Vintage oil Painting: signed W. Riley
This is BIG vintage Florida oil painting.
Our research strongly suggests that this is a painting of the original 1825
Cape Florida Lighthouse, in Key Biscayne, Florida. Until
acquired from the estate, this painting had been hanging in its former owners
winter home. The well executed oil painting appears significantly older
than the 1950's vintage frame. Although we have neither the tools nor expertise
to definitively date the painting, we performed exhaustive research, attempting
to confirm location and identity of the subject matter, by which an approximate
age of the painting could be gauged. The results of our research have been provided
here for your review. The painting's subject matter, based on research and private
collection photos/sketches, is unquestionably 1800's, and physical characteristics
unique to this specific lighthouse appear to correspond to data that is not
readily available to the general public. The painting may date to around 1835.
It measures 53" x 41".
During Our Research on this painting....
We learned more about lighthouses than we ever thought possible. Using the vast
historical resources of both online and traditional libraries, we researched
lighthouses in every part of the world that could support
the growth of palm trees, a specific variety of which
was one of the identifying features in this painting.
(There are a LOT of lighthouses out there). The palms themselves (which
are now largely extinct) also helped to identify time period.
A combination of vintage sketches and photos, along with current aerial photographs,
allowed identification of most likely sketchbook angle or easel
location which resulted in the artist's perspective of the lighthouse and
original keepers cottage. At the time of the painting, plantings on the site
were flourishing, and erosion had not yet eaten away at the land. National Weather
Service records indicate that there was a tropical cyclone off the coast of
Cape Florida in 1830 which sank several ships, and a major hurricane hit Key
Biscayne in 1835. Florida historical records indicate that during the latter
storm, 1835, both the keepers cottage as well as the lighthouse and surrounding
vegetation incurred major damage. The painting appears to predate the 1835 hurricane,
after which some structural changes (a new porch, 4 dormer windows and an updated
kitchen building/wing) were made to the keepers cottage along with storm repairs.
You will learn that the original lighthouse, the one featured in this painting,
was attacked and burned by Seminole Indians the following year, in 1836. As
a result, the light remained out of commission for ten years. The remains of
the original lighthouse were torn down to make way for its replacement in 1846.
We have included vintage and aerial photographs of the replacement lighthouse(s)
and keepers cottage(s) to chronicle topographical changes to the site itself,
from the time the original lighthouse was painted. In addition to significant
erosion which changed the coast line and shortened the distance from the
original lighthouse to the ocean, (it originally sat 100' from the ocean, today
it is mere steps away), you will note from the aerial photographs that a concrete
seawall has been constructed and the natural sand bar which can be viewed at
the forefront of the painting has since been artificially reinforced as a protective
jetty for today's lighthouse.
Information available on this page (in the
order that it appears below).
All photos are enlargable.
Painting photo collage showing multiple close-ups.
Historical Cape Florida lighthouse photo collage.
Historical sketch showing multiple tents and people on the grounds of Cape Florida.
Segment of
woodcut showing lighthouse burning after being attacked by Seminole Indians.
Mid-1800's photo of replacement keeper's house and tower showing structure orientation
and palms
Early 1900's photo of keepers house & tower with palms dying
Five individual close ups of various segments of painting
Lighthouse terminology as it relates to survivor's account of Seminole attack
Palm tree information as it relates to specific variety appearing in painting
and historical photos
Historical information pertaining to Lighthouse height, style, placement, additional
structures as relates to painting.
Survivor's account of Seminole attack, burning of original lighthouse and keepers
cottage.
List of Lighthouse Keepers for Cape Florida
PostScript: A right strange coincidence.
There are also several links in the narrative which, when clicked, display related
photos.
Click any image to enlarge
Cottage and lighthouse were built in 1825. Closest we can pinpoint time
frame here is before hurricane hit in 1835, (after which a porch and 4 dormer
windows were added to the main portion of the cottage and the adjacent kitchen
was built/updated). The base of the lighthouse is obscured from view by
a combination of vegetation and the adjacent structure. |
The many faces of Cape Florida |
Lighthouse terminology and this early
sketch of Cape Florida lighthouse courtesy of Neil Hurley of Florida
Lighthouse, from his personal collection. Under magnification, the
identifying bands are faintly visible on the lighthouse.
Historical
sketch showing multiple tents and people on the grounds of Cape Florida.
NOTE: This sketch is more likely
to be related to early or perhaps 1835 hurricane repair construction
than military occupation of the site (which occured after cottage
and tower were attacked and burned in 1836), because; keepers cottage
and attached kitchen are intact, not burned to ground, sketch does
not show 4 dormer windows and porch added to cottage in 1835 during
repairs from major hurricane damage.
Tower does not appear to display iron gallery/platform referenced
in survivors account, (there may be scaffolding
in the lantern area) tower does not display signs of catastrophic
burning at door, windows and lantern, (structure had to be demolished)
light was non functioning for years after attack, so no reason to
freshly paint a non-functioning structure in the middle of war would
exist. Replicating keepers cottage and kitchen building unlikely.
Construction crews had declined to land since area was too dangerous
to work. Formerly lush landscaping is sparse, flattened, similar to
hurricane damage seen after Hurricane Andrew, coconut palms in sketch
remain intact and appear mature. |
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Cape Florida's original brick lighthouse and keepers quarters, built in
1825, were attacked and burned by Seminoles in 1836.
Government records for the light: ATTACKED BY SEMINOLE INDIANS, EXTINGUISHED
1836-1846
Smoke and raging flames billow from tower door, windows
and lantern room. Whale oil lantern fuel and yellow pine staircase turned
tower into blazing inferno.
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Above in photo collage: The 1846 Cape Florida Light was discontinued
in 1878 after construction of Fowey Rock
light. (so named after the H.M.S. Fowey, a twenty gun sloop of
war which was lost on the treacherous reefs off Key Biscayne) Shortly
afterward, Cape Florida's empty keeper’s house burned, leaving only a
shell of brick. Photo of ruins of keepers dwelling..
In 1880 the site had larger keepers quarters and the adjacent building
had a different configuration. There's a fresh coat of whitewash on the
new lighthouse. The Jamaican Tall palm trees still thrived.
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The Jamaican Tall coconut
palms were dying in early 1900. The adjacent building is no longer in
evidence . This cottage, one of the many replacements over the years,
no longer had dormer windows. Major land erosion.
Note proximity of tower to ocean.
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Click any close up image of the PAINTING to enlarge
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| Sailboat. Note the crooked driftwood boom and rows of covered
boxes or traps on boat. Observe tiller. Birds hunch together on boom. This
may be the assistant keepers sloop the Seminoles took, referenced in survivor's
account. |
Keeper's cottage. Amazing detail when enlarged. Structure
looks to be brick with a second floor. |
Waves rush ashore, ripples of water and sea foam ebb and flow
on the sand. A forked piece of bleached driftwood lies on the beach near
dark patches of seaweed. |
Platform and lantern.
The original interior stairway of the lighthouse was wood.
The balcony portion of original iron platform was most likely also wood,
similar to a widows walk, which would be replaced with more durable cast
iron during repairs made after 1935 hurricane damage. Wood railings would
not have withstood hurricane winds, accounting for missing balcony railing
in early sketch. Rust stains are visible against white paint beneath platform's
iron structural supports.
In the end, one man lived, one died up there, while a raging fire burned
within the lighthouse and Seminole attackers swarmed the ground beneath
them. |
This appears to be a structure located near the base of the
lighthouse. Squared fenestration opening is visible. White splashes of bird
poop have landed on roof of this structure. |
Lighthouse terminology:
LANTERN ROOM Glassed-in housing at the top of a lighthouse tower containing
the lamp and lens.
"We went out of the lantern and down
on the edge of the platform, 2 feet wide. The lantern was now
full of flame..." - (1836 survivors account)
GALLERY On a lighthouse tower, a platform or walkway or BALCONY located
outside the watchroom (main gallery) and/or lantern room (lantern gallery.)
1836 survivors account references both an iron railing and iron stanchion. "I
got up, went inside the iron railing, recommending my soul to God, and
was on the point of going head foremost on the rock below when something dictated
to me to return and lie down again. .."
Palm Trees: The Jamaican Tall variety of coconut trees which once lined
south Florida's shorelines, and which appear in the painting, early sketch and
historic photograph displayed above, could live to be over 100 years old and
grow to be 85 ft tall. They were a rapidly growing variety of coconut and were
typically found along sandy shorelines, since the fruit can float for long distances
and still germinate to form new trees after being washed ashore. In Florida
the only geographic area which provided a hospitable climate for coconut palms,
ran from Stuart on the east coast and Punta Gorda on the west coast, on south
thru Key West. The coconut palm starts fruiting 6 to 10 years after the seed
germinates and reaches full production at 15 to 20 years of age. Each tree continues
to fruit until it is about 80 years old with an annual production of 50 to
200 fruits per tree, depending on cultivar and climate. The fruits
require about a year to develop and are generally produced regularly throughout
the year. Mature coconut trees therefore can each drop several coconuts per
week, which sprout, grow rapidly, thrive and propogate in the warm beach sand
of oceanfront dunes. Coconut palms are quite tolerant of windy sites and generally
survive hurricane force winds. The most common damage from hurricane winds is
loss of leaves and toppling over. The handful of mature coconut palms which
appear in the early sketch and painting therefore, would form the basis for
the beginning of a tropical jungle on the island of Key Biscayne. (See masses
of palms in photo of abandoned second lighthouse)
Lethal yellow disease, which rapidly decimated
Florida's palm trees, first appeared in Key West two hundred years ago, in the
1800's but wasn't actually diagnosed until 1956. Within
three years, 75 percent of the coconut palms were killed. By 1971, the disease
had spread up the Florida Keys to South Miami. Lethal yellowing killed an estimated
95 percent of the coconut palms - 100,000 coconut palms and thousands of other
palm species - in the greater Miami area by 1983. Malayan varieties of coconut
palm, which offer significantly less height and markedly slower growth than
their predecessors, the Jamaican Talls, have displayed only slightly better
resistance to Lethal Yellow disease. Jamaican Talls at
Cape Florida Lighthouse on Key Biscayne began dying around 1900 (see photo).
CAPE FLORIDA LIGHT & SURVIVORS ACCOUNT
SOUTHERNMOST POINT ON KEY BISCAYNE
Station Established: 1825 (remains demolished to
build 1845 tower)
Year Current Tower(s) First Lit: 1845
Operational? YES
Automated? YES 1976
Deactivated: 1990-1996
Foundation Materials: BRICK ON CORAL REEF
Construction Materials: BRICK W/STEEL STAIRS
Tower Shape: CONICAL
Markings/Pattern: WHITEWASHED RED BRICK W/BLACK TOP
Relationship to Other Structure: SEPARATE
Original Lens: SECOND ORDER, FRESNEL 1855
General Information:
The
Cape Florida Lighthouse was completed in 1825. It was 65 feet high, of solid
brick, 5 feet thick at the base. For years it guided the mariner as he passed
the dangerous Florida Reef and led him into Cape Florida Channel to a safe anchorage
from violent gales in the lee of Key Biscayne. A simple two-story brick keepers
cottage was built. It was situated "400 yards from the beach in every direction".
A kitchen was later attached to the back of the dwelling.
The combination of original sketches and
photos combined with latter day photos showing the roofline of the cottage assisted
in pinpointing the artists perspective which helped confirm the identity of
the lighthouse.
Note: Although we found virtually every lighthouse
to be visually distinct from other lighthouses, specific varieties and related
construction similarities are usually readily identifiable.
Exhaustive research indicates that the lighthouse
in this painting conforms with general style of other
1820's - 1830's era lighthouses of brick
construction as would be typical for this time period. (the first cast iron
lighthouses did not make their appearance in the U.S. until 1844, according
to the U.S. Government maritime history of lighthouse construction materials.)
John Dubose, the District Inspector of Customs
and a former Navy officer, was appointed as keeper of the original Cape Florida
lighthouse. Dubose, his wife, five children, and two free blacks -- became the
first Americans to live on Key Biscayne. The family lit the tower for the first
time on December 17, 1825.
The Cape Florida lighthouse generated many
complaints in its early years, with most of the blame centered on the light's
first keeper, John Dubose. At one point, Dubose admitted to living in a house
on the mainland 5 miles away while his black slave, a woman, along with her
child, kept the lighthouse. After being reprimanded, Dubose returned to the
lighthouse.
In 1835 a hurricane hit Key Biscayne and caused damage
to the lighthouse and keeper's quarters. The storm surge also destroyed many
of the imported plantings and left the key with much standing water. When repairs
were made, four dormered windows and a porch were added to the keepers dwelling.
A kitchen had already been added to the original structure.
That same year, a physician, Dr. Benjamin
Strobel, came from Key West by ship and hauled away tons of ecologically important
beach sand from the dunes on Key Biscayne to use in the construction of a hospital.
The following year, in 1836, worse trouble
would come to Key Biscayne. Seminoles, angered at broken promises by the U.S.
government, turned their wrath on white settlers.
The area around present day Miami was abandoned
in mid 1835 when Seminole Indians massacred the wife and children of William
Cooley near present day Fort Lauderdale. The refugees gathered at the Cape Florida
Lighthouse on Key Biscayne for protection before fleeing the area entirely for
Key West, joined by Dubose's wife and children. Two days later, William Cooley
volunteered to return to the Cape Florida lighthouse to restore the light. Dubose
himself finally returned to the lighthouse a few months later.
In July 1835, there were three guards posted
at the lighthouse to assist Dubose. Desiring to sail to Key West for supplies,
Dubose and one of the men sailed away, leaving the other two guards, assistant
keeper, John W.B. Thompson and Thompson's helper Aaron "Henry" Carter,
an elderly black man, to keep the light.
On the afternoon of July 23, 1836, as Dubose
was celebrating his birthday in Key West, a band of about 50 Seminole warriors
attacked the lighthouse.
. Thompson wrote an account of
that day;
"About p.m. as I was going
from the kitchen to the dwelling house, I discovered a large body of Indians
within 20 yards of me, back of the kitchen. I ran for the lighthouse, and
called out to the old Negro man that was with me to run, for the Indians were
near. At that moment they discharged a volley of rifle balls, which cut my
clothes and hat and perforated the door in many places. We got in, and as
I was turning the key the savages had hold of the door."
Thompson stationed Carter at the
door and then began firing his three muskets loaded with ball and buckshot,
at them from a window. They answered with war cries and musket balls.
Thompson fired at them from some of the other windows and from the top of the
lighthouse.
"I kept them from the house
until dark. They then poured in a heavy fire at all the windows and
lantern; that was the time they set fire to the door and to the window even
with the ground. The window was boarded up with planks and filled with stone
inside; but the flames spread fast, being fed with yellow pine wood. Their
balls had perforated the tin tanks of oil, consisting of 225 gallons. My bedding,
clothing, and in fact everything I had was soaked in oil."
Thompson took one musket with powder
keg and balls to the top of the lighthouse, then went below and began to cut
away the stairs about half way up from the bottom. "I had difficulty in
getting the old Negro up the space I had already cut, but the flames now drove
me from my labor, and I retreated to the top of the house." The keeper
covered over the scuttle that led to the lantern, which kept the fire from him
for some time. "At last the awful moment arrived," he went on:
"the crackling flames burst
around me. The savages at the same time began their hellish yells. My poor
Negro looked at me with tears in his eyes, but he could not speak. We
went out of the lantern and down on the edge of the platform, 2 feet wide.
The lantern was now full of flame, the lamps and glasses bursting and flying
in all directions, my clothes on fire, and to move from the place where I
was, would be instant death from their rifles. My flesh was roasting, and
to put an end to my horrible suffering I got up and threw the keg of gunpowder
down the scuttle. Instantly it exploded and shook the tower from top to bottom.
It had not the desired effect of blowing me into eternity, but it threw down
the stairs and all the wooden work near the top of the house; it damped the
fire for a moment, but it soon blazed as fierce as ever."
Carter called out, "I’m
wounded." Then spoke no more. Those were his last words.
By this time, Thompson had also received many wounds and was literally roasting
alive. He decided to jump off the tower. "I got up, went inside
the iron railing, recommending my soul to God,
and was on the point of going head foremost on the rock below when something
dictated to me to return and lie down again. I did so, and in 2 minutes the
fire fell to the bottom of the house." A few minutes later a stiff
breeze sprung up from the southward that was a great relief to the heat-tortured
keeper. The Indians, thinking him dead, turned their attention from the lighthouse
to the residence. They looted and burned the keeper's house. Carrying their
plunder to the beach, they made off with it in the keeper’s sloop about
2 a. m.
"I was now almost as bad off
as before," the keeper continued, "a burning fever on me, my feet
shot to pieces, no clothes to cover me, nothing to eat or drink, a hot sun overhead,
a dead man by my side, no friend near or any to expect, and placed between 70
and 80 feet from the earth with no chance of getting down." Carter's
body had literally been roasted but there was a piece of his trousers that had
escaped the flames by being wet with his blood. With this Thompson made a signal.
Some time in the afternoon he saw two boats, with his sloop in tow, coming to
the landing. They were the boats of the U. S. schooner Motto, Captain
Armstrong, with a detachment of seamen and marines under the command of Lieutenant
Thomas J. Leib, of the sloop-of-war Concord. They had retaken Thompson’s
sloop, after the Indians had stripped her of sails and rigging. They had heard
the explosion, 12 miles off, and had come to his assistance, scarcely expecting
to find him alive.
The problem now arose of how to
get the keeper down. During the night they made a kite thinking to fly a line
to him but to no effect. Then they fired twine from their muskets, made fast
to a ramrod, which the keeper received and with it hauled up a tail block, making
it fast around an iron stanchion, enabling two
men to be hoisted up from below. The keeper was then lowered and was soon on
terra firma. His hair was gone and several fingers and toes were shot off. Carter’s
body was brought down and buried beside the lighthouse. Thompson was taken to
the military hospital. His burns and musket wounds eventually healed but Thompson
was physically and emotionally unable to bring himself to return to duty at
the lighthouse. It was later reported that the top of the lighthouse had more
than 200 bullet holes in it.
Funds for construction of a new
lighthouse were appropriated in 1837, but the continued threat of Indian attacks
prevented construction of a new tower until 1846.
The U.S. military ( Lt. Col. William S.
Harney and his troops) were camped at the Cape Florida site from the late 1830's
until 1842. The area was known briefly as Fort Dallas, then as Fort Bankhead.
An attempt to rebuild the lighthouse was
scheduled for 1837 and again in 1841. The first attempt was immediately abandoned
when the construction vessel arrived and learned that ".. hostile Indians were
in entire possession of the adjacent country". The second attempt failed as
a result of problems with construction staff. Construction finally began in
October of 1846.
The remains
of the original tower were torn down to make way for the 1846 tower.
(Source:National
Park Service, Maritime Heritage Program ) The
new lighthouse was built according to the original specifications. A superintendent,
all necessary workmen and materials were brought to the site. The completed
lighthouse was described as: masonry 65 feet, reflector lens, cast iron stairs.
In 1855 the tower was raised to
95 feet. One historical record references the
fact that the newly extended tower was situated 100 yards
from the Atlantic.
The lighting apparatus was destroyed in 1861, during the Civil War. The
center portion of the lens was smashed by three confederate sympathizers on
the night of August 21, 1861. One of the attackers was A. Oswald Lang, an assistant
Lighthouse Keeper at Jupiter Inlet Light. The lens was not restored until 1867.
Cape Florida Light was discontinued
in 1878 when Fowey Rock Light was established. Over the years the tower and
property were sold to various private owners.
The Cape Florida property and tower
were eventually sold to James Deering of Evanston, Illinois in 1915. Deering
was also the owner/builder of Miami's famed bayfront mansion, Vizcaya.
The keepers quarters and other
small outbuildings were largely washed away
during a 1920's hurricane. By the early 1920's, the lighthouse had been so severely
impacted by erosion it was now only ten yards from
the Atlantic. The Deering family had a new foundation installed to prevent the
lighthouse itself from washing away.
The lighthouse was boarded up in
1933 to prevent damage from vandals.
The state of Florida acquired the
property in the 1960s and developed it into the Bill Baggs Cape Florida State
Park. Through the cooperation with the Coast Guard, the neglected lighthouse
was restored and a glass 375-mm lens was placed atop the structure and a replica
of the 1946 keeper's cottage was built. The new light was re-lit on 15
June 1978.
The lighthouse fell into decline
during the 1990s after sustained winds of 165 mph, gusts up to 200mph, and a
twelve foot storm surge tore out 98% of Cape Florida's lush tropical forest.
Amazingly, the lighthouse survived Hurricane Andrew, a category 5 storm, losing
all of its white paint, but sustaining only moderate damage.
PHOTOGRAPH IN CHRONOLOGICAL COLLAGE:
Cape Florida Light Station original photo caption states:
(front-side of photo): "Looking northeasterly at the tower. Ruins
of keeper's dwelling to the left.";
(back-side of photo): "CAPE FLORIDA (ABANDONED) 1878, SEVENTH NAVAL DISTRICT
BY Ch. COnstr'g Engr. Mar. 18, 1923, Filed Jan. 21, 1929."; 18 March 1923;
no photo number.
Survivor account is from U.S. Coast Guard records.
Lighthouse Keepers for Cape Florida:
John Dubose (b.1779 - d.1845) served 1825 - 1836
Reason Duke (b.1792 - d.?) served 1846 - 1852
Temple Pent (b.1794 - d.1868) served 1852 - 1853
Robert R. Fletcher (b. 1801 - d. ?) served 1853 - 1855
Charles S. Barron (b. ? - d. ?) served 1855 - 1859
Simeon Frow (b. 1808 - d. 1886) served 1859 - 1865
Temple Pent (b. 1794 -d. 1868) served 1866 - 1868 (second tour of duty)
John W. Frow (b. 1841 - d. 1918) served 1868 - 1878
(The Cape Florida light was extinguished on June 15, 1878. John W. Frow then
moved offshore to operate Fowey Rocks light.)
PostScript dated 07/27/03:
The theme from the old Twilight Zone series echoes in the background, as we
ask ourselves "What are the chances.....?"
We'll let you try to figure this one out.
On Sunday, July 27th, Michael, the brother of the woman who performed the majority
of the research on this painting was looking at batteries at the Walmart store
in Stuart, Florida, when an elderly gentleman ambled over and struck up a conversation.
We're advised that after a bit of small talk, the older man allowed as how
he was originally from the Miami area, and had lived at the Cape Florida
lighthouse on Key Biscayne as a child, before
there was a bridge to the mainland. He remarked that Seminoles had burned
the lighthouse down.
Michael was struck by the coincidence, and said although he too was a native
of Miami, he had only just learned the history of the original lighthouse himself,
as a result of an old painting that his sister had been researching.
The elderly man said he was living in Stuart now, gave Michael his name, said
he was "in the book", then bade him farewell.
The elderly man said his name was George Dubose.
The first keeper at the Cape Florida Lighthouse was John Dubose, who moved there
with his wife and 5 children in 1825.
So here's the problem;
We can find no listing for a George Dubose in the Stuart phone book, nor in
any of the surrounding areas. We've already telephoned everybody with even remotely
similar names. No luck.
And if you look at the historical list of keepers (above), you'll see that
according to the records, the Dubose family only lived at the Cape Florida lighthouse
until 1836, when Seminoles burned the lighthouse down.
Now, we know there's probably a perfectly logical explanation for this
encounter.
We just don't happen to have it.
Uh...George? If you're out there and you happen to see this, give us a call,
won't you?
We'd really like to talk to you. 772-219-0457.
