Key West: The Old and the New

I have written this history of Key West, believing that it would be interesting to the younger generation, and to those who are to come after us, to know something of the people and events which filled the years that have gone. My first intention was to copy Colonel Maloney’s history, published in 1876, and bring it down to the present time. In collecting the data, however, I found that there were a great many interesting events connected with the early history of Key West which Colonel Maloney had omitted, and concluded that if my work was to be as complete as was possible with available data, I would have to write it anew. This I have done, using, however, such data as his history contains, and at times preserving even his phraseology….