Alexander
Darnes and Kirby Smith Share
Rare History
A.H.
Darnes and Kirby Smith were born at the same St. Augustine home and
spent
a portion of their lives working side by side. In 1880, Darnes moved to
Jacksonville to practice medicine. A unique statue reunites the two men.
On
November 8th, 2004, the St. Augustine Historical Society dedicated a
monument
to two of the city’s favorite sons, Dr. Alexander H. Darnes and General
Edmund Kirby Smith. The men were born and grew up within the same St.
Augustine
household, although Darnes was approximately 16 years younger. Darnes
was
son of black slave Violent Pinkney who was a servant in the Smith
household.
..........
Left,
the only known photograph of Dr. A.H. Darnes. At right is Edmund Kirby
Smith.
(Both
photos are courtesy of the St. Augustine Historical
Society.)
In
1855, Darnes left St. Augustine and headed to the western frontier to
serve
as valet to Edmund Kirby Smith, then a captain in the U.S. Army,
according
to Charles Tingley, Director for the St. Augustine Historical Society
Research
Library. Darnes continued to serve Smith after Smith joined the army of
the Confederate States of America. Tingley says that Darnes is the only
African American private servant in either “the U.S. or Confederate
Armies
to leave an autobiographical account of his experiences…”
After
the war, Darnes left the service of the Smiths to attend Lincoln
University.
In 1880, he received a medical degree from Howard University and soon
opened
a practice in downtown Jacksonville. He was the first Black physician
in
Jacksonville —the second in Florida — and a highly respected member of
the local community. In fact, one Jacksonville newspaper account at the
time of his1894 death said more people gathered for Darnes’ funeral
than
any funeral in the city’s history.
Kirby
Smith has long been A Favorite Son
Edmund
Kirby Smith was born in 1824 in St. Augustine where his father was a
lawyer
and a judge. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1845 and
served
under Generals Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott. He taught math at the
academy and served in the cavalry on the western frontier. After
accompanying
the Mexican Boundary Commission, his botany reports were published by
the
Smithsonian Institution. In 1861, Smith resigned from the U.S. Army to
join the Confederate forces. Commissioned as a colonel, he rose to the
rank of general. After the war he became president of the Atlantic and
Pacific Telegraph Company, chancellor of the University of Nashville
and
professor of mathematics at the University of the South at Sewanee. He
died March 28, 1893, the last surviving full general of either army.
Edmund
Kirby Smith’s popularity in Florida is noted by his selection as one of
the state’s two citizens chosen for inclusion in the Capitol building’s
National Statuary Hall in Washington, D.C. A Congressional law dating
to
1864 allowed each state to contribute two statues featuring a citizen
of
the state “illustrious for their historic renown or for distinguished
civic
or military services.” One of Florida’s selections for this honor was
Kirby
Smith, and the other was John Gorrie.
In
1914, a marble statue of John Gorrie, created by C. Adrian Pillars, was
given by the state of Florida. The Kirby Smith statue, also a Pillars’
work, but in bronze, was given by the state in 1922. As the Hall
crowded,
Congress allowed the statues to be dispersed throughout the Capitol
Building,
and today the Kirby Smith statue is located in the Hall of Columns.
Obituary
for Dr. A.H. Darnes Reveals Respect of the City’s Citizens
Excerpted
from the newspaper, The Evening Telegram (Jacksonville, Florida)
Tuesday,
February 13, 1894
The
largest number of people ever gathered within the walls of any church
in
this city was at Mt. Zion A.M.E. Church yesterday to attend the funeral
of Dr. A. H. Darnes, deceased. Long before the appointed time for the
ceremonies
to begin, people could be seen coming from every direction wending
their
way towards the church, and by 1 o’clock p.m. the church was already
crowded.”
The deceased stood high in the estimation of the people of the city,
both
white and colored, and was one of the most prominent colored masons in
America. The procession started from the parlors of undertaker Clark on
Forsyth Street and was led by the Union Coronet [sic] and Excelsior
bands,
both of which played sacred music. The Knights of Archer and other
masons
were…attired in full regalia and made a credible appearance much
admired
by everybody. … The body was enclosed in …in a beautiful rosewood
casket…
Rev. J.E. Lee officiated, and eloquently did he speak from the first
chapter
of Joshua, and said that he wished he had time to explain the
possibilities
of men of our race such as Darnes… The Rev. J.R. Scott read the ritual
services. Just at this time, two pigeons flew to the top of the church
and remained there. Some of the people present said that t’was angels
that
came to guard the soul home to heaven. Dr. Darnes, the deceased, was
about
48 years of age, and had been a popular practicing physician in this
city
for about 16 years, and rendered valuable services during the smallpox
and yellow fever epidemics. … The internment was in the old city
cemetery
[sic], and the body was followed there by a procession of people. … At
least 3,000 people attended the funeral.
James
Weldon Johnson’s memories of City’s first Black physician
A
goldmine of early Jacksonville history, James Weldon Johnson’s
autobiography, Along
This Way, offers the following fond account of Dr. Alexander Darnes:
When
I was perhaps ten years old, a strange being came to Jacksonville, the
first colored doctor. He practiced…a number of years and made a
success,
but he had a hard uphill fight. Few were the colored people at the time
who had the faith to believe that one of their own knew how to make
those…marks
on a piece of paper that would bring from the drugstore something to
stand
between them and death. Dr. Darnes made himself a big chum to Rosamond
[brother of James Weldon Johnson] and me, and we liked him
tremendously.
He constantly brought us some of the odds and ends so much prized by
boys.
He once gave us fifty cents apiece for learning the deaf and dumb
alphabet
within a given time. …. But best of all, Dr. Darnes was an enthusiastic
fisherman, and he opened up a new world of fun and sport by teaching us
how to fish.
In
April 1884, The New York Globe reported that A.H. Darnes was
becoming
one of the sound businessmen of Jacksonville and that he had a large
and
handsome residence in an upper class section of the city. The home and
office were located in the same structure on Ocean Street.
The
Florida Times Union offered a short tribute to Dr. Darnes after his
death stating he was “universally esteemed by all who knew him” and
noted
his valuable services during the 1888 yellow fever epidemic. The
article
also observed Dr. Darnes’ prominence in the Masonic order; Darnes was
the
Florida Deputy Grand Master and High Priest of the Royal Arch Chapter
of
Washington, D.C. at the time of his death.
A
monument to Smith and Darnes was unveiled in St. Augustine on November
8, 2004, depicting the two men together in a
lifesized
bronze sculpture. The sculptor is Maria Kirby-Smith who is the
General’s
great granddaughter.
The sculpture is fittingly in the garden
of the Segui/Kirby Smith House, 6 Artillery Lane, the corner of
Artillery
Lane and Aviles Street, St. Augustine. In
the sculpture, “Dr. Darnes is portrayed with his doctor’s bag greeting
his former master and old friend Professor Edmund Kirby Smith of the
University
of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, dressed in his academic gown. This
image circa 1885 shows how men of different races who grew up in the
same
household were transformed by the War Between the States and became
leaders
in their chosen new professions and communities,” said Tingley.
Sculptor
Maria Kirby-Smith is shown at left.
