Rest Of The Story...
Miss Chaffa returned to Ocheesee to reclaim her father’s property in 1895. After hiring an attorney, Francis C. Carter, she accomplished the task, recovering 2,700 acres, and refurbished the Gregory House. “She made the surrounding lands and the house a place of beauty,” said Mrs. Sam Gay of Altha in an interview in 1956 by C.H. Schaeffer. Mrs. Gay was a child at the time and lived on a farm four miles to the west of the great house. She recalled that all the rooms in the house were painted in different colors, and the furnishings matched the colors. In an interview in 1965, Mrs. C.G. Kimbell, said, “I grew up on a farm that was four miles southwest of Ocheesee. My grandfather had settled there at about the same time as the Gregorys did and were good friends. We always loved the Gregory House and going to the fourth of July picnics under the big oak trees. My whole family adored and admired Miss Chaffa very much. She sent us our first school books. We adored her as a very beautiful and kind lady.”
Mrs. Gay said, “Miss Chaffa, at the age of 65, married a Mr. Grace. About a year after they were married Mr. Grace was murdered by a negro who threw his body in the river at Ocheesee Landing. Three days later the body was found down stream from the landing in a deep hole. The negro confessed that he killed Mr. Grace when the latter got up out of bed during the night and went to the Landing to receive freight from the river steamer. Mrs. Grace said that they heard the steamer blow for the Landing at about 1 a.m. He took his lantern to the warehouse and saw to the unloading of the freight, but did not come back. She lay awake and in a little while heard the steamer go down the river, but still Mr. Grace did not come back.”
Mrs. Gay continued, “After awhile Chaffa became concerned and went to the Landing. When she arrived she found blood spattered on the walls of the warehouse, but couldn’t find her husband. She suspected foul play and went back to the house. At daylight she went back to the warehouse, but the only thing she could find was a denture that had been knocked out of his mouth when he was struck. The perpetrator thought that the victim had money on him. I think this occurred either in 1903 or 1904.” According to a memo in the Parks Department files from C.H. Scaffer, “The murderer was convicted and sent to jail. There is a rumor that he was paid to do the job.” The memo was based on information given to him by George Atkins of Blountstown. The memo was marked (confidential).
Miss Chaffa lived on in the house until July 1916 when she became seriously ill. Sometime early in July the biggest freshot of the century swept the Apalachicola River Valley. The bottom floor of the Gregory House was under water. The occupants of the house had to move to the second floor. Soon after the flood abated the last of Jason Gregory Jr.’s seven children, Chaffa, died. She was buried in Gainesville.
According to a report written by George Atkins, “Ida’s son, Dr. William C. Flake of Richmond, Virginia, inherited the property.” (Ida was Jason’s oldest daughter) “He sold the property to the Leonard Brothers who in turn sold it to the Neal Lumber and Manufacturing Company. The Neal people donated the house to the Florida Board of Parks which had it moved to its present location in Torreya State Park.”
The house was acquired in 1935, and moved to Neal’s Bluff, across the river, and about half a mile up stream. The CCC men dismantled the house into manageable sections, numbering each piece, floated it a short distance down river on barges to the Rock Bluff Landing. It was then loaded onto trucks and hauled to the new construction site in Torreya Park. There were several fatalities during the move, attributed to drowning.
All of the young men in this particular CCC camp were African Americans. Later on during the project another CCC group, (all white), who had been working on the Caverns at Marianna, came to Torreya Park to help finish the construction. The Gregory House was finished in 1938. (All information without a specific reference came from the history files at Torreya Park.)
That Is It In A Nutshell...
Nana
Great historical account!❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️