USA > Florida > Florida, 1513-1913, past and future; four hundred years of wars and peace and industrial development > Part 25
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31
523
FLORIDA
MUNICIPAL INCORPORATION
Pilatka was the home of Isaac N. Bronson, associate justice of the supreme court, and it was he who obtained from the state a special charter for the incorporation of the city in 1853. Prosperity came to the little city from the time of its incorporation. Great rivalry existed between the cities of Charleston and Savannah, which brought good fortune to Pilatka. It resulted in the establishment of a line of steamers to this city, by each of these more northern centers, and they vied for the growing trade of this Florida town, and so Pilatka forged ahead and enjoyed a season of much success. The city passed through the financial crisis of 1857 with no lowering of her colors. Churches, schools, dwellings and residences were built and a con- fident and enthusiastic community was firmly established here.
WAR AND DISASTER
Then came the Civil war, bringing destruction and hindrance, and it was not until the construction of the Florida Southern Railway, connecting the city with the southern center of the state, that sub- stantial growth and prosperity were resumed. The city's progress from 1880 to 1884 was remarkable. Buildings were erected in every direction from the center, lands advanced in value, new lines of steamers plowed the river, the Jacksonville, Tampa & Key West Railroad was built and many new industries, which go to make a city prosperous, were well under way. Then came a disastrous fire. The sun rose on the first Tuesday in November, 1884, on a thriving and busy city. It rose the morning of Wednesday on a heap of smoldering ruins. It brought a tremendous shock and some there were who predicted that the ruin would be complete and final. But the recovery was quick and a city arose from the ashes more substantial than ever before.
So much for the Palatka of yesterday.
MODERN PALATKA
The year 1912 saw a marked development in the erection of modern residences and the establishment of substantial and beneficial business enterprises. Thirty-five beautiful homes were completed just previous to the close of the year, besides many homes for rental pur- poses, for Palatka is a city whose winter population is largely increased
524
FLORIDA
by the advent of visitors who are attracted by its delightful climate and surroundings.
The Palatka Board of Trade found the city confronted by a problem so unusual as to lay a heavy tax upon its energies in pro- viding suitable habitation for the rapidly increasing resident popu- lation as well as for the tourists, who throng the city each winter. New people coming in and finding no place to live, were compelled to go elsewhere. 'A number of progressive citizens responded promptly and have been diligent in their efforts to relieve these conditions. As a result new homes arose in all directions from the business center in which were housed the great influx of visitors and settlers.
PALATKA'S INDUSTRIAL ENTERPRISES
Palatka is the largest inland manufacturing center in the state. For years it has been preeminent in the production of cypress timber, besides cutting an immense amount of pine, in shingles, doors, blinds, sashes, buckets and pails, tanks, and vats for which cypress is espe- cially adapted, and in the manufacture of ice, cigars and boats. Within the past two years have been added to this list several fac- tories producing large quantities of fruit crates, fertilizers, porch columns, screen doors and window frames, barrels, staves and fruit boxes. The capital invested in these new enterprises aggregates more than a million and a half of dollars.
MERCANTILE INTERESTS
The city has recently added to its business equipment its third banking institution, a wholesale grocery, a cold storage plant of large capacity, besides a considerable number of mercantile houses of various kinds. No Florida city of its size and population has a more extensive trade from the territory surrounding it, drawing, as it does, from a radius of seventy-five to a hundred miles. Well stocked stores and business houses are increasing this trade year by year.
CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS
There are eleven churches in Palatka of the leading denomina- tions, five of them for white worshippers and six for the colored race. All of them occupy modern and handsome structures. Three of these churches maintain educational institutions, one, St. Joseph's
525
FLORIDA
Catholic Academy, and two schools for colored children supported by the Episcopal church and by the Presbyterian denomination. The county school authorities maintain two high schools, one for each of the leading races, and they have in contemplation a school build- ing to be erected in 1914 at a cost of one hundred thousand dollars.
PUBLIC AFFAIRS
Honest and intelligent expenditure of public funds in Palatka and Putnam county has given the city and county sound and per- manent development in their public utilities. The construction at this point of the only highway bridge across the St. Johns river, the new courthouse and city hall and park, the latter covering half a block in the heart of the city, and the construction of seventy-five miles of hard-surfaced roads through the county, stand as monu- ments to the business-like methods of city and county officials through a long series of years.
ADVANTAGES AS A DISTRIBUTING CENTER
In a traffic sense its location on the banks of the St. Johns river makes Palatka a seaboard city. It has four separate lines of rail- ways and four steamboat lines connecting it with the outside world. In the volume of freight traffic, Palatka is the fourth city in Florida, and this secures for it minimum rates. The United States Govern- ment has appropriated half a million dollars for the further improve- ment of the river in this part of its course, with the idea of making this stream available for ocean-going vessels for many miles from its junction with the Atlantic.
This point is an important center for fruit and vegetable raising and shipping. Half a million boxes of citrus fruits and thirty-five thousand barrels of Irish potatoes were shipped from Palatka and Putnam county in 1912. These two products led in importance, but the cultivation of many other varieties is increasing as growers are discovering the profitable possibilities of the varied soils.
Within five years-since 1908-Palatka's population has increased one hundred percent. In these same years half a million dollars have been expended in public improvements. Miles of paved streets and sidewalks, a perfect sewerage system, municipally owned waterworks, motor-driven fire apparatus and a paid fire department, combined with the lavish gifts of nature, make the city ideal for residence, for
526
FLORIDA
the transient visitor and for the transaction of business. The women of Palatka through the organization of the Woman's Club, have con- tributed largely and unselfishly to the beauty and attractiveness of the city by their urgency for public improvements.
PALATKA'S FUTURE
Palatka's future is not problematical. Those who are in earnest and have the will to do things, find here varied opportunity for suc- cess within the limits of this city and even far outside, for the lands that surround it are among the richest and most productive in Flor- ida. All roads that lead to the Gem City are blazoned with signs whereon are inscribed in bright letters the words: "To Palatka and Prosperity." While her progress has not always been so rapidly for- ward as within the past three to five years, she has never known a retrograde movement.
CHAPTER XXVI THE EVERGLADES
I N this decade wherein the conversation of the nation's resources is a subject of almost universal interest, no extended discussion of Florida would be com- plete without a description of the Everglades. The region comprises a vast area covering approximately the southern one-third of the state. Included in this region lies Lake Okeechobee, the largest body of fresh water wholly within the limits of any single state in the Union, and second in size only to Lake Michigan in the United States. Stretching north, south, east and west from this lake are millions of acres of land, wet and swampy and covered with saw grass growing in pathless wastes, through much of which no man has ever found a way.
The soil is a deep black muck, the accumulation of centuries of decaying vegetation. Underlying the surface from three to six feet, sometimes deeper, is a substratum of marl, which on exposure to the air hardens into enduring rock. Scattered through this vast sea of wild grass rise occasional islands of higher ground, covered with a heavy growth of palms and other hard wood trees. Land of similar description borders the Everglade region, especially on the east. Such land is not properly a part of the Everglades. Much of it has been reclaimed for vegetable and truck gardens and fruit groves, and its fertility is productive of heavy and profitable crops.
THE DRAINAGE PROBLEM
For more than half a century men have dreamed of draining the Everglades, but not until within the last few years has the gigantic task been undertaken in earnest. Engineers have believed that the lowering of the level of Lake Okeechobee, thereby preventing its overflow into the surrounding territory, would make possible the drainage and the practical use of this territory for agriculture. They have reported that the normal level of the lake being more than Vol. 1-34
529
530
FLORIDA
twenty feet above the sea, it would be an engineering possibility to lower its level.
A way was found to finance the construction of several drain- age canals through which, it was believed, the waters of the lake might be controlled, and the work was begun. The project has been backed by those who believed firmly that the ultimate results sought would be obtained in this way.
Others have opposed the undertaking, arguing that the lowering of the level of Lake Okeechobee would not bring the drying out of the surrounding lands sufficiently for agricultural purposes; that the removal of the surface water from so vast an area, would bring modi- fications of climatic conditions by extending the frost line over the drained area; that the soil when dried, is peaty in character and that damage by fire would be made possible, perhaps probable, in some localities. They further urged that the capacity of the drainage canals already planned, will be wholly insufficient to affect materially the water level of the great lake, and that this capacity must be increased from threc to six times, at a cost far greater than has yet been provided for.
Admitting that it is a feasible engineering problem to lower the level of the lake by sufficient drainage capacity, there remain several elements which, it appears, only the completion of the work already undertaken and far on the way toward actual accomplishment, can solve. An impartial discussion of the Everglade problem, therefore, must be limited here to a history of the inception and progress of the plans for this immense drainage project.
In the American "Review of Reviews" for October, 1912, appeared an article under the title "The Everglades of Florida," by Thomas E. Will. The writer presents an accurate statement of the work, from which are reproduced the essential facts of its undertaking and progress, and omitting his optimistic conclusions as to the results, which he assumes are sure to follow its completion.
HISTORY OF THE DRAINAGE PROBLEM
"Public interest focusses today on the Everglades of Florida. This territory comprises a tract about half the size of Massachusetts. It lies south and southeast of Lake Okeechobee, in Southern Florida, and is a part of the Florida grant made to the United States by Spain in 1819.
"So far as known, the tract has always been wet. Florida was
ON THE BORDER OF LAKE OKEECHOBEE
533
FLORIDA
admitted to the Union in 1845 and in December of that year, its Legislature by resolution instructed its Senators in Congress and requested its Representatives to press upon Congress the propriety and policy of forthwith appointing engineers to examine and survey the Everglades region.
"In 1847 Senator James D. Westcott, Jr., of Florida, requested the Secretary of the Treasury, the Hon. R. J. Walker, to have the lands examined. Shortly afterward the Secretary of the Treasury appointed Mr. Buckingham Smith to make such investigation and report upon it. The result was the famous Buckingham Smith report of 1848, which was published as a Senate document. This report, recently republished by the United States Senate as a part of Senate Document 89, was very favorable to the. Everglades and their reclamation.
"In the same year the Legislature of Florida requested Congress to grant the Everglades to the State of Florida 'on condition that the state will drain them and apply the proceeds of the sale thereof after defraying the expense of draining, to purposes of education.'
"In the same year also, Senator Westcott introduced a bill into the Senate to authorize the draining of the Everglades by the State of Florida, and to grant the land to the state for that purpose. This bill was not passed, but in 1850 Congress passed a general swamp-land act 'to enable the State of Arkansas and other states to reclaim the swamp lands within their limits.' By this act the Everglades were granted by the United States to the State of Florida, with the fol- lowing express provision: 'That the proceeds of said lands, whether from sale or by direct appropriation in kind, shall be applied exclu- sively as far as necessary, to the purpose of reclaiming said lands by means of the levees and drains aforesaid.'
"Thirty-one years, however, passed before the state made a serious attempt to drain these lands.
"On February 26, 1881, the trustees of the Internal Improvement Fund, having charge of the state's wet lands, entered into a contract with Mr. Hamilton Disston, of Philadelphia, and others, in which it was agreed that Disston and his associates would drain and reclaim, at their own expense and charge, all the overflowed lands of the State of Florida lying south of township 23 and east of Peace creek, belonging to the State of Florida or the Internal Improvement Fund. Mr. Disston worked on this drainage task for about eight years, draining certain elevated lands in the Kissimmee territory and cultivating them.
534
FLORIDA
TOPOGRAPHY OF THE EVERGLADES
"A word as to the topography of the Everglades and the reasons why they are wet. Lake Okeechobec is the center of the problem. It may be compared to a great tank on top of a gently sloping roof. On the lower edge of the roof is an elevated rim. Let the tank be filled with water. When more rain falls it will overflow, run down the roof and be checked by the rim.
"Lake Okeechobee, covering about a half million acres, receives the waters from an area seven and a half times its own size. The lake has no outlet. It fills in the rainy season and then overflows, the water flowing over the great prairie. Before it reaches the ocean, however, it encounters the rock rim of coraline limestone. This re- tards the outflow of water into the ocean. Through this rim the water has cut passages, but not enough to release the entire volume of water until the next rainy season has arrived. Then the lake over- flows again. Thus the prairie between lake and ocean is always more or less wet.
"It seems the drainage work was first attempted by the Spaniards. Then came the Disston enterprise, and then, early in the present century, the latest effort.
THE STATE SYSTEM OF CANALS
"Everglades drainage is in charge of the State of Florida, through its Internal Improvement Board. Its plan is to connect Lake Okee- chobee with gulf and ocean by canals. These are to lower the lake level from its present height of twenty and four-tenths feet to sixteen feet. Thus a great drainage reservoir is to be created to receive the inflow from the north plus the rainfall, emit it gradually through the canals to gulf and ocean and thus prevent the overflow.
"Under Governor W. S. Jennings (1901-1905) plans for this drainage work were laid. Under Governor N. B. Broward (1905- 1909) the actual ditch-digging began. Governor Broward asked the United States Department of Agriculture for expert advice. J. O. Wright of the drainage division was sent to examine and report on the tract, which he did. He mapped out a system of canals which with slight modifications, is now being installed. For the past two years Mr. Wright has been in the employ of the state as its chief drainage engineer. The dredging was first done by the state. Since
A DRAINAGE CANAL EXTENDING INTO THE EVERGLADES
537
FLORIDA
July 1, 1910, it has been in the hands of the Furst-Clark Company of Baltimore.
"Just how much canalizing will be necessary? Here the doctors have slightly disagreed. Broward's plan was that of 'cut and try.' Lay out and cut a system of canals. If these do the work, well and good. If more are needed, cut more. As for funds no serious prob- lem arises. The state drainage is financed from two sources: first, an annual tax of five cents upon each acre benefited; second, the proceeds of the sale of state lands.
"The present canals include the following:
"First: On the west, one connecting Lake Okeechobee, through Lake Hicpochee with the Caloosahatchee, thus discharging 'Glade waters into the Gulf of Mexico. This canal has been open and navi- gated for two and a half years.
"Second: On the southeast and east, a series emptying into the Atlantic. They are. (a) The North New River or Middle Canal. This connects the north branch of the New River on which Fort Lauderdale is situated, with Lake Okeechobee. This canal is cut through. (b) The Miami or South Canal. This is to connect Miami with Lake Okeechobee. (c) The South New River Canal, running east and west to connect canals (a) and (b). (d) The Hillsborough Canal. This lies north of New River Canal, and will connect Hills- borough with the lake. (e) The Palm Beach Canal. This has recently been determined upon by the state. It will connect Palm Beach with the lake. Work on this has not yet been begun.
"The plan further includes several smaller canals and scores of miles of lateral ditches, good beginnings on which have been made.
"On the main canals the dredging company is operating nine dredges, drill boats and the like, night and day. It is bound by con- tract to have its work finished by July 1, 1913, and is understood to be well along with its schedule, 59.6 per cent of the entire estimated yardage having been excavated on June 30, 1912.
USE OF THE CANALS
"The question is sometimes asked whether the drainage plan con- templates the emptying of the lake. The answer is an emphatic NO. The lake is an invaluable asset. Water, in general, is an indispensable resource and the water of Lake Okeechobee is for several reasons peculiarly valuable :
"First: The lake is an inland sea, containing vast numbers of
538
FLORIDA
excellent fish. It is capable of bearing the vessels of future commerce. In addition, it will undoubtedly become the center of a far-famed pleasure resort which the Palm Beach of today faintly foreshadows. "Second: The lake is an important factor in the modification of climate. As a protection against frost, its value is beyond estimate. "Third: The lake is the great reservoir for the supply of water to the 'Glade region. This water is needed, first, for the canals. These have already become highways between ocean and gulf. What they will mean in future as means of transportation may be inferred from the part played by the canals of Holland and our own Erie canal.
"Again, the lake water is needed to supplement the rainfall. This, it is true, averages in the 'Glade region some fifty-seven inches per annum. Still, here as elsewhere, there are times when additional water is helpful, perhaps priceless. Laterals are being cut from the main canals into the land. Sub-laterals branch off from these. By means of locks in the canals and gates in the laterals and ditches, the height and flow of this water can be controlled. It passes horizontally through the loose, porous soil as through salt or sand, and capillary attraction brings it up to the plant roots. From the standpoint of sub-irrigation, the 'Glade region, if made to order, could hardly have been improved upon. State legislation, providing for systematic con- trol of the height of the water table, is advised by competent engineers.
TEMPERATURES IN THE EVERGLADES
"Mention has been made of frost. The Everglades are, in this regard, peculiarly blest. They lie in a region more nearly free from frost than any other in the United States. The Weather Bureau's Bulletin V on 'Frost Data of the United States' carries maps on which, right across the Everglades region are inscribed the words, 'Frost at rare intervals only.' Cocoanuts, among the most sensitive of all trees to frost and cold, abound on the rim in the vicinity of Miami and Fort Lauderdale. Again, the excessive heats which might be expected in the far south are also conspicuous by their absence, the mercury at Miami having registered the maximum of 96 degrees of temperature but once since records have been kept in that vicinity.
HEALTHFULNESS OF THE EVERGLADES
"The healthfulness of the region is an object of remark. Lieut. Christopher R. P. Rodgers, of the United States Navy, said in
LOOKING INTO THE EVERGLADES ALONG THE MIAMI DRAINAGE CANAL
541
FLORIDA
1848, 'After observing the climate of the Everglades at every season, I consider it one of the most healthy in the world.' State Chemist R. E. Rose, of Florida, speaking of the agricultural work in the 80's on the reclaimed lands of the Disston Company, north of the lake, said, 'During a period of over eleven years, the company never employed a physician nor lost an employee from death.' Similar testimony abounds.
"The location of the Everglades territory is exceptional. A glance at the world map shows the peninsula of Florida jutting straight out into the ocean to the southeast. The Everglades tract is but three degrees north of the Tropic of Cancer. This puts it on the parallel running through or near the Nile Valley, the Persian Gulf, Benares, the Holy City of India, the Sandwich Islands and the mouth of the Rio Grande-in a word, through the regions where human life first took root upon the planet."
CHAPTER XXVII FLORIDA'S INDIAN TRIBE
T HE part played by Indians in the history of Florida has been eventful. The Indians were the first to greet Ponce de Leon as he touched the main land four hundred years ago. His first task, after erect- ing the standards of Spain on the soil of the newly discovered country and rendering thanks for the safe outcome of his adventurous voyage was to placate the natives. De Soto and other Spanish adventurers and explorers fought their way through hundreds of miles of wilderness, opposing and opposed by hostile tribes, killing and burning and robbing. In later decades when the Spanish and English strove for supremacy, the Indians were allied first with one and then with the other side, and with both they committed horrible ravages. When Florida became a part of the United States the Indians continued to be a menace to the peaceful development of the country. These troubles, more or less continuous, culminated in the Indian war, which cost the United States Govern- ment fifteen hundred lives, twenty millions of dollars and eight years of time-one of the greatest wars ever maintained by the Federal Government against the native occupants of the land. It was ended in 1842 by the retirement, or banishment, of the hostile red men into the fastness of The Everglades. There they have remained since that time, with a few unimportant outbreaks against the whites in the decade following the ending of hostilities.
The Indians remaining in Florida after the close of these wars, were the Seminoles. The original name was "Seminolee," meaning in the Indian language, "runaway," or "renegade." The title was applied to the tribe by the sections from which it separated, the Chero- kees and Creeks of Alabama and Georgia. The Renegades came to Florida at an early date. They were here when the followers of Cortez wandered across the country from Mexico and they were men- tioned by the writers of that period who returned to Mexico in 1519.
Vol. I-35
545
546
FLORIDA
OPPRESSED OR AGGRESSORS?
The Indians in Florida have been regarded by subsequent writers, and indeed by those of the present day, from different viewpoints. One regards them as the vietims of broken promises and unfulfilled contracts which had been made by the United States Government. As a recognition of their rights as the original occupants of the land, the Federal Government, it is claimed, entered into contraet by which the Indians in Florida were to be given certain extensive and well defined reservations, and were to receive an annuity sufficient to sup- ply their needs in connection with unrestricted rights to hunt and fish within the reservation. These promises, it is claimed, have never been fulfilled and the Seminoles, therefore, are regarded as having been greatly wronged by the Government.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.