The area was established as a public square in 1857 by
Isaiah Hart, founder of Jacksonville. After Hart's death in 1861 and the end of the
Civil War, the Hart family deeded the land to the city for $10. It was first known as
"City Park", then
"St. James Park" after the grand
St. James Hotel was constructed across the street in 1869. The following year, another major hotel was built across from the park.
The area was renamed Hemming Park in 1899 in honor of Civil War veteran Charles C. Hemming, after he installed a 62-foot (19 m)-tall Confederate monument in the park in 1898.
[3] Hemming was born in Jacksonville. He later moved to
Colorado Springs, Colorado and became a banker, making a fortune.
[1] The memorial is the oldest in the city and was the tallest at the time.
[2] An occurrence in February 1896 brought lasting change to St. James Park. At the state reunion of United Confederate Veterans (UCV) in Ocala, Charles C. Hemming announced his plan to erect a memorial in honor of Florida’s Confederate soldiers. Members of the local Robert E. Lee Camp of Confederate Veterans immediately invited Hemming to a reception in Jacksonville, which was attended by many prominent citizens. After moving from St. Augustine to Jacksonville at the age of two, Hemming grew up in the City, and local officials hoped that he would select Jacksonville as the site for the monument.
Hemming viewed several possible locations and expressed a preference for the center of St. James Park, where the fountain stood. Though reluctant to replace the popular fountain, the City’s Board of Public Works later gave its approval.
A committee of the Robert E. Lee Camp managed the memorial project. But newspaper accounts appear to indicate that Hemming personally selected the monument, which was then approved by various committees of the UCV.
George H. Mitchell of Chicago, Illinois – a designer, manufacturer, and contractor for artistic memorials – provided the monument. It cost approximately $20,000, and was a joint gift from Charles Hemming and his wife, Lucy Key Hemming, a native of Texas.
The City moved the fountain to the northwest section of St. James Park, and George Mitchell traveled to Jacksonville and supervised installation of the monument in the spring of 1898, during the Spanish American War. At that time, the Springfield section of the City contained thousands of American troops living in a tent city known as Camp Cuba Libre.
The unveiling ceremony took place on June 16, 1898, and coincided with the reunion in Jacksonville of the UCV’s Florida Division. Hemming donated the monument to the State of Florida, and Governor William D. Bloxham accepted the memorial on behalf of the state.
Though Hemming did not attend the dedication, General Fitzhugh Lee, the nephew of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, was in the reviewing stand, and the grandson of Union General Ulysses S. Grant watched the unveiling from the piazza of the Windsor Hotel. In addition, both northern and southern troops from Camp Cuba Libre attended the ceremony, and much of the oratory concerned the reuniting of the North and South.
The monument rises sixty-two feet from a square foundation. A column, extends up from the base (both made of Vermont granite), and is topped by the bronze figure of a Confederate soldier in winter uniform. He stands at ease, with hands clasping the barrel of his rifle that rests on the ground, and on his cap are the initials, “J.L.I.”, representing the Jacksonville Light Infantry.
Bronze plaques, with images of Southern heroes sculpted in relief, are mounted on three sides of the base: A bust of Confederate General Kirby Smith on the north; a scene of Generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson with their drum corps on the west; and a bust of General J.J. Dickinson, commander of the UCV’s Florida Division on the south.
Confederate Memorial in Hemming Plaza On the east side of the base is a plaque with the following inscription, most likely written by Charles Hemming:
TO THE SOLDIERS OF FLORIDA This shaft is by a comrade raised in testimony of his love, recalling deeds immortal, heroism unsurpassed. With ranks unbroken, ragged, starved and decimated, the Southern soldier for duty’s sake, undaunted, stood to the front of the battle until no light remained to illumine the field of carnage, save the luster of his chivalry and courage. Nor shall your glory be forgot, While fame her record keeps, CONFEDERATE MEMORIAL 1861-1865 About Charles C. Hemming: Charles C. Hemming was the son of Englishman John C. Heming (spelled originally with one “m”), who moved to Jacksonville in the mid 1840s, and worked both in the real estate business and as a bookkeeper. He also held a variety of public offices, including town auctioneer and City Councilman, and following his death in 1886, was buried in the Old City Cemetery.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemming_Park
Confederate statue in Florida is removed in predawn hours
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — A Confederate statue that had been in a northeast Florida park for more than a century was removed in the predawn hours Tuesday ahead of a protest demanding racial equality.
The statue of a Confederate soldier had sat atop a 62-foot (19-meter) monument memorializing Confederate soldiers in downtown Jacksonville’s Hemming Park next to City Hall until it was removed before dawn without any announcement from city officials.
Mayor Lenny Curry had previously avoided taking a stance on the divisive issue of honoring the Confederacy on public property, according to the Florida Times-Union.
Jacksonville Jaguars running back Leonard Fournette was leading a protest Tuesday outside of City Hall to call for racial justice following the death of George Floyd, who pleaded for air while a white Minneapolis police officer put his knee on the handcuffed black man’s neck for several minutes. At the start of the protest, Curry said other Confederate statues would be coming down. One such statue, “Women of the Southland,” in another Jacksonville park was splattered with red paint over the weekend.
“The confederate monument is gone, and the others in this city will be removed as well,” Curry said. “We hear your voices. We have heard your voices.”
The long-running debate over whether Confederate monuments are appropriate in public spaces intensified after white supremacists converged on Charlottesville in 2017, in part to protest the city’s attempt to move a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. Some who want to preserve Confederate monuments say they are works of art and say their removal would amount to erasing history. Critics say they inappropriately glorify a legacy of racism and slavery.
https://apnews.com/5b3ee956baf2423c37bb0267515dd990
