Schumann Family Newspaper Clippings

 10/3/23 When Daddy and I talked about this today he said that there were a lot of interesting things in it. Written in 1923, he was written during the boom, when the Florida growth was taking place. JFS refers to the boys using the swimming hole from 1908 - 1914. Daddy said that he had never been quite clear on when JFS first moved to Florida, but those dates indicate that he was there then. Granddad would have been about nine years old.  Daddy thought that the way JFS said some things was a little odd --- that the one man was smarter than he looked. Daddy said JFS either knew him well or disliked him.  Daddy said that there was man named Cannon in the US legislature that was quite controversial, and that JFS had said "Pat Cannon was just a squirt pistol." John Franklin Schumann carried a great deal of responsibility at the Orlando Evening Star and had hoped to become part owner, but he wasn't allowed to do that, and it disappointed him greatly. Daddy said that Granddad ...

 

 

September 5, 2023 Early in my research I ran across an article that suggested that John Franklin Schumann had changed the spelling of his last name, and that it had originally been spelled Shuman. Multiple artlices after that, including one of his wedding to Blanche Marie Jackman, left no doubt.  Just why he did so remains a bit of a mystery. While our first thought when we hear that someone has changed their name is that they are evading something or hiding something, John Franklin made multiple trips back and forth from Orlando to his home territory in Indiana, so that hardly seems the case.  My brother, Johnny, had told me a story a very long time ago, and I asked him about it again recently, about his penmanship in the signing of his name. He was in Granddad's office, most likely regarding some business related to the grove, and Johnny had either signed or endorsed a check, and had done so hastily. Granddad showed it to him, mentioned to him that "Schumann" was a very...

  September 4, 2023 John Franklin Schumann, while editor of the Vero Beach Press Journal, spoke at a meeting of the Exchange Club. He pointed out that much of the important business of the world is transacted around a dinner table, and that the Exchange Club and similar organizations are important factors in community building.  When Daddy and I talked about this article, he said that he had read on the article, and noted the other speakers and their enthusiasm about Vero Beach, and Florida. This article is from February 28, 1926, near the beginning of the real estate bust that caused so much havoc in Florida.  When I was a young adult, I was in Granddad's office in the new Press-Journal building, and noted the many plaques on his wall, and the many organizations of which he was a charter member. Daddy said that Granddad was very willing to support new organizations, and in reading this article, I wonder if that might have been something his father taught him.  The a...

  September 4, 2023 Daddy said that although the attached article does not say that he went to the World's Fair, he knows that he did, because he remembers it. They went into the city via tunnel, and while Daddy wasn't sure which one, he believes it was relatively new. What it was for sure was an experience that impressed him. He was seven at the time, and my guess is that it would have been his first time going through a tunnel in a car. This was also where Grandad bought them hamburgers and was incensed (Daddy's word) at the cost. Granddad said the hamburger wasn't as big as the coin it cost. (Maybe a silver dollar, maybe a fifty-cent piece. You get the idea.) General Motors had a big display of cars at the fair, with a mezzanie where people could gather and view the cars. Granddad took Daddy there, and they became separated. Daddy said that maybe Granddad moved a head to get a better view, and he got left behind. He said that he must have been taught what to do in su...

  I don't think this was John F.'s first trip to Florida, but I became curious about his Uncle John.