Guest author, Marci Townly Hallock
Diary Entries by Margaret Smith Santini
Transcribed by Margaret’s granddaughter, Blanche’s daughter, Marci Townley Hallock. The diary book itself is a small blue 2 inch by 3 inch address book, containing no addresses, just these entries. It was found in a small sewing basket among some old spools of thread belonging once to Margaret Smith Santini. The basket was given to Marci by her mother, Blanche.
The people in the diary
Photo from 1937 of Margaret Smith Santini with her 3 children, Leonard, Blanche, and Fran. Leonard and Blanche were on the lighter during the storm.
- Margaret Jean Smith married Joseph Cyril Santini.
- Guy, Nick, and Godfrey Santini are Cyril’s younger brothers; all were commercial fishermen. They lived aboard the lighters, or houseboats, which were usually pulled by the launch, and were anchored near their fish camps up and down the lower Gulf Coast of Florida.
- Daddy was Alfred Lowry Smith, a manager of fish houses, previously a civil engineer from Pennsylvania.
- Mother is her step-mother, Carrie Troxell Smith.
- The two babies referred to are Margaret’s two oldest children, Leonard Cyril aged 2 yrs, and Mary Blanche aged 6 months.
- Nick Santini’s step-son, Herbert Pope, about 8 years old, would also be on Nick’s lighter through this hurricane. Can you imagine being a young mother with two little babies riding out a Hurricane on a small houseboat?
- Bylaskas are cousins.
I do not know specifically who Joe, John, and Roberts are.
May 5th, 1929. Left Fort Myers Beach and motor to Miami with mother, brother and others. Daddy staying to go farther down the coast. We moved in an apartment at 261 NW 35th Street, Miami.
August 5th, 1929. We left Miami by car to meet Daddy at Islamorada and go from there in Nick’s boat to camp. Going to stay there for awhile.
Sept. 27, 1929. Storm struck us this morning. Blew the top off our lighter. No one hurt. Nick, Guy, and Godfrey came and got us in a skiff, pushed over a dry bank, took us to Godfrey’s lighter. Got dry and got some of our clothes and money out of the house. Left the lighter to ride it out in Nick’s boat. Blowing hard. Water rushing in fast. Can get the lighter inshore. Launch almost went over from a puff and tide when they backed away from the lighter. Current so strong, couldn’t go ahead. Godfrey’s lighter stayed there. What was left of ours went in the woods. Most of the launches gone ashore.
(Sun down) Calmed down quite a bit. Went back to Godfrey’s lighter. Can’t do anything until morning. No one sleeps much. All worried about others.
Morning 28th. Nick went to see about Joe’s lighter. Sunk at her anchors. John go on top inside – found our house lighter. Can save most of our things. Found the launch. None hurt bad. Two other camp boats gone – Bylaska and Roberts. 13 grown folk to look for. Guy looking. And the two babies… No one around there hurt. All lost some things.
Sept. 29th. Nick and the rest are going to fish some gas out of the Gulf, you might say, to start home on. One (gas) tank broke loose, floating in the big lighter. Water and trash and gas all mixed up. Got enough to make Marco.
Nick, Cyril, and myself and both babies are leaving for Fort Myers 11 o’clock Monday p.m. There’s been no word so far from outside.
Met a Marathon (Key) boat this side of the Cape. Miami alright, don’t know about Fort Myers. Now for the trip. Oh, what a trip!
We were until 9 o’clock that night making Marco. Engine trouble on account of trash in gas. Cyril and Nick keep busy. I have had to watch both kids. Bless their hearts they have both been darlings. Leonard is especially good for him.
Left Marco at 11:30… cleaned gas and cleaned out carburetor best they could. Made it here (Fort Myers Beach) at 4 a.m., 5 1/2 hours in a rough bad sea. Almost swamped at the Bell Buoy. Had to reverse the engine to let it ride out some of the waves. I am not going to describe that trip any more. One hour more and I believe they would of carried me out of that boat.
Oct. 2. Cyril, Daddy and Nick have gone back to save what they can of our things.
Oct. 6. Daddy came in early this morning. Save most of our things. Not damaged as bad as it could have been, but plenty bad enough.
Oct. 7. Moved in a tar paper shack. It will be our home for a while. How nice to have any kind of a place.
Epilogue: The family story is that upon landing on the Beach sands of Crescent Beach, now Ft Myers Beach, Margaret fell to her knees and kissed the ground, saying she was never living on a lighter again. And to the best of my knowledge, she never did. She and Cyril lived in Iona for a while on the farm of his brother, Leonard Santini. Their third child, Frances, was born there. In 1935 they built a house on the first canal, Primo Drive Ft Myers Beach. The house is still in the family and survived through Hurricane Ian 2022. Margaret died in 1974 in East Fort Myers.
Marci Hallock is Margaret’s granddaughter. Marci is a 6th generation South Florida native, raised since birth on Ft Myers Beach, Florida. She now lives in Tillamook, Oregon where she enjoys life on a peaceful dead-end gravel road on the family dairy farm. She enjoys time with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She volunteers as librarian at her local Quilt Museum where she sews dog beds for the local animal shelter. Marci has been researching family history since 3rd grade when she wanted to know how she was related to all her various cousins. She has been fascinated with all Southwest Florida historical families ever since.
Exploring Florida History 
