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Yankee Engineer in Florida
F. W. Bruce Source: Cleve Powell
Florida has long “planted Yankees” to earn money; they moved to the peninsula
for a variety of reasons--weather, low taxes, cheap land, and opportunity. Frederick
William Bruce[1] was one such Yankee, a New
Hampshire man, who moved for these reasons in the 19th century to the frontier
state of Florida. His life is a case study of why people migrated.
He was the son and nephew of United State Army
soldiers who helped conquer the Confederacy in the 1860s during the Civil War. He made his
life in Florida. The contrast between the two locales was dramatic. Lempster, Sullivan
County, New Hampshire, where he was born birth on May 10, 1856, was not only rural (only
415 people lived there in 1790 and only 667 in 1950) but also hilly (the highest point in
Lempster is Bean Mountain at 2,326 feet), forested, landlocked, largely, if not entirely,
Protestant, and homogenous. Small farms dotted such terrain. New Hampshire hosted many
mills.
Lempster Meeting House
Source: http://www.lempsternh.org/FLMH/fundraiser.html
 
By contrast, St Augustine and Jacksonville, Florida, where
he finally settled, were very different. St. Johns County (St. Augustine is the county
seat) contained 4,535 people in 1880 and boomed to 8,712 in 1890. Duval County
(Jacksonville is the county seat) in which he lived much of his adult life and where he
died had 11,921persons in 1870 and grew to 19,431 by 1880.
St. Augustine was the oldest continuously settled urban
place in the United States having been founded in 1565 by Spaniards. Its population
included English, Minorcans[2], and African
Americans, some Protestant, some Roman Catholic. The Jacksonville area[3] was even more diverse in population, terrain, and economic
activity as the largest city in Florida and a railroad hub. Both counties were flat; the
elevation was 5 feet in St Augustine and 16 feet in Jacksonville. The most striking
difference between his birthplace and his adopted home of North Florida was water, lots of
water—the Atlantic Ocean, the St. Johns, Pablo, and Tomolato Rivers, creeks, bays,
inlets. Most of his professional career involved water.
St. Augustine, Florida, 1861-65 Source:
Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:St._Augustine_Historic_District.jpg
How did the adult F. W. Bruce find himself over
1,200 miles from home? He attended the public schools of New Hampshire and Massachusetts
but he had ties to Florida. Both F. W.'s father, Timothy (a carpenter in civilian life),
and his father’s brother, Elisah, had been stationed there as United States Army
soldiers in 1862 during the Civil War as part of the 7th New Hampshire Infantry. Elisah
married a local girl, Raphiella Usina[4], and
stayed after the war. In 1869, at age 13, F. W. was sent to live with his uncle Elisha in
St. Augustine. In 1870, he ran away to sea on the brig Enterprise, an adventure
that would take him to ports in Cuba, Mexico, and other parts of the Caribbean.
After two years at sea, Bruce returned to New
Hampshire in 1871. He studied in a navigation school in Boston and worked on ships. Before
he was sixteen, his captain died at sea and the crew put him in command so he could then
guide the ship home through a storm. He went to high school in Fitchburg, Massachusetts.
He acquired his engineering knowledge by intensive home study under private tutoring and
then studied civil engineering while working as a sailor during the summers. He also
attended navigation school in Boston, Massachusetts, and rose to the rank of captain. He
worked in book binding in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, seafaring, and then in the mill
machinery shops of P. H. Paddleford in Littleton, N.H. prior to l877.
The sojourn with Paddleford settled him down;
he married the boss’ daughter, Clara Frances, on July 23, l877 in Monroe, New
Hampshire. They had a daughter, Sarah Louise, on June 20, l878 in Lake Village (now
Lakeport), New Hampshire.[5] New Hampshire was
small and sparsely populated which necessitated him seeking a variety of jobs. He did
carpentry, built railroad coaches, surveyed, and worked as a civil engineer. He also
worked as a draftsman for the Boston, Concord & Montreal Railroad in the Motive Power
Department and was also in charge of the removal of wrecks. F.W. was making a life for
himself and his family.
Life was hard in New Hampshire. Cleve Powell, his great grandson, reports that in the
pamphlet Glimpses of Old Lempster, “After the Civil war he found that the
economic activity in Lempster could not generate income or entrepreneurial opportunities.”
A few years after moving to Florida, F. W. would remark that opportunities for a young man
seemed dim in New Hampshire [“Fort Keeper and surveyor [sic] F. Bruce: his
letters,” [sic] The East-Florida Gazette, 21:1, January, 2003.] Although he
was adventuresome, he stayed in Lempster close to his parents and other family members.
That changed in 1884 when most of the Bruce
clan left New England to join Elisha in St. Augustine in hopes that the much warmer
climate would improve his mother’s health. Thereafter, Florida was his home.
The timing was excellent for two reasons. In
July, 1884, Congress had appropriated $5,000 in 1884 to repair and do upkeep on Fort
Marion and Henry M. Flagler had arrived that winter and decided to build a winter resort
for the wealthy with expensive hotels. Doing so required hiring a surveyor not only for
the Ponce de Leon Hotel but also for the infrastructure for a resort including draining
marshes, building streets, providing water, dealing with waste. Although Bruce was a New
England Yankee whose father, Timothy Bruce, IV, and uncle Elisah had been US Army soldiers
occupying rebellious Florida, his heritage was no problem. Florida welcomed immigrants.
The family established businesses in this small town in a frontier state. He was better
educated than most and possessed valuable technical skills and he had his surveying tools
with him.
St. Augustine agreed with him. He worked
privately as a civil engineer and surveyor. He surveyed land and then became City
Engineer. When Henry M. Flagler began building the 540-roomHotel Ponce de Leon Hotel in
1885, Bruce did all the engineering and surveying until February, 1886. During this time,
he also rebuilt part of the St Augustine & Tocoi Railroad and did survey work for it,
both of which became part of Flagler’s Florida East Coast Railroad).
Source: Cleve Powell
The U.S. Corps of Engineers[6] hired him in 1885; he retired in 1913. His first job with
the Corps was as Fort Keeper of Fort Marion (now Castillo de San Marcos), restoring and
repairing it, particularly the Roman arch. The Spanish began the fort in 1672, completing
it in 1695, to protect the Spanish treasure fleets. It was renamed by the British and then
the United States when each took control of St. Augustine.
Source: Cleve Powell
The fort was an important part of the little
town, yielding a steady flow of federal money. It became a prison and school in 1875 for
captured Native Americans from the Midwest and the Southwest, including Kiowas and
Chiricahua Apaches, including some of Geronimo’s followers. Geronimo
was imprisoned at Fort Pickens (Pensacola), Florida. [7]
Source: Cleve Powell
Working for the Florida District of the Corps
meant he went where ordered in a very large state in land area but with a small
population. His ability to rise to and overcome the challenges presented and his devotion
to duty brought success. In February, 1886, he became Inspector of dredging at the
Apalachicola and Carrabelle Rivers in the Florida panhandle, over 250 miles from his St.
Augustine home.
In November, 1886, he was promoted to Assistant
Engineer. He continued in St. Augustine until 1889. From February 1889 to December 1897,
he was Superintendent in Charge of the sand bar and jetty work at the mouth of the St.
Johns River. Bruce lived on the south side of the river in the old village of Mayport,
almost at the river’s mouth, with its easier connections to Jacksonville.
Bruce’s 1890 version of the 1888 Corp map of the mouth of the St. Johns River
Source: Cleve Powell
 
Bruce home in Mayport
Source: Cleve Powell
Flowing north from central Florida, the river
carried materials from the interior but did not flow so swiftly that they were carried far
into the ocean. Moreover, ocean tides affected the flow. Sand bars formed making passage
dangerous without the aid of experienced pilots. As bigger ships transited, the problem
worsened. Florida politicians lobbied Congress to spend money to help the port of
Jacksonville and the private enterprises that used it. The first appropriation came in
1879; by 1887, $633, 749 had been appropriated. The U. S. government constructed two
jetties into the Atlantic Ocean to channel the river to make navigation easier for deep
draft ships. The jetties were constructed of huge granite boulders barged from New York
and New England. The boulders weighed between one and six tons and were placed on a
“mattress” of logs and brush sunk by layers of rip rap. The North jetty of
10,930 feet was finished in 1892; the South jetty of 11,300 feet was completed by 1895.
Source: Cleve Powell
Dredging the river to rid it of sand bars and
to maintain the required depth of the shipping channel for ocean going ships was and is a
necessity. Although the jetties mitigated the buildup of sand, larger and larger ships
necessitated periodic dredging as well as pilot ships. The government also began a
dredging program to eliminate sand bars in the river. The Corps also removed wrecks and
other debris from the river. Once Bruce had the processes systematized, the work did not
require all his attention.
Source: GlobalSecurity.org
1943
Aerial photo of mouth of the St. Johns River
Source: Florida, State of, PALMM Project, Aerial Tiles from Flight 1C over Duval in 1943
Source: Cleve Powell
Funding was erratic because Congress vacillated
over the propriety of the project so Bruce was assigned other duties in the interim.
Eventually five jetty contracts involving an expenditure of about a million dollars were
made. In between funding, Bruce surveyed various rivers and harbors in the Florida
District, principally in Mayport, the Ocklawaha and Upper St. Johns Rivers, and elsewhere
in the state. He was sent to the far south, Key West, in December, 1897 to work on Fort
Zachary Taylor, a fort which played an important role in the Civil War and the Spanish
American was in guarding the United States from its enemies with its 10-inch guns with a
range of three miles.
Source: Cleve Powell
Bruce supervised the construction of modern gun
emplacements under tough working conditions—storms, isolation, and dengue fever. He
commented on some of the problems to his supervisor, Captain C. H. McKinstry.
Key West, Fla.
August 16, 1899
Personal .
Dear Captain:
I have the honor to acknowledge receipt today of letter dated August 10th and
marked “confidential”, on losing a copy of the report on barracks site signed by
Captain Harlow as President. This will receive the earliest possible attention.
I would report that C. M. Brown is sick and confined to his bed with Dengue fever, and I
see no way but that I will have to inspect the jetty work until his recovery, as there is
no one here that has ever had any experience whatever on similar work.
Yours truly:
(signed F. W. Bruce)
Captain C. H. McKinstry
Corps of Engineers, U. S. A.
St. Augustine, Florida
Serving over 500 miles from St Augustine was a
real hardship and he did not want to maintain a third home in addition to the ones he had
in St Augustine and Mayport. District Engineer Captain C. H. McKinstry, moved
to the District office in St Augustine, leaving Bruce in Key West. Bruce also worked on
the Sand Key Lighthouse seven miles southwest of Ft. Taylor.
Bruce is standing on the left holding a brace
Source: Cleve
Powell
Bruce grew tired of living so far from home and wrote McKinstry to that
effect.
Personal
Key West, Fla. August 28, 1899
Dear Captain:
I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your personal letter dated August 25th.
I am as anxious to get away from Key West as ever, and thank you for your interest in the
matter, but I do not expect to be relieved so long as it is to the interest of the work
for me to remain here. I readily understand that private wishes have no influence on
official demands and possess myself with patience.
The last few weeks have been very warm and, unless there is soon a period of cooler
weather, I fear very much there will be an epidemic of dengue fever as there was last
year. There are many cases around town now, but the employees of this office have not been
attacked except C. M. Brown, who is now nearly recovered though he has not been to the
jetty since being sick.
Very truly,
(signed F. W. Bruce)
Captain C. H. McKinstry
Corps of Engineers, U. S. A.
St. Augustine, Fla.
The letter worked for, by September, 1899, he was back in St. Augustine in the U. S.
Engineers office, having deposited a thousand dollars in a Jacksonville bank. From his
home in Mayport, he only had to go about eight miles upriver to do a survey of the gun
batteries complex on St. Johns Bluff.
1918 Map St. Johns mouth Source: U. S. Corps of Engineers
The Spanish American War of 1898 frightened
some with the possibility of invasion by Spain. So the military built a gun emplacement
which included the requisite support system on St Johns Bluff. No enemy war ship could
have passed to attack Jacksonville, not that the Spanish had the capability or intention
of doing so. The war was over in a matter of months. After the hysteria passed, the guns,
never fired, were removed. The built structures remained. Disputes arose about land
ownership. Bruce J. W. Sackett started a topographical survey on November 14th;
the final drawing is dated December 6, 1899. It showed the dock, RR, empty gun
emplacements and buildings as well as the area leased. Bruce’s survey became
important. At the same time, he also had to be concerned with the Mayport jetties.
Key West haunted him for he felt compelled to write to M. T. Reybold
about his attitude towards him.
Mayport, Fla.
September 5, 1900
Mr. M. T. Reybold
U. S. Engineer Office,
Key West, Fla.
Sir:
I have had to my attention frequently called to remarks and criticisms made by you
concerning myself with reference to the neglect of my official duty and honesty to the
Government. Also criticisms of my ability, authority &c., in fact nearly everything
that would be detrimental to a desirable reputation, especially from a business view.
In justice to myself I will have to ask you to discontinue all such remarks in future or
it may become necessary to call upon you to substantiate or refute your statements.
I have friendly feelings towards you and this letter may be considered as strictly
personal, except that the derogatory remarks and statements continue to come to my
attention.
Yours truly,
(signed F. W. Bruce)
One wonders what happened but it probably relates to engineering disagreements at Fort
Taylor such as these:
Key West, Florida, August 19, 1899
Confidential
Captain C. H. McKinstry,
Corps of Engineers, U. S. A.
St. Augustine, Florida.
Captain:
In reply to your letter of August 10th. and marked “Confidential,” I
have the honor to report as follows:
The entire water front between the North and South gun Battery is about the same elevation
and forms a ridge averaging 85 feet in width, back of which it is lower and of nearly
equal elevation. All of this lower portion is subject to standing water for a period after
heavy rains or storm tides. The width of the ridge, however, has been widened somewhat
where the office stands by filling.
As to natural advantages, I see none except it be in favor of a location further south
where if buildings were built on the ridge referred to, they would certainly be further
from the ponds concerning which there is apparently much alarm. If the ponds are
unsanitary, the office certainly is in a bad location as it is directly in the lea of the
worst pond, (that is in front of the Mortar Battery), with the prevailing S. E. winds,
while to move them further south would be an improvement in that respect with no
perceptible greater danger from the night soil dump which would be still one third mile
away and never been a source of annoyance to any part of the reservation to my knowledge.
I think the statement in the report of the board, that the washings from the most
unsanitary part of the city are deposited in the depressions on the reservation wholly an
error as an inspection of the ground should show, but that the said wash is all deposited
in the pond back of the office.
The statement in the report that the area in front of the Mortar Battery is unsuitable for
reasons there stated, is not tenable as it is easily drained, which the pond back of the
office cannot be, and if built upon in the middle would give a greater distance from
Insanitary spots than any other, while if utilized is near the water front as the office
is it would be the farthest possible distance from all objectionable points.
The statement that barracks at the present site of office would be most centrally located
, is questioned especially if due weight is given to the importance and magnitude of the
various batteries, which point would be obviously further south.
I have not been able to find any old maps bearing upon the locations of engineer buildings
giving more information than that enclosed today with another letter. I have searched
through the old records and find nothing bearing upon the project.
I shall supplement this letter at as early a date as possible with what information that
can be obtained from old citizens.
Very respectfully,
(signed F. W. Bruce)
Assistant Engineer
The District Office moved back to Jacksonville
in 1900. From 1884 until 1888 it was in Jacksonville, the logical locale, but moved to St
Augustine because of the yellow fever epidemic there. Much of the Corps’ work
concerned the growing port of Jacksonville. Bruce followed in 1906, moving to the City of
South Jacksonville, across the river from Jacksonville. Then, in 1912, he moved to
Arlington, a community also south of the river but closer to Mayport.
The remainder of his career working for others
involved engineering dock facilities on the banks of the St. Johns River. He retired from
the U.S. Corps of Engineers in 1913 at age 57 to work for the Jacksonville Port
Commission, designing and constructing the Jacksonville Municipal Docks . Then, in 1917,
Bruce took charge of the building of the South Side Shipyard owned by the Merrill-Stevens
Company.
The Merrill-Stevens shipyard was a large and
important enterprise not only for Jacksonville but also for the United States. Its
predecessor was Jacob Brock’s shipyard o founded in the 1850s. When Brock died in
1877, Alonzo Stevens bought it; ten years later it became the Merrill-Stevens Engineering
Company. The great Fire of Jacksonville in 1901 destroyed it but it was rebuilt.
"Merrill Stevens Shipbuilding bought an 80 acre site, which was the old Hudhall farm
and, with F. W. Bruce as supervisor, built boat slips, marine rails, dry-docks, a water
tower made of concrete, a huge pattern loft, and a total of nine buildings including, a
generator building, pattern building, and offices". It became on sources of barges
used in building the Panama Canal. By 1918 in the midst of the First World War,
Merrill-Stevens employed 1,500 persons. Because of Merrill-Stevens, Jacksonville played an
important role in both WWI and WWII in the construction and repair of ships for the war
effort. During the latter war, 82 Liberty ships were constructed.[8]
Merrill-Stevens Shipyard
Source: Cleve Powell
F. W. Bruce, Merrill-Stevens shipyards
Source: Cleve Powell
Engineering was not his only endeavor. He held
appointments as Justice of Peace under Governors Sidney Catts (1917-21) and Cary Hardee
(1921-25). Along with H. L. Sprinkle, George Spaulding, and John Alderman, he started the
Alderman Realty Company, which developed the subdivisions Arlington Heights, Arlington
Heights Addition and Alderman Farms, north of the present-day Arlington Expressway
(Florida 115). Arlington was unincorporated and tied to Jacksonville and South
Jacksonville by a ferry started by the realty company.
In 1912, Frederick Bruce, John Alderman, George
Spaulding, and H. L. Sprinkle organized the Alderman Realty Company. Intensive settlement
began in the area later known as the heart of Arlington, the blocks to the east and west
of the intersection of Chaseville Road, now University Boulevard, and Arlington Road. The
company purchased 1,100 acres of land that was part of the original Richard Mill grant
north of Strawberry Creek. This property was subdivided into blocks and lots for further
development known as Arlington Heights and Alderman Farms. The firm established a ferry
service to better market the area to prospective buyers. The ferry landing was located at
the west end of Saint Johns Street, now Arlington Road. The ferry ran to the foot of
Beaver Street in Fairfield.[9]
Source: Found on the Arlington Business Society. http://arlingtonbusinesssociety.org/page5a.html which was based on the Old Arlington Neighborhood Action Plan. See coj.net.
The partners created a government in the form
of the Arlington Community Club. The Club successfully lobbied for a public elementary
school built by the Duval County school system, and public water works. Bruce and Sprinkle
donated the land for a community ball park in 1924.
Throughout his life, he was driven to learn
more. As a young man in St. Augustine, the self-taught civil engineer purchased books to
increase his technical knowledge. He invented and patented a rotary steam engine on March
l0, l892, He learned about whichever community in which he lived. While supervising the
construction of the Merrill-Stevens shipyards, he discovered the archeological remains of
Fort St. Nicholas in South Jacksonville. He wrote a short history, Arlington, Past,
Present and Future, for the Arlington Community Club in 1924.
F. W. Bruce never became a household name in
Florida but he accomplished enough to be honored in Jacksonville, a city to which he had
contributed so much.
Bruce Park is referenced at http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM2XZN_Bruce_Park_Jacksonville_FL.
The jetties he built have been augmented time
and again. The United States Navy has swallowed almost all of the Mayport he knew.
Arlington grew rapidly after the Mathews Bridge opened in 1953 and spurred suburban
development; by the late 20th century, it reached almost to the ocean.
His story is one of a man who saw possibilities
and then availed himself of the existing opportunities through his intelligence, risk
taking, and drive. He overcame a spotty formal education with independent study. He did
not accomplish success by himself. His family played an important role. His father and
uncles were artisans, enjoying advantages over the average person. His father-in-law was a
mill owner. Family loyalty worked in his favor. He went to his carpetbagger uncle in St.
Augustine, Florida when told to do so and, then, years later, with his wife and child,
when his parents moved there. He worked for governments most of his life—the Corps of
Engineers of the United States government and then the city of Jacksonville. At the end of
his work career, he constructed the Merrill-Stevens South Side docks. Finally, he was a
land developer in Arlington, an area adjacent to the cities of Jacksonville and South
Jacksonville. His life is an American success story.
F. W. Bruce and family, 1914 Source: Cleve
Powell
Frederick William Bruce died at home in his
beloved Arlington on December 18, l932.
[1] Known as F. W. Bruce.
[2] Descendants of immigrants from the Balearic
Islands of Spain, Italy, and Greece, brought by Dr Andrew Turnbull to his colony of New
Smyrna south of St. Augustine. When the colony failed, the colonists went north to St.
Augustine.
[3] Although Jacksonville now encompasses all
of Duval County, for most of its history it consisted of many towns—Jacksonville,
South Jacksonville, Baldwin, Pablo/Jacksonville Beach, Mayport, Atlantic Beach, and
others—and many square miles of farms, ranches, rivers, lakes, creeks, and marshes.
[4] She was a Minorcan.
[5] She married on November l3, l904 in
Jacksonville, Florida to Cleveland Johnson. They had three children, Frederick Bruce
Johnson, Claris Ruth Johnson Jaques and Mary Louise Johnson. Two grandchildren, Ida Louise
Johnson and Ruth Clara Jaques.
[6] Now the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
_____________________________
SOURCES
Note: Cleveland Powell kindly supplied copies of the letters of his great grandfather, F.
W. Bruce, photographs, and written materials from his F. W. Bruce Collection. More
important, he encouraged me and patiently answered questions.
Bearss, Edwin C. "Military Operations On The St. Johns,
September-October, 1862 (Part I)," Florida Historical Quarterly, 42:3 (January
1964), 232-248.
Bearss, Edwin C. "Military Operations On The St. Johns, September-October, 1862 (Part
II)," Florida Historical Quarterly, 42:4 (April 1964), 331-351.
Brown, George E., Historical Data, Florida District, Engineer Officers. January 21, 1944.
Typescript supplied by Cleve Powell.
Bruce, F. W., letter to Captain A. Anderson, November 16, 1889. Bruce Collection.
Bruce, Frederick, View showing the 82 foot concrete water tower at the Merrill-Stevens
shipyard in Jacksonville, Florida, http://ibistro.dos.state.fl.us/uhtbin/cgisirsi/x/x/0/5?library=PHOTO&item_type=PHOTOGRAPH&searchdata1=PR77482.
Buker, George F., Sun, Sand and Water: A history of the Jacksonville District, U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers, 1821-1975. Washington: Superintendent of Documents, United
States Government Printing Office, 1981.
Buker, George F. “Spanish-American War Fortifications, “Fort Caroline National
Memorial. Contract No. PX 531090043.
Buker, George F. Jacksonville: Riverport-Seaport (Columbia: University of South
Carolina Press, 1992).
Davis, T. Frederick. "Engagements at St. Johns Bluff St. Johns River,
September-October, 1862," Florida Historical Quarterly, 15:2, pp. 78-85.
Davis, T. Frederick. History of Jacksonville Florida and Vicinity 1513 to 1924.
Jacksonville, 1925.
Furber, George C., compiler, revised and enlarged
by Ezra S. Stearns, History of Littleton, New Hampshire: Genealogy. Published for
the Town by the University, 1905.
“Information sent the National Cyclopedia of American Biography on F.W. Bruce
c-1933.” Supplied by Cleve Powell.
Jacksonville Board of Trade, Report, 1887. p.18.
“Jetty Fishing in Jacksonville, Florida, “http://vic2fish.com/jettyfishing.htm.
Retrieved September 10, 2010.
Mabry, Donald J., World’s Finest Beach: A Short History of the Jacksonville
Beaches (Charleston and London: The History Press, 2010).
Old Arlington, Inc., Frederick W. Bruce, Historical Marker, Bruce Park.
Old Arlington, Inc., “A Brief History of Arlington,
“http://oldarlington.info/history/a-brief-history-of-arlington. Accessed September
22, 2010.
Powell, Cleve, “F. W. Bruce and the Spanish American War
(4-25-1898/12-10-1898),” typescript, December, 2004.
Powell, Cleve, “World War I- Merrill Stevens South Side Ship Yard, History made on an
already Historic Site,” typescript, 2010.
U. S. Corps of Engineers, Annual Report of the Chief of Engineers, U. S. Army, to the
Secretary of War for the Year 1892. Washington: Government Prininting Office, 1892.
U. S. Government, The Annual Report of the Commissioner of Patents for the Year 1893.
Congressional serial set, Volume 3173
(Washington: Government Printing Office, 1894),
Donald J. Mabry
101410
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