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PRITAOL:
The story of Immokalse, as given to Me by Mrs. Platt, had
special intorost.'71WEI-boon interned. when I first came here,
by Dean Wolin eponeer..who was the Milted Rtatoo Oommissioner
to the fleminolo Indians* that Immokalso was an old Seminole
camping ground as 0048 in the literature gligh out by tourist
offices. Dean Sp:0mM said that it was originally just a cattle
grasing and grow* **Moment started by some settlers from Tort
Myers., Port *Ars Chamber of Comoros said he was wrong, that
it was Indian.
A map of Florida by Rand *Molly, dated 1895 did not show
anything in that pert of Lee County, save Lake Trafford and Old
Tort Foster.
Captain J. F. Jaudon agreed with Dean Spsnoor, so I have
been investigating and finally found Mrs. Platt. I believe her
story is right. I have written to tha Post Off too Department a.
bout it.
Mrs. Platt has opined another line of study for me„ namely:
when 'rid how the us* of water.greand cornmeal and the question of
leavening came to be used in Florida's early days. I have started
out to question grooms as to how sales of plain and self rising,
flours sell, as to amount at different times of year, and to the
class of bums. I have also started to find out when cracker
women started to use baking powder, and to get recipes of the old.
en time. I have set out to find out what they did for coffee in
the days of 1881 through the next ten years when oonditione were,
so unsettled and times were so hard. Hope to bring in soon some
recipes for -making substitute for coffee. Am working among south.
ern women to secure information.
There is a chance that I may be able to go over to the west
()oast after January 1st, to visit Ji:verglades, Cohopee, Chokoloskes
and perhaps Immekalse. May also go up Road 28 as far as it goon
toward the Lake. This will *natio me to see the soared islands of
the Toquestas whieh, I believe, are the old 'Rneampment ground'
used by Captain Dawson and Captain Wright while scouting through
the Sverglados in the days of Fort Dallas. Am gathering data on
this also.
Through Mrs. Platt, I hope to secure more clues to other lines
of information.
'a. R. Comstock
25999
FEDERAL WRITERS' PROJECT
Mid, Florida
Mabel B. Francis
Editor
4,800 Words
19 Pages
THE SIIRRELL FAMILY
721k Lore
81.01,6 Platt's family
1466 N.W. 17th St.
nand. Florida
Deo. 16, 1938
Earths Coins took
The house stands well beak from the street. It is a simple.
structure, typical of the rural southland, a one—story frame build.
ing set up on a foundation off the ground in case of wet weather
and allowing air underneath. It is a single gable house with
porch across the entire front, and a smaller rear stoop giving prick.
tection to the kitchen door.
In the backward areas of northern Florida we would expect to
see the wide chimney of a fireplace, or maybe two of them, if the
cooking is still done on the hearth. Of late years however, we
find that stoves have found a place in the kitohen, and the open
fire is maintained only in the living room.
In the home we are entering, there is a good range in the
kitchen, and if there happens to be a oold ospell"in 'Lade County,
it is only nebessary to leave the door open into the kitchen and
put more wood into the 000kstove. At the side of the house is a
-generous sized tick of wood out just right for the stove. The
house faces the south and has a clear exposure on the east also,
thus receiving all the benefit of the southeast wind and the morning
sun.
The house which has withstood three hurricanes, is built on
that simple plan of a large living room which has the main entranas.
from the porch. A door at the rear of the room leads to a narrow
hall, from which there is a door into the bath room, and at the
other end of the hall is the kitchen. Bedrooms open off the front
room, the hall just mentioned, and from the side of the kitohen.
Two of these bedrooms were built on when the family needed more
*sleeping space; originally, they were a side porch.
There is a solar heater on the roof. At the rear of the house
is an outdoor laundry, a platform with a shed shelter, where the
tube are set near a covered rainbatrel. The "city pipe" is also
conveniently near the tub*. A "boil pot" is set up on blocks near
by and the wire line is stretched from pole and tree,
The yard all around the house is well Oodded and planted with
a profusion of hibiscus, orotons, and azaleas that form a book.
ground for the sinner flowering annuals blooming beside the house.
Rows of small flowering plants grow along be edge of the concrete
walks that lead to the front steps, and continue around to the
back door and down the yard to the small chicken yard.
Here a few hens turn the table scraps into eggs for, the aged
couple and the two sons who live with them. A widowed daughter and
her child, a girl in Junior High, live in a small two.room house
on the same lot. There is a fish pool, and a few trees give shade
as well as fruit in season.
There used to be a good garden on the adjoining lot, but old
age has. brought failing sight to John Burrell who in his prime was
a successful gardener and stook raiser, Among the trees and shrub.
bery in the yard are hibiscus of tany shades on the same bush, and
citrus trees budded and grafted in former years when his visitni was
clear and his hand was steady,
Unless it is cold and wet, the front door always stands in—
vitingly open, and as you knock and enter, a cheerful voice bids
you weloome, in foot, your coming was seen by the little lady on
the bed, for oho looks out of the window all day long, Mary is
seventy -.eight years old, and "not very strong on her feet" but
still gets around although not abas to. walk far or much at a time,
She is a real pioneer woman, or as she expresses it "A real genuine
Florida cracker." She sits upon her neatly made bed, wearing a
print housedress, her slippers on the floor within reach.
The old—fashioned solid mood rocking chair near the bed helps
Mary to pass the hours, as she knits, crochets, sews or reads, Her
Bible, prayer book, the daily newspaper and a Ladies Homo Journal
all within reach reveal the source of her knowledge of current
events. She has many visitors', and as she says "There is so much
that is interesting in the world that one doesn't need to gossip,"
John, her husband, who is several years older, often joins
the conversation and is most entertaining in his description of
early times in florid*. He is an expert citrus worker and until
recent years, when his sight failed and his hand grew unsteady, he
made a comfortable living by bussing, grafting, and pruning fruit
trees. As a diversion, he grafted hibiscus and other trees and
bushes, there are many odd combinations In the Allapattah section
of Miami as a result of John's efforts to produce *something dif-
ferent.' He also kept a fine 'garden when he was able and sunplied
the neighborhood with okra, sweet potatoes and 'greens* of unusual
quality, for his garden lay in the rich marl prairie that was ones
a plough forming part of the waterway of the old Allapattsh River,
now designated as RBeybold's 'Canal."
There is one piece of furniture in the plain comfortable liv-
ing room that attracts attention: the old cloak that sets on a
shelf where its face is visible from all directions. It is a loud
ticking 9.day clock, which has to be wound with a big key and which
ttrikes the hour with a measured, far-reaching stroke that seems
to vibrate through the whole house. Asked how old the cloak is,
kary says she doesn't know. It was in her grandfather's house as
far back as she can remember. They called it "the old cloak" then,
so it must be at least a century old.
The house furnishings include hand woven blankets, hand braid-
ed rugs, and other old fashioned things, interesting, comfortable
that time, it was a rather small, hard shelled nut. It grew will
and was generally distributed over northern Florida and southern
Georgia. The Creek Indians found it one of the important items
of their winter food supply, every family gathering all they could
eaoh season.
At the time of which we speak, before the Civil War, northern
Florida was still thinly populated, the pine tries were still in
their prima, and there were many oaks and wild pecans. The wild
persimmon was also a native of this area.
The wild, or razorback hog was not so much in evidence at that
time, but every 'farmer raised many hogs, the corn and peanuts be.
ing the main feed crops. To these were added the refuse of the
sorghum and also sweet potatoes. The hogs foraged under the oak
and pecan trees. Those that strayed away became wild and thus be.a
gan the vast number of wild pigs running at large.
Mary did not remember the special breeds of hogs whioh were
raised in thii south in these early days; it was more a matter of
selection than of breed. Runts were fattened and butchered as seesur,
as possible. A good mill of either sex was retained for breed.
trig, and service was exchanged among farmers. They had good hogs
in those days, but when everything was demoralised during war days,
and through the terrible days of reconstruction, many people were
unable to feed their stook, there were no Negroes to work the farms,
and *everything went to ruin.*
That is shy the *native stook* of cattle and pigs was so poor
in Florida.
North Florida, where. Mary's people had lived for generations,
was a cattle and hog country. Both the planters and their slimes
had all the meat they wanted, such as beef, pork, poultry and wild
game. During the four years of the war, times were hard, but the
climax came with reconstruction when *Oarpetbaggers* took oontrol.
Mary remembers the days when slaves were still with her family.
Her own father had only a few, one being the old mama, who oared
for the children and direeted the housework. This woman had a son
about thirty years of age, who managed the farm and was a general
handy man; there were several younger slaves, especially Mammy's
children who did chores, both in the house and.on the land. Often
slaves were sent over by other members of the family, when planting
time cams around, or when crops were harvested, cane out and imp
was boiled, and when the hogs wire killed and the meat cured. The
neighborly feeling among all the white families extended to their
slaves, and Mary remembers those days as a time of peace and plenty.
Asked how the planters arranged matters when slaves from one
plantation married into another family, she explained that, as far
as possible, the owners encouraged their slaves to marry within
their own plantation. When a slave wanted to marry *outside* how.
ever, he always told his master and matters would be adjusted.
Either the two masters would arriv* at an understanding and usually
the woman slave was bought by the master of the man, or sometimes
if the two lands were adjoining, arrangements would be made for
the wife to lit* with her husband on the land of his master, while
-she would go back and forth to work for her own master.
I asked if it were true that some slave owners bred slaves for
the market as one breed, farm animals. Such, we had heard, was the
case. Not unkindly, this truly southern woman said, *That is lust
another instance of how the North was misinformed about conditions
in the South. There were slave dealers, it is true who did that,
but it was not done as generally as most northern people thought,
*Remember,* she continued, *it was Tankee ships that brought the
slaves over, and beoause the Negro could not stand the severe woo-
ther of the north, the Yankees disposed of them in the South. That
started the slave business. It is true that some slave owners
abused their slaves: some men, even among Yankees, will kick a
horse or beat a dog when angry. They have !Humane Societies* to
make people be kind to animals, and in all these horce races, they'
are very kind to their horses and won't hats a stableman who in
any way negleots the animal he is oaring for. That is beoause the
owner of that horse has his money tied up in the animal. Now,
don't you suppose that when a planter paid good hard cash for a
slave, and was depending on that slave to work his land, and raise
and harvest the orop that was to make his money, he would take
oars of that slave?'
She went en to describe how the Negroes had their little hems's,
each family to itself, and how they were fed and °lathed by the
master. If sick they had mediOal oars. "They have veterinaries
for animals, don't they?" she asked. In addition to supplies re.
gularly furnished by the master, each slave family was allowed to
maks'a little garden, or maybe have a hog of their own. Often a
runt was given to a Negro bey and he took great pride in showing
the master what he could do with it.
'What about whipping?' I asked. "sell," she said, "we did
whip them when they had to have it; Our parents whipped us when we
needed it, and we whipped our children when they needed it. Of
course, now it is considered wrong to whip a child no matter how
much he needs it. But as to the slaves, *hipping was not as general
nor as severs as Harriet Beecher Stowe says it was. There were
some Simon Legrees on some of the plantations, but not as many as
northern people think. Discipline had to be maintained, and there
were other ways of punishing besides whipping. Sometimes it was
solitary confinement on a restrioted diet; sometimes a change to
an uncongenial kind of lahorossuch as changing from the stable to
the field at hard labor, or maybe a house servant would be sent
outside to work. Housework and personal attendanee were jobs most
highly thought of by Negroes.' Btit When whipping was needed, it was
-10
given.'
Here again Mrs. Stowe made a mistake by representing the whip.
ping as toe frequent and too severe, aosording to my informant.
Negroes were aocustomed to whipping as a punishment, and knew when
they deserved it. In many oases, other forms of discipline were
not effective. To put a Negro in solitary oonfinement only let
him enjoy leisure. A change of employment was given for minor of.
tenses and upon a return to obedience, the culprit would be for.
given and returned to his former place, but whet whipping was need.
ed it was administered.
In this connection, we were reminded, there was a time when
flogging was a common thing in the United States Navy and in al—
most every state prison. In Delaware the whipping post is still
in use. In our convict camps in Florida, severe *hipping is still
in operation to say nothing of the sweat bolas and straight jack—
ets. The main point, however, of this disnussion was that Sams
much as slaves had an economic valise, it was very poor judgment to
allow them to be *hipped unduly, and oases of extreme flogging
were not near as common as most Yankees imagine, always with due
respects to Mrs. Stows.
Mary remembers her ohildhood home as one of comfort and peace.
Her father owned a small farm which was worked by a fair slaves AO
were well treated. There was a plentiful food supply such as val.
ous vegetables, peaches, pears, apples, plums and grapes in season,
plenty of meat, both fresh and cured, and game at all times. They
used to have turkey several times during the week, besides other
birds and small game. Gans and sorghum cutting and boiling of syrup
were festive times for both family and slaves. Things were differenti*
when the Civil War came on whioh only prepared the way for the suf.
fering that followed during reconstruction.
Asked for information on the dale following the wars Mary told
of how the slaves were declared free, Many vent off, only to come
back asking for food and clothing, or for money, of which there was
none, although they understood that they no longer needed to work,
This was whore the northern politician same into the picture, for
bidding the slave to work for his old master unless he was paid
for every trifling eerviOe rendered. Thar* was no money save Oen.
federate script and not mueh of that.
Slaves were encouraged to go away from the land on which they
had lived. Many went away only to become vagrants and were guilty
of misdemeanors in other localities. As conditions grew more lee.
perate, so the problem of the Negro became more serious. The ear.
l'etbagger stirred them to lawlessness, and only the appearance of
the pa Klux Klan saved the women and children of the South, inolud.
trig the north Florida counties and the southern counties of Georgia,
where the Burrell families and their connections had their proper.
.ties.
Only the old Mammy and her three young children remained in
the home of Mary's father. The older son, who had worked the
tarn, went away and found a wife some miles away. Mammy, like many
other faithful household servants, remained with her "folks," and
shared the days of trial and privation with them. The way of liv.
ing was far different from those days of comfort heretofore des.
oribed.
Thel slave labor was gone. There was no money to hire help.
No crops were planted and there vas no food for' either stook or
family. Nearly all horses and mules had gone to the army long be.
fore. Carpetbaggers and scalawags joined with the freedmen in take
ing what they wanted. It was hard to get enough of the commonest
and coarsest food. It MIS during there days of suffering that the
.use of ohittlings, innards, jowl and rind dishes came into use.
The few Negroes who remained with their "folks," and the white
families themselves, took to the hoe and raised as much food stuff
as they oould. The crops which heretofore had been money makers
now had to be abandoned. Sugar came was not planted, but, sorghum
could be handled with less arduous labor and so the use of molasses
as isweetning" began. Yield peas or black...eyed peas grow with
little cultivation and will bear for a long period if they are re.'
gularly picked, so these were planted, and the children picked beans
every day. Peanuts, which grow easily were also planted, but in.
stead of being used almost entirely for hogfeed, they too became
a fool staple. How the Florida cracker and baokwoods'darkie still
love peanuts boiled in salt waterl Sweet potatoes were also an
important food item as they can be planted at almost any time of
the year. The vines can be taken off for replantings and the pigs
can root along the row, finding considerable food,
Both Negro and poor white had opportunity to learn to hoe the
corn. There were few plows, fewer horses or mules to pull thee,
and few Negroes to guide them. The smelt patohes of corn were hand
hoed instead of plowed. Oorn was ground in small mills at home for
a long time. Then small mills were established for community use
and the corn was usually oarried to be ground in a handout by a
boy of the family if there was no Negro to do it.
One pioneer woman took her bag of corn four miles to the
mill, walking behind the cart with her baby in the cart.
Meal so ground was called *waterground,* and is today the
favorite meal of the South. It is the whole grain ground fine,
and is much better for food value and taste than the meal produced
by modern mills in the northern grain belt.
Mary said that it was during these days of privation that the
*Crackers* learned to like their *hog, hominy and turnip greens*
diet. Many of the old southern recipes were created at this DeTwo
iod by ingenious southern housewives, who made the most of much
supplies as they had. 'Meat flour was very rare and, as ,the people
of the South adapted themselves to the new order of things, small
communities grew up around the mill and the sohool, Church ser-
vices were usually held in the school building on Sunday.
Mary married in Madison ',aunty and became a widow after a short
time. She went to work in her uncle's store in Thomasville, Gooru
gin, where she lived for two years. Then, while visiting in Port
Myers, she met John Burrell, a citrus grower of Manatee, and later
they married.
John, now eighty-one years of age, proudly relates that he
was on17 out of the state of Florida one time, and that was for
one night only. He went over into Georgia and could not get book
so he 11Pel to ntay all night. He has been out in a at fishing in
the Gulf, though, in the daytime.
Mary and John lived in Fort Myers for five years and here the
oldest son, Illbert, was born. Then John made a real estate tram
action and went down into the edge of the Big Cypress where he
built a III:tracker house* on foundation boles of cypress. The open
corridor had rooms on each side, a.porch was built across the front
and a rear porch for Moine the work".
It was twenty-four miles by ox -cart, later by mule and wagon,
to Fort Myers. Every ninety days the trip had to be made, to bring
back supplies, cornmeal, baoon, molasses, rice, maybe some cloth
and some shoes. In fact all food had to be brought in until the
garden could yield something.fdr the tatMe.
It was at this time in UST that Mari first had baking —powder.
Until then, all 'origin* breads were mate with sour milk, preferably
heavy buttermilk and soda. Heavy buttermilk is that whidh had
stood after being churned until it was thick. This was oonsidered
the best for baking. Milk that was merely *sour' did not give ae
good results. Clabbered milk could be used, but the beet cooks
always preferred heavy buttermilk. But the new baking powder
created a furor for *new baking." among the pioneer women of the
deep South.
This new product was a package done up in stout outer wrapping,
inside of wbich were two kinds of powder, one three times as large
as the other. One was soda,, the other cream of tartar. The diree—
tions were to use one teaspoonful of cream of tartar with two tea
spoonfuln of soda. They had to be mixed well and were put into
the batter after everything else was mixed well; the oven must be
ready an the pan greased to reoeive the batter. Then the new bik.
ing powder was stirred in quickly and thoroughly, the better turned
into the pan and put in the oven.
It took a long time to get used to baking powder, and most
*cracker" women liked the old way of soda and heavy buttermilk the
best. Now, a largo percentage of 'crackers' use ready.toomix four,
rather than worry with a recipe that calls for yeast or baking pow—
Sr,
"loss*
der. Mary said that "moot old timers from Georgia and the back.
woods" buy the ready -to.mix flour for both biscuit and pancakes.
'A grocer, in reply to inquiries, stated that the ready -to -mix
flours for biscuit, pancakes, piecrust„ gingerbread and oaks sell
at least four times to one among southern women and boarding houses
that feature "southern cooking," His statement included both the
self -rising flour in flour sacks, and the ready .to.mix package
flour.
In conversation with another southern woman, I found that
"Southern recipes are all founded on old style breads, always
served rot, and self -rising bakings seem to be lighter than where
you hay: to mix your baking powder yourself. As most buttermilk
nowadays is not churned, but made with tablets bought at the drug.
store, we juet use self..rislng and zsady-mix as a sure means to
have good bakings."
When the Burrells arrived at their mew home down on the edge
of the fig44press, twenty -dour miles away from Fort Myers, there
was nothing there save some very good soil which had the makings
of a good garden and fine grove. Occasionally, an Indian passe!
but they were not even on the Indian trail.
There was only one neighbor and the two women shared each
other's burdens, and helped each other as occasions arose. Bishop
William Grey, who established the Glade Gross Mission among the
-11?
Indiana. Dr. V. R, 74rekme yqd Dr. William Hanson, father of W.
gtanley Ranson, came by infrequently.
Four times a year the Burrells went over the old wagon trail
to Fort Myers, to lay in wupplies. Then Vary's sister and family
and two or three others moved in.
There was no mail unless someone coming through from Ft. Myers
would bring a letter so, in 1896„ the handful of settlers mat at
Mary's house and signed the necessary papers asking the Postmaster
General to give them a post office. Mary suggested the name
NImmo7(aleem being the Seminole word meaning four home." The ap-
plication went through, and Mary Surrell was appointed first post.
mistre,P, The first mail went through by wagon to Fort Vera on
August 15, 1898. Mary served as postmistress until 1919, when she
'novel with her family to Miami..
John, with the help of his two sons, built the house in which
they still live. It has gone through three hurricanes, never having
had any damage, save that the roofing paper was torn off in the
storm of 1936. Wary proudly avers *It is a regular cracker style
house, but the small farmers in the beak sountry know how to use
tools and my menfolk* know how to put a house together; that's their
part, and it is my part to make it comfortable and homey inside.'
The house is yet unceiled, but Wilbert, the son, intends to
cell it as soon as he has time. Meantime, the inside showing all
.1reT
timbers and studding, is so evenly finished and well painted, that
one wishes it might be kept as a demonstration of how a well built,
rural house should be built.
Asked What is the greatest hardship for a livnan and her family,
in times sueh as she passed through, Mary said, *First of all, it
was hard to be so far away from a doctor, especially for expectant
mothers. If you did not have family talks to go to somewhere in
civilization, you had to just trust God and the next neighbor. Dur-
ing those awful days of reconstruotion, we ofteil had no one to help
us but POMO neighbor or perhaps a colored mammy. If the case was
a hard one, as it often was, the woman would perhafs die and the
child, too, before someone could go all the way to town and bring
the doctor book. Of course if we could, we went somewhere within
reach of help, but some women had no place to go."
"It was hard, too," she continued, 'when there were little
children needing a doctor. is women were pretty well prepared with
standard remedies and helped one another, but the women of today
with the doctor, the hospital, the drugstore, the trained nurse
and the telephone and ambulance all at hand, have little idea of
what it meant to be a mother in the back woods of Ylorida in those
days we have been talking about.*
Another thing of which she spoke was the absence of schools for
the children. In reconstruction days, there were schools for the
freedmen maintained by northern money, and pretty, young New Eng-
lend school marms. Children of southern families were usually
taught at home or, in each community, families would arrange to
have the children meet at one house where the teaching was done
by someone, often an old man or woman, who could at least give the
children the three R's. "The reason why so many elderly Florida
women have scant education" Mary said, sis due to the foot that
sohool facilities were so meager in those terrible years."
Living at Immokalee, when they first went there, was not near+,
so fearful as it was to live in northern Florida during the recon-
struction days. The Indians did not come through the •Immokalv,
section then. The Seminoles would not hurt anyone.. There being
no direct road, only a mere trail, there was little dahger from
roving regroes or other tramps. In norther* Florida, the women
and children were safe until the reconstruction days set in. Then
it was no longer safe to live out in the country and she moved,
with her family, into Madison.