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, 1917.32 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 Espaรฑola, 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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Alexander C. Graw

Historic South Dade Posted on by

by Jeff Blakley

While reading an article in Tequesta by Jeanne Bellamy, I noted the name of A.C. Graw, which was familiar to me from viewing a photograph of what may have been his yacht, moored in the Florida City canal a short distance east of what is now the intersection of Krome Avenue and East Palm Drive.
Graw s Yacht

Courtesy of the Florida Pioneer Museum

Bellamy wrote that “The Homestead Enterprise was founded in 1912 by J.A. Kahl, a Methodist minister, who sold his interest in 1915 to A.C. Graw, former Philadelphia publisher.” She went on to write that Graw and his family were on their way to California aboard their yacht when their trip was aborted by the outbreak of WWI. According to Bellamy, Graw and his yacht entered the Florida City canal on February 16, 1915.1

Who was A.C. Graw and why was he important? He purchased the The South Florida Banner, but not from Rev. Kahl. I detailed the full story of the change in ownership in the last of my three-part series on the Rev. Joseph A. Kahl. He was also the editor of the newspaper and as such, he exerted a considerable amount of influence in political circles and promoted the Homestead area as a desirable place to live and invest in. A. C. Graw’s son, George LaMonte, was an important figure in Homestead agricultural circles and his daughter, Elizabeth, married O. Ralph Matousek, who was a Homestead City Councilman and the City Attorney in the 1950s. G. LaMonte’s fathers’ full name was Alexander Catell Graw and he was born on November 5, 1860 in Haddonfield, Camden, New Jersey. His father, the Rev. Dr. Jacob Bentley Graw, born on October 24, 1832 to George and Louisa Graw, was a Methodist minister who was a prominent member of the temperance movement in New Jersey. He was mentioned hundreds of times in The Philadelphia Inquirer in the second half of the 19th century. In 1901, after his father had died, Alexander published a biography of his father, Forty-Six Years in the Methodist Ministry: Life of J.B. Graw, D.D. 1832-1901. If you are interested in reading portions of the book, you can download it from this website by clicking on the Books tab in the menu.

As early as 1880, Alexander’s occupation was given in the census as a “printer.” He was fierce opponent of alcohol, like his father, who published a temperance newspaper, The New Jersey Temperance Gazette in Camden, NJ. The newspaper was established in 1869 and published by Rev. J. B. Graw until his son was admitted as a partner in the early 1880s. The firm was initially located at 110 Federal Street in Camden but later moved to 131 Federal, a larger building, where newspaper printing equipment was installed and the firm started printing other publications.2 By 1889, the firm was known as Graw, Garrigues & Graw. The principals were Jacob B. Graw, Frank Garrigues and Alexander C. Graw. In 1888, Alexander married Ellen M. Grant. She died in 1899, possibly of complications from childbirth, which was not uncommon in that era. In 1900, at the age of 40, he married his second wife, Jennie, who bore him two children: George LaMonte (16 February 1901 – 26 July 1980) and Elizabeth Isabel (29 May 1903 – May, 1984). Graw named his son after George M. La Monte, who was involved in the temperance movement and was a prominent businessman and politician in Nutley, New Jersey.3

Graw, Garrigues & Graw prospered from the mid-1880s on, printing books, newspapers and magazines as far away as Island Heights in Ocean County, New Jersey.4 5 In December of 1900, the ownership and name of the firm changed to the A. C. Graw Company, which was incorporated with a capital stock of $30,000 by Graw, his father J. B. and his brother, Charles V.6 The firm ran into financial difficulty in 19037 and filed for bankruptcy on March 9, 1903.8 The 131 Federal Street building was seized and sold in a Sheriff’s sale in June.9 The case dragged out until June of 1905 before it was finally settled.10 As often happens in these kinds of matters, the principals suffer no permanent financial loss and that seems to have been the case with A. C. Graw. He moved from Beverly, in Burlington County to Haddonfield in Camden County. Both locations were where wealthy people, like Alexander, lived. He became the editor and publisher of the New Jersey Resorts and Realty magazine and spent a lot of time traveling to resorts along the coast of New Jersey and on both the Atlantic and Long Island Sound coasts of Long Island, New York. In doing so, he no doubt made many friends among the upper-class members of the exclusive clubs located in those areas. Though copies of the magazine may no longer exist, it is not hard to imagine that Graw promoted those resorts in the pages of his publication.11 He was also the editor of the magazine Resorts and Yachting.12

In late December of 1914, he contracted to have a 43′ yacht built for him by the John C. Vanderslice13 yard in Camden. The Elizabeth G. II was launched on July 17th and christened by his daughter, Elizabeth. After the Elizabeth G. II was launched, Alexander took her on a three-month cruise with his family up to Canada. In the fall, he set out for a cruise down to Palm Beach and Miami.14 Graw, being in the newspaper business, was well-aware of what was going on in South Florida. He and John Vanderslice were members of the Camden Motor Boat Club15 and Graw gave a talk to the Yachtsman’s Club in Camden in January of 1914 which mentioned Florida.16 Graw’s brother, Charles V., had visited Homestead as early as 1907.17

In an article published in the May 13, 1915 issue of The Homestead Enterprise, Graw wrote, “… in coming from Philadelphia to Miami in my own cruiser, we took about six months to cover the trip, stopping at the chief resorts on the way down.” He moored his yacht on the north bank of the Florida City Canal, just east of what would become Krome Avenue, shortly before February 18, 1915, when note was made of that in The Miami Metropolis.18 An astute businessman, Graw very likely came to this area because he saw its resort potential. He wasted no time in making friends among the movers and shakers in Dade County and quickly became involved in the Methodist Church in Florida City.

Since he was a newspaper man, he soon made the acquaintance of Rev. Joseph A. Kahl, who was the owner of The Homestead Enterprise. He was helping Kahl at the newspaper in April, less than two months after his arrival.19 In January of 1916, he attended the annual Methodist Conference in St. Augustine, representing the Florida City Methodist Episcopal Church. In April of 1917, he participated in a day-long rally to pay off the debts of the Florida City Methodist Episcopal Church.20 In Homestead, he was on the committee that organized the celebration of the opening of the new electric plant in November of 1917 and he actively participated in the Liberty Loan Drive, raising funds for WWI, in early 1918. Full-page advertisements in the newspaper in April of 1918 were paid for by the Bank of Homestead, W. D. Horne, Charles T. Fuchs, Edward Stiling, Rev. J. M. Cormack, the Miami Land & Development Co. and Graw.21 Graw’s wife, Jennie, was a member of the Women’s Auxiliary that put on the 9th annual May Day Celebration at Redland that raised funds for the South Dade Cemetery Association.22

In April of 1918, Graw put his yacht up for sale but a year later, in May of 1919, he purchased another, the Coralline, from Roberts Brothers in Miami. The yacht had formerly been owned by Frank Newell in Miami.23 Frank was a consulting engineer from New York and claimed a homestead west of Florida City in 1910. Graw lived in Florida City, where Lawrence W. Taylor, a Florida City businessman and pharmacist who was later the secretary of the Ku Klux Klan in Homestead,24 painted and completed a garage for him. For a good part of 1919 and 1920, Graw used his platform as editor to vigorously promote a 6o’ wide canal, 8′ deep, from Homestead to the Bay. The proposed project would have widened and deepened the existing North Canal and created a turning basin for ocean-going ships on the north side of Lucy Street. The voters of Homestead agreed to bond themselves to excavate the portion of the proposed canal within City limits but the part outside the City (the biggest part) depended on the State creating a drainage district to fund the cost of the work and that did not happen. The canal was not built.

Graw was a member of the City Council of the City of Florida City in 1920, along with Dr. Samuel S. Shields, Jesse H. Simmons and Eugene J. Rhodes. In addition to his responsibilities as a preacher, a fierce proponent of temperance, a City Councilman and a newspaper editor, he also helped organize and was elected the first president of the Citizens Bank of Homestead on March 24, 1920.25 Graw had 20 shares of stock, while his son, G. LaMonte, owned 7. No individual connected with the bank owned more than 20 shares – only 250 shares were issued.26 In addition to the Citizens Bank of Homestead, Graw was involved (he was the vice-president) in establishing the Homestead Building & Loan Association in late 1920.27 In addition to being the editor of the local newspaper, Graw was involved in a number of ventures in this area: financial, governmental, agricultural and religious – he stayed very busy indeed.

Jeanne Bellamy wrote that Graw “started the first newspaper in Hialeah at the instance of its developers, James H. Bright and Glenn Curtiss.”28 The Hialeah Herald was owned and published by A. C. Graw. He sold his house in Florida City to Anthony Geronimo in early December of 1923,29 apparently intending to make Hialeah his home. The first issue of The Hialeah Herald appeared on June 7, 1922. It was a real estate promotion newspaper but it didn’t survive the real estate crash later in the decade. Graw sold the newspaper to J. H. Wendler in May of 1924 and returned to Homestead. Graw had turned over management of The Homestead Enterprise to his son, G. LaMonte, in April of 1923 and did not take a very active role in the management of the newspaper when he returned. He was 64 years old and apparently decided to enjoy life. He continued to be the president of the Citizens Bank of Homestead, bought a house on S. Krome Avenue, stayed active in civic affairs and took frequent vacation trips, many of them to Island Heights, New Jersey. He sold the house on S. Krome in early 1926 and lived in a number of places, including Coconut Grove, Hollywood and Deland.

G. LaMonte Graw assumed his father’s role in Homestead and continued to publish the newspaper until Ben Archer, who had founded The Homestead Leader in 1923, purchased the Enterprise and published the first issue of The Homestead Leader-Enterprise on November 6, 1931.

Alexander C. Graw died at the home of his daughter, Isabel E. Ford, in Jackson, Mississippi on January 19, 1931 and is buried in the Monument Cemetery in Beverly, NJ.30
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The Cutler Extension

Historic South Dade Posted on by

by Jeff Blakley

Published histories of South Dade always mention the arrival of Flagler’s F.E.C. Railway in Miami in 1896 and the construction of the Key West Extension, which started in the spring of 1905. However, I’m not aware of any published account of the construction of the portion of the railroad between Miami and Homestead. Initially known as the Cutler Extension, it was renamed the Homestead Extension after it reached what became the Town of Homestead on July 30,1904.1

Flagler and some of the officers of his company had planned to take the railroad to Key West as early as 18932 but that information was a closely-guarded secret designed, no doubt, to prevent others from engaging in real estate speculation that would not be in the best interests of the Florida East Coast Railway. Flagler had formed the Florida East Coast Railway company in 1895 as a holding company for his many small railroads.3

After reaching Miami in 1896, Flagler did not authorize any more construction, likely because the ownership of the Perrine Grant, through which his railroad would ultimately pass, was unclear.

Perrine Grant Survey

Perrine Grant Survey

By 1898, though, the legal status of the Perrine Grant had been resolved in favor of the heirs of Dr. Henry Perrine and the F.E.C., so Flagler established the Perrine Land Grant Co. to manage the lands granted to Perrine,4 5who had been killed by a party of Seminole Indians under the leadership of Chekika on the morning of August 7, 1840.6

On July 1, 1902, a preliminary surveying party under the supervision of Aaron L. Hunt, assistant civil engineer of the F. E. C. Railway, left for Potter’s Mill,7 which was likely a sawmill on the homestead of Stephen S. Potter, part of whose land included what is now the main entrance to the University of Miami at Sanford Drive and Ponce de Leon Blvd. Potter had proved up his homestead claim on July 24, 1894.8 Hunt was in charge of the surveying party for two weeks, until John S. Frederick, the civil engineer who laid out portions of the City of Miami and also the platted the Town of Homestead, took over.9 John was a brother-in-law of George Kosel, an early pioneer in the Redlands, as his wife, Antoinette Gazzam Frederick, was the sister of Maria Gazzam, George’s wife.

John S. Frederick continued the survey down to below Homestead before returning to Miami late in the summer of 1902. William J. Krome then took over, making a more thorough survey in preparation for his survey of a possible railway route to Key West via Cape Sable, which he started in mid-December of 1902 and completed in June of 1903. Before leaving on his Cape Sable expedition, Krome had surveyed enough of the route to Homestead that crews in Miami could start work.10

Construction of the Cutler Extension started on the south bank of the Miami River shortly before January 30, 1903. Charles T. McCrimmon, who had the contract to clear the right-of-way for the railroad, “had 150 colored laborers … camped just south of the Miami River”11 clearing the right-of-way and constructing the railroad grade so that ties and rails could be placed by the track laying machine.

On the north side of the Miami River, another crew of workers had started work on the railway bridge.12 By April 1, 1903, all of the “huge timbers” that were to be used in the bridge had been placed for “several hundred yards on both sides of the track” and another crew on the south side of the river was “putting in piers for the bridge.”13

It took six months for the railroad bridge across the Miami River to be completed. On October 6, 1903, the first construction train crossed the Miami River. Captain Lucien Baker was the engineer in charge of the locomotive, which pushed a track-laying machine that was used by the crews placing the ties and rails. The right-of-way had already been cleared by McCrimmon’s crews and the grade was completed so the work of laying the rails proceeded rapidly.14

By April 17, McCrimmon’s crews had cut out the right-of-way down to Jackson Peacock’s homestead.15 This was near the present intersection of S.W. 22nd Avenue and U. S. 1. By the end of May, the grading crews had reached “DeBogory’s mill,” the location of which is unknown but had to have been further southwest. Peter DeBogory, a Russian immigrant, had claimed a homestead near Sanford in 1883, where he was an orange grower. By 1900, he had moved to the neighborhood just outside the northern city limits of Miami, where he lived in an area heavily populated by African-Americans16 and worked as a machinist. His son, Alexander, established a bicycle repair and welding shop where the Miami Police station now stands in downtown Miami in 1916.17

On September 25, 1903, The Miami Metropolis reported that E. Ben Carter, general roadmaster of the F.E.C., had authorized McCrimmon to proceed with the right-of-way clearing down to Long Key.18 The Long Prairie, shown a short distance below Homestead on the 1903 F.E.C. Railway land holdings map, crosses Krome Avenue just south of Lucy Street, the dividing line between Homestead and Florida City. “Long Key” seems to have been the name for all of the land southwest of the Long Prairie down to what is now known as Long Pine Key in Everglades National Park.19

F E C Railway Map

The 1903 F.E.C. Railway Land Holdings Map

Krome had returned from his Cape Sable expedition in late June of 1903 and he promptly picked up where he had left off in December of 1902, continuing the survey that John S. Frederick had started in July of 1902. On September 1, he and a party of men who had been camping out on lots adjacent to the offices of The Miami Metropolis, left for Black Creek,20 which was just south of the present day intersection of S.W. 211 St. and U. S. 1. The newspaper account said that he was going to work on the drainage project going on in that area at the time, but in reality, he was continuing the survey down to Homestead. Flagler and the top men of his company, including Krome, rarely spoke to newspaper reporters seeking more information about what they were doing. Krome and his crew reached Homestead by September 18, but were driven back to Modello, a few miles north, by a “heavy storm” which destroyed their camp. They had to fall back to their supply base in Peters.21 As this account was written in 1918, it is likely that the date of September 18 is incorrect, because The Miami Metropolis reported on a severe storm that struck Miami on September 5, being “the fiercest storm ever witnessed here in the memory of the oldest inhabitants.”22 That storm was very likely a hurricane.

McCrimmon and his crews completed clearing the right-of-way and grading the road bed down to Homestead by early March of 1904.23 Laying the rails from Miami to Homestead was all that remained to be done. That started on October 6, 1903 on the south side of the Miami River24 and advanced several miles each day, due to the use of the track-laying machine.

On November 13, The Miami Metropolis reported that “the railroad people are putting in a siding … 1,700 feet in length” at Perrine25 for Thomas J. Peters’ tomato packing business.26 The siding was graded and ready for the arrival of the track-laying machine, which had stopped on the north side of Snapper Creek on November 27, waiting for the crossing to be built across the waterway.27 This is the location of the Dadeland North Metrorail station today.

Perrine Plat 1903

Plat of the Town of Perrine – 1903

Flagler and the top echelon of the Florida East Coast Railway were closely monitoring the progress of the construction project. On November 27, 1903, The Miami Metropolis reported that James E. Ingraham had returned from an exploration trip of “several weeks” to the Long Key area and had secured 600 acres “in the heart of the homestead country” from the government in section 13, township 56 south, range 38 east “to be used for buildings, yards and other terminal purposes.” He was accompanied by William J. Krome, John S. Frederick, Frederick S. Morse, and Capt. Edward A. Graham.28 Frederick S. Morse was the F.E.C.’s land agent and the man in charge of selling the lands owned by the Perrine Land Grant and the Model Land Companies. Edward A. Graham was a mariner who captained not only several of the rear paddle-boat steamboats used in the construction of the Key West Extension, but was also the captain of the Enterprise, Ingraham’s personal yacht.

1 Camping Trip to Long Key in the Everglades

The November, 1903 Long Key Exploration Party.
Courtesy of the Florida Pioneer Museum

2 Camping Trip to Long Key in the Everglades

On the Camp Jack Trail, en route to Long Key.
Courtesy of the Florida Pioneer Museum

Edward A. Graham is the man pictured in the lower left corner of the photograph.

On December 18, Mr. Flagler and his wife, 4 top officials of the F.E.C. Railway, the mayor of Miami, John Sewell, the future editor of The Miami Herald, Frank B. Stoneman and B. B. Tatum left the Royal Palm Hotel in downtown Miami and traveled down to a point one-half mile north of No Man’s Prairie, where the track-laying machine stood idle, waiting for a trestle to be built across the finger glade.29 No Man’s Prairie was where Kendall Lexus, at 10775 S. Dixie Highway, is now located.

The track-laying machine was in the Perrine Grant on the first day of the new year,30 having traversed the Benson Prairie, where the Falls Shopping Center now stands, on a 400 foot long trestle31 and by February 5 it had crossed the Freeman Prairie,32 named after Dr. Mary Freeman, an early physician in Cutler and Perrine. The Freeman Prairie was located at S.W. 158th St. and U. S. 1 before the canal was dug and the prairie drained. By February 19, the tracks had been laid to the Peters Prairie,33 located between present day Quail Roost and Marlin Drives.

Below Peters, no newspaper articles have been found to document the progress of the track-laying machine. This is likely because the area was sparsely settled, with few homesteaders near the route of the railroad and no packing houses to ship produce. There were only 17 claims for homesteads in the sections traversed by the railroad south of Peters and only five of them were claimed before railroad construction started in 1903. With no audience to write for, the newspaper reported nothing about the progress of the railroad. In early March of 1904, McCrimmon and his crews had completed the clearing of the right-of-way, graded the roadbed to the future location of the Homestead depot34 and had returned to Miami.

In June of 1904, shortly before the arrival of the rails, John S. Frederick completed the plat of the Town of Homestead.

Town of Homestead

Plat of the Town of Homestead

The last rail for the Cutler Extension, now re-named the Homestead Extension, was laid on the afternoon of July 30, 1904.35 With the completion of the railroad to Homestead, the number of homesteading claims filed in South Dade increased substantially as new settlers realized the potential for becoming wealthy through investing in real estate. The goal of the F.E.C. Railway to open up the area for exploitation proved to be a success and doing so set the stage for Flagler’s next ambitious project: the building of the Key West Extension. Construction on that project started in Homestead in April of 1905 but also in several locations in the Florida Keys at about the same time.
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