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JAIN CLAYTON
'Tannery 15, WAN
The Grant tagaily (white)
North Nisei
Mimi, Florida
ftitymma
Walter A. DeLamater
Writer
About fifteen miles north of Miami and six miles west of
Hollywood is located the small, well -kept dairy farm of the
Clayton family..
They live in a large, rambling stucco house consisting of
an immense living room, three bedrooms, kitchen and bath. The
house was built after the 1926 hurricane and is very strongly
constructed, all the essential connections being bolted together
and the whole structure embedded in solid cement.
The house is entirely surrounded by bushes, shrubs and
vines of every hue and description, for Jane Clayton, the wife,
is a great lover of flowers and, as they have lived here for eight
years, she has had time to accumulate a wide variety.
Upon entering the living room, I was reminded of a club
room in a hunting lodge. It is an extraordinary room not only
because of its immense size but because of the unusual furnishings.
Everywhere I looked, I saw some sort of wild bird or animal :perched
an the wall. .There are several alligator and snake hides of
various lengths, stuffed squirrels, an awl, chicken hawk, eagle,
skunk and wild cat, all arranged in a very life -like manner. I
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learned that all of the specimens had been caught in the nearby
Everglades and that they were mounted by one of her sons,
Richard, who had studied taxidermy as a hobby.
Jane said that Richard used to go out in an old model
T Ford roadster and when he would return he would have the rumble
seat filled with live alligators, and various animals that he
had captured in the Everglades.
The remainder of the living room is furnished in simple
but comfortable style. There are several Large rugs on the floor,
a grand piano, radio, three piece overstuffed living room suite
consisting of two chairs and a sofa, several odd chairs and an
immense dining table. Two sides of this room are made up. of a
series of French doors which open an the front and back porches
respectively. As these doors face east and west there is always
a maximum of light and breeze, making this one of the most
delightful rooms I have ever seen. The remaining two sides open
into the three bedrooms and the kitchen, two doors being on each
side of the room.
The bedrooms are large and well furnished with the usual
standard bedroom furniture and bright chintz draperies. All the
walls throughout the house are painted white and the floors are
of highly polished oak.
The kitchen floor is covered with linoleum and this
cheerful room contains a large modern four burner gas stove with
oven and an up to date electric refrigerator. There is running
hot and cold water throughout and it is quite unusual to find
such conveniences so distant from any settled community. Jane
explained that they used bottled gas and generated their own
electricity, having i‘oV gasoline plants, one for the house and
adjoining tool shed and for the dairy and pasteurising house.
The dairy is located about 700 feet from the house and
consists of a large milking shed and adjoining bottling and
pasteurising rooms. Nearby are the pump house and electric plant.
All of the imil4inga are made of cement and are painted white in -s
side and outside. The floors are also made oicement and are
painted grey.
The Clnytons awn about 50 head of fine registered cattle,
some Jersey and some Quarnsey. They have four fine calves at
present but had very bad luck with then last year. It seems that
John Clayton was forced to drive the milk truck an his route during
the past winter season as the boys were in school most of the
time and he was short-handed.
While he was away, their big police dog "Fritz" suddenly
began chasing the calves and before he was through he had killed
than all. Upon asking Jane way they didn't get rid of the dog
she said, "Fritz is a very valuable dog and a good watch dog and
we sure need one around here. He is a great.grandson of "Bin Tin
Tin," the movie dog and we paid $200 ;or him when he was a little
puppy. Now he is about seven years old but he sure is a great
protection for he sleeps most all day and prowls around all night,
hunting wild cats or anything that might be About."
I don't baileys that I have ever seen a larger police
dog. He weighs about 150 pounds and is all solid muscle. He
is a rather friendly dog, but very visious when crossed, and will
allow no one to touch any member of the family. The Claytons also
have another dog, part bulldog and part police. He romps and plays
with the children all day -and, as he is only six months old, he
naturally chases after every animal on the plugs, much to their
discomfort.
As Jane first showed me around the farm and buildings I
will try to describe their farm before going into their family
history.
Their farm consists of ten acres with an option of 100
acres of pasture land for grazing. They have a few citrus traes,
guava bushes, papaya plants and banana treee. At the banana trees
Jane stopped and pointed to a large group of canna& which were
planted along the side of the milk house.
"Do you see those?" she asked. "well, one time when we had
all gone to town and Dad was home alone, he saw &bunch of these
cannas growing way up the road. He dug them up and transplanted
them where they are now and didn't say a word to anyone about it.
A few weeks later as they began to take root and grow, he smiled
all over and told us one day, 'Do you know,' he said, 'I've got a
big surprise for you, in a little while I'm going to have some
mighty fine bananas on this farm.' He took me aiir t0 Where they
were and proudly showed them to me. 'Why those are cannas,' I said.
'Ho they're not,' he said, 'you just wait and see they're fine
bananas.' He kept right on thinking they were banana trees until
the flaws bloomed. After that he never mentioned thOM again,
but the faiili and I kid him to this day about them and always
refer to .them as 'Dad's banana trees.' You see we came from up
north but we have been in Florida for over twenty years. Until we
came -to this farm we were always in the northern part of the state
and had never seen some of the bushes and trees that grow dawn hers.*
Besides the dogs and cows, the Claytons have a pedigreed
bull, 12 cats, about 360 chickens, 30 ducks, two rabbits, 21 beehives
and a half grown goat. This goat is the special pet of Elizabeth,
the youngest daughter and it follows her wherever she goes. He
jumps over everything in his way and runs in and out of the house
just like the dogs and even jumps up in her lap when she sits down.
John bought the goat for her when he was just a few days old and
Elizabeth and her mother fed him with a bottle.
After walking over the farm and looking at all the live stock,
we want back to the house and sat down to talk. Jane Clayton is a
very pleasant woman, small in stature, attractive and a little beyond
middle age. She has brown eyes and a dark complexion which is set
off beautifully by a mass of wavy grey hair. She is a devout Cdtholits
and she goes with the children to church every Sunday. Although she
is kept very busy with the work on the farm, she is never too busy to
lend a helping hand to some neighbor less fortunate than herself.
'John and I like it very much here and all the children seem
to enjoy it: We have eleven children, all living and in good health.
There are four girls and seven boys. Five of the children are at
home with us and the rest are scattered in the northern states.
One of my oldest daughters is serried and has two children of her
own, that is Beatrice. The other, Margaret, is a trained nurse
in one of the big hospitals in New York. They come to visit us
whenever they have the chance but I never seem to get time off to
visit them. They both appear to be well contented with their lot
and are doing very well financially.
"The other two girls are here at home and I guess lose
one of them very shortly for Frances, the oldest, is 21 and engaged
to an engineer who lives in Fort Lauderdale. Elizabeth, the
youngest of all the children is tea years old and she and the three
boys all go to the Catholic school in Hollywood. Robert, the oldest
boy at home, is 17 and he drives the school bus. He gets $8.00 a
week to drive it and besides it makes it very handy fcr the rest
of the children because he parks the bus in front of the house
after school and they all leave together in the morning. Frances
drove the county school bus last year but this year she wanted to
stay home and help me. After school, the boys have to help their
Dad at the dairy.
"The four oldest boys are all up north and three of them
work together in one of the large airplane factories on Long Island.
My oldest son, James, is an aviator out on the west coast. My boys
at home are all interested in aviation. They are always building
some kind of a model airplane and have the parts strewn all over
the house. If they over decide to make aviation their life work
we'll pretty near have enough to start our own airline* I think
it's as safe today as any business and I don't worry about them.
"We get along very well here on the farm and Dad would
never be contented to live in the city. We have nearly everything
we need and are as happy as the average family. Maybe one of the
reasons we get along so well with each other is the fact that we
all share some in the business of running the farm. Frances and
I own and take care of all the chickens* Whatever we buy or sell
and the cost of the feed we divide equally and ihare the profits
and losses together.
"Robert owns the 21 hives of bees. He extracts all the
honey, boils it down and then)Dottles and labels it himself. He
got $10 worth of honey out of one hive alone. He has quite a few
steady customers and sells the honey from the milk truck.
"John, Jr. who is 16, saved up his money and bought a -couple
of calves from his Dad and'he has great expectations of raising a
herd of his own with these and sharing in the business by the time
he gets a bit older.
"Nelson, my youngest boy, who is now 12 years old, is the
proud owner of the ducks Ind hopes some day to make a lot of money
with them. He never gets tired of watching them and they really
are a sight. Every so often they will get a notion to take off
and away they go, flying all around the house, dairy and the sur-
rounding country. At night they usually roost on top of the house.
They are hard to catch and he and Elisabeth have a great time
chasing after them.
"Last but not least of my children is little Elizabeth
who is also a share holder in this business. The goat and the
rabbits belong to her. She hopes to have a small herd of goats
and sell the milk along with the cows milk. There is good money
in goat milk. It bring* anywhere from 40 to 60 cants a quart and
than, is a good demand for it during the season. Some people must
drink it all the time as it is good for certain ailments. I some-
times wish we had goats instead of cows for they are much cheaper
to keep as they will eat any kind of grass and only require about
a pint of feed a day.
"We have been in the dairy business about tan years new.
Before that Dad used to farm, but he doesn't trust farming any mere,
says that it is too uncertain. Some years ago he had a good big
crop of potatcas ands as the price was right, he made 6,000 dollars
that year. But he lost all of it in the next two years and haanit
had any faith in farming since.
"We like the dairy business pretty well but Dad and the
boys get awful tired of it sometimes. Then we all get mighty dis.
eouraged when the neighbors next to us start fussing up. I think
that they are Just Jealous of us because we have been able to accumu.
late a few things and they have practically nothing. It's not that
they couldn't have anything but they just don't try and than think
that the world owes them a living. With all this open country for
miles around, I don't know why they had to build right next door
to us. They sure are mean and no account. Why, I couldn't he..
gin to count all the chickens they have stolen from me and lately
we have been forced to fence than in right back of the house so I
can keep a close watch on them.
"We haven't been able to prove anything on them but I know
that the chickens would not disappear by themselves and they are
our only neighbors. There was a time when we could all go to tom
at once and take "Fritz" with us but lately, things have gotten so
bad that we have been unable to do that. One of us must always be
at home and now either Dad or one of the boys has to sleep at the
dairy with a loaded shotgun always at hand. Why, it was only two
weeks ago that one of them cut the fence and let all of our cattle
loose. we sure had one awful time getting them back in again.
They even cut one of our cow's tail off and if Dad hadn't of found
it out right away the poor thing would have bled to death. We have
tried to get the sheriff after them and we even brought the matter
to court but we can't got enough evidence, against them. We have
finally decided to tak4 matters into our own hands and if we ever
catch one of them an our property we intend to shoot. We don't
want trouble with anyone but we can't afford to keep losing our
chickens and having our cattle molested."
I than asked Jane some questions regarding the running of
the farm, to which she replied:
"In the summer time when the boys don't have to go to school
they help their Dad with the milking and other chores but in the
winter time he has to hire a man to help him with milking and
delivering the milk in Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale and the rest
of the countryside. They milk twice a day, at one o'clock in
the afternoon and again at one in the morning. After the cows
have been milked, the milk is than put into a pasteurizer and
heated in order to kill any germs. Then it is cooled through
pipes, bottled and sealed. They also make chocolate milk and
buttermilk for their customers and butter and ice cream for our
awn use. Up until this year, Dad had only'one-saall Chevrolet
truck to do all the delivering but his business has picked up now
so that he was forced to buy another truck. We don't own a car
for our own personal use. Whenever we go anywhere, we use one
of the trucks.
"The hot watet for the pasteurizer is heated by,a.large
wood -burning furnace which is located outside the building. In
order to get eribugh wood to run this furnace, John has to take
his tractor out in the surrounding country and cut down a large
tree, which he hauls back and saws and chops until it is the
right length to fit the furnace. Each time he hap to venture
further away as all the suitable timber nearby has been used.
"After the milk has been bottled, the truck has to be
loaded, empty bottles washed, floors scrubbed and everything put
in order for the next milking. Dairy life is not easy but it
furnishes us a fair living and as times are now, we feel that we
are pretty lucky.
"'i are kept buay most all the time but Dad and I manage to
get off a few hours once or twice a week. Dad likes to go to the
movies and sometimes he and the boys go over to the beach and
have a swim. When the boys grow up they will probably want to
maks their own way in the world and by that time Dad hopes to
retire to some little farm wbere he can take it easy. Right now
with times as hard as they are I feel that we have to keep On as
we are now.
"Dad has one particular hobby and whenever he has a spare
moment he is always in the pump house working on it. It is some
tort of perpetual motion machine that consists of a long series
of rods and gadgets rigged up in series. Every once in a while
be adds something more to it and swears that it will work some
day. .ae has been working on it for years now and the boys sure
do kid them about it.
"We are never much to go visiting but on Sunday the
children always have a few of their friends to dinner. We never
have any time to read books or magazines but always read the news..
papers and listen to the radio. In that way we try to keep Abreast
of the times.
"Both Dad and I had a high school education but we were
both born and raised on a farm. I .suppose it's only natural that
we like farming best and we would never be happy Working for act
one else or living in the city. Dud often says 'there may not be
much money in this business but at least we're our own boss and
as long as people eat and drink milk I guess we'll always
be able to make a fair living,' andl agreed with hia.“