife of my great uncle Arthur Sylvester Green. Sylvester was my grandfather's brother and seemed to be a high achiever. He taught history at the University of Florida in the 1930s.

He ran for political office at least once. This photo was from a political ad when he ran unsuccessfully for Taylor County Florida School Board Superintendent.

Sylvester died October 22, 1937 while living in Gainesville, Florida. His wife Eleanor was pregnant at the time with their only child.

Arthur Willard Green was born six months after his father died. Eleanor got a job teaching at the University of Florida after her husband died.

I only met Arthur and his mother one time that I can remember. They were living near St. Petersburg and came to my parent's house in Oneco while I was visiting. I really didn't know who they were at the time.

I heard that Arthur died several years after that brief meeting and when my Dad passed away ten years later I decided to try and contact Eleanor. I discovered she

died a few months after my Dad. Over the years I have looked for information about her and Sylvester with little success. I found a record of their thesis and dissertations and came across this photo of her from 1935 when she was teaching at a rural Pasco County Florida school.

Old Man's Friend

Pneumonia is called the old man's friend. My dad ultimately died from it although he fought it for a year and a half.

Texas recently put old death certificates online and I was able to look at several for relatives and others who I have researched. I found Pneumonia listed as the cause of death for my wife's great great grandparents who died within days of each other.

William Smith Telford died on February 03, 1934 in Abilene, Texas after coming down with pneumonia and his wife Louisiana English Pennington Telford followed him on February 15, 1934. They were both in their nineties so maybe they were ready to go. This photo was taken on their 60th wedding anniversary in 1925.

The Howland connection

I met Tom Howland via email 5-6 years ago. He was researching common family in North Carolina and we exchanged notes.

A couple years later I noticed the name Howland on the Census in Cortez, Florida. As I examined the names and details I realized they were Howlands who were related to Tom's family in North Carolina.

I spent a while researching the family and found Walter Raleigh Howland lived in Cortez from the mid 1890s but only stayed about 15-20 years and had moved to Punta Gorda, Florida by 1920. He was a fisherman in Cortez and Punta Gorda was another fishing community further south. He must have felt more connected to Cortez, maybe because of all the other folks there who came from the same area of North Carolina. When Walter died in 1946 his family buried him in the Palma Sola Cemetery near the other early settlers of Cortez.

Walter's son, Benjamin Clifford Howland was born in Cortez but later moved to Boston and was a car dealer there. He also must have also felt at home in Cortez because when he died in 1965 he was buried at the Palma Sola Cemetery. In my research I found two of Clifford's grandchildren. The both live near Boston and although they knew their Grandfather had been born there, they had never been to Cortez or knew of the family connections.

Heare lye Sir Thomas

In researching my Fulford family I've looked at the Fulfords in England for relatives. My ancestor, John Fulford came from there to North Carolina in the early 1600s.

I came across Sir Thomas Fulford who died in 1610. He is probably not a relative, but thought I would mention him because of his unique final resting place.

He and his wife were buried inside St. Mary's church in Dunsford, England. I found photos of their elaborate crypt and posted them on http://www.findagrave.com/

The Inscription on the plaque above them reads:

Heare lye Sir Thomas Fulforde
who died last day of july ano do 1610
Also his wife Ursula, who died 1639
daughter of Richd Bamfield, of Poltimore, Esq.
Their Children
1st Sir Francis, who married Ann heir of Bernard Samways Esqr of Toller Dorset
2nd William,
3rd Thomas,
4th Bridget married to Arthur Champerknowne Esqr of Dartington;
5th Elizabeth married to John Berriman Esq,
6th Ann, married to John Sydenham, of Somerset

Family Union

We spent this past weekend at Joe Wheeler State Park in Northern Alabama along with about 50 relatives on my wife's side of the family.

It was the 15th bi-annual family reunion of the children of Ivy and Lydia Lawrence from middle Tennessee. We attended the first one in 1982 in Orange, Virginia. We had been married less than a year for that one. Since then we've had two daughters who grew up going to the reunions and today are too grown and too far away to attend.

All but one of the eight children born to Lydia Lawrence have passed away since the reunions started but now there are not only a lot of great grandchildren who weren't born in 1982 but also many great great grandchildren.

The reunion has been held in many different locations, the choice of the host, which is fitting considering Ivy Lawrence moved his family more than 20 times around middle Tennessee. He owned a sawmill and would move it to where the work was and the family followed.

Cold drinks, Candy and Cigars

I found this old photo of the Gulfview Parlor Store in Cortez, Florida. The sign on the building says "Cold drinks, Candy and Cigars"! The property was owned by Joe Guthrie who also owned the Albion Hotel on the water. The photo was taken around 1925-30.


This building was one of the few near the water that survived the 1921 hurricane. It was later divided into three structures. The part to the right is now the home of Linda Molto, Cortez's resident artist. The other parts were used as a bowling alley and another house.


By the time I started visiting Cortez the only store near the water was a small grocery store in front of the present A. P. Bell Fish Company building. I can remember many times walking to it for candy and a few times on a mission from my Grandfather Tink for chewing tobacco or a couple cigars. My Grandfather enjoyed sending me and occasionally a sibling or cousin to the store and would pull out a handful of coins from his pocket and send us off on the candy run. When I came back with the small paper bag and he would always enjoy inspecting the take.