This week's research has been fascinating! This Friday I will be going on a quick trip to visit Greenwood Cemetery, take pictures of the historical figures I have been writing about, and learn more about the cemetery! But for now, I have expanded greatly on my research into Samuel T. Salisbury's life.
Samuel Trowbridge Salisbury was born on March 25, 1890, in Brooklyn, New York to George K Salisbury and Adel Trowbridge. He spent his childhood and young adult life in Brooklyn, New York, but not much is known about his profession or lifestyle at the time. He married his wife, Martha Lanorah (sometimes referred to as Nora) Pounds in 1912 and subsequently had his first son Samuel T. Salisbury Jr on March 18, 1913. Sadly, Samuel Jr passed less than a year later on April 30, 1914, of unknown causes. In 1911, Salisbury began attendance at the United States Military Academy, otherwise known as West Point. His class, otherwise known as the “class the stars fell upon” included notable members such as Dwight Eisenhower, Omar Bradley, and fifty-seven other future generals.
However, according to West Point records, Salisbury was a non-graduate (did not graduate) West Point for unknown reasons. Salisbury later served in K company of 2/124th Infantry in the Punitive Expedition, hunting Mexican outlaw Pancho Villa across the Mexican border. The 124th Infantry was a Florida National Guard Unit drafted into federal service during the Punitive Expedition from June 1916 till March 1917.6 During the Expedition, Salisbury went AWOL (absent without official leave) twice and was promoted to 1st Sergeant on August 4, 1916. By this time Salisbury’s wife had given birth to one son and one daughter in 1914 and 1916 respectively. A few months after the United States entered World War I, Salisbury enlisted and served with a few units, none of whom were deployed overseas. One such unit was the 165th Depot Brigade, of which Salisbury commanded the 39th company of the 10th Battalion (sometime in 1917 Salisbury earned the rank of captain). After Salisbury was discharged on October 22, 1919, his family moved to Ocoee, Florida, where his wife gave birth to another daughter in 1920 and Salisbury became chief of police.
In May of 1920, Salisbury was arrested for running booze during Prohibition (alcohol was banned from Jan 1920-1933) and was later released on bond. In November of the same year, Salisbury played an instrumental role in the lynching of July Perry and the Ocoee Massacre. After the fight at the polls on November 2, Salisbury led an armed posse to July Perry’s home where Perry, alongside Salisbury, was injured and two white men were killed. Early that next morning, Perry was lynched, and a mob of two hundred and fifty white residents of Central Florida, many of them Klan members, set fire to the African American sections of Occoe, burning homes, businesses, and churches and killing roughly thirty African-Americans. When asked later by his grandson, James Fleming, if he had been a member of the KKK, Salisbury refused to answer.When World War II began for the United States following Pearl Harbor, Salisbury, now a Lieutenant Colonel, was called to active duty from the reserves and joined the Army in the Pacific Campaign where he earned a Silver Star.
After the conclusion of the war, Salisbury retired from the Army. In 1951 and 1953, Salisbury was elected mayor of Ocoee and he spent his later years organizing a chapter for veterans of the Punitive Expedition, calling for its veterans and widows to be honored like other American conflicts.15 On January 5, 1974, Salisbury’s wife Martha died and on November 22 of the same year, Salisbury was killed from a self-inflicted gunshot to the right of his head. He is now buried in Greenwood cemetery, a mere twenty yards from the grave of July Perry.
Unfortunately, on July 12, 1973, a fire broke out in the National Personnel Records and destroyed approximately 16–18 million Official Military Personnel Files so much of Salisbury’s military career, including what earned him his Silver Star, are lost to history.
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