Glades, Lake Worth Share 'Father of Sugar's' Legacy

By Bob Davidsson
        A pioneer once known as the "Father of the Sugar Industry" in western Palm Beach County also designed and promoted the town site for what became the City of Lake Worth.
        Frederick Edward "F.E." Bryant (1875-1946) emigrated from England in 1894 to study American agricultural techniques. He established a dairy farm in Colorado with his brother, Harold J. Bryant.
        While visiting South Florida in 1909, F.E. Bryant decided to stake his future in the development of agriculture in the Everglades. He established the Palm Beach Farms Corporation with his brother to farm the rich soil in Palm Beach County.
        To prevent the chronic flooding of agricultural and residential lands, Bryant became a founding member of the Lake Worth Drainage District (LWDD). The LWDD was created June 15, 1915, under the authority of the Florida Legislature's 1913 General Drainage laws, with the mission of "providing improvements for the purpose of making the area habitable for both settlement and agriculture."

The Bryants Design the Future of Lake Worth
        Following the death of her husband, Samuel, pioneer landowner and former African slave Fannie James sold her holdings in what became the downtown core area of the future City of Lake Worth to the Bryants' Palm Beach Farms Company.
        By the time Lake Worth was incorporated in June 1913, the Bryant brothers had already created the blueprint used for future growth. In the summer of 1912, the Bryants completed a platted survey of the town. It included 55 miles of streets and 7,000 residential lots ranging from 25 to 50 feet in width.
        The small city lots were purposely designed as part of a sales campaign by the Bryant brothers and partner William Greenwood. In 1910, F.E. Bryant purchased large tracts of farmland in the Glades. He sold these sections of land  to investors with small town plots in Lake Worth offered as a bonus incentive.
        The five-acre rural farm tracts sold for $250, including the 25-foot city lot incentives. The Bryant and Greenwood company promoted their development plan nationwide, and sponsored a land auction in 1912. Some of the rural tracts purchased by out-of-state investors were in submerged marshland, which in an unexpected way spurred growth in Lake Worth as new residents were forced to live in their city lots.
        A platted strip of land along the Lake Worth Lagoon was left undeveloped for a future park. It was named Bryant Park in honor of the early developers who promoted the City of Lake Worth.
        Today, Bryant Park extends about six blocks along the shore of the Intracoastal Waterway, south of Lake Avenue. The waterfront park features a covered band shell with seating, one-mile heart trail, public boat ramps, fishing pier, picnic pavilion and playground.

Bryant Creates the Community of Azucar (Sugar)
        During World War I, America experienced a shortage of sugar and was dependent on foreign sources. F.E. Bryant lobbied the U.S. Department of Agriculture to build an experimental sugarcane field station at Canal Point. It continues to serve the agricultural community today.
        Bryant and partner G.T. Anderson formed the Florida Sugar and Food Products Company in 1921. The same year, Bryant built the county's first sugar mill east of Pahokee.
        The farming entrepreneur named this first sugar plantation "Azucar" - the Spanish word for sugar. Bryant envisioned a model farming community for the mainly black sugarcane workers.
        He funded the Beulah Land School (founded in 1909) at Azucar through a grant from the Julius Rosenwald Foundation for the children of the African-American farm workers. The school was renamed Azucar in 1914, and became the Bryant School for grades one through eight in 1941. It closed its doors in 1966.
        Bryant merged his Florida Sugar and Food Products Company with the Southern Sugar Company to raise capital for his agricultural projects during the 1920s. The Southern Sugar Company, in turn, was purchased by automobile tire magnate and General Motors executive Charles Mott during the Great Depression, resulting in the creation of U.S. Sugar in April 1931.
        Bryant served as the superintendent of the Eastern Division of U.S. Sugar, and as a company vice president until his death in 1946.
        In 1934, Bryant built a white two-story mansion at Azucar that became known as the "Bryant House". It was used by family members and visiting guests of U.S. Sugar while they were in the Glades.
        After his death, the Bryant House changed ownership. His former mansion was badly damaged during Hurricane Wilma in 2005. The property was taken over by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2011. The remaining ruins of the Bryant mansion were demolished on June 27, 2016.
        F.E. Bryant also resided  with his wife, Minnie (born 1880), in the Town of Palm Beach during the 1930s and 1940s, setting a precedent for future sugar tycoons. His residence was located at 434 Sea Spray Ave. in Palm Beach.
        Bryant died Dec. 6, 1946 at the age of 72. U.S. Sugar renamed the unincorporated community of Azucar as "Bryant" in his honor, and placed a memorial plaque at the site.
        The memorial reads, "Mr. Bryant established Azucar and began the development of sugar production in the Everglades."
        "His foresight and courage, vision and fortitude, were largely responsible for successful development of the upper Glades," the plaque states. "His qualities as a leader and humanitarian will always be remembered by those who knew him."
        The "Bryant Sugar House" mill opened in the rural community in 1962. At that time, it was the largest sugarcane processing plant in the world. The Bryant mill closed in 2007.
        Today, the community of Bryant is one of many ghost towns in the Glades. A drive along Old Connor Road (off U.S. 98) will lead you to the skeletal remains of the sugar mill and overgrown streets that once served the homes of the sugarcane workers.       
(c.) Davidsson, 2019.
*NOTE:  Article also reprinted with permission in the Feb. 6, 2019 edition of "Okeechobee News". See additional articles below and archived in Older Posts.