by Jeff Blakley The reader is excused for thinking that this article is about a man. Almost always referred to as “Miss Frankie Lofton” or “Joe Frankie,” Joe Frank Lofton was a woman, not a man. Then and now, parents, … Continue reading →
by Jeff Blakley Andrew Jackson Poplin (A. J.) is a name unknown to anyone except his descendants – no one currently living in South Dade knows who he was. He shared a trait with many other people in South Dade, … Continue reading →
by Jeff Blakley The Town of Homestead, which was surveyed and platted by J. S. Frederick, C. E., in June, 1904, was the next to the last community created by the arrival of the Florida East Coast Railway on mainland … Continue reading →
By Jeff Blakley The Cedars, South Dade’s earliest farming venture, was named for the Australian pine (casuarina equisetifolia), commonly referred to as a cedar. 1912, Charles T. Simpson wrote this about the tree: “A strange tree is casuarina equisetifolia or … Continue reading →