When James Nathaniel Coombs died in 1911, he was recognized as the wealthiest man in town for his ownership of three sawmills, the First National Bank of Apalachicola, and the Coombs Company, exporter of pine and cypress lumber to destinations around the world. In 1905 Apalachicola, located on the Gulf of Mexico at the mouth of the Apalachicola River, was a busy port of 3,000 inhabitants from which much of north Florida’s lumber was shipped.

Coombs was born in Old Town, Maine, August 15, 1842, and like many young men who grew up in Maine at the time, worked at cutting trees and hauling them to the sawmills. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Coombs and most of his contemporaries probably thought the fighting could be handled by the regular army, and the rebels would be defeated quickly. But by October of the following year, after some stunning reverses for the Union Army, it became apparent that the war would last longer than had been thought.

Twenty-one year old Coombs signed up for a nine-month tour of duty with the 28th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment. A natural leader, he was immediately appointed a Sergeant in Company I. The regiment was sent to New York and embarked on a steam transport for New Orleans where it was assigned to General William Tecumseh Sherman’s Division and stationed at Donaldsonville, Louisiana.

At the end of May, 1863, Company I was part of a detachment of 180 men of the 28th who were marched nine miles to the front lines near Port Hudson where they participated in skirmishes with the loss of three killed and fourteen wounded. In another engagement four weeks later, it was reported that the unit had “repulsed a desperate assault of largely superior numbers of the enemy after three and a half hours, killing fifty-six and taking 130 prisoners.” Shortly thereafter, the regiment was moved to New Orleans, took ship to New York, and from there traveled to Augusta, Maine where the men were discharged on August 31, 1863.

Back in Maine, Coombs married his childhood sweetheart, Maria A. Starrett, five years younger than he. The couple moved to Pensacola in 1871 where Coombs worked in the timber business. In 1877 they moved to Apalachicola where Coombs bought into the Sunny South sawmill which had been shut down for several years.

The Columbus (Georgia) Enquirer may have had newcomers like Coombs in mind when it reported in1878: “Apalachicola is again on the rise. It is fast becoming a lumber depot. Several steam mills are now in successful operation and others are soon to begin. The supply of lumber in the region is inexhaustible. Lumbermen heretofore engaged at Pensacola have removed recently to Apalachicola.”

Increased demand for lumber brought success to Coombs and enabled him to set up the Franklin County Lumber Company in Apalachicola and in nearby Carrabelle. Hewn logs were exported to Europe and South America, railroad ties to Mexico, and sawn pine lumber and shingles were sent to the northern U.S. cities. Businesses in New Orleans were the major purchasers of cypress.

A green cypress log would sink to the bottom if put into the river immediately after being cut. Sawmill operators like Coombs had the trees girdled, then let them stand until the trees had died and the sap had drained. Rafts of the then-lighter cypress logs were floated down the river to sawmills at Apalachicola and Carrabelle. The sound of the saws and the smell and sight of smoke from the sawmills alerted the passengers on inbound steamboats long before they reached the Apalachicola docks.

With all his business success, Jim Coombs did not neglect his political interests. He always had been an active member of the Republican Party, and usually attended Republican Party conventions. However, he declined to accept his party’s nomination for Governor of Florida in 1900. At one of the Republican national conventions he met the dynamic young governor of New York, Theodore Roosevelt, and the two became friends. Rumor in Apalachicola had it that Teddy had offered him the opportunity to be his running mate as candidate for Vice President of the United States in the election of 1904, but that Coombs had turned him down. However at the Republican convention in Chicago in 1904 Coombs was elected to a four year term as member of the Republican National Committee. In October, 1905, The Apalachicola Times reported that Coombs had taken the train to Jacksonville in order to meet with his old friend Roosevelt during his visit to that city.

That same year, when James Coombs was at the peak of his career, he decided his family needed a larger home and one that would reflect their social and economic status.

He hired George H. Marshall, a local builder responsible for the design and construction of many of the grand Queen Anne style Victorian homes built in Apalachicola between 1890 and 1910.

Marshall’s homes had many features in common: they were constructed of wood, including the inside walls and ceilings, usually had grand wrap-around verandas, were crowned with a widow’s walk, and occasionally had turrets. There was an open balcony on the second floor over the front entrance. Inside were gleaming oak floors and impressive carved oak staircases. The numerous coal burning fireplaces were faced with porcelain tiles and fronted with cast iron covers bearing raised images. In many of these houses the front door was 42 inches wide, large enough for a coffin to be placed in the front hallway for a wake.

Tragedy struck the Coombs family in 1911. At midnight on March 6 of that year a fire started in the attic of the house and burned its way through the roof. Three volunteer horse drawn fire companies answered the call, and quickly pumped enough water onto the house to douse the flames. While the house was not destroyed, it was seriously damaged, and Mrs. Coombs’ prized furniture, beddings, and linens were piled in a soaked heap in front of the house.

Shocked and saddened, Mr. and Mrs. Coombs moved into the Franklin Hotel that night with the intention of living there only until their home could be repaired. They never returned. Mrs. Coombs, who had taken to her bed, died ten days later in the hotel. Many said she died of a broken heart. Three weeks after that, on April 8, James Coombs died. Both are buried, side-by-side, in the Chestnut Street cemetery, just across the street from their beloved home.

Various members of the Coombs family took up residence in the house during the next five decades. In the early 1960s the house was closed, boarded up, and left vacant except for an occasional homeless person who camped out in the empty rooms. Without care and maintenance, the unpainted structure began to deteriorate, and there was talk of condemning and demolishing the old structure. Windows were broken, the back balcony had fallen to the ground, the front and back yards were littered with debris and trash, and the once-blossoming flower beds were wastelands of weeds.

When Lynn Wilson, a well known interior designer of luxury hotel properties, paid her first visit to Apalachicola she was she was fascinated by the town’s history, and by the potential for renovation and preservation of architecturally significant historic homes. She was particularly intrigued with the Coombs house.

After lengthy negotiations with members of the Coombs family, she purchased the old house and converted it to an inn, thus providing the motivation and funds for preservation and maintenance. Visitors can still visit the old Coombs family home at 80 Sixth Street in Apalachicola.