The ‘Last of the Timucua’

On December 8, 1908, a small film production company called Kalem arrives in Jacksonville, officially kicking off the movie business in the River City. Over the next few years, Kalem will revolutionize the film industry… but who were they, and what brought them to Jacksonville?

Having conquered Jacksonville, Kalem turns its attention to an entirely different battlefield when it begins specializing in Civil War films told from the Southern perspective. But changes in the movie industry and Florida’s rapidly shifting political landscape spell the end — not only for the company itself, but also for Jacksonville’s burgeoning film industry.

As the story goes, the “last of the Timucua,” a man named Juan Alonso Cabale, died in Cuba in 1767. The details of Cabale’s death are true, but over time they have been fused into a broader false narrative that affects the indigenous people of Florida to this day.

In 1591, Flemish goldsmith Theodore de Bry and his sons published a book that still shapes how we picture the Timucua to this day. Supposedly its imagery was based on paintings by French painter Jacques LeMoyne, who was stationed at Fort Caroline… but was it really? And how accurate is the picture they present of local indigenous life?

Stories about an ancient Timucuan town called Ossachite buried beneath the streets of Downtown Jacksonville abound online, but did it actually exist? And does this romantic narrative of a lost city actually obscure the far more interesting indigenous history of Northeast Florida?

Episode 2: Union forces continue to occupy Jacksonville and the Second South Carolina Volunteers mount an expedition up the St. Johns. An unexpected order to withdraw the troops from Jacksonville confounds Higginson, but it quickly becomes clear that what his men have done there has turned the tide of public opinion on Black enlistment. To read the show notes head over to wjct.org/bygonejax.

Episode 1: It’s March of 1863 and two of the first Black regiments in the Union Army are sent to occupy Jacksonville, Florida. Their mission: harass Confederate troops in the area, free enslaved people along the St. Johns River and enlist as many Black men as possible. To read the show notes head over to wjct.org/bygonejax.

Bygone Jax: Our Unsung History from WJCT Public Media tells some of the lesser known stories — or more accurate versions of the stories people think they know — about Jacksonville’s past. The show is powered by research from the people behind Florida State College at Jacksonville’s History of Jacksonville course, which launched in fall 2022.