The St. Lucie County tribune. (Fort Pierce, St. Lucie County, Fla.) 1905-1920, 1907-01-25
IN TERESTING
EFLOR|DAFACTS
Giving in Detail the History of
the Land of Flowers
FORTY- COUNTIES
peculiar Position Of the State Makes II the
IDEAL Winter Resort The Value OF
Produce Reaches $28,00O,OO0.

The following article giving interest
inn historical, agricultural industrial,
and Climatic facts about Florida, is re-
published from western agricultural
ioufnal of wide circulation:
"Florda is the most southern and
tropical state in the United States,
washed on the east by the Atlantic,
onthe west by the gulf, famed both
by the Atlantic and gulf breezes. Its
,limate is warm in the winter and cool
LIN the summer, and for this reason if
no other, Florida is noted for its health
fulness and retreat for invalids.
wears ago Florida was conceded ly
the medical department of the United
States as the healthiest state in the
union according to the vital statistics
Of the army of occupation for many
years in the Seminole war, one of the
bloodiest Indian wars in the history of
the United States.
WFlorida was discovered on Easter
Sunday, 1912, by Ponce de Leon. a
. Spanish nobleman and adventurer. When
he and his men first came in sight OF
Florida, the faint white streaks of sand
between the calm blue heavens and the
quivering, flashing waters of the gulf,
broke like new dawn of Paradise.
1.-THE superstitious Spaniards looked
upon the new discovery hardly less
than the symbol Of the holy spirit.
Ponce de Leon, aged and broken in
/ health, in search of the Fountain of
Youth, beholding the evergreen and
coutinuous life of this wonderful penin-
sula. imagined the Fountain within his
grasp and scattered wonderful reports
and stories of this new and promising
land.
"Hernando DeSotO asked his govern
ment permission to conquer Florida in
1857, and landed with $40 chosen men
Ia Nay, 1859, in what is now known as
Tampa bay, but there was nothing to
conquer The country was sparsely
settled, little more than wilderness.
TheSe Spaniards drifted more to the
north, discovered the Mississippi river,
whore DeSoto died May 1912, accom-
plhhIng little and reaping less for his
di1ooveries.
HsE was in 1868 before any new at
tllnpt was made to invade Florida for
|Iization, and this was by the
{xonch Hugenots. The Spaniards ever
gfressive and blood thirsty, made
V,r on these inoffensive people and
lhassacred them, capturing Fort Caro-
lfna on the East Coast and founded st.
Augustine in 1865.
"Florida from then on changed its
ownership rapidly, claimed by the
french in 1923, by England in 1929,
and finally coded to England in 1852 by
NJ treaty of Paris. The population OF
rlorjda was then less than 5000 souls
ssIn l779 the Spaniards conquered
fla, declared war against England
AZ Rnally held Florida as Spanish
~ esson until coded to the United
''in l9-ls2l.
florida was admitted to the union
"a AS. Florida possesses SO, $50 square
Population in 1900, 52s, 542.
state ia divided into fOrty-siX
lies, as follows: Alachua, Baker,
ford, Brevard, Calhoun, Citrus,
,C Columbia, Dade, DeSoto, Duval,
III mbia, Franklin, Gadsden, Hamil'
tQj fernando, Hillsborough, Holmes,
flJf6 {son, jefferson, Lafayette, Lake,
llox Leon, Levy, Liberty, Madison,
0rohge, Osceola, Pasco, Polk, Putnam,
dao "a Rosa, St. Johns, St. Lucie, Sum-
TN Suwannee, Taylor, Volusia, Wa
NkulE, Walton, Washington and Manatee'
H1lotable rivers in Florida are the
\ an ia, Alclote, Apalachicola, Caloos'
7 ah chee, Escambia, Hillsborough,
l6 In, Manatee, Miakka, Miami, Peace,
Il So ohns, Yellow, ever picturesque and
toI lntic Suwannee and Oklawaha.
The basis of wealth Of Florida like
southern states, is agriculture,
I'VE find the cultivated acreage at
present time about one million