HomeAgricultureAgriculture in Early Goulds

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Agriculture in Early Goulds — 18 Comments

  1. Wow! Another great article about how things got started in south Dade county. These entrepreneurs were a visionary group! Clearing a pine forest, draining the glade, engineering ingenious means of transportation and all aided by the Flagler Rail Road to get produce to northern markets. Thanks for painting this historic picture for us, and documenting the making of community on the Florida frontier.

  2. My maternal great grandfather Samuel Wagoner came to South Florida in 1912 to farm. Their original home was located in what is now an avocado grove on Kings Highway and Roberts Rd., I think. Anyway, I have some photographs if you would like to see them. I know my grandmother’s cousin lived in Goulds but I do not know if they farmed.

  3. Very cool article. I recently went to have breakfast at Cauley Square. Would the storefront there be the same location?

    That book you speak of is hard to find but it would be interesting if you did a tour one day?

    • The two-story yellow building at Cauley Square was likely built on the site of the wooden building shown in the photographs in this article. The wooden building was destroyed by a tornado in 1919.

  4. Very interesting article after farming potatoes for 30 years and coming to Homestead in 1957 and my family having the John Deere franchise. Extremely interesting, thank you.

  5. Terrific article. My great uncle John W. Campbell and father Edward “Jack” Campbell farmed and had several packing houses in the Goulds area (late 20’s-1970’s). The successful farm encompassed thousands of acres at its height and included operations in Immokolee and elsewhere. My Dad later was a farm executive with Charlie Carpenter and DiMare before his retirement. He is a member of the Florida Agricultural Hall of Fame. I am printing and sending home your articles to enjoy!

    • Thank you for your kind comments, Alan. If you have photographs of your father’s or your uncle’s farming operations, the Historic Homestead Town Hall Museum would love to have copies of them. We have a few of one of your uncle’s packing houses, damaged after a hurricane, but not many of Goulds at all. That is unfortunate, because Goulds was a very active and productive agricultural area that gets little mention in the history books.

    • I lived right behind your uncles’ packing house from 1955 to 1970. I built forts between the railroad tracks and Old Dixie Hwy; I even worked for one summer when I was 14. He said I could work inside the packing house. Because of my age, I wasn’t allowed to work around machinery, but he said I got a spot for you if your not afraid of hard work. Me and this old black man would catch 40lb bags of potatoes and stack them in train cars; they would come to us on a conveyer belt shoulder high and we would stand under it as they came and land on our shoulder then we would stack them where they were to go. Of course the old man stacked all the high ones because I couldn’t reach it; it was a great and fun place to be. I also remember every time I would walk by the packing house, I would see several what back then we called Hobos up under the packing house, because the packing house was about 3 feet off the ground. I met your uncle many times especially on payday, my dad and uncles knew him even better. I don’t know if they are related but my best friend was Joe Campbell who lived near Cauley Square. He had 4 brothers and 1 sister. His dad’s name was Roy Campbell – all great people. It brings back many good memories of life in Goulds.

  6. I lived behind John W. Campbell’s packing house from 1953 until 1970 about 2 blocks from Cauley Square. My grandparents came to Goulds when U.S.1 was a wagon trail in a wagon from Kentucky. I couldn’t ask for a better place to grow up in. Thank you very much, Jeff, for the history of Goulds.

    • Curtis – Thanks for your comment. If you have any stories about your family in Goulds that you would like to share with me, please use the “Contact” tab in the menu bar to write to me.

  7. Having lived down the street from Cauley Square for almost 20 years, we decided to open a bookstore in the village. Truly interesting to hear these stories and then some. I wanted to ask, is the hotel in the picture the 2-story home that is currently behind the village on the north side. Thank you

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