i§>t &ugu$ttne historical iboctetp
g>t. Sugiigtine Jfloritm
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Mr.Hai'ral Ayres o'.S.T. Managing Director San An to ni o,Texa s.
280 St.George St.
S t. Au gu s t ine, FI o r i da Llay 21,1928
My dear Mr.Ayres,
Thanlc you very much for the Traveloge you sent us. a short time ago containing the cut of the Oldest House. It looks very well only being like a reflection ,puts tae house on the wrong side of the street. Perhaps the cut we haa made snoula have been the other way to make it print as it is.
As you are so historically correct,I was surprised to read the write-up that followed about "The Fountain of Youth". I have spent a great deal of time this winter hunting up documents,and the true facts concerning the property now owned by Mr.Fraser.He has the ancient site of the Indian village of ITacaris on his place,the Cano ox De la Leche or Hospital Greek went beyond the 1500 yard line, he probably has the site where Henendez had his formal landing and First Mass, nis place has been fought over by Indians ,English and Spanish .1 have been over all the ■ old Spanish uooumenes ne nas concerning Ponce de Leon and they rela.te only to all Florida or Porto Rico,no thing especial concerning his place. He wanteu me to write a booklet for him ,and I refused unless'he would-distroy the coquina cross and stone in front of the dug well. You see I used to drive over that place ,many times before Luella McGonnell-Day bought it ,coquina was discovered in 1580 ,and I have one of those old coquina wells under my own xiouse, they are supplied by the Atlantic Ocean and the water rises and fails vita trie tides.Mrs.Day was known to be not normal in her mind,and sue took a well known map of St.Augustine had it reduced to a post card and printed on it that tne fort was built iii 1513 and I actually found it listed in the Library of Congress ,and only last Fall succeeded in having it marked as a fraud.Ponce de Leon landed in tuis harbor somewhere April 3rd. and left Friday 8th. if he k had to dig for surface water ,to get his casks filled the place he dug would have disappeared before the Spaniards returned.The Frasers are xb charming people ,college graduates both of them , I cannot understand them.Ponce de Leon put a marker at Rio de la Cruz,April 20 where he had a fight with some Indians and I explained to the Frazers that you could not claim to be the first standing place on April 3rd. and the second of April 20ieth. for the same place. There are quick sands on St.Francis St.near my nouse .there were springs back of the Governor's house ,and a big one at Santa Rosa,I remember seeing little springs in the woods heading small streams ,but I never heard of a spring that did not have
any over-flow .
I am sorry the coquina marker for the O.S.T. is lixe a. huge cheese, if if could be plastered all over
so ugly ,it looks and made really