Alonzo Church
Alonzo Church is the author of A Dash Through the Everglades: being a full and accurate account of the strange things seen by a party crossing that place, with a very interesting account of their adventures and a record of the great hominy eating done on that journey, all by an observer. He was a compassman for the Expedition. He was working for the South Florida Railroad in Sanford at the time of the Expedition. He had been a student at the University of the South at Suwanee, Tennessee, but prior to earning his degree he left to take a job with the South Florida Railroad in the office of the construction engineer. It is possible that he and Sydney O. Chase were friends prior to the Expedition, and in October 1892 they became related by marriage when Chase married Church's cousin, Laura Duval Whitner Chase (1872-1940). Church would have been 21 years old at the time of the Expedition. He was assigned to mess No. 1, and placed in charge of mess No. 1.
Alonzo Church's father was Captain William Lee Church of Athens, Georgia, and his paternal grandfather was Alonzo Church who had served as president of the University of Georgia. Alonzo's mother was Laura Randolph of Tallahassee, Florida, and his maternal grandmother was Laura Duval, daughter of Governor William P. Duval, the first territorial governor of Florida.
In 1893 or so, he left the South Florida Railroad to work in the fire insurance business for the Underwriters Agency of Louisiana and Mississippi, and he lived most of his life in New Orleans. He married Louise R. Church in 1901. He also was vice president of LaSalle Fire of New Orleans. In 1933, he moved to New York City to become vice president and manager of the Eastern Department of the Inter-Ocean Reinsurance Company. He retired in 1940 and returned to New Orleans.
The text of Church's A Dash Through the Everglades included in this project is derived from a typescript found in the Chase Collection in the Special and Area Studies Collections Department of the University of Florida George A. Smathers Libraries. The typescript is a derivative of Church's original diary of the Expedition, and includes minor annotations made by Sydney O. Chase. A digital reproduction of the typescript is available from the UF Digital Collections.
Because the official Expedition record of secretary W.R. Moses and the diary kept by J.E. Ingraham are so similar, Church's account is important because it provides information that the other texts do not cover and also because he provides a different perspective. For example, Church provides a great deal more information about the beginning of the expedition, the travel from Port Tampa to Fort Myers, and the town of Fort Myers. He also provides the perspective of one of the men rather than that of the leaders of Expedition. His is also the most personal account, for the most part, as he expresses his feelings and beliefs more so than the other authors. Unlike the Moses and Ingraham accounts, however, Church's account does end with the party reaching Miami because Church departed for Sanford via Key West on April 11.
- Birth: June 27, 1870, Madison, Florida (Kirkland plantation)
- Death: March, 1951, New Orleans, Louisiana
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For other topics referenced in the Expedition texts, please refer to the Index to Subjects and Names.
1892 Everglades Exploration Expedition : Three Digital Texts, 2015