Fred Baggott

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Biography

Frederick was born at Giddy Swamp, South Carolina in 1884, the son of Rev. Hiram Lecroy and Debora (Dora) Sawyer Baggott. Fred's father was a Southern Baptist minister who moved frequently about South Carolina establishing churches in the western and northern counties.

According to the 1940 US Census, Fred completed four years of high school. He began his working career as a lumberman in South Carolina, of which a photograph in the possession of V Baggott remains showing him as a teenager riding a horse drawn sledge filled with tree trunks.^[1]

Fred was sometimes called the black sheep of the family due his being the only child of Rev. Hiram and Dora Baggott who moved away from South Carolina--also possibly due to his marrying Vitano Ward who was a Methodist. ^[2]

Regarding the religious training of their children, Vitano attended the Methodist church when she could. She insisted that the children, especially the boys, accompany their father to the Baptist church. This was despite one incident where the Baptist pastor arrived at church inebriated and drove his car into a tree.

Fred moved to Florida and a young man in search of work sometime between 1910 and 1912. He met Vitano, a school teacher, in Panama City, Florida. They were married on a boat, a pleasure outing launch, in St. Andrews Bay on 19 Jun 1912. The document also says that Fred worked as a timekeeper for the American Lumber Co. in Fountain, Bay County, Florida. ^[3]

On 12 Sep 1918, Fred registered with the local draft board of Bay County, Panama City, Florida. This was during World War I. The registration reveals personal details about Fred: he was tall, slender, blue eyed, and his hair was turning grey.

Fred worked most of his adult life for Mr. Walter. C. Sherman, owner of St Andrews Lumber Company--known before World War I as the German-American Lumber Company. (See the Florida State University Archives for more information about the company.) ^[4] Lumbering was a major industry in Florida at the time. At various points, Fred set up lumbering operations (Fountain, Bay county), closed down operations (Okeechobee), and ran the company store (Millville, Bay county). He was routinely called a bookkeeper but often served as a foreman as well.

When Mr. Sherman was setting up operations in Okeechobee, he needed someone to act as a postmaster for the workers who would be living in the "lumber town" village he organized. He asked Mrs. Baggott, one of the few people involved who had attended college, if she would act as postmistress. She agreed on the condition that she did not need to leave her home. Mr. Sherman and Fred arranged to back a train car up to the back porch of the Baggott house. The car became the local post office. The two youngest Baggott boys, Billy and Frank, were often tasked with hanging the mailbag on a mail hook for the train to snag as it rode through the village without stopping.

In the 1935 Florida State Census, F.H. Baggott (age 50) was a head of household in Precinct 5, Okeechobee.^[5] He and his family were listed as living outside the Okeechobee city limits:

• F H Baggott, 50, father, b. SC, college, home owner, school superintendent
• Vitano Ward Baggott, 49, mother, b. Fla., college, teaching
• Dora Helen Baggott, 19, daughter, b. Fla., college, teaching
• Ward Baggott, 17, son, b. Fla., high school student
• Mamie Ruth Baggott, 15, b. Fla., high school student
• William Baggott, 12, b. Fla., grade school student
• Frank Baggott, 10, b. Fla., grade school student

In 1936, when the Adjusted Compensation Payment Act awarded bonds to World War I veterans, many people in the area were illiterate. Fred and Vitano helped them file the required forms. As a result, Fred became a popular speaker at many area churches, regardless of denomination or race, where the Baggott children were encouraged by their mother to help their father by playing their band instruments.

Fred served as the Superintendent of Okeechobee Schools for four years while in that county. Among other responsibilities, he was responsible for inspecting the wooden bridges in the county that carried the school buses. The two wooden bridges near the Baggott home echoed one night from the passing of a speeding car. The family could tell from the timing between the bridge crossings that the car was going too fast to make it safely around the curve at the end of their watermelon field. The family arrived on the front porch just in time to watch a black car with a rumble seat skittering across the hills of watermelons, shedding wooden crates as it went. In the light of Fred's flashlight, bootleggers hopped out and tried to scoop up as many crates and bottles as they could before peeling off into the dark, leaving ruts in their wake. Fred collected the stray bottles the next morning and stored them in the shed, waiting to find a use for them. Unknown to him, his wife Vitana discovered them and made her own plan on how to use them. She took chunks of camphor and put one in each bottle of booze, thinking to make rubbing linament of them. Meanwhile, Fred decided that he would give the alcoholic beverages, illegal during prohibition, to some of his county government friends. A knock on the door one night was his first clue that something had gone wrong. The county manager stood in the doorway looking shocked and angry. "What have you done to me, Baggott?" he said. "I took one swig and couldn't breathe!"^[6]

With the closing of Mr. Sherman's lumber operation in Okeechobee, Fred and his family moved to Millville where Fred became manager of the business's company store. Millville was later incorporated into Panama City.

An article in the Panama City News-Herald, dated 30 Mar 1941, recounts a Friday birthday celebration at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Fred H. Baggott in honor of the teacher of the Adult Class of the Millville Methodist church. ^[7]

Fred died unexpectedly from a heart attack in 1942 at age 57. His funeral was officiated by at least five pastors from three different denominations. Three men from the Sherman family served as pallbearers in addition to others. ^[8]

Fred's body was interred in the Millville Cemetery in Panama City, Florida. His wife, Vesty Vitano Ward Baggott, was later interred beside him. ^[9]

After Fred's death, his son Frank operated the company store in his father's stead before leaving for military boarding school at Bolles School in Jacksonville.

Sources

1. ↑ 1940 US Census
2. ↑ This and the following anecdotes are recollections of Baggott-44 as told him by his father and his aunt, Mamie Ruth Baggott Bartlett.
3. ↑ United States World War I Draft Registration Cards,1917-1918, database with images, FamilySearch Familysearch.org record : 29 December 2021, Fred H Baggott, 1917-1918.
4. ↑ German-American Lumber Company Records, 1887-1927, FSU [Florida State University] Special Collections & Archives
5. ↑ 1935 Census: "Florida, U.S., State Census, 1867-1945"
   Page: 2; Line: 44
   Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 1506 #2037316 (accessed 5 November 2023)
   F.H. Baggott (50) head of household in Precinct 5, Okeechobee. Born in South Carolina.
6. ↑ Story of Fred's son Frank as told to Fred's grandson, S. Baggott.
7. ↑ "Baggott Home Is Scene of Social Friday Night," Panama City News-Herald, 30 Mar 1941, Sun, page 3, column C.
8. ↑ Panama City News-Herald article
9. ↑ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/27451182/frederick-hiram-baggott Find-a-Grave Memorial #27451182 Frederick Hiram Baggott

• Florida Marriage Record, Washington county, 17 Jun 1912, Fred H Baggott and Vitana [Vitano] Ward. Ancestry.com image Familysearch.org image
• Florida State Census 1935, Precinct 5, Okeechobee; page 2, line 44. F H Baggott, age 50, School superintendent. Ancestry.com image
• Panama City News-Herald, "Death Claims F H Baggott," 12 Aug 1943.
• Panama City News-Herald, "F. H. Baggott Funeral Today," 13 Aug. 1942.
• US Census 1900, Township 4, Saluda county, South Carolina; page 3, line 13. Household of "Henry L Baggot" [Hiram L Baggott] on Jennings Street. Frederick Hiram Baggott, age 15, is listed as "Furman H Baggot" but his birth year is correct. Ancestry.com image
• US Census 1910, Spartanburg Ward 1, Spartanburg county, South Carolina; page 2A, line 38. Fred H Baggott (single, aged 25) is listed as a boarder in the household of John T Wright at 209 East Main Street. Ancestry.com image
• US Census 1920, Fountain, Bay county, Florida; page 6A, line 24. Head of household: Fred H Baggott, age 35, bookkeeper for St. Andrews Bay Lumber. Ancestry.com image
• US Census 1930, Utopia, Okeechobee county, Florida; page 2B, line 89. Head of household: Fred H Baggott, age 44, bookkeeper for St. Andrews Bay Lumber.
• US Census 1940, Panama City, Bay county, Florida; page 63B, line 45. Head of household: Fredrick H Baggott, age 55, bookkeeper for Lumber Co.
• US Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007; Fredrick Hiram Baggott; birth, 16 Oct 1884, Athen [Aiken], South Carolina; death, 11 Aug 1942. Ancestry.com image
• US World War I Draft Registration Card, Bay county, Florida; 9 Dec 1918; Serial No. 1276. Fred H Baggott, Fountain, Bay county, Florida; age 33, Timekeeper for American Lumber Co.; tall, slender, blue eyes, hair turning grey. Ancestry.com image