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A Teacher’s Guide to

the Special Exhibit

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Prepared by the Historical Society of Palm Beach County

© 2009 Historical Society of Palm Beach County

Teachers In order to receive in-service points, be sure to complete the pre and post visit activities and fill

out the Staff Development forms at the end of this guide. Send them to Karen Bradley, K-12 Arts

ED Resource Teacher, 3310 Forest Hill Boulevard, C-225, West Palm Beach, FL 33406-5813.

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Teacher’s Guide to the Special Exhibit

Livin’ on the Lake 2

For Teachers: All sections of this guide may be reproduced for your students.

Florida Sunshine State Standards: Social Studies

SS.A.6.2.1 Understands reasons that immigrants came to Florida and the contributions of

immigrants to the state’s history.

SS.A.6.2.3 Knows the significant individuals, events, and social, political, and economic

characteristics of different periods in Florida’s history.

SS.A.6.2.4 Understands the perspectives of diverse cultural, ethnic, and economic groups

with regard to past and current events in Florida’s history.

SS.A.6.2.6 understands the cultural, social, and political features of Native American tribes

in Florida’s history.

Vocabulary

Sharpie A long, narrow, flat-bottom fishing boat having a

centerboard and one or two masts, each rigged with a

triangular sail.

Haulover A place where boats had to be hauled over land from

a stream to a lake or over a sand dune to the ocean.

Collodion process A process used in the 19th century to take photographs.

Several chemicals were used to coast a glass plate which

was placed in a camera while wet to take a photograph.

A photo was then developed from the glass plate

negative using several other chemicals. Swamp cabbage Swamp cabbage is an old pioneer favorite vegetable

obtained from the heart of the cabbage palm (S. palmetto), which is the official state tree of Florida. The

plant is known by such other names as palmetto palm,

sabal palm, and swamp cabbage tree.

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Introduction

Livin’ on the Lake: the Pioneer Era, the first of two exhibits planned to celebrate

Palm Beach County’s centennial, opens at the Richard and Pat Johnson Palm Beach

County History Museum on February 10, 2009. The second exhibit, East & West: 1909,

opens September 1, 2009.

More than just a wide spot in the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, Lake Worth

existed as a fresh water lake for thousands of years before it became home to many of Palm

Beach County’s earliest pioneers. The lake had no natural flow to the ocean and only

occasionally did an opening breach the beach ridge giving hint to what lies west of the

barrier island.

In 1860 the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse was completed and placed into operation. The

keepers of the lighthouse were the only people living in the area except for Seminole

Indians. At the beginning of the U.S. Civil War, an assistant lighthouse keeper, German-

born Augustus O. Lang, and a few Confederate sympathizers dismantled and hid part of

the lighting mechanism darkening the lighthouse to aid Confederate blockade runners.

Lang then enlisted in the Confederate Army but later deserted and fled to the shores of

Lake Worth becoming the first known Anglo-American resident on the lake. He built a

home from wood poles and palmetto fronds, cleared land, and planted a garden that

included fruit trees. So remote was the lake’s locale that it was more than a year after the

war’s end that Lang learned of its outcome from some travelers. By word of mouth more

people soon made their way to the lake.

Between 1873 and 1893, settlers came to the Lake Worth area to establish new

homes. They had the opportunity to own land and to escape the harsh, cold winters up

north. For some, their doctors had recommended they move far south, to warmer climates,

because of illnesses. Many did live long lives because of the warm weather. Others came

here to build a better life for their families. This is not to say that it was an easy venture,

though, for they had to overcome a variety of hardships.

When they arrived, all they found was a jungle, with no paths or roads; their only

means of transport was by boat. The settlers cut a path from Lake Worth to the Atlantic

Ocean to have easy access to the beach so that they could scavenge the numerous

shipwrecks littering the coast. However, the settlers lived on the lake side of the island

rather than on the ocean side because of storms. They survived on what they found on the

beaches from shipwrecks and from what they could grow or hunt.

The settlers often took what they could find from shipwrecks to use in constructing

their homes. Sometimes, barrels of foodstuffs would be found in the wrecks or on the

beaches that would be added to the pioneers’ food supplies. Other materials were taken

north to Titusville and sold or traded for cash or other necessities.

The typical house of most settlers was made from items gathered along the beach

and palmetto thatching. These materials were used because they were the handiest

building materials. Sometimes, lumber was shipped from Jacksonville and used to build

houses. Some pioneer houses were built out of salvaged ship timbers and canvas sails.

Early settlers found the area full of wild animals, such as bears, deer, raccoons, and

opossums. They depended on these animals for food. Birds, fish, alligators, turtles, and

turtle eggs added variety to their diet. Most of the settlers were farmers and grew various

crops, like onions, eggplant, tomatoes, cabbages, green peppers, and turnips, to eat or sell.

Some made regular trips by boat to the market in Titusville to sell the vegetables grown in

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the Lake Worth area. By selling their crops, the pioneers were able to earn money to buy

items they could not produce themselves.

Those livin’ on the lake during 1870s and 1880s were living on the American

frontier. An inlet from the lake to the ocean was dug by pioneers, barefoot mailmen carried

the mail along the beach to Miami and back, little sharpies (a type of flat-bottomed boat)

crossed the lake, and a train line nicknamed the Celestial Railroad linked the seven and a

half mile land area between the head of Lake Worth and the Jupiter Inlet. The pioneer era

came to an end in 1893 when Henry Flagler arrived on Lake Worth to build a resort hotel

and to extend his Florida East Coast Railroad.

The Lake Worth settlement was the center of the community for the early pioneers

who carved a new life for themselves out of a jungle from what pioneer Marion Greer called

a modern day Garden of Eden. To tell the story of this intrepid group, photographs and

artifacts from the Historical Society’s permanent collection, including the first mail desk

used in Palm Beach and railroad spikes from the first railroad in southeast Florida, will be

on display.

Agriculture: Growin’ on the Lake In the 1870s the first permanent settlers arrived on the island

now named Palm Beach. They began clearing land to farm and

thought the area was a ‘Garden of Eden.’ The sandy soil was so

fertile that almost anything would grow.

Pioneer famers planted pineapples, pumpkins, coconuts, peas,

beans, radishes, tomatoes, and lettuce. When the crops were

ripe, they were harvested and boxed for transportation to

northern cities. The boxes were loaded onto boats headed for

the north end of Lake Worth and then hauled by wagon seven

and one-half miles to Jupiter.

Transportation: Getting’ Around Pioneers used boats as their primary

transportation in the lake area and every

pioneer family owned one. Places know

as ‘haulovers’ were developed – many by

Seminoles – to move a boat from a stream

to the lake or over a sand dune to the

ocean. A natural break in the barrier

island introduced saltwater into the lake

in 1866 and the freshwater lake began to

change into a saltwater lagoon and allowed direct ocean access.

In 1889 the Jupiter and Lake Worth Railroad opened. It became known as the Celestial

Railroad because it ran from Jupiter to Juno. The railroad made it easier and faster for

farmers to get their crops to Jupiter for loading onto steamships for travel up the Indian

River to market.

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Communication In the 1850s, important developments

took place in the area of visual

communication. The collodion process

allowed the creation of glass plate

negatives form which identical prints

could be made in quantity. Earlier

photographic attempts produced one-of-

a-kind images only.

In 1876 Melville E. Spencer arrived in the Jupiter area from Titusville. His brother, Donald,

was an established photographer in Pennsylvania. With his camera, Spencer captured

images of the early pioneers which could then be reproduced in quantity. These and other

early photographs contributed to the ‘lure’ of South Florida.

The first post office, Lake Worth, opened on the island of what is now Palm Beach in 1880.

In 1885 a unique route was developed to link the Lake Worth community with the Miami

area. Mail carriers walked barefoot along the beach in order to avoid slogging through the

inland swamps. The six-day round trip covered 136 miles—80 on foot, 56 in small boats.

Diet: What’s For Dinner? How about opossum? Or turtle with a side of

swamp cabbage? With the nearest store

more than one hundred miles away, if you

didn’t grow it or kill it you went hungry.

Seminoles often showed up at the door with

deer or alligator meat in trade for coffee,

sugar, and flour.

Christmas dinner in 1873 was the first

holiday on the lake for most of the settlers.

They met at Charlie Moore’s for opossum

baked with sweet potatoes and covered with

thin strips of fat bacon. Biscuits with cane

syrup and prickly pear pie completed the menu.

Housing: Bugs ‘R Us Preparation for building a house on Lake

Worth included walks on the ocean beach.

The Gulf Stream and hidden reefs

combined to create hazardous conditions

for ships which often sunk offshore and

their debris floated ashore. Others

wrecked along the shoreline. So, early

houses on Lake Worth were constructed

from materials salvaged from the beach

and local materials. Taking a tip from the

Seminoles they used palm fronds for

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roofing. The fronds kept the houses dry and cool but also offered a happy home to bugs, rats,

and snakes.

Over the years, as the settlers became more successful, they made improvements on their

houses. Later settlers brought store-bought materials to build their homes. By 1893, it was

no longer necessary to search the beach for building materials because Lainhart & Potter

Lumber & Building Materials supplied their building needs.

Where did the early pioneers come from? Most of the settlers who moved to the Lake Worth region came from Pennsylvania, Illinois,

Ohio, Kansas, Florida, New York, and several other states and foreign countries.

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ACTIVITIES

1. The early pioneer homes were very different than those we live in today. Look at the

following photographs of pioneer era homes. In the space provided, compare and contrast

these four pioneer homes. Which house would you like to live in?

A B

C D

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2. For the 1873 Christmas dinner the settlers menu included opossum baked with sweet

potatoes and covered with thin strips of fat bacon, biscuits with cane syrup, and prickly pear

pie. Compare what they ate to what you had for your last Christmas dinner.

3. Photographers in the 19th century used glass plate negatives to produce their

photographs. In the 21st century, what do we use to print out photographs?

4. This particular kind of boat was used by the pioneers to travel on Lake Worth. What

was is it?

Circle A or B next to the photograph that shows this type of boat.

5. Most of the early settlers on Lake Worth were from other states like New York, Illinois,

Pennsylvania, Ohio, other states, and Great Britain. Survey your class to find out how

many different states or countries your classmates and families come from.

A

B

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Read and Answer

Postal Service and the Barefoot Mailman

When the early pioneers left their homes in the North, they continued to talk with

their families and friends whom they left behind. Yet it was not easy to send a letter back

home. They couldn’t just e-mail or drop a letter at a post office. Communication was

difficult if you lived in South Florida at that time. At first, settlers depended on the honesty

of passing ship crews to take and deliver their mail. They also asked beach walkers to carry

and deliver mail along the Florida coast. However, this method was not dependable.

Sending a letter from Lake Worth to Miami took several weeks. First, it had to

travel to Jacksonville. Then the letter was shipped to Havana, Cuba, or Key West. Then it

was sent to Miami. Can you see why it took several weeks? To solve this problem, the U.S.

Postal Service set up a special route, called the Star Route, which required men to walk

from Palm Beach to Miami and then back. These men became known as barefoot mailmen

because they walked barefoot along the beach, carrying their shoes over their shoulders.

These adventurous mailmen traveled a route that was 136 miles round trip. It was

56 miles by boat and 80 miles on foot. It took three days each way. The mailmen walked an

average of 7,000 miles a year. Every Monday, a mailman left Lake Worth. He arrived in

Miami on Wednesday. The following day, he began his trip back north and arrived on

Saturday. During his journey, the mail carrier spent the nights at houses of refuge. Those

houses of refuge are still standing in today’s Delray Beach and Fort Lauderdale. In some

places, the mailmen had to cross water. At Hillsboro Inlet, New River and Biscayne Bay,

the mail carriers used a boat to get across. The first barefoot mailman was Edwin Ruthven

Bradley. He received a salary of $600 a year to make his weekly trips.

There are many stories about the barefoot mailmen. Here are a couple of stories

worth mentioning. They would often charge a small amount of money to take passengers

with them. According to stories, one passenger was upset over the long, hot walk because

there was limited fresh water and poor food. For revenge, he first sent some coconuts

through the mail. Then he sent a package of rocks. When he attempted to mail a small tree,

the mailman finally complained to Washington, D.C. That resulted in a weight limit being

placed on all deliveries.

In a second story, a mailman named Ed Hamilton lost his life while trying to

complete his route. Someone had moved Hamilton’s boat to the other side of Hillsboro Inlet.

He left his mailbag and clothes in a tree so he could swim for the boat. The mailbag and his

clothes were found in the tree, but Hamilton was never found. No one knows whether

Hamilton had simply drowned or if sharks or alligators in the inlet attacked him.

From 1885 to 1893, these brave men walked the beaches to deliver the mail. In 1893

when a stage, or hack line, was opened between Lantana and Miami, the barefoot mailmen

were no longer needed.

By today’s standards, the barefoot-mailman system in Lake Worth was primitive

and dangerous. But it worked for the pioneers. The postal service has improved since the

1880s. Automated services help mail carriers package and send mail all over the world.

They now travel in automobiles and even in airplanes. The barefoot mailmen would be

amazed at how efficiently mail is delivered in the 21st century.

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Answer the following questions.

1. What was the special route that the U.S. Postal Service set up for the pioneers to send

and receive mail?

____________________________________________

2. How many miles did the barefoot mailman travel by boat? ______________

3. In 1893, what replaced the barefoot mailmen? _______________________________

Suggested Reading:

Curl Donald W. Palm Beach County: An Illustrated History. Northridge, CA: Windsor

Publications, 1986.

Oyer, Harvey E. III. The Adventures of Charlie Pierce: The American Jungle. Oakland

Park: Middle River Press, 2008.

Pierce, Charles W. Pioneering Life in Southeast Florida. Coral Gables: University of

Miami Press, 1970.

Robinson, Tim. A Tropical Frontier: Pioneers and Settlers of Southeast Florida, 1800-1890.

Port Salerno: Port Sun Publishing, 2005.

Snyder, James. Black Gold and Silver Sands. Palm Beach: Historical Society of Palm

Beach County, 2004.

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A pioneer picnic on Lake Worth. Millie Gildersleeve, an

African American pioneer on

Lake Worth.

Pioneer family and friends ready for a

boat ride. Pen and ink drawing of Young

Tiger, a Seminole Indian by

George Potter.

Hunting alligators. The first schoolhouse, 1886.

Teacher Hattie Gale is standing in

doorway.

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Between 1873-1893 at

least seventy-three

pioneer families made

their homes on Lake

Worth. The descendents

of these families still

reside in Palm Beach

County today. This map

shows the lake’s 1883

shoreline and several

homesteads and

geographical features

from the era. It is based

on the map by Donald

Curl in Pioneering in Southeast Florida by

Charles Pierce.

A watercolor painting of pineapple fields in the Lake Worth area by pioneer George

Potter, late 19th century. Courtesy Historical Society of Palm Beach County, George

Potter Collection.

To learn more about the Historical Society of Palm Beach

County and its education programs visit:

www.historicalsocietypbc.org or call Curator of Education at

561-832-4164 ext. 104.

A Teacher’s Guide to

the Special Exhibit