Pioneering Palm Beach

by Ginger L Pedersen

  Birdie decorated the house with white drapes and red carpets on the wood floors, which had been oiled to make them look like hardwood. They also had an outdoor worktable where she took her “work-basket,” which contained her sewing, reading and writing materials. The nearest house belonged to an elderly horticulturalist, Reverend Elbridge Gale, who lived about half a mile away to the northeast. Gale served as one of the witnesses for the homestead application confirming that the Deweys did reside on and improve the property.

  So began life in their pine woods home. On the two acres they had cleared, they planted tropical trees and plants such as guava, pineapple, sugar apples, tamarind, coconuts and avocado. According to the homestead claim, they made no attempt to grow “crops” in the sense of vegetables. To earn a living, Fred worked in many different jobs, helping out with businesses as they opened. On weekdays, he went over to Palm Beach on the east side of Lake Worth and helped out with accounts with the few businesses there, picked up the infrequent mail or did a bit of fishing or hunting. With his extensive carpentry skills, he also worked on many buildings, and he painted structures as well. Being close to a large freshwater lake must have meant plenty of mosquitoes; often South Florida pioneer books and stories will devote entire chapters to the agony of mosquitoes. This passage is the only mention of mosquitoes in From Pine Woods to Palm Groves: “An Isle of charm, mosquitoes, sandflies, redbugs, makeshifts and charm. The charm predominated. It was first and last; but all the other things were just as real.”

  For Birdie, such an isolated life must have been difficult, but she was pleased that Fred seemed to be filled with energy in the emerging community. Her days were devoted to the usual household tasks, attending to the chickens and, of course, much reading and writing. It is hard to imagine that she sat there in such a desolate place, composing her stories and correspondence, in complete isolation where thousands of people now live. She received few visitors, as most women would not have sailed alone across Lake Worth and then walk the mile inland through the sand pine forest. Her words truly convey the loneliness: “Now and then there was a neighborhood picnic, or a Sunday spend-the-day visit, with long weeks between during which I, having no daughters, never saw a woman’s face except the reflection of my own when, for very loneliness I carried my sewing to sit before the dressing-table where I could lift my eyes now and then and ‘play’ that the reflected image was a busy companion.” She waited for Fred to return each evening, listening for his familiar “Bob-White” whistle as he walked up the hill to the Hermitage.

  Such long, reflective days did have a positive effect on her spirit and the great losses she had endured. Fred found her two kittens to once again bring pets into the Dewey household; they also spoke often of Bruno and how he would have loved the sand pine woods and have been their protector in such a place. But Little Blossom was another matter: “Of our Little Blossom we never spoke. That was a pain too deep; and each hoped that the other might succeed in the impossible task of forgetting.” The two kittens provided companionship for Birdie, and they were christened Catty Meow and Kitty Winks. She wrote of them, “If spirits do return to make sure their earthly friends have not forgotten them, I hope the shades of the two enchanters who are responsible for the sweetened solicitude of my endless days, were often near to see the effects of their magic.”

  Such a land of adventure offered one of the benefits of coastline life—shipwrecks laden with cargo that seemed to appear just when needed. All in the community shared in the bounty—bags of flour or boxes of candles, although mundane items took on a “romantic interest as trophies from a wreck.” Summer weather also brought a beachcomber’s treasure: turtle eggs. During the late spring and early summer months, sea turtles swam ashore, dug sandpits on the ocean beach and laid hundreds of eggs in each nest. These eggs were much prized by the pioneers for baking and cooking. But such eggs were harvested with great caution—they were also the black bear’s favorite food. Many pioneers had stories of an encounter with a black bear in search of turtle eggs.

  To allay Birdie’s fear of being so isolated, Fred often left the shotgun with her. One time, however, he asked to take it with him as he had seen many ducks on the lake. Fear filled her being without the gun, but she absorbed herself in books and writing, until a feeling overcame her: “[A]ll at once I was disturbed by that indescribable feeling of being stared at.” Only the screen door had been latched to allow a breeze in the house. Upon looking up, she saw standing and staring a Seminole Indian, complete with turban and calico shirt. The Seminole addressed her: “Where man?” Birdie did not want to let on that she was alone in the house, so she simply replied, “Man busy.” The Indian requested to use the small boat he had seen at the lake in back of the property to cross over toward the Everglades. The boat belonged to local hunters and not to the Deweys, but Birdie felt it best to let him take the boat. The Seminole Indian said that he would bring the boat back in the morning.

  She had hoped this would end the conversation, but each stood fast. “I racked my brain for a way to terminate the trying situation. All at once an inspiration came to me to say to him: Goodbye!” This was what the Seminole was waiting to hear, and he walked back down the hill. In her words, she felt “like a stopped clock” and fainted, only to be revived by the concerned clawing and licks of the two cats. She demanded that Fred never leave her alone again without the gun.

  SEMINOLE INDIANS AT JUPITER LIGHTHOUSE. During the late 1800s, the Seminole Indians traded with the pioneers living along the coast. The Jupiter Lighthouse, constructed in 1860, is seen in the background. Courtesy Library of Congress.

  Being such an untamed wilderness, it was filled with game. To supply some fresh meat for the table, Birdie took to her own hunting expeditions to shoot small game such as squirrels or quail. “Fred became so proud of my skill as a Diana, that it added greatly to his enjoyment of our game dinners.” She described in detail how Fred had seemed dismayed with his meals and left one day with only a jelly sandwich. Birdie set out that morning and bagged some quail for the evening meal. She prepared the quail, “done to a turn” as she described it, served on toast.

  Obtaining groceries and food was a challenge, and sometimes dinner even fell from the sky. Fred thought a chowder would make a fine noon meal, and all ingredients were at hand, except the fish. He was too busy repairing an oar to go fishing; she reminded Fred of the famous cookbook quote of “catch your hare”—the first step of a recipe is to have your game at hand. Then an osprey appeared overhead with a large fish in its talons, being pursued by another osprey wishing to rob it of its catch. In the struggle, the fish was dropped a few feet from Fred. A few minutes later, it was scaled and filleted, ready to be added to the chowder.

  Although there were two local stores where basic supplies could be had on the barrier island (the Brelsford store and the Hendrickson store), the shipments arrived at the mercy of the weather. As fall set in with its northeast winds, entering the narrow, dangerous inlet to the ocean became more treacherous. Schooners could make it as far as Jupiter on the Indian River, but then the ships had to turn out to sea to sail the final nine miles of their journey to Palm Beach. At times, the schooners tacked back and forth, waiting for more favorable winds; once the sailors ended up consuming all the supplies aboard; they had to return to Jacksonville for another load. When supplies were low, the stores first ran out of flour and kerosene. After the kerosene was out, Fred and Birdie turned in with the chickens, with no light to read or write in the evening. The next day, the mail boat did manage to make it through the inlet, and Fred returned to the Hermitage with two weeks’ worth of mail. “We built up a fire of pine wood knots, and sat down on the floor in front of the stove, with its fire-doors open, our treasures of mail in our laps, devouring the words until the backs or our heads began to feel cooked.” Fred’s trip over to Palm Beach the next day yielded boxes of candles from a ship that had dumped its cargo in the gale.

  The isolation, loneliness and anxiety began
to take a toll on Birdie’s nerves, making her ill for several days at various times. Several friends in Palm Beach urged them to make a temporary home on Palm Beach during the week while Fred was working. Thus, the “Camping Place” became another unique Dewey home. The Camping Place was actually a large boathouse on the eastern side of Lake Worth that was closer to the settlement in Palm Beach and offered more company for Birdie. The boathouse had an inside deck above the water that served as a “living room” and a small enclosed loft where two cots would just fit that served as their bedroom. She wrote, “The boat-house life was now to satisfy another dream; for it was in many ways like house-boat living. The ceaseless lap-lapping of waves, the aids to easy housekeeping in the ability to throw or sweep overboard every sort of trash or ‘clutter’ and to watch at ease the movements of fish, or other water-creatures while busy at indoor tasks.”

  During this time, Fred was employed as a carpenter in Palm Beach; houses were sprouting up as new settlers from the north were beginning to discover this paradise. This absence from the homestead was also noted in their homestead affidavit. There were rules about how long a person could be absent from their claimed property, and Fred did note the absence, citing his work in Palm Beach and that it would be too far to trek home to the Hermitage each evening. They returned each weekend to the Hermitage to do laundry and bake bread for the week. The cats came along to the boathouse, but they gave the chickens away. Planning lunch was something easily done in the boathouse: “The first thing I did was to drop a baited hook from between the railings of our indoor gallery and catch a mess of pan fish for the noon meal. I soon found that it was an easy matter to tie hand lines there and let them do the fishing for me while I attended to the little daily tasks of this primitive housekeeping.”

  Church services were held in the schoolhouse, and a traveling pastor made his way around Dade County through the Home Missionary Society. Being raised in the church, it was quite amusing to the Deweys that they were in need of a missionary, but the Lake Worth Country was as unsettled as any place missionaries needed to venture. The congregation met on an irregular basis in the summer, whenever the pastor was in town. During these weeks, Fred and Birdie longed to return to their pine woods haven: “The sweet, refreshing sleep and keen appetite produced by the effect of the pine-breath was noted every time we slept at The Hermitage.” They began to realize that the Hermitage was just too far from Palm Beach to be truly a fulfilling home. She remarked, “Fred, we are just like two of these big wood-ants: always frantically dragging things around from one place to another.”

  The reliance, too, on the east side for supplies meant bad weather made them even more isolated. At times, they could not make the mile-long lake crossing for days, so they attended to household matters such as making guava jelly, diving into their extensive library or making clothes. Birdie wore muslin frocks or dresses that she had made, while Fred wore “negligee shirts,” a pull-on shirt with buttons only about half way down the front, and seersucker coats. Fred had created a sort of hanger from cutting hoops from a wooden sugar barrel; traditional metal hangers rusted too easily in the humid salt air climate. To be successful at pioneering meant tackling problems with creativity: “In pioneer life, the one who commands the situation, is not the man of means, or the one who has been enervated by a life of luxury; but it is the capable, resourceful man who is looked up to by all who finds him rising to meet each emergency and overcome its difficulties.”

  Finally, the winds had died down enough for Fred to venture over to the stores in Palm Beach to see if any supplies could be had. No schooner was able to enter the inlet, so all that was available was supplies that had washed up on shore—flour, candles and bales of cotton. Birdie asked, “Did you find any kerosene at the store.” Fred replied, “Not a drop. Everybody is out. Our boats are still unable to get into the inlet.” Once again, the last of the kerosene was used to “devour” the papers and letters that Fred had brought over since the mail boat had arrived. Then they had to make do with the candles for evening light, “the light of other days” as Birdie referred to it. These difficult pioneering days left a permanent impression on Birdie, as she always remembered these times when she turned on an electric light for reading in future times.

  HENDRICKSON STORE ADVERTISEMENT. Fred Dewey worked for U.D. Hendrickson, whose store was located at the northern end of Palm Beach, near the inlet. The general store carried supplies for the pioneers, including groceries and hardware. Private collection.

  Fred had many jobs as new businesses and opportunities presented themselves. In October 1888, Fred was the quarantine officer at Jupiter, as reported in the Florida Star. He inspected ships for sick passengers who might be carriers of malaria or yellow fever. These diseases were not fully understood at the time and were thought to be contagious; the mosquito’s role in spreading disease was not yet known. While Fred was stationed at Jupiter, Birdie stayed at the Cocoanut Grove House, so she was not completely alone for so long. Fred’s next job was at Captain Uriah Dunning Hendrickson’s store in Palm Beach, which was located near the inlet. This was quite a bit north of the Brelsford store, which stood where the Henry Morrison Flagler Museum is today. Hendrickson owned the store and two schooners, the Bessie B and the Mary B, which took produce from local farms north to Titusville and Jacksonville and brought back supplies to his store. Fred listed his position as bookkeeper in his homestead application and cited that as one of the reasons why he had to be away from the Hermitage homestead at times.

  But the back and forth travel from Palm Beach to the Hermitage would soon come to an end. And the new place they were to create was a home of books, culture and respite for all of Palm Beach, the realization of a dream and the personal paradise where Birdie penned her most famous works.

  The Blessed Isle

  The Deweys began to look for a new Lake Worth Country homestead, one closer to Palm Beach. She wrote, “Although there was a degree of pleasure heretofore unknown in our quiet days at The Hermitage, just our two selves and our lovely kits, we never once changed our plans of making another, less isolated home. We looked up and down the West Shore of the Sound, pricing the various pieces of land which were available, and weighing the advantages and disadvantages of each.”

  The “West Shore” referred to the area that today is West Palm Beach, which did not exist in 1890, when the Deweys secured their land on the shores of Lake Worth. The isolation that she experienced at the Hermitage was something that she did not want to experience again. Waterfront property along Lake Worth was what most people wanted as the lake acted as a “highway” for the settlers. The west shore ideally received the southeast tradewinds that prevail most of the year, as the lake water cools the ocean breezes. The newspapers of the time did not refer to town names such as Palm Beach; events occurred on the “East Side” or the “West Side” of Lake Worth.

  The land they purchased was a portion of a government lot along Lake Worth. The lots along the water south of present-day West Palm Beach were homesteaded by members of the Lanehart/Lainhart family in 1876. George Lainhart homesteaded lot one, while older cousin Benjamin Lanehart (they spelled their names differently) homesteaded Lots 2 through 5; Benjamin’s property totaled 130 acres. Benjamin built his palmetto shack about where Olive Avenue and Flamingo Drive in West Palm Beach are today. He cleared some land and grew sweet potatoes and pumpkin, and the homestead was granted by the federal government on August 1, 1883.

  BEN LANEHART’S PALMETTO SHACK. Ben Lanehart, one of the earliest pioneers on the west side of Lake Worth, stands outside his palmetto shack. Fellow pioneer Abner Wilder is standing in the doorway. Courtesy Historical Society of Palm Beach County.

  Lanehart began to sell his land in parcels. In 1888, George Bristol bought a five-acre portion of Lot 3 and built a house on the natural ledge near the shoreline. The lot was about 220 feet wide and 900 feet long. He had built a long dock out into Lake Worth, so larger boats were able to dock at the property. At that time,
the word “dock” was not used to refer to what is called a dock today; rather it was called a wharf.

  Of the five acres, the west three acres had been cleared, and two of those acres had been planted with pineapples. The land surrounding the house that Bristol built was covered with oak and sand pine trees, or what was called “spruce pine” at the time. One feature that attracted the Deweys to the property was that the deed had riparian rights, which meant they owned the waterfront rights. “Thus we became the happy possessors of The Blessed Isle,” she wrote. “It was not really an island, but, like The Hermitage, it was across the water from everything, and the only way to go anywhere, was by boat. We looked across to the settlement, and, on clear days, could signal to the other side. Out on the wharf, we had a fine view up and down the Sound, of points running out from both shores, and of islands of various shapes and sizes, covered with palms and other growth.”

  WHARF AT THE BLESSED ISLE. The Blessed Isle’s long wharf extended far into Lake Worth, allowing larger vessels to dock at the Dewey home. Private collection.

  The Deweys paid $600 for the five acres and the small house on the property, and they signed the deal on January 23, 1890. The meaning of the name “Blessed Isle” was yet another mystery to be solved. She provided a clue at the end of her second book, The Blessed Isle and Its Happy Families, as to the origin of the name, by mentioning the “Elysian Fields.” In Greek mythology, the Elysian Fields were a form of heaven for heroes and for the brave. The Islands of the Blessed was an island paradise heaven on the western side of the Okeanos River reserved for heroes of the Greek myths. Such a place was a “winterless paradise.” Plutarch, the Greek historian of ancient times, wrote, “[W]here the air was never extreme, which for rain had a little silver dew, which of itself and without labor, bore all pleasant fruits to their happy dwellers, till it seemed to him that these could be no other than the Fortunate Islands, the Elysian Fields.” Birdie was a student of Greek mythology, and the analogy of the Blessed Isles to the Lake Worth Country was perfect, so she named the estate the Blessed Isle.