Hi folks! Wanted to continue the second half of the post from February 16th. There is more to write about Thomas Edison and Henry Ford concerning Punta Gorda. When Edison arrived in Punta Gorda he enjoyed visiting with a telegrapher by the name of Billy White. She was a well-known citizen of Punta Gorda because of her intuition with Morse Code and sent many of the telegrams going in and out of Punta Gorda for many years. When Edison visited Billy, it was usually at Punta Gorda’s Dade Hotel, which housed the Western Union office in 1887. This is what the book Our Fascinating Past: Charlotte Harbor: Later Years, by U.S. Cleveland and Lindsey Williams,said about Edison and Billy White.
When he (Edison) was known to be on the train, the Fort Myers steamer was held for him. Edison knew this but always dreamed up an excuse for an urgent telegram to keep the boat waiting while he visited Miss Billy. As a former telegrapher himself, Edison watched with admiration while Miss Billy clicked off his messages.
Undoubtedly Miss Billy worked her key with extra speed on those occasions in order to impress the great inventor. “Operators like you and me are not made,” Edison once told her. “They have to be born.”
Miss Billy was pleased by the adulation of Edison and looked forward to his visits. Besides the flattery of his attention, she was intrigued by the fact that Edison always seemed to be wearing the same gray suit “which the train trip had done nothing for whatsoever.”
There is also a connection with the second bridge built over Charlotte Harbor on the Tamiami Trail at Punta Gorda. The first bridge built across the harbor was opened in early July of 1921. The bridge was poorly built, and the concrete was made mostly of beach sand and harbor water with inferior concrete. Salt in the mixture eventually eroded the reinforcing rods and large chunks of concrete broke away from the structure over a short period of time. Because of this and increasing automobile traffic, a second bridge had to be built.
The second bridge was constructed where the first one existed and was completed in early June of 1931. Thomas Edison and his family were some of the first people to cross it. John Hagan Jr. was the official driver of the first car to cross the bridge. On June 14 Edison was driven across by Hagan, along with Mina, Charles, and his wife Carolyn. This is interesting because it coincides with the book The Florida Life of Thomas Edison by Michele Wehrwein Albion. Albion puts in an appendix at the beginning of the book that the Edison family departure date from Florida was on June 15 in 1931 and that the family members of Edison visiting that year were Edison, Mina, Charles, and his wife.
Thanks for learning!
Chet Wallace
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