The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1911-04-14
FIFTY-FIvE YEARS AGO

plying the crooked and picturesque
okiawaha river, nothing but barges.
propelled by six big negroes with 40
loot nand poles to push them up and
down stream, with Captains H. A.
tray and McGahagin in command.
These barges would make the round
trip from Silver Springs to Palatka
eac hweek, hauling all the freight,
cotton, sugar, syrup, hides, potatoes.
etc., to Palatka, and all dry goods,
groceries, ETC., that were handled and
sold by the merchants forty-fve
miles back in the interior, and even
south as far as Brooksville and
Leesburg.
The natural range for stock, such
as cattle and hogs, was then said to
be unsurpassed in any of the south
ern states. Nothing unusual to kill
ana dress steer weighing six hun
dred pounds from the woods. Cattle
kings were then common, such as
Martin, Geiger, Uncle Billie" Carl
ton, j. w. Pearson and many others,
who counted their stock by the thous-
ands. poor man could get free all
the cattle he wished to pen and milk.
The woods were alive with game,
deer, turkey, bear, ducks, and every
stream and pond full of choice fish.
Well does the writer remember see-
ing his father stand in the dining
room door and shoot down wild tur-
key, and deer were frequently killed
in the fields. Meat was not a uues-
ton then as now. Fat hogs were kill
ed from the woods (now in the north
and western states). There was ont
so much need for money; nearly ev-
eryone lived at home, manufacturing
their own clothes with the spinning
wheel and homemade looms. There
were no Stetson hats and patent
leather shoes. Every householder
tanned his leather and made his own
shoes. Occasionally such men as
| General owens and other rich plant
ers were seen wearing broadcloth 1t
would scare a poor booy into fits to
be sent into nice white-painted
house-they were so scarce
Mail facilities were meager, as it
was then carried by stage coach from
Ocala to Palatka once week. The
nearest postoffice to this palce was
Orange Springs, ten miles north of
here. The writer's father was the
first commissioned postmaster at
this place. There was not a third of
a dozen newspapers taken and read
in twenty miles square.
Old-fashioned shooting matches
were pulled off every Saturday after
noon, shooting for beef and turkey,
with old-fashioned full stock Ken
lucky rifles, and the man that could
not hit twenty-five cent piece sew
enty-fve yards off-hand had better
not buy a chance, for there were
plenty of men that could do that,
Nearly everybody was your good
neighbor, and stood ready with mon
ey and. hands to give any aid you
might need. Log rollings, house
raisings, rail splittings, cuttings and
big dances were frequent. If you got
sick everyone was ready to go and
wait on you. There was no such
| thing as a hired nurse. Good and
pure WHISTLES, brandies and home
made wines were on every sideboard,
and nothing was thought if you took
drink of either. No high license
on it, no poisoned, head-bursting
stuff to kill a man, not so many
drunken men, not so many law suits,
not so many murders, not so much
strife and chickering's; no $4,000
court house, no $4,000 jails, no $751;
900 armories for kid-glove boys to
dance in: no $4,000 road machines to
! tear up what roads we had; no $685.
600 county indebtedness. Well, we
thought those were good times. But
they say we are having better times
i NOW, WIFI TWO lilies vi SlSdLuDOdCo vi
the river, two passenger and mail
trains every day, telephones in near
" every house, with from one to
three daily newspapers on every
reading table; school houses every
three miles; from one to four church
es in every community; an organ or
piano in every home; plenty of white
painted houses to live in; six general
stores. three or four hotels, two meat
markets, one drug store, with another
one in course of construction three
cool drink establishments, one of the
biggest sawmills in the state, two
planning mills, two livery stables,
two millinery stores, one pool room,
and every train bringing in new set
tiers, who are clearing lands and
L.