Milford chronicle., 1911-02-10

The possibilities of farming this
so called poor Florida soil is won
derful. On the land in the centra
pait of the state where only orange:
and cattle were grown prior to the
great freeze, phosphate mines are
now operating, and Florida, to day
is producing about half of all the
phosphate rock mined in the world
A funny condition to think Of
Florida noted for her poor soil pro
ducing so great a quantity OF plant
food for other sections Of the world.
In the last few years her develop
ment has been wonderful, consider
ing her drawbacks in the past The
growth of her towns has been great,
so great that towns have become
cities almost in a single night
Tampa, from a small town Ofa few
years ago has grown to be city of
about fitv thousand with all mod
ern improvements, and the manu-
facture of cigars has grown from a
small affairt TO enormous proportion.
And where only small boats draw
ing a few feet could come up
to her docks a few years ago,
steamers from all parts Of the world
come now with thirty foot chan
mel. This little city Of Miami in
which l am now staying has made
great progress too, Miami is too
young a city to have much Of his
tory.
In 1898 a John Egan was granted
by Spain a tract of land containing
one hundred acres, no farther move
ment was made to settle this sec
ton until after Florida was ceded
to the United States by Spain when
Congress passed an act offering to
give six hundred acres to any white
man who would take it and sue
cessfully defend it against the In
dians for a reasonable time. Three
or four families availed themselves
of this offer and cleared up some
hammock land and planted cotton
and sugar cane. Then the Sc niuOle
Indian war broke out and the few
white settlers gathered their slaves
and property together and fed to
Key West. This place was then oc-
cupied by government troops, and
was called Fort Dallas, in honor of
Commodore Dallas, who was then
in command of the Gulf fleet. The
troops destroyed what improve
ments the few settlers had made by
cutting down the fruit trees so that
their view would not be obstruCted
In 1912 at the close of the war a
few moved back and began to re-
claim the badly wrecked property
Then came the second Seminole |
war, and little later the war be-
tween the States. Later the place /
was inhabited by band of refugees
and desperadoes, 1t is plain to see
that hardly anything was done
through these long years to develop |
this section, a few white settlers
we're living out in the woods, who
,ked out bare living by digging
,oontie for starch and wreckiug
llong the coast which was very
dangerous for vessels passing by in
hose days. In 1871 a man settled
lere and opened up a little store
whose principle trade was with the
indians, and whose nearest base of
upply was Key West, $50 miles to
he South in a small sail boat
Meanwhile way up the east coast
# Florida the whistle of the iron
lorse was heard farther and farther
owards the south. In 1896 the first
rain reached Miami, and in a few
she was incorporated as a
.ity never having been a town, her
-rowth being so rapid, and now at
he age Of only fourteen years she
las a population of eight or ten
housand, which is greatly increased
y the tourists in the winter.