1897 – Key Wester Sylvanus Johnson was charged with rape. During the justice of the peace hearing when he was ordered held without bond, an attempt was made by C.B. Pendleton to raise a lynch mob, but Sheriff Frank Knight protected the prisoner and threatened to shoot any man who moved to take him. Johnson was returned to the jail. That night, to prevent a lynching, a group of armed African Americans surrounded the jail to help protect the prisoner. During the night, Will Gardener, who was walking by the courthouse was shot and killed by an unknown assassin. Calm returned in few days and Johnson was held for trial in August.
1923 – The 700-ton, four-masted schooner Marie J. Thompson arrived at Key West from Cuba with 50,000 feet of cedar logs for the Key West box factory. The wood was to be made into cigar boxes.
1927 – The last pilings were being driven for the wooden bridge between Big Pine and No Name Keys. The decking was expected to be complete the next day.
1954 – A 49-year-old woman became the thirty-first polio victim of the year. She was the oldest person to be stricken with the disease in the county.
1960 – After multiple warnings, warrants were issued for the arrest of the officers of Sloan Rent, Inc. for violation of state sanitary code. The company had built a shanty town on Key Largo consisting of eight 16-foot-square plywood shacks with two cesspools, each one shared by four dwellings. The shacks were being rented to impoverished Black families on the island.
1988 – Key West resident Colonel Floyd “Jim” Thompson received the Prisoner of War Medal from President Ronald Reagan who recognized Thompson as longest held prisoner of war.
Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: The schooner Marie J. Thompson circa 1920s. Gift Thompson Family. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.