By Bob Davidsson
During the 1970s, more than a dozen sightings of the elusive "Skunk Ape," the Everglades version of the Himalayan "Yeti" and Oregon's "Sasquatch" (Bigfoot), were reported in suburban Palm Beach County.
Why the legendary creature was observed in such large numbers during the decade of the 1970s is a mystery. However, not unlike the rash of reported UFO encounters in the 1960s, one Skunk Ape sighting tends to fuel the overactive imaginations of other observers.
Another factor contributing to the upswing of Skunk Ape encounters was the widespread news coverage of the sightings by the Palm Beach Post, Miami Herald and especially in Lantana's National Enquirer and Weekly World News tabloids.
The decade also was a period of rapid population growth in Palm Beach County, with developers creating many communities west of Military Trail and in the new Village of Wellington. Loss of natural habitat confines wildlife to smaller green spaces and increases human contacts.
The Everglades Skunk Ape has many nicknames - Swamp Cabbage Man, Swampsquatch, and the Florida Bigfoot. Eyewitnesses claim the creature measures six to eight feet in height and weighs an estimated 500 pounds. It has a shaggy coat of fur ranging from rust color to dark brown.
Unlike Florida's black bears, the Skunk Ape walks upright on two legs. Observers say it could move rapidly when frightened or pursued. As its name implies, the Skunk Ape is best known for its rank odor. Eyewitnesses describe the stench as a cross between a skunk and aged road kill.
The Skunk Ape is classified as a "cryptid". A cryptid is "an animal where its existence or survival to the present day is disputed or unsubstantiated by the scientific community," according to the Oxford English Dictionary.
As such, the Skunk Ape joins the company of such cryptid celebrities as the Loch Ness Monster, the Florida Keys Devil Men and the recently observed Lake Worth Lagoon Muck Monster.
Eyewitnesses who have encountered a Skunk Ape disagree with the scientific experts. So do "crypto zoologists" - alternative pseudoscientists and adventurers whose aim it is to prove the existence of entities from the folklore records and evidence reported about the Skunk Ape.
Strange Cryptid Encounters in Palm Beach County
In 1977 a bill was introduced in the Florida Legislature that would make it illegal to "take, possess, harm or molest anthropoids or humanoid animals." It failed to pass.
Reports of Skunk Ape sightings were so common statewide in the 1970s that even our Florida lawmakers took notice. Palm Beach County had more than its share of alleged close encounters with the Everglades creature.
For example, in 1972 a Skunk Ape sighting was reported in the Meadowbrook subdivision of West Palm Beach,. The same year a Pahokee resident said he and his dog fled from a "hairy eight-foot monster" in western Palm Beach County.
In June 1974, farmer Buddy Sterrett reported a Skunk Ape picked up one his 110-pound hogs and attacked it. He said," It had the smell that would make the hair on the back of your head stand up."
Thee months later, security guard Cary Kantor said he shot at a Skunk Ape in the Wellington construction site where he was posted. "It smelled like it had taken a bath in rotten eggs," he reported. In the autumn of 1974, a Greenacres family reported seeing strange footprints outside of their home left by the Skunk Ape.
Two workers reported seeing a "seven-foot tall hairy creature" in 1977 as it was drinking from a lake at a suburban Delray Beach golf course. They notified the Palm Beach County Animal Control of their sighting. No report was filed.
In 1978 a Lantana resident said he spotted a creature at 5 a.m. in his back yard. He was alerted by the barking of his dogs. The same year two Boca Raton youths reported to police "a creature resembling the notorious Skunk Ape" stalking in the woods by the Hillsboro Canal.
The prestigious "Smithsonian" journal published a feature article in March 2014 entitled "On the Trail of Florida's Bigfoot." The story highlighted the "Skunk Ape Research Center," established in 1999 by Dave Shealy, an eyewitness and true believer in the Skunk Ape, near the tiny Everglades community of Ochopee.
His collection of artifacts includes alleged photographs of the Skunk Ape, which many cryptid critics believe look more like a fugitive orangutan than an Everglades monster. Whether fact or fiction, the legend lives on in Florida today.
Key Largo: An Island Paradise for Cryptids
Without question the most famous and widely investigated Skunk Ape encounter was the month-long ordeal experienced by the Charles Stoeckman family of Key Largo. Among those investigating the bazaar series of encounters were the Monroe County Sheriffs Office, the Florida Marine Patrol, a team from the Florida Technical Institute, photographers from the National Enquirer, and interested news media from Palm Beach County to Key West.
The island of Key Largo forms the southeastern tip of the so-called Bermuda Triangle, which may help explain preternatural sightings of the "Devil Men," seen floating over Florida Bay prior to electrical storms, or visions of the Virgin Mary in a grotto near the St. Justin Martyr Catholic Church.
One enthusiastic resident in 1978 even claimed to have discovered the lost city of Atlantis just offshore of Key Largo. However, upon close inspection at low tide, his "Atlantis" turned out to be an ancient reef of consisting of fossilized brain coral.*
Charles Stoeckman, his wife, and three children lived in a home at mile marker 94.5 Oceanside on Key Largo. On July 14, 1977 Stoeckman and his son saw what he said was an eight or nine-foot tall Skunk Ape while they were collecting rare bottles in the mangroves near his home.
"It had a huge head and shoulders," he later reported, "long fur all over, and he stank like a dirty wet dog. The noise he made was a high-pitched wailing."
Stoeckman cleared 30 feet of brush from around his home to discourage a return visit by the Skunk Ape. It didn't work. The Skunk Ape returned for several night visits. Mrs. Stoeckman and her children fled to Homestead after seeing the creature outside her window.
Responding to terrorized pleas for help were Monroe County Sheriffs Deputy Bill Haase and Sgt. Randall Chinn from the Plantation Key Substation. Florida Marine Patrol Capt. Jack Gillen also inspected the Stoeckman property. No trace of the Skunk Ape was found.
Charles Stoeckman remained at his home for about a month, armed with a shotgun. He later joined his family in south Dade County.
A short time after the Stoeckman encounter, four Tavernier residents formed a Skunk Ape posse. Armed with flash lights, lanterns, a camera and snake bite medication they began what a local newspaper called a "Skunk Ape Safari". The posse met at Harry Harris Park in Tavernier and followed the shoreline north to the Dove Creek Estates.
As with all Skunk Ape adventures, the Everglades monster eluded its pursuers.
(c.) Davidsson. 2018.
*NOTE: This article also was published in the Oct.31, 2018 edition of the Okeechobee News. The author of this article was a reporter for the Florida Keys Keynoter from 1977-80. See additional articles below and archived in Older Posts.
Saturday, October 20, 2018
Wednesday, September 26, 2018
Summer of 'Rockreation' in Palm Beach County: 1970
By Bob Davidsson
On Nov. 28, 1969, Palm Beach County law enforcement and pubic health agencies were stretched to the limit by the sudden arrival of more than 40,000 young people at the old Palm Beach International Speedway to attend the "First Annual (and only) Palm Beach International Music and Arts Festival."
The determined Baby Boomers braved near record-cold temperatures and heavy rains to hear Iron Butterfly, Jefferson Airplane, Sly Stone, Janis Joplin and the last-minute arrival of the Rolling Stones for the three-day event.
Most of the young music fans attending the festival paid the $20 entry fee. However, many opted to swim across an alligator infested canal for free access to the concert.
It is estimated promoter Dave Rupp lost between $300,000 and $500,000 sponsoring the rock festival. County taxpayers picked up much of the tab for emergency Fire-Rescue medical services to treat 130 drug overdoses and 42 cases of intestinal disease caused by poor sanitation. Security and traffic control required 150 Sheriffs Office deputies.
The county attempted to deny Rupp a permit to hold the music festival, but the concert promoter prevailed in an appeal. Ironically, less than six months later, the County Commission would reverse its policy by supporting summer rock concerts in several of its public parks.
The Summer of 'Rockreation'
The lingering image of 40,000 young Baby Boomers assembled en mass at one venue left a lasting impression with county leaders. Record numbers of the post-World War II generation were attending county high schools and colleges in 1969-70.
When the school year ended in June 1970, would thousands of idle but socially active young people be content with another summer of love, beaches and surfing, or would it become a season of discontent sparked by the endless Vietnam War and unresolved societal issues.
The County Commission approved a unique cure for their summertime blues - "Rockreation".
An editorial first published in the Palm Beach Post, then reprinted in the Boca Raton News for the benefit of south county readers on March 20, 1970, reported, "The County Commission rightly gave a boost to youth by arranging facilities for ad hoc Sunday rock concerts in county parks."
"Commissioners agreed to make electricity available at some county facilities each Sunday between 1:30 and 5:30 p.m. As little as that is, at least Palm Beach County youth now have a popular form of recreation on county property."
The editorial concludes, "The county has earned plus marks for its decision. Now if it could bend a little further to provide even more activities for its residents who are too old for seesaws and too young for night clubs."
The loose-knit events actually began a number of weeks prior to the county's decision. Local bands got together for jam sessions at John Prince Park. The number of spectators increased weekly. Occasionally, the musicians would rent group barbecue pavilions to obtain access to electricity.
The County Commission wisely codified an activity already taking place in its parks.
The Violent End to 'The Peoples Park'
In sharp contrast to the county's policy of toleration in the use of public parks by area youths, the City of West Palm Beach cracked down on unauthorized gatherings of young people through strict enforcement of city policies.
The main target of the West Palm Beach Police was a colony of Hippies and their cadre of weekend student supporters encamped at the so-called "Peoples Park".
The Peoples Park was an open area at Phillips Point, fronting Flagler Drive. It was across the street from "The Hut," a favorite counter-culture eatery and gathering place during the 1960s and early 1970s.
After more than a month of clashes between the Hippies and police over noise, drug use and zoning violations, on July 7, 1970 the police swept into the Peoples Park, arresting 64 young people and closing the area to public use.
"Keep Off" signs were posted at the park site. The city passed an ordinance closing all city parks at 9 p.m. to prevent future gatherings of young people.
In a 1978 Palm Beach Post interview, former West Palm Beach Police Chief William Barnes recalled, "The park was a damned national disgrace - pot smoking, hell raising, fornicating on the ground, bottle throwing. You name it."
The editors of the Palm Beach Junior College "Beachcomber" student newspaper had a different perspective on the closing of the Peoples Park. Their lament was published in a Aug. 31, 1970 column entitled "Summertime Blues".
"The violent purge in the Peoples Park at The Hut, the shutdown of the Summerfaze in Miami, the demise of live rock Sundays at John Prince Park, when will it end," the editorial stated. "When will people be allowed to gather in free assembly granted by our Constitution?"
The County Commission's experiment with "Rockreation" ended with the beginning of the 1970-71 school year. While the music died, impromptu weekend gatherings (Happenings) by young people continued in the John Prince and Phil Foster parks well into the fall and winter.
So ended the summer of 1970 in Palm Beach County. Today, outdoor rock concerts have become a regular feature along the West Palm Beach waterfront, at Bryant Park in Lake Worth and venues across the county.
(c.) Davidsson. 2018.
NOTE: The author was a junior at Lake Worth High School in the summer of 1970. He attended events at John Prince and Phil Foster parks. See additional articles archived below and in Older Posts.
On Nov. 28, 1969, Palm Beach County law enforcement and pubic health agencies were stretched to the limit by the sudden arrival of more than 40,000 young people at the old Palm Beach International Speedway to attend the "First Annual (and only) Palm Beach International Music and Arts Festival."
The determined Baby Boomers braved near record-cold temperatures and heavy rains to hear Iron Butterfly, Jefferson Airplane, Sly Stone, Janis Joplin and the last-minute arrival of the Rolling Stones for the three-day event.
Most of the young music fans attending the festival paid the $20 entry fee. However, many opted to swim across an alligator infested canal for free access to the concert.
It is estimated promoter Dave Rupp lost between $300,000 and $500,000 sponsoring the rock festival. County taxpayers picked up much of the tab for emergency Fire-Rescue medical services to treat 130 drug overdoses and 42 cases of intestinal disease caused by poor sanitation. Security and traffic control required 150 Sheriffs Office deputies.
The county attempted to deny Rupp a permit to hold the music festival, but the concert promoter prevailed in an appeal. Ironically, less than six months later, the County Commission would reverse its policy by supporting summer rock concerts in several of its public parks.
The Summer of 'Rockreation'
The lingering image of 40,000 young Baby Boomers assembled en mass at one venue left a lasting impression with county leaders. Record numbers of the post-World War II generation were attending county high schools and colleges in 1969-70.
When the school year ended in June 1970, would thousands of idle but socially active young people be content with another summer of love, beaches and surfing, or would it become a season of discontent sparked by the endless Vietnam War and unresolved societal issues.
The County Commission approved a unique cure for their summertime blues - "Rockreation".
An editorial first published in the Palm Beach Post, then reprinted in the Boca Raton News for the benefit of south county readers on March 20, 1970, reported, "The County Commission rightly gave a boost to youth by arranging facilities for ad hoc Sunday rock concerts in county parks."
"Commissioners agreed to make electricity available at some county facilities each Sunday between 1:30 and 5:30 p.m. As little as that is, at least Palm Beach County youth now have a popular form of recreation on county property."
The editorial concludes, "The county has earned plus marks for its decision. Now if it could bend a little further to provide even more activities for its residents who are too old for seesaws and too young for night clubs."
The loose-knit events actually began a number of weeks prior to the county's decision. Local bands got together for jam sessions at John Prince Park. The number of spectators increased weekly. Occasionally, the musicians would rent group barbecue pavilions to obtain access to electricity.
The County Commission wisely codified an activity already taking place in its parks.
The Violent End to 'The Peoples Park'
In sharp contrast to the county's policy of toleration in the use of public parks by area youths, the City of West Palm Beach cracked down on unauthorized gatherings of young people through strict enforcement of city policies.
The main target of the West Palm Beach Police was a colony of Hippies and their cadre of weekend student supporters encamped at the so-called "Peoples Park".
The Peoples Park was an open area at Phillips Point, fronting Flagler Drive. It was across the street from "The Hut," a favorite counter-culture eatery and gathering place during the 1960s and early 1970s.
After more than a month of clashes between the Hippies and police over noise, drug use and zoning violations, on July 7, 1970 the police swept into the Peoples Park, arresting 64 young people and closing the area to public use.
"Keep Off" signs were posted at the park site. The city passed an ordinance closing all city parks at 9 p.m. to prevent future gatherings of young people.
In a 1978 Palm Beach Post interview, former West Palm Beach Police Chief William Barnes recalled, "The park was a damned national disgrace - pot smoking, hell raising, fornicating on the ground, bottle throwing. You name it."
The editors of the Palm Beach Junior College "Beachcomber" student newspaper had a different perspective on the closing of the Peoples Park. Their lament was published in a Aug. 31, 1970 column entitled "Summertime Blues".
"The violent purge in the Peoples Park at The Hut, the shutdown of the Summerfaze in Miami, the demise of live rock Sundays at John Prince Park, when will it end," the editorial stated. "When will people be allowed to gather in free assembly granted by our Constitution?"
The County Commission's experiment with "Rockreation" ended with the beginning of the 1970-71 school year. While the music died, impromptu weekend gatherings (Happenings) by young people continued in the John Prince and Phil Foster parks well into the fall and winter.
So ended the summer of 1970 in Palm Beach County. Today, outdoor rock concerts have become a regular feature along the West Palm Beach waterfront, at Bryant Park in Lake Worth and venues across the county.
(c.) Davidsson. 2018.
NOTE: The author was a junior at Lake Worth High School in the summer of 1970. He attended events at John Prince and Phil Foster parks. See additional articles archived below and in Older Posts.
Tuesday, August 28, 2018
Dutch Privateers Prowl the Treasure Coast: 1627-28
By Bob Davidsson
For a period of two years in 1627-28, fleets of Dutch warships used the Jupiter and Indian River inlets as a staging area and source of provisions for raids on Spanish treasure fleets entering the Florida Straits.
Although Spanish authorities in St. Augustine and Havana considered these Dutch interlopers as pirates, the squadrons of warships lurking in Florida coastal waters were not the typical freebooting buccaneers of the 17th century.
In 1621 the Dutch West Indies Company (WIC) received a charter to establish colonies and promote trade in the Caribbean and Brazil. To finance their operations, the Dutch merchant-adventurers targeted Spanish and Portuguese shipping with the goal of eliminating their competition.
By the year 1627, the new United Provinces of the Netherlands and the Spanish Hapsburg empire were engaged in the 59th year of the bloody Dutch War of Independence, a conflict commonly called the "80 Years' War (1568 - 1648)."
The West Indies Company expanded the war to the New World by licensing privateers to prey on merchant shipping flying the flag of the unified Kingdom of Spain and Portugal (1580 - 1640). The crews of the Dutch privateers were the descendants of the "Sea Beggars," fishermen turned nautical freedom fighters defending the flooded estuaries and canals of Holland and Zeeland from Spanish invaders in the 16th century.
Most of the privateers were Calvinists, adding a religious element to the conflict. The Dutch sailors held a special hatred for their Spanish Catholic opponents - a feeling shared by their adversaries in this pitiless war at sea.
The Dutch Fleet Arrives in Florida
The directors of the West Indies Company were aware of the routes used by Spanish silver fleets from Mexico known as the "Flota," and convoys carrying the gold mined in South America annually and transported in the "Galleones" along the east coast of Florida.
In the year 1598, Dutch historian John Huigehen Van Linschoten reported, "Gold and silver wherewith the Indians trafficke, they had it out of ships which fall on ground upon the Cape of Florida (Canaveral), because most of the ships lost here are lost on this said coast..."
In anticipation of future raids by Dutch or English pirates, Florida Governor Luis De Rojas y Borja (1624-29) wisely recommended the establishment of a fortified sentinel station at Jupiter Inlet in his Feb. 13, 1627 "Letter from the Governor of Florida to his Majesty."
"I should warn and advise your Majesty to build a fort at the bar (Jupiter Inlet)," he wrote, "at a place they call Jega (Jeaga), it being a place where vessels all come to cast anchor when they want to take on water, wood and wait for the merchant ships they wish to capture."
"A fort at this place would act as an sentinel and guard against their landing and helping themselves," the concerned governor reported. "It would also be well to have it in case of vessels being wrecked upon this coast, as so many are, to be able to rescue and save the crews and passengers, who so often perish at the hands of pirates and cruel Indians..."
This sage advice was ignored, at great cost and loss to the Kingdom of Spain.
In the spring of 1627, Spanish Captain-General Thomas Larraspuru sighted a fleet of 13 Dutch warships in the Florida Straits while escorting a convoy of ships to Havana. He reported the Dutch withdrew as he prepared for battle near Coximer, Cuba.
In fact, the Dutch privateers, under the command of Piet Heyn (1577-1629), remained in Cuban waters until July, charting Spanish trade routes and capturing prizes. Larraspuru stated 55 vessels were boarded or sunk by Dutch "pirates" in 1627.
On their return voyage to Holland, the Dutch ships anchored offshore of the Indian River inlet, near the main village of the Ais Indians called "Jece". As the Dutch landed, the Indians fled their village until enticed to return by gifts offered by the privateers.
The Dutch remained at the village, gathering wood and barrels of water for the long journey home. A few of the Ais villagers, loyal to the Spanish, traveled to St. Augustine to request help from Governor Rojas.
It so happened that the presence of the Dutch fleet off the coast of Florida prevented the Spanish from sending the "Situado" or annual royal subsidy to St. Augustine. The subsidy supported the garrison and administration of the Florida outpost and was main source of hard currency in he colony.
Governor Rojas dispatched a small frigate, also known as a "presidio boat," to Havana to inquire on the Situado's delay. The Spanish frigate discovered the 13 Dutch warships at anchor and fled north to report their presence to the governor.
The report by the excited crew confirmed the story told by the friendly Ais Indians. Governor Rojas mustered a force of 150 Spaniards and 300 Indians and marched south to confront the Dutch interlopers. He was too late. The Ais told the governor that the Dutch fleet had already set sail.
In his 1628 report, Governor Rojas wrote, "And they (the Indians) have come to give me the news that there were enemy on the coast. And on two occasions when they landed to obtain water, they abandoned their places and withdrew into the woods, and others came to give the report and to ask for help."
Piet Heyn and the Spanish Silver Fleet
Encouraged by profits made in the 1627 expedition to the Florida Straits, the West Indies Company dispatched four squadrons of warships to the Caribbean in 1628. They were led by Captains Pieter Adriaanszoon Ita, Witte de With, Joost Benckert (known as the Scourge of the Portuguese), and the return of Piet Heyn.
Captain Ita was the first to appear off the coast of Cuba in May 1628. The privateer captured two great galleons bound for Cuba from Honduras with 12 barges and several smaller vessels under their escort.
The Spanish galleon "Nossa Senhora de Remedios" was boarded as a prize and sailed with the Dutch privateers to the southeast coast of Florida. Following the example of the 1627 fleet, Ita provisioned his ships for the voyage back to Holland.
The captured "Remedios" was unfit for further sailing, so its cargo was transferred to the Dutch warships. Captain Ita scuttled the "Remedios" one mile off the Treasure Coast of Florida and set sail for home.
The privateer captain arrived in Holland in September 1628. His captured cargo was valued at 1.2 million guilders.
With the departure of the Dutch squadron, the governor of Cuba assumed it was safe for the annual silver fleet to make the voyage from Mexico to Spain. It was a fatal decision.
On July 27, 1628, Piet Heyn gathered 31 Dutch warships near Hispaniola, including the squadrons of Witte de With and Joost Benckert, and sailed for the Florida Straits and the northern coast of Cuba. Joining the Dutch fleet was the buccaneer Moses Cohen Henriques, an exiled Portuguese Sephardic Jew wanted by the Spanish Inquisition for piracy but never caught during his 30-year illicit career at sea.
Their unexpected arrival caught the Cadiz-bound silver fleet at anchor in the Bay of Matanzas, Cuba, on Sept. 9. Captain-General Juan de Benevides fled to the mainland and his fleet surrendered after just token resistance.
For Piet Heyn the victory was especially sweet. It was the same Captain Benevides who was the sailing master of a ship where Heyn rowed as a captive galley slave between the years 1598 and 1602. For his cowardice and loss of the silver fleet, Benevides was imprisoned in Cuba.
The 17 ships captured in Matanzas Bay yielded a silver haul valued at 11.9 million guilders. It marked the first and only time an entire Mexican silver Flota was captured intact.
Piet Heyn's fleet was sighted by curious Ais and Jeaga Indians on Sept. 30 as it assembled for one last time off Florida's Treasure Coast for the voyage home. The privateers followed the Gulf Stream to Europe, arriving in Holland on Jan. 9, 1629. The Dutch fleets never returned to Florida.
Ironically, Piet Heyn was allotted little time to bask in the glory of his victory. After a promotion to vice admiral, he was killed a few months later in a naval battle against his Flemish co-religionists in the service of Spain.
The capture of the Spanish silver fleet financed the beginning of Holland's golden age of commerce and world colonization. However, the Dutch were never able to repeat their total victory at Matanzas Bay. Spain upgraded the quality and number of warships escorting future Flota treasure convoys to Spain.
With the loss of the silver fleet, King Phillip IV could not pay his armies and many creditors in 1629-30. The Kingdom of Spain was bankrupt.
(c.) Davidsson. 2018.
*NOTE: See additional articles below and archived in Older Posts.
For a period of two years in 1627-28, fleets of Dutch warships used the Jupiter and Indian River inlets as a staging area and source of provisions for raids on Spanish treasure fleets entering the Florida Straits.
Although Spanish authorities in St. Augustine and Havana considered these Dutch interlopers as pirates, the squadrons of warships lurking in Florida coastal waters were not the typical freebooting buccaneers of the 17th century.
In 1621 the Dutch West Indies Company (WIC) received a charter to establish colonies and promote trade in the Caribbean and Brazil. To finance their operations, the Dutch merchant-adventurers targeted Spanish and Portuguese shipping with the goal of eliminating their competition.
By the year 1627, the new United Provinces of the Netherlands and the Spanish Hapsburg empire were engaged in the 59th year of the bloody Dutch War of Independence, a conflict commonly called the "80 Years' War (1568 - 1648)."
The West Indies Company expanded the war to the New World by licensing privateers to prey on merchant shipping flying the flag of the unified Kingdom of Spain and Portugal (1580 - 1640). The crews of the Dutch privateers were the descendants of the "Sea Beggars," fishermen turned nautical freedom fighters defending the flooded estuaries and canals of Holland and Zeeland from Spanish invaders in the 16th century.
Most of the privateers were Calvinists, adding a religious element to the conflict. The Dutch sailors held a special hatred for their Spanish Catholic opponents - a feeling shared by their adversaries in this pitiless war at sea.
The Dutch Fleet Arrives in Florida
The directors of the West Indies Company were aware of the routes used by Spanish silver fleets from Mexico known as the "Flota," and convoys carrying the gold mined in South America annually and transported in the "Galleones" along the east coast of Florida.
In the year 1598, Dutch historian John Huigehen Van Linschoten reported, "Gold and silver wherewith the Indians trafficke, they had it out of ships which fall on ground upon the Cape of Florida (Canaveral), because most of the ships lost here are lost on this said coast..."
In anticipation of future raids by Dutch or English pirates, Florida Governor Luis De Rojas y Borja (1624-29) wisely recommended the establishment of a fortified sentinel station at Jupiter Inlet in his Feb. 13, 1627 "Letter from the Governor of Florida to his Majesty."
"I should warn and advise your Majesty to build a fort at the bar (Jupiter Inlet)," he wrote, "at a place they call Jega (Jeaga), it being a place where vessels all come to cast anchor when they want to take on water, wood and wait for the merchant ships they wish to capture."
"A fort at this place would act as an sentinel and guard against their landing and helping themselves," the concerned governor reported. "It would also be well to have it in case of vessels being wrecked upon this coast, as so many are, to be able to rescue and save the crews and passengers, who so often perish at the hands of pirates and cruel Indians..."
This sage advice was ignored, at great cost and loss to the Kingdom of Spain.
In the spring of 1627, Spanish Captain-General Thomas Larraspuru sighted a fleet of 13 Dutch warships in the Florida Straits while escorting a convoy of ships to Havana. He reported the Dutch withdrew as he prepared for battle near Coximer, Cuba.
In fact, the Dutch privateers, under the command of Piet Heyn (1577-1629), remained in Cuban waters until July, charting Spanish trade routes and capturing prizes. Larraspuru stated 55 vessels were boarded or sunk by Dutch "pirates" in 1627.
On their return voyage to Holland, the Dutch ships anchored offshore of the Indian River inlet, near the main village of the Ais Indians called "Jece". As the Dutch landed, the Indians fled their village until enticed to return by gifts offered by the privateers.
The Dutch remained at the village, gathering wood and barrels of water for the long journey home. A few of the Ais villagers, loyal to the Spanish, traveled to St. Augustine to request help from Governor Rojas.
It so happened that the presence of the Dutch fleet off the coast of Florida prevented the Spanish from sending the "Situado" or annual royal subsidy to St. Augustine. The subsidy supported the garrison and administration of the Florida outpost and was main source of hard currency in he colony.
Governor Rojas dispatched a small frigate, also known as a "presidio boat," to Havana to inquire on the Situado's delay. The Spanish frigate discovered the 13 Dutch warships at anchor and fled north to report their presence to the governor.
The report by the excited crew confirmed the story told by the friendly Ais Indians. Governor Rojas mustered a force of 150 Spaniards and 300 Indians and marched south to confront the Dutch interlopers. He was too late. The Ais told the governor that the Dutch fleet had already set sail.
In his 1628 report, Governor Rojas wrote, "And they (the Indians) have come to give me the news that there were enemy on the coast. And on two occasions when they landed to obtain water, they abandoned their places and withdrew into the woods, and others came to give the report and to ask for help."
Piet Heyn and the Spanish Silver Fleet
Encouraged by profits made in the 1627 expedition to the Florida Straits, the West Indies Company dispatched four squadrons of warships to the Caribbean in 1628. They were led by Captains Pieter Adriaanszoon Ita, Witte de With, Joost Benckert (known as the Scourge of the Portuguese), and the return of Piet Heyn.
Captain Ita was the first to appear off the coast of Cuba in May 1628. The privateer captured two great galleons bound for Cuba from Honduras with 12 barges and several smaller vessels under their escort.
The Spanish galleon "Nossa Senhora de Remedios" was boarded as a prize and sailed with the Dutch privateers to the southeast coast of Florida. Following the example of the 1627 fleet, Ita provisioned his ships for the voyage back to Holland.
The captured "Remedios" was unfit for further sailing, so its cargo was transferred to the Dutch warships. Captain Ita scuttled the "Remedios" one mile off the Treasure Coast of Florida and set sail for home.
The privateer captain arrived in Holland in September 1628. His captured cargo was valued at 1.2 million guilders.
With the departure of the Dutch squadron, the governor of Cuba assumed it was safe for the annual silver fleet to make the voyage from Mexico to Spain. It was a fatal decision.
On July 27, 1628, Piet Heyn gathered 31 Dutch warships near Hispaniola, including the squadrons of Witte de With and Joost Benckert, and sailed for the Florida Straits and the northern coast of Cuba. Joining the Dutch fleet was the buccaneer Moses Cohen Henriques, an exiled Portuguese Sephardic Jew wanted by the Spanish Inquisition for piracy but never caught during his 30-year illicit career at sea.
Their unexpected arrival caught the Cadiz-bound silver fleet at anchor in the Bay of Matanzas, Cuba, on Sept. 9. Captain-General Juan de Benevides fled to the mainland and his fleet surrendered after just token resistance.
For Piet Heyn the victory was especially sweet. It was the same Captain Benevides who was the sailing master of a ship where Heyn rowed as a captive galley slave between the years 1598 and 1602. For his cowardice and loss of the silver fleet, Benevides was imprisoned in Cuba.
The 17 ships captured in Matanzas Bay yielded a silver haul valued at 11.9 million guilders. It marked the first and only time an entire Mexican silver Flota was captured intact.
Piet Heyn's fleet was sighted by curious Ais and Jeaga Indians on Sept. 30 as it assembled for one last time off Florida's Treasure Coast for the voyage home. The privateers followed the Gulf Stream to Europe, arriving in Holland on Jan. 9, 1629. The Dutch fleets never returned to Florida.
Ironically, Piet Heyn was allotted little time to bask in the glory of his victory. After a promotion to vice admiral, he was killed a few months later in a naval battle against his Flemish co-religionists in the service of Spain.
The capture of the Spanish silver fleet financed the beginning of Holland's golden age of commerce and world colonization. However, the Dutch were never able to repeat their total victory at Matanzas Bay. Spain upgraded the quality and number of warships escorting future Flota treasure convoys to Spain.
With the loss of the silver fleet, King Phillip IV could not pay his armies and many creditors in 1629-30. The Kingdom of Spain was bankrupt.
(c.) Davidsson. 2018.
*NOTE: See additional articles below and archived in Older Posts.
Friday, August 10, 2018
The British Expedition to the 'Hobe River': April 1772
By Bob Davidsson
Upon his arrival as the first chief administrator of the new British colony of East Florida, Governor James Grant (1763-71) poetically described its primal coastal frontier as a "New World in a State of Nature."
Nine years later, in one of his last acts before returning to England, the ailing Scottish governor authorized an expedition to explore the Indian River, and the inland estuaries between the St. Lucie Inlet and Biscayne Bay. The official report forwarded to Governor Grant includes a rare 18th century look at the Jupiter Inlet and Loxahatchee River basin, referred to as "Hobe River," during the British colonial period (1763-83),
The colonial official charged with leading the expedition in the spring of 1772 was Frederick George Mulcaster (1739-97), the newly appointed Surveyor General of East Florida. He also held the rank of lieutenant in the British Army's Royal Engineers at the time of the journey.
Mulcaster's orders were to examine the potential of the vast coastal wilderness for future farming and colonization. He specifically was assigned the task of evaluating the 20,000-acre tract of land acquired by William Legge, the second Earl of Dartmouth, at Biscayne Bay.
The Dual Identity of Frederick George Mulcaster
Lt. Mulcaster was born in the year 1739. His March 12, 1739 christening was recorded at St. James church, Westminster, Middlesex, England. It lists William and Jane Mulcaster as his parents.
Throughout his life, it was rumored that Mulcaster was in fact the illegitimate son of his royal namesake - Frederick, Prince of Wales, the eldest son of King George II. If the rumor was true, his half brother was none other than the future King George III of England.
William Mulcaster was an officer in the household of Prince Frederick, so there was ample opportunity for a secrete liaison between his wife and the amorous Prince of Wales.
The royal family refused to acknowledge Frederick Mulcaster's kinship, so any claims to royalty were judged "illegitimate". He began a career in the military as a Mulcaster instead of a member of the British Hannover dynasty when he graduated from the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich, England.
The young engineer was posted to British East Florida. Governor Grant appointed him as the deputy to East Florida's first Surveyor General, William G. DeBrahm. Mulcaster married DeBrahm's daughter in 1769, and succeeded his father-in-law in 1770 as Surveyor General when Governor Grant removed him from office.
Mulcaster was stationed in East Florida at the beginning of the American Revolution in 1775. East Florida remained loyal to the British crown and Mulcaster served as an officer in the British army. He would file several reports on rebel activities in Georgia and South Carolina as the war progressed.
Lt. Mulcaster left the province of East Florida in March 1776 to begin active military service. He resigned his post as Surveyor General, and set sail to Charleston, South Carolina.
His career in the British army continued after the American Revolution. Mulcaster retired with the rank of a major-general, a rare achievement for a "commoner" in class-conscious 18th century England.
The British Expedition to South Florida
Lt Mulcaster began his three-month expedition at the Minorcan settlement of New Smyrna, established in 1768 near the Mosquito (Ponce de Leon) Inlet 80 miles south of St. Augustine. He was accompanied by several sailors hired to man his two vessels.
The larger ship was a schooner used as the supply vessel for the expedition. Within its cargo hold were food and cooking provisions, axes, surveyor measuring chains and two horses. A smaller shallow-draft, sailing skiff also was acquired for navigating the Indian River and other tidal estuaries encountered during the journey.
The Surveyor General ordered the schooner to sail south along the Atlantic coastline, then wait for a rendezvous with its smaller companion vessel at the St. Lucie Inlet. Mulcaster portaged the skiff across the narrow "Haulover" separating Mosquito Bay from the Indian River and sailed south along the 100-mile inland waterway.
The two vessels reunited at "Point St. Lucea" where Mulcaster established a base camp. He left two of his men, the horses and a catch of supplies for the return journey, then sailed south along the Atlantic coast to Biscayne Bay.
Lt. Mulcaster reported, "I reached the Bay of Biscayne on the 13th of March with both boats, having left my horses upon the Point of St. Lucea about a hundred miles to the northward of this bay and about 140 miles to the southward of Captain Ross's plantation."
Mulcaster remained in Biscayne Bay for nearly four weeks, exploring coastal estuaries in Dade and Broward counties as far north as the mouth of the "New Hillsborough" (New) River in what is today Fort Lauderdale. He surveyed tracts of land suitable for future plantations.
The Surveyor General was impressed with the region's natural abundance, and reported in his journal; "Everything carried the face of spring." With supplies running low, Mulcaster sailed north in his two vessels. The next stop in the voyage was Jupiter Inlet.
"The 10th of April at 10 at night I passed the barr (at Jupiter Inlet), Mulcaster reported, "the schooner following me the day after and having a fair wind I got into Jupiter's Inlet at the mouth of the Hobe River the next afternoon."
In his report, Mulcaster used the geographic names of Jupiter Inlet and the Hobe River to describe the Jupiter Narrows and Loxahatchee River. He did not call them the "Grenville Inlet and Grenville River," names that appeared on later British maps.
The Surveyor General makes no mention of the Grenville plantation on the north shore of Jupiter Inlet. The brothers George and Richard Grenville acquired the site as a land grant and sent a team to survey the site in the late 1760s. The plantation project was abandoned after the death of George Grenville in 1770.
In his description of the Hobe River, Mulcaster reported, "This river divides itself in three branches. The south river I examined on my way to the southward. It runs almost parallel to the sea, has fine fresh water and plenty of fish."
"The middle branch I could not now examine, the Surveyor General reported, "having been away from my people and horses (at the St. Lucie Inlet) fifty days, which was longer than I expected. I was therefore anxious to get to them for fear they might suffer from want of provisions."
"The north branch (Jupiter Narrows) is rather an arm of the sea, with banks and shoals which leads to the south head of the Indian River, Mulcaster recorded. "I therefore ordered the schooner to the Indian (River) Inlet and came by that way up to St. Lucea to meet me which took place, which place I arrived at the 13th (of April) at 11 at night, but the horses and people were gone."
With supplies exhausted at the St. Lucie base camp, the two frightened men headed north to St. Augustine with the horses. They scratched a message with a penknife on a sable palm frond describing their plight and decision to leave.
"I therefore gave up all thoughts of looking at St. Lucea," Mulcaster wrote, "which I had all along determined to strictly search and make the best of my way along the banks of the river to look for them."
"I therefore set off at one-o-clock in the morning and the same day met the schooner and directed her to go to the Mosquito (inlet) and wait my arrival. I proceeded myself up the Indian River and about 50 miles south of the plantation of Capt. Ross saw a blue flag on the shore. Upon going nearer I perceived it as an Indian blanket and saw the Indians beckoning me."
Relations between the British and the lower Creek nation in Florida (soon known as the Seminole) were generally cordial. Governor Grant met with 50 chieftains at Fort Picolata in November 1765 and signed a treaty allowing settlement along the St. John's and Indian rivers.
Mulcaster reached "Capt. Ross's Plantation" on April 25. Capt. John Ross was resident foreman for two land grant tracts south of New Smyrna owned by London merchant William Eliott which were under cultivation as a sugar cane plantation. After a brief stay, Mulcaster sailed north to St. Augustine, completing his expedition.
Lt. Gov. John Moultrie (1771-74) was serving as interim governor of the East Florida colony when Mulcaster returned. The Surveyor General forwarded a copy of his report as a letter to absentee Gov. James Grant in England on May 6, 1772.
(c.) Davidsson. 2018.
NOTE: See additional articles below and archived in Older Posts.
Upon his arrival as the first chief administrator of the new British colony of East Florida, Governor James Grant (1763-71) poetically described its primal coastal frontier as a "New World in a State of Nature."
Nine years later, in one of his last acts before returning to England, the ailing Scottish governor authorized an expedition to explore the Indian River, and the inland estuaries between the St. Lucie Inlet and Biscayne Bay. The official report forwarded to Governor Grant includes a rare 18th century look at the Jupiter Inlet and Loxahatchee River basin, referred to as "Hobe River," during the British colonial period (1763-83),
The colonial official charged with leading the expedition in the spring of 1772 was Frederick George Mulcaster (1739-97), the newly appointed Surveyor General of East Florida. He also held the rank of lieutenant in the British Army's Royal Engineers at the time of the journey.
Mulcaster's orders were to examine the potential of the vast coastal wilderness for future farming and colonization. He specifically was assigned the task of evaluating the 20,000-acre tract of land acquired by William Legge, the second Earl of Dartmouth, at Biscayne Bay.
The Dual Identity of Frederick George Mulcaster
Lt. Mulcaster was born in the year 1739. His March 12, 1739 christening was recorded at St. James church, Westminster, Middlesex, England. It lists William and Jane Mulcaster as his parents.
Throughout his life, it was rumored that Mulcaster was in fact the illegitimate son of his royal namesake - Frederick, Prince of Wales, the eldest son of King George II. If the rumor was true, his half brother was none other than the future King George III of England.
William Mulcaster was an officer in the household of Prince Frederick, so there was ample opportunity for a secrete liaison between his wife and the amorous Prince of Wales.
The royal family refused to acknowledge Frederick Mulcaster's kinship, so any claims to royalty were judged "illegitimate". He began a career in the military as a Mulcaster instead of a member of the British Hannover dynasty when he graduated from the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich, England.
The young engineer was posted to British East Florida. Governor Grant appointed him as the deputy to East Florida's first Surveyor General, William G. DeBrahm. Mulcaster married DeBrahm's daughter in 1769, and succeeded his father-in-law in 1770 as Surveyor General when Governor Grant removed him from office.
Mulcaster was stationed in East Florida at the beginning of the American Revolution in 1775. East Florida remained loyal to the British crown and Mulcaster served as an officer in the British army. He would file several reports on rebel activities in Georgia and South Carolina as the war progressed.
Lt. Mulcaster left the province of East Florida in March 1776 to begin active military service. He resigned his post as Surveyor General, and set sail to Charleston, South Carolina.
His career in the British army continued after the American Revolution. Mulcaster retired with the rank of a major-general, a rare achievement for a "commoner" in class-conscious 18th century England.
The British Expedition to South Florida
Lt Mulcaster began his three-month expedition at the Minorcan settlement of New Smyrna, established in 1768 near the Mosquito (Ponce de Leon) Inlet 80 miles south of St. Augustine. He was accompanied by several sailors hired to man his two vessels.
The larger ship was a schooner used as the supply vessel for the expedition. Within its cargo hold were food and cooking provisions, axes, surveyor measuring chains and two horses. A smaller shallow-draft, sailing skiff also was acquired for navigating the Indian River and other tidal estuaries encountered during the journey.
The Surveyor General ordered the schooner to sail south along the Atlantic coastline, then wait for a rendezvous with its smaller companion vessel at the St. Lucie Inlet. Mulcaster portaged the skiff across the narrow "Haulover" separating Mosquito Bay from the Indian River and sailed south along the 100-mile inland waterway.
The two vessels reunited at "Point St. Lucea" where Mulcaster established a base camp. He left two of his men, the horses and a catch of supplies for the return journey, then sailed south along the Atlantic coast to Biscayne Bay.
Lt. Mulcaster reported, "I reached the Bay of Biscayne on the 13th of March with both boats, having left my horses upon the Point of St. Lucea about a hundred miles to the northward of this bay and about 140 miles to the southward of Captain Ross's plantation."
Mulcaster remained in Biscayne Bay for nearly four weeks, exploring coastal estuaries in Dade and Broward counties as far north as the mouth of the "New Hillsborough" (New) River in what is today Fort Lauderdale. He surveyed tracts of land suitable for future plantations.
The Surveyor General was impressed with the region's natural abundance, and reported in his journal; "Everything carried the face of spring." With supplies running low, Mulcaster sailed north in his two vessels. The next stop in the voyage was Jupiter Inlet.
"The 10th of April at 10 at night I passed the barr (at Jupiter Inlet), Mulcaster reported, "the schooner following me the day after and having a fair wind I got into Jupiter's Inlet at the mouth of the Hobe River the next afternoon."
In his report, Mulcaster used the geographic names of Jupiter Inlet and the Hobe River to describe the Jupiter Narrows and Loxahatchee River. He did not call them the "Grenville Inlet and Grenville River," names that appeared on later British maps.
The Surveyor General makes no mention of the Grenville plantation on the north shore of Jupiter Inlet. The brothers George and Richard Grenville acquired the site as a land grant and sent a team to survey the site in the late 1760s. The plantation project was abandoned after the death of George Grenville in 1770.
In his description of the Hobe River, Mulcaster reported, "This river divides itself in three branches. The south river I examined on my way to the southward. It runs almost parallel to the sea, has fine fresh water and plenty of fish."
"The middle branch I could not now examine, the Surveyor General reported, "having been away from my people and horses (at the St. Lucie Inlet) fifty days, which was longer than I expected. I was therefore anxious to get to them for fear they might suffer from want of provisions."
"The north branch (Jupiter Narrows) is rather an arm of the sea, with banks and shoals which leads to the south head of the Indian River, Mulcaster recorded. "I therefore ordered the schooner to the Indian (River) Inlet and came by that way up to St. Lucea to meet me which took place, which place I arrived at the 13th (of April) at 11 at night, but the horses and people were gone."
With supplies exhausted at the St. Lucie base camp, the two frightened men headed north to St. Augustine with the horses. They scratched a message with a penknife on a sable palm frond describing their plight and decision to leave.
"I therefore gave up all thoughts of looking at St. Lucea," Mulcaster wrote, "which I had all along determined to strictly search and make the best of my way along the banks of the river to look for them."
"I therefore set off at one-o-clock in the morning and the same day met the schooner and directed her to go to the Mosquito (inlet) and wait my arrival. I proceeded myself up the Indian River and about 50 miles south of the plantation of Capt. Ross saw a blue flag on the shore. Upon going nearer I perceived it as an Indian blanket and saw the Indians beckoning me."
Relations between the British and the lower Creek nation in Florida (soon known as the Seminole) were generally cordial. Governor Grant met with 50 chieftains at Fort Picolata in November 1765 and signed a treaty allowing settlement along the St. John's and Indian rivers.
Mulcaster reached "Capt. Ross's Plantation" on April 25. Capt. John Ross was resident foreman for two land grant tracts south of New Smyrna owned by London merchant William Eliott which were under cultivation as a sugar cane plantation. After a brief stay, Mulcaster sailed north to St. Augustine, completing his expedition.
Lt. Gov. John Moultrie (1771-74) was serving as interim governor of the East Florida colony when Mulcaster returned. The Surveyor General forwarded a copy of his report as a letter to absentee Gov. James Grant in England on May 6, 1772.
(c.) Davidsson. 2018.
NOTE: See additional articles below and archived in Older Posts.
Saturday, July 28, 2018
Mango Grove Shaped Early History of Mangonia Park
By Bob Davidsson
In an effort to avoid future annexation by the neighboring City of West Palm Beach, Charles Roebuck and a delegation of neighbors living near Voss Road (Australian Avenue) petitioned the State of Florida in 1947 to incorporate a new city called "Magnolia Park".
As fate would have it, the state denied the petition. Magnolia Park already was designated as an unincorporated neighborhood on the eastern shore of Lake Apopka in Orange County.
As a compromise, the fledgling city was incorporated as "Mangonia Park". Within the newly named city was a largely overgrown grove of mango trees. This grove, neglected by the passage of time, became the name origin for the town - "Mangonia" or mango park.
By the late 1940s, few residents remembered the origin of the mango grove or the name of the person who planted them. By tracing their roots, the early history of Mangonia Park is discovered,
The Mango Grove of Rev. Elbridge Gale
"Mangonia" was originally the name given to 160 acres of homesteaded land by the Rev. Elbridge Gale in what is today the Northwood Hills.
After a career as a professor of agriculture at Kansas State Agricultural College, Rev. Gale, a native New Englander, retired and traveled from his McPherson, Kansas, home to the mainly unsettled west shore of Lake Worth in November 1884 for the purpose of applying farming techniques learned in the academic world in South Florida's subtropical climate.
Gale experimented with the creation of hybrid mangos at his Mangonia homestead. He produced the Haden mango by crossing native varieties with imported Indian mango seedlings.
Between 1885 and 1890, he was joined by his wife, Elizabeth; his son, George; and daughters Ella and Hattie with their families at his Northwood Hills homestead.
Hattie Gale was 16 years old and a student at Kansas State Agricultural College in 1885 when she arrived in the Palm Beaches. She taught school for three months at the "Little Red School House" which opened in March 1886. She became the first school teacher on the isle of Palm Beach.
Hattie returned to Kansas to complete her college education. She became engaged to faculty member William Sanders in Manhattan, Kansas. The couple were married by her father, Rev. Gale, upon their return Palm Beaches on Aug. 24, 1890.
The Short Life of 'Mangonia'
Rev. Gale's son, George, was a carpenter and helped his family build the first log cabin in Mangonia's Northwood Hills. The site of homestead was later designated as 29th Street by the Postal Service.
George Gale cut pine logs for the cabin and hauled them from the west shore of Lake Worth. Shingles were salvaged from ship wrecks along the ocean shore of Palm Beach. The homestead was topped by a steep roof made of woven palmetto fronds.
The ambitious son of Rev. Gale arrived in "Mangonia" in February 1885. He established a pineapple farm in the Northwood Hills, and was soon platting the family's land for sale as parcels in the community he hoped to incorporate as the town of "Mangonia".
The creation of the City of West Palm Beach in 1894 ended the short life of the Gale family's "Mangonia" as an independent community. Most of the Gale property in the Northwood Hills was within the West Palm Beach city limits, with the remainder becoming part of Mangonia Park after 1947.
Elbridge Gale continued his interest in education by serving one term as the Dade County Superintendent of Schools. Prior to the creation of Palm Beach County in 1909, Dade County encompassed a vast area from the St. Lucie Inlet south to Biscayne Bay. The town of Juno was the county seat from February 1889 through 1899 when it returned to Miami.
The Dade County Board of Education was established June 27, 1885. At its organizational meeting, it consisted of a superintendent of schools and three board members.
The first order of business of the Board of Education was the division of Dade County schools into four districts. District #1 included the Palm Beaches and its early schoolhouses built along the shores of Lake Worth during the 1880s and 1890s.
Rev. Gale also served as the first president of the "Christian Union," a nonsectarian league of churches established in the fledgling communities along Lake Worth. The organization met in the Mangonia school, established by the Gale family.
The Gale homestead and neighboring farms were purchased by the Pinewood Development Corporation in 1920. A year later the corporation platted the first phase of the "Northwood" subdivision which would become known as "Old Northwood".
The founder of "Mangonia" died Nov. 4, 1907. Both Rev. Gale and his wife are buried at the Woodlawn Cemetery in West Palm Beach. Two of their children, George and Hattie, joined them at this final resting place in 1922.
(c.) Davidsson. 2018.
NOTE: See additional articles below or archived in Older Posts.
In an effort to avoid future annexation by the neighboring City of West Palm Beach, Charles Roebuck and a delegation of neighbors living near Voss Road (Australian Avenue) petitioned the State of Florida in 1947 to incorporate a new city called "Magnolia Park".
As fate would have it, the state denied the petition. Magnolia Park already was designated as an unincorporated neighborhood on the eastern shore of Lake Apopka in Orange County.
As a compromise, the fledgling city was incorporated as "Mangonia Park". Within the newly named city was a largely overgrown grove of mango trees. This grove, neglected by the passage of time, became the name origin for the town - "Mangonia" or mango park.
By the late 1940s, few residents remembered the origin of the mango grove or the name of the person who planted them. By tracing their roots, the early history of Mangonia Park is discovered,
The Mango Grove of Rev. Elbridge Gale
"Mangonia" was originally the name given to 160 acres of homesteaded land by the Rev. Elbridge Gale in what is today the Northwood Hills.
After a career as a professor of agriculture at Kansas State Agricultural College, Rev. Gale, a native New Englander, retired and traveled from his McPherson, Kansas, home to the mainly unsettled west shore of Lake Worth in November 1884 for the purpose of applying farming techniques learned in the academic world in South Florida's subtropical climate.
Gale experimented with the creation of hybrid mangos at his Mangonia homestead. He produced the Haden mango by crossing native varieties with imported Indian mango seedlings.
Between 1885 and 1890, he was joined by his wife, Elizabeth; his son, George; and daughters Ella and Hattie with their families at his Northwood Hills homestead.
Hattie Gale was 16 years old and a student at Kansas State Agricultural College in 1885 when she arrived in the Palm Beaches. She taught school for three months at the "Little Red School House" which opened in March 1886. She became the first school teacher on the isle of Palm Beach.
Hattie returned to Kansas to complete her college education. She became engaged to faculty member William Sanders in Manhattan, Kansas. The couple were married by her father, Rev. Gale, upon their return Palm Beaches on Aug. 24, 1890.
The Short Life of 'Mangonia'
Rev. Gale's son, George, was a carpenter and helped his family build the first log cabin in Mangonia's Northwood Hills. The site of homestead was later designated as 29th Street by the Postal Service.
George Gale cut pine logs for the cabin and hauled them from the west shore of Lake Worth. Shingles were salvaged from ship wrecks along the ocean shore of Palm Beach. The homestead was topped by a steep roof made of woven palmetto fronds.
The ambitious son of Rev. Gale arrived in "Mangonia" in February 1885. He established a pineapple farm in the Northwood Hills, and was soon platting the family's land for sale as parcels in the community he hoped to incorporate as the town of "Mangonia".
The creation of the City of West Palm Beach in 1894 ended the short life of the Gale family's "Mangonia" as an independent community. Most of the Gale property in the Northwood Hills was within the West Palm Beach city limits, with the remainder becoming part of Mangonia Park after 1947.
Elbridge Gale continued his interest in education by serving one term as the Dade County Superintendent of Schools. Prior to the creation of Palm Beach County in 1909, Dade County encompassed a vast area from the St. Lucie Inlet south to Biscayne Bay. The town of Juno was the county seat from February 1889 through 1899 when it returned to Miami.
The Dade County Board of Education was established June 27, 1885. At its organizational meeting, it consisted of a superintendent of schools and three board members.
The first order of business of the Board of Education was the division of Dade County schools into four districts. District #1 included the Palm Beaches and its early schoolhouses built along the shores of Lake Worth during the 1880s and 1890s.
Rev. Gale also served as the first president of the "Christian Union," a nonsectarian league of churches established in the fledgling communities along Lake Worth. The organization met in the Mangonia school, established by the Gale family.
The Gale homestead and neighboring farms were purchased by the Pinewood Development Corporation in 1920. A year later the corporation platted the first phase of the "Northwood" subdivision which would become known as "Old Northwood".
The founder of "Mangonia" died Nov. 4, 1907. Both Rev. Gale and his wife are buried at the Woodlawn Cemetery in West Palm Beach. Two of their children, George and Hattie, joined them at this final resting place in 1922.
(c.) Davidsson. 2018.
NOTE: See additional articles below or archived in Older Posts.
Monday, June 11, 2018
Historic WPB Medical Lab Fought Disease Epidemics
By Bob Davidsson
The last great disease pandemic to impact Palm Beach County - the "Spanish Flu Epidemic of 1918-19" - resulted in draconian actions by local government to control the outbreak, and the placement of one of just three State of Florida diagnostic laboratories in West Palm Beach.
At its June 4, 2018 meeting, the West Palm Beach Commission designated the 1921 neoclassical building at 415 5th Street, formerly the Florida State Board of Health (SBH) Laboratory, as a landmark on the city's Register of Historic Places.
An historic marker fronting the building, currently housing the First Bank of the Palm Beaches, reads; "With the construction of the Board of Health Laboratory in 1921, Palm Beach County secured its first state building. Still considered an area of the country that was just being settled, establishing an outpost for public health was an essential component of community upbuilding for West Palm Beach."
Florida was still a rural state in 1920 with a population of just 968,470. Established in 1909, the total population of Palm Beach County, which included portions of Broward and Martin counties at that time, was just 18,654.
The State Board of Health was established by an act of the Florida Legislature on Feb. 29, 1889. The understaffed SBH faced major budget cuts in 1920 by populist Governor Sidney J. Catts, an ordained minister elected to state office in 1916 as head of the "Prohibition Party" ticket.
It took intense lobbying efforts by the Palm Beach Post and its editor, Joe Earman, and a series of devastating outbreaks of Spanish flu, bubonic plague and dengue fever in the state, to convince the parsimonious governor of the need for a new research laboratory.
The two-story SBH lab in West Palm Beach was designed by Pensacola architect Walker D. Willis as a prototype model reproduced several times across the State of Florida. The architect envisioned its neoclassical design "as a symbol of civilization" in the largely rural Sunshine State.
"Constructed by E.H. Barto in 100 days at a cost of $34,700," the historic marker reads, "this landmark structure retains much of its original Bedford Limestone fenestration, St. Louis brick façade and decorative classical interior. The well-preserved interior includes extensive promenade mosaic tile, Dade Pine floors, and a wrought iron and marble central staircase."
The SBH laboratory in West Palm Beach was one of three early diagnostic and treatment centers for communicable diseases in Florida. Together with its sister labs in Pensacola and Jacksonville, the local medical research center controlled the spread of diseases such as influenza, diphtheria and tuberculosis.
The medical labs were hard-pressed to meet the public health needs of the state in the early 20th century. Outbreaks of malaria were endemic in the Suwannee River valley. Dengue fever ravaged Dade County in 1921, eventually spreading to Tampa Bay.
In the year 1920, an unidentified ship anchored in Pensacola's harbor carrying rats infested with the bubonic plague virus. The vermin with their disease carrying fleas disembarked from the ship, spreading the "pestis" virus to rodents throughout the city.
Ten residents contracted the disease and seven died before the pestilence was brought under control. The outbreak highlighted the first systematic use of state public health services to control an epidemic.
Spanish Flu Epidemic in Palm Beach County, 1918-19
The one catastrophe that galvanized public opinion in support of statewide SBH laboratories to fight communicable diseases in Florida was the deadly arrival of the so-called "Spanish flu" in 1918.
While the exact geographic origin of the influenza strain is still debated, its impact was felt worldwide. The scourge killed 50 million people, including between 500,000 and 650,000 in the United States.
Close communal living conditions necessary during World War I quickly spread the flu virus from the frontline trenches to staging areas, hospitals and military bases in Europe and America. It is believed the first cases in the U.S. were at Fort Riley, Kansas, from where the virus soon infected the general population.*
An estimated 4,000 residents succumbed to the Spanish flu in the thinly populated State of Florida. The first report of the epidemic reaching Florida was Sept. 27, 1918 in Key West. The disease was reported in Pensacola less than one week later. Florida's new rail systems carried the pestilence throughout the state.
By the second week of October 1918, there 158 flu-related deaths in Florida. The number of confirmed Spanish flu cases in the state reached 12,944 by January 1919. Drastic steps were taken to control the epidemic in West Palm Beach and across the state.
On Oct. 9, 1918, an ordinance was passed by the City of West Palm Beach to close all public meetings, schools, theaters, churches and public gatherings during the proclaimed emergency.
The Palm Beach Post reported, "It was stipulated in the ordinance that there shall be no loitering in billiard halls, that barber shops shall be conducted in a strictly sanitary manner, and soda fountains shall serve drinks only in paper containers."
The draconian city ordinance assessed first-time violators a $100 fine or 30 days in jail. It was not an unusual sight to see residents covering their faces with masks or handkerchiefs as they shopped downtown during the 1918-19 epidemic.
The Spanish flu targeted younger victims who lacked partial immunity from earlier flu outbreaks in the 1890's. The flu arrived in two waves. The first outbreak in 1918 was more virulent and was commonly called "the three-day fever". Many flu patients died by contracting secondary pneumonia in an age when antibiotics were not available.
A milder second wave of Spanish flu mutated and spread across the country in 1919. By the end of the year, the pandemic was becoming a horrible memory.
Public Health Becomes a Statewide Concern
The SBH laboratory in West Palm Beach filled a much needed gap in medical diagnostic services in the early history of Palm Beach County. It wasn't until 1948 that Palm Beach County established a public health unit with the State of Florida providing matching funds..
Today, the Florida Department of Health in Palm Beach County, with its staff of 750 employees, provides a wide range of community services including disease prevention and control.
The original SBH labs created in the 1920's have evolved into the Florida Department of Health, Bureau of Public Health Laboratories. The Jacksonville-based agency provides diagnostic screening, monitoring, research and emergency public health laboratory services to county health departments.
(c.) Davidsson 2018.
*NOTE: The author's great aunt died in the Spanish flu epidemic. See additional articles archived below and in Older Posts.
The last great disease pandemic to impact Palm Beach County - the "Spanish Flu Epidemic of 1918-19" - resulted in draconian actions by local government to control the outbreak, and the placement of one of just three State of Florida diagnostic laboratories in West Palm Beach.
At its June 4, 2018 meeting, the West Palm Beach Commission designated the 1921 neoclassical building at 415 5th Street, formerly the Florida State Board of Health (SBH) Laboratory, as a landmark on the city's Register of Historic Places.
An historic marker fronting the building, currently housing the First Bank of the Palm Beaches, reads; "With the construction of the Board of Health Laboratory in 1921, Palm Beach County secured its first state building. Still considered an area of the country that was just being settled, establishing an outpost for public health was an essential component of community upbuilding for West Palm Beach."
Florida was still a rural state in 1920 with a population of just 968,470. Established in 1909, the total population of Palm Beach County, which included portions of Broward and Martin counties at that time, was just 18,654.
The State Board of Health was established by an act of the Florida Legislature on Feb. 29, 1889. The understaffed SBH faced major budget cuts in 1920 by populist Governor Sidney J. Catts, an ordained minister elected to state office in 1916 as head of the "Prohibition Party" ticket.
It took intense lobbying efforts by the Palm Beach Post and its editor, Joe Earman, and a series of devastating outbreaks of Spanish flu, bubonic plague and dengue fever in the state, to convince the parsimonious governor of the need for a new research laboratory.
The two-story SBH lab in West Palm Beach was designed by Pensacola architect Walker D. Willis as a prototype model reproduced several times across the State of Florida. The architect envisioned its neoclassical design "as a symbol of civilization" in the largely rural Sunshine State.
"Constructed by E.H. Barto in 100 days at a cost of $34,700," the historic marker reads, "this landmark structure retains much of its original Bedford Limestone fenestration, St. Louis brick façade and decorative classical interior. The well-preserved interior includes extensive promenade mosaic tile, Dade Pine floors, and a wrought iron and marble central staircase."
The SBH laboratory in West Palm Beach was one of three early diagnostic and treatment centers for communicable diseases in Florida. Together with its sister labs in Pensacola and Jacksonville, the local medical research center controlled the spread of diseases such as influenza, diphtheria and tuberculosis.
The medical labs were hard-pressed to meet the public health needs of the state in the early 20th century. Outbreaks of malaria were endemic in the Suwannee River valley. Dengue fever ravaged Dade County in 1921, eventually spreading to Tampa Bay.
In the year 1920, an unidentified ship anchored in Pensacola's harbor carrying rats infested with the bubonic plague virus. The vermin with their disease carrying fleas disembarked from the ship, spreading the "pestis" virus to rodents throughout the city.
Ten residents contracted the disease and seven died before the pestilence was brought under control. The outbreak highlighted the first systematic use of state public health services to control an epidemic.
Spanish Flu Epidemic in Palm Beach County, 1918-19
The one catastrophe that galvanized public opinion in support of statewide SBH laboratories to fight communicable diseases in Florida was the deadly arrival of the so-called "Spanish flu" in 1918.
While the exact geographic origin of the influenza strain is still debated, its impact was felt worldwide. The scourge killed 50 million people, including between 500,000 and 650,000 in the United States.
Close communal living conditions necessary during World War I quickly spread the flu virus from the frontline trenches to staging areas, hospitals and military bases in Europe and America. It is believed the first cases in the U.S. were at Fort Riley, Kansas, from where the virus soon infected the general population.*
An estimated 4,000 residents succumbed to the Spanish flu in the thinly populated State of Florida. The first report of the epidemic reaching Florida was Sept. 27, 1918 in Key West. The disease was reported in Pensacola less than one week later. Florida's new rail systems carried the pestilence throughout the state.
By the second week of October 1918, there 158 flu-related deaths in Florida. The number of confirmed Spanish flu cases in the state reached 12,944 by January 1919. Drastic steps were taken to control the epidemic in West Palm Beach and across the state.
On Oct. 9, 1918, an ordinance was passed by the City of West Palm Beach to close all public meetings, schools, theaters, churches and public gatherings during the proclaimed emergency.
The Palm Beach Post reported, "It was stipulated in the ordinance that there shall be no loitering in billiard halls, that barber shops shall be conducted in a strictly sanitary manner, and soda fountains shall serve drinks only in paper containers."
The draconian city ordinance assessed first-time violators a $100 fine or 30 days in jail. It was not an unusual sight to see residents covering their faces with masks or handkerchiefs as they shopped downtown during the 1918-19 epidemic.
The Spanish flu targeted younger victims who lacked partial immunity from earlier flu outbreaks in the 1890's. The flu arrived in two waves. The first outbreak in 1918 was more virulent and was commonly called "the three-day fever". Many flu patients died by contracting secondary pneumonia in an age when antibiotics were not available.
A milder second wave of Spanish flu mutated and spread across the country in 1919. By the end of the year, the pandemic was becoming a horrible memory.
Public Health Becomes a Statewide Concern
The SBH laboratory in West Palm Beach filled a much needed gap in medical diagnostic services in the early history of Palm Beach County. It wasn't until 1948 that Palm Beach County established a public health unit with the State of Florida providing matching funds..
Today, the Florida Department of Health in Palm Beach County, with its staff of 750 employees, provides a wide range of community services including disease prevention and control.
The original SBH labs created in the 1920's have evolved into the Florida Department of Health, Bureau of Public Health Laboratories. The Jacksonville-based agency provides diagnostic screening, monitoring, research and emergency public health laboratory services to county health departments.
(c.) Davidsson 2018.
*NOTE: The author's great aunt died in the Spanish flu epidemic. See additional articles archived below and in Older Posts.
Friday, May 25, 2018
Many County Roads Honor the Famous or the Obscure
By Bob Davidsson
Since Palm Beach County was established in 1909, the State of Florida has designated 33 roads and bridges as memorials to famous residents, the not-so-famous, and people whose names are long forgotten with the passage of time.
It is not just highways and bridges that are so honored by our state lawmakers. Two trails, an expressway, a turnpike, causeway, plaza and even a cable barrier system have been deemed worthy of memorial recognition by the State of Florida in Palm Beach County.
Commuters driving to work on I-95 may be interested to learn their overburdened travel route is actually the "Dwight David Eisenhower Veterans Memorial Highway." By an act of the Florida Legislature (86-309), the section of I-95 (SR 9) from Miami to the Georgia line was so designated in October 1986.
"Ike" isn't the only president honored. The Florida Turnpike also became the "Ronald Reagan Turnpike" from SR 821 north to its intersection with I-75 at Wildwood. The Florida Legislature passed Session Law 98-435 in 1998.
The turnpike's Palm Beach Plaza was dedicated as the "Charles B. Costar Service Plaza" in 1999. Costar was a businessmen who lobbied for the creation of a highway toll system to finance the building of the Florida Turnpike.
The Florida Turnpike's cable barrier in Palm Beach, St. Lucie and Miami-Dade counties was designated as the "Alexander Alden Ware Memorial Cable Barrier System" in 2005. It is named for a child who drowned when the family's car flipped into a canal.
These memorial names attached to our county streets, highways and bridges are voted on and approved by the state senators and representatives we send to Tallahassee. They are introduced as house and senate bills, or as concurrent resolutions approved and placed in the Laws of Florida.
The Florida Legislature has the authority to designate transportation facilities "for honorary or memorial purposes." Beginning in 1922, and with few exceptions, honorary designations "were accomplished as they are today, through an act of the Legislature," according to the Florida Senate's Committee on Transportation's 2011 Interim Report.
After session laws are enacted, it is up to the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) to print and place signage for the memorial bridges or designated sections of Florida's state roads. Memorials passed before the year 1969 were the responsibility of the State Road Board, the oversight agency for the State Road Department, first established in 1915.
FDOT classifies a transportation memorial by its designated name, county, state route number, U.S. route number, local street description, type of facility, dedication source and effective date.
Memorial designations often overlap on the same section of road. The "Kenneth C. Mock Highway (SR 80) extends from the Henry County line to the Atlantic Ocean. However, it overlaps with the "Lawton Chiles Trail" between South Bay and West Palm Beach.
Kenneth Mock was an engineer from Pahokee who spearheaded efforts to expand SR 80 to a four-lane highway in Palm Beach County. Former two-term Governor and U.S. Senator Lawton Chiles is known for walking across the State of Florida in his political campaigns. The "Lawton Chiles Trail" is the route "Walkin' Lawton" followed along the state's roads.
The Dixie Highway (U.S. 1) has earned three patriotic memorial titles in Palm Beach County. It became the "Blue Star Memorial Highway" in 1957, the "Constitution Highway" in 1987, and received the additional designation as the "POW-MIA Blue Star Memorial Highway" in 1991.
In May 1947, the Florida Legislature proclaimed sections of SR 80 from Henry County to West Palm Beach, and U.S. 1 south of Southern Blvd. to the Broward County line, as the "United Spanish War Veterans Memorial Highway" to honor surviving Florida volunteers who served in the Spanish-American War and Philippines conflict.
Some memorial highways are named for deceased local politicians. The "Ben Sunday Memorial Highway" (SR 806), extending from the west Delray city limits to the Florida Turnpike, is named for a Palm Beach County commissioner who served in the 1950s.
The "Charles Minor Expressway" was designated in 1961 as the section of U.S. 27 and SR80 between the Hendry County line and South Bay. Minor was a member of the Florida House of Representatives and Hendry County Commission.
The main north-south highway in western Palm Beach County, U.S. 27 (SR 25) has acquired many common names during its 70-year history. Within Palm Beach County, it also became the "Tom and Marian Lewis Memorial Highway". The Legislature honored the former state lawmaker and his wife in 1995.
The section of Alternate A1A from Donald Ross Road north to U.S. 1 in Jupiter was proclaimed the "Glynn Mayo Highway" in 1992. He was the Town of Jupiter's first police chief and served for 28 years.
There also are highways honoring sporting organizations in Palm Beach County. The "Moroso Memorial Highway" is a section of SR 710 named in 1999 to honor the Palm Beach International Raceway and its former owner, Dick Moroso.
The arrival of the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) in northern Palm Beach County was recognized by the Florida Legislature by selecting a portion of SR 786 in Palm Beach Gardens as the "PGA Boulevard". The designation became law on June 24, 1965.
Palm Beach County's barrier island highway, SR A1A, has acquired its share of memorials. The earliest designation was the "Atlantic Beach Boulevard," so named in 1927 as the coastal highway from St. Augustine south to Miami. "North Ocean Boulevard," from Pelican Lane to Sea Road on the Palm Beach barrier island was officially cited in April 1992.
The little known but much traveled "Coast to Coast Highway" was designated in 1992. It extends from Siesta Key on Florida's west coast to U.S. 1 in Riviera Beach and includes SR 710 in Palm Beach County.
The Florida Legislature remembered historic Mar-a-lago and its Post cereals heiress by naming the link between SR A1A and Southern Boulevard as the "Marjorie M. Post Memorial Causeway" in 1972.
Memorial Bridges in Palm Beach County
Below is the current list of eight memorial bridges in Palm Beach County designated by the Florida Legislature with their effective dates of dedication:
The trail connected Fort Jupiter with Fort Dallas near the current City of Miami. During the Second Seminole War it was known as "Lauderdale's Route" but was later commonly called the generic "Military Trail".
Ironically, the historic route was not recognized by the Florida Legislature until March 1972. The section of the former wagon trail from SR 808 to PGA Boulevard is now a state memorial highway.
(c.) Davidsson. 2018.
NOTE: See additional articles below and archived in Older Posts.
Since Palm Beach County was established in 1909, the State of Florida has designated 33 roads and bridges as memorials to famous residents, the not-so-famous, and people whose names are long forgotten with the passage of time.
It is not just highways and bridges that are so honored by our state lawmakers. Two trails, an expressway, a turnpike, causeway, plaza and even a cable barrier system have been deemed worthy of memorial recognition by the State of Florida in Palm Beach County.
Commuters driving to work on I-95 may be interested to learn their overburdened travel route is actually the "Dwight David Eisenhower Veterans Memorial Highway." By an act of the Florida Legislature (86-309), the section of I-95 (SR 9) from Miami to the Georgia line was so designated in October 1986.
"Ike" isn't the only president honored. The Florida Turnpike also became the "Ronald Reagan Turnpike" from SR 821 north to its intersection with I-75 at Wildwood. The Florida Legislature passed Session Law 98-435 in 1998.
The turnpike's Palm Beach Plaza was dedicated as the "Charles B. Costar Service Plaza" in 1999. Costar was a businessmen who lobbied for the creation of a highway toll system to finance the building of the Florida Turnpike.
The Florida Turnpike's cable barrier in Palm Beach, St. Lucie and Miami-Dade counties was designated as the "Alexander Alden Ware Memorial Cable Barrier System" in 2005. It is named for a child who drowned when the family's car flipped into a canal.
These memorial names attached to our county streets, highways and bridges are voted on and approved by the state senators and representatives we send to Tallahassee. They are introduced as house and senate bills, or as concurrent resolutions approved and placed in the Laws of Florida.
The Florida Legislature has the authority to designate transportation facilities "for honorary or memorial purposes." Beginning in 1922, and with few exceptions, honorary designations "were accomplished as they are today, through an act of the Legislature," according to the Florida Senate's Committee on Transportation's 2011 Interim Report.
After session laws are enacted, it is up to the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) to print and place signage for the memorial bridges or designated sections of Florida's state roads. Memorials passed before the year 1969 were the responsibility of the State Road Board, the oversight agency for the State Road Department, first established in 1915.
FDOT classifies a transportation memorial by its designated name, county, state route number, U.S. route number, local street description, type of facility, dedication source and effective date.
Memorial designations often overlap on the same section of road. The "Kenneth C. Mock Highway (SR 80) extends from the Henry County line to the Atlantic Ocean. However, it overlaps with the "Lawton Chiles Trail" between South Bay and West Palm Beach.
Kenneth Mock was an engineer from Pahokee who spearheaded efforts to expand SR 80 to a four-lane highway in Palm Beach County. Former two-term Governor and U.S. Senator Lawton Chiles is known for walking across the State of Florida in his political campaigns. The "Lawton Chiles Trail" is the route "Walkin' Lawton" followed along the state's roads.
The Dixie Highway (U.S. 1) has earned three patriotic memorial titles in Palm Beach County. It became the "Blue Star Memorial Highway" in 1957, the "Constitution Highway" in 1987, and received the additional designation as the "POW-MIA Blue Star Memorial Highway" in 1991.
In May 1947, the Florida Legislature proclaimed sections of SR 80 from Henry County to West Palm Beach, and U.S. 1 south of Southern Blvd. to the Broward County line, as the "United Spanish War Veterans Memorial Highway" to honor surviving Florida volunteers who served in the Spanish-American War and Philippines conflict.
Some memorial highways are named for deceased local politicians. The "Ben Sunday Memorial Highway" (SR 806), extending from the west Delray city limits to the Florida Turnpike, is named for a Palm Beach County commissioner who served in the 1950s.
The "Charles Minor Expressway" was designated in 1961 as the section of U.S. 27 and SR80 between the Hendry County line and South Bay. Minor was a member of the Florida House of Representatives and Hendry County Commission.
The main north-south highway in western Palm Beach County, U.S. 27 (SR 25) has acquired many common names during its 70-year history. Within Palm Beach County, it also became the "Tom and Marian Lewis Memorial Highway". The Legislature honored the former state lawmaker and his wife in 1995.
The section of Alternate A1A from Donald Ross Road north to U.S. 1 in Jupiter was proclaimed the "Glynn Mayo Highway" in 1992. He was the Town of Jupiter's first police chief and served for 28 years.
There also are highways honoring sporting organizations in Palm Beach County. The "Moroso Memorial Highway" is a section of SR 710 named in 1999 to honor the Palm Beach International Raceway and its former owner, Dick Moroso.
The arrival of the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) in northern Palm Beach County was recognized by the Florida Legislature by selecting a portion of SR 786 in Palm Beach Gardens as the "PGA Boulevard". The designation became law on June 24, 1965.
Palm Beach County's barrier island highway, SR A1A, has acquired its share of memorials. The earliest designation was the "Atlantic Beach Boulevard," so named in 1927 as the coastal highway from St. Augustine south to Miami. "North Ocean Boulevard," from Pelican Lane to Sea Road on the Palm Beach barrier island was officially cited in April 1992.
The little known but much traveled "Coast to Coast Highway" was designated in 1992. It extends from Siesta Key on Florida's west coast to U.S. 1 in Riviera Beach and includes SR 710 in Palm Beach County.
The Florida Legislature remembered historic Mar-a-lago and its Post cereals heiress by naming the link between SR A1A and Southern Boulevard as the "Marjorie M. Post Memorial Causeway" in 1972.
Memorial Bridges in Palm Beach County
Below is the current list of eight memorial bridges in Palm Beach County designated by the Florida Legislature with their effective dates of dedication:
- Carlin White Bridge. (Name dedicated in 2007). Across the Loxahatchee River near Jupiter Inlet. He was a Jupiter pioneer who died in 2014 at age 107.
- Haven M. Ashe Bridge. (1965.) Across the Boca Raton Inlet on A1A. He was a Boca Raton pioneer and bridge tender who worked for Florida's State Road Department.
- Jack L. Saunders Bridge. (1980) Spans the Intracoastal Waterway on Linton Blvd., Delray Beach. He was a Delray Beach pioneer and former mayor.
- Jerry Thomas Memorial Bridge. (1981) Also known as the Blue Heron Bridge. It spans the Intracoastal Waterway in Riviera Beach. He was a past president of the Florida Senate and candidate for governor.
- L.E. Buie Memorial Bridge. (2004) It is the skypass bridge on U.S. 1 passing over the Port of Palm Beach. She was a resident of West Palm Beach since 1925 and a lifelong civil rights advocate.
- Richard E. "Pete" Damon Bridge. (2005) Bridge crosses the Loxahatchee River along Alternate A1A in Jupiter. He was a bridge tender on the Alternate A1A Bridge for 20 years.
- Riviera Memorial Bridge. (1945) Bridge crosses Lake Worth along SR A1A on Singer Island.
- Robert A, Harris Bridge. (1970) Bridge crosses the Intracoastal Waterway at the City of Lake Worth. He was the director of the Lake Worth Chamber of Commerce from 1961-69.
The trail connected Fort Jupiter with Fort Dallas near the current City of Miami. During the Second Seminole War it was known as "Lauderdale's Route" but was later commonly called the generic "Military Trail".
Ironically, the historic route was not recognized by the Florida Legislature until March 1972. The section of the former wagon trail from SR 808 to PGA Boulevard is now a state memorial highway.
(c.) Davidsson. 2018.
NOTE: See additional articles below and archived in Older Posts.
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