The Miami Land & Development Co.

Historic South Dade Posted on by

By Jeff Blakley

The subject of the Miami Land & Development Company (M. L. & D Co.) has not been covered in any detail by historians. In this article, I’m going to explain how it came to be and the role that one man, James M. Powers, played in its founding. The M. L. & D. Co. was a partnership between the Tatum brothers and Oklahoma capitalists and it was founded to promote the development of their property east of what is now known as Florida City. Powers was well-connected with those Oklahoma capitalists. The company was one of many companies owned by the Tatums and was founded in 1911, after the town of Detroit was first promoted in the late summer and fall of 1910. The Tatum brothers went on to promote many other projects in South Florida, but that is outside the scope of this article.1

ml-d-co-plat

Miami Land & Development Co. Plat

The Tatum brothers were originally from Gilmer County, Georgia and had migrated to the area around Bartow, Florida in the mid-to-late 1880s. Bethel B. Tatum was the first to come to Miami, in late 1899. He purchased The Miami Metropolis and assumed the position of editor in January of 1900. The other three brothers came in subsequent years. The Tatums established a number of companies, the largest of which was the Tatum Bros. Real Estate & Investment Company.2 On the plat3 of the lands that the Miami Land & Development Company acquired to establish Detroit, James M. Powers was listed as the Secretary. Who was James M. Powers and how did he come to be the secretary of the Miami Land & Development Co.?

James M. Powers, along with his sons Ralph J. and Fred B., are names that appear often in the early documentary records of the history of this area. James was a close friend of Thomas H. Dunn, John H. Young, Alexander R. McLennan and J. Robert Gillam, who provided the capital to the Tatum Brothers to found the Miami Land & Development Co. in 1911. James and Ralph figure prominently in the founding of Detroit. T. Floyd Monier, who was the husband of James’ daughter Edna, is only briefly noted in the documentary sources, but he, too, played a role in the early days of Detroit. James’ other son, Fred B., was the last to leave Lawton, Oklahoma and worked in Miami, for the most part, before dying in an accident in 1920.

James Monroe Powers was born on November 1, 1856 in Streator, LaSalle County, Illinois. He died at his home in Miami on February 1, 1926.4 His gravestone in Henry, Illinois inaccurately gives the wrong years, 1855 – 1925. By his first wife, Mary J. Cannon, he had three children: Edna, born on February 13, 1882;5 Ralph James, born on December 9, 1884;6 and Fred Bemarr, born on December 12, 1886.7 Velma Ruth, born on December 3, 1907, was his daughter by his second wife. In the late 1880s, James moved from the growing town of Streator, in LaSalle County, to the small community of Henry, not far away, in Marshall County and established a general merchandise business. His wife Mary died in 1899, so in the 1900 census, James was enumerated as “widowed.” He, his daughter Edna and sons, Ralph J. and Fred, were living with him. On January 28, 1901, Powers suffered a major loss when a fire in Henry destroyed an entire city block, including the department store that he owned.8

Later that year, James married Sarah Lillian Runnels. Rather than rebuild in Henry, James moved his family to the booming town of Lawton, Oklahoma. Located in southwestern Oklahoma, Lawton was founded on August 6, 1901 and named after Major Gen. Henry Ware Lawton.9 When it was founded, almost 25,000 people bid on the 1,200 lots in the town. By 1907, the population of the area was 5,562 and by 1910, that figure had increased to 7,788. The population boom was largely over by the early years of the 1910s, increasing only to 8,930 by 1920.10

Taking advantage of the rapidly increasing population, James established the Powers Motor Car Co. and in 1906, he and his wife, along with Judge Henry W. Hanna and his wife, set a record for automobile touring in the Southwest, traveling 150 miles in 16 hours on “country roads.”11 James also got into the real estate business in Lawton and established the Powers Land & Loan Co. His son, Ralph, was the manager of that company and his son-in-law, T. Floyd Monier, worked as a salesman.12 The Powers Motor Car Co. was sold in 1911 when James moved to Miami.13

While in Lawton, he made the acquaintance of Alexander R. McLennan, Thomas H. Dunn, John M. Young and J. Robert Gillam. Alexander McLennan helped organize the Oklahoma State Bank and was its cashier.14 He was also president of the Chamber of Commerce in Lawton. Thomas H. Dunn organized the Lawton National Bank and was its cashier for seven years. John M. Young was a prominent attorney in Lawton and the secretary of the convention that wrote the Oklahoma State constitution. J. Robert Gillam was a well-to-do cattle rancher in Lawton. All were wealthy and prominent businessmen in Lawton.15

In early 1910, the Tatum Brothers, through their Tatum Bros. Real Estate & Investment Co., purchased 9,000 acres of land south of Homestead from the Model Land Company, the real estate holding company of the F. E. C. Railway.16 They started heavily advertising their property in Detroit, Michigan,17 Miami, Tampa,18 Ohio,19 South Dakota20 Knoxville, Tennessee21 and other locations around the country. The response was unexpected – more settlers than the brothers expected purchased property. To capitalize on the demand for their property, the Tatums secured capital from the Lawton men through their relationship with James M. Powers.22 James had visited Miami, staying at the Hotel Halcyon, in late January of 1911.23 The Miami Metropolis opined that “before leaving this section, he will in all probability invest extensively in real estate here.”24 The additional funds from the Oklahoma men allowed the Tatums to create the Miami Land & Development Co. with a capitalization of $500,000 in February of 1911.25 B. B. Tatum was president, A. R. McLennan in Lawton was vice-president and T. H. Dunn, who had moved to Miami, was the secretary-treasurer.26 5,000 shares were issued, with a par value of $100 per share. J. H., B. B., and S. M. Tatum received 830 shares each, while Dunn, McLennan, Young and Powers received 625 shares each.27 With this capital, the company purchased additional land until they owned 26,000 acres. The 26,000 acres included the large bay-front tract known as The Cedars.28

By early 1912, James had moved his family to Miami, where he opened a branch of the Powers Land Company (the main office of the company was in Lawton) and joined the Miami Real Estate Board.29 Later that year, James’ son Ralph moved to Homestead to manage the office of the Miami Land & Development Co. there. They opened for business on October 28th.30 31 Ralph, with his brother Fred, had run his father’s company in Lawton.32 In March of 1914, Ralph moved his office from Homestead to Detroit, locating next to the Hotel Detroit on Palm Avenue (now Palm Drive).33

Hotel Detroit

The Hotel Detroit
Courtesy of the Florida Pioneer Museum

The Hotel Detroit, in the middle, was located just west of the F. E. C. railroad tracks on the south side of Palm Drive. The south end of the roof of the Detroit F. E. C. depot can be seen on the left. In the photograph above, the Lunch Room, right, was owned by a number of men, among them Joseph Rustadt.

In October of 1912, James moved his family from Miami to Detroit, where he became the manager of the office of the Miami Land & Development Co.34 In August of 1913, he assumed the position of secretary-treasurer of the company, taking over from Thomas H. Dunn.35

James moved his family back to Miami in early 1916, when he was elected as a director of the Miami Land & Development Co.36 Powers worked out of the office of the company, located at 214 Twelfth St. (now Flagler). He advertised that he was looking for a “house and lot” east of Avenue D (Miami Avenue) but was not successful.37 James ended up purchasing a new house, which he named “Hilldale,” in Riverside Heights (a Tatum subdivision), at the corner of Avenue S and 11th St. (N. W. 1st St. and 15th Avenue).38

Powers left the Miami Land & Development Co. in late 1919 and moved to Atlanta, Georgia with his wife Lillian and daughter Velma, where they were enumerated in the 1920 census in Ward 8. James’ occupation was listed as “President – Publisher Manufacturer” and his wife was listed as a teacher. That evidently didn’t work out, because they returned to Miami, where he established the Peerless Water Company, which sold bottled water. It was located at the corner of S.W. 3rd St. and 18th Avenue.39 The Powers family lived a short distance away, at 1658 S.W. 3rd St. Their son Ralph, who had opened a real estate office on the Elser Pier, located on the water at the foot of Flagler St., lived with them.40

In the 1923 City Directory, James M. Powers was listed as a salesman for the Everglades Land and Development Company, one of the many dozens of real estate promotion companies in South Florida during that era. Their offices were in the Tatum Building, across from the Hippodrome Theatre,41 at 210 E. Flagler St.

In the 1924 Miami City Directory, James’ son, Ralph J., was a principal in the firm of Powers & Young, “Dealers of Real Estate of the Higher Class – We Offer Guaranteed Investments.”42 The Young in Powers & Young was John H. Young, one of the Lawton men who provided the capital to form the Miami Land & Development Co.43 They were located in suites 408-410 of the Calumet Building at 3rd Avenue and E. Flagler. Ralph and his wife lived at 344 N.E. 29th St. Ralph’s brother, Fred B., had died in 1920 and his widow, Blanche M., lived at 327 N.E. 24th St., a short distance from her brother-in-law.

James Monroe Powers died at his home in Miami on February 1, 1926, at the age of 69. He is buried in the Henry Cemetery, in Henry, Illinois, along with his sons, Ralph and Fred.

James’ story is very similar to many others who were mentioned in The South Florida Banner and The Homestead Enterprise in the years 1912 – 1917. He came to Miami, moved to South Dade and stayed a few years, returned to Miami and died there, his body being shipped back to Illinois, where he came from. He was well-enough remembered in Homestead that his obituary was published in the local newspaper44 but like so many others, he left no lasting mark on this area.

The Miami Land & Development Co. continued to promote its Florida City lands well into the 1920s. In early 1922, the Tatum Brothers launched an audacious scheme to sell 10,000 acres of their land in 10-acre parcels with a town lot and $750 in stock in their Florida City Oil & Land Co. for $1,000.45 On April 12, 1924, the Tatum Brothers took out a full-page advertisement in the Miami Daily News and Metropolis, showing photographs of the officers of the company and the heads of its various divisions. Bryan H. Edwards was in charge of sales in Florida City.46

The demise of the Miami Land & Development Co. has not been investigated in any depth. Much, if not all, of its holdings were acquired by James Sottile, whose company, South Dade Farms, was part of Sottile’s banking and real estate empire from the mid-1930s until the late 1950s. How Sottile achieved that would require a substantial amount of research in property records. Part of the answer may lie in the fact that the IRS filed liens in the amount of over $3,000,000 against the properties owned by the Tatum Brothers in 1930. Sottile may have negotiated a settlement with the IRS involving properties he wanted to acquire. By doing so, he may have acquired vast amounts of land for very little money.
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The Beginnings of Detroit, Florida

Historic South Dade Posted on by

by Jeff Blakley

Before the settlement of South Florida, the landscape looked entirely different. A narrow ridge of land, up to 10′ higher than the land to the east and west of it, extended from well north of Miami all the way down to what is now called Long Pine Key in Everglades National Park. Vast stretches of the land were covered with pine rockland forests. Some of the trees in those forests were 4′ in diameter and 100′ tall. Scattered throughout those pinelands were dense stands of tropical hardwood trees, called hammocks.

Pine Rocklands

Pine Rockland Forest1

Tropical Hardwood Hammock

Tropical Hardwood Forest2

The Everglades stretched from Lake Okeechobee southwest to Cape Sable and the rock ridge, heavily forested with slash pines and tropical hardwood hammocks, formed a barrier that prevented the water from flowing southeast except through openings called finger glades. These long and narrow areas allowed water from the Everglades to drain into Biscayne Bay.

The finger glades opened up into the marl prairies on the eastern edge of the pine forests and what would become the route of the F. E. C. Railway from Miami down to Detroit.

Marl Prairie

Marl Prairie3

Finger Glades

Map of Finger Glades in Dade County

William J. Krome, while working on his Cape Sable survey in 1902-1903, called these areas the “front prairie,” to distinguish them from the sawgrass prairies of the Everglades. The marl soil on these prairies was deeper and better suited to agriculture than the thinner and different soils in the Everglades.

The Tatum Bros. Real Estate & Investment Co. purchased a controlling interest in 9,720 acres4 of these lands from the Model Land Co., which was the real estate holding company of the F. E. C. Railway and from other private owners, including John Brand, who, with others, was the owner of a plantation known as The Cedars.5 In 1910, the Tatums started plans to develop their property into a settlement that would be called Detroit. They had closely watched the work of John C. Baile, who purchased about 1,000 acres of the front prairie east of Goulds. They decided on a different approach to controlling the water flow on their land: they would dig drainage canals instead of building dykes and installing pumps, as Baile had done.

The Tatums, relentless real estate promoters, touted their property as a paradise where any crop would grow in such abundance that new settlers would soon be millionaires. The area, they claimed, would never be subjected to flooding and, building on the disaster that was the 1894 – 1895 Great Freeze in Central Florida, they said that crops would never be damaged by cold weather.

The first group of settlers arrived in Detroit on October 28, 1910. Despite the promises of the Tatum brothers, flooding was a problem and many of the initial settlers left Detroit, never to return, after a flood in the spring of 1911 dashed their hopes of prospering in Detroit. No documentary record of this flood has yet been found, but an article in the Miami Herald on August 23, 1913, referring to Detroit, mentioned that “none of this land can suffer a flood such as overwhelmed the tomato fields of the lower end of the county last spring, and it is such a guarantee that the growers want.”6

The Tatum brothers, fully aware of the threat that flooding presented to their plans, organized the Miami Land & Development Co. in early 19117 and let a contract to the Miami Engineering and Construction Co. to dig a canal from Detroit to Biscayne Bay using a dredge. The machine was shipped down on the railroad and assembled at the intersection of Orange Street (now Krome Avenue) and Palm Avenue (now Palm Drive). From that starting point, the dredging crew worked east and exited into Biscayne Bay in early January of 1912 after cutting a canal “thirty feet wide and four feet deep.” It was a shallow canal as only the overlying marl was removed. Once the job was complete, the dredge was towed to Miami for overhauling.8

Flooding continued to be a problem even after the first drainage canal, called the Central (Florida City) canal, was finished. In October of 1912, the company installed a centrifugal pump capable of pumping 400,000 gallons of water an hour into the canal. The railroad filled in the culvert under the tracks at Detroit to “prevent water from flowing from the west side onto the Miami Land and Development Company’s land on the east.” They also removed “two dams south and west of the track” so that water would flow southward.9 Plans were made to deepen the canal, using dynamite to break up the oolitic limestone at the bottom so that the rock could be removed by the dredge, which had a 2 cubic yard bucket.10 The excavated rock was used to build a road on each side of the canal.

James M. Powers, who was the manager of the Miami Land & Development Co., advertised for workers in the Miami Herald. He complained bitterly about how lazy the men were:

“We can use fifty or more men right away,” said Mr. Powers, “but there don’t appear to be any in sight. I will wager I could go over to colored town and find a hundred men idle, but as long as they can live without working I don’t suppose they will break the charm. We have taken men down to our work and paid their fare as we are doing now, and they would skip out within twenty-four hours if not before. We want men and we don’t care whether they are black or white. The work is not hard, the quarters are comfortable, the pay is good and their money is ready every Saturday night and I don’t know what more they could want.”11

The Miami Land & Development Co. let the contract for the dredging to the A. B. Sanders Co., a well-known dredging company.12 13 That company then contracted with William C. Norwood to deliver 400 cords of wood, 20 cords each week, which was burned to operate the two steam-powered dredges used on the project. Their names were the ‘Marion”14 and the “Detroit.” Capt. Anderson was in charge of the dredge.15 Work was started at the east end of the canal in early May of 191316 and completed 10 months later. The initial contract for 400 cords of wood was supplemented with an additional 100 cords at the end of May.17 The total amount of wood burned approached 1,000 cords over the length of time it took to complete the project.18 The Miami Land & Development Co. marked the completion of the work with a big celebration and marketing event on February 19th and 20th, 1914. They gave free motor boat rides down the canal to the bay and held a fish fry on Friday night. On Saturday, they chartered a special train from the F.E.C. to bring visitors down and fed the crowds with a beef barbeque dinner that night.19 20

In November of 1913, before the first canal was completed, the Miami Land & Development Co. signed a contract with Emmett E. Collins, who excavated the Goulds Canal in 1920, to excavate another canal, parallel to and one mile north of the first canal.21 This canal, now named the North Canal, was originally named the Michigan canal, after Michigan Street on the plat shown below. This is the canal that empties into Biscayne Bay between the headquarters of Biscayne National Park and Homestead Bayfront Park. That work was completed on Saturday, August 1, 1914.22 There were plans to dig a South canal, one-half mile south of the Central canal, to be named the Iowa canal,23 but that project was never started.

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Miami Land & Development Co. Plat

After the two parallel canals were finished, a north-south canal, parallel to Farm Life Road (S.W. 162 Ave.) was excavated connecting them and providing a route for farmers on lands adjacent to the North canal to bring their produce to the packing houses in Florida City. Farmers did so by using trucks on the roads built adjacent to the canals. Men without the capital to purchase a truck used small boats plying the waters of the canals. That north-south canal, on the east side of the Villages of Homestead, has mostly been filled in. Only small portions of the canal are still visible and no one now has any idea of the history behind those “lakes.”

Bridge at Farm Life Road

The bridge over the Farm Life Road canal on Palm Avenue
Courtesy of the Florida Pioneer Museum

Bridge 1

The bridge in 2020 looking north from the Florida City canal.

The Miami Land & Development Co. had more plans: a large basin near the railroad tracks where packing houses and other businesses could be located. As soon as the excavation of the North canal was completed, the dredge was floated back to the beginning of the Central canal, at Orange Street, to begin work on this project. Work started on Sunday, August 23, 1914 and was completed quickly, work being done around the clock.24 The Terminal Basin was filled in during the 1970s and is now the location of the Strano Brothers packing house complex.

“The connection from the central canal has been excavated and the basin is now being worked out. This will extend three blocks south, leaving a tier of lots between the basin and the depot, extending along east of the railroad one half mile south, also a frontage of lots on the east side of the basin. Including connections at the north and south, the basin will be one half mile long, giving a lot frontage of one mile, which will form Detroit’s industrial addition, having access to water and rail transportation and connected with the third canal, which will be constructed, beginning one half mile south of the outlet of the terminal basin, then east nine miles to the bay.”25

Industrial Basin

Industrial Addition Plat

The office of the Miami Land & Development Co. was on the north side of Palm Avenue, across the street from the Industrial Basin. It is shown on the above plat. Download the plat by clicking on the title under the image and enlarge it – the location of the office is noted on the left side of the document.

M L D Co Office

Courtesy of the Florida Pioneer Museum

The office was just a short distance northeast of the Detroit F. E. C. depot, which was just east of where Rosita’s Mexican restaurant now stands.

Detroit Depot

The Detroit F. E. C. Railway Depot
Courtesy of the Historic Homestead Town Hall Museum

These events were the beginnings of the town of Detroit, which was renamed Florida City in December of 1914. Florida City has a rich and complex history, just like the rest of South Dade County, but its history has been as neglected by historians as much as that of Goulds, Princeton, Naranja and Modello.
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Telephone Companies in Early Homestead

Historic South Dade Posted on by

By Jeff Blakley

The telephones in use in the Homestead area in the early 1900s were crank magneto telephones. To place a call with this kind of phone (this was before the dial telephone came into use in this area), you picked up the receiver, held it to your ear, and turned the crank on the side of the phone. That generated electricity, which lit a lamp on the operator’s switchboard. She plugged into the circuit whose indicator lamp was lit and asked the calling party to whom they wanted to speak. Upon learning that, she plugged in to the other party’s line and cranked the magneto on her switchboard which rang the other party’s telephone with a unique series of rings so that others on the party line would hopefully not pick up and listen in on the call. If the called party answered, she then connected you with a special kind of cord, called a patch cord, made to be used in telephone switchboards. The telephones in use in those days had dry cell batteries in them to provide what telephone people call “talk battery.” These early telephone systems did not yet have central office switching or battery power supplied by the central office. That came later, with the introduction of dial telephones.

Telephone

In my earlier post about Walter A. Frazeur, I briefly mentioned Jean Taylor’s account of how the People’s Telephone Company was established. She wrote that J.U. Free bought the three circuits that belonged to Walter Frazeur in 1912 and established the People’s Telephone Company on the second floor of J.D. Redd’s dry goods store.1

Walter A. Frazeur was part of a group of people who came to this area from Topeka, Kansas: Dr. John B. Tower, Ruben L. Moser, Orville W. Calkins, Roy Marsh, Hugh Ewing and Grant Allen. Frazeur claimed the SE quarter of 33-56-38 on April 9, 1910. His homestead was on the north side of Waldin Drive between S.W. 207 and 212 Avenues.

As early as December of 1908, both telegraphic and telephonic communications were available in Homestead.2 By 1911, there were two telephone companies in the Homestead area, the People’s Telephone Line and the Dade County Telephone Co. Frazeur’s company, the People’s Telephone Line, was established first, in late 191o, shortly after he filed for his homestead claim. By late February of 1911, Frazeur had “a gang of men … putting up telephone wires…”3 The switchboard for his system was in his store in Homestead, a wood-frame building on Krome Avenue next to Dr. John B. Tower’s office4 that was “almost completed” on May 26.5 By the spring of 1912, Frazeur had “completed another six miles of telephone lines and expects to get into all the towns in this end of the county. His line is now in Naranja, Silver Palm and Redland, with headquarters in Homestead.”6

J. U. Free completed his two-story concrete building on South Krome Avenue in late May of 1911.7 Like Frazeur, Free was an aggressive businessmen so it is likely that Free decided to get into the telephone business also. The Dade County Telephone Company was established on Monday, May 22, 1911, and initially capitalized at $2,500 but that was later increased to $10,000 as the stock paid dividends and was seen as a good business to invest in.

“Monday morning a number of representative men of Redland, Homestead and Detroit met at Dr. Towers’ (sic) office and organized a telephone company. J. L. Billingslea (sic) as chairman, conducted the meeting and J. M. Bauer was secretary. The company will be known as the Dade County Telephone Company, with headquarters at Homestead. The following officers were elected: R. L. Moser, president; C. T. Pummer (sic) vice president, J. M. Bauer, secretary and treasurer. Directors: R. L. Moser, C. T. Plummer, J. M. Bauer, J. L. Billingslea (sic), J. Bratley, M. L. Williams, J. U. Free, W. D. Horne, Thomas Brewer.

“The company will be incorporated and J. L. Billingslea (sic) was appointed to attend to the legal organization. A committee will confer with A. W. Frazier (sic), who now has a line of 25 phones operating in Homestead and doubtless Mr. Frazeur will sel (sic) his equipment to the new company. It is also understood that the position of lineman will be offered to him. One hundred shares of stock will be issued and nearly al (sic) have been subscribed for.”8

The men listed above were Jesse L. Billingsley (1880 – 1926), a prominent lawyer and politician in Miami; John M. Bauer, for whom Bauer Drive is named; Reuben L. Moser, an early pioneer in Longview who platted Moser’s Addition to Homestead in 1912; Charles T. Plummer, for whom Plummer Drive is named; Jesse H. Bratley, an early pioneer in the Redlands; Marion L. Williams, an early businessman in Detroit and Justice of the Peace; John U. Free, William D. Horne and Thomas Brewer, the first County Commissioner from this area.

By September of 1911, the officers and directors had changed. They were now “R. L. Moser, president, Homestead, C. T. Plummer, vice-president, Redlands; M. L. Williams, secretary and treasurer, Detroit; business managers, J. U. Free, W. D. Horne and R. L. Moser; J. L. Billingsley attorney; the above named with Henry Brooker comprise the board of directors.”9

In October of 1911, The Miami Herald, five months after the incorporation of the Dade County Telephone Company, reported that “[t]wo telephone companies are now in operation here.”10

By April of 1912, the Dade County Telephone Co. had nearly 60 accounts.11 By June, the company had 66 phones and anticipated having 100 by January of 1913.12

Dade Co Telephone Co Ad

Dade County Telephone Co. Advertisement

Click on the title below the advertisement to download a larger and more readable image. There are a number of spelling errors in the advertisement. “Brooker and Layman” should be Brooker and Lehman, “A. C. Horn” should be A. C. Horne, “Hamlin’s Mill” should be Hainlin’s Mill, “Otto Fanup” should be Otto Froriep and “Gosman & Sons” should be Gossman & Sons.

A short piece about the Dade County Telephone Co. in the Redlands Edition of the Miami Metropolis on November 2, 1912 listed the directors of the company, which had changed yet again. Bauer, Bratley, Williams and Brewer were no longer listed but Alonzo C. Horne, the brother of W. D. Horne and George W. Moody had joined the board. The article stated that the company had recently built a line “running from Detroit to Perrine, where it connects with the Miami system. There is now more than 210 miles of wire on poles. The Telephone company is already a paying proposition and its stock is in demand.”13

Numerous advertisements for and news articles about the Dade County Telephone Company appeared in Rev. J. A. Kahl’s newspaper, The South Florida Banner, during this time so Frazeur was competing with a well-capitalized company that had sold $6,975 worth of stock by July 26, 1912.14 15

J U Free Store

J. U. Free’s store on S. Krome Avenue

At the time that the Dade County Telephone Company was organized, Free’s building was the home of the J. U. Free & Co., which was a bicycle and mercantile business. Free also employed a blacksmith and repaired wagons.16 Sometime late in 1912, after Free had completed an addition to his store for his bicycle business,17 he sold his business to the C. J. Denham & Co. They didn’t last long, though, because in April of 1913, Mr. Denham and his partner, Mr. Michaels, sold out to W. B. “Bunny” Caves and Henry Pridgen and moved to Titusville.18 That company was known as Caves and Pridgen. Then Caves sold out to J. D. Redd and the business became known as Redd & Pridgen.19 In November of 1915, Henry Pridgen sold his interest in the business to J. D. Redd and Redd became the sole proprietor.20 That business was the beginning of Redd’s Dry Cleaners. By August of 1914, they were advertising their cleaning and pressing services.21

The People’s Telephone Line, a private business owned by Frazeur, had no way to raise capital to expand and compete with the Dade County Telephone Company. Advertisements for Frazeur’s company, the People’s Telephone Line (not the People’s Telephone Company), appeared as late as May 2, 1912 in The South Florida Banner and offered prices that matched those of the Dade County Telephone Company but then stopped.

People s Telephone Line May 2 1912 p 5

By June of 1912, Frazeur appeared to have given up his business in Homestead and gone back to his homestead to improve it, for he turned over the management of his store to Alexander McKenzie, a grocer who in 1910 lived on 8th St. in Miami.22 He apparently retained an interest in both his store and his telephone company, as an article that appeared on November 2, 1912 in the Miami Metropolis stated that “W. A. Frazeur is conducting a store in Homestead, but when he came to the Homestead country two years ago he took up land like the balance of the far-sighted men. He is living on his homestead, but finds time to look after his store and to take care of the People’s Telephone Co., which has fifty subscribers and covers a country from Detroit almost to Princeton.”23

In early May of 1913, a group of Redland citizens held a meeting and decided to purchase “Mr. Frazeur’s entire interest in stock and fixtures of the telephone company. The new company will start business with 300 shareholders and will work on a cooperative plan, for the mutual benefit of the growers of the Redland district. The line will be repaired and put in tip top shape, using poles where trees had been used before. It is the object of the company to give good service, without working for a profit, and it is their intention to extend the line in every direction as needed. The officers appointed until the company is duly formed are Perry Hainlin, president; Austin McColough, (sic) secretary-treasurer; Thos. Brewer, Otto Froriep and J.F. McColough,24 (sic) as directors.”25

Perry C. Hainlin was the brother of Wellington B. Hainlin, for whose family Hainlin Mill Drive was named. Perry’s sister, Clara, was the wife of Edwin Nelson, a wealthy Miami businessman. Thomas Brewer may have resigned as director of the Dade County Telephone Co. to become a director of this new company. Otto Froreip was an early homesteader in the Redlands, claiming his homestead in 1902. James F. McCullough came to Miami from Colorado in 1911 and then purchased 20 acres near what is now the Redland Fruit and Spice Park.

It is unknown how long this company existed or even if it ever got off the ground. If it did, it eventually went out of business as it could not compete with the better-capitalized Dade County Telephone Company. It may have served a need for the residents of the Redland District, but the company in Homestead soon over-took it.

J. U. Free and W. A. Frazeur were both ambitious entrepreneurs and were involved in many ventures. The Dade County Telephone Company’s switchboard was on the second floor of J. U. Free’s building on S. Krome Avenue, which later became known as Redd’s Dry Cleaners, owned by Fred H. Redd and adjacent to the building owned by his brother, J. D. Redd. Despite what the newspaper reported, Free did not purchase Frazeur’s equipment to establish his company because Frazeur’s company was still in business in late 1912. Nor did the Dade County Telephone Co. employ Frazeur. It is not known if the cooperative telephone company established by the Redland residents ever got off the ground – it may be that Free bought those lines instead, thus ensuring his position as the only telephone company in South Dade.

The business climate in early Homestead was very dynamic – companies and people came and went in an environment of constant change. The Dade County Telephone Co., managed by Frank B. Rue,26 was purchased in August of 1923 and renamed the Homestead Telephone Co. by Miami capitalists, including Frank B. Shutts, a prominent Miami attorney, the owner of The Miami Herald27 and the founder of the law firm of Shutts & Bowen.28 Shutts was also the president of the South Atlantic Telephone & Telegraph Company (S.A. T. & T. Co.)29

The S. A. T. & T. Co. was granted a charter by the State of Florida in June of 191730 but this was just a change of legal status for the Miami Telephone Co. as the officers of the S. A. T. & T. Co. were the same as those of the Miami Telephone Co.31 The Miami Telephone Co. had grown from 300 subscribers in January of 1910 to 2,040 by April 30, 191732 and a new business form was needed so that the company could continue to grow. The Homestead Telephone Co. was purchased by the South Atlantic Telephone & Telegraph Co. as part of its expansion plans and was then acquired by the Southern Bell Telephone Co. on January 1, 1925.33

SBT 2nd St

The former Southern Bell Central Office on N.W. 2nd St.
Courtesy of Jeff Blakley

The switchboard for the Dade County Telephone Co. moved from J. U. Free’s building on South Krome to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (I.O.O.F) building on the south side of Miller St. (later N.W. 1st St. – the right-of way is now part of Losner Park) just west of the Campbell Bros. store in 1922.34 After Southern Bell purchased the South Atlantic Telephone & Telegraph Co., the office moved to a one-story wooden building on the north side of N.W. 2nd St., just west of Breeding’s Drug Store in 1937.
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George W. Moody

Historic South Dade Posted on by

by Jeff Blakley

In this article, I am going to provide details of George W. Moody’s life that are not generally known. George was an early settler in South Dade County who claimed the southwest quarter of section 21, township 56, range 39 on February 9, 1899, proving it up on May 27, 1904. He was here before Daniel M. Roberts, who claimed his homestead 2.5 miles further west on Coconut Palm Drive on April 27, 1900. The southwest corner of Moody’s claim is the northeast corner of Newton Road and Coconut Palm Drive.

Jean Taylor, in her brief account of the Moody family, wrote that Moody “set out a grove and farmed the Albury land in Naranja” while still living in Cutler.1 This is difficult to reconcile with the historical facts, which show that Wilbur L. Albury did not file for his claim in section 34, township 56, range 39 until December 22, 1904. Albury’s claim, for 120 acres, included the land that George platted for the Town of Naranja. Naranja was never incorporated, however.

According to an essay written by George W. Moody and published in the October 10, 1918 issue of The Homestead Enterprise, he was “born and raised in southeast Georgia.” George was born in January of 18622 near Holmesville in Appling County, Georgia.3 He was one of at least 10 children, the son of Isaac Ailey Moody, Jr. and Elizabeth Tillman. George’s father was the son of Isaac Ailey Moody, Sr. and Sarah Carter. Isaac Ailey Moody, Jr. had three brothers: David, Jacob and George W. Between them, they owned 39 slaves. Isaac had 12 slaves, David had 4, Jacob had 17 and George had 6.4 In the 1860 census of Appling County, Isaac’s real estate holdings were worth $3,500 and his personal estate was worth $6,766. In 1870, after the slaves were emancipated at the end of the war, his real estate holdings had declined in value to $2,000 and his personal estate had declined sharply, to $2,000. No doubt, that was due to the loss of his slaves. His brother Jacob, who owned 17 slaves, was wealthier in 1860: $5,000 in real estate and $19,160 in his personal estate.5 A perusal of the 1860 U. S. Federal Census – Slave Schedules for Appling County, Georgia showed that Isaac Moody and his brothers owned very few slaves compared to other men in Appling County. There were men in Appling County who owned hundreds of slaves and were thus worth far more than any of the Moody brothers. Isaac was well-off but his brother Jacob was quite wealthy by today’s standards.

Isaac Ailey Moody, Jr. died in 1874 and is buried in the Moody-Tillman Cemetery in Appling County, Georgia. George was just 12 years old. After his death, his mother, Elizabeth, moved her family to Wayne County where she was enumerated in 1880 with 5 of her children: George, 18; John T., 15; James C., 12; Isabel, 11; and Isaac A., 9. Isham, George’s older brother, born in 1857, was not enumerated as he had probably moved to Seville, Florida. Elizabeth died in 1890 and is also buried in the Moody-Tillman Cemetery in Appling County.

In the essay published in 1918 in The Homestead Enterprise, George wrote that he “came to Florida in 1882, first settling in Seville in St. Lucie county.” At the time George lived in Seville, it was not part of St. Lucie County – St. Lucie County was created in 1905. Seville is in Volusia County, 22 miles southwest of Bunnell and a short distance east of Lake George. George did not come to Seville alone – his brother Isham was probably already there and his brother John Tillman, three years younger, would arrive later. Both Isham and John are buried in the Seville Cemetery. George’s first cousin once removed, Isaac I. Moody, settled in Bunnell, where he was a woods rider for a turpentine company.6 Isaac later got into business and served as a County Commissioner in St. John’s County. He was instrumental in establishing Flagler County in 1917 but died in 1918 at the age of 44 during the Spanish flu epidemic.7 8 In 1895, George moved to Española, about 5 miles northwest of Bunnell, in St. Johns County for two years and then to New Smyrna, on the coast of Volusia County. He had family in both places: Isaac I. in St. Johns County and his brother Isham in New Smyrna.

Seville was on the line of the Jacksonville, Tampa and Key West railroad and George was easily able to travel to St. Augustine and Jacksonville by transferring to the Halifax River Railway in Palatka. No doubt, he went to Jacksonville to stock up on goods for his store but he also went courting. On December 31, 1885, he married Virginia Livingston in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in St. Augustine.9 Their first child, Elberta, was born in February of 1887 in Seville.10 Their son, George W., Jr., was born in 1890, also in Seville.

Like hundreds of others, George followed Flagler’s F. E. C. Railway to Miami. Passenger service to Miami started on April 15, 1896 and George, looking for opportunities not available in North Florida, decided to move south. In his essay, George wrote that he arrived in 1899, but it is more likely that he arrived in 1898, as he claimed his homestead in South Dade on February 9, 1899. When he arrived in Miami, he settled in Cutler, about 10 miles south of Miami, which was a small town on the North bank of the Miami River at that time. Cutler was established in the late 1870s and was an important port. George was very busy – he was establishing a homestead in South Dade and at the same time building a general merchandise store in Cutler – the Brown & Moody store. The Brown in Brown & Moody was David C. Brown, one of Moody’s neighbors in Cutler. David C. Brown and his brother, Isaac H., claimed adjoining homesteads on the east side of Tenneseee Road between Bauer and Waldin Drives on June 13, 1898, eight months before Moody claimed his.

The 1900 U. S. census of Cocoanut Grove, judging by the surnames listed, covered the settled areas of Miami outside of what is now downtown Miami, including the settlement of Cutler. On pages 6 – 8 of the census, the names of men who later settled in South Dade include: Henry Sturgis, Henry Pridgen, John Brenzel, Alfred T. Duval, Colonel O. Boaz, William Anderson, Charles Gossman, John and Frank Slaven, Yelles Knighton, George Sullivan and David C. Brown.11

Brown Moody finished

The Brown & Moody Store at Cutler in 1901

Courtesy of the Historic Homestead Town Hall Museum

Note that the site of the Brown & Moody store in Cutler was originally a pine rockland. Once the pines were cut down, hardwood species took over and today, the Deering Estate, where the Brown & Moody store was located, is a tropical hardwood hammock.

Cutler Plat

Plat of Cutler

The Brown & Moody store was located on lots 23 and 24 of Block 77. Another store, possibly the Tweedell Bros. store and a post office, was located on a part of lot 17.12 This location is now inside the Deering Estate, where Richmond Drive dead-ends at the rock wall that borders the second Cutler Road. Brown & Moody’s store at Cutler did not remain in business long, as Flagler’s railroad was being built about 2.5 miles further west. The track laying machine had reached Perrine, at what is now S.W. 184 St., by mid-February of 1904,13 so Moody moved his business to Perrine in anticipation of an increase in business. After he moved his store, his old store building was purchased by Alfred T. Duval, who was another early resident of Cutler and who had established a store in Homestead in 1907.14

Flagler’s railroad reached Homestead on July 30, 1904 and Wilber L. Albury claimed his homestead in Naranja on December 22, 1904. Taylor wrote that Moody swapped his homestead for that of Albury in 1907.15 That is not likely, though, as Moody is still shown as the owner of his homestead on the 1912 Miami Metropolis real estate promotion map. Instead, Moody probably purchased all or part of Albury’s claim after Albury had paid cash for it on August 10, 1906. Wilbur L. Albury was another neighbor of the Moodys when they lived in Cutler. He married George’s daughter, Elberta, and their son, Wilbur L., Jr., was born on July 27, 1905. Wilbur and Elberta’s marriage did not last long and they were divorced between 1906 and 1909, before the 1910 census, which was taken on April 15, 1910. Elberta Aubbery (sic) and her son, Wilbur, were enumerated in 1910 in the household of her father and mother, George and Virginia Moody.16

It is likely that Wilbur sold his property to his former father-in-law before he left Naranja for Miami and re-married.17 In 1910, George Moody platted the town of Naranja on a portion of his former son-in-law’s property. Note that the streets are named after his wife and children.

Plat of Naranja

Plat of Naranja

Moody also built a packing house so that local farmers could ship their crops on the railroad. It was not the only packing house in Naranja but it was probably the first. R. O. Applegate, Chase & Co, Hutton & Hutton,18 Abner L. Hearn19 and the Hickson Packing Company20 also had establishments in Naranja. R. O. Applegate and Chase & Co. were large companies which had packing houses nation-wide, while Hutton & Hutton, Hearn and Hickson were local outfits.

Brown Moody s Packing House

Photograph Courtesy of Elizabeth Bryan

Moody was a shrewd businessman and bought and sold numerous properties in the Naranja area from 1905 into the early 1920s. He was the first postmaster of Naranja, appointed in 1906. The post office was initially in his general store, built in 1905. In 1926, it was moved to the Naranja Drug Co. building,21 which was in the rock building at the northeast corner of Old Dixie and Naranja Road. Moody’s name appears on a number of mortgages and foreclosures, which are to be expected when investing in real estate. He was one of the founding board members of the Dade County Telephone Co., organized in Homestead by John U. Free in 191222 and he and Julian J. Beach, who claimed a homestead just south of Moody’s Naranja property in 1912, established the Dade County Mortgage and Real Estate Co. in 1915.23 Moody was a member of at least three different Masonic organizations: the Mahi Shrine and the Scottish Rite Temple in Miami and the Palma Vista Lodge No. 205, F & A M, in Naranja. He may have been a charter member of the latter organization, which was organized in 1913. In 1927, he and W. D. Horne, of Homestead, were the “two oldest members of that lodge.24

The Drake Lumber Co., established in Princeton in 1907, was the main economic engine in the area from Modello to Goulds until the company went out of business and moved to West Palm Beach in 1923. Naranja then dominated commerce in the area and Moody’s businesses and political influence played an important role in the area, both before and after the native Dade County pine forests in the area had been cut down by employees of the Drake Lumber Co.

When Moody died on December 23, 1927, “over a thousand saddened friends” attended his funeral, which was held at the Naranja cemetery on Monday, December 26. The funeral was conducted by members of the Palma Vista Lodge in Naranja and The Homestead Enterprise reported that “[m]embers of these lodges and also many Clansmen from all over the county attended the funeral.”25

Building on a network of family and friends, George rose from a humble beginning marked by the early loss of his parents (his father when he was 12 and his mother when he was 28) and rose to become a very successful businessman. Moody left an estate valued at $85,000. In 2019 dollars, that was the equivalent of a little more than $1.2 million.26 Since the estate was not diversified (its assets were mostly in real estate, bonds and mortgages), its value probably declined precipitously after his death with the onset of the Great Depression.

George and Virginia L. Moody are buried in the Palms Memorial Cemetery in Naranja, not far from their house on Old Dixie Highway.
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