Notes of George Gosling and Homer Stuart sent to me by Sandra Thurlow, Stuart, Florida researcher:
Gosling and Stuart
George Lewis Townsend Gosling was born in 1863. His parents were: Adolph Herman Lothar Gosling born 1830 in Germany and Charlotte Townsend, born 1825 in NY. They married in 1853, Charlotte died 1891. Unsure of death date of the father, Adolph Gosling.
George Gosling's parents the source was: Genealogical and Family History of Southern New York and the Hudson River Valley, Vol. III - page 1113 - Townsend - Gosling
Census - In 1860 Adolph and Charlotte Gosling living in NY- he was a merchant, with a personal estate valued $30,000, along with several servants. Children in household in 1860 were Carl born 1855 in Germany and Anna born 1858 in NY and Adolph Herman Lothar Jr. born in July 1859 in England. The family had moved several times during the 1850s.
On some censuses, George Gosling was listed as born in Germany and others had New York. Most documents had Germany.
Census -- Homer H. Stuart Sr in 1870s and early 1880s in Queens Co., New York
born 1810 died 1885 in NY. Homer Sr was a lawyer, Homer Jr. and his brother Inglis were attorneys.
Homer H. Stuart Jr. came with George T. Gosling in 1885 from New York to the St. Lucie River area. source:"Pictorial History of Florida" by Richard Bowe in 1965.
Attached to email - Gosling house plans in St. Lucie Tribune - Jan. 25, 1907;
letter to the editor in the St. Lucie Co. Tribune - July 16, 1909 from Gosling and six others you might find interesting.
Also in Greg's project are"
Article SEP 26, 1918, STUART MESSENGER - about early pioneer days.
Article JAN 25, 1923, STUART MESSENGER - about Gosling visiting.
Article NOV 09, 1950, - " It was a paradise for a romantic youth like Gosling, who had turned down the offer of a promising future in his uncle's office for the adventurous life in Florida. The townsite of Gosling, on the north bank of the St. Lucie, later to become the first site of Stuart, was named after him. He settled near there, established a citrus grove and pineapple plantation and built the large house still standing on the riverfront there."
Article NOV 09, 1950 - Homer H. Stuart Jr. - "After his graduation from Dartmouth College as a lawyer he failed to find the interest in that profession as his father fondly thought and hoped he would and instead he came to Florida to hunt alligators and bought the land that was later platted as Gosling and then, without the lot owners' knowledge and consent replatted as Riverside Park. He brought with him George Gosling who spoke no English and had just graduated from Heidelberg University with the customary sabre cuts that distinguish such graduates. At that time the present Inlet was not open and the St. Lucie River was more in the nature of a brackish lake that was filled with grass and in which manatees and alligators found a pleasant and comfortable place to exist. Stuart and Gosling built a house near the present location of the late John Faria's house on tall supports. They kept a large gopher snake to take charge of the field rats, but their nights were disturbed by gators that crossed over between the North Fork and the main river and staged terrific battles when the bull gators happened to meet. When their powerful tails hit the house supports it was always a question of whether the underpinning would give way. Gator hunters used to work in pairs. One had a short stick with a crook in the end. The gator would be found asleep on the bottom of a white sand pond, approached from the front and the stick hooked under his chin. Then he was gently raised to the surface and the partner smashed his head with an ax. The only thing that was saved were the teeth and oil. The teeth were sold to members of the Elks organization and the oil was tried out and used for its claimed medicinal value."
"Life in Florida in those days was no paradise. It lacked any conveniences and sandflies and mosquitoes abounded, so Stuart soon tired of his occupation as a gator hunter and turned his land over to Gosling who developed it with pineapples and citrus fruits. Stuart returned north and later was elected Mayor of Beacon, N.Y. and where he served a number of terms and died in 1920. His memory of his days on the St. Lucie River were not such that he ever had any desire to return to the scene of his gator-hunting days."
JAN 09, 1964, THE STUART NEWS GEORGE T. GOSLING SAILED BACK IN '85 WITH H. T. STUART
George Townsend Gosling, who built what is now the Keith residence in North Stuart, was only twenty years old when he first came here from New York with Homer H. Stuart, the son of his uncle's lawyer "in search of adventure in the Florida jungle." He wrote from San Francisco, Calif., in October 1930: "In spite of the hardships you could not now imagine how I grew to love our river."
George T. Gosling married Mary McCormick about 1907. She was born 1886 in Texas. The Gosling's daughters were born in Texas; Aline Townsend Gosling born Oct. 9, 1908 and sister Charlotte born Sept. 24, 1909.
The Goslings came back to Stuart numerous times (see articles from St. Lucie Tribune).
By 1910 census, the Gosling family moved from Texas and settled in California, living in different locations in the state over the years, but several times in 1910 and 1911 as mentioned in the local St. Lucie Tribune newspaper were back in the Stuart area. In 1910 George was listed as a salesman of whiskey on the census.
George died April 6, 1933 in Calf.
Mary McCormick Gosling died Oct. 16, 1971 in Calif.