Middletown transcript., 1893-04-15
UNDER THE CoCOANUTS.

The Story of Lake Worth-Its Growth
and Imp rovements.
Away back, during the sixties, when the
North and South were trying to settle
little controversy by rather extravagant
use Of gunpowder and loud talk, man
whom the Southern Confederacy had rather
insisted should go out with gun and help
considered army life unhealthy at any time
of year, wandered down to this part of
Florida in search of secluded spot where
he might be free from the nauseating smell
of the burning gunpowder and the evil
effects of commissary whiskey.
He found the spot he was looking for
right here on Lake Worth, and settled
down about the center of the beautiful
hammock between the lake and the ocean.
There was settlement down on Bay Bis
cayne, about seventy miles to the south of
him; but these neighbors didn't call often,
the walking being rather bad in places, SO
he had most all Of this glorious climate to
himself, at a much lower price than
we are paying for it now. He was the first
person who came here to escape the bad
effects Of draft, and the result was to his
liking.
Tradition does not say whether this man
was happy or not. but as nobody in the
county was trying to cultivate voice, ex
cept the Seminoles, and they went far away
into the woods to do it, we are led to be-
lieve he enjoyed extreme contentment.
The crows, who came to feast on the
berries of the rubber trees, made music
for him during the day, and the voice Of
the Atlantic lulled him to sleep at night
At daybreak the crows came again and
called him up. Being in tune with Nature
her sounds were sweet to his ears. He had
heard a grand opera once in strange,
foreign garlic-scented voice, and it had
taken him long time to recover. The
crows were such relief to him now.
During his leisure. and he had consider
able leisure on his hands that he could not
dispose of at profit, he rambled along the
ocean beach collecting shells and sponges
and odd seeds brought on the bosom of the
gulf stream from far-a-way islands One
day he found several cocoanuts, and, witt
the unseifishness of savage, without figur
ing out his future profits, he took these
nuts to his camping place and planted
them. They sprouted, grew, and long afte
the planters departure, produced fruit
These were the first cocoanuts planted oil
the shores Of Lake Worth, and to-day
near the home of Mrs. Mcdonald, the!
wave their graceful plumes, perhaps sixty
feet above the earth, a fitting monument t.
an unselfsh act
Time passed, as time has way of doing
the war closed and the first white man witt
came to Lake Worth for bis health disap
peared perhaps in search of o clothing
store, and never returned to drink the mill
from his cocoanuts.
One day sailor bold came sailing up th
lagoon between the Lake, and the ocean
over ground, perhaps, where fruitful gar
dens now grow, and saying to himself, ma.
be, "this is the land 1 long have sough
and incurred because I couldn't get there
he went ashore. Liking the prospect ant
not caring particularly about daily mail
he made himself a house, and in time
when the thing seemed worth the trouble
got himself government title to 100 acre
OF land which today might be considers