Three women who helped develop the Jacksonville beaches

Eleanor Kennedy Scull, her husband William, their daughter Ruby and a baby girl, Bessie, were one of the first known families to live at what is now Jacksonville Beach. They moved to the beach in 1884 and lived in a tent near the oceanfront. At first, the Sculls were very much alone. Mayport already had about 600 residents, but they were miles away through woods and marsh. The main ways to get to Mayport were by horseback or walking. In a 1939 interview about these early years Mrs. Scull said, "From the time we went to the beach in October 1884, until February, 1885, we were the only family there. Then a family built a small house located in the woods about a mile south. Another family lived at what is now Neptune Beach, two miles north."

The Sculls would not be alone very long. The railroad tracks of the Jacksonville and Atlantic Railway were being laid from Jacksonville to the beach. Soon the Sculls put up a second tent and made it into a general store. Their customers were mostly fishermen and woodsmen. Then after the railroad was complete to the beach and more people moved in, Mr. Scull decided to apply for a postoffice license for the little tent store. Mrs. Scull was appointed by the govenrment to be the postmistress. Since all postoffices have to have a name, they called the community Ruby Beach for their little daughter. The mail came once a week from Jacksonville up the St. Johns River by boat to Mayport . As postmistress, Mrs. Scull saw that people got their mail. Soon the name Ruby Beach was changed to Pablo Beach. Mrs. Scull said, "After the railroad was completed and the train had enough customers to run a daily schedule, the railroad company changed the name to San Pablo which was later known simply as Pablo Beach, and with daily mail service, the post office also became known as Pablo."

The Sculls built the very first house at Pablo Beach. A German ship loaded with mahogany wood from Honduras sprang a leak while it was in the ocean off the coast and the captain ran the boat ashore. Some of the mahogany wood washed down the beach. Mr. Scull used it to build a house which he finished in 1885. The Sculls moved their store and the postoffice into the new house. The home was used for many years by several different families and was later named the "Dixie House." Eventually, the Sculls moved from the beach back to Jacksonville where they had another daughter and a son.

Because Mrs. Scull was one of the first women to live at the beach, she was a real beach pioneer. After she was there, other women moved to the beaches with their husbands and children. Mrs. Scull said that for two years she never saw another woman. Men were her customers and bought sugar by the 100 pound sack and flour by the barrel. They did not buy supplies very often.

Though their life was hard compared to ours, they liked it. Mrs. Scull said, "That first winter was glorious, and how we did enjoy it. We were all so well and happy. The winter of 1885, however, was cold. But by then we had built the house. One cold day it was freezing and my husband says, `The Lord wants to freeze something. Why don't you fix up some ice-cream?' I did, putting the container in a barrel of water which froze and we had ice-cream."

Elizabeth Philip Stark was a pioneer of Mayport. When she moved to Mayport in 1914, the Sculls had already moved from the beaches back to Jacksonville. Atlantic Beach was a small resort. Cars could be driven from Jacksonville to the beach. Elizabeth Philip first stayed at the Atlantic Beach Hotel and she liked the area so well she bought two beach lots, but they were not quite right. She wanted someplace she could raise horses.

One day she met a young boy, Eddie Mier. He was riding a big white horse. Mrs. Stark told him she wanted a place she could keep some horses. Eddie told her, "I know just the place." He took her to a wooded area of Mayport. Elizabeth Philip said, "I found myself in a perfect paradise. Huge oak trees with branches hanging to the ground, cedars, bay, magnolia and holly. But best of all was the wonderful grass which grew even under the shade trees." An old two story house was on the property with stables behind it.

The next day, she traveled twenty miles on horse back to find the owners of the property and made arrangements to buy the 375 acre estate. She called it Wonderwood. She moved in and wrote her fiance, Jack Stark, to come look at her new home. When he arrived, he liked it as well as she did. They made a quick trip to Waycross, Georgia and got married by a Justice of the Peace. Then they began adding things to their Florida paradise.

They dug a well, built a swimming pool, built a fishing pier, and with the help of many people in Mayport, they dug a lake. Eventually, they built a small hotel, several cottages, stables and a polo ground. They called their resort Wonderwood-by-the-Sea and rented the cottages by the week or by the season.

About the time of World War I, Mrs. Stark became interested in the Girl Scouts and decided to organize a troop at Mayport. She planned to make them a horseback troop. Their purpose would be to patrol the beach helping in the war effort by looking for signs of spies and enemies. Mrs. Stark met with mothers and girls of Mayport to explain the troop to the mothers. The girls did not have to be persuaded. They wanted to belong from the moment they heard about it.

Mr. Stark and a Coast Guard lieutenant helped train and drill the girls. They became Cherokee Rose Troop No. 1. They wore wide-brimmed hats, black silk ties, khaki uniforms with knee length skirts and leggings. Several of them carried rifles and Mrs. Stark, who rode with them, carried a pistol in her saddlebag. Mrs. Stark said that several times they stopped spies trying to communicate with enemy ships.

Mrs. Stark also taught the girls first aid, art, cooking and marksmanship. They earned badges in laundry, music, and needlework. Since Mrs. Stark had no children of her own, she treated the girls like her children.

In the 1940's, the resort was sold and Mayport Naval Station took over the area. Mrs. Stark's home became the Mayport Naval Station's first Officers' Club. After her husband died and her beautiful resort was gone and the girls had grown up, Mrs. Stark was often seen wandering the woods alone like a lonely ghost. She died in 1967.

Rhoda Martin was an African-American pioneer at the beaches. Very little is known about her life. She wrote nothing about herself, or if she did, it has not survived. Her great-great-granddaughter, Marjorie Holloway, remembers seeing her and visiting her. She says, "She was a small person and rather quiet. She worked as a nanny for white families. She lived alone in a two story house on Shetter Street." She was known as Mother Martin.

Mrs. Holloway says Mother Martin started teaching young black children in her home. She wanted to improve the education of black children at the beach since there was no school for them. She also had church services in her home and some of the friends who met there started St. Andrews AME Church at the beaches.

The first school for black children of the beaches was opened in 1939. A group of people are working on getting the money to turn the old school into a museum. They plan to call it the Rhoda L. Martin Cultural Heritage Museum. The museum will have exhibits and programs that reflect the history of African-Americans.

The early women of the beaches were similar to pioneers everywhere. They worked hard in lonely, difficult conditions. For Mrs. Scull, there was no grocery store or shopping center down the street where life's needs could be bought. There was no doctor or hospital nearby in case of illness or accident. Mrs. Stark and Mrs. Martin were determined women who had the ability to see life's possibilities. All three women depended on themselves, helped others and made the most of their own lives.

Bibliography for this article

Floyd, Helen Cooper. "Wonder Woman' of Wonderwood." Sun-Times: 8, April, 1981, A-7.

Foley, Bill. "Disgust with big-city rat race gave the beaches life in 1880's." Florida Times Union: 20, August, 1997.

Holloway, Marjorie. Telephone interview with JoAnne Young. 15, September, 2004.

"Jacksonville Beach: A little history about Jacksonville Beach, Florida."

Pate, Jack. "Wonder about Wonderwood, Resort colony preceded naval station." Beaches Leader : 13, November, 1996, B-1.

Shepherd, Rose, "Ruby Beach." American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writer's Project, 1936-1940.

Stark, Elizaabeth P. "Story of Mayport, Site of the Great Modern Naval Station."