A History of the Everglades of Florida by J.E. Dovell, 1947
http://sofia.usgs.gov/memorials/dovell
CHAPTER IV

PRIVATE ATTEMPTS AT RECLAMATION OF THE EVERGLADES

1. Receivership of the Internal Improvement Fund

In the decade before the Civil War the main concern for internal 
improvements in Florida was the development of overland transportation, with 
waterways and harbors assuming a secondary position, and land reclamation 
purely incidental.  The reason for this is found in the fact that the 
settlement of the state had extended only to a little below Ocala, whereas 
the largest part of the swamp lands were south of that point.  Interest in 
the Everglades remained latent from 1850 to 1860 and during the war which 
followed.  There were, however, sporadic bursts of publicity about the 
state's swamp and overflowed lands.

A series of articles had appeared in DeBow's Review during the 1840's and 
1850's dealing at length with the Everglades.  An unsigned article, 
"Florida--Its Climate, Soil, Products, Temperature, Health, Etc., Sea Island 
Cotton, Sugar, Etc.," appearing in 1847 quoted figures to show that Florida 
was tropical only below the twenty-seventh parallel.  The writer cited John 
Lee Williams' books on Florida to show that the Everglades area was a vast 
basin filled with marshes.

"It can be seen by a glance at the maps that the quantity of cultivable land 
below the limit of black frost is small indeed.  It is said that the 
Everglades can. be drained. It matters not; for if they are, they will be as 
worthless as before on account of their insalubrity." 1

In 1851, J. P. Baldwin and G. W. Ferguson enumerated the advantages of the 
Miami area, arid declared that the bloody Indian war and massacres  
explained why that section was so sparsely settled.  These writers referred 
to the Everglades

". . . as that extensive region of swamp land [which] is now the property of 
the state, it is confidently hoped that measures will soon be taken to 
redeem from overflow so valuable a portion of tropical territory.  . . ." 2

An anonymous writer, in 1853, urged Everglades drainage works as part of 
national waterways improvements to aid in the navigation of Southern coastal 
waters.  By deepening the natural outlets of the Everglades on the Atlantic 
and Gulf coasts, the writer believed a means of passage across the  
peninsula of Florida would be provided which would enable small steamers and 
coasting vessels to avoid the perilous Florida reefs.  At the same time, in 
effecting such an aid to navigation, vast sugar lands would be reclaimed for 
the benefit of the nation. 3

After the Seminole War, Indian troubles in Florida were negligible, and the 
small remnant of red men remaining in Florida took to swamp and glade for 
habitation.  In 1851 Governor Thomas Brown requested the Secretary of War to 
remove the Indians from the Everglades, for

"the most interesting and valuable part of our state . . . is cut off from 
any benefit to the citizens and sealed to the knowledge of the world, to be 
ed as a hunting ground for a few roving savages." 4

Despite the threat of occasional Indian forays gradual settlement took place 
along the coasts and in the interior of Florida, and was accompanied by 
military operations of surveying and exploring the southern part of the 
state. Military posts at Ft. Brooke on Tampa Bay, at Ft. Myers on the  
Caloosahatchee, at Ft. Lauderda1e on the New River, and at Ft. Dallas on the 
Miami River gave protection to the pioneers who were making their home on 
this southernmost frontier.  The War Department maintained  garrison forces 
at these posts, and at the sane tine employed the soldiers in surveying 
operations.  In 1854, a detachment of eleven men under Lt. George L. 
Hartsuff was ordered to survey a part of the swamp regions southeast of Ft. 
Myers. 5  The Hartsuff command was ambushed and four of it s number were 
killed.  This incident renewed actual warfare with the Seminoles.  Most of 
the action was of a desultory nature, resulting in the capture and shipment 
of a majority of the remaining Seminoles to join their brethren west of the 
Mississippi River.  Opinions differed, as to the federal government1s policy 
of attempting to rid south Florida of the red men by offering rewards for 
the capture of the elusive Seminoles.  Prices on captured Indians ran from 
$500 for warriors, $250 for squaws, to  $100 for children.  One of the 
soldiers who took part in the campaign felt that there was

". . . some thing remarkab1e about moving the Seminole Indians from the 
Everglades, as they are not suitable for the white man. The Indians want 
them and, should be allowed to remain." 6

In order to carry the war to the foe, calls for volunteers were made.  
Andrew P. Canova, a native of Florida, joined the armed forces and was 
assigned to a boat a company which made several Indian hunting expeditions 
through the Everglades area.  On one of these forays 'the company of boatmen 
was outfitted with nine metal boats at Ft. Brooks.  The boats were hauled by 
wagon to Ft. Kissimmee where a launching was made, roughly half way from 
Lake Kissimmee to Lake Okeechobee.  The big lake was eighty-five miles south 
from Ft. Kissimmee which was on the river of the same name.   The party set 
off down the river in the afternoon and covered twenty-five miles before 
landing at Ft. Bassinger for the night.  The party made its supper on black 
bass caught in the river and papayas and rubber-tree fruit.  It reached Lake 
Okeechobee on the following day, going along the west shore  until darkness 
forced it to make camp on the shore line.  On the third day, thirty men and 
six boats were selected to run down several Indians on one of the sma11 
islands in the nearby glades.

"The saw grass was much higher than our heads, and the ground was boggy;  we 
had to step from one "tussock" to another to keep above water; and any one 
failing to gain a foothold, was precipitated up to his waist in the mud."  7

After cautiously stalking the Indians, the party captured six squaws and 
eight children on the island.  The captives were taken to Ft. Centre; 
situated on Fish Eating Creek, on the west shore of the lake the following 
day, from where they were transferred by wagon to Ft. Myers.  Similar 
expeditions rounded up a hundred and fifty of the diminishing tribe in three 
years.  Estimates of the number left at large in the state ran as high as 
one hundred. 8

Canova described, the island on which his party captured the Indians as 
circular in shape, containing about an acre of ground, and surrounded with a 
belt of timber which hid the occupants.  Within the circle all the timber, 
with the exception of a few large live oaks and cabbage palms, was cleared 
away.   The ground in the clearing was in a high state of cultivation with 
corn, beans, and pumpkins growing like wild.  The pumpkin vines had climbed 
the trees, and immense pumpkins hanging from the limbs presented a strange 
sight to the soldiers. 9

Economic activity in southwest Florida before the Civil War was limited, in 
the main, to the cattle industry.  During the ante-bellum period many 
families settled in the Manatee-Caloosahatchee river valleys and devoted 
their energy to cattle grazing.

"Until the rebellion of the slave States, south Florida supplied the Havana  
market with beef at the rate of one thousand head per month; besides  
considerable quantities were shipped to the Bahamas, Key West and Tortugas." 
10

In the drier months of the year the cattle could be kept on the flats 
bordering the Everglades, where the lush grass added pounds to the beeves 
that were shipped to the Cuban markets from the docks along these two 
rivers. 11  In the years of Reconstruction the older settlers were joined by 
many immigrants who sought their fortunes in the Florida cattle trade.

The Civil War temporarily ended state plans for internal improvements in the 
southern end of the state.  But with. the end of the conflict, the Trustees 
of the Internal Improvement Fund received many proposals to ditch and drain 
land in or near the Everglades. 12  On April 6, 1866, William H. Gleason
addressed the Board in regard to draining certain portions of the swamp and 
overflowed 1ands.  The Board approved Gleason' s proposition and offered to 
sell him tracts of 640 acres at $40 each for every 50,000 cubic feet of 
ditch or drain excavated. 13  These tracts were located

"South of Township 37 East of Lake Ok'echobee, and South and East of the 
Everglades and also one tier of Townships bordering upon the South side of 
the Caloosahatchee River and adjacent thereto." 14

In the same year the trustees contracted with Silas L. Niblack and others to 
drain and reclaim lands adjacent to the Caloosahatchee and Kissimmee rivers 
as Well as Lake Okeechobee and any or all tributary areas.  These 
contractors were to receive one-half of all the 1ands reclaimed, if the work 
was begun within one year and completed in seven years. 15

The internal improvement act of 1855 not only gave form to the plans for 
settlement and reclamation but it also set up machinery for state 
sponsorship of a transportation system.  The Boards of Trustees were much 
more concerned with railroads and canals than with drainage.  In the years 
from 1855 to 1875, a major share of the available lands was ear-marked for 
these two types of quasi-public works.  About four hundred miles of railroad 
had been built in Florida prior to the Civil War, most of which had been 
constructed under the benefits of the law of 1855.  During the Civil War and 
Reconstruction interest coupons on these bonds were in default and the 
railroad properties passed into the hands of the Internal Improvement Board. 
   Commenting on this, one of Florida's recent writers said:

"In no phase of Florida's life does there appear to have been any greater 
collapse and disorganization brought by the War between the States than in 
its program of internal improve," 16

The bankrupt railroads were put on the auction block and sold to promoters 
at a fraction of their first cost.  The Improvement Board was still 
responsible for interest payments on the railroad bonds, and many 
bondholders protested the sacrifice of their investments.  Furthermore, the 
new owners of the railroads were slow in sett1ing their debts with the 
state, and the Internal Improvement Board became saddled with additional 
debt. 17  The railroad promoters issued more bonds, which were traded for 
securities of the  Improvement Board, and these in turn were sold for the 
supposed  rehabilitation of the common carriers.  The Board was a victim of 
wild-cat promotion, with its resources in land being made to guarantee the 
deflated railroads.  It was later reported that

"During the period from 1868 to 1876, there was a wild run for all that was 
in sight, and while they did not grant outright any but the alternate 
sections . . . . the Trustees entered into numerous contracts to sell the 
State's interest within certain limits, to the promotors [sic] of railroads, canals, 
or drainage schemes at a normal price, ranging from two to ten cents per 
acre."  18

The transactions involving the lands of the Board included two sales of over 
a million acres each, one for ten cents an acre, the other for one dollar 
($1.00) and no other considerations." 19  Accurate accounting of the Fund to 
reveal mismanagement was impossible as all records were lost or destroyed 
from 1870 to 1874, and no original records are in existence concerning 
financial transactions of the Board of Internal Improvements prior to 1881. 
20

The submission of papers in the case of Francis Vose against the Board on 
June 9, 1869, fired the first gun in a battle of litigation to put a halt to 
the raids on Florida's lands and other public resources.  Francis Vose, a
member of the New York firm of Vose and Livingston, had furnished rails and 
other iron for a state-subsidized railroad for which he had received payment 
in bonds of the railroad at par.  He refused to sell the bonds at a 
reduction and sought to force the Board to pay the interest on the bonds as 
required by law. I n the following January, former Governor David S. Walker 
appeared before the Board as attorney for Vose and argued the settlement of 
the claim of his client.  The Board offered Walker twenty cents on the 
dollar for the railroad bonds, and evinced, a willingness to receive Vose's 
interest coupons as payment for lands he might wish to buy from those held 
by the Board. 22  Vose refused and began suit against the Board in the State 
  Supreme Court of New York in 1870.  When the Board realized the 
seriousness of the plaintiff's zeal, it became alarmed and arranged for a 
meeting with the Vose attorneys in the spring of 1871, the results of which 
came to naught. 23

Vose, not having made much headway, moved his case to the United States 
Circuit Court for the Northern District of Florida, Judge W. B. Woods 
presiding, at Pensacola.  In late December, 1871, a decree was entered 
against the Board prohibiting the sale of any lands held by the Board for 
scrip or state warrant.  The Court instructed the Board to accept only legal 
tender of the United States for any further land sales.  Vose had argued 
that the value of his railroad bonds was endangered by the refusal of the 
Board to pay the legal interest, and that the Board was juggling funds and 
transferring lands by illegal means.  Meeting in March, 1872, the Board 
resolved not to recognize Judge Woods' decree and proceeded to transfer 
certain lands in exchange for interest coupons of one of the railroads in 
the state. 24

This action of the Board, as well as the one transferring a million acres of 
land for a dollar and other considerations, resulted in Judge Woods 
appointing  Aristides Doggett of Jacksonville as receiver of the Board and 
all its assets on May 16, 1872. 25  Placing the Board in receivership under
the guardianship of the Federal court saved what public lands were left to 
the Board for another generation.

With the revival of interest in swamp and overflowed lands after the Civil 
War, the Board received numerous propositions for the sale and entrance upon 
these public lands of the state' s domain.  Proposals ranged from one 
respecting the introduction of wild rice in the Everglades to a 
communication from Martin Klein of Detroit, Michigan, who requested thirty 
thousand acres of land for the settlement of a colony of Alsatians. 26   The 
Board was besieged with literally dozens of offers to assist in the disposal 
of wet lands, the majority of which were for the purchase of large tracts at 
low prices.  When higher prices were offered, the prospective buyers desired 
a credit plan of purchase.  Sales for credit or any part for credit had to 
be approved, by both the Federal Court and the claimants against the Board.  
Proceeds from any cash sales of lands of the Board, outside of moneys needed 
for actual expenses, went to the holders of the judgments.

The slow migration of settlers into south Florida revived with the closing 
years of Reconstruction.  This movement into Florida was accelerated by such 
investments as those of W. M. Randolph and Genera Henry S. Sanford in Orange 
County.  The development of the area, around the city which now bears 
Sanford's name, on Lake Monroe at the head of navigation on the St. Johns 
River was followed by the building of the South Florida Railroad.   This 
road from Sanford to Orlando, later extended to Lake Tohopekaliga at the 
head of navigation on the Kissimmee River, provided the first real means of 
opening inland Florida to settlement. 27  Coinciding with the developments 
in central and south Florida was the revival of interest in the Everglades.  
The state, through its Commissioner of Lands and Immigration, was trying to 
interest people in other parts of the nation and even in foreign lands in 
the possibilities of Florida as a place for living and investment.   Among 
others, Sidney Lanier had taken a hand at describing the state's scenery, 
soils, climate, and history.  Numerous books were being published on the 
peninsular state, and some of the more remote portions of the state were 
partially explored. 28

In his description of Lake Okeechobee, F. A. Ober noted that the great body 
of water was almost as little known as it had been a hundred years 
previously.  Ober L pointed out that

"Fabulous stories of beautiful islands, picturesque ruins, and pirate 
haunted glens, have been much in vogue with writers upon Lake Okeechobee, 
and to lift the veil that has so long hung over it, and narrate the plain 
facts, is to deprive them of a seemingly inexhaustible fund of romance.  I 
must confess that it pains me to do so, but fidelity to truth compels me to 
write of the lake as it is, not as it should be.  The beautiful groves of 
tropical fruits, the  monkeys, spiders of gigantic size and ancient ruins 
are among the things that were NOT." 29

Ober observed the western shore line was marshy, with an occasional drift of 
sand on which grew a thin belt of elms, maples, and elderberry, overgrown 
with grape vines.  He saw countless alligators in one large lagoon, and 
myriads of snakes along the shore.  The south shore he found was an unbroken 
marsh, deeply indented with sloughs or blind creeks.  Ober decided the 
surplus water from the lake drained from the south end of the lake, but he 
could find no discernible streams leading out of the lake.  He estimated the 
lake to be forty miles long and twenty-five miles wide, very shallow and 
nowhere more than twelve feet deep.  At two abandoned Indian villages he saw 
bananas, paw-paws, sugar cane, and guavas growing in abundance.

Another party, whose travels were recorded by Charles J. Kenworthy, visited  
the edge of the Everglades by way of the Caloosahatchee River.  The party 
left Ft. Myers and made their way up the river to the falls at Ft. Thompson, 
approximately fifty miles in a straight line from the Gulf of Mexico.  At 
the old fort, Kenworthy determined the fall of the rapids to be about five 
feet in two hundred, with a fifteen foot width through this stretch.

"We bad barely proceeded three miles above Ft. Thompson when we found the 
channel to end in a broad expanse of saw grass.  A careful examination 
revealed about two inches of water and three of tenacious black mud 
overlaying the horizontal layer of limestone rock." 30

Kenworthy was told that they had arrived at a period of low water, so they 
did not attempt to push on to Lake Okeechobee through the broad expanse of 
saw grass.  He was convinced that the Caloosahatchee was the main outlet for 
Lake Okeechobee.

A third traveler entered the Everglades in the late 1870's from the Miami 
River.  James A. Henshall., dispelling what he called the popular 
supposition about the Everglades, wrote that

". . . the Everglades is not an impenetrable swamp, exhaling an atmosphere 
of poisonous gasses and deadly miasma, but a charming, shallow lake of great 
extent, with pure and limpid waters from a few inches to several feet in 
depth, which grow curious water grasses and beautiful aquatic plants; while 
thousands of small islands, from a few rods to a hundred acres in extent, 
rise from the clear waters, clothed with never-ending verdure and flowers 
while cypress and crab-wood, sweet-bay and palmetto, cocoa-plum, water and 
live oaks, grow in tropical profusion, and rear aloft their emerald banners, 
from which depend garlands and festoons of innumerable vines and air plants, 
gorgeous with blooms of every hue, and exhaling the sweetest of Fragrance."  
31

Henshall observed a strip of very rich prairie between the water line of the 
glades and the elevated shore ridge, a half-mile in extent; this area was 
dry during a portion of the year and afforded good pasturage for cattle.  On 
leaving Miami the party went up the south branch of the river of the same 
name, thence some twenty miles into the Everglades to visit a Seminole 
Indian village on one of the islands.  After describing in detail the 
gardens, houses, dress, and customs of the natives, Henshall concluded:

"These Indians lead a quiet, peaceable, and semi-pastoral life, cultivating 
fields of corn, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, beans, bananas, etc., in the rich 
hamaks [sic] on the adjacent islands. . . ." 32

2. The Disston Drainage Contracts

The legislature of Florida, seeking to aid in the settlement of the state, 
passed an act in 1872 to secure homesteads to settlers on the swamp and 
overflowed lands.  Any citizen was entitled to enter a quarter section of 
any of the unsold lands granted the state in the 1850 swamp land act.   
Homesteaders could secure a deed after five years upon proof of two credible 
witnesses that the land had been reclaimed by means of levees or drains, had 
been cultivated, and had been resided upon for that length of time. 33  The 
Board of Internal Improvement hired agents or salesmen to handle the details 
of the land sales; these agents in the years from 1872 to 1880 traveled over 
the United States and Europe in search of land buyers.  But ordinary sales 
did not suffice to keep the debts of the receivership from increasing.

"The fund was being eaten up by compound interest, costs, receiver's 
allowances, and other expenses of litigation, and it was obvious that only 
by a sale of considerable quantity of the lands at one time could it be 
saved." 34

Former Governor James E. Broome, addressing the Board in 1875, expressed the 
belief that he could sell from one to two million acres of land to an 
English buyer for twenty-eight cents an acre, part cash and part credit.   
The Board replied that it could take sales for cash only because of  the 
receivership. 35   Williams, Swarm, and Corley, agents of the Board in 1875, 
at the request of W. H. Ludlow asked for prices of from one to five million 
acres.  The Board, having decided to sell swamp and overflowed lands, fixed 
a price of twenty-eight cents per acre for tracts of one hundred thousand 
acres and twenty-five cents per acre for two to five  million acre tracts. 
36   In April, 1877, the Board appointed Samuel A. Swann a special agent to 
travel in Europe and seek large land buyers.  Swann submitted several 
propositions for the sale of one to three million acre tracts, but none for 
outright cash sales, which the Board could accept without going through the 
red tape of securing assent from the court and its creditors. 37

To expedite drainage of the swamp and overflowed lands the legislature of  
1879 enacted a bill to encourage the construction of canals for the  
reclamation, settlement, and cultivation of the public lands in the 
so-called wet classifications.  Payment for construction and excavation of 
any such canal was to be made in land certificates for the odd numbered 
sections along the canal banks.  These certificates would be taken in 
exchange at the rate of $1.00 per acre at the state land office for vacant 
lends of a more desirable nature in St. Johns, Volusia, Brevard, or Dade 
counties.  The final section of the act contained an ironic twist, 
stipulating that whenever any canal that should have been constructed by the 
national government was completed under the provisions of this act, the 
Florida congressional delegation should request further grants from Congress 
to compensate the state for its expenditure.38

When William D.  Bloxham became governor of Florida in January, 1881, the 
Internal Improvement Board had been in receivership for nine years.  The 
state lands then under court decree were being sold for the benefit of the  
receiver, and the proceeds credited on the judgments, warrants, or  
certificates issued by the creditors.  This paper was negotiable and was 
being sold for as little as forty per cent of its face value.  To complete 
the vicious circle, the devalued, paper could then be used as cash at par 
value in the purchase of state lands. 39

Hamilton Disston, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, had become interested in 
Florida lands and submitted a proposal to the Board relating to the drainage 
of some of the swamp and overflowed area of the state soon after Bloxham 
took office. 40  The following month articles of agreement were drawn up 
providing for the drainage and reclamation of all overflowed lands south of 
Township 23 East and east of Peace Creek.  Briefly, the articles provided 
that Disston and his associates would drain lands overflowed by the waters 
of the Kissimmee River and its tributaries and in the vicinity of Lake 
Okeechobee.   The lands were to be drained and rendered fit for cultivation 
by permanently lowering arid keeping reduced the waters of Lake Okeechobee 
and contiguous areas.  Disston posted a 5,000 bond with the Board to show 
his good faith in beginning the work within six months.   With the 
reclamation of each two hundred thousand acres, a division of the drained 
lands would be made.  The odd numbered sections would be deeded to the 
contractors and the even numbered sections would be subject to sale by the 
Board. 41   This contract was revised later to include the lands south of 
Township 24, rather than Township 23, because of a mistake in the original 
location of the northern boundary.

The Trustees discovered that under the court decree, which permitted sale of 
the Board's lands but applied the proceeds to payments of judgments of the 
creditors, no binding contract could be made by the Board without the 
consent of the creditors.  Bloxham induced Disston and his associates to 
purchase outright four million acres for one million dollars. 42  Disston 
made a preliminary agreement with the Board on May 31, 1881, and the papers 
were signed the following day.  The completion of the deal with Dieston 
enabled the Board to satisfy its creditors and to place the Fund in an 
independent position with regard to further land disposition.  The four 
million acres which were sold outright to Disston placed under his control a 
large addition to the nine million acres under contract for drainage in the 
Kissimmee River, Lake Okeechobee, and Everglades watersheds.

In order to consolidate and incorporate their holdings, the Disston 
interests secured a charter from the state legislature, and by virtue of 
this act transferred their holdings to the Atlantic and Gulf Coast Canal and 
Okeechobee Land Company. 43  The charter empowered the corporation to buy 
and sell lands, goods, and property; to operate canals; to hold and, to 
improve lands; to engage in agriculture, to erect mills, and to manufacture  
sugar; and to accept and receive by transfer and assignment all the rights, 
privileges, and immunities of any such company or individual possessing any 
rights to construct canals, operate steamboats, or engage in the works of 
drainage and reclamation. The Atlantic and Gulf Coast Canal and Okeechobee 
Land Company received the contract for drainage and reclamation of lands 
with the approval of the Board on September 1, 1881. 44

In order to prosecute the work of the drainage contract, the Atlantic and 
Gulf Coast Canal and Okeechobee Land Company was capitalized at $10,000,000 
and offered the public an issue of $l,000,000 worth of stock in 100,000  
shares of $l0 each.  The company also offered a bonus of $1,00,000 in land 
certificates, bearing six percent interest, redeemable from the proceeds of  
land sales, or convertible into land from the company's holdings.  Each 
subscriber for stock received a Land Certificate of the same amount as his 
subscription of stock. The 1ands of the purchase were handed over to several 
smaller companies for purposes of sales promotion.  The Florida Land and 
Improvement Company, the Disston Land Company, and the Lake Butler Villa 
Company were among these organizations that advertised acreage sales varying 
from a simple homestead to tracts of hundreds of thousands of acres for 
colonization schemes. 46   Selected lands in forty acre plots were offered 
at $225, payable in ten quarterly installments without interest.  Novel 
features of the Florida Land and Improvement Company sales plans included a 
guarantee to repurchase the contract at any time within three years, and the 
cancellation and return of previous payments to the purchaser on the lapse 
of an installment when due.  The same company also offered to build houses 
and make other improvements for purchasers when their contract for the land 
was paid up, for these advances the client could arrange a further system of 
contracts and installment payments. 47

In June, 1881, the Atlantic and Gulf Coast Canal and Land Company began 
operations with the employment of James M. Kreamer as chief engineer and 
Rufus E. Rose as superintendent of drainage operations.  Rose, later Florida 
State Chemist, built the first dredge at Cedar Key, Florida, and assembled 
it at Ft. Myers.  The dredge was completed in January, 1882, but the task of 
moving it to the rapids of the Caloosahatchee at Ft. Thompson required three 
months because of the trees, snags, and logs in and over the river. 48  Rose 
found the height of the fell across the rapids to be two feet, and a total 
of fourteen feet to Bonnet Lake, some ten miles distant.  The low stage of 
the water forced a wait in Bonnet Lake for the spring rains to raise the 
water level.  By July, 1882, the water rose fifteen feet and the dredging 
outfit was  moved across Bonnet to Lake Flirt.  Twelve miles of canal, 
connecting Lake Flirt to Lake Hicpochee and to Lake Okeechobee, were 
completed in January, 1883.  Disston and a party of his associates made the 
first steamboat trip from Ft. Myers to Kissimmee in the following month. 49  
Hamilton Disston had posted $5,000 with the Board on February 26, 1881, as 
evidence of his intentions to carry out the provisions of the agreement.  On 
January 3, 1882, the drainage company requested the return of this forfeit 
money, citing as evidence of accomplishment the $20,000 expended on the 
first dredge, and the preparations then being made at Kissimmee for the  
building of a second dredge and a supply steamboat.  The Board declined to 
return the money, pointing out that the drainage work had not progressed 
beyond the planning stages. 50  At the same time Disston notified the Board 
that he had transferred two million acres of his purchase to Sir Edward 
Reed, of County Kent, Enland, for the sum of $500,000.

The appeals of the drainage company to the Board for the advancement of 
lands resulted in the appointment of Silas L. Nib1ack on March 16, 1882, as 
an agent to make certain inspections in the interests of the Board.  Niblack 
was instructed, to make an examination of the swamp and overflowed lands 
embraced in the contract for drainage with the Atlantic and Gulf Coast Canal 
and Okeechobee Land Company.  He was to examine the lands with respect to 
their liability to overflow and to estimate what proportion o the lands  
would be reclaimed by the works of drainage under the contract, and what 
proportion of the lands were dry enough for cultivation without the benefits 
of works of drainage. 51

Niblack's report, based upon five weeks spent in examining lands subject to 
overflow in Dade, Brevard, Orange, Polk, and Manatee counties, stated that 
to survey the amount of land not subject to overflow would not be 
justifiable on account of the costs involved.  On the subject of the 
complete reclamation of the area, Niblack informed the Board that it would

". . . be necessary . . . to cut three and more than probable [sic] four 
large canals, one to connect Lake Okeechobee with the Caloosahatchee [sic] 
river, one to enlarge and straighten the Kissimmee river, one to connect the 
Lake  with St. Lucie river on the east and more than probable [sic] one 
further south to connect the Lake with New or Hillsboro river and again to 
drain that large portion of country subject to inundation by rainfall will 
require quite a number of large ditches of various lengths and in different 
directions to some source where the water will be carried either to the 
Atlantic or to the Gulf."  52

James M. Kreamer, chief engineer of the drainage company, appeared before 
the Board in July, 1882, asking the state officials to advance 150,000 acres 
of the land which L would be alloted his company under the contract in view 
of the progress, magnitude, and great expense of the work.  The Board 
resolved to convey the lands requested on condition that the company post a 
bond that the proceeds arising from the sale or pledge of the lands be  
expended for additional drainage works, and that the Board have the right to 
  employ an agent to inspect the work with the power to reject any improper  
charge. The Board agreed to convey an additional six sections on the same 
condition for every mile of canal completed to a width of twenty feet and 
depth of five feet. 53  On November 20, 1882, the Board modified its 
resolution of July 20 to the extent of allowing the company to use and 
expend $37,500 which it could procure on the conveyance of the requested 
150,000 acres of land. 54

On New Year's Day, 1883, the Atlantic and Gulf Coast Canal and Okeechobee 
Land Company gave bond, executed in pursuance of the two resolutions, and 
received an advance of 150,000 acres in the contracted area. 55  The 
following June the Board employed James M. Dailey, a civil engineer, to 
examine thoroughly the works and the results of the works  accomplished, by 
the drainage company.  Dancy proceeded to Kissimmee,  where he found an 
outlet canal from Lake Tohopekaliga, the headwaters of the Kissimmee River, 
three and a half miles long, forty feet wide, with four feet of water 
flowing at a four mile per hour current into Lake Cypress.  This canal, 
excavated by the drainage company, had reduced Tohopekaliga's  waters to a 
level four and a half feet lower than ever before known.  R. E. Rose, the 
drainage superintendent, pointed out to Dancy the several cuts made in 
straightening the channel of the Kissimmee River. Dancy believed these outs 
were responsible for the

". . .  Prairies of large extent perfectly dry and cattle feeding where 
water  usually stands to the depth of several feet, here are the finest 
grass pastures I ever saw." 56

Dancy made trips to the east and the west of the Kissimmee River and 
reported that 535,285 acres had been drained in thirty-one townships.  He 
noted that the drainage works then being carried out constituted  
improvements in canal channels at Lake Tohopekaliga, Lake Kissimmee, and 
Lake Okeechobee to the Caloosahatchee River.  Dancy was satisfied that the 
drainage work was a success, for after rains on twenty-four consecutive 
days, a gauge stick in Lake Tohopekaliga at Kissimmee showed a rise of only 
two inches. 57

On December 1, 1883, Kreamer met with the Board and again applied, for lands 
due under the drainage contract.  The Board conveyed one-half of the lands 
reclaimed, by the company as shown in the Dancy Report, cancelled the bond 
given the previous New Year's Day, and brought the land accounts up to date 
as of June 30, 1883.  In June, 1884, Kreamer appeared once more  before the 
Board and requested an inspection of the drainage system by an agent of the 
Board.  Accordingly, the Board appointed H. S. Duval, State Engineer, to 
ascertain the extent of the drainage works in the  Kissimmee-Okeechobee-Caloosahatchee areas and the effect of the works upon 
the adjoining lands. 58  In a statement dated August 19, 1884, Duval 
outlined the amount of work done by the Atlantic and Gulf Coast Canal and 
Okeechobee Land Company.  This work included: (1) a canal in process of construction between Lake Tohopekaliga and East 
Lake Tohopekaliga at Kissimmee; (2) a canal from Lake Tohopekaliga to Cypress Lake; (3) canals between Lakes Cypress, Eatohineha, Kissinmiee, Tiger, Rosalie, and Walk-in-Water; (4) a canal from Lake 0keechobee to Lake Hicpochee; and (5) a canal from Lake Hicpochee to Lake Flirt. Duval found that the level of Lake Okeechobee had been lowered a foot and a 
half, and that of the other lakes in the Kissimmee River chain from three to 
four feet.  He reported that the company had four dredges in service, all at 
work on the various projects in the area under contract.   Concluding his 
report he declared:

"The territory over which the examination extended, embraced in the appended 
list of Townships, which in my judgment, based on the evidences developed in 
my investigation, are permanently reclaimed . . . and will . . . continue to 
improve as the canals are increased in width and depth, provided the 
waterways are kept free and unmolested." 59

Duval observed that the inhabitants of the Caloosahatchee valley were 
showing their faith in the results of the work of the drainage company by 
placing their buildings near the ground, rather than building on stilts as 
had been the previous practice.  The State Engineer listed a total of 
2,182,412.27 acres in fifty-three townships as being completely reclaimed 
since the beginning of the operations under the contract.  On the basis of 
this report the Board instructed its salesmen to prepare deeds for the 
drainage company to one-half of the lands embraced in the lists submitted by 
Duval. 60

Questions were raised in the legislature in the fall of 1884 as to the 
amount of lands actually reclaimed by the Disston company.  Protests against 
illegal practices in land transfers, dissent over haphazard methods of land  
selections, and the cries of dispossessed squatters were heard by the  
legislators.  Those who argued that the lands were not reclaimed maintained 
that the company was not entitled to the lands deeded to them.  The 
accusations of haphazard methods of land selections were made with some 
foundation, for large tracts were inc1uded that were not swamp or  
overflowed land.  Some squatters had been forced off certain lands, but only 
after they had been given ample opportunity to buy their plots at the usual 
state prices and on easy terms. 61

Governor Bloxham devoted a large part of his message to the legislature in 
January, 1885, to the subject of land reclamation.  He traced the work done 
by the Atlantic and Gulf Coast Canal and Okeechobee Land Company from 1881 
to 1885.

"Over forty miles of canal and river improvements have been made, besides 
the removal of numerous obstructions to navigation and drainage.  The 
expenditure in legitimate work has aggregated over two hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars.   . . .  The reclamation of many millions of acres,  
containing some of the most valuable sugar lands in the United States with 
suitable climatic conditions for the successful growth of all tropical 
fruits, is the harbinger of an era of population, wealth and prosperity 
un-thought of in our past history." 62

The governor transmitted the biennial report of the Commissioner of Lands 
and Immigration which showed that 1,174,583 acres of swamp and overflowed 
lands had been deeded to the Atlantic and Gulf Coast Canal and Okeechobee 
Land Company in 1883 and 1884. 63  The legislature authorized the governor 
to appoint a committee, "in no way connected with any company," to examine 
the number of canals dug, their width and depth from Kissimmee to Lake 
Okeechobee and through the Caloosahatchee River to Ft. Myers. 64  The 
committee was also to examine the canals for capacity, their influence on 
the adjacent lands and waters, and to determine if the lands had been 
reclaimed permanently.

Governor Edward A. Perry, who succeeded Bloxham in 1885, appointed J. J. 
Daniels of Duval County, John Bradford of Leon County, and W. H.  Davidson 
of Escambia County to perform the duties indicated in the February act of 
the legislature.  The committee transmitted its report to the governor on 
February 4, 1887.  The three men had reached the conclusion that the 
Atlantic and Gulf Coast Canal and Okeechobee Land Company had permanently 
reclaimed 80,000 acres of the wet lands in the contracted area for which the 
company had received payments of land aggregating a million and a quarter 
acres for drainage services. 65  The only lands the committee considered 
fully reclaimed were those adjacent to Lake Tohopekaliga and East Lake 
Tohopekaliga in the immediate vicinity of Kissimmee.  The three 
investigators commented that even those lands could not be considered 
permanently drained until relief was given to the rivers and lakes further 
south.  From Cypress Lake, immediately below Lake Tohopekaliga, southward 
the committee found that the waters of the lakes and rivers were at or near 
their normal levels, and that neither Lake Okeechobee nor the lakes and 
river in the Kissimmee chain had been permanently or sensibly  lowered by 
the thirty-six miles of canals.  From their examinations these men felt that 
without the permanent lowering of Okeechobee there could be no permanent 
reclamation in the watershed above the big lake.  The permanent lowering of 
Lake Okeechobee, they pointed out, was the primal factor in the entire plan, 
and by the terms of the drainage contract the company was bound to adhere to 
such a basic plan.  It was suggested that the state employ a competent, 
reliable, and skilled engineer to see that the interests of the commonwealth 
be protected under the terms of the contract.  The investigators did not 
believe the situation was hopeless.

"We feel assured that the problem is capable of solution with an expenditure 
of money, time, and labor not disproportionate to the results.  The 
reduction of the waters is simply a question of sufficient capacity in the 
canals which may be dug for their relief." 66

After the publication of the committee's findings, a reaction on the part of 
the officials of the drainage company quickly set in.  On March 25, Governor 
Perry laid before the Board a letter from Hamilton Disston which  complained 
that the report of the legislative committee had insinuated that the 
Okeechobee Company had received a large body of land through  
misrepresentation.

"My reply is that the Okeechobee Company demands no more than justice and, 
would, be unwilling to accept or retain one acre of land which they  thought 
had not been fairly earned." 67

Disston suggested the appointment of an impartial board to look into the 
case; he said that the company wou1d abide by the decision of such a board.  
  In closing, he offered to open the books of the company to prove that 
several hundred thousand dollars had been spent on drainage operations 
beyond the requirements of the contract.

The Board considered this letter and resolved on March 4 25, 1887, that the 
Okeechobee Company should reconvey to the Improvement Fund certain lands.  
These lands would include those naturally high and dry tracts which lay 
outside the district reported on by the legislative committee.  This 
resolution was submitted to the drainage company.  The Board did not hear 
from the Okeechobee Company and on August 18, 1887, it instructed its 
secretary to send another copy of the March resolution to the contractors.  
At the same time the Board requested the drainage company to submit a 
proposition for continuing the work of drainage and reclamation. 68

The Board invited the officials of the drainage company to attend a meeting 
to determine if an amicable settlement of the disagreement over reclamation 
could be reached.  Hamilton Disston and several other officials of the 
Okeechobee Company came to Tallahassee in the summer of 1888 and, after 
several conferences with the Board, signed a revised contract on August 17, 
1888. 69  This contract reduced the drainage reserve to a total acreage of 
2,000,000 acres, including the lands which had already been deeded to the 
company.  The Atlantic and Gulf Coast Canal and Okeechobee Land Company 
agreed to expend $70,000 in drainage and reclamation operations in the next 
two years on the 1,200,000 previously conveyed, and an additional sum of 
twenty-five cents an acre on the remaining 800,000 acres in order to secure 
titles in fee simple.  Work under the revised contract continued at a 
moderate pace for the four succeeding years; most of the moneys expended, 
however, were used for the upkeep of channels dug under the 1881 contract.  
The drainage functions of the Atlantic and Gulf Coast Canal and Okeechobee 
Land Company ceased on January 10, 1894, when the Board decided the 
provisions of the 1888 contract had been fulfilled. 70

The efforts of the Disston company to drain the Everglades ended in failure. 
The legislative commission which investigated the acts and doings of the 
Trustees of the Internal Improvement Fund in 1907-1909 concluded that the 
work performed by the Disston company should have been continued; but it 
pointed out that there was no provision in the second contract

" . . . to permanently lower and keep reduced the waters of Lake Okeechobee, 
and thereby permanently lowering and keeping reduced the high water level of 
the Kissimmee River--a provision that was in the first contract, but 
omitted. in the second." 71

The commission was unable to find a satisfactory explanation for this 
omission and it concluded that the transfer of 1,652,711 acres, finally 
deeded to the Disston drainage company, was too great a price to pay for 
demonstrating the feasibility of drainage.

The long-range value of the Disston works in the development of the southern 
part of the state of Florida, however, should not be underestimated.   Had 
the interests represented by Francis Vose forced a liquidation of the 
millions of acres held in the Improvement Fund in 1880, the results would 
have been disastrous in many respects.  The Disston efforts proved that the 
waters of this part of the state could be lowered, but that drainage works 
would have to be maintained if they were to remain of any value.  The simple 
statement that "The reduction of the waters is simply a question of 
sufficient capacity in the canals which may be dug for their relief," made 
by the  governor's committee in 1885, was perhaps, lost to view in the plans 
and works of the four decades that followed. 72

The Disston company's efforts were concentrated in the area around the  
Tohopekaliga lakes at the headwaters of the Kissimmee River.  Here extensive 
drainage works were installed and the production of various crops was well 
underway by 1885. 73  Sugar cane production was undertaken on the prairie 
between the Tohopekaliga lakes, beginning with the planting of twenty acres 
in 1885, and was increased to ninety acres in 1888.  From the experimental 
start made by Rufus E. Rose the sugar plantation, which he named St. Cloud, 
grew to a hundred acres the following year. 74  The harvest of that year 
averaged thirty-five tons of cane per acre with a sugar extraction of eight 
percent, or almost five thousand pounds of granulated sugar for each acre of 
cane.  This was a record that had not been surpassed in the United States up 
to that date. 75  With the passage of a two cent per
pound sugar bounty by the national Congress in 1890, Hamilton Disston 
decided to try his hand at expanding the St. Cloud plantation.  Disston had 
backed Rose in the early plantings, and with the added incentive of the 
bounty organized the Florida Sugar Manufacturing Company.  The new 
corporation was capitalized at $1,000,000.  In the latter part of 1890, the 
cane acreage was expanded and the construction of a sugar factory capable of 
processing a thirty-five hundred acre crop was begun.  Claus Spreckels, a 
prominent figure in world sugar production, visited the St. Cloud plantings 
in 1890. Spreckels wrote that the soil was "as rich as any I have ever seen, 
and with proper cultivation, the yield should be equal to that of any other 
country on the face of the globe. 76

The repeal of the sugar bounty in 1894 was sufficient to close the sugar 
operation at St. Cloud.  Poor management by promoters, inexperienced in the 
control of cane field economy and sugar manufacturing methods, combined  
with the death of Hamilton Disston in 1898, was sufficient to force a  
shutdown. The sugar mill was sold and moved to the west coast of Mexico. 77  
The results of the sugar experiments, however, had proved what could be done 
with good management, and these lessons were not totally lost to the next 
generation.

The activities in the growing of sugar cane on drained Florida lands 
attracted the attention of the United States Department of Agriculture.  In 
1891, Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, head of the Chemistry Bureau of the Department of 
Agriculture, visited the area. 78  His observations covered the state from 
the Tohopekaligas, down the Kissimmee River through Lake Okeechobee, and the 
Caloosahatchee valley.  Along the Kissimmee River he observed, rich deposits 
of muck on a level with the water line which suggested artificial  drainage 
through levees and pumps, much like the plantations on the Mississippi below 
New Orleans. On the southern border of Okeechobee, Wiley saw what he called 
the largest body of muck lands in the world.  Two methods were proposed for 
their drainage: the first, by a canal three hundred feet wide and twelve 
feet deep eastward from the lake to the Atlantic Ocean;  and second, to 
recover a portion at a time by use of canals and levees.

"It is . . . seen [that] there is abundant natural fall to carry off the 
whole of the water, provided a canal of sufficient size can be constructed." 
79  Wiley noted that these muck lands were sixteen feet deep underlaid, with 
limestone of a high phosphoric content, wholly organic in composition, and 
markedly deficient in mineral constituents.  He also noted that muck lands 
under cultivation in the St. Cloud area for eight years had been depressed 
several inches, and "If the organic matter which they contain should decay 
there would, of course be a marked depression." 80  Wiley pointed out the 
advantages of seasonal rains from May to October, and a dry season from 
October to June as particularly desirable for the growing and harvesting of  
sugar cane and rice.  Disadvantages of a dry winter and spring could, be 
overcome, he felt, through artificial irrigation.

Wiley found several thousand acres of swamp lends freed of water by the 
Disston drainage operations. Of these two thousand acres were planted in 
sugarcane, five thousand acres in rice, and a large area was in commercial 
vegetable gardens.  Wiley wrote:

"In no instance has cane been known to freeze in the Florida peninsula, 
during the period over which these observations extend .  . . . It may be 
said, then, with confidence that in the region of Okeechobee Lake the lands 
which may be recovered for sugar making purposes have all the advantages of 
the climate of Cuba .  . . . . . . . . .

There is practically no other body of land in the world, which presents such 
remarkable possibilities of development as the muck lands bordering the  
southern shores of Lake Okeechobee.  With a depth of soil averaging,  
perhaps 8 feet', and an extent of nearly half a million acres, with a 
surface almost level, it affords promise of deve1oment which reaches beyond 
the limits of prophecy." 81


Chapter Notes

1 DeBow's Review, IV (October, 1847), 247-248.

2 J. P. Baldwin and G. W. Ferguson, "Florida--Intercommunication, Climate, 
Coasts, Everglades, Productions, Tropical Fruits, Sugar Lands, as compared 
with Louisiana, Timber, General Advantages, Etc., Etc.," ibid., X (April, 
1851), 404-412.

3 "Florida, Its Position, Resources and Destiny," DeBow's Review, XIV  
(April, 1853), 312-336.

4 "Journal of the Proceedings of the House of Representatives of the General 
Assembly of  Florida," 1851, 27.

5 Francis C. M. Bogges, "A Veteran of Four Wars," 43; Andrew P. Canova, "Life 
and Adventure in South F1orida," 5; Thomas A. Gonzalez (editor), "The 
Caloosahatchee: Miscellaneous Writing Concerning the History of the  
Caloosahatchee River and the City of Fort Myers, F1orida," 32. Hereinafter 
cited as "The  Caloosahatchee."

6 Francis C. M. Bogges, "A Veteran of Four Wars," 63.

7 Andrew P. Canova, "Life and Adventure in South Florida," 10.

8 Caroline Mays Brevard, "The History of Florida from 1763," 11, 38.

9 A. P. Canova, "Life and Adventure in South Florida," 15.

10 L. D. Stickney, "Tropica1F1orida, Report of the Commissioner of
Patents for the Year 1861 on Agriculture, Senate Documents, Executive  
Documents," Number 39, 37 Congress, 2 Session, 404.

11 Lillie B. McDuffee, "The Lures of Manatee," l97-200; T. A. Gonzalez 
(editor), "The Ca1oosa1iichee," 28-30; James A, Henshall, "Camping and
Cruising in Florida," 198-199.

12 The first recorded proposal from private enterprise to drain lands in 
Florida was a letter from Duff Green, dated May 5, 1857, to the Trustees 
which proposed a canal from the St. Johns to the Indian River and drainage 
of swamp lands in East Florida, I.I.B. Minutes, I, 51.

13 Ibid., 276-277.

14 Ibid.

15 I.I.B. Minutes, I, 361-364.

16 Kathyn Trimmer Abbey, "Florida, Land of Change," 346.  For further 
discussion of this phase of Florida history see Abbey, op. cit., 322-324, 
342-352; William Watson Davis, "Civil War and Reconstruction in Florida,"  
650-680.

17 William Watson Davis, "Civil War and Reconstruction in Florida," 656-663.

18 "1907 Commission Report," 331.

19  W. W. Davis, op. cit., 671.  See also "1907 Commission Report," 279-280.

20 "State Auditor's Report on Receipts and Disbursements By Trustees of  the 
Internal Improvement Fund of the State of Florida, 1855 to 1906, Inclusive," 3.

21 I.I.B. "Minutes, I, 380.

22 Ibid., 401-403.

23 I.I.B. Minutes,. 1, 442, 449, 464.

24 Ibid., 466, 476.

25 I.I.B. Minute, I, 498, 504, 515. The major court decrees in the Vose  
litigation are Vose vs. Reed, et. al.  Trustees, 1. Woods, U. S. Circuit 
Court Report, 647; Vose vs. Trustees Internal Improvement Fund, 2. Woods, U. 
S. Circuit Court Report, 647; Union Trust Company vs. Southern Inland 
Navigation Company, 133 U. S. 565.

26 I.I.B. Minutes, I, 297, II, 126.

27 Will Wallace Harney, "The Drainage of the Everglades," Harper' s, LXVIII 
(March, 1884), 598.

28 Of interest on this part of the state's history are: Florida Commissioner 
of Lands and Immigration, "The Florida Colonist or Settler's Guide;" George 
M. Barbour, "Florida for Tourists, Invalids, and Settlers;" Sidney Lanier,  
"Florida: Its Scenery, Climate, and History."

29 Fred Beverly [F. A. Ober], "Camplife in Florida; a Handbook for Sportsmen 
and Sett1er," Charles Hallock, compiler, 246.

30 Charles J. Kenworthy, "Camp1ife in Florida &.Handbook for Sportsmen and 
Settlers," Charles Hallock, oompiler, 296-299.

31 James A. Henshall, "Camping and Cruising in Florida," 106.

32 Ibid.

33 Chapter 1868, "Laws of Florida" (1872), 16-18.

34 "1907 Commission Report," 37.

35 I.I.B. Minutes, II, 67-68.

36 Ibid., 91.

37 Ibid., 189, 380, 390, 476, 506.

38 Chapter 3153, "Laws of Florida, Legislative Session of 1879," 90-94.

39 Rufus E. Rose, "The Swamp and Overflowed Lands of Florida: The Disston 
Contract and Sale," 90-94. Hereinafter cited as "The Swamp and  Overflowed 
Lands of Florida."

40 I.I.B. Minutes, II, 433.

41 Ibid., 473, 480, 503.

42 R. E. Rose, "The Swamp and Overflowed Lands of Florida," 3-4.

43 Chapter 3343, "Laws of Florida, Iegis1ative Session of 1881," 172-174.

44 I.I.B. Minutes, III, 33-45.

45 Florida Land and Improvement Company, "Disston's Purchase," inside back 
cover.

46 Disston Land Company, Florida, 13-14.

47 Florida Land and Improvement Company, "Disston's Purchase," back cover.

48 "1907 Commission Report," 319.

49 Letter of Rufus E. Rose, "Everglades News" (Canal Point, Florida), May 9, 
1924.

50 I.I.B. Minutes, III, 94, 101, 103.

51 I.I.B. Minutes, III, 125, 126.

52 Ibid., 194.

53 I.I.B. Minutes, III, 163.

54 Ibid., 185-186.

55 Ibid., 270.

56 I.I.B. Minutes, III, 243.

57 I.I.B. Minutes, III, 246.

58 Ibid., 309-310.

59 I.I.B. Minutes, III, 320.

60 Ibid., 332.

61 For a fuller discussion, see, T. Frederick Davis, "The Disston Land 
Purchase," Florida Historical Quarterly, XVIII (January, 1939), 200-210.

62 Journal of the Proceedings of the Senate of the General Assembly of the 
State of Florida (1885), 29.

63 Report of the Commissioner of Lands and Immigration of the State of 
Florida, 1883-1884, 24.

64 Chapter 3639, Laws of Florida (1885), 72.

65 "Abstract of the Report of the Committee Appointed by The Governor on 
November 17, 1885," "Senate Documents, Number 89, 62 Congress, 1 Session, 
21-24; "1907 Commission Report," 344-345.

66 "Abstract of the Report of the Committee Appointed by The Governor on 
November 17, 1885," "Senate Documents," Number 89, 62 Congress, 1 Session, 
23.

67 I.I.B. Minutes, III, 448.

68 I.I.B. Minutes, III, 468.

69 Ibid., 501-505.

70 I.I.B. Minutes, IV, 26, 225, 228, 260-261.

71 "1907 Commission Report," 324.

72 "Abstract of the Report of the Committee Appointed by The Governor on 
November 17, 1885," "Senate Documents, Number 89, 62 Congress, 1 Session, 
23.  For the overall picture of the statewide effects of the Disston 
purchase, see K. T. Abbey, "Florida, Land of Change," 350-353, 365-366.

73 I.I.B. Minutes, VII, 419-421.

74 R. E. Rose,  "The Disxton Sugar Plantation -- Its Success and Failure," 
34-35.

75 C. Lyman Spencer, "The Sugar Situation," 88.

76 Senate Documents, Number 89, 62 Congress, 1 Session, 106.

77 F. D Stevens, (MSS), "History of Florida Sugar Operations," 20.  This 
manuscript was used through the courtesy of the author, Mr. F. D. Stevens of 
Belle Glade, Florida.

78 Harvey W. Wiley, "The Muck Lands of the Florida Peninsula," Report of 
the Secretary of Agricu1ture, 1891, House Executive Documents, Number 1, 
Part 6, 52 Congress, 1 Session, 163-17l.

79 H. W. Wiley, "The Muck Lands of the Florida Peninsula," loc. cit., 166.

80 Ibid., 167.

81 H. W. Wiley, "The Muck Lands of the Florida Peninsula," loc. cit., 
168-170.