The future Key West resident James D. English was born in 1816 and lived in St. Augustine, Florida. He grew up in the era of slavery as a free and educated Black man. English stayed in St. Augustine for more than three decades, found success as a popular barber, married, and had a child who was born on April 15, 1847. They named him Nelson Francis De Sales English.
And then, English did what many of us have either done or dreamed of doing; he packed up his life and his family and moved to the Florida Keys. When they arrived circa 1850, they appeared to have acclimated into their new community quite well, as their patriarch became one of the island’s prominent citizens. English served as a county commissioner from 1868-1877, and in the late 1870s, he became a member of the Monroe County school board. He was the first black man to serve in either position.
When the family arrived in Key West, Nelson was a boy of 3 or 4 years old, or maybe a little older. Nelson grew up in Key West and attended Catholic and public schools. Math appeared to be a favorite subject as he was diligent with numbers and became known around the island as an excellent bookkeeper and accountant. However, his impact on Florida Keys history would not be limited to his ability to keep a clean ledger.
In 1882, his father, James D. English, passed away and was buried in the Key West Cemetery. That same year, Nelson English was appointed the postmaster of the Key West Post Office. Only 33 years old, he became Key West’s youngest and first black postmaster. Well, most accounts suggest he was 33 when he became postmaster, but the math does not quite fit. Based on his birth date, April 15, 1847, he would have been 34 or 35.
When his term ended in 1886, Postmaster Jefferson B. Browne became his successor, and Browne appointed English his assistant postmaster. Before he retired, English served the community at the post office for over two decades.
In addition to working as an accountant and at the post office, he worked at the Custom House. English was also a talented musician who, along with his friend Frank Welters, formed the Welters Cornet Band in the early 1900s. In its heyday, the 1920s-1930s, the band had more than 30 players and singers when they marched in parades and led funeral processions down the streets of Key West.
Nelson married Julia E. Post, born in Key West on Christmas Day in 1855. She grew up to be a teacher at the Douglass School, a school for the island’s black children that opened its doors in 1870 in the Bahama Village section of Key West. The two married in 1873 and would have five successful children named Irene, Grace, George, James and Leo.
James Nelson English was born in 1880 and earned a doctorate in mathematics from the University of Chicago before coming home to Key West, where he was the principal of the Douglass School from 1914-1922. In 1922, he moved to New York and taught in the New York public school system for 25 years. Their youngest child, Leo Victor English, was born in 1887 and became a medical doctor who served the Toledo, Ohio, community for nearly 50 years.
Nelson and Julia both died in their 60s, Nelson in 1914 and Julia four years later in 1918.
Both were buried in the Key West Cemetery. Over time, the burial site of Nelson English became another of the unmarked graves in the cemetery where the Historic Florida Keys Foundation runs its Key West Cemetery Tours. In 2016, funds raised from the tours were used to commission two gravestones to mark two previously unmarked graves.
One gravestone was created to honor Ellen Welters Sanchez, the daughter of Frank Welters – Nelson English’s founding partner in the Welters Cornet Band. The marker now commemorates her work as a teacher, musician and composer who wrote the song “The Beautiful Isle of Key West,” among others.
The other gravestone was created to mark the final resting place of Nelson Frances De Sales English, born on April 15, 1847, and who passed away at the age of 66 on Oct. 5, 1914.
In honor of his service to the Key West community, a park created at the corner of Thomas Street and Catherine Street was dedicated as the Nelson English Park on Feb. 16, 1934. During the ceremony, the Welters Cornet Band provided the music.
A bust of Nelson English is one of 39 historic Key West figures found in the Key West Historic Memorial Sculpture Garden at Mallory Square.
