Historic Homes of St. Nicholas

Historic Homes

The Van Valkenburgh home -1231 Glengarry Rd Jacksonville, FL

Home of Robert Bruce Van VALKENBURGH  1821-1888

• Lawyer, Jurist, Soldier, Legislator, and Minister to Japan
• Attended Franklin Academy. He studied law, was admitted to the bar, and commenced practice in Bath, NY. He was a member of the NY State Assembly in 1852, 1857 and 1858.
• Commanded recruiting depot in Elmira, NY and organized 17 regiments early in the Civil War.
• As Colonel of the 107th Regiment, NY Volunteer Infantry, he commanded at the Battle of Antietam.
• Following the war, he was Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs.
• Elected as a Republican to the Thirty-seventh and Thirty-eighth Congresses and held office from March 4, 1861 to March 3, 1865. While in the House he was chairman of the Committee on Militia.
• He was appointed Minister Resident to Japan on January 18, 1866 and served until November 11, 1869.
• After his return from Japan, he settled in Florida and was appointed Associate Justice of the Florida Supreme Court on May 20, 1874. He held that position until his death in Suwannee Springs, near Live Oak in 1888.

The Judge bought the 18-acre site from Albert Palmer in 1871. He and his wife, Anna Simpson Van Valkenburgh built their home in 1872 and furnished it with furniture and memorabilia they had collected in Japan during his stint as Minister to Japan.

This is believed to be the last remaining original home on Empire Point.  The home is on the St Johns River between the entrance to Empire Point and the entrance to Episcopal HS. 

The view in the picture is only possible from the river. A partial view of the side of the house is possible from the street.  

Another Champion

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Dorothea Lynde Dix   April 4, 1802 -  July 17, 1887 

She was an American activist on behalf of the indigent insane who, through a vigorous program of lobbying state legislatures and the United States Congress, created the first generation of American mental asylums.

She also traveled to Europe and led efforts to improve the care of the insane in England and Scotland.

She conducted a statewide investigation of how her home state of Massachusetts cared for the insane poor. After her survey, she published the results in a fiery report, a Memorial, to the state legislature. 

"I proceed, Gentlemen, briefly to call your attention to the present state of Insane Persons confined within this Commonwealth, in cages, stalls, pens! Chained, naked, beaten with rods, and lashed into obedience."

The outcome of her lobbying was a bill to expand the state's mental hospital in Worcester. She had other positive outcomes to her lobbying for the mentally ill in North Carolina, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, and New Hampshire.

During the Civil War, she served as Superintendent of Army Nurses. She beat out Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell for the position. Her even-handed caring for Union and Confederate wounded alike assured her a positive memory in both the North and the South.

Following the war, she resumed her crusade to improve the care of prisoners, the disabled, and the mentally ill. Her first step was to review the asylums and prisons in the South to evaluate the war damage to their facilities.

In 1881, she moved into the New Jersey State Hospital, Morris Plains. The state legislature had designated a suite for her private use as long as she lived. Although an invalid, she carried on correspondence with people from England, Japan, and elsewhere. She died on July 17, 1887 and was buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Next Post - Our own cemeterians' mental health challenges.