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27-500: The Ribault Club is an historic building on Fort George Island near Jacksonville , Florida . It is now home to the Fort George Island Visitor Center . The building was designed in a Colonial Revival architecture style and is credited to Maurice Fatio and Mellen Clark Greeley . It was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on May 11, 2000, and is located on Fort George Road. It

54-554: A missionary on the east coast of the peninsula, notably at San Juan del Puerto , the doctrina (mission) established by Franciscans in 1587 at the main village of the Saturiwa chiefdom of that area. The people had intensive agriculture, hunting and fishing, and developed government. The Franciscans developed a multi-tier organization, with a doctrina as the base where a resident friar taught Christianity. Other sites, called visitas, were founded in more distant villages, which

81-479: A law unto himself." Kingsley was a slave dealer, who owned schooners that brought slaves clandestinely from Africa to his plantations. Kingsley publicly defended slavery and by the standards of the time, treated his slaves very liberally, and he was respected by them. (His concubine or wife Flora called him "kind". ) Kingsley, who preferred Black company to white and eventually became a Haitian citizen, let his slave recreate an African village. His four wives each had

108-447: A mission to Christianize the natives; a friar there, Francisco Pareja , studied their language and left in his writings most of what we know about it. Under Zephaniah Kingsley , who farmed much of the island from 1814 to 1836, it was a slave training and trading center. Later in the nineteenth century it hosted the luxurious Fort George Hotel as well as a club for locals. In the twenty-first century it contains an important historical site,

135-599: A nearby site for a mission to assist in Christianizing the natives. The Mission of San Juan del Puerto was started in the later sixteenth century and dominated the area until 1702, when it was destroyed by the English. The mission's location was near the Ribault Club, where there is a historical marker. The Franciscan friar Francisco Pareja lived at San Juan del Puerto for years, and compiled there his books on

162-661: A property in Jacksonville, Florida on the National Register of Historic Places is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Fort George Island Fort George Island is an island of some 500 acres (200 ha), about 5 miles (8.0 km) long, near the mouth of the St. John's River , in far northeast Duval County / Jacksonville, Florida . Part of the island is part of the 46,000-acre (190 km ) Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve , celebrating

189-413: A separate house on Fort George Island. Worried about the future safety of his Black wives (whom he freed) and children, Kingsley eventually moved his complex family to Haiti (see Mayorasgo de Coca ) and sold his plantation to a relative, Kingsley Beatty Gibbs . Kingsley's main house, kitchen, and barn have survived and been restored. His tabby slave quarters are one of the best preserved slave quarters in

216-587: A spokesman for the Franciscan community to the Spanish and colonial governments, was a leader among the missionaries, and served as custodio for the community in Florida. After the Franciscan organization was promoted to a provincia (province), Pareja was elected by his fellow missionaries as provincial in 1616. His primary historical importance was as a linguist : he developed the first writing system for

243-761: A visit in 1606 by Bishop Altamirano, including Cacica Maria and five of her subordinate caciques from the area. In his most significant achievement, Pareja developed a form of written language for Timucua. His catechism in Spanish and Timucua, published in 1612, was the first book written in an indigenous language of the United States. Through 1627, he published several other works in both languages. Due to his books and teachings, both Timucuan men and women learned to read and write in less than six months. They were able to write letters to each other in their own language. His works were distributed to other Franciscans and enabled them to teach literacy and Christianity to

270-496: Is noted by the presence of middens , large mounds consisting of massive quantities of shells and discarded food byproducts. On Fort George Island, the shells were primarily oysters. Quantities of the shells were burned and mixed to form tabby concrete , a durable building material used in the Kingsley slave quarters and in the foundations of other buildings on the island. Because the native villages were so large, Spaniards chose

297-558: Is noted for having published the first books in the language of an indigenous tribe (the Timucua ) within the present-day United States. He published several works between 1612 and 1627 in Timucua and Spanish, although some have been lost. His surviving works are: In addition, he was known to have published two other religious works and compiled a dictionary, which did not survive. [REDACTED]  This article incorporates text from

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324-561: The American Indian Timucua language . In 1612 he published the first book in an indigenous language of the United States , a catechism in Spanish and Timucua. From 1612 to 1627, he published eight other works in Spanish and Timucua, for the use of his teaching brothers; six of his works survive. He taught Timucuans to read and write within six months. The first church in what is now the contiguous United States

351-712: The Kingsley Plantation , on federal park land (part of the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve), and a small state park hosts the Ribault Inn Club , which serves as a visitors' center for the Kingsley Plantation and the island as a whole. During the early historical period Fort George Island was the location of the village of Alicamani, a major village of the Timucua chiefdom known as the Saturiwa . Timucua influence

378-547: The monastery of the Immaculate Conception at St. Augustine. From 1609 to 1612 he served as custodio of the Franciscans in Florida. When the Franciscan church organization in Florida and Cuba was elevated to the rank of a province ( provincia ), named Santa Elena de Florida, Pareja was elected as provincial in 1616 by his fellow Franciscans. Seeking more financial support of the Franciscans, he wrote to

405-705: The Native American population that was largely wiped out by infectious diseases brought by the Europeans. Fort George has the highest point along the Atlantic coast south of New Jersey. In prehistoric times it was a center of the Native American Timacua people, who left huge oyster shell mounds , which were used in the nineteenth century to create tabby concrete , present in the foundations of several island buildings. The Spaniards founded

432-474: The Native Americans. It was the third Spanish effort to establish missions. The brothers were following earlier unsuccessful efforts by Jesuit missionaries, one of whom had been martyred; the others returned to Spain. A group of 13 Franciscans arrived at St. Augustine in 1587. Within five years, most of the Franciscans had become discouraged by their lack of progress and left. Pareja worked as

459-568: The Timucua language, published in Mexico. In 1736 James Oglethorpe built Fort George, giving the island its present name. It was razed to the ground and its location is not known precisely, but according to a writer of 1887, "Along the southeastern extremity of Fort George Island there stretches a long, wide sand-spit, flanked upon the land side by knolls, rising both above the beach and the salt meadows, which are covered with long grasses and clumps of verdure. On one of these knolls was, in my opinion,

486-510: The Timucua. Since the twentieth century, his work has also been studied for insights into the ethnography of the indigenous people. Pareja also worked at Mission San Pedro de Mocama on Cumberland Island (present-day Georgia ), where he served the Tacatacuru , another Mocama-speaking group. He was there at the time of the Guale revolt in 1597. He later became guardian, or an officer, of

513-602: The Timucuan village that was associated with San Juan del Puerto; the people spoke the Mocama dialect. In 1603 a Saturiwa whom the Spanish named Maria was cacica; the following year she told the Spanish that her people were pleased with Father Pareja. She may have ruled into the 1620s. Pareja achieved some success with the Saturiwa; in 1602 he had 500 Christians within his custodio. Nearly that number were confirmed during

540-520: The colonial government, which seemed to favor soldiers: "we are the ones who bear the burden and heats, and we are the ones subduing and conquering the land." The last contemporary record of him was a fellow Franciscan's reference to his work in Florida in the book published in 1627. In his last posting, Pareja joined the province of the Holy Gospel in Mexico . He died in Mexico in 1628. Pareja

567-517: The country. Between the Civil War and 1898 the island was an international resort, with a large hotel and winter homes. It was also a citrus fruit center. The elegant Fort George Hotel, called "excellent" and "superbly situated" in 1878, was a key part of this campaign. It opened in 1875 and was destroyed by fire in 1889; it was not rebuilt as there was by then competition from the new railroad, delivering tourists to St. Augustine. The Ribault Club

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594-604: The late 20's and 1930's. In the 21st century it is a popular wedding venue. The club was built on the site of the Fort George Hotel. The historical marker for the Spanish mission is on the Ribault Club grounds. Exact location not known, but nearby: Francisco Pareja Francisco Pareja , OFM (c. 1570 – June 25, 1628) was a Franciscan missionary in Spanish Florida , where he was primarily assigned to Mission San Juan del Puerto . The Spaniard became

621-477: The resident friar would visit on Sundays and holy days. The total group of friars associated with a doctrina was called a custodia and led by one of them, called a custodio. By 1602 the San Juan del Puerto doctrina had set up nine associated visitas. Pareja's doctrina was on present-day Fort George Island near the mouth of the St. Johns River in what is now Jacksonville . A cacique or chief ruled

648-429: The spot where the fort stood." Florida was an English colony from 1763 to 1783, and British planters started developing the island. The most important of the planters was Zephaniah Kingsley , referred to after his death as the "King of Fort George,", who leased and then owned the entire island from 1814 until 1839. The writer of 1878 described him as "a man of marked originality and force of character, shrewd, canny,

675-712: Was built in 1928 for winter recreation on the site of a former hotel and is considered a legacy of Fort George Island's resort era. Winter recreational opportunities included golf, tennis, hunting, fishing, and yachting. Today many weddings are held at the Club. The building is listed as a Historic Landmark by the City of Jacksonville . It became part of the Fort George Island Cultural State Park in 1989. [REDACTED] Media related to Ribault Inn Club at Wikimedia Commons This article about

702-489: Was founded in St. Augustine, Florida , by Pareja in 1560. According to the title page of his Arte y pronunciación en lengua timucuana y castellana, Pareja was born at Auñón in the Diocese of Toledo , Spain ; the date of his birth is unknown. He would have studied at a school and seminary there. Pareja traveled to Florida in 1595 with eleven other Franciscans assigned by the Spanish government to establish missions to

729-563: Was later built on the same location. After the fire that destroyed the hotel, a freeze in 1895 wiped out the oranges, and a yellow fever epidemic in 1897 drove away the remaining tourists. Another place registered on the National Register of Historic Places is St. George Episcopal Church , built in 1882–1883. The Ribault Club on Fort George Island was built as a clubhouse for the affluent and opened its doors in 1928. It hosted grand parties and elegant affairs of all kinds during

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