Edited by Spessard Stone from the Bartow-Informant of May 17, 1884
Having engaged a good Florida pony and a top buggy, I. M. P. and the writer left the pleasant town of Lakeland and struck for South Florida.
Informed that settlements were sparse along the route, we proposed to travel, and entertainment for man and beast in some places could not be had.
Arriving at Bartow, some twelve miles from Lakeland, we made provision for the tedious journey to the southern coast. We purchased a sack of mixed oats and corn, some crackers, and several cans of beef, ham, fruit, etc., on which we might fall back in case of extremity.
Bartow is all agog with high hopes of the brilliant future it confidently expects. The work of grading a railroad is nearly completed. Some trestle work remains to be done before the track is laid, which, however, may not be done until fall so as to accommodate the increase of travel and freights that will come with that season.
A new wooden courthouse is being built here, two new church buildings, Methodist and Baptist, having been erected and handsomely painted, and several new business houses and dwellings have been recently constructed, while still others are in process of construction.
We made a brief call at the office of the Bartow Informant where we met brother D. W. D. Boully, the publisher, a name quite familiar to Georgia journalism, but now a full-fledged Floridian in all his tastes, and ranks with the foremost of those who write in glowing terms of the vast possibilities of this sunny land.
The Informant, under the editorial management of G. A. Hanson, Esq., aided by the trained skill of Bro. Boully, is growing in favor and patronage, and is to be enlarged and improved to meet the growing needs of the good section in which it is located.
Near Bartow are very high and desirable places (that) could not be had for less than $40 or $50 per acre.
The damage done by the freezes to orange trees, especially to young orange trees about Bartow, was very great, many being killed to the ground, while many young guava trees have even fared worse.
The winter has been almost unprecedentedly severe, yet the fact of the injuries done must tend to discourage the high hopes of fruit growers.
The absence of water protection by being near large lakes may explain why this beautiful section has suffered more than others even several miles north of this point. Some, however, think that the damage done by the cold will be compensated in the good resulting from the killing of the scale insect, and that in the end the trees will be really benefited. This it is hoped may prove true, and, as often occurs, out of seeming ill good may come.
Leaving Bartow, in a few miles, we enter a phenomenal scope of country extending forty miles or more in length and several miles in breadth, known as the great deadening. Here the original pine timber is nearly all dead, the old trunks and broken stumps still remaining, with a thick growth of willow oaks in many places and in others a scanty growth of bushes where once stood a vast forest.
No satisfactory explanation of this phenomenon has been given though attempts have been made to do so, some of which accounts are said to have been given by old Chipco, the aged Indian chief, who died but a year or two since.
One story says a terrific hail once passed over that section and so denuded the trees of limbs and foliage as to cause their death.
Another account is that a great fire, occurring in a season of remarkable drought, killed the timber. A great marvel connected with it is why it is that the forest growth has not returned.
The land in the deadening is generally of good quality and held at high prices.
Traversing a fine portion of Polk County for twelve miles, we came to Fort Meade which is pleasantly situated on high and rolling lands on Peace creek. This town is considered the head of navigation for small boats that ply the creek in time of high water.
The fertile lands and healthful location have attracted a citizenship of high order to this point, and lands are consequently held at high figures.
A railroad at no distant day is confidently expected and will prove a great convenience to merchants and others, who now haul their freights twenty-seven miles from the S. F. Railroad.
Spending a pleasant night and enjoying a few minutes conversation with our good friend, the pastor of the Methodist church at this place, Rev. A. A. Robinson, the late State Commissioner of Immigration, we left by the Wire road for Fort Ogden. This road is so called from the fact of the telegraphic wires being located near it. This is the line that extends through the state and to Key West and Cuba by cable.
The route led through occasional bodies of high pine land well adapted to farming and fruit culture. Crops were further advanced as we got farther south, and several fields of corn were seen the 2d of April and afterwards, four and five feet high and of dark green hue.
Much of the good wild land we were told is railroad land; that is, land donated to railroad companies, and is therefore not on the market.
Popash is a growing hamlet in a fine body of lands near Little Charlie Apopka. High rolling lands are to be seen near Big Charlie Apopka and Joshua or Josh's creek, as it is usually called.
We were agreeably surprised at the number of settlements, groves and farms we found on this long road of sixty miles from Fort Meade to Fort Ogden.
We drove into this place "riding on a rail," as it were, having broken a buggy spring in passing over the innumerable palmetto roots that give exercise to the traveler as he jogs along, and we had to support the body of the buggy by a rail connecting the axles.
Practically at the head of navigation and in a good section of country, we found quite a prosperous village with several good residences and a few well filled stores. Town lots were being surveyed by Mr. John Cross, the enterprising real estate dealer of this section and the representative of the Disston Land Company.
The citizens look forward to a railroad connection with North Florida as communications with Charlotte Harbor or Punta Rassa has long been desired.
We accompanied Mr. Cross to Liverpool on Peace River, a new point where he has made a wharf and established a landing where the freight for Fort Ogden is deposited. Schooners visit this point regularly from New Orleans and Key West and bring immense cargoes of flour, bacon, corn, oats, hay and grits for the large area of country trading at Fort Ogden.
Prices of land within a mile or so of Ogden rate high, as much as $50 an acre being asked, and farther off they ranged as low as $10, while some bargains can be had in Disston lands at $2.50 per acre.
C kindly took us in his boat to the entrance of Charlotte Harbor. As we sailed along, we found a large alligator that doubtless had been shot by some passing sportsman and had crawled on the beach to die. Our young oarsman, Mr. Harman, steered by and soon extracted his teeth for the benefit of the party.
The shallowness of the water and the frequent sandbars will prove great obstacles to navigations and, consequently, the development of the surrounding country. Much of the lands on the harbor are low and marshy and undesirable for residencies.
The healthfulness of the sea breezes, the fine fishing and hunting, and the probable improvement in the means of navigation will make this a desirable country in the future.
This article was published in The Herald-Advocate (Wauchula, Fla.) of March 11, 1993.
April 12, 2001 & October 17, 2001 & May 6, 2002, midi = "Down in the Valley," arranged by Taylor's Traditional Tunes.