Page 134 - some-stuff-i-wrote-and-some-stuff-i-didn't-(2011)-h-morris-williams

Some Stuff I Wrote and Some Stuff I Didn't (2011) H. Morris Williams

The Names of Florida

By E.D. Lambright

E.D. Lambright, Editorial Director of the Tampa Morning Tribune, came

to that paper as its city editor in 1899, and has stayed with it ever since.
If any man now living has seen modem Florida through its beginnings to

its greatest flourishing, Ed Lambright is that man.

Like everyone who ever gave Florida more than a casual look, Ed
Lambright was early fascinated by the romance of Florida place-names.

Indeed, a year after his arrival he found himself not merely fascinated

but inspired to verse. The result has been reprinted many times, and Mr.
Lambright reported in 1955 that he still gets requests for it.

Of course, there were a lot fewer place-names in Florida 55 years ago

than there are now, and some that were in use then have since been
forgotten. But Poet Lambright made out with what he had, as you will

see by the following, called “The Names of Florida”—

He had traveled over Florida, and

the map had been impressed

On his many mental tablets—

Pensacola to Key West—

And you couldn’t doubt his knowledge

for he surely had the hunch

On the names of all the places from

Yulee to Saddle Bunch.

But he stuck to it so constantly and

he toured the State so long,

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