St. Augustine

Funeral services were held for Florida historian Michael Gannon on Saturday, May 6, at St. Augustine’s Church in Gainesville. He died on Monday, April 10, at the age of 89.

Dr. Gannon was author or editor of 10 books, including “The Cross in the Sand” from 1965. It that book, Gannon demonstrated how the “real” first Thanksgiving happened in St. Augustine in 1565, decades before the pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock.

A longtime professor of history at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Dr. Gannon taught several generations of Florida historians who are working in the state today.

Gannon was formerly a Catholic priest, and was working in St. Augustine in the early 1960s, as the town was preparing to commemorate the 400^th anniversary of the founding of America’s oldest continuously occupied city.

Gannon remembered his work on the 400^th anniversary as St. Augustine was preparing to commemorate their 450^th anniversary in 2015.

“At the old mission where the first Parrish Mass was celebrated on September 8, 1565, it was decided to build a cross,” Gannon said. The cross was to be built on the site where Don Pedro Menéndez de Avilés first landed to settle St. Augustine, and where Father Francisco López observed the city’s first Catholic Mass.

“Ultimately it was constructed of stainless steel and rose to a height of 208 feet. I think it’s very impressive. It can be seen 14 miles out to sea. It has become a symbol of the first mission to the North American Natives and the first Parrish established by Europeans in this country,” said Gannon.

Also part of St. Augustine’s 400^th anniversary celebration in 1965 was the expansion and redecorating of the cathedral church, the construction of a contemporary church called The Prince of Peace, and a bridge linking the new church with the historic mission grounds.

Spain controlled Florida for nearly three centuries, establishing an extensive system of Catholic missions throughout the region.

“Everywhere Spain moved politically and economically and militarily, the church moved, too,” said Gannon.

“The church was always a partner of Spanish expansion. The church was on the forefront. If you want to select any part of the Spanish cultural presence in Florida and the rest of North America, you would have to say that the church was in advance of all other institutions.”

The Florida Chamber of Commerce arranged a meeting between Gannon and President John F. Kennedy as St. Augustine was preparing for its 400^th anniversary celebration.

On November 22, 1963, President Kennedy was shot and killed as his motorcade drove through Dallas, Texas.

Kennedy spent the week before his death in Florida.

After a short stay at his family’s winter residence in Palm Beach, Kennedy toured the NASA facilities at Cape Canaveral before visiting Tampa and Miami.

On his last day in Florida, President Kennedy met with Florida historian and Catholic priest Michael Gannon. As the first and only Catholic American president, Kennedy was particularly interested in Gannon’s area of expertise, Catholicism in Spanish Colonial Florida.

“It was hoped by the Chamber of Commerce and by the city fathers in St. Augustine, that the president would agree to come down earlier rather than later,” said Gannon.

“It was uncertain if he would be elected to a second term, so they wanted him to come while president and to build up interest in the city that would help generate tourist traffic for the 400^th year.”

It was arranged for Gannon to meet the president at the MacDill Air Force Base Officer’s Club.

“I brought him a photographic copy of the oldest written record of American origin, which was a Parrish Register of Matrimonial Sacrament, a marriage between two Spaniards, a man and a woman, here in the city of St. Augustine, dated 1594,” said Gannon.

“He seemed to be very grateful to receive the gift of the photographic copy that was beautifully framed.”

President Kennedy was intrigued by Gannon’s stories about the oldest continuously occupied European city in what would become the United States.

“As he left he said ‘I’ll keep in touch.’” Gannon said, pausing to recall the moment. “But four days later he was dead.”

Gannon became one of Florida’s most respected historians.

Aviles Street in St. Augustine is the oldest street in the United States. Many of the Spanish colonial buildings that line the narrow brick street now serve as museums or businesses catering to tourists.

On March 2, 1800, at about 5pm, two men had an altercation on Aviles Street that resulted in one of the men’s death.

“I’ve been researching criminal court cases from the colonial period for a while,” says James G. Cusick, curator of the P.K. Yonge Library of Florida History at the University of Florida. “I’ve looked at slanders, I’ve looked at a child abuse case, I’ve looked at a number of murders, and this one was very interesting to me.”

It was a Sunday afternoon and the shops on Aviles Street were closed. Several young apprentices were hanging out together, including free black teenager Jorge Fish and slave Marcelino Sánchez from the tailor shop, and their friend Juan Seguí, a slave from the bakery a few doors down. A slave named Benjamin was also part of the group.

As the young men were talking, a slave named Juan Carlos, who was trained as a cobbler, nodded to the group as he walked past.

“Benjamin broke off from the group, took off his shoes, and threw them up against the door of the tailor shop, took off his hat and threw it through the open window, took off after Juan Carlos, grabbed the hat off of Juan Carlos’s head, and got into a fight with him,” says Cusick.

Several women tried to break up the fight, including a 60 year-old slave named Amelia, a free black woman named Frances who sold pastries at a shop on Aviles Street, and Reyna, a free black woman about 30 years old.

The fight continued as Benjamin chased Juan Carlos into the courtyard of the Leonardi House, the home of a wealthy Italian family. Benjamin proceeded to overpower and brutally beat Juan Carlos. A free black merchant named José Bonam tried unsuccessfully to break up the fight.

As a crowd gathered, Benjamin eventually turned to walk away from the fight. The bloodied and beaten Juan Carols pulled a knife and fatally stabbed Benjamin twice in the back.

A soldier arrived and arrested Juan Carlos.

Juan Carlos was put on trial, but the process was not what we would expect today. Most people are familiar with procedural courtroom dramas like the television series “Law and Order” that reflect how our modern justice system works. A murder is followed by a police investigation, an arrest, and a trial.

“The way court proceedings worked in the Spanish colonial period was almost more like a police investigation than a trial,” says Cusick. “There was no court room, there was no judge, there was no witness stand. Everything was done by deposition. Unlike modern lawyers, these men had no idea what was going to come up in testimony. They were learning things as they went along.”

At first glance, this killing could have been seen as a case of self-defense, since Juan Carlos was attacked by Benjamin, but as testimony was gathered, some evidence indicated that this may have been a premeditated murder.

Juan Carlos believed that Benjamin was having an affair with his wife, Maria Agustina. Benjamin left his shoes and hat behind at Juan Carlos’s home. Juan Carlos slashed the shoes and hat with a knife in front of Benjamin’s friends, saying that the same would happen to their owner.

Despite possible mitigating circumstances, Juan Carlos was found guilty of the murder of Benjamin.

The verdict came with a harsh sentence. Juan Carlos was to be lashed 200 times. If he survived that, he would spend 10 years doing hard labor. In an unusual theatrical twist, Juan Carlos would endure his lashing at various points along Aviles Street, to ensure the biggest possible audience.

The Haitian Revolution was occurring in 1800, and there was concern about a similar slave revolt in the United States. “I can’t think of any other reason that the punishment would have been delivered in this way,” Cusick says.

Today, visitors to St. Augustine can walk down Aviles Street where some of the buildings associated with this case still stand.

1832 - The St. Augustine City Council passed an ordinance today authorizing the creation of tax-supported free schools in the city.  This was one of the earliest such ordinances in the American South and in the nation. St. Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in the United States, founded by Pedro Menedez de Aviles in 1565. It was the administrative center for East Florida during the British Period (1763-1783) and the Second Spanish Period (1783-1821).