My grandmother on my mother's side was Anna Jacobs. She immigrated to the United States from Belgium and England, having originally been born in Poland. Her family had the good sense to flee the Russian Pale for a safer place to live.
She landed in Jacksonville because she had several relatives that had already arrived: her uncle Pete Shatkosky and cousins, Felix and Adolph Laask.
Joseph Young, my father, was shocked how people lived in Jacksonville, Florida since he grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, a northern progressive industrial town. My father first met my grandmother when he starting dating my mother, Faye Leah.
My grandmother loved my father as he was the first Jewish businessman to be in their family. However, their first disagreement was over my grandmother keeping cows, chickens, and other livestock downtown. The photo clearly shows her with two of her cows and the bridges in the background. One was the St. Elmo Acosta Bridge and the other was the Atlantic Coastline (now CSX) railroad bridge. The southside of the river was largely undeveloped in the 1920's.
I asked my father "what was so bad about Jacksonville in 1930?" He said there was open drinking, no sidewalks, dirt street, and residents of the city used outhouses. He said that police officials openly acknowledged the brothels on Houston Street. History documents the American author, Stephen Crane, marrying a prostitute in Jacksonville while he was waiting on a trial to begin.
Comments on the photo include, "all housewives wore aprons unless they went to town"; there is no concrete bulkhead in photo as the McCoy's Creek flushed the northside of town and all the outhouses into the river. That's why they put up dirt berms" "There was no garbage pickup in those day by city services." "The wooden structures in the back were buildings put up on the piers. The Railroad bought the riverfront to stop the ships from docking. Later the railroads tore down all the wooden piers and bulkheads. The forced all of the riverfront business to relocate. The railroad eventually forced the Merrill-Stevens, Rawls Brothers shipyards out of downtown to an area called Dames Point, closer to the Ocean.
I asked my father how Jacksonville could grow into a town like Chicago. Until he died in 1978, he was convinced that what Jacksonville needed periodically was a good fire.
She landed in Jacksonville because she had several relatives that had already arrived: her uncle Pete Shatkosky and cousins, Felix and Adolph Laask.
Joseph Young, my father, was shocked how people lived in Jacksonville, Florida since he grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, a northern progressive industrial town. My father first met my grandmother when he starting dating my mother, Faye Leah.
My grandmother loved my father as he was the first Jewish businessman to be in their family. However, their first disagreement was over my grandmother keeping cows, chickens, and other livestock downtown. The photo clearly shows her with two of her cows and the bridges in the background. One was the St. Elmo Acosta Bridge and the other was the Atlantic Coastline (now CSX) railroad bridge. The southside of the river was largely undeveloped in the 1920's.
I asked my father "what was so bad about Jacksonville in 1930?" He said there was open drinking, no sidewalks, dirt street, and residents of the city used outhouses. He said that police officials openly acknowledged the brothels on Houston Street. History documents the American author, Stephen Crane, marrying a prostitute in Jacksonville while he was waiting on a trial to begin.
Comments on the photo include, "all housewives wore aprons unless they went to town"; there is no concrete bulkhead in photo as the McCoy's Creek flushed the northside of town and all the outhouses into the river. That's why they put up dirt berms" "There was no garbage pickup in those day by city services." "The wooden structures in the back were buildings put up on the piers. The Railroad bought the riverfront to stop the ships from docking. Later the railroads tore down all the wooden piers and bulkheads. The forced all of the riverfront business to relocate. The railroad eventually forced the Merrill-Stevens, Rawls Brothers shipyards out of downtown to an area called Dames Point, closer to the Ocean.
I asked my father how Jacksonville could grow into a town like Chicago. Until he died in 1978, he was convinced that what Jacksonville needed periodically was a good fire.
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