orlando Florida history greenwood cemetery

Captain Thomas Jabez Shine

10/14/1842 - 4/20/1889

Thomas J. Shine held the rank of Captain during the Civil War.

Enlisted 8/20/1861 in Tallahassee.

Discharged on 11/11/61.

Re-enlisted on 11/25/61 in First Florida Cavalry, Company F at Camp Mary Davis.

Promoted to Sergeant Major of the Regiment.

Promoted to Adjutant in July 1862.

Promoted to Captain of Company C on 7/27/63.

Captured on 11/25/63 at Missionary Ridge.

Released on oath on 6/13/65 from Johnson's Island Prison in Ohio.

"Little" Tom Shine and his 3 brothers were born in Tallahassee around the time of Florida's statehood. Three of the brothers, including Tom, married the three Eppes sisters of Tallahassee, who were great granddaughters of Thomas Jefferson. When Francis Eppes and his wife moved to the Orlando area in the mid 1860s, Thomas J. Shine and his wife Martha Virginia Eppes as well as David Shepherd Shine and his wife Caroline Martha Eppes soon followed. By 1871, the four of them moved into a house on Jackson Street in Orlando proper.

In 1879 Tom built a house at the northeast corner of Jefferson and Orange. He is credited with naming both of these streets - Jefferson after his wife's family and Orange reportedly because the road ended at an orange grove. The house was the first in Orlando with an indoor bathroom and sported the first tennis court in the backyard.

Tom was a director in the original First National Bank, an officer in the Board of Trade (the forerunner of the Chamber of Commerce), and the founder and Commander of the Orlando Guard (see below).

Martha Shine was active in the Episcopal Church, the Rosalind Club as well as the Sorosis Club.

Tom died suddenly in 1889 after a rigorous march on parade with his company on a very hot Easter. He was only 46 years old.

Thomas Shine's cousin Thomas W. Shine was a 1st Corporal in Company A of the First Florida Infantry and later, as a 1st Lieutenant and Acting Adjutant, he surrendered in April 1865 at Appomattox.

Thomas J. Shine was known as "Little Tom" and his cousin as "Big Tom."

The above photograph was probably taken in the 1880s, but at the time the home guard organization pictured was not yet known as the Shine Guards. They were called the Orlando Guards until the untimely death of it's commander, Thomas Shine. Shine died in 1889 and his guards were renamed the same year. Little is known about the pictured buildings, but it is probable that the porch on the left side of the image is part of the old Lucky Hotel built in 1882. It would later become the Charleston House Hotel and eventually the site for McCrory's Department Stores from 1906 to 1989. The first building in the center of the image with the two dormers is likely White's General Supply Store, operated by W. A. White from 1879.

Written by Thomas E. Cook.