Tag Archives: Florida

June 17, 1930

Stationery from the Hotel Dixon, Fort Pierce, Florida

June 17, 1930

Dear Sweetheart,

Greetings from all of us! The mosquitoes are not so numerous since the anti-mosquito work was undertaken. We called on Mr. Fee tonight, but will have more time with him tomorrow. The sand flies seem to be holding their own but are not annoying when there is a breeze. We go to Cocoa for tomorrow night, then Mr. McNiel will meet us and take us to his sub-station at Orlando. From there we take a train to Jax. Will visit St. Mary’s north of Jax, then Savannah, then Charleston. We may call at Myrtle Beach which is between Charleston and Wilmington. This general survey is getting pretty tiresome. We are getting some general information but it is not giving much in the way of leads. They have different notions about the breeding places. I’ll be glad when we get to Savannah and Charleston and can make some arrangements about beginning the work. I was surprised that Bish stayed with me so much for a general survey.

June 17, 1930

I certainly hope that you are getting along OK and that Walter White is on good behavior. It seems a mighty long time since I saw you. I love you, Dear, Walter White too, and I am anxious to see you.

Always,
Walter.

Mr. Reed of the Fla. State Board of Health is driving his Ford Coupe for the 3 of us. Quite crowded but we make stops frequently. Will be looking for a letter “General Delivery” Charleston. Should you find it necessary to wire me, send care City Health Officer Savannah or Charleston.

June 14, 1930

June 14, 1930 – Miami, Fla.

Dear Sweetheart,

We arrived here this morning. We expect to be here today and tomorrow. One of the State Health Board inspectors will take us “up state.” It will probably be about one week before we reach Savannah and Charleston. Jimmie’s appointment was recommended and it should be through by the time we get to Charleston. We plan to have him work at Savannah. His appointment is temporary until we hear from his exams. Dr. King made the trip to NW US on the mosquito survey. We expect to see Mr. McNiel at Orlando, one of Dr. King’s men, on our way up state. I am to return to Dallas about the 1st. Expense to be included in this year’s money. We are not going on West Coast of Fla. at this time.

June 14, 1930

With love,

Always,
Walter.

June 12, 1930

Stationery from the Hotel Mayflower, Jacksonville, Florida – “Radio in every room.”

June 12, 1930
8 PM.

My dear Sweetheart,

Arrived this morning at 7:30. I met a train for B but he did not show up. At Mr. Filby’s office I learned that B will arrive tomorrow morning and that he and I are going down the state. Mr. Filby and a number of the state and city Health folks are attending a meeting at Tallahassee today. I met Dr. Barker at the City Health Dept. He recognized me and spent about one-half of the day with me. We called upon everyone in that building and then one of the Commissioners, Dr. Baker had me eat lunch with him. He was very courteous and showed me every consideration. He planned an appointment for B and I for 11 o’clock tomorrow. The appointment is with Mr. Engle, one who has a half million invested in St. Georges Island, an island just across the St. John’s from Mayport. Think they are going to ask us to make studies down there. It is 20 miles from Jax.

June 12, 1930

This PM I called on Dr. Kirby-Smith at St. Vincent’s hospital. He had a nightmare a few nights ago and jumped from a window of the second floor of his home. Luckily, he landed on grass instead of concrete. His head missed the concrete just a little ways. He has some bad bruises on the face, hands and limbs. He hopes to return home tonight and to be in his office Sat or Mon. I did not see the children but his mother-in-law came while I was there. Kirby says the taxes on the new home amount to $100 per month.

The radio is giving me the WJAX program. I guess I’ll listen to the Sharkey fight.

Kirby says that he does not see as many cases of C.E. now. He thinks that knowledge of the causation and the publication of the news by the state Board of Health is responsible for the reduction in the number of cases. Kirby says they have published several short articles and that White and Dove have been mentioned several times.

With love,

Your
Walter.

September 23, 1926

The correspondence between Walter and Ina gets more sporadic now, as they’re mostly together. The next few items will be correspondence from Walter’s work, providing a more direct look at what it was like to be a USDA scientist in the early 20th century.

Dr. G.A. White, September 23, 1926, Jacksonville Beach, FL.

When this photo was taken, that screened porch was the United States Department of Agriculture’s primary research facility for the entire state of Florida.

October 23, 1925 (Walter)

The Beach, Friday Night.
Oct 23d

My Dear Sweetheart,

Have gotten into the harness again and have lots to do, though I had very little work carried over from a few weeks ago. Before leaving I cleared up all the work I could and did not have any experimental animals left. At the present time I am running some traps on the beach and during the day I am using the material as fast as it is caught. It is quite a chore to have a bunch of experimental animals and I am keeping away from it unless it is necessary.

October 23, 1925 (Walter)

Mrs. Mc has her house for sale and today there were two parties to look at it. I hope she doesn’t sell for I am pretty well located for my work and too I am in hopes that you can be here with me for a while. The boom is causing lots of people to look for houses at Jax and most of the cottages down here have been rented for the winter. Jax is getting into the real boom and I believe that it will have a good substantial growth from it. It is not a tourist city like Miami and Palm Beach, but its growth will be of a more stable kind. Lots of eastern capital is coming now and real buildings are going up. I hope we will cash in well on our acreage.

I expect a letter from you tonight, Dear, as we have not had mail today.

Always,
Your
Walter.

October 22, 1925 (Walter)

Box 61 Jacksonville Beach, Fla.
Oct 22, Thursday A.M.

My Dear Sweetheart,

At the time I was worried about why you were so blue, I received three letters forwarded from Caxambas. Believe me I was mighty glad to get them. They were just as sweet as they could be. I note what you said about the judge with much interest.

October 22, 1925 (Walter)

I have received a letter from Mr. B. The original went to Caxambas and has not been returned yet. I am sending the copy which was mailed to me here. You will note what he says about plans for work. I had written him of the state fair here which holds from Nov. 19 to 28th, and had suggested the opportunities for meeting various persons interested in our work. He did not mention it directly, but his reference to Mr. Smith and others appertains to the fair. It happens that Thanksgiving comes during this week and should I come for you at that time, I would miss the fair here. It is rather important that I be there for those people are the ones who will pull for an appropriation for Florida work. It is too bad that the fair has to come during that week. I wish I could be in both places at the same time, but I feel that it is an opportunity and a duty to be here. I have a suggestion, Sweetheart, and I am wondering how it will strike you. Could we make it about Christmas time and then come here by train. About the first of March when I am wanted in Dallas we could go there and spend a while, then you could spend a while at Uvalde. We could then drive back here during the latter part of May.

The people at Jupiter (near West Palm Beach) want me to be there during the latter part of March and for the month of April, but we do not have an appropriation for that work and we would give Mr. Parman’s work preference if I were needed down there. I think it would be safe to leave your car at Uvalde with the idea of returning for it. This seems like moving about a great deal but no doubt you would like to be here about two months so as to know of conditions etc. and would then like to meet the Dallas people while I can be there. Then you would probably want to be at home for a little visit so you could tell Mother Lewis how mean I had been to you etc.

With all my love, Dear, I am

Your
Walter

October 7, 1925 (Walter)

The Beach, Wed Nite,

My Dear Sweetheart,

I went to town this morning for a little while. My landlady, Mrs. McDonald, started to work up there today and as she is going to rent me her car to make the trip down the state, I drove to Jax and brought the car back. She is very accomodating, considering the fact that she never lets anyone have her auto.

October 7, 1925 (Walter)

It will give me a better chance to do some work down the state and will probably be about as reasonable as if I took the train. I would have to rent a car if I did go by train, and the short trips count up. I have not yet made up my routing, nor have I started to get together what I will need. My work always gives me plenty to do and it is going to be mighty difficult to break away from it long enough to make the trip.

I have no news for you, Dear, except that I love you the same whole hearted way and that I wish for you real often.

With a hug and a sweet goodnight,

Your,
Walter.

In a separate envelope posted the same day, Walter sent this full-page newspaper ad.

Jacksonville Heights Ad, 1925

October 4, 1925 (Ina)

Sunday A.M.
12:05 o’clock.

My dearest Sweetheart:

Although it is five minutes past Saturday night (I did intend to write you “last nite”), I will say Hello-o.”

In the first place, I’m terribly tickled. Claudelle caught a ride and has been here for the past few hours. She is in bed now, so I think we will be in Dreamland soon. I’ll write some more later, but I had better get some sleep now.

I love you worlds, Sweetheart. Bless your heart!

Goodnight and sweet dreams.

Always, your
Ina.

October 4, 1925 (Ina)

Sunday Nite
Oct. 4, 1925.

My dearest Walter:

She has come and gone. Dr. Donaldson, (she’s a “Miss”) a friend of ours in San Antonio, was coming out in her car yesterday evening, so she asked Claudelle and Lucille to come with her. Of course they were more than glad to do it, and we were glad too. They returned this afternoon about 4:30 and we all felt so good that we had seen them. This doctor, a young lady a little older than I, lives next door to C. & L. and has been mighty nice to them since they have been there. We surely do appreciate it too. You would think from the way the girls acted when they came home that they had been away three years instead of three weeks. They are both like babies when it comes to staying away from home. However, after their visit today, and after relieving their “system” of all the things they wanted to tell us, I think they have gone back satisfied. Claudelle likes all her work and all her teachers, so I think she will get along fine. Outside of her studies, she has two hours work in the office every day every week, and all day Saturday and Sunday every other week. We were afraid at first that it was too much but she says not. She likes it all. She sends her sisterly love to you.

Your “Dr. White” letter came yesterday, and I am glad you wrote me what you did. It often helps lots fo express one’s feelings, and, too, I am especially glad that you feel free to express them to me. You know that I am as deeply interested as anyone can possibly be, and am anxious for you to tell me. I am glad that you are handling Dr. White as you are, and it is certainly nothing but right that the credit be placed where it rightfully belongs. I’m glad you are standing up for your rights because that is the surest and often the only way to get them. Each person naturally understands his own case better than anyone else does, and is more capable and naturally more interested in securing due credit. No doubt Dr. White feels that it should all be coming his way thru habit and on general principles. I sincerely hope you can prove to him that he is wrong – that someone else in the world has ideas that are worth while besides himself. Best luck in the world to you! I’m with you.

Your real estate letter came this morning on my way to Sunday school, and I was very much interested in it. I have thought about it a lot today, and, since you wanted my opinion, here it is: really and truly, Sweetheart, it seems to me to be rather a big investment in addition to that which you already have. Don’t you think so? Of course you intended selling the lot at Fulford before purchasing this, but, even at that, this would be a larger investment, especially when you consider the rather heavy expense of improving it to the extent that you mentioned. Of course, Dear, the boom that is on down there now may last forever, and then again it may not, and they often do not, you know. I know it would be mighty fine to own quite a bit of real estate and then be able to sell it when prices are soaring, but it doesn’t always happen that way. I have known of a number of cases where it didn’t and it was pretty bad. You see, you are down there where everyone is boosting – boosting just as hard as they can, and where the real estate agencies are at their busiest. They employ people who are able to talk to a person, and, no matter how conservative he is and how good his judgement is, he is finally convinced that the best thing in the world for him to do is to invest. And it is mighty quick easy money when it hits and it often does, but there is also a good chance to lose. I believe in investing some and taking a chance on some, because if we want to be “dead sure” about everything we undertake, we certainly don’t accomplish anything. But, Dear, it is so easy to plunge too deeply when you are constantly surounded by boosters. I know that you are not of the disposition to be easily influenced, but I have known others who were very conservative to have regrets, after it was too late, that they had yielded one time too many. You don’t know how glad I am that you are interested in real estate because I am too. I am sure you are going to make something out of some of it. That is about the best way I know to accumulate something. When we have some particular place to put our money when we make it, and some particular object in view, we are sure to accumulate a great deal more than if we had nothing substantial in which to invest. However, even in our family for the past few years, we have experienced the great uncertainty and anxiety of having everything tied up in property which we were unable to “cash in” for quite a while. It is a pretty miserable feeling when it lasts long. Of course, at the time, Papa was unable to work, and practically everything he has made since we have been in Texas has been on real estate. He is conservative too, but has come very near investing too much several times. Of course, Dear, you are making a good salary now, and are able to keep up the payments, but (and I am not out looking for calamity) suppose something should happen that you were not able to keep up all the payments, and, at the same time, the boom would get “off,” then the mental anxiety and anguish would come and the loss would be great. I believe I would rather stand a chance of having less than to stand the chance of losing all. I realize that you are living where everything is very much alive, and I am living where everything is considered very much dead, but, between the two extremes, I believe we will be able to strike a happy medium on opinions. Sweetheart, sometimes don’t you think it would be wise to sell some of the property that you now have at a good profit and apply that on the balance that is unpaid on the others? In that way, you would not stand a chance to make quite as much if prices continued to increase, but still you would at least be safe on what you had, and also stand a chance to make a great deal without much effort. This principle of “Safety First” may not apply to things down there now. Of course I don’t know just how things are but you asked for my opinion and I didn’t want to pretend to believe one way when I really believed the contrary. Sweetheart, please don’t misunderstand this letter by feeling that I am speaking with too much authority, and trying to manage your business. I am not, and don’t mean it that way at all. I expect you to use your judgement in the matter, but I gave my opinion as per your request. Mine may be wrong – it often is – but I have given it to you just the same.

Dear, I love you with a heart “full up” with the deepest and truest love that a person can have. We are going to get along fine together and be so happy. I am going to be frank with you and you are with me, so we are not going to have misunderstandings. I would be so very very happy if you were here right now so I could try to tell you how much I really and truly do love you.

Always, your
Ina.

October 4, 1925 (Walter)

The Beach, Sun A.M.

My Dear Sweetheart,

I did not write to you yesterday but I mailed you a copy of an advertisement concerning the Jax acreage. I wrote Mr. Bishopp a detailed letter concerning the work and when I had finished it, I did not write to my sweetie. There were almost eight letter size pages of his letter. Today I am going to write him a personal letter. The other was more of a report of work in progress.

October 4, 1925 (Walter)

Perhaps it was not necessary to write him so fully but I have always done so when I was stationed to myself, and he seems to like it. He will then know what is on my mind and what I have ahead of me for winter work. I wrote to him one time during Dr. White’s stay here and that was about the time he left for Washington, so there was quite a bit to tell him. I wanted him to know of the new lead I am working and at the same time I told him that it did not seem necessary to share credit with Dr. White on anything except what we worked together when he was here. I know that Mr. B. is with me there, for he was inclined to believe that the other paper should have been prepared in sections, each one dealing with his own work. However, he did not dictate how it should be prepared. He never does, and that is one reason why I like to work in his division. He suggests, but never dictates.

The weather is certainly delightful here now and the surf is fine. It is so much better than during the active season when so many were down here. But of course the reason so many were here then was because it was so much better here than in their homes during the hot weather. Now it is cooler and more pleasant in both places. I understand that it is pretty hot down the state as it is more tropical. No doubt I’ll start down there the latter part of this week. I am getting my work in shape so that I can leave for a while. I am anxious to see how Fulford looks and to see what the prospects are.

Considering everything, it looks as though we would find it more desirable to live in this part of the state the year round than in the southern part. The northern people want an extremely warm winter when they leave the north and that is what they find down the state. The beaches here are developing now and are “the finest in the world.” Within a few years I believe there will be a great change here. At this time it is impossible to get water front property as the prices are so high. Ocean front sells for $800 per front foot & even higher.

I like this little place better, the longer I live here, and it can be used to good advantage as a laboratory as well as a cottage. If we decided that we wanted to buy it, we could move it to the rear of the lot and let it face the other street. This is a corner lot 75 ft front & 150 ft deep. Then we could build on the front to suit ourselves. If we simply wanted the place as an investment, I believe it would be good. We can tell more about it this winter, and after you are down here.

I love you Sweetheart and then I love you more and more and more. With a real big hug and a kiss, I am always

Your
Walter.

September 27, 1925 (Walter)

Sunday Night 9/27

My Dear Little Girl,

No letter last night or tonight so they will probably come in a bunch. I’ll be mighty glad to get them when they do come. Have worked most of today, though I did not get up as early as usual. Couldn’t go to sleep as early last night. This time I was thinking about my work as well as yourself.

September 27, 1925 (Walter)

The wind has continued with occasional showers, but they did not amount to very much. There is quite a crowd in the surf. They never pay much attention to rains down here. Dr. KS rather feels disappointed if he goes fishing and it does not rain. As a whole this summer has been dry.

For some time I thought that it would be mighty fine to live here at the beach the year round. One feels that way when he finds the surf so fine. I am not so sure of it now. The salt air rusts things pretty badly, and unless one lives right on the ocean front the mosquitoes give some trouble. I am not so sure but that it is better to live at a higher elevation, but near enough the beach to drive down. This probably accounts for the fact that there has not been as much development between Jax and the Beach. The growth of Jax has been along the St. Johns river, and I expect that soon it will push to the higher elevations west of the city. We hope so anyway, for we want to cash in on the acreage.

I have no news for you, Dear, as I have been sticking so close to my work that I haven’t picked up much. Hope to hear from Mr. Bishopp before long.

I certainly do love you, Dear, and I am mighty happy to think that the time is drawing nearer for me to have you with me always.

With a sweet goodnight,

Your
Walter