Napoleon B. Broward - Early Life

Early Life

Broward spent his childhood on a series of family farms along the St. Johns River in Jacksonville; during the Civil War the original farm was burned by Union troops that occupied the town. After the war, the Browards had a tough time getting back on their feet; Napoleon's father and mother died when he was still quite young, and he and his brother tended the family farm for a few short years before moving into the city with their uncle.

It was with this uncle that Broward first worked on the river, doing odd jobs on his uncle's steamboat during the summer. In 1876, having graduated high school, Broward became a ship's mate and traveled to New England, where he stayed for two years, taking odd jobs on ships up and down the New England coast. He returned to Jacksonville in 1878 and took a job working tugboats on the St. Johns River.

Broward married his captain's daughter (Georgiana Carolina "Carrie" Kemp) in January 1883. That spring he applied for a license to lead ships over the St. Johns Bar, a constantly shifting sandbar that stretched across the mouth of the St. Johns, sometimes above water and sometimes many feet below; piloting ships over the treacherous bar was quite lucrative. Broward seemed destined for a life of comfort when in December his wife died during childbirth; Broward's son died a few days later.

Broward withdrew from the river for a while and again traveled north, but by 1885 he was back on the St. Johns, piloting his father-in-law's steamboat Kate Spencer. On the ship he met Annie Isabell Douglass, a frequent passenger.They were married in 1887.