St. John's Cemetery Individual Record

[No Photo]Richard Miles Cary

Richard Miles Cary
(May 19, 1861 -- February 10, 1925)

Section: 19
Space: 1
Lot: 28
Spouse: Mary Ethel Wright
Occupation: Business

Early Business, Railroad and Banking Leader; Grand Marshall of Pensacola parades for years

Members of the Cary family and related families, Wright and Abercrombie, have played major roles in the growth and development of Pensacola for over 130 years. Henry Cary gave a talk to the Historical Society in the past. His grandfather, the senior Richard Miles Cary(1825-1898) also is buried in St. John�s. Henry Cary submitted the following story about his father, the junior Richard Miles Cary.

Members of the Cary family and related families, Wright and Abercrombie, have played major roles in the growth and development of Pensacola for over 130 years. Henry Cary gave a talk to the Historical Society in the past. His grandfather, the senior Richard Mils Cary (1825-1898) also is buried in St. John�s Cemetery. Henry Cary submitted the following story about his father, the junior Richard Miles Cary.

My father's grandfather -was Gill Armistead Cary whose family had lived on the peninsular between the York and James for five generations. After service in the War of 1812, he married, and had four sons, each of whom fought on the Southern side during the Civil War.

My father's father, Richard Miles Cary, was a school-teacher. Late in the last months of the War he joined the Confederate armies defending Petersburg, was wounded and returned to his students. After the War he moved first to Eufaula then to Mobile and then to Pensacola, by which time his son, my father, Richard Miles Cary, the subject of this paper was 12 to 14 years old. The senior Richard Miles Cary died in 1898 and is buried in St. John's Cemetery. On his tombstone under his name is written "A native of Virginia"

My father, Richard Miles Cary, was born in 1861 in Isle of Wight County, Virginia. Although we have his picture in the uniform of a military academy, we think he was schooled mostly by his father. He was good in arithmetic: I have been told he could add a column of four digits by going straight down-the- column.

At the age of eighteen he began his business career when he was employed as a bookkeeper by the L&N Railroad. He was in the right place at the right time.

To summarize John Appleyard�s account: " With the end of the War had come the need to rebuild many (railroad) lines damaged by the War and in addition there was later the drive to '.link Pensacola to the national system being assembled by the L&N. There was also the project in the late 1870"s supervised by Colonel W. D. Chipley to establish a line from Pensacola to River Junction to connect with the one headed East from Jacksonville.

I think my father must have been Chipley's prot�g� because one of my earliest memories is that of a large portrait of Chipley in our living room.

At any rate my father was first a bookkeeper- then paymaster at the age of 20 for the construction of the Pensacola/ River junction road.

Appleyard's account continues: "Cary was preparing pay envelopes for 2278 men... was paying the cost of operating two engines... two boarding cars- one caboose and (several) handcars... (As paymaster he drove through the back country in a buggy delivering money to the workmen. He carried a pistol under the seat.)

"When the railroad began operations in 1883 it added 10 locomotives, three first class passenger coaches two second class passenger coaches, two mail and baggage cars and 20 freight cars..... Chipley was general superintendent and Richard Cary was upgraded to secretary and auditor and also a director."

During this time he saw that coal and no longer fat pine and oak was the coming source of heat and energy. So in 1886 he resigned his position with the railroad and opened a business along with one associate, one driver, one dump wagon and one mule to sell coal and ice. Cary & Company was first located near Tarragona and Main and then later to Chase and Tarragona and then to the block of Tarragona and Gonzalez and Guillemard and Brainerd.

Three years later, seeing another need he and several other leading citizens established Pensacola Home and Savings Association. He was its secretary.

He had become active in the Florida State Militia and by 1894 was Captain of the Chipley Light Infantry. Appleyard: "The men... often drilled on Sunday afternoons in Seville Square... on bicycles!"

When the Spanish American War broke out my grandfather took on the management of Cary & Company, and my father was mustered with his company into the Florida militia. They got as far as Tampa when the War ended. He was promoted to Major then later to Colonel. It was about this time that he incorporated Cary and Company along with A. C. Blount and Fannin Chipley.

And now, after the Spanish American War my father added another venture: Bunker Coal.

The change from wind to steam as a way to move a ship from here to there, and from pine knots to coal as a source of energy was now well under way. Bunker Coal was a big business for Cary and Company from 1900 to 1925 when serious competition from fuel oil mostly ended the bunker coal business.

It was a fascinating business. We would receive a cable from Hull Blythe and Co, our connection in London that a ship would arrive on such and such a date, and could need so many tons of coal. It could take a small train to meet this order. The ship would arrive at the L&N Muscogee Wharf coal tipple (its remains are still to be seen in the bay off Bay Boulevard at 12th Avenue) Each loaded car would be picked way up- turned upside down- the coal would flow down a chute into the ship's bunkers and trimmed there by laborers. The captain would sign two drafts for foreign exchange (in case one was lost) which my father would hand to the C&P Bank for collection.

Of course the retail coal business was the main source of revenue first with mule and wagon and then with trucks until after World War II.

In 1893 my father was one of those who joined with Simpson Reese to merge with the Peoples Bank & form the Citizens and Peoples National Bank. He became the Vice-President of the new corporation.

In addition to his business interests he was a director of the Chamber of Commerce, a vestryman in Christ Church, a 32 degree Mason, and Knight Templar He was King Priscus and my mother was his Queen.

He loved horseback riding and until his death was the Grand Marshall of all the local parades. He loved to tease. One of my earliest memories is that of how shocked I was at the age of 5 or 6 when he appeared in the living room completely dressed hat coat and tie--but no trousers and announced he was on his way to the office!

In 1903 he married Mary Ethel Wright. They had five children. In 1925 he went to Mobile to be initiated as a Shriner. While there he was the victim of a fatal heart attack.

He & other family members are buried in St. John�s Cemetery in 2 North Section 17. Under his name on his tombstone is written: "I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith."