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https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka/files/original/10f90dbd143c3fd155b1f26de5d9bfce.pdf
0a0092d9e0a2fc001530ae5cb69bf606
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
Central Florida Railroad Depots Collection
Alternative Title
Central Florida Railroad Depots Collection
Subject
Railroad depots
Railroad stations--Florida
Railroads--Florida
Apopka (Fla.)
Orlando (Fla.)
Ocala (Fla.)
Port Orange (Fla.)
Lake Wales (Fla.)
Avon Park (Fla.)
Mount Dora (Fla.)
Punta Gorda (Fla.)
Sanford (Fla.)
Kissimmee (Fla.)
Oviedo (Fla.)
Language
eng
Type
Collection
Curator
Cepero, Laura
Digital Collection
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/map/" target="_blank">RICHES MI</a>
Description
Collection of digital images, documents, and other records depicting the various railroad depots and railroad stations in Central Florida. Series descriptions are based on special topics, the majority of which students focused their metadata entries around.
Contributor
Bronson, Kelly
Campbell, Tyler
Clemente, Chris
Connolly, Lehman
Covington, Adrian
Gray, Mark
Lester, Connie L.
Mercado, Carlos R.
Moore, Samantha
Santos, Marina
Simons, Nicholas
Smalls, Eric
Is Part Of
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka2/collections/show/77" target="_blank">RICHES of Central Florida</a>.
Coverage
Amtrak Seaboard Coast Line Railroad Station, Orlando, Florida
Apopka Seaboard Air Line Railway Depot, Apopka, Florida
Avon Park Depot Museum, Avon Park, Florida
Avon Park Seaboard Air Line Depot, Avon Park, Florida
Avon Park Atlantic Coast Line Train Station, Avon Park, Florida
Church Street Station, Orlando, Florida
Fort Pierce Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Depot, Fort Pierce, Florida
Fort Pierce Florida East Coast Railway Company Depot, Fort Pierce, Florida
Kissimmee Railroad Station, Kissimmee, Florida
Lake Wales Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Depot, Lake Wales, Florida
Lake Wales Depot Museum, Lake Wales, Florida
Mount Dora Train Station, Mount Dora, Florida
Ocala Union Station, Ocala, Florida
Orlando Railroad Depot, Orlando, Florida
Oviedo Train Depot, Oviedo, Florida
Port Orange Train Station, Port Orange, Florida
Punta Gorda Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Depot, Punta Gorda, Florida
Sanford Atlantic Coast Line Depot, Sanford, Florida
Sanford South Florida Railroad, Sanford, Florida
St. Lucie County Regional History Center, Fort Pierce, Florida
Contributing Project
<a href="http://history.cah.ucf.edu/staff.php?id=525" target="_blank">Dr. Connie L. Lester</a>'s American Economic History Undergraduate Class, Spring 2014
External Reference
Mulligan, Michael. <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/225874809" target="_blank"><em>Railroad Depots of Central Florida</em></a>. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Pub, 2008.
Turner, Gregg M. <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/184906141" target="_blank"><em>A Journey into Florida Railroad History</em></a>. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2008.
Murdock, R. Ken. <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/38291666" target="_blank"><em>Outline History of Central Florida Railroads</em></a>. Winter Garden, Fla: Central Florida Chapter, National Railway Historical Society, 1997.
"<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka2/items/show/2477" target="_blank">RICHES Podcast Documentaries, Episode 25: The Railways of Central Florida</a>." RICHES of Central Florida. https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka2/items/show/2477.
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
Cravero, Geoffrey
Interviewee
McFarland, Warren
Bit Rate/Frequency
574kbps
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
Oral History of Warren McFarland
Alternative Title
Oral History, McFarland
Subject
Orlando (Fla.)
Avon Park (Fla.)
Telegraph
Railroads--Florida
Description
An oral history interview of Warren McFarland, a telegrapher, train dispatcher, railroad station agent, grocery clerk, Railroad Safety and Service Agent, Assistant Regional Director and Regional Manager for the Interstate Commerce Commission, and Director of the Office of Compliance and Consumer Assistance. The interview was conducted by Geoffrey Cravero at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida, on January 28, 2016. Some of the interview topics covered include McFarland’s early years and formative experiences, his family life, growing up as the son of a railroad station agent and telegrapher in a railroad depot, World War II, railroad work and telegraphy in his time versus his father’s time, his first job as a grocery clerk, the “extra board” and railroad seniority, working for the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, the Morse Telegraph Club, female telegraphers, American Morse Code versus International Morse Code, acquiring a piece of the first transcontinental telegraph line, train dispatching, overcoming communication limits, an explanation of telegrapher’s paralysis, and Guglielmo Marconi’s contributions to wireless telegraphy.
Table Of Contents
0:00:00 Introduction<br />0:01:59 Family life<br />0:04:45 Growing up in a railroad depot and World War II<br />0:07:34 Railroad work and telegraphy in father’s time<br />0:09:38 First job as a grocery clerk, the “extra board” and railroad seniority<br />0:11:45 Interstate Commerce Commission<br />0:17:22 Morse Telegraph Club<br />0:26:12 First transcontinental telegraph line<br />0:23:17 Train dispatching and overcoming communication limits<br />0:28:39 Telegraphy demonstration<br />0:35:23 Guglielmo Marconi and wireless telegraphy
Abstract
Oral history interview of Warren McFarland Interview conducted by Geoffrey Cravero at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida.
Type
Moving Image
Source
McFarland, Warren. Interviewed by Geoffrey Cravero. Audio/video record available. <a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">RICHES of Central Florida</a>, Orlando, Florida.
Requires
<a href="http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/" target="_blank"> Adobe Flash Player</a>
<a href="http://java.com/en/download/index.jsp" target="_blank"> Java</a>
<a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/reader.html" target="_blank">Adobe Acrobat Reader</a>
Is Part Of
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka2/collections/show/97" target="_blank">Central Florida Railroad Depots Collection</a>, RICHES of Central Florida.
Has Format
Digital transcript of original 35-minute and 41-second oral history: McFarland, Warren. Interviewed by Geoffrey Cravero. Audio/video record available. <a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">RICHES of Central Florida</a>, Orlando, Florida.
Coverage
Ohio
Avon Park Atlantic Coast Line Train Station, Avon Park, Florida
Ocala Union Station, Ocala, Florida
Chicago, Illinois
Atlanta, Georgia
San Francisco, California
Frances Perkins Building, Washington, D.C.
Golden Spike National Historic Site, Brigham City, Utah
Creator
McFarland, Warren
Cravero, Geoffrey
Publisher
<a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">RICHES of Central Florida</a>
Date Created
2016-01-28
Date Copyrighted
2016-01-28
Format
video/mp4
application/pdf
Extent
197 MB
Medium
35-minute and 41-second audio/video recording
14-page digital transcript
Language
eng
Mediator
History Teacher
Economics Teacher
Provenance
Originally created by Warren McFarland and Geoffrey Cravero and published by <a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">RICHES of Central Florida</a>.
Rights Holder
<a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">RICHES of Central Florida</a>
Accrual Method
Item Creation
Curator
Cravero, Geoffrey
Digital Collection
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/map/" target="_blank">RICHES MI</a>
Source Repository
<a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">RICHES of Central Florida</a>
External Reference
Mulligan, Michael. <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/225874809" target="_blank"><em>Railroad Depots of Central Florida</em></a>. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Pub, 2008.
Turner, Gregg M. <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/184906141" target="_blank"><em>A Journey into Florida Railroad History</em></a>. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2008.
Murdock, R. Ken. <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/38291666" target="_blank"><em>Outline History of Central Florida Railroads</em></a>. Winter Garden, Fla: Central Florida Chapter, National Railway Historical Society, 1997.
"<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka2/items/show/2477" target="_blank">RICHES Podcast Documentaries, Episode 25: The Railways of Central Florida</a>." RICHES of Central Florida. https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka2/items/show/2477.
Coe, Lewis. <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/25509648" target="_blank"><em>The Telegraph: A History of Morse's Invention and Its Predecessors in the United States</em></a>. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1993.
Stone, Richard D. <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/23649628" target="_blank"><em>The Interstate Commerce Commission and the Railroad Industry: A History of Regulatory Policy. New York: Praeger, 1991</em></a>.
Click to View (Movie, Podcast, or Website)
<a href="https://youtu.be/bzVlSEHnEaI" target="_blank">Oral History of Warren McFarland</a>
Transcript
<p><strong>Cravero<br /></strong>Today is Thursday, January 28<sup>th</sup>, 2016. My name’s Geoffrey Cravero and I’m speaking with Warren McFarland at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. Thanks for speaking with us today, Mr. McFarland. Let’s, uh, begin with some of your biography. Could you, uh, tell us a little bit about where you’re originally from and your upbringing?</p>
<p><strong>McFarland<br /></strong>Well, I was—I was born in Ohio, but we moved to Orlando when I was a year and a half old, so I count myself as a Floridian, and my father worked for the railroad here in Or—Orlando, and eventually went to Avon Park and was Railroad Agent there for many years, and that’s where I grew up, went to high school and—and, uh, where I went—learned from him—I learned the telegraph, I learned railroad work, and eventually went to work for the railroad after I graduated from high school in 1941. Um, had—had planned to go to college, but 1941 was not a good year to college, uh [<em>coughs</em>] and, uh, I wound up working on another railroad division, rather than the one that went through Avon Park, w—working out of Ocala, and I worked there, uh, for like 25 years, and then I was offered a position with the Interstate Commerce Commission, and I went, um—went with them, and uh, we—we lived in different places: uh, Chicago, Atlanta, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C, and I eventually retired as Director of the Office of Compliance for the Interstate Commerce Commission out of Washington, and I moved—we moved back to Florida after I retired, and been living here ever since.</p>
<p><strong>Cravero<br /></strong>That’s neat. Um, so—what, uh—could you tell us a little bit more about your, uh, your parents? And did you have any siblings, or...</p>
<p><strong>McFarland<br /></strong>Yes. [<em>clears throat</em>] Uh, well, I had, uh, two brothers and three sisters. Uh, the three—the three sisters and one of the brothers were half—half-brothers and sisters, but I didn’t know the difference. Um, they were—they were all older than I, and, uh, so—uh, they were my brothers and sisters, and still are. Al—although they’re not living anymore. I’m the only one of the six that’s still alive, but, uh, my parents were both from Southeastern Ohio, and my father worked for the railroad there, uh, for like 18 years, I think it was, and then he decided to come to Florida and get rich in the Florida Boom in the 1920s. Uh, that didn’t work, so he went back to the railroad and worked for the railroad until he retired [<em>clears throat</em>], and, um, my mother, uh, she was just a farm girl, but she—she worked for a doctor as a receptionist, and she later worked, um, at—in the express office with my father, and then, she—when he retired, she retired, and so, uh, they lived—live—they lived in Avon Park until—until she could no longer take care of herself, and my—my brothers and sisters, um, they—they all—lived all over the place. One in—one in Virginia, one in, uh, Ohio, and—and Chi—and Chicago, and one in Dallas, and my—my brother lived in Avon Park his entire life. He said, “There’s no reason for—for anybody to live anywhere but Avon Park.”</p>
<p><strong>Cravero<br /></strong>[<em>laughs</em>].</p>
<p><strong>McFarland<br /> </strong>[<em>laughs</em>] So that’s where he stayed.</p>
<p><strong>Cravero<br /></strong>Were any of them, uh—did they follow in the family business of the railroad?</p>
<p><strong>McFarland<br /></strong>No, none of them. I’m the only one out of—out of, uh—out of six, I’m the only one that went into the railroad business, um, and my—my youngest sister’s husband did go into the railroad business, and his son also went into the railroad business, and I had an uncle that was a railroad man. So it—railroading has—has always been pretty much a—a family, uh, affair in many—in many families. You know, one—one person gets started and then—then others go in, but—but none of my brothers and sisters, uh, were interested.</p>
<p><strong>Cravero<br /></strong>Well, you mentioned, uh—that you—your father, uh, was a station agent and telegrapher in Avon Park. Um, could you tell us a little bit about growing up in the depot? What sort of, uh—what sort of skills and knowledge did you kind of acquire as a young man?</p>
<p><strong>McFarland<br /></strong>Well, [<em>clears throat</em>] uh, I—I was always—I was not a, uh— crazy about trains, but I was interested in trains and—and—and the railroading, and I can remember when I could barely, uh, reach—stand up and—and reach the tabletop like this, and my dad had me doing things that I could do in the—like stamping—taking the rubber stamp and stamping it on a piece of paper on—on what’s called a waybill, which is a—a ship—a shipment, uh, document that you fill out when you have a shipment to make, and, uh, I would st—stamp the—the Avon Park’s stamp on there that showed this, that, where it started from, but, that had to have been about about—5-6 years old when I did that, and I—off and on, all—all during my school years, I just hung around there, and I—I didn’t—I wasn’t consciously preparing for a career in railroading. A matter of fact: my older brothers and sisters all went to college and—and—and it was planned for me to go also, but, as I said earlier, I graduated in 1941, and—and they were already drafting people out of—out of my class, and, um, so I—I knew it was a matter of time. So I didn’t think there was much point in going to college at that time.</p>
<p>So I didn’t go until much later, but, uh, it—it—when—when I was in my senior year in high school, uh, that’s when you could see what was happening: the world was in turmoil, and, um—and, as I said, members of my class had—had been called up, and—so I began to learn telegraphy, and my father taught me and I practiced, and then after I graduated from—from, uh, school, he, um, told the—the railroad that I was, uh, sufficiently knowledgeable to go to work, and, uh—I—I didn’t—As I said, I didn’t—wasn’t consciously, um, aware that I was absorbing everything that I did absorb during those years, uh, hanging around the depot, but I learned an awful lot that I didn’t know I’d learned, until I went out on my own and was working.</p>
<p><strong>Cravero<br /></strong>What, uh—did you notice, uh, any, uh, major differences between the—the time of your father and yours when it c—comes to the, you know—the telegraphing and the—the depots?</p>
<p><strong>McFarland<br /></strong>Oh, yeah. Well…</p>
<p><strong>Cravero<br /></strong>[<em>clears throat</em>].</p>
<p><strong>McFarland<br /></strong>When—when my father started, telegraphing was just about—I mean, that was like the major—major, uh, means of internal communication on the rail—on nearly every railroad, and—and when I started, it still was, but it—it began to fade away the—the longer I stayed, and I—and I—I stayed until 1965, and by that time, uh, they still required, uh, uh, people to know how to telegraph to go to work, but—but—at least—as—as—as, uh, operators and agents, but they did not, uh—did not use—use it, because they—everybody had telephones and—and things of that nature. So it was not as—as use—used as much then, and—and probably—well, I left the rail—railroad for the ICC<a title="">[1]</a> in 1965, and by the early 70s, there was[sic] hardly any railroads anywhere using t—the telegraph. It was all teletype and—and telephones and things of that nature. So that—it was[sic] tremendous difference there, and now, of course, it’s gone even beyond that. It’s all computerized—email and everything else like that. Even train dispatching, which I did for—for 18 years, um—that’s become computer-assisted train dispatching and—and the computer does it. When—when—when I was working, it was—it was all in your head. You had to do it all in your head, but, now the computer—they have what they call “computer-assisted dispatching.”</p>
<p><strong>Cravero<br /></strong>So was, uh—I guess the depot was your very first job you had, or…</p>
<p><strong>McFarland<br /></strong>Well, actually, no [<em>laughs</em>]. The very first paying job I—I worked as a clerk in the A&P<a title="">[2]</a> grocery store on Saturdays, uh, which—that—in—in a small town like Avon Park, that was about the only job that—kind of job that was available to a—to a high school kid, and there were three of four, uh, grocery stores in town, and the A&P, which was a chain, the re—others were all independent, but everybody—all the kids that I knew worked at one—one of the grocery stores. That’s where you got your first job.</p>
<p><strong>Cravero<br /></strong>[<em>laughs</em>] Um, so I understand you ended up in Ocala, right? But, uh—but you kind of went from—where you were needed, um…</p>
<p><strong>McFarland<br /></strong>Yes, you—when—when you begin railroading as—as a telegraph operator, you—you are put on what they call “the extra board.” Uh, um, you—you—your first day, you establish the date of your seniority, and that means that anybody that’s hired after you—you—you have rights over them on—on—if you want to claim a job or something like that, and—and the same thing hold—anybody that[sic] hired ahead of you can claim a job that’s—whether you want—whether you want it or not, and so, you—as—on the extra board, you just went where you were needed. Uh, somebody needed to be off sick, uh—there were no vacation—no paid vacation at the time, so that—uh, there was not much of that. Although some—some people did take vacations, and you went and worked for them, or they put on extra jobs because of seasonal problems—uh, season—seasonable increases in—in business, they’d put on an extra job somewhere to help the dispatchers handle trains, and so, you worked all over. I worked, uh, I don’t know how many different places. I could probably count it up. Not worth it.</p>
<p><strong>Cravero<br /></strong>[<em>laughs</em>] Um, let’s see. Before the, uh, Atlantic Coast Line Railroad merged with the Seaboard Air Line [Railroad], um, and absorbed the Tavares & Gulf Railroad in 1969, you’d already moved to California at that point. Could you tell us a little bit about what you did out there with the Interstate Commerce Commission?</p>
<p><strong>McFarland<br /></strong>Well, I—I—I—my first job with the ICC was in Chicago as—as a Railroad Safety and Service Agent, and, uh, in—in that capacity, I—I made what we call “agency checks” and “yard checks,” and we—we had two things: we were looking for compliance with the—with the tariffs, which had the force of law, and we were looking for, um, equipment that was not being used efficiently, and so, the—as the—and—and the other thing that—that in—in ’65, we also were charged with safety, uh, inspections of equipment and things of that nature.</p>
<p>However, in—in ’67 —1967, all of that was transferred into the newly-formed [U.S.] Department of Transportation, and so we no longer had any kind of safety obligation, but we still retained the car service, which was car—car efficiency, and—and the tariff and—and regulation, and so, I would go from—to various agencies along, um—in my territory. I had an—had an assigned territory, and I was supposed to visit these agencies on a periodic basis and ver—verify that they were complying with all of the rules and regulations, and that they were not delaying any equipment—and that was being used, and from there I—I was transferred to Atlanta doing the same thing, but, uh—and I stayed there for, uh, about five years, and then I was, uh, promoted and went back to Chicago as Assistant Regional Director there, and in—in that capacity, I was assisting the Re—Regional Director and overseeing all of the people that were doing the kind of work I was just desc—describing, and then, um, in ’73, I was, uh, promoted again and went to, um, San Francisco as, um, Regional Manager, and I had the, uh, responsibility for the 13 western states, plus Alaska and Hawaii. Uh, now, railroads and—and buses and trucks don’t run to Hawaii from the mainland, but—but—so we didn’t do much there, but what—I still had the responsibility for Hawaii and Alaska, and I was overseeing not only the—the people who were doing the work that I was talking about earlier, but I was also overseeing the—the lawyers, who—who, uh, handled the cases that were made and the—and the accountants that were—were auditing the—the books of the various, uh, carriers—motor and rail and barge lines and pipelines, and part of the—part of—and—and when I was in, um, San Francisco, the, um, uh, [Trans-]Alaska Pipeline [System] was being built and we had to oversee that, and the law required, at that time, that—and people usually don’t know this because a pipeline is a common carrier, and so, in order to know what they could charge, you had to know what their costs were to build and maintain the—the pipeline, and to do that, we had to have auditors go in and verify, and about ha—halfway through construction, everybody woke up that this was a nine billion dollar, uh, enterprise, and if we waited ‘til after the fact to—to, uh, audit it, we’d nev—they’d never know what they—what they could po—possibly charge. So we sent a team of auditors up there, and they stayed there for about three years determining the actual cost so that the pipeline could go into—into operation when it was finished, but then, after—I was—I was in San Francisco until 1981, and, um, the—the new chairman that had been appointed by President [Ronald] Reagan, uh, was—knew me, and he brought me into Washington[, D.C.] as Director of the Office of Compliance and Consumer Assistance, and I stayed there until I retired in ’85, but in—in Washington, I had oversight over the—the entire country for all of the things that I’ve been talking about that we did. Plus, uh, a lot of local stuff and—going up to Congress and taking care of that sort of thing.<strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong>Cravero<br /></strong>I read, uh, [<em>clears throat</em>] that the Morse Telegraph Club[, Inc.] used to meet at the [Central Florida] Railroad Museum on [Samuel] Morse’s birthday.<a title="">[3]</a> Could you tell me a little about, uh, the club and how that all came about?</p>
<p><strong>McFarland<br /></strong>Well, it’s—it—it started, actually, back in the 1930s. Uh, some people that were telegraphers decided that they—that it would be a good idea to make—to have a club, and it was more or less a fraternal organization, at the time. I say “fraternal,” although there are a lot of women telegraphers. Uh, throughout the—the whole history of telegraphy, there—there have been a lot of women telegraphers, and probably, on the railroad, was—may have well have been the first industry that paid women the same wage as men for doing the same job, which was not true in—in—not true even today in many—many cases, but, uh, anyhow, these people got together and—and, as I said, it was just sort of a—I won’t say a drinking club, because it wasn’t that, but it was—it was a social club more than anything else, and then it—it sort of faded away a little bit, uh, and just hanging on by its teeth, you might say, and—and then, um, uh—I’m not sure of the exact dates, but sometime after World War II, when—when telegraphy began to fade away, as I had mentioned earlier on [inaudible] on the railroad, Western Union [Company] had al—already almost gone completely to—to teletype, uh, by that time, and, um, so the—the organization transformed itself into, uh, an historical preservation organization, and the goal of—of the, um—of the organization today is to preserve the knowledge and history and the technology that existed, uh, when the telegraph was in use, and, um, we organize in chapters.</p>
<p>Uh, we used to have a chapter in every state and some states had—had, uh, two chapters, but, uh, time has taken its toll and—and, um, now we’re down, uh—for example, the Florida chapter, of which I’m a member, um, encompasses Georgia and—and South Carolina and Tennessee, and—and Alabama. Uh, and so, the membership—the membership hasn’t really declined that much, but the membership of people who actually worked as telegraphers has obviously gone down—way down. Somebody made an estimate, and I don’t know the truth of it or not, but said there were only about 150 of us left in the organization that actually earned a living as—as telegraphers. Um, that may be true, it may not be true. I don’t know, but at the present time, we have probably around 3,000 members and we have around 30 chapters in the United States and Canada, and we—we do demonstrations at—at just about any place that will invite us to do a demonstration, but mostly to local historical societies that have an annual affair and they want something, uh, of, um—that—that has some historical significance, and so they’ll ask us to come and do—do a demonstration [<em>clears throat</em>], and many of these members that we have now have taught themselves to telegraph.</p>
<p>They’ve never worked as telegraphers, but they’ve taught themselves to telegraph, and some of the—some of the members are ham radio<a title="">[4]</a> operators, which uses a—a different code, but it’s still Morse Code. It’s an international code, known as International [Morse] Code, as opposed to American Morse [Code], which was the kind that was used on railroads and Western Union and stock markets and, uh, all of that sort of thing.</p>
<p><strong>Cravero<br /></strong>[<em>clears throat</em>] I understand that it— somehow you, uh—you acquired a piece of the very first telegraph line that stretched all the way out to California.</p>
<p><strong>McFarland<br /></strong>Yes.</p>
<p><strong>Cravero<br /></strong>And how’d that—how’d that—how’d you end up acquiring that?</p>
<p><strong>McFarland<br /></strong>I didn’t think…</p>
<p><strong>Cravero<br /></strong>[<em>clears throat</em>].</p>
<p><strong>McFarland<br /></strong>To bring that today, uh, but we—we have a website that’s—the Florida chapter has a website, and, uh, an outfit in Utah was setting up, um, an exhibit in a museum,<a title="">[5]</a> uh, where at a—at a—at a former Army camp. Uh, when I say former, I’m talking about [American] Civil War-era Army camp [<em>laughs</em>] that was one of the first stations on the Transcontinental Tre—Telegraph Line, and so they wanted some historical reference to the telegraph in their museum there, and, uh, they found our website on the internet and contacted us, and we were able to get them some telegraph instruments and assist them, and some months later, they, uh, contacted us again and said they had come into possession of a link of the original Transcontinental Telegraph Wire—came from Northeastern, uh, Nevada—just across the Utah line in Northeastern Nevada, and a man had found it and had donated, uh, a length of it—I don’t know how much—but had donated a length of it to this museum, and they wanted to know if we would like to have a piece of it, and so they sent us about two and a half feet: about 30 inches of it—a piece about that long, and it’s—it’s—it was a nine gauge, which is heavy, heavy wire. I mean, it’s—it’s almost a quarter, uh—not—not a quarter. Maybe, uh—it’s over an eighth of an inch thick—uh, the—the wire is, and it’s almost impossible to bend it with your bare hands.</p>
<p>It’s—it’s that thick, and it’d been laying out in the, uh—in the open in the desert out there near—near the old, uh, Pony Express route and the, um, stagecoach route that went west through there [<em>coughs</em>], and, um, they, uh—they kept, um—they kept it there, um, um—it—laid out there in the desert, and—and doesn’t rust like it would in—here in Florida, you know? It would all be rusted away [<em>laughs</em>] if that had happened here, and so we had that piece of—of the wire, and we—we debated as a—as an organization what to do with it. It wasn’t big enough to use anywhere really. So we wound up—and we cut it into pieces about, um, six inches long and mounted it on plaques, uh, and with a little bit of a history of it on the back of the plaque, and we use that in our demonstrations. Uh, we take it—take it around where—and we—we have these plaques distributed among the membership, so that there’s al—[always] one available somewhere, but it’s very interesting and—and—the interesting—one of the things about it, that the—it was shipped to me—mailed to me in a padded envelope and it was rolled—folded up, and I tried to straighten it out with my hands when I took it out of the envelope. I could not do it. We had to finally put it in a vice and—and hold down one end of it, and finally got it straightened out, and it was so hard that you couldn’t cut it with wire cutters or anything like that. You had to use a saw to cut it, uh [<em>clears </em>throat] but that was what—the wire that was used in the, uh, original Transcontinental Telegraph Line in 8—finished in 1861 [<em>coughs</em>].<strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong>Cravero<br /></strong>Wow, incredible. Well, let’s see. Before we, uh—give us a little demonstration, do you have anything else that you’d like to add? Any final thoughts or…</p>
<p><strong>McFarland<br /></strong>Well, I—I don’t know anything off the top of my head. Uh, uh, railroading was an interesting occupation, and I’m sure it’s still is, although I’ve been away from it now for many years. I’ve been retired for 30 years now, so, uh—and I—I’d left the railroad for 20 years before that, so [<em>laughs</em>] it’s been awhile since I’ve been railroading, but, I—I enjoyed the—the—working there, and as I said, I worked as a train dispatcher, which was, um, very complex and complicated job to keep the trains moving.</p>
<p>Uh, when I started, an old time dispatcher said, “Oh, there’s nothing to it.” Said, “You just—you just meet ‘em—don’t meet ‘em too close together or too far apart.” [<em>laughs</em>] Well, its’—that’s an oversimplification, but it—it’s what you—that’s exactly what you were trying to do was—is to move the trains over the—over the, uh, territory wi—in—in the most efficient manner possible, and that, you know—and single track and—and—and, uh, with limited, uh, communication. You had no communication—when I started, you had no communication with—with the people on the train other than handing them up, uh—as they pass an open telegraph office you—you could hand them up orders or, uh, messages of what you want to do, or they could throw off something as they went by, but, um, that was an interesting, uh, occupation and—and very demanding, very challenging. Um, somewhat comparable to an aircraft, uh, uh, air—air controller, except that we couldn’t tell the tr—trains to pull up and go around or—or, uh, fly higher and—and not hit—hit the train ahead of them. They were—they were, uh, consigned to the track. They had to stay on the track, so made—made it a little bit more complicated.</p>
<p><strong>Cravero<br /></strong>Well, I guess, if you would, let’s, uh, give us a little demonstration here. Let me see if I…</p>
<p><strong>McFarland<br /></strong>Well, I’m sorry…</p>
<p><strong>Cravero<br /></strong>Can...</p>
<p><strong>McFarland<br /></strong>That this is not working. I don’t know what it is, but, this—this is the sound [<em>tapping</em>]—this is the sound of—this instrument in—in this is called a sounder, [<em>tapping</em>] and this, uh, box-like object is called a resonator, and the purpose of it is to focus the sound so it can be, uh, heard more clearly, and the can—the Prince Albert tobacco can, we—we now—we call it the “first solid-state amplifier,” because it makes a difference [<em>tapping</em>]. If you can hear the different—[<em>tapping</em>] with and without the can [<em>tapping</em>], and somebody back in the—in the early days of this discovered that you could do that—that, because a railroad agent had more to do than just sit at a desk and listen—listen for this. Uh, he had to be out in the freight warehouse or [<em>inaudible</em>] out—outside with the train going by or something like that, and he needed to be able to hear the dispatcher’s wire when that was happening.</p>
<p>So that, um, uh—that really changed the way that you could do that, and—and [<em>inaudible</em>] I never worked a job that didn’t have a can stuck in the resonator like that, and this—this, uh, is just the same thing and—and—[<em>tapping</em>] with a key here. I’ll move this out of the way. This—this has a key [<em>tapping</em>] and that’s the way you sound it, and you make a dot [<em>tap</em>] by closing the key [<em>tap</em>] real quickly and a dash [<em>tap</em>] by holding it down three times as long as you do for the dot, and you [<em>tapping</em>] do that to spell out, uh, everything that you want to say, and, like texters today, we use a lot of abbreviations. As a matter of fact, many of the abbreviations that texters are using were being used by telegraphers a hundred years ago, but, this is the key [<em>tap</em>] and this is the sounder, and then this called a bug, and it’s called a bug because the logo is a beetle, and nobody knows why they chose that as their logo, but they did.</p>
<p>It started out—if you—if you worked 8 hours or 12 hours a day, which, uh, up until the Hours of Service [HOS] law went into effect in 1908, that’s, uh—you worked 12 hours a day, [<em>tapping</em>] and you worked 12 hours a day with this up and down motion you—you developed telegrapher’s paralysis. We call it carpel tunnel syndrome now, but it was telegrapher’s paralysis then [<em>tapping</em>], and so they began experimenting what you could do to—to alleviate it, and the first thing they did was turn the key on its side and work it back and forth, and they kept working with it and eventually came into this form, and this is now called a vi—a—a speed key, and I can’t demonstrate because my power somehow or another is not working here today [<em>tapping</em>], but, um, you—the speed key—if—if I want to make a—a series of dots with—with this straight key [<em>tapping</em>], it goes like that, but, with the speed key, I can do it just [<em>tap</em>] with—with one movement of my thumb, and so, that relieved the carpel tunnel, but it also speeded everything up.</p>
<p><strong>McFarland<br /></strong>And so, those are the—those are the—the principal instruments that—that were used by landline telegraphers, and that—the—this is called American Morse, and it was used, uh, all over—all over the world, really. It—it just changed the whole world, and then, uh, in the late 8—1800s, [Guglielmo] Marconi discovered that you could send, uh, power through the, uh—through the air and—and modulate it and—and make a—a code—send code through the air, and they did—they did that and—using a—a slightly different code. Uh, the—this code—the American Morse Code has a lot of spaces in it, which makes it, uh, uh, a lot quicker, but, with the—when it went to radio, they couldn’t tell whether the spaces were accidental or intentional, and so they eliminated the space letters and everything became, um, uh, the—the tone then—the length of the tone was—determined whether it was a dot or a dash, and that sounded like this [<em>beeping</em>], but, uh—and that’s still used by ham radio operators and all base radio stations, like your local police station and your fire stations and things of that nature, are required by the Federal Communications Commission to identify themselves every hour, and now they use a computer, but every hour on the hour, uh, these—these stations will identify themselves using International Morse Code, sending their call letters—whatever they might be, and that—your television stations, your—your commercial radio stations, they all have to do this—do that, and they do it. So that, uh, America—I mean, the International Morse Code is still in use, uh, quite a bit with ham radio operators and that. American Morse—the last known use in the United States was in 1983, but th—that was just really an anomaly, because it had—by the mid-70s it had pretty much disappeared, but there’s just this one place out in Montana that still was using it until 1983.</p>
<p><strong>Cravero<br /></strong>That’s fantastic [<em>clears throat</em>]. Mr. McFarland, we really appreciate you sharing your story with us and demonstrating the tools of your trade.</p>
<p><strong>McFarland<br /></strong>Well, I’m happy to do it. Happy to do it.</p>
<p><strong>Cravero<br /></strong>Alright. Well, thank you so much. That will conclude our interview and, uh, we really appreciate you being here with us.</p>
<p><strong>McFarland<br /></strong>Thank you.</p>
<div><br /><div>
<p><a title="">[1]</a> Interstate Commerce Commission.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[2]</a> Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[3]</a> April 27.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[4]</a> Also called amateur radio.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[5]</a> Golden Spike National Historic Site.</p>
</div>
</div>
A&P grocery
abbreviations
ACL
agency checks
Alaska
American Morse Code
Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company
auditors
audits
Avon Park
Avon Park Atlantic Coast Line Train Station
barge lines
bugs
California
carpal tunnel syndrome
Central Florida Railroad Museum
Chicago, Illinois
communication limits
communications
computer-assisted train dispatching
conscription
CTS
Dallas, Texas
Department of Transportation
DOT
drafts
equal pay
extra boards
FCC
Federal Communications Commission
first solid-state amplifiers
first transcontinental telegraphs
Florida Boom
Frances Perkins Building
freight warehouses
Geoffrey Cravero
grocery clerks
grocery stores
Guglielmo Marconi
ham radio operators
ham radios
Hawaii
historical preservation
HOS
Hours of Service
ICC
International Morse Code
Interstate Commerce Commission
landline telegraphers
landline telegraphs
landline telegraphy
Montana
Morse Telegraph Club, Inc.
Nevada
Ocala
Ocala Union Station
Ohio
orlando
paid vacations
Pony Express
Prince Albert tobacco cans
railroad agents
railroad depots
Railroad Morse
Railroad Safety and Service Agent
railroad stations
railroading
railroads
railways
regulations
resonators
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan
safety inspections
SAL
Samuel Finley Breese Morse
Samuel Morse
San Francisco, California
Seaboard Air Line Depot
Seaboard Air Line Railroad
social clubs
solid-state amplifiers
sounders
South Carolina
speed keys
stagecoach routes
TAPS
Tavares & Gulf Railroad
telegraph instruments
telegraph keys
telegrapher's paralysis
telegraphers
telegraphs
telegraphy
telephones
teletypes
Tennessee
text abbreviations
The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company
train depots
train dispatchers
train dispatching
train stations
trains
Trans-Alaska Pipeline System
transcontinental telegraphs
UCF
University of Central Florida
Utah
Virginia
Warren McFarland
Washington, D.C.
waybills
Western Union
Winter Garden
wireless telegraphers
wireless telegraphs
wireless telegraphy
World War II
WWII
yard checks
-
https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka/files/original/728e65523012d71068a9e389e9b7eddf.mp3
bf9cd47354a8b83b6a6107c6d59ec522
https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka/files/original/dfd1142290a11b6982aee5ee6fe60a5e.pdf
d0527f01a610d68ad14544a29105a1c5
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
Linda McKnight Batman Oral History Project Collection
Alternative Title
Linda McKnight Batman Collection
Subject
Ocala (Fla.)
Orlando (Fla.)
Oviedo (Fla.)
Port Tampa (Fla.)
Sanford (Fla.)
Silver Springs (Fla.)
Titusville (Fla.)
Zellwood (Fla.)
Description
Collection of oral histories depicting the history of Seminole County, Florida. The project was funded by Linda McKnight Batman, a former teacher, historian, and Vice President of the State of Florida Commission on Ethics.
Language
eng
Type
Collection
Curator
Cepero, Laura
Digital Collection
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/map/" target="_blank">RICHES MI</a>
Source Repository
<a href="http://www.seminolecountyfl.gov/departments-services/leisure-services/parks-recreation/museum-of-seminole-county-history/" target="_blank">Museum of Seminole County History</a>
External Reference
<span>Museum of Seminole County History, and University of Central Florida. </span><a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/744676869" target="_blank"><em>Researcher's Guide to Seminole County Oral Histories: Linda McKnight Batman Oral History Project</em></a><span>. [Sanford, Fla.]: Museum of Seminole County History, 2010.</span>
Contributor
<a href="http://www.seminolecountyfl.gov/departments-services/leisure-services/parks-recreation/museum-of-seminole-county-history/" target="_blank">Museum of Seminole County History</a>
Coverage
Seminole County, Florida
Ocala, Florida
Oviedo, Florida
Port Tampa, Florida
Sanford, Florida
Silver Springs, Florida
Titusville, Florida
Zellwood, Florida
Contributing Project
Linda McKnight Batman Oral History Project
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
Oral History of John Louis Salsbury
Alternative Title
Oral History, Salsbury
Subject
Sanford (Fla.)
Tampa (Fla.)
Air Force
Photography--Florida
Space Shuttle Program (U.S.)
Titusville (Fla.)
Astronauts--United States
Baseball--Florida
Description
An oral history of John Louis Salsbury, conducted by Joseph Morris on September 9, 2011. Salsbury was born in Tampa, Florida, but he has spent much of his life in Sanford. In the interview, Salsbury discusses his family's history, Port Tampa during the Spanish-American War, his service in the U.S. Air Force, photographing Space Shuttle launches and astronauts, how Sanford has changed over time, and the Florida Aviation Historical Society.
Table Of Contents
0:00:00 Introduction
0:00:21 Family history
0:01:52 Port Tampa and the Spanish-American War
0:04:15 Family history
0:08:17 Serving in the Air Force
0:11:31 RECORDING CUTS OFF
0:11:32 President Richard M. Nixon
0:13:28 Moving to Sanford and photographing shuttle launches
0:17:17 Moonshiner’s shoe
0:20:22 Moving to Sanford
0:20:46 Photographing space shuttles and astronauts
0:32:49 Family history
0:45:10 How Sanford has changed over time
0:45:54 Grandparents and great-grandparents
0:58:02 Closing remarks
0:58:37 RECORDING CUTS OFF
0:58:38 Florida Aviation Historical Society
Abstract
Oral history interview of John Louis Salsbury Interview conducted by Joseph Morris at Salsbury' home in Florida.
Type
Sound/Podcast
Source
Original 1-hour, 4-minute, and 54-second oral history: Salsbury, John Louis. Interviewed by Joseph Morris. September 9, 2011. Audio record available. <a href="http://www.seminolecountyfl.gov/departments-services/leisure-services/parks-recreation/museum-of-seminole-county-history/" target="_blank">Museum of Seminole County History</a>, Sanford, Florida.
Requires
Multimedia software, such as <a href="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/" target="_blank"> QuickTime</a>.
<a href="https://get.adobe.com/reader/" target="_blank">Adobe Acrobat Reader</a>
Is Part Of
<a href="http://www.seminolecountyfl.gov/departments-services/leisure-services/parks-recreation/museum-of-seminole-county-history/" target="_blank">Museum of Seminole County History</a>, Sanford, Florida.
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka2/collections/show/123" target="_blank">Linda McKnight Batman Oral History Project Collection</a>, Seminole County Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.
Coverage
South Park Avenue and West 9th Street, Sanford, Florida
Port Tampa Dock, Port Tampa, Tampa, Florida
Norton Air Force Base, San Bernardino, California
Naval Air Station KeflavÃk, KeflavÃk, Iceland
Homestead Air Reserve Base, Homestead, Florida
John F. Kennedy Space Center, Titusville, Florida
Disney-MGM Studios, Lake Buena Vista, Florida
Creator
Morris, Joseph
Salsbury, John Louis
Contributor
Vickers, Savannah
Date Created
2011-09-09
Date Modified
2014-09-10
Date Copyrighted
2011-09-09
Format
audio/wav
application/pdf
Extent
665 MB
194 KB
Medium
1-hour, 4-minute, and 54-second audio recording
19-page typed transcript
Language
eng
Mediator
History Teacher
Civics/Government Teacher
Geography Teacher
Provenance
Originally created by Joseph Morris and John Louis Salsbury, and transcribed by Savannah Vickers.
Rights Holder
Copyright to this resource is held by the <a href="http://www.seminolecountyfl.gov/departments-services/leisure-services/parks-recreation/museum-of-seminole-county-history/" target="_blank">Museum of Seminole County History</a> and is provided here by <a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">RICHES of Central Florida</a> for educational purposes only.
Accrual Method
Donation
Curator
Cepero, Laura
Digital Collection
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/map/" target="_blank">RICHES MI</a>
Source Repository
<a href="http://www.seminolecountyfl.gov/departments-services/leisure-services/parks-recreation/museum-of-seminole-county-history/" target="_blank">Museum of Seminole County History</a>
External Reference
"<a href="http://www.floridaahs.org/" target="_blank">Welcome!</a>" Florida Aviation Historical Society. http://www.floridaahs.org/.
Sanford Historical Society (Fla.). <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/53015288" target="_blank"><em>Sanford</em></a>. Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2003.
Norman, Robert, and Lisa Coleman. <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/47770675" target="_blank"><em>Tampa</em></a>. Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2001.
Duggins, Pat. <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/122701571" target="_blank"><em>Final Countdown: NASA and the End of the Space Shuttle Program</em></a>. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2007.
Transcript
<p><strong>Morris<br /></strong>This is an interview with John [Louis] Salsbury. This interview is being conducted on the 9<sup>th</sup> of September, 2011, at the Museum of Seminole County History. The interviewer is Joseph Morris, representing the Linda McKnight Batman Oral History Project for the Historical Society of Central Florida. Mr. Salsbury, could you tell us your name?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Salsbury<br /></strong>Yes. I would like to do this as a means of preservation of my family history, and I hope I can do a good job. Anyway, I’d like to start with the year of 1893, when my great-grandparents and my grandfather moved here from Portsmouth, Ohio, by train. My great-grandfather was a master carpenter, and he lived here—the family lived here—on the corner of [West] Ninth Street and [South] Park Avenue—the southwest corner—for about two years. My grandfather [Louis Salsbury] was 19 years old, and he was employed as a railroad telegrapher at the Sanford Railroad Station on the west end of Ninth Street. In 1895, which was the year they moved away, my grandfather participated in a professional bicycle race—a 25-mile race that began in Downtown Orlando, when Orange Avenue was a dirt road, and ended there. My grandfather won the race.</p>
<p class="Body">And after that they moved to Port Tampa, where my great-grandfather became a building contractor and was commissioned by Henry [B.] Plant to build a passenger terminal at the end of the railroad line there in Port Tampa, near Tampa. And steamships—the <em>Mascotte </em>and the <em>Olivette</em>—transported passengers from South America and Cuba to the United States. And they ported—they landed there at the docks. And the terminal building that my great-grandfather built was in use up until that passenger line ceased to operate, but the building remained to 1955.</p>
<p class="Body">Also, just a year or two before the building was commenced, that terminal, Teddy [Theodore] Roosevelt, his Rough Riders [1<sup>st</sup> U.S. Volunteer Calvary] and officers, were among the soldiers and troops that were encamped in the Port Tampa area en route to the Spanish-American War. Teddy Roosevelt and his officers were hosted and remained in my doctor’s—in the Salsbury family doctor’s—home, which was located about a block from my grandparents’ home, and where my great-grandfather built. My grandfather joined the Army and participated in the Spanish-American War, and following that war, my great-grandfather was commissioned to also build a very famous wooden hotel in Bartow-Clearwater area, over near Clearwater. It’s still in use. It’s the Belleview Biltmore Resort. It’s a large wooden hotel, and it’s still in use today.</p>
<p class="Body">Okay, after that, my grandfather married—and he was a telegrapher—and on the west coast at Palm Harbor, Florida, near the Gulf [of Mexico], and between Clearwater and Tarpon Springs, he married Rose Tinny—Rosalind Tinny. And my father [John Wright Salsbury, Jr.] was born in Port Tampa. My great-grandfather had built three homes there, and after my father graduated from high school in the year 1926, he found this moonshiner’s shoe. It was uncovered by a fire that had burnt some palmettos. My father found that—and they determined it belonged to the moonshiner. His name was Herndon, who was killed by the troops when he tried to steal corn from the soldiers encamped there for the Spanish-American War. Well, anyway, the left shoe that I have in my possession is in the Smithsonian Institution, and this right shoe I still retain.<a title="">[1]</a></p>
<p class="Body">Okay, in 1914, just before this—at the age of 12—my father and his sister, Mary, at age of five, flew on the world’s first passenger, scheduled passenger airline from St. Petersburg to Tampa. As a member of the Florida Aviation Historical Society, I’ve been through a lot of this and photographed a lot. I’m their photographer. Well, anyway, in 1914, my father and my aunt flew with Tony Janus, or the line pilot, from St. Petersburg to Tampa. This airline was in operation for three months and flew 1,205 passengers, and is actually on record as being the world’s first scheduled airline.</p>
<p class="Body">My dad moved to—my dad and my mother—I was born in 1931 in Tampa, and my father and mother separated in ’41, and in 1941 we moved to Sanford and have resided in Sanford since. At least I have. My father was a railroad engineer with the Atlantic Coast Line [Railroad]. He had roomed with Cara Stenstrom, the mother of Douglas and Julian and Frank and Herb and Ruth Stenstrom—my stepbrothers and sister. Well, that year, or year around that time, the early 1940s, I recall having met Red Barber, the famous sports announcer’s father, there on the front porch. Okay, Red Barber, who actually went to school in Sanford and graduated from Sanford High School, went on to become the most famous sports announcer in baseball, football.</p>
<p class="Body">All right. I went into the Air Force in 1949, upon graduating from the Seminole High School. I was a radar operator, and while in the service, I served in Alaska, Newfoundland, Iceland, and West Germany. But some of the highlights of my service, while I was—after I returned from Alaska in 1951, I was able—stationed in Norton Air Force Base in the Air Defense Control Center there. I was able to see many movie stars: Marilyn Monroe, Lucille Ball, Lana Turner, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Gregory Peck. I really enjoyed my time there at Norton, because I met all these people, and not only that, I made sure that I worked within the Air Control Center—gave me a ride, or I flew as the co-pilot in a twin-engine bomber trainer called a T-11. And while we were in operations, he was filing his flight plan—I was standing next to a tall gentleman at the counter, where he was filing a flight plan, and on this parachute he had draped over his shoulder was the word “Yeager. So I actually got a chance to see the famous Chuck Yeager, who broke the speed, the sound barrier. And outside was an experimental jet bomber, XB-43,—I remember they called it—and he was probably flying that at the time.</p>
<p class="Body">Anyway, after we took off in this T-11, the major took control of the aircraft ‘til we went over Edward’s restricted area, or Edwards Air Force Base. And then he showed me how to use the radio compass, and I honed it in on Palmdale, where the space shuttles were built. Well, anyway, I took control, and he let me fly the T-11 up over L.A.—Los Angeles—Laguna Beach, Long Beach, all along the coast. And then, when he said we had to go back, he asked me if I thought I could find my way back, and I said, “I believe so.” So I honed in on the mountains there—San Bernardino right there at Norton—and headed back to Norton. And that was one of the most memorable flights I’ve ever taken. I really enjoyed that. All right, uh, upon—you may pause it just for a second.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Morris<br /></strong>Good to go, sir.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Salsbury<br /></strong>Okie doke. Another thing I’d like to comment on about an experience I had while in the Air Force, stationed in Iceland, President [Richard M.] Nixon stopped over there on the way to Russia, in Keflavík Air Field [Naval Air Station (NAS) Keflavík] in Iceland, and being in radar, I knew about it. So I was down there with my camera—my movie camera—and was able to get some shots of Admiral [Hyman G.] Rickover as he walked out of the plane—walked by. Nixon didn’t get out of the plane, nor did his wife [Pat Nixon].</p>
<p class="Body">Okay, then, when stationed—before my retirement in 1969, I was stationed at Homestead Air [Reserve] Base in South Florida, in radar again. I was electronic warfare NCOIC [Non-Commissioned Officer in Charge], and President Nixon was inaugurated and flew right into Homestead AFB [Homestead ARB] the next day, and I took my son and my daughter over to see him. Well, lo and behold, we were only, right at the front of the fence there at the tarmac there at Homestead, and the President walked directly to us and shook our hands, and it appeared on the front page of <em>The Miami Herald</em> the next morning. So I had a—we had a wonderful experience of meeting Richard Nixon and shaking hands with him. And then I retired shortly after Neil Armstrong put foot on the moon.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Salsbury<br /></strong>And I came—we moved back to Sanford, and bought a new home here in Sanford, and I became employed as a postal clerk over in Orlando for one year in the sectional center, and then transferred to Sanford, where for 16 years I was a letter-carrier. Riding a bicycle and a jeep, carrying mail in Sanford.</p>
<p class="Body">Well, while in Sanford as a letter-carrier, I had been taking pictures of the first space shuttle launch from Titusville and the ones following that, and I was taking my film to Eckerd’s drugstore to have it processed. Through a questionnaire that I filled out, the Eckerd’s marketing management and headquarters in Clearwater called me one day. They asked if I would appear in a TV—television commercial for them. And from that, I was titled “The Shuttle Photographer,” and Eckerd’s produced and ran for a year and a half a commercial introducing their one-hour photo service. That helped me, in a way, get my foot in the door as becoming a press photographer at [John F.] Kennedy Space Center, to shoot the space shuttle launches up close. So from the end of ’91, I was credited as a press photographer with <em>The Sanford Herald</em> editor sponsoring me. And throughout the shuttle program, I served as a press photographer at the Space Center, covering the 30-year shuttle program.</p>
<p class="Body">Just recently, in July—in July the 21<sup>st</sup>—the [Space] Shuttle <em>Atlantis</em> landed, and I was there on the end of the runway, and I captured the landing and the tow back of the space shuttle for the last time of <em>Atlantis</em>. <em>Atlantis</em> just happens to be a particular launch vehicle that I took in 1994, November the 3<sup>rd</sup>, that turned out to be my most successful space shuttle photograph. It hangs in the NASA [National Aeronautics and Space Administration] Media [Resource] Center. A 30 x 40. It hangs in the Viera VA [Veterans Affairs] Hospital entrance. It hangs in museums, and it’s been purchased by a number of people over the years. So the STS-66 launch turned out to be my most successful space shuttle picture.</p>
<p class="Body">And now that the shuttle program has ended, I devote my future photography <em>Endeavor</em>s towards shooting wildlife. And here in Lake Mary—close to Sanford—I have some blinds set up, and I have wood duck nesting boxes, and I have been very successful in photographing Florida birds here, and will continue doing so. Thank you, Joe.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Morris<br /></strong>Oh, thank you very much, Mr. Salsbury. I have a few more questions if that is okay.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Salsbury<br /></strong>Fire away.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Morris<br /></strong>Okay, Mr. Salsbury. Earlier you mentioned about the shoe that your family member had found previously?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Salsbury<br /></strong>Right. That was my father.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Morris<br /></strong>Could you describe that? Yes, your father, sir. Could you tell—could you describe that for us? And then tell us what purpose that shoe was being used for?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Salsbury<br /></strong>Well, sure. I’d be glad to.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Morris<br /></strong>Thank you, sir.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Salsbury<br /></strong>Joe, this shoe that I’m showing you has a tin foundation, or a base, to it, and nailed to the bottom of this piece of tin are two wooden replicas of cows’ hooves, out of wood, carved by this moonshiner. And what the moonshiner would do—he—he was able to attach this to his shoes and conceal his tracks as he went to and from his still, which was located near my family home in Port Tampa, Florida, Hillsborough County. And a fire had really exposed this to my father. It was wrapped—the shoes, the pair of shoes—were wrapped up in a newspaper and was charred, but was exposed when the fire burnt these palmettos along the roadway, which is now in Trask Avenue in Tampa, Florida. T-R-A-S-K. Anyway, when my father opened the package up, here was this pair of overshoes used by moonshiner by the name of Herndon in Port Tampa, to go to and from his still. This moonshiner was later shot to death when he attempted to steal grain—sacks of grain—from the soldiers camped in the area, or en route to the Spanish-American War from Port Tampa to Cuba, where they embarked from Port Tampa. They determined—they found out they were having sacks of grain stolen from them, or missing, so they set up a trap. And actually they caught the guy, and they shot him. But apparently he wasn’t wearing these shoes, and he had these hidden just to go to and from his still. And that’s how come I ended up—the right shoe I have, and I’m showing you at this time. The left shoe, in 1926, was given to the Smithsonian Institution and appeared in <em>The St. Louis</em> [<em>Post-</em>]<em>Dispatch</em> with a picture of it telling that it’s in the museum. I have been unable to locate that copy of <em>The St. Louis Dispatch</em> that I had. I don’t know what happened to it. But anyway, I do know that one shoe was in the Smithsonian Institution.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Morris<br /></strong>Well, thank you. That’s a very interesting piece you have there, sir.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Salsbury<br /></strong>Thank you.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Morris <br /></strong>Another question I have is—you said 1941<a title="">[2]</a> you moved to Sanford?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Salsbury<br /></strong>1941.<a title="">[3]</a></p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Morris<br /></strong>Who did you move with, sir?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Salsbury<br /></strong>My father, my sister, Rosemary [Salsbury], and I. The three of us.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Morris<br /></strong>Okay, sir. And your sister, is she currently living in Sanford, or...</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Salsbury<br /></strong>No, she lives on the west coast, over near Tarpon Springs.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Morris<br /></strong>Okay, sir. And you said, you were describing earlier your experiences working as a press photographer for <em>The Sanford Herald</em>.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Salsbury<br /></strong>Right.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Morris<br /></strong>Do you have any more experiences that you’d like to share about that, any kind of experiences working at the—as opposed to just taking photographs…</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Salsbury<br /></strong>The only experiences I have—and one is very interesting ‘cause it deals with Seminole County. As a press photographer, I was given quite a lot of extra photo possibilities. There was a launch of [Space Shuttle] <em>Endeavor</em>—and I don’t recall just what mission it was at the time—but when I boarded the bus to go with an escort to go there to photograph it with my telescope, she handed out a sheet of paper that listed the dignitaries—the important events that was gonna be there at this event site that I had wanted to shoot from. One of them was Alan Shepard, who was the first American astronaut to go into space. All right. She told—I asked her if she’d point him out to me or help me find him. I wanted to get a picture of him. She said, “I could do better than that. I could have your picture taken with him.” So she did that, and they used my camera. And I sent the photo to Houston[, Texas]—to him—and he autographed it and returned it to me, and in turn I gave—I left one with him.</p>
<p class="Body">But I told him in the letter something very interesting that I found out. My classmate in 1949, Bettye Ball [Deadman] from Lake Mary, lived a short distance from Alan Shepard’s grandparents. Alan Shepard used to spend his summer vacations from Connecticut or New Hampshire in Lake Mary. He spent him out there, in his vacations, and his grandparents. One day he was missing, and they couldn’t find him. He was found on the Ball—Bettye, my classmate’s family’s—dining room table eating a banana. And so I told him about this in the letter, and he got a charge out of it.</p>
<p class="Body">But anyway, my stepbrother, Doug Strenstrom—Douglas Stenstrom—is the one that told me first that Alan Shepard had a connection with Lake Mary and Seminole County. And then, when I found that out, I was talking to Bettye Ball and she told me about the banana incident. And so, it so happens that Alan Shepard enjoyed a lot of his school summers, if not most of them, right here in Lake Mary, Seminole County. So, anyway, I got a chance to meet him.</p>
<p class="Body">Not only that—another thing I want to tell you, an interesting thing happened. I wasn’t a press photographer at the time but I had an eight-inch telescope, and I took this with me to shoot from Titusville the first launch of the space shuttle—STS-1 [Space Shuttle] <em>Columbia</em>. And the picture I took, turned out I shot into the sun, but I got a fairly good picture. For a color picture, it turned out black and white. But anyway, I got a good picture. Well, <em>The Orlando Sentinel </em>team saw me, and they took a picture of me with my nephew, Troy Hickson, from Lake Mary, as we were photographing with my telescope. And this was published and in <em>The Sentinel</em>.</p>
<p class="Body">Well, there was a time when I wasn’t—later on, when I wasn’t a press photographer, but I was shooting from the NASA Causeway with my telescope, and the gentleman told me I needed press credentials to get up close and get better pictures. So little wheels started turning in my head as to how I could bring this about. First thing I thought about doing was calling this photographer that had photographed me at the first launch over in Titusville at <em>The Sentinel</em> in Orlando. So I called, and they couldn’t use me in Orlando on the team, but he suggested something that really did it for me. And he suggested that I get a hold of the public affairs people at NASA, at Kennedy, and request a freelance pass—a pass as a freelance photographer. Well, I did this, and that allowed me to start getting passes to put my camera up remotely. I’d put my camera out right next to the shuttle, and using another man’s trigger at first—and finally I knew how to do it and I finally bought the equipment and did it on my own. But anyway, the sound after the solid rockets are fired triggers your camera, and you’re nowhere near it. You’re sitting there anchored down, but it’s up close to it. So that’s how I got my best pictures was in that manner.</p>
<p class="Body">Okay, after that first launch on the 12<sup>th</sup> of April of 1981, there was an air show. It went to Sanford Airport. And I took my son out there, and I had my camera along to shoot the show. And a friend of mine who had a shoe store in Sanford, Donald Knight—well known in Sanford—and he was a flight instructor and a pilot, and he was at front of operations prepping a Cessna for flight. And I walked up and commenced talking to him this day. This is after the launch of the shuttle. And he said, “Do you know whose plane that is next to me?” And I said, “No.” He said, “That’s Neil Armstrong.” I waited until Neil Armstrong came out and his family came out of the operations and got in their plane, and took pictures of this, and got some good pictures of Neil Armstrong. He left there and nobody, of all these people there—the thousands of people at the air show—knew he was there, I think. He taxied out and took off before the air show. So I got pictures of Neil Armstrong.</p>
<p class="Body">Another incident, having been with press credentials and having put my remote cameras out for the launch of John Glenn—STS-95—I was able to get a picture and he posed for me. And this was Buzz Aldrin, who stepped on the moon. And I also got pictures of several of the other astronauts, the one in STS-13—I mean not STS-13—the Apollo 13. And Gordon Cooper.</p>
<p class="Body">Now, not only that, over the years, I was able to meet and become friends with different astronauts, but one of the highlights of my time over there too took place when I was working part-time at [Walt] Disney World, [Disney-]MGM Studios.<a title="">[4]</a> I purchased a little lapel pin of Buzz Lightyear. Well, I had a taken a nice shot of the STS-61 launch of [Space Shuttle] <em>Endeavor</em>, that Story Musgrave was mission specialist of, and did a spacewalk to repair the Hubble [Space] Telescope. Well, my pictures came out so good. I made Christmas cards out of them, put “Merry Christmas,” “Happy New Year,” and all that on them, and I sent them to each one of the crew members in Houston, so when they landed, they would get Christmas card greetings at their launch. Well, I got responses from Kathy Thornton and different ones with autographed pictures of all of them and all that.</p>
<p class="Body">But six months later, I get a telephone call from Story Musgrave—Dr. Story Musgrave—who did the spacewalk repair on the Hubble telescope and was on the mission. He commented to me, he said, “That’s the best night launch picture I’ve seen. Would you make transparencies for me so I can use them in my lectures?” And he called me back later and asked me how much it was and all that. He wanted to pay for it. I didn’t want him to pay for it, but he sent me a check and paid for it. I asked him, I said, “Story, would you take a little Buzz Lightyear pin in space for me in your next mission coming up in September?” Or November. And that was STS-80. He called me back later and said, “Send it on.” He had room. He could take it. So Story Musgrave took a little Buzz Lightyear pin for me on the STS-80 mission of <em>Columbia</em> that ended up being the longest space shuttle mission flown, 17 days. When they returned, it took me two years to get it back. But I got it back, and it was still packaged and in the plastic, and it was accompanied by a certificate of authentication signed by Story Musgrave, telling that “this space,”—oh, “this lapel pin of Buzz Lightyear,”—or something to this effect—“was carried aboard <em>Columbia</em> for John Salsbury,” and so on. So I got this wonderful document to see that by.</p>
<p class="Body">So that kind of sums up some of the most important things that I remember as highlights doing my space shuttle photography over 30 years. I was able to meet a lot of the good ones, and one of them was Tom Jones, and I’m still in touch with him. Most, many of these pictures I have, like the one of STS-96—it shows shooting into the rising sun and everything, Rick Husband, who was killed when the <em>Columbia</em> exploded, he was the pilot of that one. And I’ve got a beautiful picture of that, autographed by the pilot, Kent Romminger. So, a lot of my pictures, even the one with John Glenn’s launch, turned out. I sent it to him. He autographed it for me. I’ve got the picture of John Glenn going up autographed. I’ve got all these autographs on my pictures over there. And my room looks like a museum itself.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Morris<br /></strong>Sir, that’s impressive.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Salsbury<br /></strong>Thank you. But that’s about it, in a nutshell, I think.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Morris<br /></strong>Well, sir, could you tell me a little bit about your family?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Salsbury<br /></strong>Well, I think I told you, let me, my great-grandfather’s name was John Wright Salsbury I. He was married to Addie—A-D-D-I-E—Burke Salsbury, and they moved here with their son, my grandfather—later grandfather—Louis Salsbury, to Sanford in 1893, as I mentioned earlier. My dad moved up here upon my mother and father’s separation in 1941. We moved to Sanford from Port Tampa, and that’s when I joined the Stenstrom-Salsbury family, or we were joined, and of course, Douglas and Julian are well-documented in their contributions here in Seminole County. And Frank, he married Henry Took—Harry [Patricia] Took—excuse me, who was a millionaire that owned a lot of groves. And he took care of the groves, my stepbrother did, Frankie.</p>
<p class="Body">And then Herb was a realtor. He was the other stepbrother, and Herb passed away a young man due to lung cancer. But he married Carolyn Patrick, and the Patricks own a packing—a fruit business of citrus and citrus-packing groves and so forth.</p>
<p class="Body">And my stepsister, Ruth, she married a young man that was—became a—he was an umpire in baseball—professional games, but then later became a—they moved to Cocoa Beach and he was on the City Council and he was a postmaster over there at Cocoa Beach, about the time when the Apollo program was going on. And Ruth—no, Julian, was a sports announcer and writer for [<em>The Sanford Herald</em>], he announced for Red WTRR Sanford, a radio station, and he wrote for the columns for <em>The Sanford Herald</em>. And he wrote a lot of them about “Way Back Then”—they titled it—and I have copies of those. He had a wonderful memory and recall of sports. He mentioned—he brought a light that Buddy Lake from Lake Monroe, in Sanford—and Lake Mary, in the Sanford area—a ball player, ended up in the hall of fame from Julian’s efforts. He found out that Buddy had led hitting and pitching at one time, and this was something that hadn’t been done before. This was back when he played for Florida State League. And Julian also brought out the fact that Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier here in Sanford at the Sanford ballpark when he was playing for the [Brooklyn] Dodgers.</p>
<p class="Body">Julian and I—well, Julian became an official in the Southern Baptist brotherhood out in California, in Bakersfield, and I was stationed at Norton Air Force Base in the ‘50s. He and I attended a professional spring training ballgame between the Cincinnati Reds and another team I don’t recall. And Julian and I were sitting on the third base bleacher line there in the stands, and I was sitting maybe ten feet away from a gentleman with a cigar in his mouth. And Julian asked me if I knew who that was. He said, “That’s Branch Rickey.” So Branch Rickey is one of the two people that Red Barber dedicated his book, <em>Walking in the Spirit</em>, to. A great book. It’s in the museum in Sanford. It was given to Julian by Douglas. Anyway, Red Barber mentions—no, Julian wrote an article about Red Barber that I have as well too, and it was published in the Sanford paper, telling about Red Barber’s ball playing and his living here in Sanford. So, I can’t think right offhand of a lot of the highlights that Julian brought out. But anyway, they’re well-documented and covered in articles he wrote for the paper while he was there.</p>
<p class="Body">Oh, another thing, myself and my younger stepbrother, Frank, and my classmates, John Keeling and Richard McNab—Keeling just passed away and he was a retired colonel in the Army. Worked in the Pentagon. And Richard McNab—retired colonel—Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force, who flew B-47 reconnaissance aircraft. He’s living in Ocean Springs right now. And we all were on the American Legion baseball team in 1948. On March the 16<sup>th</sup> of 1948, Babe Ruth came to Sanford. Julian was the announcer, the master of ceremonies. Carl Hubble was there, John Krider, and Julian, and the mayor, Mayor Williams. Julian introduce a number of the people there, but the mayor actually introduced Babe Ruth. And I was there, and my other members played on the American Legion we had at the time. Babe Ruth signed baseballs for all of us, and we were given these baseballs signed by Babe Ruth. Well, anyway, the wonderful thing happened was that Julian and all of the commentary and all the narration or the talking that was done, even Babe Ruth’s voice, was recorded on a recorder—on a platter, a record, by someone. Well, Julian, my stepbrother, ended up having a copy of that, and he found it before passing away. And we transferred that over to an audio tape, from there to a VHS tape, and now I have it on DVD. We have Babe Ruth’s actual voice, which was eight months to the day before he died, when he was here in Sanford and honored in Sanford. So that about covers everything, Joe.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Morris<br /></strong>How about your immediate family?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Salsbury<br /></strong>Oh, I’m sorry. I have two children. My wife was from Lake Mary. Her name was Yvonne Eubanks, and she passed away five years ago today, on September 9, 2006, here in Sanford Hospital. She had diabetes and her kidneys gave out on her.</p>
<p class="Body">We have two children. My son is a lieutenant in the fire department, Lake Mary, and my daughter has moved to Tennessee. She was married to Bill Von Herbulis and had a daughter then. And her daughter, Jessica [Frana], well, anyway, later married. But before that my daughter remarried Steve Frana. His father’s friend owned Tube Tech. It’s a stainless steel plant here in Sanford. And there’s a connection. My son-in-law, Steve, actually made all the space shuttle hinges for their payload doors right here in Sanford. So it goes back to the space program.</p>
<p class="Body">But anyway, Steve’s father’s passed on now, but my daughter and Jessica—her daughter by her first husband—they all moved to Tennessee, and have a 45-acre farm up in Tennessee, real nice farm. And Steve had already had four children, two boys and two girls. So then—well, anyway, the total grandchildren I have now are nine, seven by my daughter and two by my son, and I have four great-grandchildren up in Tennessee. And, well, I’m living alone now. And in my latter years, I’m trying to get my family history together, and what we’re doing today, Joe, will help out very much.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Morris <br /></strong>Well, we definitely appreciate it, sir.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Salsbury <br /></strong>Thank you.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Morris<br /></strong>Just one final question, just ‘cause we’re greedy for history.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Salsbury<br /></strong>Did I mention my daughter’s name?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Morris<br /></strong>Ah, just in case, repeat, sir.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Salsbury<br /></strong>I don’t think I did. My son’s name was Terrence Wade Salsbury. He’s the Lieutenant in the Lake Mary fire department. My daughter’s name is Gale—G-A-L-E, not G-A-I-L, but G-A-L-E—Salsbury Frana—F-R-A-N-A. And, oh, one thing I failed to mention is very important. My daughter’ s first child, Jessica, she’s graduated from Wake Forest [University] and from University of Tennessee. She married a Pete Exline, who was a captain in the U.S. Army. Pete was a graduate of [The United States Military Academy at] West Point. His home was Jacksonville. Pete was sent to Iraq for a year, and upon returning from Iraq, he was put in the university, or Georgia Tech [Georgia Institute of Technology], for nuclear physics training, schooling. And from there and today, he has already started. He is an instructor at West Point, instructing nuclear physics. So my grandson-in-law, whatever, my grandson is teaching nuclear physics at West Point right now. So now you got my end of it. [<em>laughs</em>]</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Morris<br /></strong>I do, sir. Can you describe the differences from Sanford and the local area now, than it was when you saw it in your earlier days, sir?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Salsbury<br /></strong>Well, from what I remember mostly, you couldn’t go to a restaurant or practically anywhere without running into people you knew. It was a tight area here, and we knew so many people. And I enjoyed growing up here in Sanford. Throughout my life, oh—there is something I want to mention.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Morris<br /></strong>Okay.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Salsbury<br /></strong>My grandmother—her great-great-grandfather—now because she married, her father was a Tinny in Clearwater, and they were very wealthy, and the family had owned most of what is Downtown Clearwater right now, at the time. Well anyway, her mother was a daughter of a Anna Frank Bellamy. Now, her grandfather was a William Bellamy, the son of Abraham Bellamy, who was one of the first legislators of the state of Florida when it became a state. He was on the committee that wrote the first Florida constitution, and is a signatory of the first Florida constitution, which was, hell. And my grandmother’s uncle, who was a Bellamy—John Bellamy—he paved a road between Tallahassee and St. Augustine, and parts of it is still there with his name on it. And one of the Bellamys also had paved the way for the first railroad line between Port St. Joe in Tallahassee before the other railroad lines in Florida. And the Bellamys owned a plantation. Plantations were among the wealthiest people in the state of Florida at the time, and Madison County, up near Tallahassee, is where they’re buried. But the Bellamys are distant ancestors of mine through my grandmother.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Morris<br /></strong>Wow, sir.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Salsbury<br /></strong>I didn’t want to miss that because I wanted to get that in there somewhere. But my grandmother’s—one of my grandmother’s sisters—well, I’ll go a little further. One of my grandmother’s sisters, she was blind in her old age, but she married a Leslie Evie. Her name was Ebie Evie, and she was a Ebie Tinny Evie. Anyway, she and her husband owned what ended up to be a sort of a hotel later, but it was a boarding house and a post office and a waiver point for ships going down the west coast of Florida. And they stopped in there for provisions and so forth—before Tampa was a Tampa, before St. Petersburg was a St. Petersburg. Back in those days, it was one of the big stops along the way. So my aunt—my great-aunt, Ebie—she even hosted a Russian hierarchy woman that was in the hierarchy of the Russian—in the Russians.</p>
<p class="Body">Anyway—but when she was a little girl. They were born—my aunt, grandmother, and her sisters, my great-aunts—they were born in a log cabin at Curlew, on Curlew Creek right there next to Dunedin, between Clearwater and Tarpon Springs in a little town called Dunedin. Curlew’s where they were born in a log cabin. Well, as a young girl, my grandmother’s sister was farmed out to live with a surgeon at Fort Brook in Tampa—before there was a Tampa—the fort there. So this surgeon and his wife raised Ebie as a little girl there, before she got married, anyway, for a number of years. So Fort Brook, in now-Tampa, was involved in all this.</p>
<p class="Body">And then, another sister of my grandmother’s, who was a Tinny—born over there at that log cabin, Ira Wood. Ira Wood was her name, after her married name—Ira Tinny Wood. She and Ebie are two people that are very dear to my memory, because I would spend my school years in Sanford, all my summers over there swimming and scalloping and fishing at my grandparents’ there in Ozona, where they lived. And I spent an awful lot of time at their house. My Aunt Ira, her kitchen always smelled like a bakery, or had smell of those cookies, or something baked in there. I’ll never forget it. And then Ebie, she always sat on the front porch at 1981 High Alder, right by their house, and she’d sit on the porch since she was blind. But so many people, and I’m one of them, enjoyed just sitting there talking to her on that screened porch over the years.</p>
<p class="Body">And, now, Aunt Ira, who was one of the sisters I was telling you about, of my grandmother, she had a son named Duane—William Duane Wood. That was the name of her husband, but this was William Duane II, and we called him Duane. He and my father were very close, and they grew up together, and he was a naval pilot in World War II. And after he got out of the Navy, he wasn’t a fighter pilot, but he was in the Navy, and he gave me a ride in a Piper Cub he had with floats, there in Ozona. Gave me my first sea plane ride. But anyway, he was hired by the Department of Interior—United States Department of Interior—to oversee Sanibel, the island down there. He lived by the lighthouse, and they provided him an airplane and a launch, and he protected the island from the turtles that, you know, nested there, and different things. He flew up and down the coast and provided samples of water. Anyway, before he died—and I was with him when he passed away over in Tarpon Springs, with my aunt—now that was my aunt that flew in the first airline. But anyway, my uncle<a title="">[5]</a>, Duane Wood, he contributed and helped build the flying model, the Benoist model XIV, which was the air boat that Tony Janus flew in 1914.</p>
<p class="Body">And then our president—remember I’m in the Florida Aviation Historical Society—and our president’s gone now, but he flew in 1984, he flew over the same route—this re-model, flying model of the original airplane that flew back in 1914. He flew it over that route, and it’s all documented. And afterwards, it ended up in a museum near Clearwater, and Russell [St.] Arnold, who was a director in the Florida Aviation Historical Society and the primary person responsible for building this flying replica, is the one that gave me my membership and introduced me. I happened to be over showing some videotapes of air shows at Daytona and around to my uncle, Duane, while he was bedridden in Tarpon Springs before he died. Russell [St.] Arnold was there, called him over, and I was able to meet him. And I found out that Duane was instrumental in helping build, or contributing money, contributing something, I don’t what he contributed to the building of this air boat.</p>
<p class="Body">Now, in 1991—I think it was, ’90 or ’91—before he died, Russell [St.] Arnold invited myself and my aunt to go see this flying model in the museum. And it was sitting on the floor at the time, and Russ said, “John, get in.” I said, “I can’t do that. That’s a museum piece.” He said, “Well, it’s mine. I guess you can!” I got in there, and he took a photograph of me standing next to it with my aunt standing beside it, and I have a good picture of that. So now, today, the model—that flying model of the Benoist model XIV flying boat—hangs in the museum in St. Petersburg, at the million dollar pier right there at their historical museum, and they’ve got mannequins in the cockpit up there.</p>
<p class="Body">But not long ago, a Nicole Stott, who was from Clearwater, flew on the space shuttle as a mission specialist. She carried the banner that flew on the first Benoist model XIV, or on that flight—first flight—with Tony Janus in 1914. She took that aboard the space shuttle, and it’s been returned, and now, if you looked at the airplane hanging in the museum, you’ll see that banner up there that she flew in the space shuttle. Not only that, there’s another connection if you want to hear it, about that.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Morris </strong>Of course, sir.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Salsbury<br /></strong>Okay. I didn’t know it, but being a member of the Florida Aviation Historical Society, I knew Ed Hoffman[, Sr.], who was a man that started our society, and was instrumental in building this too, and all that with our president. He passed on here a while back, the day before he was supposed to be inducted into Florida Aviation’s hall of fame. And, anyway, his son, Eddie [Hoffman]—Ed was an architect in San—uh, Tarpon Springs. And he did the interior decoration for the famous—world-famous—Pappas [Riverside] Restaurant. It was over at Tarpon Springs. But anyway, his son, Eddie, is a pilot and he has his own plane, and he’s an architect, and he and I are in communication with each other. And he sent me an e-mail a while back. And it so happened that Nicole Stott and her father—or at least the family—were friends of the Hoffmans—my friends. And Nicole Stott’s father was an aerobatic pilot. He liked flying aerobatics. Well, he took up one of the Hoffman’s flying boots[?], and somehow it crashed into a seawall and he drowned sometime back. And so, uh, that was a tragic ending there. But Nicole Stott, his daughter, ended up being a, uh, shuttle mission specialist, and flying a mission—a few missions back. So I just wanted to mention that.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Morris<br /></strong>Ah. Thank you very much, sir. Do you have anything else you’d like to discuss before we wrap things up?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Salsbury<br /></strong>You know, things were out of context and not chronologically spoken. But I’m glad I remembered the things that I did, and I only want to close by saying that photography has meant so much to me now, and I’m enjoying my days now using a digital Nikon camera that I use for the shuttle and getting wonderful wildlife pictures here in Seminole County.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Morris<br /></strong>Thank you so much for coming today, sir.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Salsbury<br /></strong>Okay.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Morris<br /></strong>Really appreciate that.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Salsbury<br /></strong>Thank you.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Morris <br /></strong>Okay, go ahead.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Salsbury<br /></strong>Okay. Something I want to add. In early 1994, Florida Aviation Historical Society’s president, Ed Hoffman, Sr., asked me to get together photographs of the Cape [Canaveral] area—Kennedy, Cape Kennedy—to go in Florida Aviation History in Pictures. It’s going to be made into an exhibit for the Florida Aviation Museum [Florida Air Museum] in Lakeland. And he gave me the assignment of handling the Cape. So, I had contacted Washington[, D.C.] and Houston and obtained the transparencies I needed to have prints made.</p>
<p class="Body">And I—well, later—and this was on April the 11<sup>th</sup> of ’94—the SUN ‘n FUN air show was going on, and they closed the museum there at Lakeland [Linder Regional] Airport to have a dedication ceremony for our exhibit that the Florida Aviation Historical Society put on—Florida Aviation in Pictures. And so, I attended that, and I had my camera, and I was photographing our president, Hoffman, as he was at the podium, and the director of the SUN ‘n FUN started identifying celebrities or people in the crowd. And he mentioned Curtis Brown, and I lit up and knew immediately who it was. I turned, and I went straight, I left the podium and went straight to him, and I asked him if he would pose for me in front of the exhibit I put together on the Cape, there in the museum. And he did. He posed with me and the president in there, and I didn’t know at the time, but Curt Brown also carried aloft on his mission, STS-66, later. A few months later, he carried aloft a decal and a document from the museum, the SUN ‘n FUN museum. Now it’s the Florida Aviation Museum.</p>
<p class="Body">So, as it turned out, I got a chance to meet him and talk with him, and he recalled getting a picture from me of one of the launches when he was at CAPCON, one of the controllers of a mission at Houston. Okay. I told Astronaut Brown that if I got good a picture at his launch, I would send it to him and ask him to autograph it, and so forth. As it turned out, November the 3<sup>rd</sup> of that year, it was the best picture I’ve ever taken. And I set up two cameras, same location, just to be—to try to get a good picture, and it turned out that way. It’s done very well for me. In fact, a 30 x 40 is hanging in that Florida Aviation Museum now, in Lakeland, as well as in the Viera Hospital, Viera Hospital over here on the coast, near Kennedy. And then the Kennedy Space Center Media Center, and different places. Anyway, Curt Brown later was the commander of the mission that flew John Glenn back into space.</p>
<p class="Body">And, well, I want to back up just a few days, because that dedication ceremony took place on the 11<sup>th</sup> of April of 1984. On the 8<sup>th</sup> of April of, just a few days earlier, STS-59 <em>Endeavor</em> was to launch on the 8<sup>th</sup>. And I was out at the fire training tower in the boonies, which was actually about four miles from the pad where the shuttle was. I was out there getting ready to photograph the launch, and up these metal stairs came Ronald Howard, Opie [Taylor] of <em>The Andy Griffith Show, </em>and now a director, producer—anyway, a movie star. His wife and daughter, along with Tom Hanks and his wife. And NASA escorts had brought them up there right beside me, to where I was shooting from. Well, I had a very powerful pair of binoculars—ten power—and they only weighed about nine ounces—Pentax—and I decided to let them use them to look at the shuttle from where we were. And that was the 8<sup>th</sup> of April, and that day, the shuttle was scrubbed and didn’t go up. But the next day, Tom Hanks couldn’t come with his wife. They had to go back or they couldn’t make it, but Ron Howard walked up to the stairs with his wife and daughter, came straight to me, and said, “Your binoculars are on the front page of <em>The Orlando Sentinel </em>this morning.” Here Tom Hanks is with my binoculars, looking at the shuttle.</p>
<p class="Body">Well anyway, I let Ron Howard have my binoculars so they could use them to look at the launch. Well, I photographed it, and he let his daughter use them, and they stood right next to me as the shuttle actually launched on the 9<sup>th</sup> of April. Well, I told Ron Howard—in fact, I brought the picture of him next to me, I brought that up and he autographed it right on the spot. But I told him that I knew the pilot, Curt Brown—no, Kevin Chilton, I want to back up there. The pilot then was Kevin Chilton. I knew the pilot and I would have an autographed picture sent to him for his daughter, and I did that later. I got a NASA photo, 8 x 10, and had Chilton autograph it, and I sent it to Ron Howard. But, having a chance to meet Ron Howard and Tom Hanks and everything there, for a launch, was a highlight that I don’t want to forget. You can pause if you want to.</p>
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<p><a title="">[1]</a> Note: These are “over shoes.” Two wooden shaped cow hooves attached to a metal base that would appear to leave cow hoof prints.</p>
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<p><a title="">[2]</a> Correction: 1942.</p>
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<p><a title="">[3]</a> [3] Correction: 1942.</p>
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<p><a title="">[4]</a> Salsbury worked at Disney-MGM Studios from 1995 to 2000.</p>
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<p><a title="">[5]</a> Correction: cousin.</p>
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<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka2/files/original/728e65523012d71068a9e389e9b7eddf.mp3" target="_blank">Oral History of John Louis Salsbury</a>
1st U.S. Volunteer Calvary
9th Street
Abraham Bellamy
Addie Burke
Addie Burke Salsbury
Addie Salsbury
Air Defense Control Center
Al Shepard
Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr.
Alan Shepard
American Legion
Anna Frank Bellamy
Apollo 13
astronauts
Babe Ruth
Ball, Bettye
baseballs
Belleview Biltmore Resort
Bettye Ball
Bettye Ball Deadman
Bettye Deadman
Bill Von Herbulis
Brown, Curtis
Buddy Lake
Burke, Addie
Buzz Aldrin
Buzz Lightyear
Cape Canaveral
Cara Stenstrom
Carolyn Patrick
Carolyn Patrick Stenstrom
Chilton, Kevin
Chuck Yeager
Clearwater
Curlew
Curlew Creek
Curtis Broke
Disney-MGM Studios
Donald Knight
Douglas Stenstrom
Dunedin
Ebie Tinny
Ebie Tinny Evie
Eckerd
Ed Hoffman, Sr.
Eddie Hoffman
Edwin Eugene Aldrin, Jr.
Florida Air Museum
Florida Aviation Historical Society
Florida Aviation in Pictures
Fort Brook
Frank Stenstrom
Gale Frana
Gale Salsbury
George Herman Ruth, Jr.
Harry Took
Henry B. Plant
Henry Bradley Plant
Herb Stenstrom
Hillsborough County
Homestead
Homestead Air Reserve Base
Homestead ARB
Hubble Space Telescope
Hyman G. Rickover
Hyman George Rickover
Ira Tinny
Ira Tinny Wood
Ira Wood
Jessica Frana
Jessica Frana Exline
John Bellamy
John F. Kennedy Space Center
John Glenn
John Herschel Glenn, Jr.
John Keeling
John Louis Salsbury
John Wright Salsbury, Jr.
John Wright Salsbury, Sr.
Joseph Morris
Julian Stenstrom
Kathy Thornton
Keflavík, Iceland
Kent Rominger
Kent Vernon Rominger
Kevin Chilton
Lake Mary
Lakeland
Lesie Evie
Linda McKnight Batman Oral History Project
Louis Salsbury
Mary Salsbury
Mascotte
moonshiner’s shoes
moonshiners
Museum of Seminole County History
NAS Keflavík
NASA
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Naval Air Station Keflavík
Neil Alden Armstrong
Neil Armstrong
Nicole Stott
Ninth Street
Norton AFB
Norton Air Force Base
Olivette
Opie Taylor
Ozona
Palm Harbor
Park Avenue
Patricia Stenstrom
Patricia Took
Patricia Took Stenstrom
Pete Exline
photographers
photography
Port Tampa
Portsmouth, Ohio
press photographers
Red Barber
Richard McNab
Richard Milhous Nixon
Richard Nixon
Rick Husband
Ricky Branch
Rommel Rominger
Ron Howard
Ronald William Howard
Rosalind Tinny
Rosalind Tinny Salsbury
Rough Riders
Russell St. Arnold
Ruth Stenstrom
San Bernardino, California
Sanford
Sanford Airport
Sanford High School
Sanford Railroad Station
Seminole County
Seminole High School
Space Shuttle Atlantis
Space Shuttle Columbia
Space Shuttle Endeavor
Space Shuttle Program
Spanish-American War
Steve Frana
Story Musgrave
STS-1
STS-59
STS-61
STS-66
STS-80
STS-95
SUN 'n FUN
Tarpon Springs
Teddy Roosevelt
telegraphers
Terrence Wade Salsbury
The Andy Griffith Show
The Orlando Sentinel
The Sanford Herald
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Theodore Roosevelt
Thomas Jeffrey Hanks
Titusville
Tom Hanks
Tom Jones
Tony Janus
Trask Avenue
Troy Hickson
U. S. Air Force
Walt Disney World
Walter Lanier Barber
William Bellamy
William Duane Wood, Jr.
William Duane Wood, Sr.
Wood, Ira Tinny
WTRR Sanford
Yvonne Eubanks
Yvonne Eubanks Salsbury
Yvonne Salsbury