Exploring Marco Through Saloma's Diaries

Drawing from two original diaries written from 1913 to 1915, chock full of writings and photographs from the pioneer days of Marco Island, Marco Island Historical Society’s collections manager, Heather Otis, shared nuggets from her deep dive into teenager Saloma Olds’ diaries during a presentation Thursday afternoon in the museum Sandlin Gallery.

“From a collection manager’s perspective,” Heather Otis beamed, "diaries are amazing if you want to learn the history of everyday life in the past. They include things that would not normally be included in letters or books. We are just so thrilled to have these diaries in our collection.”

The diaries aren’t the work of your typical 14-year-old.

“They’re quite lengthy,” Otis said. “She would paste in photos to go along with her diary entries. So, we have pictures to go with the events she’s writing about at the time."

The Olds family were early 20th century Marco Island pioneers who lived on the island from 1902 to 1923 or 1924.

"Back in 2003,” Otis said, "the Olds family was all but forgotten on the island. All that we knew about them is that there was a street name on the island called Olds Court. But, in October of that year, Martha Olds Adams came down with a copy of a family diary that was written on Marco Island by a 14-year-old. She showed it to members of the Marco Island Historical Society. That began a beautiful story of correspondence. The collection ended up being donated to the historical society after that.”

In addition to the two diaries, the MIHS received a treasure trove of letters and photographs and negatives. But Saloma’s diaries are the highlights.

"The stars of the collection are Saloma Olds two diaries,” Otis said confidently. “The fact that they were written when she was 14 and 15 years old.”

The original diaries are on display in the pioneer gallery at the museum. But they are just a part of the overall collection donated by the Olds family.

"This is just the tip of the iceberg for the collection,” Otis explains. "In addition to the diaries, we have 43 objects, 182 documents and 341 photographic negatives and prints, mostly taken by Saloma when she was a teenager.

The artifacts are usually stored in the museum’s most secure storage, called the vault. But attendees of Otis’s presentation were treated to a rare glimpse of the collection.

"Because they were donated to us, we are able to preserve this family history,” Otis said, “this Marco history—and share it with you."

Mary and Louis Olds were homeopathic physicians in Philadelphia before moving to the island.

"In late 1901 they moved from Philadelphia to Marco Island,” Otis said. "Likely on a steamship from Philadelphia to Key West. They’re believed to have arrived on Marco Island in 1902. We have a picture of them on the steps of the Marco Hotel in 1904, which is now the Marco Inn and Suites. They came from Philadelphia, which was the third largest city in the U.S., with over one million in population. There were two villages on the island, Marco on the north end and Caxambas on the south. There were just the very bare essentials: the general store, the post office, the shipyard, the hotel. There was no electricity - so no refrigeration. There was no sewage system, no running water. It was a huge change.”

"They lived a bit southeast of the village of Marco, right along the Marco River,” Otis continued. “There was no bridge, or even a ferry when they got here. So, the only way to get to the island was a boat. Today that would be right along the end of Orange Court. Definitely a change from Philadelphia."  

Saloma began writing her diaries in February 1913 after she got a diary for her birthday. She wrote faithfully through March 1915.

"The Olds girls, Orida, Saloma and Rosalie, were in a unique situation because of their upbringing and their parents’ background,” Otis explains. "The girls and Mary would do the housework - sew their own clothes. They’d do the cooking and baking and help Louis out with the horticulture. They also did a lot of canoeing. There may have been roads, but they weren’t roads you’d want to use. In 1912 Tommie Barfield petitioned for better roads on the island and to the island. So, boats were the main way people got around back then. Louis also had to step up and start providing the food, which there were some rough patches in the beginning, they said. Louis had his medical practice. Although, when they came down to the island, they were sure that was how they would make a living. It turns out the people down here were extremely healthy and didn’t need any doctors and there was a family of midwives already serving the island. So, there was some competition. He did make some money through his medical practice; he was also the coroner and the dentist on the island, and he served multiple terms as justice of the peace. He was very political. A really big socialist. He also became the newest church pastor on the island. Horticulture was one of the two main ways people made money to survive. The other way was the clam factory. There was one on the island in Caxambas and another later in Marco."

The Olds began to grow fruit. “Mangoes were their specialty,” Otis said. "Louis was interested in creating the perfect mango variety - the sweetest, best mango. So, they had a bunch of different varieties on the island that they would take care of. He was very knowledgeable on the subject of mangoes, and he evidently created his own variety. He was hoping to get them named, like the Marco Mango and the Olds Mango. You can find it in his manuscripts.” According to Mr. Collier, the girls grew the best grapefruits on the island,” Otis continued. “They also grew lemons, limes, guava and oranges. They also had pepper and tomato crops. During the season they would end up packing them in the packing house, and Louis would bring them to Marco by boat and they would be shipped out to market in Key West and Ft. Myers. We’re not really sure where they grew these crops. They mention the Eubanks place in Pine Island, which is extra land their father purchased after they got here. We do know they grew a lot of fruit trees around their home."

The Olds family depended heavily on the land - like most Marco pioneers - for food. They’d eat clams, fish, gopher tortoises, turtle soup, coco plums and sea grapes. Additionally, they ate the crops that they grew, fresh fruit and avocados in the summer. What they couldn’t eat fresh they would preserve because there was no refrigeration. The girls also made fresh bread, almost daily. Sometimes they would get some special treats from the general store, like coffee or candy. The girls also took care of the chickens.

One of the things that made the girls different than a lot of the pioneer children on Marco was their schooling. They were home schooled by their mother, who had a firm belief that they should get a real quality education and that she was the one to do it. Homeschooling wasn’t easy.

"They did school four hours a day, every day of the week, year-round,” according to Otis. "They learned six languages. It’s weird to think about, but there wasn’t a lot of music in terms of musical instruments at the time. Mary brought down her piano. She said people would come from miles around to hear her play because there were no other source of music. The girls loved it. They learned music through a correspondence course from a music conservatory in Chicago. Saloma particularly loved music and she begged to have two hours of piano a day instead of just one to practice. Saloma also picked up violin and Rosalie the cello. She has a lot of entries about her mother playing songs, especially when they were doing dishes after supper. She also writes about listening to her mother playing piano when she was out on the dock among the mangroves.”

"The girls had some free time,” Otis said. “Rosalie loved writing stories, and the girls loved to read. You pick up titles like “Last of the Mohicans” and “Little Women”, which a lot of us have read, too. Saloma was fond of her biography of Beethoven. Lucky for us, Saloma was also interested in photography. Her family got her a Kodak Brownie camera, which was a revolutionary invention. It brought the snapshot to everyday people. At the time it was actually targeted to children. So instead of lugging around all of the photography equipment, they could just take this cardboard box, point and shoot and take pictures. They were also really smart in that they mailed in their photos and had them mailed back."

For Christmas of 1913 Saloma got a 3A folding Brownie Camera. The girls also did some of their own developing. They developed the pictures in the packing house. But because the pictures needed cold water to process correctly, they actually had to wait for ice to arrive to develop those photos.

Saloma’s diaries end in 1915—but their story on Marco doesn’t.

"The rest of the collection,” Otis said, “we have letters that Saloma has written, and the rest of the family write to each other, to piece the story together. 1916 was a big year of change, kind of a turning point for the family. For some reason - we’re not sure if it’s financial or something more complicated - Louis moves his practice to Ft. Myers and leaves Mary and the girls on the island alone. To supplement their income, Mary starts taking on patients again. She still teaches piano lessons on the side. This leaves the three girls to take over the horticulture business themselves. And do everything that Louis would have done, like chop wood and paint the boats. In late 1917, Louis decides to enlist in WWI. He doesn’t end up overseas. He ends up in the motor corps in Georgia. The girls are excited to have him home at the end of the war, but it doesn’t happen. Much to their disappointment, he decides to start a practice in St. Petersburg. Shortly after that, Mary passes away at age 57. Possibly from a brain tumor. So that leaves the girls completely alone on the island to fend for themselves. Louis meets a widow who is wintering in St. Petersburg, and they declare their intentions to marry in December of 1919 and move to Pennsylvania to start a small hospital in 1920. The girls stay on the island for at least a couple more years. Their letters stop in 1922. The next letter we have is from Saloma to the Class of 1894 of Smith College, updating her classmates on what has happened. By then they are in Pennsylvania because a hurricane has wiped out a lot of their crops and they couldn’t survive on the island by themselves anymore. So, they packed up all of their belongings in a car and they camped their way to Pennsylvania to live with their father. Louis ends up having two more children with his second wife, Irene. They live out the rest of their days in Pennsylvania. They do end up running a small hospital for 'children and old ladies’ according to Saloma. The girls helped them out with that until they begin their own careers. Louis was hit by a car and killed in 1945. Saloma and Orida end up becoming nurses. Rosalie ends up becoming a housekeeper.”

"Because we have this wonderful collection that the Olds family has donated to us,” Otis said, "we’re able to preserve not only their history, but the history of Marco."