LOVE AND ROMANCE
LIVING HISTORY
9
Norway. In the late 1880s, he was sailing off Florida’s coast
near what is now Cape Canaveral, when his ship ran into the
crosshairs of a severe hurricane. The ship was torn apart and
everyone perished, except for Axel.
“He floated in the water for five days on a wooden hatch
cover that barely kept him afloat,” explains Linda Geary, historic
site manager at Gilbert’s Bar House of Refuge. “Axel eventually
was in sight of shore, but he was so weak, he could not
get there. He drifted for another day or so before he reached the
shore. He crawled up on the beach and just laid there.”
The next morning Axel was discovered by two daughters
of the keeper at Chester Shoal House of Refuge. They summoned
their father, and the family nursed him back to health.
After he recovered, he returned to Norway to pursue his
lifelong profession of sailing the old square-riggers.
But, the memory of one of the keeper’s daughters never
left his mind. His career also didn’t go as planned. So, he sold
his holdings and sailed back to visit the keeper’s family at
Chester Shoal. Shortly after his arrival, he courted and then
married Kate, the keeper’s oldest daughter.
Later on, Axel and Kate Johansen became the keepers at
Gilbert’s Bar House of Refuge from 1902 to 1903 and then
returned in 1910. During their tenure, at least two couples
honeymooned there.
PIONEER MATRIMONY
When Josephine Kitching and John E. Taylor of Stuart met
in 1912, it was love at first sight. Josephine was home visiting
from Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina, during
the winter break. She attended the Christmas Eve service at
the First Methodist Episcopal Church near Stuart, where a >>
HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MARTIN COUNTY
Stuart residents Josephine and John Taylor chose Gilbert’s Bar House of Refuge for their honeymoon hideaway on the ocean.
HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MARTIN COUNTY
Kate and Axel Johansen were keepers at Gilbert’s Bar House of Refuge.