Cayo Hueso
Cayo Hueso (pronounced [káh-yo gue-so]) is the original Spanish name given to the island of Key West. Spanish-speaking people of today also use the term Cayo Hueso when referring to Key West. It literally means “bone key”. It is alledged that the island was littered with the remains (bones) from an Indian battlefield or burial ground. The most widely accepted belief of how the name changed to Key West is that it is a false friend anglicization of the word, being that the word “hueso” (pronounced [weso]) sounds like it could mean “west” in English. Other theories of how the island was named are that the name indicated that it was the westernmost Key, or simply that the island was the westernmost key with a reliable supply of drinking water.
Many businesses on the island use the name, such as Casa Cayo Hueso, Cayo Hueso Resorts, Cayo Hueso Consultants, Cayo Hueso y Habana Historeum, etc.
In 1763, when Great Britain took over control of what is now Florida, the community of Spaniards and Native Americans were moved off island to Havana. Florida returned under Spanish control 20 years later, but there was no official resettlement of the island. Informally the island was used by fishermen from Cuba and from the British Bahamas, who were later joined by others from the United States after the latter nation’s independence. Although claimed by Spain, no nation exercised de facto control over the community there for some time.
Matthew C. Perry and the opening of “Thompson’s Island”
In 1815 the Spanish governor in Havana, Cuba deeded the island of Key West to Juan Pablo Salas, an officer of the Royal Spanish Navy Artillery posted in Saint Augustine, Florida. After Florida was transferred to the United States, Salas was so eager to sell the island that he sold it twice – first for a sloop valued at $575, and then to a U.S. businessman John W. Simonton, during a meeting in a Havana cafe, for the equivalent of $2,000 in pesos in 1821. The sloop trader quickly sold the island to a General John Geddes, a former governor of South Carolina, who tried in vain to secure his rights to the property before Simonton, with the aid of some influential friends in Washington, was able to gain clear title to the island. Simonton had wide-ranging business interest in Mobile, Alabama. He bought the island because a friend, John Whitehead, had drawn his attention on the opportunities presented by the island’s strategic location. John Whitehead had been stranded in Key West after a shipwreck in 1819 and he had been impressed by the potential offered by the deep harbor of the island. The island was indeed considered the “Gibraltar of the West” because of its strategic location on the 90-mile (140 km) wide deep shipping lane Straits of Florida between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf Of Mexico. On March 25, 1822, Matthew C. Perry sailed the schooner Shark to Key West and planted the U.S. flag, physically claiming the Keys as United States property. Perry reported on piracy problems in the Caribbean. Perry renamed Cayo Hueso (Key West) to “Thompson’s Island” for the Secretary of the Navy Smith Thompson and the harbor “Port Rodgers” for War of 1812 hero John Rodgers. Neither name was to stick. In 1823 Commodore David Porter of the United States Navy West Indies Anti-Pirate Squadron took charge of Key West, which he ruled (but, according to some, exceeding his authority) as military dictator under martial law.
First Developers
The names of the 4 “founding fathers” of modern Key West were given to main arteries of the island when it was first platted in 1829 by William Adee Whitehead, John Whitehead’s younger brother. That first plat and the names used remained mostly intact and is still in use today. Duval street, the island’s main street is named after Florida’s first territorial Governor who served between 1822 and 1834, the longest serving Governor in Florida’s U.S. history.
William Whitehead became chief editorial writer for the “Enquirer” a local newspaper in 1834. He had the genius of preserving copies of his newspaper as well as copies from the “Key West Gazette”, its predecessor. He later sent those copies to the Monroe County Clerk for preservation which gives us a precious view on life in Key West in the early days (1820-1840).
Conchs
Most of the inhabitants of Key West were immigrants from the Bahamas, known as Conchs (pronounced ‘conks’) who arrived in increasing amounts after 1830. Many were sons and daughters of Loyalists who fled to the nearby crown soil during the American Revolution. During the 20th century many residents of Key West started calling themselves “Conchs”, and the term is now widely applied to all residents of Key West. Some residents use the term “Conch” to refer to a person who was born in Key West and the Florida Keys, while the term “Fresh Water Conch” refers to a resident who was not born in Key West but who has lived in Key West for seven years or more. The true original meaning of Conch applies only to someone with European ancestry that immigrated from the Bahamas. Hence, it is said that when a baby was born, the family would put a conch shell in front of their home.
Many of the Bahamian immigrants live in an area of “Old Town” located next to the Truman Annex which is called “Bahama Village.”
Major industries in Key West in the early 19th century included fishing, salt production, and salvage. In 1860 wrecking madethe small town of Key West the largest and most wealthy city in Florida and the richest town per capita in the United States. A number of the residents worked salvaging shipwrecks from nearby Florida reefs, and the town was noted for the unusually high concentration of fine furniture and chandeliers which the locals used in their own homes after salvaging them from wrecks.
Fort Zachary Taylor in Key West, popular during the Civil War, contains the largest known collection of Civil War cannons ever discovered at a single location.
U.S. Civil War
During the American Civil War, the state of Florida seceded and joined the Confederate States of America, Key West remained in U.S. Union hands because of the important Naval base. Most of the locals were sympathetic to the South and many flew Confederate flags over their “Conch” homes. Fort Zachary Taylor, constructed from 1845 to 1866, was a very important Key West outpost during the Civil War. Construction began in 1861 on two other important forts, East and West Martello Towers, that served as sidearms and batteries for the larger fort. When finished, they were connected to Ft. Taylor by railroad tracks for movement of military munitions. Fort Jefferson, located about 68 miles (109 km) from Key West on Garden Key in the Dry Tortugas, served, after the Civil War, as the jail for Dr. Samuel A. Mudd convicted of conspiracy for setting the broken leg bone of John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln.
In the late 19th century, salt and salvage declined as industries, but Key West gained a thriving cigar making industry.
By 1889 Key West was the largest and wealthiest city in Florida.
Many Cubans moved to Key West during Cuba’s unsuccessful war for independence in the 1860s and 1870s.
Source: Source: http://www.conchtv.com/key-west-history
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