The Arlingtonian Newspaper
Our Old Arlington Inc. group is the beneficiary of copies of all the “Arlingtonian” weekly newsletters written by Mr. Hawley. We have decided to publish an article or two from his papers in our monthly newsletter in 2006 entitled “70 years ago in Arlington” which will be researched by Ruth Jaques Aiello of our group.
Mr. Hawley was born in New Orleans in 1861 at the beginning of the Civil War. He lived in New York, Chicago, and Nebraska before coming to Florida for his health in 1886. He found employment grafting orange and pecan trees and made his home with Dr. A. T. Cuzner, a local physician.
After a bout with Yellow fever, Dr. Cuzner assisted him in moving to Gilmore, and he and his family soon followed. William Holley married Eva Cuzner in 1890 and resided in Gilmore.
Upon his retirement in 1934 he moved to Commerce Street in Arlington with his daughter, Mrs. Mae Kenyon. Idleness did not agree with him, for on January 1, 1935 he jokingly mimeographed 20 copies of a neighborhood newspaper he called the Arlingtonian. So well received was his little newspaper, that he continued it for fourteen years.
On February 19, 1958, Mr. Hawley died at the age of ninety-six. As with many great people, the significance of his work was not realized until after his passing. (This was taken from “The Arlington Story” published by the Arlington Volunteer Fire Department, who dedicated the historic booklet to Mr. Hawley in 1959).