Archive Record
Images
Additional Images [15]
Metadata
Object Name |
Typescript |
Object ID |
22.01 |
Search Terms |
recollections interview oral history transcripts |
Collection |
Jean Hayford Oral History Collection |
Date |
06/12/1977 |
Scope & Content |
Transcripts of the interview of Jean Hayford, conducted by Kay Schultz. Page 1 of 20; Jean first came to Captiva in February of 1938 and stayed at 'Tween Waters; became very interested in shells and sealife; very good friend of Alice Miner; often filled bathtub at 'Tween Waters with acquatic life; returned next year, and husband Max and Ding Darling had become very good friends; spend the month of march in 1939 on Captiva in the Pine Cottage they rented from Mrs. Mitchell; Mrs. Judge Williams was president at that time of the Womens Association, and she auctioned off everything (all sorts of pies and cakes) for a huge Red Cross benefit; Jean was once in charge of the beautification committee, and was concerned about the pine trees uprooting the road, so she got ahold of "a little colored boy" and chopped the roots growing across the road. Page 2 of 20; the road on Sanibel in 1948 was only paved down to Bailey's, and from then on, it was a rough corduroy road; the Hayford's originally owned 100 feet down at Turner's subdivision (the Gold Coast), but they then bought the Hall estate and built their house there since they like that property more. Page 3 of 20; their new property came with rights to have docks along a 60 foot easement to the Bay (although Turner never came through with that in his lifetime); Max Hayford (?) built the entire house (with island labor), because he had some knowledge on how to build houses; they made the cinder blocks on the beach out of sand; they also had their own brick machine, and made their own bricks. Page 4 of 20; the Marjorie Bennet came down one day on the spur of the moment, and decided that she wanted to move to Captiva; the Bixbys and the Spaldings both purchased land on the island, as did the Barretts; Mary Spalding asked Max to build her a house, so he needed architect plans; when she returned with them, Max told Mary that the house would be very expensive; she took the plans and tore them into shreds, and had a house built out of brick (like the "Pink House"); the Hayford compound includes the houses that the Spalding, Smith, and Loomis families live in (Spalding owns the property). Page 5 of 20; the Hayfords original property measured 150 by 1100 feet deep; some of the property has eroded away, however; some of the houses built on this property also had some structural problems; the Hayfords arrived just the day after the Captiva Lodge had burned (1948), and it burned in just 15 minutes; when they asked for directions to the Captiva Lodge in the Island Store, they were informed that it was gone. Page 6 of 20; the first fire truck on the island was a Jeep, which was supplemented by a previously existing bucket brigade. Page 7 of 20; Jean Hayford describes the houses, most notably Capt. Smith's cottages and Clara Stran's house; Clara's former husband (Capt. Stran) was a fishing guide; some men built Clara a house because she couldn't afford one and was going to be booted off the island; Mrs. Vrooman had been using that area as a garbage, and she had to clean it out. Page 8 of 20; Jean Hayford re-establishes the myth that Clara Stran is a Hungarian gypsy queen; she would always bring her children to Clara's gift shop, but Clara would feel so bad about taking her money that she would often give things away for free; Bob Rauschenberg owns the land where she had her shop (this is the house on the left at the curve as you go to the new post office). Page 9 of 20; Jean was staying at Al O'Briens during the hurricane of 1944, and she heard about it over the radio; she was playing Gin Rummy, and "Ding" Darling told her that she had to get all of her furniture at least two feet off of the ground; she drove over to Belton's house, but there was nothing left of his house; a twister came across Buck Key that hit his house, so his house is now in the Gulf; all of the Johnson's were in the house when the hurricane struck. Page 10 of 20; the hurricane of 1944 hit on the 18th (?) of October, when there was a full moon; Alice O'Brien had just painted her house brown, and the next day, the house was neglecting all of this paint, and all of the nearby shrubs were brown as if they had been burned! Page 11 of 20; after helping out Mrs. Gore after the hurricane, Jean Hayford became the island go-to person for injuries; Sunday nights at 'Tween Waters were the gayest times: there were song fests and a masquerade party. Page 12 of 20; Andy Rosse and Belton Johnson were the fishing guides; Belton mainly served as Alice O'Brien's yacht captain (she had three of them: Wonegan I, II, and III); Alice O'Brien was a well-known business women who had a large number of lumber holdings (some of the lumber on the island came from her mills); the Kalmans also spent quite a bit of the year on the island, and their last boat captain was Jeremiassen; Jeremiassen also painted and built the Captiva Beach Apartments and the Paschall house. Page 13 of 20; Max passed away in 1953; the Hayford's first started staying on Captiva full-time in 1950, and the mosquitoes were terrible, especially after the 1944 hurricane; Max and Dolly Malone were walking on the beach after they hurricane and they found Mr. Karr, who reported that Captain Smith had died; Mr. Karr is the coroner at the time, and had to sign the death certificate. Page 14 of 20; they had quite a bit of trouble burying Capt. Smith because he was a large man with a prominent nose; he was buried in the Captiva cemetary, where he still lies day; the fishermen dug the grave, and only about eight people attended the funeral. Page 15 of 20; Jean talks about the 1940's hurricanes; around 2:00 the 1944 hurricane blew in, and Jean believes that it was the second worst hurricane (second to the 1926 storm); in both the 1944 and 1946 hurricanes, the wind was offshore and sucked all of the water out of the bay: "everything was left high and dry"; when the storms hit, the water flooded in, but the water has never come over the road (up to this point in time); she then retracts her comment, and remembers one time the water did go over the road: there was an under-water eruption in the Gulf, and a huge tidal wave came over the island; it pushed a Cabbage Palm log through her cottage and completely destroyed the redwodd furniture she had on her screened porch (it came in around 7 A.M.) Page 16 of 20; the tidal wave just came out of nowhere: there was no wind or anything of that sort with it; it hit from 'Tween Waters on down; the Remington's (Mr. John Remington built the Loomis house) were very frugal people: when the 1946 hurricane came in, they thought that they were going to die, so they ate every bit of food in the house and drank medicinal whiskey; when Andy Rosse came in the next day to ask them how they were, they replied that they had nothing left to eat! (note: they had about a foot of water in their place). Page 17 of 20; the Remingtons lived in what was originally Dr. Howe's house; Paul Everett owned it before them; the house next to Jean Hayford's once belonged to Judge Williams, and Jack Sparkes lived in; Paul Everett bought from Mrs. Knight in 1955; the Remingtons lived where Bob Sabatino lives; Dr. Howe fished for years and years, but never caught a tarpon: as he was just giving up for his last time, a tarpon jumped into his boat, and then jumped back out!; Redfish Pass, according to Jean Hayford, opened in 1926 (actually opened in 1921 ed); Betsy Steyaart and Jean Loomis used to wade across to Upper Captiva in 1941 &1942 with their children because the Pass was so shallow. Page 18 of 20; the sheriff ran around to all of the houses when Hurricane Donna came through; but Jean Hayford refused to leave; she had about 26 people in her house at the time; Dodie Booth and Mary Ballinger left in a helicopter when the winds were about 60-80 miles per hour; they were taken to a school; everyone who stayed in her house had a great time: they had lots of food and bet on whether the last pine tree would remain standing (it did!). Page 19 of 20; Donna came early in the day and lasted all day long; it rained badly the whole time; there was an 8 foot storm surge in Everglades city, and Fort Myers also took quite a blow; Jean Hayford promises that she would stay through a hurricane. Page 20 of 20; many people stayed at the Pink House and played poker all night long during Donna; her hosue is 14 feet above sea level, and Jean doesn't worry about it. |
People |
Ballinger, Mary Barrett, Marjorie Booth, Dodie Darling, J. N. "Ding" Dugdale, Kirk Dugdale, Margaret Kirkus Everett, Paul Fenton, Elizabet Gillet, Isabelle Gore, Hattie Brainerd Hayford, Jean Hayford, Max Henderson, Betty Howe, Dr. Jennings, Charlie Jeremiassen, Holger K. Johnson, Belton Johnson, Belton (Miriam) Kalman, Xandra (Mrs. C.O.) Karr, Russell Loomis, Chet Loomis, Jean O'Brien, Alice Peabody, Phoebe Price, Grace Rauschenberg, Robert Remington, John Rosse, Andy Sabatino, Bob Schultz, Kay Smith, Capt. Smith, Delphine Smith, H. Wilson Spalding, Albert Spalding, Mary Steyaart, Betsy Stran, Capt. Stran, Mrs. Clara Turner, Walter Vrooman, Mrs. Wightman, Jimmy Wiles, Beulah Brainerd Wiles, Judy Wiley, Jim |