LIVING HISTORY
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Matthew Quay, above, whose great-great-grandmother was Native American,
was once visited at St. Lucie Village by a pair of American Indian
chiefs who were treated as if they were his close friends.
within 10 feet of the skiff and he came belly up, bleeding at
the gills plentifully. Suddenly clearing the water the big man
eater came like an arrow. There was a splash — more blood
on the water — the tarpon was lifted clear out of the river, and
the spot where a live fish had been was crimson with blood ...
There was nothing to say. I ordered Ben Souy to sail the boat
toward shore, and we got out and got a good supper.”
FRIEND TO NATIVE AMERICANS
Native American rights was the one issue that Quay, whose
great-great-grandmother was an American Indian, supported
consistently and without self-interest. Margaret Leech, in
her book In the Days of McKinley wrote: “Quay was up to
his elbows in the treasury of Pennsylvania, but he was not a
boodler of the ordinary stamp. He was the Indian’s friend,
adopted by certain tribes, and initiated into their rites. He
was an accomplished linguist, and a student of military and
religious history; and he carried an Elzevir Horace, along
with Pennsylvania, in his pocket.”
Quay assisted the Seminoles in his adopted state of Florida.
There must have been many instances of good will toward
the Seminoles from whom he often purchased venison. Those
on the record included his paying the expenses of Tommy
Jumper who needed treatment at the hospital at St. Augustine
in 1901. He presented Tom Tiger with a silver mounted
rifle. He was visited at St. Lucie Village by a pair of American
Indian chiefs from the West who were treated as hospitably
as his close friends.
As a result of Quay’s efforts in the Senate, the national
budget for 1894 included $20,000 for dredging work in the
Indian River Inlet. In September 1903, the Star carried this
news: “The digging of the Fort Pierce cut by Senator Quay
under the able supervision of Capt. Ben Sooy, of St. Lucie,
was brought to a sudden termination Friday, when old ocean
decided she could do more work in a minute than those >>
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