by Karen Yvonne Hamilton, 2024
UPDATED September 16, 2025
William Joseph HAMILTON was born on March 5, 1904, to Eugene Joseph ‘King Gene’ HAMILTON (1883-1966) and Rebecca Elizabeth JOHNSON (1887-1947).
William was the eldest of nine children. His siblings included:
- Nellie Mary was born on November 20, 1905
- Ellen Cathleen was born on April 2, 1908
- Rosalie M. was born on May 10, 1911
- Eugene Joseph ‘Josie’ was born on November 12, 1913
- Ethel Madelyn was born on August 23, 1914
- Irene Elizabeth was born on May 21, 1917
- Roy Philip was born on January 21, 1921
- Eugene Mervin was born on May 4, 1923
In 1910, William lived with his parents and siblings on Wood Key in the Florida Everglades.
In 1920, William lived with his parents and siblings in the Florida Everglades.
William married Florinda Marie GOMES on January 27, 1927 in Ft Myers, Florida. William and Florinda had three sons.
- William Joseph was born on November 10, 1926.
- Francis Salvador Theodore was born on February 2, 1929.
- Ernest Eugene Hamilton was born on September 24, 1932.
In 1930, William and Flo lived with their two sons, William Jr. and Francis (Francis is erroneously listed as a daughter ‘Theodora’ on this census) at Poinciana Point on Lostmans River.
His son, Ernie, recalls, ““The story has it that William had a brilliant mind. Of course, everything is relative. He may very well have been smarter than the average trooper in that area. The settlers brought in a teacher from the mainland when William was a teenager. He learned everything the teacher had to teach in a short time and the teacher told him, “I can’t teach you anymore, you’ve got all that I have.”
Everyone in the family called William “Buddy.”
Excerpt from Lostmans Heritage: Pioneers in the Florida Everglades,
“By all accounts of those who knew him, William played, very well, by ear, the guitar, banjo, mandolin, and the fiddle. He built an animal trap from which an animal could not escape. He patented it and was offered $1,700 for it, which he did not take. He built a carburetor out of spare parts while fishing. In those days a car backfired considerably and continuously because the charge and the gas to the spark plugs were improperly timed. William designed a distributor that would prevent misfiring. I still have those drawings. There is some evidence that he hired lawyers in Fort Myers to represent him, but someone beat him to the patent office with the same solution to the problem. That the lawyers used his ideas could not be proven.”
Early in 1932, William went on a hunting trip with his cousin, Robert HAMILTON. They never returned. Florinda was two months pregnant with their third child at the time.
Excerpt from Lostmans Heritage: Pioneers in the Florida Everglades,
“Piecing together the few newspaper accounts of Buddy and Robert’s disappearance yields the date of disappearance as January 15, 1932. The story in the newspapers says that King Gene told them that he was with Buddy and Robert at the mouth of Little Shark River when a mob came after them.
It is not clear how they all got separated, but King Gene was able to escape. King Gene told authorities that “he left the two boys … at the mouth of Little Shark River” and that “when he left the boys a ‘mob’ was after him and he feared that they had killed the boys.” Fearing for the boy’s lives, King Gene asked the local authorities to help with the search, but no help was forthcoming.
The search continued for several agonizing weeks for the missing men, but all that was ever found was the skiff they were using that day. By February 13, the Coast Guard reported that the fish wars in Monroe County were over and the search for William ‘Buddy’ and Robert was discontinued.”
At the time of his disappearance, he was only 28 years old. William’s third child, who he would never meet, was born on September 24, 1932, a son, Ernest “Ernie” Eugene.
Old wounds still fester among some of the families. People can speculate, but when it comes down to truth there are only the people who were there who can tell it – and voices buried in the Florida Everglades keep their secrets.
– Lostmans Heritage: Pioneers in the Florida Everglades
William and Robert’s bodies were never found. In 1947, Florinda had her husband legally declared deceased.
SOURCES
1910 United States Federal Census; 1920 United States Federal Census; 1930 United States Federal Census; 1940 United States Federal Census; Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007; Tampa Bay Times – 01 Feb 1932; Family archives and memoirs
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