Florida, USA, Goes to War

 

When the United States entered World War I (1914-1918) on April 6, 1917, Florida was a sparsely populated state, with only 925,641 inhabitants. Florida’s abundance of open, arable land and year-round warm climate made the state an ideal location for military training, technological development and increased agricultural resource production.

Soon after the Great War erupted in Europe during the summer of 1914, both the Florida Naval Militia and Florida National Guard saw enrollment increases. That same year, the United States Navy opened the nation’s first aeronautic training center, Naval Air Station Pensacola, where over 6,000 officers and enlistees would complete training by the war’s end in November 1918.

Thousands of Floridians joined the millions of other Americans heeding President Woodrow Wilson’s call to make the world “safe for democracy.” Although the United States was involved in the global conflict for only 19 months, the war still impacted the social, economic and environmental conditions of Florida. Of the 4 million American men and women who joined the armed services between 1917 and 1918, 42,030 were Floridians.

Florida Draftees Departing Gainesville for Training Camp 

The Sunshine State's subtropical coastlines and wide-open inlands became the site of numerous military training and intelligence facilities during WWI. The largest installment was U.S. Army Camp Joseph E. Johnston in Jacksonville. Originally known as Black Point, the National Guard first used the site beginning in 1909. When the war came, the U.S. Army renamed the site Camp Joseph E. Johnston and opened it as an Army Quartermaster training camp in November 1917. The camp grew to include over 600 buildings and at one time held a population of just under 27,000. Additionally, five of the nation's 35 flying schools operated in Florida: Naval Air Station Pensacola, Curtiss Field and Chapman Field in Miami, and Carlstrom Field and Dorr Field in Arcadia. 

In May 1917, Congress passed the Selective Service Act, requiring all men between the ages of 21 and 31 to register for the draft. The law set Florida's initial draftee quota at 6,325 enlistees. Beginning in July 1917, the first round of recruits went out of state to train at either Camp Jackson in Columbia, South Carolina, or Camp Wheeler near Macon, Georgia. An additional 36,000 more men and women would come from all over Florida to join the military during the war. In total, 35,829 joined the Army, 5,963 joined the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard and 238 joined the Marine Corps.

Two Floridians Serving in the Band at
Camp Jackson, Columbia, SC

On the homefront, the war injected a renewed patriotism into Floridians’ hearts and minds. Countless others performed their patriotic duty by purchasing liberty bonds, volunteering with service organizations, and conserving food and raw materials. The 1917 Florida Legislature passed the "Flag Law" mandating that "the flag of the United States be displayed daily" in every state government and public school building. State health officials warned that "not only a future military army, but future industrial army" depended on raising healthy children.

Food became Florida’s most important contribution to the war. When the director of the U.S. Food Administration, Herbert Hoover, decreed that "food will win the war," Floridians responded by ramping up food production in the state. Exactly one month after the U.S. entered the Great War, Governor Catts issued the "National Crisis Day" Proclamation, imploring all Floridians to make "every practical effort ... toward the increasing of food supplies in this state and in the United States."  Officials from the Florida Department of Agriculture encouraged people to fulfill their "patriotic duty" by raising their own livestock and growing beans, corn, onions and wheat for both personal consumption and exportation.

Out of this heightened nationalism came a closer relationship between the operations of the state and federal government, but it also brought about some domestic shifts. Anti-German sentiment swept many pockets of the country, and African-Americans, searching for better job opportunities and racial tolerance, flocked en masse to northern factories. Women suffragists leveraged President Wilson’s appeal for global democracy to expose American democracy’s own shortcomings.

Florida women of all races and social strata worked and volunteered on the homefront. Though it had a little over 100 local chapters nationwide in 1916, Red Cross membership significantly expanded to meet the demands of war, and dozens of new chapters opened in Florida by 1920. Members trained as nurses, organized liberty bond drives, knitted socks and sweaters for soldiers, rolled bandages, made comfort bags and disseminated public health information. The Junior Red Cross opened numerous branches at grammar schools in Florida, giving children the opportunity to do their part in the war as well.    The Young Women’s Christian Association established 50 "hostess houses" at training camps throughout the country, including one at Camp Johnston and one at Carlstrom Airfield. Hostesses created a homey yet structured environment for soldiers to meet with their "sweethearts" and other family members.

Future First Lady of Florida Mary Call Darby Collins with
her mother “knitting their bit” for the Red Cross

Between 1917 and 1918, the material and intangible sacrifices of Florida’s civilian army aided in securing Allied victory in Europe. After the armistice, the Sunshine State’s economy simultaneously benefited from increased civilian buying power brought on by post-war deflation and Florida’s new image as an untapped source of high-return real estate investments.

After the November 1918 armistice, veterans from Tampa to Tallahassee began returning to the familiar comforts of home. Their communities greeted them with displays of jubilant appreciation. But adversity and charitable work did not stop with the Allied victory in Europe — a widespread influenza outbreak that began in 1918 would keep Florida volunteers occupied well past the war’s end. The Red Cross gathered and distributed medical supplies and food; transported doctors, patients and the dead; and treated victims and their families. Relief workers opened portable soup kitchens for victims unable to prepare their own meals. 

World War One Memorial, Jacksonville, Florida
Dedicated Christmas Day 1924

The Great War left a lasting impression on Florida — especially on the state’s economy. The Sunshine State’s increased agricultural production during WWI primed much of the land for the big real estate boom of the 1920s. Prospective buyers came from all over the country in hopes of turning Florida ground into profit. The Pennsylvania Sugar Company, the Florida Sugar and Food Products Company, the Moore Haven Sugar Company, and the Southern Sugar Company each purchased thousands of acres of sugar cane fields in the early 1920s. As a result of the post-WWI Florida land boom, the state’s population exceeded 1.2 million by 1925. Twenty years later, by the end of the Second World War, Florida’s population had doubled to 2.4 million residents. Florida was well on its way to becoming one of the nation’s most populous and prosperous states.

Source: The State Library and Archives of Florida