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The 1890s
(The following hand written letter, which appears to be a draft, was found among the memorabilia of the Kitching family.) Sebastian, Fla. Brevard Co. Oct. 26th 1893
To the Dear Sir I beg to inform you that in the gale which came down upon us in Indian River on the night of the 11th inst. My Store building was blown down off its blocks, into the river a little after midnight. A shelf in the Post Office was knocked down and upward of fifteen hundred 2 cent Stamped Envs and 200 1 cent Postal Cards were completely ruined in the water, which rose to the top of the counters. I found about three dozen of the envs next morning & now enclose a few to show their condition after the gale. My individual loss of property is fully $2000 in goods damaged and washed into the river, damage to the building dock carried away etc -- No insurance. Please send me a "Blank for Claim" I oblige
Very Respy
[handwritten letters from Sylvanus Kitching to Thomas Jesper:]
Office of S. Kitching,
Dear Friend I was much pleased to hear from you again under date 11/26/97. I am sorry it is so irksome for you to write. Yesterday a party of over twenty of us went out on the St. Sebastian river on a fishing picnic. We were saying how we should like you all to see the splendid rod + line fishing, (fresh water) black bass + brim. We went out in three wagons, + some walked both ways, fully six miles each way. As fast as you cast in a line the fish get hooked, from 8 to 15 inches long, in two hours upwards of 250 fish were caught. Our daughter Florida walked both ways, + pulled out fifty -- she will be 14 next May -- she led the Epworth League meeting again, two weeks ago. Mrs. Lowder an old lady of seventy years, pulled out forty fish. Each wagon took well filled lunch baskets, + the ladies fried sixty fish for dinner. The remainder were taken home, and divided amongst the towns-folk. The day was warm and sunny, like an English summer's day. The river water was cold, + clear + very good for drinking. Some of the wholesale houses in Jacksonville, sell to consumers as well as merchants, so some of our neighbors take advantage of this, and order their own goods instead of patronizing their home Merchants. This makes business pretty quiet at times, and of course we quit buying from such houses, or make them promise not to repeat the offense. It is very unfair to the Merchant who has to carry a retailer's license. -- Next Monday being St. Valentine's day, I have one show window dressed with valentines, some pretty, loving, "lace" ones + long, cheap jokers like you have in England -- to sell at 5 cents each. -- Tonight there is a pound party by surprise at the house of one of our preachers (Methodist). About fifty people took pkgs of something or other tonight. One of the party bought a side of smoked bacon, from me today, + took it there, so his pound was multiplied by 13. No names are put on the pkgs.-- I took a 1 lb can of Libbey Corned Beef. Mrs. K. took a pound of evaptd apples -- Stanley took a 2 lb pkg of rolled oats, and Amy took something else, prunes I think. the rest of our folks stayed at home. We have two very nice ladies from Ark. staying here with relatives, they have been out at the fishing picnics each time, and say they wish they didn't have to go back home to Ark. One is young -- only married about 15 months; the other 50 years of age, a widow, with grown, married daughters.-- Two of our girls are engaged to be Married -- Edith, and Emily, but not likely to come off for some time. There's many a slip 'tween the cup and the lip. Our baby girl is five months old, + and a very good child. With kind [?] No more time for this mail.
Yours sincerely,
Trust you are not suffering much with your eyes.
Sebastian FLa., U.S.A.
Dear Friend I have your letter of 11.26.97 before me, in it you said you hoped to hear good tidings from us shortly -- well, this is my "shortly" -- a pretty long one isn't it? The Yanks Spanks war is over, & all that we saw of it here was train loads of soldiers passing through to camp at Miami 150 miles south of here, + they returned two months or more ago.-- No doubt before now you have received a group photo from me, + a newspaper telling about our girls enlisting as hospital nurses. Edith had been wanting to go to that work for over two years, but we were against it, So this time when she was at Jacksonville on a visit with a friend of hers from Cocoa, She took the opportunity to join without consulting us -- because she thought that we should object, + she had set her mind on it. We hear from them frequently, and they say the nursing is hard work mostly -- typhoid cases. Edith was placed in the worst ward on night duty, before she had been there three weeks, and was promoted above some of the trained nurses.-- She is well cut out for a nurse, but we don't think Amy will have endurance enough for it. The article in the paper was written by our school teacher Prof. B. F. Hardesty who resides here. I must tell you that some of us don't like the name of "Ladye," it looks as though we were trying to give our child a title, but the fact is she was named after a school teacher we had down here from Nashville, Tenn. By the way, our last one, the dear little girl above referred to (who has just learned to walk) has not been registered on the books of our Society. I believe she is the only one that hasn't, it is too bad, it might be to some advantage to her some day. She (Ladye Agnes) was born on 4th Septr last year, if it isn't too late, I would thank you very much, if you would kindly see to it for me. We haven't got much fruit on our orange trees because the frost killed them a good way down the trunk, three years ago.-- It served our pineapples and bananas very badly too. Stanley is down at Cocoanut Grove below Miami -- on Biscayne Bay with his yacht the "Ladye Agnes." He takes tourists out sailing. I enclose one of his cards. I have a German in the store + works outside too, he is reliable, has been here over ten years. His name is Fritz Light.-- Our daughter Mary Emily (20 years) is engaged to a German named Curd Schroeder -- he lives 40 miles south of here at Stuart, where my brother Broster is Post Master, + Walter who is married + one little girl) is general merchant. They have a fine store, a fine house, + a fine pineapple plantation -- not so liable to frost as ours -- being further south. Since writing the above, we have received a letter from Edith -- telling us that Amy is down with the typhoid fever, we pray that she may recover + Has good nursing (Edith + another) fine doctoring, and every comfort possible.-- My wife desires [?] her love, + says you must excuse her not writing this time.--
With love + best wishes from myself,
from: In 1895 the Indian River contributed over 2,500,000 pounds of food fish to the public markets. While the business of taking green turtles antedates the civil war, the fisheries proper did not begin until 1878, when a smack from Connecticut visited one of the inlets with seines and nets, and caught fish for the Savannah market. This section of Florida was sparsely settled and practically inaccessible except by water prior to the building of the railroad to Titusville, at the northern end of the river, in 1885. In 1895 there were nineteen firms with headquarters at 9 points, as follows: Titusville, Cocoa, EauGallie, Melbourne, Sebastian, Fort Pierce, Eden, Jensen, and Stuart. The severe cold of 1894—95 resulted in a relatively large increase in the number of fishermen, as the distruction of the orange and pineapple orchards caused a number of men to engage in the fishing business. The Physical Features of Indian River Between Melbourne and Sebastian the eastern shore—line is much more irregular, with the width variable, and the depth 2 or 3 feet less. Indian River Inlet is almost opposite St. Lucie. The inlet is less than a half mile long and only a few rods wide. Its depth varies for 7 to 12 feet, except at the inner end, where it is normally quite shallow. Blue Hole Cut connects directly or indirectly with the outer end of the inlet. The shores of the Indian River are generally low and composed of sand, with considerable coquina in some places. In the southern part of the river mangrove bushes are abundant on the mud flats and on the shores, while northward the cabbage palmetto is the principal tree. Sebastian River, near the station of that name, is a stream of some importance, but is only a few miles long. Commercial Fisheries of Indian River, Florida At the beginning of the fishing industry at Titusville the catch was taken within a few miles of that place, but as the business increased new grounds were continually sought further down the river until the operations of the Titusville fishermen were finally extended beyond Sewall Point, 125 miles to the south. Between these points camps were located at the most desirable places, chief of which were Eden, Indian River Inlet, and Sewall Point. The fish taken in the vicinity of the camps were carried to the camps and there packed in fish—cars holding from 800 to 1,500 pounds of well—iced fish, which were sent to Titusville by the steamers plying regularly on the river. Before being shipped by rail to the northern markets the fish were repacked with ice in barrels. The empty cars were filled with ice and sent back to the camps on the return trips of the steamers. Fishing at Sebastian began in September, 1895, the first shipment of fish by rail being on September 11. Up to the close of the year 103,890 pounds of fish had been shipped. Four firms were engaged in the business in the winter of 1895—96; these shipped mostly to New York, Richmond, and New Orleans. The grounds visited by the Sebastian fishermen extended 15 to 20 miles north and south of that place. A small turtle fishery is there carried on. Three fourths of the shipments from Ft. Pierce in 1895 were mullet, which were sent chiefly to cities in Georgia. Ft. Pierce is the principal headquarters of the alligator hunters of the eastern part of Florida. A very large trade in alligator hides was formerly carried out there, but the business had greatly declined. The Turtle Fishery The turtle fishery is comparatively unimportant. It is followed only from Sebastian, Ft. Pierce, and Eden, although turtles are incidentally caught at a number of other points on the river. The nets used in the turtie fishhery are constructed on the principle of ordinary gill nets. The turtles are caught being entangled in the meshes. Turtle fishing begins about November 1 and continues until March 1, after which it is impracticable on account of the arrival of large sawfish, sharks, and other fish that destroy the nets. The total number of turtles taken for market on the Indian River in 1895 was 519, having a weight of 18,909 pounds. The value of the catch was $1,320 dollars, or about 7 cents a pound. There is no doubt that turtle fishing on the Indian River is much less productive than formerly. Mr. Charles Pearke [Park], of Sebastian, who has followed the turtle business during the past ten years, reports a great decrease of turtles as compared with earlier years. About 1886 he took 2,500 turtles with eight nets; in 1895 he secured only 60 turtles with six nets. The principal reason assigned to the decrease by Mr. Pearke [Park] is that the turtles have been frightened off by the steamboats and launches. The unusual cold of the winter of 1894—95 is also known to have seriously affected the abundance of turtles. Several hundred turtles were then found floating on the surface in a numbed or frozen condition. On being warmed most of them survived and were soon on their way to northern markets. When it is desirable to retain the turtles for any length of time prior to shipment, they are confined to pens and fed on vegetable matter, the articles principally used being a marine plant known as turtle grass, sweet potato vines, and sometimes morning glory vines and mangrove leaves.
Fellsmere Railroad Although Sebastian is no longer in Brevard County, it was back in l896 when The Sebastian & Cincinnatus Farms Railroad was built from near Sebastian to a point about ten miles west of the Indian River, out near the headwaters of the St. Johns River, near present day Fellsmere. The idea behind the Cincinnatus Farms project was to drain several thousand acres of swamplands and sell five and ten acre farms to midwesterners and residents of Cincinnati, Ohio. The idea was fine and the corporation was honest and sincere and the virgin land they planned to drain and put on the market was prime farm land. The company was in business for many years and sold hundreds of farms. During the l907 and l908 years, torrential rains plus a couple of hurricanes dumped unusually high amounts of rain in the present day Fellsmere region and this resulted in most of the Cincinnatus Farms to be under three feet of water and years of hard work disappeared overnight when all the drainage canals and dykes filled with sand and disappeared. Most of the settlers didn't have the heart to begin anew and rather than begin the hard and costly drainage again, the Cincinnatus Farms closed down their operation. When the Sebastian & Cincinnatus Railroad began laying their tracks west from Sebastian, the following news release appeared in the Titusville weekly The Indian River Advocate, on September 25, l896. "Mr. W.W. Russell informs us that over one mile of track has been laid on the S&C RR and the work is being pushed forward as rapidly as possible. ll carloads of rails are now on hand at Sebastian for this purpose. After it is all laid, the work of digging the 34 miles of canals for the drainage of the land for farms will commence, and will be one of the largest and most desirable undertakings that has ever been attempted in Florida". Mr. L.L. Howard was in charge of the 70 laborers on the Surfacing gang. Mr. J.O. Fries was surveyor for the railroad and the farms. Captain Argo was foreman of the Bridge gang. Mr. W. Baker was in charge of the iron gang that laid the tracks. They estimatd the railroad to be about l0 miles long. The following advertisement appeared in the September l0, l909 issue of The East Coast Advocate, a Titusville weekly newspaper: "The Cincinnatus Farms Railroad, together with all spikes, rails, irons and fastenings, easements, rights of way, warehouse, station, platform, etc is for sale. Contact Agent at the Sebastian Office, Seastian, Fla." In l9l0, the Cincinnatus Farms Ralroad and ll0,000 acres of partially drained swampland was offered to Mr. E. Nelson Fell and Mr. Oscar T. Crosby and was purchased by them. The community of Fellsmere was named for Fell. The land offered little or no obstacles to a clear title and easy purchase. On June 6, l9l0 the property had been financed, organized and turned over to the Fellsmere Farms company. About that time the name of the railroad was changed to "The Fellsmere Railroad" and as a common carrier, began carrying mail. The Fellsmere Railroad almost immediately was extended past Fellsmere to a small community called Grassland. Future plans were to connect the road with the Kissimmee Valley Railroad which was being constructd from Titusville down to Lake Okeechobee, which would give Fellsmere and Sebastian two railroad outlets. Mr. Fell, who is largely responsible for developing the property and railroad, was a mining engineer of wide experience, a native of London, England, and who came to the United States in l882. He had been familiar with Florida conditions for twenty-five years and practically had been a part of it. At the height of operation The Fellsmere Farm and the railroad had two hundred twenty five men on their payroll which amounted to a monthly expenditure of $20,000. The Fellsmere Farms Co. was incororated for $4,000,000 most of which went for drainage and buildings. By l9l2, so many persons had purchased farms at Fellsmere and hundreds more were coming from the north to inspect the land, that the FEC made Sebastian a regular stop, instead of a flag stop. On January 6, l9l3, work was started on the Fellsmere railway station, which was located at the head of Broadway. Mr. W.M. Botts of West Palm Beach ws the contractor. The building was of board and batten construction with shingle roof, and was painted in company colors, green and white, with a red roof. The platform was ten feet wide and 75 feet long, running along the south side of the track. The station building was l2 x 32 feet, with a central office room l2 x l4 feet, with four windows. There was an open waiting room on one end for white passengers and an open waiting room for colored on the other end. The freight depot was located on a new side track north of the main line and east of the section house. It was l6 x 50 feet, with wagon platform and freight car platform on either side. There were large sliding doors opening onto each platform. A passenger platform 8 x 50 feet long was also constructd on the main line for the convenience of passengers visiting the Demonstration Farm. A plot of land opposite the passenger depot was fenced in by the company and used as a station park, some nice shade trees were planted there. Both passenger and freight depots were in charge of S. R. Griner, general agent of the Fellsmere Railroad Company. Better railroad facilities were also made at Sebastian for accommodation of passengers and for the prompt handling of traffic from the junction point of the Florida East Coast Railway to Fellsmere. A depot platform was built on the west side of the spot from which the Fellsmere train and motor cars start. It was connected with the platform sidewalk of the Florida East Coast Railway by a wide board walk, and it was illuminatd by night with bright lamps. To further aid Fellsmere passengers to the right way, an illuminated sign was placed in a conspicuous place, bearing the word "Fellsmere Train." Negotiations were made with the FEC for additional side track facilities at Sebastian. These negotiations included the building of a "Y" by means of which trains may be turned at the Sebastian terminal. The "Y" was located on the south side of the Fellsmere Railroad track, about one and a half miles west of Sebastian. On October l8, l9l3 two new coaches for the Fellsmere Railroad were purchased and immediately put into use. One of the coaches was a combination baggage car, with a smoking compartment, and also a section for colored passengers. The other was a regular modern type coach 54 feet, four inches in length over platforms, 45 feet, 7 l/2 inches inside measurements, with a seating capacity of 56 passengers. The seats were reversible, made of oak, and upholstered in crimson plush. The coaches were provided with Westinghouse air brakes, train signal and emergency valves, standard passenger coach draft gear, Janney couplers and Buhoupe buffers. Business picked up so much that the Fellsmere Railroad decided to purchase a second locomotive and passenger coach to take care of the rapidly increasing business over the Fellsmere Railroad. The company officials wanted to do away with the motor car service between Fellsmere and Sebastian because of poor road conditions. Plans were to operate a second daily train to meet the Florida East Coast train no. 29 that arrived in Sebastian each evening. The new passenger coach was fifty feet long and had a seating capacity of sixty passengers. The interior finish was of oak, and the seats upholstered in imitation leather. This new coach was to be used for white passengers, and the, then, present combination coach would be used, the front half for colored passengers and the rear half as a smoker. The new locomotive weighed thirty-five tons and was similar to the other engine owned by the Fellsmere Railroad. It arrived in Sebastian on Monday March 3, l9l3 in charge of Mr. E.C. McIlvane, who went to Albany, Ga., to make a final insection of the engine before the purchase was completed. Everyone in Fellsmere was gratified when they learned of the second engine being added to the rolling stock of The Fellsmere Railroad. This meant that there would be no delay in the transporation of shipments of winter vegetables. On October l6, l9l3 The Fellsmere Farms Co. announced that the new town of Broadmoor was on the market, and that the Comany was engaged in finishing the platting just as soon as this was done, maps would be printed, and business and residental lots would be sold. The company reserved space for parks and other utilities. Broadmoor was originally planned as Deepland, but on account of there being another Deepland in the State, the name was changed to Broadmoor. The Townsite was five miles west of Fellsmere, and was one of the first towns to be established in a muck district. Broadmoor was directly on the line of the proposed extension of the Fellsmere Railroad. The original townsite consisted of nine business blocks and fifty-seven residence blocks, about three quarters of a mile square. The Fellsmere Railroad reached Broadmoor about the same time that a post office was established on April 6, l9l5. Not many persons made it to Broadmoor via train because early in l9l6, a deluge hit the area around Lake Wilmington. Newspaper accounts tell how sixteen inches of rain fell there in two days time, completely wiping Broadmoor off the surface of the earth. The deluge that hit Lake Wilmington was the beginning of the end for the railway as well as The Fellsmere Farms Company. For a period of about two years, most of that region was a vast wasteland, under water and inaccessible. Records indicate that the Broadmoor post office was completly washed away and no trace remained of the building, the equipment or the cancelling devices. The rest of the town disappeared at the same time including the railroad depot and freight station and telegraph office. By the time The Fellsmere Farms Company was able to regroup and begin anew, the nation was engaged in World War I and equipment and supplies were in critical supply. Truck farmers who braved the flood were again hard pressed because of a fertilizer shortage. Local history reminds us that the rolling stock of the Fellsmere Railroad was sold for use of troop movements in the Northeast. After the war, the rails from Sebastian to Fellsmere were put back in shape and surplus locomotive and railroad rolling stock purchased and the tiny railroad was once again in the business of hauling prospective land owner and freight and supplies from Indian River to Fellsmere. The railway picked up its twice a day schedule. Sometime during the early 20s, the Ammoniated Products Corporation took over the company and gave it the high-sounding name, The Trans Florida Central Railroad, even though it was the second smallest line in the state. During the Florida real estate boom of the mid 20s, hundreds of out-of-state prospective land buyers were hauled over the railroad to Fellsmere to inspect city lots, homesites and farms. When the boom ended one locomotive, No. l03, and a combintion coach and freight car was the rolling stock that remained. Number l03 bravely kept running until the depression's depth, then she was junked. Hit by two severe blows, the depression and a smart-looking automobile road, rail traffic dwindled and the company began using autos with flanged steel wheels, to haul small flatcars between the two towns. Mr. D.B. Russell who rode the flatcar in l940 wrote of his trip: "Twice daily between Fellsmere and Sebastian, Fla., a rickety gasoline railcar plods over ten miles of rusty track. Powered by a l923 Model T. Ford motor, this relic of palmier days is the sole rolling stock of the old "Trans Florida Central Railroad Company," a line now too obscure to be listed in the Official Railroad Guide. "On the day after Christmas, l940, I rode the Trans Florida Central jalopy and met its operator, l9-year-old J.M. Pennington. Being the only passenger, I sat up front. The wind whipped past my ears. I clung tightly to my side of the seat, while Pennington screamed at me, above the clank-bank-clank of the wheels, about the track's condition and what state highways had done to private railroads." It is said that the only way the Trans Florida Central was able to keep rolling through the depression and World War II was the mail contract held by the railroad and the line provided cheap transportation between the two towns. All through the history of The Fellsmere Farms Company, they planned to extend their rails west. In l9l5 when they laid their rails through Broadmoor they planned to connect with the Florida East Coast Kissimmee Valley railroad that ran from Titusville to Lake Okeechobee. When the Seaboard came down thru Central Florida in the early 20s residents hoped that the line would pass thru Fellsmere. Still another plan was to build a new railroad from Melbourne to Malabar and Fellsmere and continue on to Bartow, where large deposits of phosphate were being mined. In the end, none of these plans ever got off the tracks. The Fellsmere Railroad in the early days had but two stations --- Sebastian and Fellsmere, but over the years the following stopping places were added: Kitchings, River Branch, Deepland, Homewood, Broadmoor and Grassland. Today all except Sebastian and Fellsmere are ghost towns. The Fellsmere Railroad made connections at Sebastian and met all Florida East Coast Trains there. Arrangements were made between the two lines so that passengers and guests bound for Fellsmere Farms had stopover privileges.
The Story Of Roseland The l9l6 St. Lucie County Directory has this introduction to Roseland; "Roseland, on Florida East Coast Railway, 30 miles north of Fort Pierce, is just what the name implies." To start the story of Roseland, we will first recount the naming of the community as it was told me by a charming lady who lived in Roseland for more than 90 years. Katy Cain White, affectionately called Aunt Katy White, daughter of Dempsey Cain, knew every detail of this interesting incident. Before the railroad was built, all of the mail was carried by boat, thus it was customary to locate post offices as near the river as possible. As the railroads pushed farther south they contracted to carry mail, and for convenience the post offices were relocated. The Cains and their neighbors had to get their mail at the New Haven Post Office, which was first opened on the Indian River on April l6, l882. The pioneers on the Sebastian River decided to apply for a post office of their own when railroad travel became available. Early in l892, Will Underwood and one of the Mallory brothers met with Cain on his front porch to make out the application and decide on a name. A beautiful pink rambler rose bush covered one end of the porch and half the side of the house. The rose was called The Seven Sisters. There were seven Cain sisters and this coincidence occurred to their father. He proposed the name Roseland and it has been Roseland ever since.
Office Of The Postmaster General
Dear Ms. Sadler: Thank you for your recent letter, requesting information on the Roseland, Florida, Post Office. I am enclosing a list of postmasters and their appointment dates for this office,which was established in Brevard County upon the appointment of William C. Eason as first postmaster. The enclosed Postal Bulletin of March 26, l892 shows that the office was serviced on Route l6094 and was located two and one-half miles south of Micco and two and one-half miles north of Sebastian. Unfortunately, our records here at postal headquarters do not contain a great deal of information on mail contracts. Most of these records have been transferred to the National Archives and Records Administration, NNFJ, Washington, D.C. 20408-000l (phone:202-523-3ll9). Our office received a similar request recently on Roseland from Mr. George B. Keyes of your Historical Society. Instead of my repeating the above in a separate letter, perhaps you could share this information with Mr. Keyes. I hope the above is helpful.
Sincerely,
Ms. Cora S. Sadler, Secretary
Roseland Post Office
Name, Title, and Date of Appointment:
William C. Eason, Postmaster, 03/0l/l892 Changed to St. Lucie County on July 2l, l905
A. E. Campbell, Acting Postmaster, 05/ll/l9l3 Changed to Indian River County
Mrs. Anna B. Morrison, Postmaster, l2/25/l935 [a] [a] - Name changed by marriage.
No Ghosts But Many Mysteries
The dining room floor squeaks a little, admits Dottie Speck. Other than that, there are no strange noises in the night, no moans and groans of the old house. No wind sighing through the rafters and the cedar walls. In fact, the house seems structurally sound and extremely steady for all its almost l00 years. It weathered Hurricane David last year with hardly a crack or a crumble. But the rumors about Don and Dottie Speck's house "on the point," in the town of Roseland are enough to rattle your bridgework. "I've been told that an English song writer owned the place once and composed music here," says Mrs. Speck. Another story she's heard is that "a man from New York bought the place for his mistress, who lived here for awhile." Once a woman drove up in the yard and looked around. She told Mrs. Speck that she had been born and raised here. "We used to have parties and happy times here," said the woman. Mrs. Speck does not know the woman's name. She has never been back. But the house on the point - the point juts out into the Sebastian River - has a captivating history, as does the three acres of land surrounding the house. Local archeologist Homer Cato, who lives just across the river in the town of Micco, says this point of land was an Ais Indian village dating to the early l600's. He has found pottery, deer bones and other ancient items here. On the west side of the small creek that runs through the property was an Indian burial ground, says Cato. From the property's abstract, the Speck's know their land was part of the original 20,000 acres given to George Fleming in l8l6 by Govenor Kindelin and approved by the King of Spain. "on account of distinguished and extraordinary services rendered." The 20,000 acres is commonly known as the Fleming Grant and it comprised land in what was then St. Lucie County and Brevard County. The abstract describes boundaries in chain lengths and measured from a certain cabbage palm to a certain stake and in other quaint terminology. There was a town named Wauregan somewhere nearby, and a creek named Boggy Branch. Across the Sebastian River was where Dempsey Cain first built his cabin. Cain was one of the early settlers of Roseland and helped to choose the name of the community. In the Specks' abstract, the Indian River is referred to as the Rio Y, the Sanish name, and the land given to George Fleming was described loosely as 20,000 acres bounded by the Rio Y, the St. Sebastian River, and between the eastern coast of Florida and the River St. Johns. But in l829, l3 years after Fleming was given the land, a Thomas Douglas, U.S. attorney, questioned the legal right of Fleming's heirs to the property. He said the heirs had "totally neglected and failed to occupy the land, cultivate it or improve it for a period of l2 years, thus forfeiting all right and title to the land - if they ever had it." Douglas questioned the authority of governor Kindelin to make the grant to Fleming. Among Fleming's heirs were his widow, Sophia, and his children, Lewis, Mary and George. They broght suit against the United States to retain their land and after several appeals through various courts, won their case. In June, l837, the Fleming heirs sold the 20,000 acres for $6,000 to Charles Downing. Apparently Downing offered the land - or a portion of it - collateral for a loan from Southern Life Insurance and Trust Co., because at one point in the history of the property, the insurance company held a mortgage on it. Subsequent owners of the Proerty were Milam B. Cavano, Olivia and Samuel L. Fowler and James Fowler. The property then juggled back and forth among several Fowler family members and someone named Phillip Wadington. Cropping up in the period of l889 in the abstract was a proposed Town of Wauregan, located somewhere on the Fleming Grant. Also in the late l800s', Dempsey Cain purchased 20 acres of the Grant and Frank H. Allen and Dwight Cameron purchased portions of the proerty. Gradually during this period, many portions were sold off. The Sebastian river Land and Improvement Co. began buying portions of the Fleming Grant on the south side of the Sebastian river and in l894, the land company conveyed a 50-foot strip of its land on each side of the railroad to the Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Indian River Railway Co., on condition that "said railroad shall maintain a station, side tracks, etc., now existing, or better, for l0 years, and crossings, not exceeding six, otherwise the property to revert to the grantor." Consolidated Naval Stores held a mortgage at one time on some of the Fleming Grant Land. The company had extensive turpentine activities through out all of the central east coast of Florida, including leases west of Melbourne. In l9ll, Consolidated Naval Stores redeemed many tax certifictes of property within the Fleming Grant, including, probably, the property now belonging to the Specks. Creary Lumber Co. obtained a timber lease on portions of the Fleming Grant in the period of l9l0 - l9l3, in order to erect a steam saw mill, capacity l0,000 per day. They agreed to pay Frank H. Allen $2 per l,000 feet for all timber reported cut from the land. All of the Fleming Grant has been under litigation for one reason or another throughout the l50 years since George Fleming was given the property by the King of Spain. But now, in the last half of the 20th century, Dottie and Don Speck can sit out on their point of land and not worry about litigtion or tax certificates. They like to imagine in their mind's eye, the Spanish galleons that once came up the Sebastian River. Is treasure buried here on their proerty? "Those were pirates sailing those ships," says Mrs. Speck. But the cedar trees, the magnolias, the old oak and hickory trees keep their secrets well. The Ais Indians in their encampment here once built campfires and hunted deer. Nowadays the Specks must be content with a fire on an open grill and a pastime of watching the civit cats, owls, opossums, alligators, a bob cat back in the woods, and something, that to Dottie, looks like a wolf. It walked through their yard about seven months ago she says. And of course, there is Georgiana, the raccoon. She comes around quite frequently. But if Georgiana or any of the other creatures know the secrets of the Spanish galleons, the Ais Indian or the early settlers who built the old Florida cracker house. Its porcelain doorknobs, l0-foot high ceilings, narrow slat boards and the windows with the distorted, wavy glass, say very little. George Fleming would have liked it that way. He would like the way the Specks have maintained their property. It looks much as it did when the King of Spain gave it to him back in l8l6.
Information from a Fellsmere abstract concerning the transfer of land from the earliest records that later became Fellsmere Farms.
December 27, 1890
Township 31 South, Range 36 East, except Section 16; Numerous transfers were made to different parties until 1910
February 23, 1910
March 9, 1910
June 6, 1910
Chronology of the Trans Florida Central RR
1896
1907
1909
1910 Note: Standard gauge is 4'8 1/2" in width. Rail weight increased to more than 30 lbs/yd. 60 lb/yd not unusual. Sept. New construction complete. Road named Fellsmere RR. Logs hauled from Fellsmere wooded areas to Florida East Coast RR at Sebastian.
19ll
1912
1913
1915
1917 Note: the USRA (Railroad Administration) took control of all U.S. railroads for the duration of WWI.
1923
1924 Note: the 1923 Ford Model-T equipment may have been purchased at this time. It was common pratice to buy truck frames and fit them with flanged rail wheels. Truck body construction was often home made arrangement. The "beast" appears to be two truck frames back-to-back. This allows for heavy cargo loading so that the center of gravity would be close to both driven axles. The unusual twin-engine could provide extra power for the high-loading with little for direction. One must keep in mind that the Model-T horsepower was about 28hp.
1930
1940
1952
Old Dixie Zig-Zags Through Sebastian This is the first of a four-part series on Old Dixie Highway, its historic roots and the people and businesses that live on the road today. Dixie Highway is like a ghost. Obscured in places by passing time, it reappears in quiet stretches off the beaten track to give glimpses of bygone days. It spanned the Sebastian River connecting Brevard and Indian River counties on a now-extinct wooden bridge that was the scene of a fatal frontier gunfight. An ancient Ais Indian oyster shell midden south of Sebastian was mined for its first paving. Before U.S.1 bypassed Winter Beach, Dixie Highway made that town a popular roadside stop and railway shipping point for the county's first farmers. Henry T. Gifford, one of Vero Beach's first pioneers was paid $22.50 per mile for clearing the road south to Fort Pierce. It became the link between pioneer homesteads and civilization, where once the Indian River was the only highway. Today, remaining segments of Old Dixie Highway travel past long-gone pineapple fields to the site of a pre-Civil War Army post north of Fort Pierce. Its two-lane blacktop parallels the Florida East Coast Railway, switching several times from one side of the tracks to the other. It disappears completely in places where it was made obsolete by U.S.1. The origins of Dixie Highway have faded with the passing years. It appears to have been a conglomeration of local roads, later linked by state and federal efforts. Origin Traced In 1895 The earliest local description of Dixie Highway was rendered by Brevard County surveyor R.B. Birchfield in 1895. Sebastian historian George Keyes said it charted the highway from the Sebastian to St. Lucie rivers. James Hume of Micco points to a spit just west of the U.S.1 bridge into this county. That was landfall for Dixie Highway's first wooden drawspan over the Sebastian River. He and his wife, Rosalee, are lifelong residents of Micco, arriving in 1923. "Micco was primarily a West Virginia retirement village," said Hume. "They'd come here for the winter, then leave for the summer and leave us Crackers to fight the mosquitoes." Motorists can pick up Old Dixie Highway in Valkaria, just south of Goat Creek. It travels on the west side of the railroad tracks through Grant and near the home of Bob and Grace Ormond. They are both volunteers with the Grant Historical Society and give tours of the Grant Historic House on the banks of the Indian River. One recent afternoon, Bob Ormond, a 73-year-old Grant native, showed a stack of old photographs that included early glimpses of Old Dixie Highway. These included the Tent Tavern, a business with wooden wall and a canvas roof. Today, the Grant Volunteer Fire Department building is on that site. Another showed the Jorgensen family traveling Old Dixie Highway - just two sandy ruts - in a horse-drawn buggy. Old Dixie continues through Grant until it joins U.S.1 at Shell Pit Road. It dead ends a few hundred yards south of that intersection, disappearing into underbrush where it seems to have once continued south towards Micco. U.S.1 went through Grant in 1928, Ormond said. But old Dixie Highway remained an unpaved shell and marl road from Valkaria to Micco until about eight years ago. Henry Flagler's Florida East Coast railway spanned the banks of the Sebastian River in the early 1890s. Vehicles and pedestrians still crossed by ferry boat. Historian Recalls Prison Local historian Cora Sembler Sadler said there was a prison camp near Roseland in the first decade of the century and the ferry would take inmates across the Sebastian River to work a state lease for turpentine. In 1924, the sheriff of St. Lucie county came to the same area in pursuit of the Ashley gang. A native of Salerno, John Ashley was an escaped convict and bank robber of wide reknown before he and companion were shot and killed on the Sebastian bridge. "They were trouble, really," said Mrs. Sadler, who was 13 when the famous incident took place. "They stopped them at the foot of the bridge," she said. "They put a chain with a lights on it across the bridge." Accounts of the ensuing gunfight agree that Ashley and gang member were shot and killed by authorities. They also recount debates about whether the Ashley gang was summarily executed or shot while trying to escape. A coroner's jury trial exonerated the officers amid Ashley family accusations that they had been handcuffed and killed. Modern Sebastian maps show Old Dixie Highway as a narrow blacktop strip that begins near the east end of Roseland Road and angles into U.S.1 as North Central Avenue. It had changed by 1926, when the first Indian River County map shows Dixie Highway paralleling the Indian River to the present-day course of U.S.1. Highway Zig-Zags "The first Dixie Highway made a zig-zag at Main Street in Sebastian," Mrs. Sadler recalled. "It made a jog east and then went south again. "It didn't go down to the river at all," she said. "It was about where U.S.1 is now." Another historic Sebastian building - this one still standing - was the former Woodsmen of the World Meeting hall. It stands where a stretch of U.S.1 in Sebastian has completely replaced the former Dixie Highway. The hall was built in 1913 and a young Rodney Kroegel used it during the 1920s to show movies. "That was our big entertainment, unless the church had something," Mrs. Sadler said. Her father gave the children 20 cents per week allowance for brushing their teeth - Mrs. Sadler still has a tiny notebook where Charles W. Sembler kept records. "You got a big pack of dates and nuts for 10 cents at Braddock's store and the other 10 cents was for the movie," she said. "Meta Hardee played piano for the silent movies." Movie Hall Converted Today, the place where young Rodney Kroegel showed movies is called the 1125 Building, its address on U.S.1. It has been used for many things over the passing decdes - including city offices and a Masonic Lodge. But inside and out, the two-story 1125 Building is a piece of restored Sebastian history. It houses Sebastian Interior and Mrs. Reeves' Merriweather Art Studio. Inside, the first floor is one large open room. Sunlight beams through original windows to illuminate warm pastel colors. "What you see now, except for these two sheetrocked walls are the building's original walls," said Paul Reeves, son of owners Fred and Marilyn Reeves. The tongue-in-groove wooden slats withstood the passing years partly because their Miami pine was loaded with sap. "The termites didn't like to eat the wood because it was so sappy." Paul said. The family has been restoring their heirloom building for nearly five years. Upstairs, Paul points toward a modern suspended tile ceiling. "One day, all this ceiling will be gone and it will be opened up to what it was," he said. The interior design business in Sebastian has been good, Paul added, and he credits much of his family's success to the ambiance of the 1125 Building. "The building itelf does half the work, because of the architecture and style." Paul said. "It just lends the feel for an interior decorator."
Sebastian Inlet History My first recollection of the Sebastian Inlet was in l890 when I traveled with my father, mother and brother by sailboat from Melbourne down the Indian River to what was then called Gibson's Cut. My father had purchased l0 acres of land located approximately three quarters of a mile north of the present inlet, from Capt. David P. Gibson in l888. Capt. Gibson at that time owned a large tract of land on the east side of the Indian River which included the site of the present inlet. The land at the spot was only a quarter of a mile wide and in l886 Capt. Gibson promoted a move to dig an inlet across the land from the river to the ocean. His plan was put into operation and volunteers dug a ditch by hand. Eventually the arduous work became too much for the volunteers and their enthusiasm waned. This location on the east side of the Indian River has for years been known as Gibson's Cut. Again in l895 another group tackled the job of trying to open a canal through to the ocean. This time they were successful, but the very first northeaster of the season closed the canal. Discouraged though they were, they kept trying to solve the difficult engineering problem. One of the guiding lights in the project was the late R.D. Couch of Melbourne, a civil and mechanical engineer who at that time owned and operated the Couch Mfg. Co. of Grant. In l9l6 Couch again pushed the opening of an inlet at Sebastian and with his own six inch dredge he cut out the sand banks preparatory to opening. He also placed coquina rock in position to be used as jetties. When the high water came he had additional help and at last the inlet was opened for navigation. But again, their triumph over nature was shortlived. One of the worst northeasters arrived and wrecked the project. Eventually Couch decided to try a visit to Washington to appeal to Senator Duncan U. Fletcher. He secured a permit to open the inlet as an emergency food measure from the U.S. Government. During l9l7-l8, Couch was instrumental in having the Florida State Legislature pass a bill creating the Sebastian Inlet District Commission. The purpose was to build a permanent inlet which would stay open. Couch was elected to serve as first chairman of the newly formed Inlet Commission and he served in that post until his death in l952. Following the election, the question of how to finance the operation came up and after much discussion and planning an election was held and a $l00,000 bond issue was voted and carried for the purpose of opening the inlet and construction of jetties. This project required permits from the Internal Improvement Board and Coastal Laboratories. In l923-24 the jetties were completed: but because of a heavy storm the dredging was not completed and much to everyone's surprise, the storm, this time, opened the inlet without man-made assistance. The inlet held up well until l94l, during World War II, when due to lack of proper maintenance, the inlet closed once more. The sand bar formed across the inlet and remained there until l945 when someone thought of blasting the inlet to rid it of obstruction. The U.S. Army granted permission for that purpose. Couch contactd officers at the Banana River Naval Air Station (now Patrick AFB) and they were enthusiastic about their personnel using the sand bar as a training area. It was similar to the South Pacific Island where their officers and men were scheduled to fight. The U.S. Navy Demolition Squad received excellent training, but actually were successful in only blowing up l2 cottages and a store building belonging to me, located on my property just north of the Sebastian Inlet. I had signed a release, so had no claim for damages. This, I felt, could be part of my contribution to the war effort! In l947, an organization was formed known as the Veteran's Inlet Committee. Jake Brannin was the leading spirit and Harry Goode served as treasurer. Many of the members contributed manual labor at the inlet and Brannin devoted his full time to the job of restoring the area. The group had some digging and earth moving equipment and a dredge. They were making progress when the famous l947 hurricne arrived and did more than $l,000 worth of damage to the equipment. In early l947, Couch, consulting engineer on the job, decided that the water level and conditions on shore were right, so a cut was made resulting in a successful opening to the sea. The inlet remained open several months and during that time the river was restocked with fish. It also relieved the flooded condition of lands in this area. This proved the value and need for the inlet. Again, because of severe storms and the defective condition of the jetty, the inlet closed. At that time work had already begun to strengthen and place a concrete cap on the jetties. Couch reported again on Oct. 28, l949, that the inlet was still open and conditions greatly improved. He noted that the U.S. Army engineers had made surveys of the inlet and were to submit their report to the chief of engineers for permanent improvements to Sebastian Inlet. It must be reported here that no member of the Sebastian Inlet Commission ever received such a report. The inlet had its greatest loss on Jan. 28, l950, when Roy O. Couch died in his sleep while aboard his cabin cruiser anchored at Sebastian Inlet. He had devoted so much of his life to this difficult project and literally died on the job.
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