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SAMUEL PROCTOR ORAL HISTORY PROGRAM at
the University of Florida.
St. Lucie Tape #b IDp
Anaa Brown Cobb
December 14, 1966
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there was a spring of fresh water. Here they have another child
and later another, a girl, who died. They decided to build a store.
told me he could remember that grandfather's
boat was too large for the inlet and they floated the lumber across the river.
It was truly amazing that they should consider such an undertaking when
you stop to realize there was three families in this particular section.
The Bells, the first here, lived just south of Taylor Creek. The Carltons
lived downtown and the Henrys on Orange Avenue. My folks bought the land
from the Carltons and while grandma and the children ran the store,
grandpaw sailed in his schooner to the islands buying bananas, coconuts,
and other tropical fruits, which she took to Jacksonville and
sold, buying in exchange groceries from the store. Grandmaw sold her jewels
to buy the schooner in which they came to Fort Pierce. And evidently
Grandpaw felt very badly about it becuase on the first trip he brought
her back a gold watch and chain costing a hundred and twenty five dollars.
I'm sure that made her a little unhappy. This store was built where Pitts
now have a furniture store on Avenue Road. It then faced the river because
all traveling was done on the water. I'm sure they found the living
hard to take because flour, at an enormous price per barrel, was a sample of
the cost of living. My mother said they were allowed all the grits and syrup
they could eat, but she just couldn't stand it, so she stuffed her mouth
full and just as soon as they handed her a slice of bread, out shot the grits.
The Indians camped at Seventh Street Park, along Morris Creek and were
very friendly most of the time. Mother said the children sat around the
campfire lots of times at night and wathced them eat sausage. It was all
cooked in one pot and handed around the circle from one to the other.
When they were quarrelsome, one might have taken the children up on the roof
St. Lucie Tape W\)
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where they all spent the night. Old Aunt Polly was a true friend. She
walked all the way from Persimmy to see Grandmaw when she heard she was
ill. And another time she came to warn her the Indians were going on the
warpath and she wanted to be sure a friendly Indian would kill Grandmother
as she then could know that she could go to the happy hunting ground.'
The teacher was Joe Hearst and they studied spelling out of the dictionary,
in the log cabin school up around Taylor Creek. According to her tales
they made life miserable for the poor fellow. They went to school along
the river beach, crossing the foot log at Morris Creek. We called it
Mud Creek. Can you imagine a twenty or thirty foot river beach? It makes
us realize how very fast our coast is sinking for we don't have a river
beach. And the water has also eaten away a lot of land. True, it has
been sealed in so much. I made the statement that one of these days
our beautiful Indian River will be just a canal. The river was shallow
and wide and once Shorty Hanes, six feet or more, waded it all except the
channel to prove how shallow it was. The river meant so much to us. It was
our only means of distance travel and as for the children, it was a wonderful
thing. Clean, not polluted, and it beat any old swimming hole in the
world. The ocean meant to us. Grandpaw took us over in his
boat and while we went swimming he stood with his binoculars watching to
see that no sharks came near. So we didn't appreciate it. We could
go back home to our good old river. And then the other side of my
family. My father, Robert E. Brown was born in Charlotte, North Carolina.
in 1860. His mother died when he was born and the slaves took care of
him until his father was discharged from the Confederate Army. Grandpaw
Brown found him a sickly little boy. The doctor advised a warmer climate.
He moved to Georgia but stayed there only a short time, perhaps finding the
St. Lucie Tape i I|
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climate very little better. Then he moved on down to Orlando and settled
on what is now a beautiful lake in downtown Orlando where he had an
orange grove. Daddy did not improve as he should and the doctor there advised
him to stay outdoors. Subsequently daddy spent his early years rambling
over the south end of Florida always hunting. He had a pal, Wayne Hall,
and I don't suppose they missed much of this country. They were great
fiddlers and never missed a dance. Once Mr. Keen told me he had hunted
with Bob and Wayne but no one could travel as fast as those two. One
of the things they did was to have some gold pieces melted and made into
two wedding rings for their future wives. And I don't know whether Warren
Hall gave his to his wife or not, but daddy gave his to mama. on one of
these many trips, he and my, he met my mother. And when they talked of
marriage,,Grandmaw Hogg, of course, blew up. She had a point, you must
admit. Mama was fourteen years old and daddy, twenty six and just a hunter.
Anyhow, they ran away straight to Orlando, but Grandmaw Hogg went
ahead of them and stopped them there. So they got in a buggy, slipped
over to Leesburg and were married. They lived in Orlando about five
years, and my mother there learned to live cracker style instead of
scotch style. Two boys were born, George and Alex. They returned to
Fort Pierce about 1891 and had been there only a short time when the
older boy died. They lived in a house on the southwest corner of
Avenue D and I wrote down here Pine Street, but we know it as Second
Street now. The house now is a catch to the back of the Buckwhite
residence just next door. There my older sister, Leonora was born. This
was Edgartown, not Fort Pierce. Daddy had an oyster business and certainly
no finer oysters could be found anywhere. They were also plentiful. He used
_, a flat bottom boat, to travel along the river and pull the
St. Lucie Tape #i (# 0
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oysters up with long handled prongs. Perhaps the market was not too good
for he didn't do this very long. He was postmaster for Edgartown and
and had the postoffice and his grocery store which was on the southeast
corner of Avenue D and Second Street. It was a two story building and the
family lived upstairs. The kitchen was on the east side of the store
downstairs. My mother cooked on a gas stove, not the gas stoves as we
know them today, but one on which the gas tanks fit way up high at one
end. And I still remember how frightened I was every time the stove was
lighted. It was in this building that I was born. I was the first child
to have a regular doctor since Dr.Papps had moved to town by this time. Also
there was something else unusual that year. Three girls were born in
the month of August. And though they were miles apart it was still one
community and an unheard of increase in population. One was Ndla Daniels
in Viking, Gladys Omstead at Penmire, and then me in Edgartown. We certainly
had no negro problems in those days because the only ones I remember
are Jim and Nellie Steward who lied right in town and she washed and
ironed for Mr. Cobb, I suppose, as long as she lived. There were no
roads. If you wanted to go somewhere you usually went on foot or if it
was too many miles away you had a horse and wagon, or if in style, a buggy.
It was very sandy and around town we traveled on board sidewalks. Lumber
was certainly plentiful and cheap. The houses were built of wood and the
hurricanes didn't blow them down. Across the street on the northwest
corner was TUcker's Saloon. We were never allowed to cross the street.
I don't believe the Tuckers were very popular because the ladies made
fun of the Tucker girls, who they said dressed in cheesecloth. Cheesecloth
on the- __ was very cheap. Everyone used it to screen out the
St. Lucie Tape # \Qt
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mosquitoes and for veils around house and out in the pineapple field.
Just north of the saloon on the next corner was the Edgar house, a boarding
house run by Mrs. Lakeport and they said she served dried beanseveryday.
This house is still there. Just across the street was an empty block
along the river called the Green and I believe that sight holds my
dearest memories. I know it wasn't it wasn't m6wed but that grass was
always short and green. On Saturday everyone came to town and while the
old folks visited and bought groceries the children gathered on the green.
We played games all afternoon and when it began to get dark we'd buiId a
great big bonfire and roasted marshmallows and hotdogs, but oysters,
clams and crabs. The Carltons were out best friends in fact Mrs. Carlton
was the doctor until Dr. ?latts came. And she really was a second mother
to us. She was a real friend in time of need to everyone, rich or
poor. And if I should ever place a monument for the most deserving
person in this part of the country, it would be for Mrs. Elizabeth
Carlton. Once while we were at Sunday school word came that there was
a case of smallpox in town. That was sure death, so everyone hurried to
the home of Dr. Platts to be vaccinated. My friend, Lois Davis was just
ahead of me and the doctor slpit her sleeve, one of these long tight,
puffed out at the tope, ones they called leg of mutton sleeves. Anyhow
I set up a real howl. We didn't have but one real Sunday dress and of
course I was scared to death. Dr. Platt's, though, put me on his lap and
talked to me and at the same time scratch.my knee. Then he put me down
dressed
and said, "Now young lady you can go undressed., I wonder what he'd
think of the styles how. The Moes Davis family lived on the south side
of Avenue D next to the railroad. When first built it was a two story
building. The downstairs for a store and the upstairs for an entertainment
St. Lucie Tape #) 0
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hall. Attached behind was a family quarters. Mr. Davis was a fine
builder and cabinet maker and I believe he came from Wisconsin. He also
made the coffin if someone died and Mrs. Davis lined it in white cloth
over cotton. ;Now back in those days you didn't get money for those
things. You just did them because you were doing them for your friends.
His daughter, Lois Parks still has the cabinet made for the dining room
of the original house. I don't remember anything exciting ever taking
place in the building except some church socials and Punch and Judy
shows. Just across the street, this is the north side of Avenue D,
was the first depot, just a flat loading platform. I was only a small, I
guess a baby, and the first train rolled in a d The
depot has been made three times in this town. Each time further south.
would finally go down to the old fort in the
beginning of the time. In 1898 when the soldiers came through on their
way to fight in the Spanish American war the people in the town loaded
their wheelbarrels with pies and cakes and met the train. My sister,
Leonora said one of the soldiers gave her a heart attack. But just south
of the ____ between Second Street and the railroad, where
Jim Hanson now lives, and across the railroad where the bus station now
is, were tow pineapple fields. When this train load of soldiers
pulled out there were no more pineapples. They had pulled them up
looking for pineapples on the roots. Soon after my mother married,
qrandmaw sold her store to the canning company of Cdnnecticult, of
which kFrank Tyler was an officer. A young man who clerked for this
company was Peter Cobb. Then the company went broked and Peter Cobb
got the store. But Fort Pierce didn't seem to grow or have the business
that Edgartown had. The of 1895 and '96
my Grandfather in Orlando and some time after he came to live
St. Lucie Tape # W
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with us. This freeze hurt even this part of the country. And my father
egan$to have more on his books than in his money drawer. My Grandmother
Hogg never quite forgave daddy for marrying mama. So she built a store
on the northeast corner just across the street. And being a wizard at
business and no large family, by then there were five children of us, she
soon had the business and daddy closed the door. Since those two stores
are gone, it's rather surprising that nothing has ever been built back
on those corners. Daddy gave his job as post master to Ms,-Ella Hanson,
who opened a post office in a one roomed building just east of the
Davis place. We knew it later as the old Slanger place. Jim Bell
offered my father ten acres of land just over the hill, now Negratown and
west of the hospital to settle his grocery debt. Daddy took it and built
a house, and out we moved to the country, and believe it or not that was
within the city limits but it was over a year before we knew what a
road or a sidewalk or anything else was. Years later, Ms. Ella, returning
from a trip to her old home in GulIanmmock, wanted to pay her brother
's grocery debt, but daddy told her he didn't owe him anything.
The books were all destroyed. Ms. Ella insisted because she said
knew just how much he owed. Theschoolhouse was on the north side of'
of Avenue E just west of the filling station on fourth street. When school
started there were, there,. was only one room. By the time I got there
there were two rooms and two teachers. Mr. Pomroy and Ms. Grace: Ready
were two of our teachers, and later they married and spent the rest of
their days in Stuart. I remember my brother Alex saying he just hopes
to get big enough to whip old man Pomroy. And sure enough he did, over
six feet tall, But strange to say, he lost the urge to whip his old
teacher. Our first year of school the building burned. The smaller children
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finished out the year in one of the Bittner cottages. A resident of
the southwest corner of Avenue E and Fourth Street. And the older
children went to Mr. Hodges house to a private school. Some of the
children didn't even go to school. They waited until the next building
was there. By this time the town had begun tobspread south and so
the next school was built on Second Street, just north of the
building. It was two stories, four room building. Behind it ran
Morris Creek and it was filled with alligators. I can't remember any
teachers but Ms. Ready until I reached the fourth grade. Then I had
Ms. Boxer and then Sidniss Davenport who later became Mrs. Hemmings,
Sue Hunter, Mrs. Fair and last Professor Oakland. All are known to
people long gone from this community and three I know are dead. This
was then County and my father was called to jury duty in
Titusville nearly every year. He stayed with Judge Jones while there,
as they were very close friends. But in 1905 came talk about
county, so an election was held to find out if Fort Pierce or Jensen was
to be county seat. It was rather close, I believe. Because Jensen was
growing very fast. Fort Pierce won and St. Lucie County then stretched
from the Sabastien River to the St. Lucie River. The Firts Methodist
Church was between Fourth Street and the railroad tracks north of
Patrick. Later the 's had it for their home. The next Methodist
Church was on Second Street, on the lot used as the street to go to the
ice plant now. By this time business had moved down to Cobb's store, who's
slogan was, everything to eat wear and use. From time to time he enlarged
the store. And the north side was the druggers department. Ms. Ella
Hanson worked for him and I suppose it was through her he got the post
office. First it was in the main store, just to the right of the door
St. Lucie Tape # 0
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Then he added onto the building on the side and that was a post office
with boxes that could be open. My father had box 82 and my sister, Ollie,
still has that number. Across the frontwas a wide porch and on Saturday
nights the whole town gathered to hear the hand play, mosquitoes or no
mosquitoes. The front central part of the building is the old original
whole store. We grew fast so it seemed. Yet as you look back it really
was slow. I heard a friend say not long ago, why even in 1912 when I
came there was no pavements, no lights and no sewers. When John Donne
could get me in a crowd, he never failed to tell that we three sisters
came up the top of the hill which really was the edge of town, with out
shoes in our hand. That was true, but what he didn't say was that you
couldn't have white shoes and wear them through that black sand. So we
packed our old shoes at the end of the sidewalk and put on our clean
white ones and headed for the city. Our first telephone office was on
SEcond Street in the vast Cross home located where the nort part of the
building is now, or just south of the Dick White home. It's
gone. This office was later moved into the fee building when Mrs.
Cross gave it up My sister, Leonora, was a first night operator from
eight to eight, This was an emergency service only, nothing but coctor
or fire calls could be made. Business was slow. Later when my sister,
Sybel, was day operator, whe asked me to watch the board while she ran
down to Cobb's store one day. Of course somebody wanted an unheard of
number and I ran down to the store to ask her about it. How's that for
business? By 1915 we had added onto the old school house until there was
no more land left. So a new one was built way out in the woods everybody
said and was called Hodges White Elephant. But it is still one of the
best buildings in the county and if it had been kept up, one of the
prettiest and most up to date and some of you can talk about how out
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dated it is and I'd site to him that they had steam heat and telephones
on every day and all the different things that we had, electric
bells, everything. We don't have them anymore but we did have where
I started teaching there. We knew everyone and everyone knew us. It
always pleased me when someone said I know you're one of the Browns
but I don't know which one. Now I under stand why. There were twelve
of us. Most of the old timers are gone. But I can't help believing they've
each left their footprints in the sand of time and most of them left
only good prints. I'd like name many of these folks and tell some
incidents connected with them but I tried to hold this as I said to
a family history.
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