Sunland Tribune
Volume 29 Article 4
2003
"Letter from Okeechobee" 1880s Editorial of Gabriel Cunning to Bartow Informant and Tampa Sunland Tribune
Michael Reneer
James M. Denham
Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/sunlandtribune
Recommended Citation Reneer, Michael and Denham, James M. (2003) ""Letter from Okeechobee" 1880s Editorial of Gabriel Cunning to Bartow Informant and Tampa Sunland Tribune," Sunland Tribune: Vol. 29 , Article 4. Available at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/sunlandtribune/vol29/iss1/4
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Sunland Tribune by an authorized editor of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. "Letter From Okeechobee" 1880s Editorial Of Gabriel Cunning To Bartow Informant and Tampa Sunland Tribune
Michael Reneer and Dr. James M. Denham of Boully's informants wrote irregularly, think justice demands that Gabriel Gunning's "Letter from Okeechobee" Okeechobee should be heard," became a mainstay in the first six months wrote Gabriel Cunning on June of the paper's existence. 30, 1881. So began Cunning's As the county seat of Polk County, brief but interesting career as correspon Florida, Bartow offered many prospects to dent to the Bartow Informant and Tampa Boully and other migrants seeking a new Sunland Tribune. Gabriel Cunning's given start in the post Civil War era. In 1880, name is unknown; his home and real iden Polk's population stood at slightly more than tity is likewise unknowable. And yet, letters 3,100 inhabitants. Even so, this total was from a man calling himself Gabriel Cunning poised to advance rapidly. At the time and claiming a home in "Okeechobee Cunning addressed readers of the Bartow County"! appeared in the Bartow Infor Informant, cattle and subsistence farming mant from June to December 1881. was the chief economic pursuit of pioneers Cunning also penned three missives to the in the Lower Peninsula. Indeed, the cattle Tampa Sunland Tribune in 1878 and 1881. industry was the true key to riches for the His humorous and informative letters pioneers of South Florida. Before the Civil reprinted here shed light on the social, eco War, the cattle trade with Cuba was sub nomic, and political times of the lower stantial, but after the war it brought consid Florida frontier in the 1880s. erable wealth to the region. At the end of the The first issue of the Bartow Informant Civil War, the focus of trade shifted from appeared only two weeks before the first supplying Confederate and Union forces to installment from Gabriel Cunning. The supplying Cuba. In the decade after the war, proprietor of this new journalistic enter pioneers shipped almost 200,000 head of prise was D.W.D. Boully, who emigrated to cattle from Florida to Cuba.2 In 1878, for Bartow after a failed attempt in the news example, the Tampa Sunland Tribune re paper business in Blountsville, Alabama. It ported that cattlemen shipped 8,012 head of was common practice for small-town nine cattle worth $112,168.00 from the Tampa teenth century newspapers such as Boully's Bay ports of Tampa and Manatee.3 While Informant to make use of guest "infor cattle shipments from Tampa Bay were sub mants" or "correspondents" to provide stantial during these years, it is unlikely that readers with information on places and they ever equaled the numbers shipped events from nearby locales. Such articles from Punta Rassa, in Charlotte Harbor, spurred community interest and were Florida's oldest shipping point. In 1879, F.A. eagerly sought after by the general reading Hendry, of Fort Myers, estimated that in the public. In addition to Cunning's "Letter five previous years an average of 10,000 from Okeechobee" column, Boully's paper head of cattle, at a price of $14 per head, included letters and articles from Manatee were shipped each year from Punta Rassa.4 County, Charlotte Harbor, Hernando Citrus and vegetable growing also attract County, Ft. Meade, and Tampa. While some ed migrants. Nearly every edition of news- 13 papers published in Tampa, Orlando, Bartow Kississimee River. Below Fort Bassinger, and other South Florida towns contained and located near the western shore of Lake articles for perspective migrants extolling Okeechobee, was the village that grew the various advantages of certain crops and around abandoned Fort Center. It is likely the availability of land. By way of example, · that Cunning addressed his readers from on September 4, 1879, the Tampa Sunland one of these two settlements. Just to the Tribune, in an article titled "Culture and south of these two settlements lay the Shipment of Vegetables," lauded the ease Caloosahatchee River. South Florida's earli and profitability with which garden peas, est settlers speculated on the feasibility of cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes, and squash connecting the river to the lake, but by es could be grown in South Florida. 1879, these high hopes were about to be re But if Cunning and his neighbors in the alized. In the spring of that year, a Tampa southern peninsula were to truly prosper, newspaper reported that J.L. Meigs, a U.S. they needed communication and trans Surveyor, had arrived in Fort Myers "on his portation links to the isolated region. They way to the headwaters of the Caloosahatchee yearned for iron rails to reach their isolated to give the river a thorough survey, and to communities. Cunning's dispatches speak make a report upon the feasibility, of open to these aspirations. In 1867, telegraph ing the Okeechobee into the river." F.A. messages could be received at Punta Rassa Hendry of Fort Myers, and a number of his and, in 1884, the first trains chugged into associates, were conducting an indepen Tampa. By that time thousands of migrants dent survey of their own.11 were heading to the region to invest in cit While this trackless region was home to rus groves. Phosphate strikes in the late the Seminole, cattlemen, panthers, and on 1880s attracted hundreds of others.s ly a few hardy homesteaders, local citizens Cunning also writes of Hamilton Disston's were optimistic about the fertility of the soil purchase of four million acres of land from and the desirability and prospects of out the state of Florida for $.25 per acre. side immigration. One newcomer boasted Disston's dream was to use the latest tech that "Okeechobee is one of the finest lakes nology to drain the overflowed lands. in Florida with only 2 islands in it with fine Through this scheme thousands of acres of hammock and prairie land nearly all around land could be sold at cheap prices to it suitable for cane, com, rice or vegetables migrants who could grow citrus and a mul also for fruits, oranges, guavas, bananas, titude of other tropical crops. Cunning pine apples &c. The Indians have fields and speaks to this scheme plus speculates on raise fine com, potatoes, pumpkins, and the nefarious political machinations that bananas, which all grow finely and with made it possible. little cultivation. Lovers of picturesque In 1880, only three counties and only a scenery should made a trip through, when few settlements graced the southern part of the canal is completed, plenty of game of the peninsula south of Polk County: nearly all kinds, and fish in abundance."12 Manatee (pop. 3,500), Dade (pop. 257) and Cunning addressed readers of the Monroe County (pop. 11,800).6 Miami Informant and the Sunland Tribune at the (which would become the region's only real time when White Conservatives had retak city) contained just a few dozen people in en control of state government. Florida had 1880. Because the vast majority of Monroe overthrown Radical Republican rule four County's population resided in the island years earlier. Florida's Bourbon governors, village of Key West, no more than 5,000 George Drew and William D. Bloxham, souls would have lived in the southern brought their economic policies to a public peninsula south of Bartow. This total in eager for better times. It was a policy of low cluded approximately 200 Seminoles living taxes, slashed state expenditures, and land in five villages. 7 Only a few cattle trails and giveaway schemes calculated to lure primitive roads, cut primarily by the army's Northern investment capital to the state to corps of engineers during the Seminole develop the · state's ··resources and lure Wars, linked distant frontier outposts such migrants to Florida's open spaces. By 1880, as Pine Level (Manatee County Seat), the in Florida, as in the rest of the South, the village of Manatee (now Bradenton),8 Fort Republican Party (now discredited among Green, Fort Ogden,9 Fort Myers, and Fort white Southerners as the party of Carpet Bassinger,10 on the west bank of the baggers, Scalawags, and African-Americans), 14 became a marginalized victim of the solid Okeechobee county presents induce Democratic South. Cunning's letters are re ments to emigration far superior to any flective of white conservative public opin county in Florida, or to any other state or ion of the time. Readers of the Informant territory on the continent. One of its great and Sunland Tribune would have reveled in advantages is, that it has room enough for his stories. Both were Conservative Demo all who may come, possessing all that vast cratic papers in a state increasingly taken expanse of country extending from the over by Bourbonism.13 Atlantic ocean on the east, to the empire of Cunning addressed the readers of the Manatee on the west; bounded by the sand Informant and the Sunland Tribune in the mountains, or backbone of Florida, on the manner and style of the southern humorists north, and running south to infinity; of the ante- and post-hel- including the great ium periods. Such writers lake which bears its as Mark 1\vain and Joel name, with the For health Okeechobee stands Chandler Harris no doubt Everglades and Big served as a model for superb - she has no graPhiladelphia, James A.] Garfield. Also I am told that [Otto public feeling became more composed, and von] Bismarck never issues a diplomatic since telegraphing to the governor, and order unless bedecked in alligator jewelry. being informed by him that he would still And it is reported down in the everglades control the offices and that there would be that the bankers of Wall street are hoarding no changes made, public confidence has this precious ivory, fearing that the green been completely restored. However, we backers will bring gold and silver into dis learn that Mr. Disston still designs to settle pute, and 'gators' teeth become the currency German and French colonists in our coun of the country. Aside from the value of the ty. This is a lucky hit on his part, and will teeth, the skins of the 'gators are becoming greatly develop our resources; for we have the desire of the old world. The gentry of frogs enough in the everglades to feed the France, and lords and commons of England, French republic for the next century, and never trust themselves now-a-days to public palmetto cabbage sufficient to fatten a mil gaze without standing knee deep in alligator lion of Dutch. Then everglade frogs, both boots; and I am credibly informed that sev pickled and canned, will command the eral prime ministers of foreign powers are highest price in the markets of France, now corresponding with Philip Dzialynski,18 while palmetto cabbage chopped into sour of Fort Meade, and certain parties at Orlando kraut will be sold in the Berlin markets un trying to engage alligator skins to carpet the der the name and style of Okeechobee sal royal palaces of their respective kingdoms ad. Truly our resources are as innumerable and bottom the chairs of their parliament as they are inexhaustible.21 chambers. But it is for the enterprising citi But the great and paramount induce zens of Okeechobee to discover the practical ment Okeechobee offers to the emigrating utility of the 'gator. Dr. Pluck our most wor world is the grand fact that every man here thy county judge and hotel-keeper, has for a holds an office. Our white population being long time been regaling his New England vis small and our territory large, we have so itors with codfish balls made from dried alli arranged our offices and districted our ter gator; and his wife Mrs. Annalizer Pluck, has ritory that every voter can hold an office. succeeded in making the best Bologna How much better this is than in Brevard sausage from the same article, which many county, where they have only half enough of the surveyors and explorers pronounced offices for the people, and that puts half the excellent; being free from the canine and fe inhabitance out of office half the time. In line odor so common to those in city mar Polk and Manatee it is still worse. There, I kets. Also Capt. Purdy, our leading merchant am told two thirds of the people are out of has applied for a patent for making canned office two thirds of their time. How their salmon out of alligator tails; and Rev. families must suffer. What is freedom with Napoleon B. Young, our minister (son of the out office? What is an orange grove, a free late Brigham Young) has canned up quite a store front, a coach-and-four, bank stock, cargo of silver sides in alligator oil and ex governments bonds and such like without pects to sell them in the North for French office? What is a republic without offices sardines. May success crown his effort. enough to supply each of its constituents? That is the reason, doubtless, why all for "Letter from Okeechobee - No. 2" mer republics have failed, and the founders Bartow Informant, July 7, 1881 of our government made the same mistake Gabriel Cunning by not providing each subject with an of Ed. Informant fice. Who wants to spend a useful life mop ing up and down the thoroughfares of the ince writing my last, the highest excite world mixing with the commonality with Sment has prevailed. Having been in out as much as a title to his position, or a formed that the governor [William D. handle to his name? 16 Therefore we say to all, both far and [Charles Devens),25 at Washington, and he, near, both rich and poor, come one, come after consulting with various members of all, who have any disposition to serve their the cabinet, wrote me a very unsatisfactory country, to be virtuous and be happy, to as answer, declining to make any decision offi pire and be honorable, here you can satiate cially, but gave his private opinion that the your patriotic motives by holding office the middle wife was your best holt. balance of your day. But since our legislature has passed a This inducement has proved a happy law to tax United States property, we have life. Most of the members of the last legisla concluded Okeechobee county court has an ture, despairing of reelection, on account of equal right to make a law in favor of the squatter tax law,22 are preparing to polygamy, which law will be entered on come to Okeechobee. And we are in con record at the next meeting of the court for stant receipt of letters the benefit of Mormon from Polk, Manatee, and However, we learn that Mr. visitors. So now bring Orange counties, as well your entire family. as from Tampa, Gaines Disston still designs to settle Solomon Jackson, ville, Tallahassee, and German and French colonists Lake City, Fla, writes to Washington, from disap in our county. This is a lucky know what would be pointed patriots, who hit on his part, and will greatly the chance to start a are still determined to school at Okeechobee. serve their country or develop our resources; for we If it is a nigger "bust," and are rushing haf.'e frogs enough in the ever school you want, there to Okeechobee to re- glades to feed the French is no show; and if it trieve lost fame. republic for the next century, is a white school, the prospects are not flat and palmetto cabbage sufficient tering. Dr. Pluck's wife, "Letter from to fatten a million Dutch. Mrs. Annalizer Pluck, Okeechobee" Gabriel Cunning taught our first school Bartow Informant, under a wild grape ar- July 14, 1881 bor on the lake shore, Gabriel Cunning but a sudden rise of the lake bursted her Ed. Informant school. Since that we had a school taught by a minister in good standing, but he be ince I have commenced writing for your came so indolent and inattentive as to let Spaper, I am in constant receipt of letters the alligators catch most of the small chil from abroad, making various enquiries, dren, which so depleted the number of which, by your permission, I shall answer scholar age in the place, that I doubt through your columns. whether a man teacher could get a paying Absalom Jones, of Utah territory, wishes school. But I believe a woman teacher to come to Okeechobee for his health, and might get a school - our people are favor bring his family; but being a Mormon, and able to women teachers. In most instances, having three wives, he desires to know if they teach as well, and sometimes better, the laws of Florida are lenient on polygamy, then a man, and being "nothing but and if not, which wife had he better bring - woman," you know, we get them for half the first, the last, or the middle one. price. Absalom, the question has puzzled me much, having no law at Okeechobee but about half of Bush's Digest23 and Andrew "Letter from Okeechobee" Johnson's impeachment. I could find noth Bartow Informant, July 21, 1881 ing in them satisfactory. I then inquired of & Tampa Sunland Tribune, all the prominent lawyers in the circuit, and August 6, 1881. wrote to the governor and attorney general Gabriel Cunning of the state [George P. Raney);24 but they Ed. Informant seemed reticent, and did not like to commit themselves upon so grave a question. am in receipt of a letter containing an Determined to have the subject sifted, I ad l important question on a grave subject. dressed a letter to attorney general Dovens I give the letter in full: 17 7. Florida is soon to be cut loose from the Skye High P.O., Hillsboro Co., Fla continent by a ship canal, and assume its Gabriel Cunning position as a foreign power, and all we can Had the last legislature the constitutional get out of Uncle Sam, the better, before we right to tax improvements on government are cut loose. land? If you claim they had, arise and explain. I could give a thousand more good Your's respectfully reasons, but seven are enough. Not that I Ichabod Tickelsly. wish to cast reflections on the legislature by In reply to your question, Ichabod, you are any analogy of the number to the seven aware that your name has had a long repu sleepers, the seven plagues, or seven devils, tation for being written on the wrong side. 27 No, not all. Those great men only took an But to business, I shall answer you at arm's advanced step in state rights, and as soon as length. the people can get the The legislature scales knocked from most emphatically had "The Scriptures say 'wise men their eyes, they will rally the right to pass the will chafl!le, but fools never and sustain these noble squatter tax law. You chafl!le.' Now worthy members, men in that noble act. are a pretty advocate of All we need is a little state rights, and doubt I, for one, am on the chafl!le. more light, and we will so plain a proposition. I Fastifl!l and prayer may cast pass law.s to tax all the can prove the legisla out devils, but fastifl!l will never lands, forts, arsenals, ar ture's right by seven in get a county out of debt. And, I mories, hospitals, post exorable and unan offices, land offices, swerable arguments: tell you, in words with the bark custom-houses and ports 1. The constitution on, that this day I am goifl!l to of entry belonging to of the United States eat three hearty meals, drink the general government clearly defines what a some pure whisky, buy me a within the limits of our state cannot do, but in state, and also compel all no instance says it suit of store clothes, and some postmasters, custom shall not tax the gener shoes and socks for my wife house officers, land offi al government; and the and children, or I will resign cers, general surveyors, Scripture says, "Where before the sun goes down. civil engineers, military there is no law there is and naval officers, to no transgression. "26 Dr. Zebedee Pluck, county judge, hotelkeeper and take out occupation li president of the county immigration society 2. The general gov- cense, and impose a ernment is a sovereign heavy poll tax on all sol power, and the state of Florida is a sover diers, sailors and marines stationed in the eign power. Now, has not the general gov state. ernment the right to tax Florida. Certainly The fact is, we must tax. I repeat it, we it has. Then, reversing the rule, that works must tax. Our agricultural college must be both ways; Florida has the right to tax the guarded, or the lizards would devour it; our general government. state officers must be supported at high 3. Florida is a sovereign state, and if it salaries, in order to ensure first class talent has not the right to tax anything it pleases, (the kind we have had for the last fifteen it is not sovereign in its prerogatives. years); our canal system must go on; our 4. The general government is a foreign railroads must be built; we must perpetuate corporation, doing business in the state of our bureau of emigration. Therefore we Florida, and has not the state the right to must tax! tax foreign corporations? 5. The general government being created by states, and not states by the government; "Letter from Okeechobee" makes the states supreme. Bartow Informant, July 28, 1881 6. The land of the government was virtual Gabriel Cunning ly given away to the people under the home Ed. Informant stead act, and every settler has a defeasible ownership in the land he occupies; therefore ur county court met on last Saturday, what ownership he has should be taxed. pursuant to adjournment. Judge Pluck, 18 O the worthy chairman, introduced the object of the dog is good for the bite; and I propose . of the meeting by a short speech, as follows: we try going in debt to get out of debt. It is "Worthy Citizens and Faithful Servants the last resort; the only remedy. I propose of the Public Good this, that we issue new scrip, and take up our "Again have we met to deliberate on the old scrip; then issue scrip to pay off all out interests of our country, and, if possible, de standing claims, then issue $10,000 in small vise some means to get Okeechobee out of bills, from Sc to $5, and make it a legal ten debt. That has been our end and aim - the der by order of court. Soon it will become a burden of our energies and effort from the circulating medium and we can loan out the date of our commissions until now. Every $10,000, and in two years the interest on the exigency, every emergency, every economy same will pay our county debt. Then call in that we could devise has been brought to the $10,000 in scrip; and won't we be out of bear, and all up to date has proved a failing. debt? Most assuredly we will. Don't you see "First we knocked off our mileage, and it the point gentlemen?" did no good; then we relinquished our fees, At this the speaker was interrupted by and that failed. We then sold our store all the board clapping their hands and clothes and patched up our old duds, but exclaiming: "We see it! we see it!" still the county remained in debt. As a last Judge Pluck desired to go on the hungry resort we entered an order on the minutes board, but it would not suffer him. His mea that we would do without our dinners, go to sure was then put to vote, and passed with bed supperless, chew long green tobacco, out dissent or debate. eat our hominy without gravy, our dabber The clerk, Maj. Piute, was ordered to pro without syrup, drink watered whisky, and vide a quire of paper, and proceed to issue. make our wives and children go barefooted. Soon each member had his hands full of small "For months have we lived up to this scrips, paying themselves back dues. Sheriff rigid experiment, only to meet this morning McKillop was dispatched up to Cap. Purdy's to record in failure. Okeechobee is still in store with some scrip to lay in refreshments, debt. Here we are, met together this morn but soon returned with the sad news that the ing, dry and hungry, ragged, discouraged, Captain refused to take the scrip. depressed in spirits and have lost so much This was a slam to our hopes, but Judge flesh - at least forty per cent. Avoirdupois Pluck was equal to the emergency. He had weight - that we look like a committee of an order entered of record, making it skeletons, that had come up from the grave contempt of court to refuse our scrip. yard to light our pipes and go back again. The sheriff returned with a copy of the "The Scriptures say 'wise men will order, and was told to bring the supplies, or change, but fools never change.' Now wor bring the Captain. The supplies came; and thy members, I, for one, am on the change. soon the board was feasting on the emolu Fasting and prayer may cast out devils, but ments of office. fasting will never get a county out of debt. After they had finished their repast, they And I tell you, in words with the bark on, adjourned till after dinner, in order to lay in that this day I am going to eat three hearty store clothes and shoes and socks for their meals, drink some pure whisky, buy me a families. suit of store clothes, and some shoes and socks for my wife and children, or I will re P.S. - Our people are well pleased with sign before the sun goes down. I tell you, we the Disston land sale, since they have have got to the end of the track, and must learned it only includes the stumps that reverse the engine. We must change our [Gov. George F.] Drew28 sold the timber tactics. I can stand it no longer. Who is go from. A million dollars for stumps is bully! ing to thank us for all this privation, suffer ing, sacrifice and starvation? And when we are dead, and buried up yonder in that "Letter from Okeechobee" scrub, who is going to point to our cypress Bartow Informant, August 4, 1881 headboard and say, 'There, lie the five illus Gabriel Cunning trious martyrs, that starved Okeechobee Ed. Informant county out of debt.' "Now, gentlemen, business is business, ast week I left our county court ad and it takes poison to kill poison, and the hair journed, on the hunt for store clothes. L 19 But during their adjournment they indulged One impertinent member asked the in some pure whisky, which being a little clerk if the doctor had his diploma on file as too good, they didn't assemble till next the law requires. morning, when they put in an early appear Judge Pluck soon silenced his chops by a ance, uniformed in black calico suits, fine for contempt of court. creaking brogans, standing collars, and Another member declared the Seminoles "shoo-flies" - the most dignified-looking were not citizens, and therefore not entitled body of men I ever beheld, except the last to pauper rights. general assembly. Judge Pluck said he knew a prominent The former minutes being read and Radical to be admitted to the general adopted, the chairman announced the assembly on the Seminole vote. board ready for business. Another member said, as long as the Sheriff McKillop presented a claim for Seminoles rejected Christianity and ac guarding a prisoner three months, during cused white men of stealing hogs, he should the last rainy season, while the jail was oppose them to the hilt. overflowed. The last member asked the Judge if he One member objected to the claim on cured the Indian. The Judge said he did. the ground that said prisoner was his own "Well," said the member, "I shall not allow son, and, to his own personal knowledge, it neither. If you had killed him, I should the said prisoner chopped five acres of have favored your claim." hammock and furnished all the palmetto The Judge became vexed and vicious, and cabbage and catfish the sheriff's family lived swore he would enlarge it fourfold, and have on during said imprisonment. the legislature to pass it as a relief bill, as This was leading to a warm discussion, many bills of less merit had passed that body. when the sheriff very wisely withdrew his Capt. Purdy then presented his account claim for the present, but that day took the for acting as registering officer at last election. dissenting member home with him to dinner. Judge Pluck, still mad over his own After dinner he again presented his claim, declared there was no law in Bush's claim, somewhat amended and consider digest for paying registering officers. The ably enlarged, and it passed without a entire board agreed with him. dissenting voice. The Captain became enraged, but was Rev. Napoleon B. Young, our county firm; and, looking the board square in the superintendent, then presented an old face, he declared he would go to jail and lie account for taking the enumeration of the there till the ants carried him out through school children of the county last year. But the grates, before he would ever take an a Hard-shell member of the board said he other dollar of Okeechobee scrip for any would oppose it on the ground that the rev purpose; and stamping the muck off his bro erend gentleman preached all the time he gans, he left the room. was engaged in said service, and it would The board turned pale and caved in. The look too much like making the county pay public credit was at stake. They allowed his for preaching, to allow the claim - not that claim in an instant. he cared for the scrip, but the principle was Squire McClintock presented a bill for his point. acting as coroner in holding an inquest. But But Judge Pluck - who is well versed in the Squire's divorced wife was at that time state matters; having been engaged in a keno cooking at Judge Pluck's hotel, and had put bank in Tallahassee, for a number of years; him on the alert. The Judge swore the which business made him quite intimate Squire to answer questions. The first ques with the state officers and members of the tion propounded was: legislature - decided in favor of the claim, "Where did you get that coat, hat, breech because many of the state officers traveled es, boots, and hickory shirt you have on?" ostensibly on official business, when their The Squire turned deadly pale, began to real point was to make stump speeches and stammer and evade, when the Judge, be pack conventions to secure the next gover coming excited, said: norship. Yet they always received pay, "You dirty, thieving scoundrel! You therefore the claim should be allowed. stripped them off the dead man - that's how Judge Pluck then presented a pauper you got em!" medical bill for doctoring a sick Seminole. And he immediately ordered sheriff 20 McK.illop to take him out in the scrub, strip became frightened, and refused $600, and . the stolen duds off, and send him home ten is still raising. miles, stark naked, through the saw-grass, But in a few days the boom would have with orders for him and his hog thieving gradually went down, and public confidence jury to bring up the pocket-knife, brass been restored, had it not been that just as watch and $10 in change they stole at the things were beginning to calm down the inquest, under penalty of being put where "Lone Pilgrim," who sells a patent medicine the dogs won't bite 'em." by that name, put in his appearance also. I understand the Squire has sold out and Then everything was confusion and alarm. got a position in the United States secret Corner lots went up kiting. Judge Pluck was service. offered $15,000 for his sanitarium and The clerk, Maj. Piute, now reported all the shook his head. Capt. Purdy would not take paper used up, and all the fly-leaves of the di $10,000 for his lots, and refused to sell at gest absorbed in writing warrants; whereupon any price. Sheriff McK.illop, who had re the court ordered the sheriff to dispatch a nig peatedly offered his saw palmetto residence ger to Orlando with a pair of saddlebags full of on the edge of the lake near the boulevards, alligator's teeth, and a pillow-slip full of bird for two cows and calves, now rose $500 plumes, and lay in stationery enough to bring every day, till this morning he was offered Okeechobee out of debt. $5,000, and refused to They then adjourned. sell at any price. P.S. - J~e Pluck, who is a Rev. Napoleon B. Bartow Informant, faith doctor, claims the honor Young, who had given a August 11, 1881 of curing [Pres. James] mortgage on Bird-roost D.W.D. Boully island to secure the pay Garfield. No sooner than he ment of a board bill to e have on file for heard the sad news, he hasted Maj. Plute, borrowed Wnext week's issue to bury a black cat under his scrip and redeemed the a long and laughable door step, nailed a horse shoe same, and was yesterday communication from offered $20,000, and to the head of his bed, killed a "Gabriel Cunning." asks $50,000. These articles alone garter-snake with a broom Just as real estate are worth the sub handle, stretched its head out was toppling at its high scription price of the toward the North Star, and said est notches, we received Informant. two valuable additions if the tail wiggled at sundown to our place in the per "Letter from Garfield would recaver. sons of Prof. De Lacey Okeechobee" The tail wiggled. and wife. Although the Bartow Informant, Gabriel Cunning Professor has consider August 11, 1881 able capital, yet he re- Gabriel Cunning fuses to buy property at Ed. Informant present prices; but wishing to establish a permanent theatre, he leased forty acres on write under excitement, and of course the corner of the square from Judge Pluck, I shall not be very concise. and at present is boarding at Judge Pluck's The real estate boom has played the wild hotel, and mowing saw-grass to cover his with Okeechobee. opera house, where, about the 1st of Octo Last week the celebrated Irish soap re ber, he will open up with a small galaxy of ceipt man put in an appearance, looking out stage stars for the ensuing winter. He ex a location. Property prices soon became pects to add great variety to his theatre by shaky, and gradually commenced rising. the addition of some Seminole stars that he Dr. Pluck, who had offered his hotel a has commenced training. few days before for $200, payable in gator Such have been the sudden changes in skins, was now offered $500 by the soap Okeechobee in the last fortnight. All is man, and refused to sell. speculation, hurry, bustle and excitement. Capt. Purdy had two corner lots bar There is not a saw-grass or muck pond for gained to sheriff McK.illop for $100 in forty acres, in five miles of town, to be ob Okeechobee scrip on credit, but now tained for love or money. The people are 21 alarmed, affrighted and uneasy! Judge I had just commenced figuring, when Pluck says that if personal property should the dinner bell rang. After dinner he had to take a sudden raise, the county court would leave, but before starting asked me to con have to issue some more scrip in order to tribute to the tract society. I gave him a keep the circulation medium equivalent to dollar, which he paid on his passage, and the wealth of the country. being acquainted with the captain, begged time on the balance. P.S. - Judge Pluck, who is a faith doctor, I suggested that I thought pine-apples claims the honor of curing [Pres. James] the most profitable. At this a large, sturdy, Garfield.29 No sooner than he heard the sad well dressed fellow, who had a large gold news, he hasted to bury a black cat under stenciled land-agency card in his hat band, his door step, nailed a horse shoe to the said I was right, in that he had 40,000 acres head of his bed, killed a garter-snake with a of pine-apple land to sell around Orange broom handle stretched its head out toward lake - took his start on pine-apples three the North Star, and said if the tail wiggled at years ago. He planted 120 acres in pine-ap sundown Garfield would recover. The tail ples. In three months he shipped from there wiggled. 1,200,000 pine-apples, which realized him a profit of $5 on each. Since that time he had planted out 500 acres of pine-apples, "Letter from Okeechobee" and the business was still successful. Bartow Informant, August 18, 1881 Perceiving that I was getting interested, Gabriel Cunning he asked me up to the bar to "smile." We Ed. Informant "smiled." He wistfully fingered his jacket pockets, looked at the barkeeper, and the aving occasion lately to travel from barkeeper at him, and at last with a smiling HJacksonville to Okeechobee, I feigned not said, "Remember that, if you please." myself a late arrival, seeking a home in "Too thin," was the gruff response. "You Florida, just to determine if those north and promised to pay old scores this trip," said middle Florida fellows did tell as many lies the barkeeper. and villainous slanders about south Florida He struck out to borrow money from a as the emigrants who run the gauntlet and friend. get through say they do. I was next attacked by a tall, jewelry- ! first took passage on a boat up the St. bedecked gentleman, with a stove-pipe hat, John's River. The passengers were from whom I mistook for a member of the legis every part of north and middle Florida. I lature. He desired to sell me 10,000 acres of found they were all land agents. Each one hammock land in north Florida. He advised gave me his card. In fact, in those upper me to go into the vegetable business - said counties a man is not entitled to vote, hold he followed it with success; that last winter office, preach or get married unless he is a and spring he planted 900 acres in early licensed land agent. Of course I was beset vegetables, that his shipments footed up by them from all sides. 1,000,000 crates of tomatoes at $11 a crate; An old, weather beaten disciple, whom 1,800 crates of cucumbers at $9 a crate; they called "deacon" and who was distribut- 1,200 crates of cabbage at $6 a crate; ing tracts, told me his experience in oranges. 500,000 crates of beans at $5 a crate; 1,500 He said he came to Florida six years ago, barrels of mutton com at $16 a barrel; planted a quart of orange seed, and in six 9,000 bushels of Irish potatoes at $3 a months they were ten feet high. He trans- bushel; that he had made arrangements planted a grove of a thousand trees, and the with Mr. Disston for 500 Bohemian garden next year they produced 1,000 oranges to the ers, and would then go into business right. tree, which he sold at Sc, a piece. The same Here he flew off and left me abruptly. A vil year in the same grove he raised 2100 crates lainous constable had come aboard and of tomatoes, which he sold at $13 per crate ·· levied on his·trunk for an unpaid board bill, and 1100 crates of cucumbers, which real- and he had to go ashore. ized him $9 per crate. That he had since that I now became interested with an elderly, time planted out 31,000 orange trees with intelligent, seedy looking Northerner. He similar success; that his groves increased in presented me a list of his lands for sale; said bearing fourfold every year. he had spent a great many years in congress 22 from different states, and been governor of Manatee counties, "Oh! dear," Said she. divers territories out west; had been minis "Don't go there; it's awful! If you cross the ter to the Fijee islands, and consul to most Withlacoochie or the sand hills, you are a of our important ports; that he was residing goner. Why, there's nothing but wild people in Florida, looking to the interest of a vast down there! There's no churches, no running of northern capitalists that he was schools, no law, no order, they raise nothing representing some $20,000,000 in Florida; to eat, live on wild fruit and game, kill their that he had bought a number of bearing deer and eat them with the hair on, never groves for special care and amusement; that pick their chickens or scale their fish, and Mrs. Garfield, his niece, was coming down to but few places where Sunday ever comes, spend the winter with him; that his mother and there they catch their children with was an aunt to Jefferson Davis, he himself a dogs to put clean clothes on them." cousin to Robert E. Lee, his brother married "Soil's rich and country good, I pre a sister to Grant, and another brother mar sume," I said. ried a sister to Jay Gould; that his mother "Oh! me, but you are out of it again," said was a second cousin to [Daniel] Webster, she, "It's all under water nine tenths of the and his father distantly related to [Pres. year, and when the water sinks away, it George] Washington. He himself graduated leaves it a commingled mass of saw-grass, in the same class at West Point with Alex H. sand hills, mud lakes, barren scrubs, bay Stephens, after which he studied law with heads, muck-ponds, sand-soaks, buttonwood Com.[Commodore] Vanderbilt. That he thickets and gopher holes. If all the soil in went on a whaling expedition once with Dr, the whole country was condensed, it would Tahnage. He ·was Abe Lincoln's right-hand n't raise your hat-crown full of pirdars .." .. man during the war, and closed Horace "Just so it is healthy. I shall be content," Greeley's eyes in death. However, he voted said I. for [Winfield Scott] Hancock,30 as Hancock "The Lord be with me, stranger!" she was a brother-in-law to his oldest son. exclaimed. "Why they die there like rotten "And is that all?" I exclaimed, "Why, I made sure you were going to round up by making yourself father-in-law to Sitting Bull and grandfather to [Charles] Guiteau. What do you mean by leaving them out?" The old fellow said I was poking fun at •••• •••• him, passionately turned on his heel, and •••• •••• commenced selling soap receipts and prize .....••" ... r"•••. ,.,. packages - going to the bar between sales. s: w Feeling that I had interviewed the "up - ~ ~~~i& . 4 per crust," I thought I would now strike out ~ among the common people and see what ...... ,...... they had to say...... On leaving the boat I found the land agency boom still at top mast. The fences were all stenciled with "Land Agency," and Hyde Park Architects shingles nailed thickly to the pine trees in front as high as a man could reach with a Charles F C Jordan hammer. PRINCIPAL The first place I passed, the man was not at home. His wife wished he was. She said 1509 WEST SWANN AVENUE he was a land agent, and could fit me up, SUITE270 she knew. Said he was out shooting bats and TAMPA FLORIDA 33606-2557 buzzards to fertilize his orange grove; that 813 . 251 • 6909 FAX 813 • 250 • 1668 most of the people in that locality set hens HPACHAS@AOl..·COM at the roots of their trees, but they, not be LIC NO AA F000096 ing able to buy bone-dust, used bats, buz zards, rabbits and gopher-shells, which she deemed preferable. I asked if she knew any thing about Polk, Hernando, Hillsboro or sheep. You are never out of sight of a grave life; and in all those counties the mosqui yard. The women are all widows, the men toes are so bad that they can't kindle a fire are all widowers, and the children all or light a lamp from the first of May to the orphans, and oh my, just such a sickly, last of August. sunburnt, pale-faced set of squalid wretches Said I: "How do they cool their victuals you never saw!" And here she burst into during that time?" tears and I left. She was a woman and what He replied: "oh, they just live on milk she said went by default. and huckleberries." But the next customer was a "foeman "Great place for orange groves," I re worthy of my steel" - an old, weather-beat marked. en, rough-boned, lantern-jawed, cross-eyed, "Never saw but one bearing grove down seedy soul, mounted on there;" he replied, "and an ancient bobtail horse it was in an Indian that looked just like his Talk of Polk county ha'Ving a mound, and had been master. He seemed quite fertilized with rattle loquacious - told me he barbarous people, indeed! Why, snakes." had been down ten sir, there are not to be found on "Oh, gracious!" I miles to a lake, gigging the continent a more orderly, exclaimed. "Is it gars to fertilize a greens quiet, peaceable, pious, snakey down there?" patch, not being able to "Snakes take care," buy bone dust. I told intelligent, enterprising people he exultingly shouted. him I was bound for than li'Ve there. Polk county, I'll "Why, I've seen rattle south Florida - either 'Venture, today has more snakes, black snakes, Polk, Hernando, Hills church-houses and fewer garter snakes, moc boro, or Manatee - not casins, cotton-mouths, sure which. dancing-halls; more first-class vipers and every other "Oh," said he, "don't schools and fewer dram-shops; kind of snake thick go to Hernando. Why, more preachers and fewer enough on the land to the niggers killed all roughs; buys more books and fence it, and each one the white inhabitances from the size of a fence there three years ago. carries fewer re"Vol'Vers; rail to a pine sapling! No white man dare to plants more orange trees and And that's not half; but live there. It's bad as St. steals a less number of hogs a man dare not trust [Santo) Domingo, and than any county of the same himself on foot there, Polk is still worse, being for the alligators are inhabited by a set of population in the south. large enough to swallow barbarous outlaws, who And two better counties of land a half grown cow, and kill a man for breakfast ne'Ver faced yonder sun so vicious that they will every morning. Hills than Hillsboro and Manatee. chase a man on horse boro and Manatee are back. Now, these things equally objectionable Gabriel Cunning I know. Being a min- from the fact the yellow ister, I spent many fever depopulates them every two years, be months in these counties distributing ing on the coast. Bibles and tracts, some years ago, and "Well, but I am an invalid," said I, "seek speak from actual observation. ing health." "Well, sir," said I, "it sounds like gassing "Health indeed," said he. "Keep out of to me." south Florida. Why, I have seen the malaria "Gassing indeed!" said he. "If you doubt so befog the air that the birds couldn't fly, my being a preacher, I'll show you my and the flies, gnats and mosquitoes; not be credentials." ing able to fly, would lie ankle-deep along Ramming his hand into his pantaloons, the roads. I tell you, stranger, there's insects he pulled out a roll of papers. I took them down there and lots of them, too. I have ac and began to read, it proved to be a list of tually seen the sun on a clear day so be lands he had to sell. I threw it back to him, clouded with horseflies, sand-flies, gad-flies, remarking: house-flies, and all other kinds of flies, that "No more evidences of your piety, if you a man couldn't see his shadow to save his please. But a few words to you, with the bark 24 on, and we dissolve. Now, old hoss, these are graduates from college, and have profession just the kind of tales you and these up-coun al diplomas. And in Manatee I can safely say try folks have been preaching to immigrants it has some localities settled up with as in about south Florida for years, but this time telligent men, refined women and pretty you waked up the wrong passenger. At children as you ever met with: and in present, I own a large alligator peat grove on proportion to its population, it takes more lake Okeechobee, in sight of the ship newspapers, reads more magazine litera canal,31 but I was principally born and ture, cultivates a greater variety of tropical raised all over these counties you speak of; fruits, writes more for editors; discusses and with due difference to your high calling more scientific questions, talks more poli and mission work, I am prepared to say that tics, makes more speeches, holds more everything you have muttered is a viperous picnics, and bakes bigger pound cakes than slander. The yellow fever never touched any place in Christendom. And now, old south Florida out of sight of tide water, and fellow, I would advise you and all such up Hernando county can boast of a numerous, country croakers to come down to south high-toned, intelligent, enterprising white Florida to eat some of our grass-fattened population, and rich hammock soil - rich beef, some of our corn-fed pork, stuff well enough to supply all your up-country with on our cassava pudding and guava pies, better and cheaper fertilizers than all your attend our camp-meetings; reform your bone dust, ash element, bats, buzzards, way, and pretty soon the scurf will slip; and skinned rabbits, hogs' hair, chicken feath in less than a fortnight you will shed more ers, fish scales, Brandreth's pills and various total and hereditary depravity than Adam other things you use now; and as for your carried out of the garden of Eden." snake yarns, I know that burning the woods "But mind, I tell you, and don't you for every year has as completely liberated south get it, if ever you come on another mission Florida of snakes and living venom as St. tour through south Florida, if you don't Patrick's famous sermon did old Ireland, and wear different spectacles; you had better I am willing to give you a quarter section of steer clear of Okeechobee, unless you have first-class saw-grass land on the public suicide on the brain, and then we won't square at Okeechobee, if you can show two honor you by pioneering a graveyard with dozen mosquito bars in south Florida. And you. No, sir; we will utilize you on an alliga as for health, I can say we have but few tor hook." graveyards, and they are principally filled Just then his horse frame began to with doctors and lawyers, who have starved screak and his cart wheels were calling for to death for want of business. Besides, there more soap as he lumbered out of sight. are but few men in that region but what will go ten miles to find a live alligator. They are Bartow Informant, becoming valuable and scarce. Talk of Polk August 25, 1881 county having a barbarous people, indeed! D.W.D. Boully Why, sir, there are not to be found on the continent a more orderly, quiet, peaceable, "Gabe" does not appear in the pious, intelligent, enterprising people than Informant this week, as they have live there. Polk county, I'll venture, today organized an immigration society in has more church-houses and fewer dancing Okeechobee county, and he has been halls; more first-class schools and fewer employed to get up facts for the immigra dram-shops; more preachers and fewer tion circular to be issued. roughs; buys more books and carries fewer revolvers; plants more orange trees and steals a less number of hogs than any "Letter from Okeechobee" county of the same population in the south. Bartow Informant, September 1, 1881 And two better counties of land never faced Gabriel Cunning yonder sun than Hillsboro and Manatee. Ed. Informant Hillsboro county to day has cattle and mer cantile capital enough to buy all the steam n accordance with the request of the state boats on St. Johns river, and all the orange I board of immigration, we folks of groves in 20 miles of Orange lake. More then Okeechobee county, have responded by half the population of that county are organizing our county immigration society, 25 consisting of Judge Pluck as president, and to scald the scales of the moccasins. But if Maj. Plute as corresponding secretary. it is the temperature of the people that is Then we appointed the following required; it is quite variegated. Sometimes committee on facts and data. Assigning to our temperature is low; given to cold each one his respective part: shanties, cold shoulders and freeze-outs - NAPOLEON B. YOUNG on longitude. especially towards strangers without mon CAPT. PURDY on attitude. ey. But to rich Northerners we are warm SHERIFF MCKILLOP on townships. hearted, and highly given to hot-house hos SQUIRE MCCLINTOCK on ranges. pitalities. MRS. ANNALIZER PLUCK on climate. Wages in laborers here are good, being MRS. CAPT. PuRDY on temperature. from $3 to SS a day, payable in Okeechobee COL. METNUSELALI JONES on wages scrip. Before the adoption of our county and prices. currency, a good hand could be hired for a GABRIEL CUNNING on ways and month for two wolf scalps, or a pound of means of living. gator teeth, which was our only circulating After a few hours preparation the following medium at that time circular was read and adopted and a copy The only safe criterion by which we can forwarded to the state determine the prices is board for insertion in the P.S. - hope the reader will to give the hammer pending column, "Florida rates at a recent con As It Is." excuse the monotonous stable's sale. 1\vo cows repetition of South Florida to brought $10; a sow and CIRCULAR. the different routes; but the a pig, Sll; a patch of he latitude and legislature, by a late act, "stand-overs", $7; a longitude of Okee large mule, $15; three Tchobee county is declare that all roads must be pecks of corn, received superb. It can not only the South Florida something. from time to time from boast of a greater quanti Gabriel Cunning the patent office, went ty than any other county off at the rate of $2 a on the continent, but a bushel; and from the superior quality, the longitude being longer number of advertisements on the court and the latitude wider than any county in house door signed by the constable, we the state. think our stock exchange is beginning to In regards to township, they are of revive. rather inferior quality, being made rather The transportation here is abundant. small, in order to supply the inhabitance Capt. McQuaig ran a successful line of with plenty of offices; but what they lack in transportation on the waters of Okeechobee size they make up in number. Our county for several months. He found a mixture of court is constantly organizing new ones for lard and water combined to facilitate his the benefit of immigration. progress wonderfully. When the water is In regards to ranges, we have the great above a foot deep in the sawgrass, the crew est variety and most extensive ranges of any can wade and shove the boats ... at a rapid country in the known world. For instance, rate. In this way the captain made regular the cattle range; which on account of its su trips ... summer from Lake Tohopekaliga to periority now grazes the half million cattle the head waters of the Caloosahatchee. which annually flood south Florida with In regards to the various occupations of Spanish gold. Then the hog ranges, out of our people and means of living, they are too which a thousand, fat hogs are stolen and numerous to mention our most reliable salted down every winter. In addition to means of support, however, is wild or un these, we have the bear range, the deer marked hogs, in which our country range, the alligator range and sometimes abounds. Our next best source of wealth is when a strange sheriff puts in an appear "hair-dicks," of which we brand a great ance, the people range extensively. many every year. Also at certain seasons of In regards to temperature, our climate is the year, a great many wolf scalps are taken the same with winter and summer - never - sufficient to pay off our state and county so cold but what young alligators can be taxes. Of late the alligator trade has sprung hatched in the sun, and never hot enough up afresh, and bids fair to enrich our people 26 at no distant day. As soon as the ship canal by way of Fox town, the tanyard, and Joe is completed, and the Frost-line railroad in Guy's cattle pens on Fish Eating Creek. operation, we expect to ship dried muck and Then we will, in addition to the above, pulverized soil to the northern parts of our have the South Florida Freshwater Line, state for fertilizering purposes. But our most the South Florida Seaboard Line, the South visible means of support is holding offices Florida Tidewater terminus, the South and as the organization of the county is such Florida Express Line, and the South Florida that each voter is entitled to an office, this - I don't know what all. alone ensures each family a bountiful sup But the main line, upon which we most port regardless of any other resources. ly rely in the future, will commence at the Having strictly complied with the re ship canal landing on Okeechobee, and run quirements of the state board, we must ning due north towards Streely lake, Squire respectfully, submit the foregoing. Boney's and Welch's mill, then on an air line by way of Cincinnati, Chicago, Duluth, and Zebedee Pluck, Pres on through the British dominions to Mag. Sitting B. Piute, Sec. Hudson's bay. The name of this route will be the Grand South Florida Polar Star I think when the foregoing circular speaks International Continental Esquirmaux and to the migrating millions seeking homes up Seminole triple zone line. It will be a grand and down the highways of the great world, trunk, triple track, and being the main road it will hurl a tidal wave of immigration into of the western hemisphere, will, without the everglades of Florida that will astonish doubt, make Okeechobee the principal the natives. jumping-off place of the continent. The county court expects to take steps to bring this line into notice. Judge Pluck "Letter from Okeechobee" and Prof. De Lacy will start in a few days to Bartow Informant, lay the project before Wall street. September 29, 1881 We would have no trouble in obtaining Gabriel Cunning the charter and receiving heavy donations Ed. Informant from the state, was it not for a little mishap of our legislature. They, by an unfortunate am in constant receipt of letters making oversight, gave to the qifferent railroads l inquiry in regard to the railroad prospects eight million acres more land than the state of Okeechobee county. For the benefit of all owned; and the general government having concerned I would state that our prospects but little more land in Florida, I fear that are decidedly flattering. We expect to be the some of the roads will have to await the grand terminus of all the principal railroads draining of the everglades, or the annexa of the state, as well as of the entire conti tion of Cuba, to get there prorata. nent. To describe them all would require too much time for my pen, and too much P.S. - hope the reader will excuse the space for you columns. I will begin with the monotonous repetition of South Florida to South Florida Tropical; which bids fair to the different routes; but the legislature, by a be the first road completed. It is more late act, declare that all roads must be the generally known as the AdamsVille, Tucker South Florida something. town, Gapway and Camp Ground route. Then comes the South Florida Frost Line, which is locally known as the Sand "Letter from Okeechobee" Hill, Fort Cummings, Chipco's Camp, and Bartow Informant, October 6, 1881 Kissimmee Island line. Also the South Gabriel Cunning Florida Peninsular, which is destined to Ed. Informant cross at Lanier's bridge and Flat Ford, then by way of Sherhouse's mill, Nigger Ridge, A midst the clash and dash of ship canals, Hooker prairie, Fort Green and Popash, to ..t\.Disston lands, immigration, railroads, Okeechobee. everglade drainage, Kissimmee navigation, Next in order comes the South Florida county courts, hotels, boarding houses, and Central, or "steer trail" line, which, passing invalid sanitariums, all of which are on the through Okahumpke, steers directly south boom at Okeechobee, I am at a loss to know 27 what to write about. and strike for higher wages. The cabinet Our great railroad project, to wit: The officers have risen a hundred per cent in South Florida, Polar Star, International, the last month, and a strike in the senate is Continental, Esquimaux and Seminole daily expected. triple zone line - the initials of the road, if But the most daring effort on the part of the sides of a car will hold them, will be the Jay Gould was to corrupt our own people, S. F., P. S., I., C., E., and T. Z. L. As I was by sending a worsted dress pattern to each going to say, this great project is looming up of our county commissioners, and a ready into notice. It meets the approbation of made suit of black alpaca to Judge Pluck. He Europe. England has already betrayed her got the wrong sow by the ear that time - willingness to grant the right of way, and as you bet he did. Judge Pluck is rightly soon as we get the charter we wish to pre named: he is not made of bending metal: he sent the Queen with a thousand-mile ticket. don't sell. But he bundled J.G.'s old duds, But we are no little surprised to find the and returned them with a letter couched in grand scheme meeting with opposition at words with the bark on. home. That old king of monopolies, Jay It is a long road that has no end, and Jay Gould, has taken a stand against us. He is Gould may be nearer the jumping-off place aroused, and all Wall Street is in a buzz. He in his career than he supposes. England is is beginning to sell. At last accounts he had going to favor our line. English capitalists purchased seventy-seven congressmen. will take hold of it. And when it come to Being third-rate fellows, however, he got baying men, he will find that the bank of them at low figures, averaging about $95 a England, backed up by our Okeechobee head. He has also purchased a number of scrip, will play the winning hand. Let Jay medium-priced editors, and advertised Gould make a few passes at Judge Pluck and $2,000 to any and all engineers who will our county court, and he will get it done for report our route impracticable. him. He had better take out a policy in his But one thing is in our favor. The long moccasins. expected demise of the president has led the leading editors to sharpen their quills P.S. - Guiteau will necessarily be hung at no distant day. Our county court has memorialized congress, through our senators, to have the execution come off at Okeechobee. It will give South Florida notoriety, bring oceans of money into the country, and wonderfully enhance immigration. It will also bring the efficiency of our Okeechobee jute hemp before the commercial world.
"Letter from Okeechobee" Bartow Informant, October 20, 1881 Gabriel Cunning Ed. Informant
t has been determined upon the part of I the people of Okeechobee to keep clear of lawyers, believing them to be detrimental to the good of society; and the present condi tions of our county; such that litigation would work a great hardship to many of our people. For instance, many of our county officers have, through ignorance _of law, charged higher fees than the law strictly allows; and some of them, through actual necessity, have been compelled to use pub lic money, which they honestly design to refund so soon as the railroad comes, and two stout cabbage palmettos logs prepared. they can dispose of their real estate. There for the purpose. The testimony being heard, are also a great many of our guardians and our little upstart walked around behind a administrators that are, from the same cabbage stump, on top of which he had an cause, behind on settlement, and they and armful of his leather-back books stacked. their bondmen would be ruined, was it not He began his speech, and soon convinced for the clemency of Judge Pluck - he having the bystanders that he was an unsophisti much of their money borrowed, which they cated idiot, by using all kinds of Seminole loan him at low per cent., kindly allowing words, which he had picked up from the him to charge liberal costs, and paying him squaws during his short stay among us - a little besides, he in a most noble and gen such terms as "res geste," lis pendens,32 erous manner refrains from oppressive sine qua non,33 ad infinitum,34 and other measures. Seminole gibberish, which no Indian him This being the condition of things, we self, could have understood. He then well knew that the advent of a little, snivel opened his books and began reading and ing, strap toad lawyer in our midst would oh! forever! such sights and immensities as soon set Okeechobee in a buzz - would that poor fellow did read! He beat Bill soon have all our official bondmen seated Arp's35 lawyer - no touch! He read from into a gin-shop, and all the old widows and [William] Blackstone36 on immigration, orphans clapper clawing at the heels of [Joseph Kinnicutt] Angell37 on limitation, Judge Pluck for the benefit of said lawyer [James] Kent38 on meditation, [Theophilus] collecting their estate on the halves. Such a Parsons39 on concentration, [Joel Prentiss] state of affairs would ruin our prosperity, Bishop40 on recreation - and for my life I unless we burnt our courthouse; and that can't tell how many actions he did read we hate to do. Therefore we set our faces about. But all that had any point was a like flint against the location of a lawyer in story written by a fellow named Baiment our midst, and were quite fortunate in on broken buggies and borrowed horses. cold-shouldering every one who put in his As he finished reading, a nigger and half appearance, till he disappeared in the breed on the jury got to quarreling in saw-grass. Indian. Sheriff McKillop was lying on the But recently we got hold of rather a pine straw sound asleep. Judge Pluck was tough customer, who did not seem to see leisurely lighting his cob pipe at the a point, or take a hint. Said customer was a mosquito fire, paying no attention whatever little, box-toad, dwarf of a fellow, with right to the disturbance - it being no unusual pants, swallow-tailed coat, standing collar, occurrence in his court. But the little and a zinc trunk, full of leather-back books. Pickwickety lawyer, wishing to say He seemed determined to stay; and, despite something to look smart, remarked, that as the frown, sneers, insinuations, reproaches, the sheriff was asleep, he would recom rebuffs, insults, slights, reflections, cold mend that the court appoint an elisor41 to shoulders, and such like, he persisted in keep order - pronouncing the word elisor in remaining. Judge Pluck tried to bluff him old style. Judge Pluck dropped his pipe, by demanding a month's board in advance, and, clenching his fists, made for the speak supposing he couldn't chink; but he er, exclaiming, "You scoundrel! You villain, chinked. dog and thief! You dare insult me by asking Fearing he might create disturbance in that my wife be appointed sheriff of my own our county matters, we took the precaution court? I'll show you, sir, that Annalizer to hide all our court and county records in Pluck, if she was a Minorcan when I married a hallow cypress. We thought this ought to her, is not the wife of a county judge and check mate him, but it failed. He still stayed mistress of a hotel and act to be scandalized and nosed around, till at last he got up a lit by a scabbed nosed salamander like you!" tle lawsuit, and filed the papers before The thunder-struck attorney, who had Judge Pluck. The Judge holds court in the been falling back in good order as the judge cypress park on the edge of the lake, at the advanced, felt suddenly relieved by sheriff junction of Guiteau Street and ship canal. McKillop springing between them, and The case coming on, Judge Pluck took seizing the Judge in his arms, slowly hustled his seat upon a cypress stump cushioned him back to his cypress stump. The sheriff with a hog-skin, while the jury occupied insisted that the Judge hold his boots and 29 calm down, so that the lawyer could within my rule, sir. Don't doubt by authori apologize or explain. ty again, if you don't want to get saddled The Judge at last cooled, and the little with a fine for contempt." fellow explained - you bet he explained - The little box-toe had to explain again, and to our surprise, the took up one of the and then he began closing but before he got leather-backed books and read, sure to the amen, he suggested that he had enough, that in case of the absence of a abridged his arguments and made his sheriff, the judge could appoint an officer in speeches rather multum in paroum. 43 his place, called an elisor. This was a new The Judge looked fierce again, when point in Okeechobee, and slightly reflected sheriff McKillop interrupted the speaker by on the ignorance of the court. The Judge telling him that the Judge's knowledge of felt chawed. He apolo- Indians was very shaky gized at arm's length, and he had better not and in furtherance of By this time our leading citi- use any more Seminole justice ordered Major terms. The little fellow Plute, the clerk, to en ~ens in conclaCentral Florida Press, 1991), 'lhmpa Tribune: A Century of Florida Journalism 195-204; idem, Fort Meade, 1849-1900 (Tuscaloosa: (Tampa: University of Tampa Press, 1998), 21-29; University of Alabama Press, 1995), 52-67; Karl H. William W. Rogers and James M. Denham, Florida Grismer, Story of Fort Myers (St. Petersburg Sheriffs: A History, 1821-1945 (Tallahassee: Sentry Printing Company Inc., 1949), 78-102; Mark Derr, Press, 2001), 118-28. Some Kind of Paradise: A Chronicle ofMan and the 14. One Florida example of Cunning's style can be seen Land in Florida (William Morrow and Company, in the writings of George Gillett Keen. See James M. 1989), 97-104; Jim Janosky, Okeechobee - A Denham and Canter Brown, Jr., Cracker Times and Modern Frontier (Gainesville: University Press of Pioneer Li'Ves: The Florida Reminiscences of George Florida, 1997), 6-7. Gillett Keen and Sarah Pamela Williams 3. These figures are based on the cattle prices at $14 (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, per head. Tampa Sunland Tribune, November 16, 2000). For a general overview of southern humorists 1878. and postbellum southern literary traditions see 4. Tampa Sunland Tribune, August 14, 1879. For a Louis D. Rubin, Edge of the Swamp: A Study in the fuller treatment of the numbers, shippers, and ship Lit.erature of the Old South (Baton Rouge: Louisiana ping points see "The Cattle Trade,'' in "Letter from State University Press, 1989); J.V. Ridgely, Florida" in Ibid., November 6, 1879. Nineteenth-Century Southern Literature 5. Brown, Fort Meade, 54-55, 124; Fernald and (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1980); Purdum, Florida Atlas, 101. William Cooper and Thomas Terrill, American South (New York: McGraw Hill), 641-42. 6. A good general overview of population and agricul tural productions of Hillsborough, Polk, and 15. Gabriel Cunning, "Letter from Okeechobee," Manatee Counties can be found in "Florida As it is," Tampa Sunland Tribune, November 16, 1878. Tampa Sunland Tribune, January 15, 1881. 16. Cunning is no doubt referring to the southern tip 7. Harry A. Kersey, Pelts, Plumes and Hides: White of the "Florida Ridge," which extends down to the Traders Anwng the Seminole Indians, 1870-1930 bottom of present day Highlands County, at that (Gainesville: University Presses of Florida, 1975), time Manatee County. For an elevation map see 13; James W. Covington, The Seminoles of Florida Edward A. Fernald and Elisabeth D. Purdum, eds., (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1993), 154- Atlas of Florida, 37. 159. 17. There were hundreds of Indian temple and cere 8. For a contemporary description of Manatee (both monial mounds, burial mounds, and habitation the village and the county) see Tampa Sunland mounds scattered throughout Florida in the mid Tribune, July 27, 1878. "The village, or settlement nineteenth century. In Lake Okeechobee region, in known as Manatee, is by no means closely built up the 1880's, the mounds were untouched by tourism as a regularly laid off town, but is divided off into lots and for the most part humanity, standing as proud containing from four to ten acres on which the own relics to the Indian nations that once lived in South er resides and has the balance set out in an orange Florida. See Jerry N. McDonald & Susan L. grove with other semi-tropical fruits interspersed. Woodward, Indian Mounds Of The Atlantic Coast: A The houses are mostly of a plain cottage style, built Guide Tu Sites From Maine To Florida (Newark: of wood and celled or plastered inside and painted; The McDonald & Woodward Publishing Company, and embowered, as the majority are in umbrageous 1987), 41-45; Lawrence Will, Cracker History Of fruit trees, the effect is extremely pleasant and invit Okeechobee: "Custard Apple, Moonuine, Caifish, ing." The correspondent also noted that the village and Moonshine" (St. Petersburg: Great Outdoors, had five or six stores. 1\vo or three steamers full of 1964), 18-19; Randolph 1\vidmer, The E'Volution of cattle are taken per week to the Havana market. the Caloosa: A Nonagricultural Cheifdom on the Subsequent description in Ibid., May 27, 1880. See Southwest Florida Coast (Tuscaloosa: University of also Janet Snyder Matthews, Edge of Wilderness: A Alabama Press, 1988), 6, 36-46, 86-94. Settlement History of Manatee Ri'VeT and Sarasota 18. Philip Dzialynski was a Jewish businessman of Bay (Tulsa: Caprine Press, 1983). Cunning's time, and owned stores in Bartow, 9. On December 13, 1879, Cuss Finger, a correspon Orlando and Fort Meade. Dzialynski was also a real dence to the Tampa Guardian, reported that "Fort estate agent, citrus grove and hotel owner as well as Ogden was improving. It had three stores and a serving on the Polk County board of county com drinking saloon. In the absence of a clerk there can missioners. See Canter Brown Jr., In The Midst Of be no license obtained to sell whiskey or get mar All That Makes Life Worth Liuing: Polk County, ried, so we have for the time being to suspend both Florida to 1940 (Tallahassee: Sentry Press, 2001), drinking and marrying." 122-124, 264; and Canter Brown Jr., Florida's Peace Ri'Ver Frontier (Orlando: University of Central 35 Florida Press, 1991), 302-303. September 19. The first local coverage of the shoot 19. William D. Bloxham (1835-1911) served as ing appeared in the Tampa Sunland Tribune, July 9, Governor of Florida from 1881-1885, and again from 1881. 1897-1901. One of his administration's first acts was 30. Winfield Scott Hancock (1824 -1886), a Democrat, to sell Hamilton Disston 4 million acres of land at lost to James Garfield in the presidential election of f.25 per acre. Bloxham was sworn in as governor 1880. only a few months before Gunning's first article ap 31. Cunning is probably referring to the Three Mile peared in the Informant. See Allen Morris and Joan Canal that connected the southwest comer of Lake Perry Morris, eds, The Florida Handbook Okeechobee with Lake Hicpochee, close to the pre (Tallahassee: The Peninsular Publishing Company, . sent day town of Moore Haven. 1997), 321. 32. Lis pendens is Latin for "a pending lawsuit." 20. Hamilton Disston (1844-1896) purchased four mil 33. Sine qua non is Latin for "without which cause lion acres in South Florida east of the Peace River not." Okeechobee from the and north and east of Lake 34. Ad infinitum is Latin for "to infinite." state of Florida for f .25 per acre in 1881. The pur (1826-1903), a chase also included lands on both sides of the 35. Charles Henry Smith (Bill Arp) and politician, wrote many humor Caloosahatchee River. Within months after the pur Georgia lawyer Georgia Southern chase, Disston's company was initiating his scheme ous letters published in the Rome, Gabriel Cunning, to drain and sell lands within the purchase. The first Confederacy, similar to those of name Bill Arp. See L. Moody Simms, local mention of the Disston scheme appeared in the signed with the "The Okeechobee Enterprises," Tampa Sunland ANB, 20:150-151. Tribune, March 5, 1881. Disston and his associates 36. William Blackstone (1723-1780) was a English le formed the East Florida Coast Canal and gal scholar and the author of Commentaries On The Okeechobee Land Company and arrived in Law Of England (1765-1769). His Commentaries Jacksonville, Florida in May 1881, to organize their served to educate lawyers and judges in the United enterprise. Ibid., May 7, 1881. See also "Everglade States for decades and was the most influential book Sceme" and "Sale of Four Million Acres," Ibid., June in English law. See Richard A. Cosgrove, Dictionary 18, 1881. See Will, Cracker History of Okeechobee, of World Biography, 4:129-131. 108-113; Brown, Florida's Peace Riuer Frontier, 37. Joseph Kinnicutt Angell (1794-1857), a prominent 261-262; Brown, In The Midst ofAll That Makes Life legal writer, was the author of Treaties On The Worth Li'Ding, 132-133, 140, 148, 196; Marjory Common Law In Relation Th Watercourses (1824) Stoneman Douglas, The E'Derglades: Ri'Der Of Grass and Right Of Property In Tidewater And In The Soil (Sarasota: Pineapple Press, 1988), 281-283; Joe And Shores Thereof (1826). See Mark Warren Knetsch, "Hamilton Disston and the Development of Bailey, ANB, 1:524-525. Florida," Sunland Tribune: Journal of the Tampa 38. James Kent (1762-1847), a prominent American Historical Society 24 (1998), 5-19; Charlton lawyer and legal scholar, was the author of Tebeau, A History of Florida (Miami: University of Commentaries On American Law. See Donald M. Miami Press, 1971), 278; Orrick and Crumpacker, Roper, ANB, 12:596-599. The Tampa Tribune, 24-25; David McCally, The 39. Theophilus Parsons (1797-1882) was the editor of Euerglades: An Enuironmental History the United State Literary Gazette. He was also the (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1999), 61- author of The Elements Of Mercantile Law (1856); 62; Gannon, Florida, A Short History (Gainesville: Law Of Business For Business Men (1857); and The University Press of Florida, 1993), 53. Law Of Contracts from 1853 to 1855. See Francis 21. Common derogatory names for French people and Helminski, ANB, 17 :95-96. German people were Frogs and Krauts in corre 40. Joel Prentiss Bishop (1814-1901), a legal scholar, sponding order. wrote Of The Law Of Marriage And Diuorce 22. Cunning is referring to an unpopular law passed by (1852). See Stephen A. Siegel, ANB, 2:830-832. the Florida legislature, taxing improvements squat 41. An elisor is one of two persons appointed by a ters made on state lands. The tax Cunning is refer court to return a judgment or serve a writ when the ring to is discussed in Tampa Sunland Tribune, July sheriff and the coroners are disqualified. 30, August 18, 1881. 42. Cayeat emptor is Latin for "let the buyer beware." 23. Allen H. Bush, A Digest of the Statute Law of 43. Multum in paroum is Latin for "many in one." Florida (Tallahassee: Charles H. Walton, State Levy (1810-1886) was a prominent Printer, 1872). 44. David Yulee Florida politician, businessman, and railroad 24. George P. Raney (1845-1911) was attorney general builder. See Patrick K. Williams, ANB, 24: 201-202. for the state of Florida (1877-1885). See Allan Morris and Joan Perry Morris, eds, The Florida Handbook, 321; John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes, eds, American Nat:iona.l Biography (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999) 18:139-140 (Hereinafter ANB.) 25. Charles Devens was U.S. attorney general during the administration of President Rutherford B. Hayes. 26. Holy Bible, Romans 4:15. 27. Holy Bible, Revelation 15. 28. George F. Drew (1827-1900), a Democrat, served as governor of Florida from 1877-1881. He owned the largest sawmill in Florida at Ellaville on the Suwanee River, and at one time had ten other mills in operation. Allen and Joan Morris, eds, The Florida Handbook, 321. 29. President James Garfield (1831-1881) was shot by Charles J. Guiteau on July 2, 1881, and died on 36
