WHITMAN family - Gulf Hammock, FL

Names: WHITMAN

Place: Gulf Hammock, FL

Date: circa 1900

With a name like St Clair WHITMAN, this family was easy to find. Along with Ms. Rene (see previous post), I found the WHITMAN family photo in a bin in a strange antique story in Micanopy, Florida. Most photos from this bin seemed to originate from the Cedar Key area of Florida on the Gulf Coast. The WHITMANs were no exception: according to the caption on the back, this photo was taken in Gulf Hammock Florida. To me, the girls' dresses suggest Easter time. Although this photo only says "WHITMANS" on the back, I was fortunate to also come across a number of Grand Lodge F. & A. M. membership cards in the photo bundle. These cards show St Clair WHITMAN as a Lodge member in Otter Creek, FL and Gulf Hammock, FL form as early as 1918 to to as late as 1957.

A search of the Census confirms the location of the family. In 1900, a Clare WHITMAN was living in Cedar Key, Florida with his wife Nellie. According to this record, "Clare" (St Clair) WHITMAN was born in September, 1868 in Missouri, but his father was born in Massachusetts and his mother in New York. This is unusual, as families did not tend to move back east in this time period. However, considering they ended up in the gulf side of Florida, they potentially took a boat down the Mississippi and to the coast of Florida. Who knows? Anyway, a geographical aside. Nellie, St Clair's wife, was born in Florida, but her father was born in Canada and her mother in New Jersey. The children at this time were a son named Charles, age 11, and two daughters Hattie (age 7) and Nellie (age 5). Also listed with the family was St Clair's father Charles, whose parents were born in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The family composition matches the people in the photo above: St Clair is probably the tall gentleman in the hat with the short(er) beard, and his wife Nellie is probably to his left. You can see a young man peeking through the back, who is probably the young Charles, while grandpa Charles--check out that beard!--is to the left. Two of the girls are Hattie (far right) and Nellie. The people unaccounted for are the other two girls, and the woman with a baby to the far left--perhaps a nanny? Maybe the 1910 Census has clues...


Well, as it sometimes happens in family history research, the 1910 Census raises some questions. First, there are no additional children listed with the family, which is surprising given the photo--who are these four other people? Are the little girls St Clair's nieces? If so, did they live with the family for awhile or were they just visiting at the time of the photo? Second, the 1910 Census contains some conflicting information. St Clair's information is the same, but now his wife is listed as Elen O, whose father was from Ireland and mother was from South Carolina. This information is different enough to suggest a second wife, but this is not the case--the Census indicates they have been married for 22 years. The oldest son is now listed as Frederick Charles, as opposed to just Charles, and the two daughters are noted as Harriet and Elen--but both logical full names for Hattie and Nellie. Grandpa Charles is still hanging in there at age 77. We do get more information about their occupations: St Clair is a foreman at a fiber factory (?) and Frederick is a salesman.

The 1920 Census mostly matches up with all of this information. The family is still living on Cedar Key. Poor old grandpa Charles is gone now it appears, and Frederick is no longer in the household--no one likes a man in his thirties still living with his mama. The two daughters, Harriet and Elen are surprisingly still at home though ages 26 and 23; probably reaching spinster-hood in those times--poor girls! They were also working at the fiber factory. Makes me glad I live in the 21st century.

By the 1930 Census--which I must note has St Clair's name as "Sivert"...all the more reason to hand-comb through Census records because of the indexing mistakes--it's just St Clair, Nellie, and poor umarried Harriet. At least she no longer works at the fiber factory though! She now works in a grocery store.

But the questions still remain...who are the other four women in the photograph? And how/why did St Clair and Charles come to Florida from Missouri? Is Nellie Whitman's family from Canada or Ireland...or somewhere else entirely?