April 3

The fire bell in the Key West Cemetery.

1846 – The schooner Francis, sailing from Jamaica to New York and carrying pimento, wool and old copper, wrecked on Alligator Reef. The schooner and freight were saved and brought to Key West. Wreckers were awarded $1700 of the vessel and cargo’s $1750 value.

1896 – It was reported that arms and ammunition for anti-Spanish insurgents were smuggled from Key West to Cuba on the schooners Dollie, Pearl, and Martha.

1904 – Key Wester Jake Aronovitz died at the age of 80. He came to the island in 1890 and operated Joe’s Trading Palace on Duval Street until he retired. He was a charter member of B’nai Zion Congregation.

1905 – A plantation on Matecumbe Key, owned by Cephas Pinder and consisting of 216 acres and approximately 5,000 fruit trees, was sold to Jose Piodela and Joaquin Leon. They planned to lay out a city divided into 1,172 lots.

1926 – Police Chief Cleveland Niles began a policy of ringing the fire bell at nine o’clock in the evening to remind Key West juveniles 16 years and younger that there was a curfew and it was time for them to go home.

1943 – The United States merchant ship Gulf State was sunk by German U-Boat 155 about 20 miles southeast of the Middle Keys.

1986 – With the City of Key West’s plan to purchase the Truman Annex property from the General Services Administration facing uncertainty, city commissioners heard a proposal by one resident to hold an island-wide benefit party and fundraiser to generate the needed money.

---

Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.

Image: The fire bell in the Key West Cemetery. Photo by Don Pinder. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.