City invites feedback on Fish's land, which will open as a park
Sheldon Gardner | St. Augustine RecordFish Island, made up of more than 50 acres of undeveloped land on the eastern edge of the Matanzas River, was once under threat of becoming just another housing development in St. Augustine.
But the state stepped in to buy the property, located south of the State Road 312 bridge. The purchase price was $6.5 million.
While the land is treasured by locals, it is named for a man who had a less-than-pristine history: Jesse Fish.
“I think opportunist is probably the best term for him," historian Susan Parker said.
St. Johns County restarts land acquisition program. It's been put off since 2008.
In 2020: City receives executed lease agreement for Fish Island Preserve
From New York to St. Augustine
Accounts from researchers and historians, including many resources from the St. Augustine Historical Society Research Library, paint Fish's life as one of adventure and success mixed with failures, shady decisions and heartbreak.
Originally from New York, Fish came to St. Augustine in 1736 when he was 10 or 12 years old. Back then, it was common to send young boys to foreign lands to learn a profession, according to an article from 1987 in "El Escribano: The St. Augustine Journal of History." Fish stayed with the Herrera family where he learned the language and customs of Spanish St. Augustine.
He was successful and worked for the Walton Company as a sales agent, according to historian Robert Gold's article "That Infamous Floridian, Jesse Fish" in The Florida Historical Quarterly for July 1973-April 1974. The New York-based Walton Company received a contract to bring supplies because the Royal Havana Company in Cuba couldn't meet the needs of Florida at that time.
"Both he and his employers apparently prospered and, although he maintained his Protestant faith, he lived as a respected and successful businessman in Catholic St. Augustine," according to Gold.
During the Seven Years’ War, which took place from 1756 to 1763, Fish brought food to Spaniards "illicitly" from South Carolina and was referred to as "the savior of St. Augustine," Gold wrote.
Jesse Fish, a St. Augustine real estate agent
The part of Fish's life that gained him the most notoriety also, apparently, brought him the most trouble.
As part of the Seven Years' War, Spain transferred St. Augustine and the rest of Florida to British control. St. Augustine's Spanish residents evacuated to Cuba. But someone needed to take care of their property and sell it.
Floridians were were allowed to sell their property to English subjects, but there weren't many purchasers around, according to Gold.
The King’s agent who was to sell remaining private and royal lands had difficulties in the task, and he transferred the majority of houses, lots and territories in St. Augustine to Fish.
"Fish enjoyed a realty empire in St. Augustine without parallel to the Colonial period," Gold wrote. "Only the kings of Spain controlled or ceded more city property in the peninsula."
Fish was to sell the land and send the money back to property owners in Cuba, and he bought some property for himself. An accounting of at least some transactions created later in his life said the fees he took from those sales for real estate services were about one-third of the total sales of the properties, Gold wrote.
Among Fish's property was thousands of acres of Anastasia Island, including Fish Island. Fish operated a large citrus plantation there, which he called El Vergel.
Spain regained control of Florida and, though many Spanish died in Cuba from Yellow Fever, some returned or their heirs did for them, seeking the return of their properties or payment they said they never received from Fish, according to Gold.
'Centuries-old lore'
Before his death, Fish said he was in debt because of the land operations and wrote in bitter tones.
“What I owe the Floridians and what they owe me is shown in the enclosed book of debts and credits," he wrote. "No one has yet presented himself to pay the money owed to me, but several come, some empowered of heirs, to demand my payment to them which they receive because of my benevolence.”
He also painted himself as a victim of shady dealings by a family member.
In his petition to Spain, he wrote that when he retired he put most of the unsold real estate in the control of an in-law who agreed to be his agent, Gold wrote. That in-law was supposed to use money from the sales to pay Fish's debts with the Walton Company, which Fish had likely borrowed from to buy land. But Fish wrote that his family member didn't follow through and didn't record sales and proceeds.
While Luciano de Herrera, whom Fish was raised with, was able to reconstruct transactions and Fish ended up paying most of his creditors, he was still in debt at the end of his life, according to El Escribano.
Accounts describe his personal life as a struggle and his marriage to a much younger woman, Sarah Warner, as troubled and unsuccessful. But they did have a daughter, Phoebe, and a son, Jesse Jr., who took over the property after his father died. Sarah ultimately outlived her children and took over the property.
In a column for The Record, historian Susan Parker wrote that what is known about Fish is a mix of recorded information and "lore that has grown over the centuries."
She wrote in another column that, "Over many years, Fish has been judged harshly for underhanded dealing and cheating. Yet Fish was a minor cause of the problems of property loss. All the nations involved in the transfers of Florida — Spain to Great Britain (1763); Britain to Spain (1784); Spain to the United States (1821) — bore responsibility by not honoring their treaty agreements regarding private property titles and ownership."
El Vergel, a citrus plantation in St. Augustine
According to El Escribano, Fish's "vast landholdings" included a large citrus grove called "'El Vergel,' which he had been developing since 1763 on St. Anastasia Island across Matanzas Bay from St. Augustine. From it he exported barrels of fruit, and a mix of juice and spirits called orange shrub, popular in the south from early days."
According to Gold, "Thousands of sweet oranges and hundreds of barrels of orange juice were eventually produced and exported from this plantation."
A description of the fruit from a French person who visited in the late 1700s has been cited frequently. He wrote: “They are sweet, very large, have a thin skin, and are more esteemed than those brought from the West Indies."
According to the Matanzas Riverkeeper, a nonprofit that was a key influence in negotiating the state's purchase of Fish Island, "El Vergel was likely one of the first commercial orange groves in Florida, germinating an industry that would become an economic driver and immortalize the iconic fruit as a symbol of our state."
But the plantation had a dark side. Fish used slave labor on the site.
Fish was entombed on Fish Island. His property, which was already in a state of decay at that point, is no longer on the site. Fish Island went to his family, and eventually changed hands.
Fish Island has had brushes with potential development over the years, not just recently.
In the '70s, the state of Florida planned to build State Road 312 over the land, which would have disturbed Fish's grave, according to the Florida Times-Union.
"The state Division of Archives intervened, so 312 makes a wide sweep north to avoid the tomb and house site," according to the article. "State intervention to save El Vergel resulted in the island’s placement on the National Register of Historic Places."
But state intervention didn't save Fish's grave from treasure hunters, who believed he buried gold near his home.
According to the city of St. Augustine, which is managing the site for the state, "Archaeological sites of human activity are documented throughout the park from the prehistoric St. Johns Period to the period of time after Fish’s death." But "remains of scattered coquina stone and tabby from [Fish's] home, a block house, a well, wharf and boat basin, and tomb related to this plantation era as well as potential slave quarters exist in a state of ruin or have disappeared from the physical record."
El Escribano put it this way: "Jesse’s once-imposing tomb, pillaged by vandals looking for the treasure rumored to be hidden there, has disappeared. Nothing is left of El Vergel but tantalizing questions that are only piqued by the oft-conflicting, bare official records. The answers, it seems, have also disappeared.”
A future for St. Augustine's Fish Island and Fish's legacy
The city plans to open Fish Island as a park soon.
As part of that, the city is seeking public input for the park, Fish Island Preserve. The city will hold a meeting at 7 p.m. on March 4 in The Alcazar Room at City Hall at 75 King St.
The point is to talk about the site's natural and cultural resources and the draft management plan and process, and to get public comments in general.
People can also comment via email through March 19 at fishisland@citystaug.com.
For information, including the draft management plan, visit citystaug.com/fishisland.
"Where History Lives" runs every Monday is The St. Augustine Record.
The Link LonkFebruary 22, 2021 at 06:17AM
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St. Augustine History: Jesse Fish, an 'opportunist' with a troubled life - St. Augustine Record
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