In 1918, The Homestead Enterprise published a series of articles authored by pioneers of their reminiscences. There were to be twelve articles but only six were published. The influenza pandemic in the fall of 1918 interrupted the publication of the articles and, as far as I know, the remaining six were never published. I’ve transcribed and published the articles by Lilburn R. Nixon, Charles H. Gossman and Daniel M. Roberts previously. This article, by George Walter Moody, for whom Moody Drive (S. W. 268 St.) was named, was published on October 10, 1918.

By Geo. W. Moody

“I was born and raised in southeast Georgia¹ and moved from that state to Florida in 1882, first settling in Seville² in St. Lucie county, where I engaged in general merchandise business. Here I remained for thirteen years, and then decided to go to Española³ in St. Johns county, where I followed store keeping for two years. New Smyrna⁴ was our next home and here we stayed for one year only.

“Miami was our next move and as we had heard considerable about this promising little town, we decided to go there and look the situation over. This was in 1899, only a short time after the railroad⁵ had been completed to that point. Close inspection satisfied me that the town had a promising future, which was all we could ask for in those days. There were a few stores then, kept by the Sewells, Budge, Brady, Girtman and a few others whose names I do not recollect. But there was nothing in those early days to suggest what has happened in recent years. Few would have dared to predict a development such as we have today. St. Augustine, the oldest city in the United States, was then considered to be about the only place of any consequence on the east coast, south of Jacksonville, and anything below that ancient city was regarded as being beyond the pale of civilization.

“The first thing to do after arriving at our new home was to hunt a job of one kind or another, not the easiest thing to do in the world in a community where dollars were as scarce as hen’s teeth. In those days the store keepers kept everything they could think of and when they had a chance to hire out for a day or two at a time, they did it. But the longer we stayed the more satisfied we were with our choice. The next thing to do was to locate a homestead and then find a job which would keep us while waiting for the country to grow.

“Cutler, about 15 miles south of Miami, looked good to us as a place in which to start a store. If we located there we would be 15 miles nearer the South Dade trade⁶ than the Miami stores, and while this traffic was comparatively small it was growing, and we had hopes that the store would do a profitable business.

“The ‘road’ from Miami to Cutler passed Old Larkin,⁷ which was about seven miles from Miami. Trail would be a better word than ‘road.’ From Old Larkin to Cutler was about seven and a half miles. From Cutler to Black Point the journey was by road, trail and prairie – any old way that looked good. Prairies were good when the water was down. When the glades were flooded it was a case of sticking to the rock land, a journey that only the Studebaker and one other make of wagons was able to negotiate. If you want to know how rough it really was, just drive your farm wagon through the pineland in the rockiest section.

“While building at Cutler, we resided in Miami for three or four months, then moved to our new home. There were eight or ten houses in the Cutler tract at that time. About the same time we located our homestead in the Naranja section⁸ (at that time there was no one living anywhere near us) and began improvements by setting out a grove or grapefruit and orange trees, and began growing tomatoes on the glade⁹ land that formed part of our homestead. Subsequently I sold the homestead¹⁰ to Major Hugh Gordon¹¹, son of General John B. Gordon, the famous Confederate general. Mr. Cope was also associated with Major Gordon in the purchase of my homestead.

“I kept store for four or five years at Cutler and then moved south to Perrine¹² where I built another store. At that time, I was in partnership with D. C. Brown,¹³ who ran the Cutler store, while I managed the Perrine establishment. Mr. Brown, who is a brother of Postmaster Brown¹⁴ of Miami, has been commissioner of Duval county¹⁵ for a number of years and is a prominent man in that county.

“In 1903 I built the home on my homestead and lived there until the spring of 1904, when my wife had a paralytic stroke and we were compelled to move to Miami for medical treatment. About seven months later we returned to the homestead and the work of planting a grove and cropping began in earnest. Tomatoes, potatoes and sugar cane were grown successfully, the soil being exceptionally good. At a later date the store at Cutler was combined with the one at Perrine, with Mr. Brown¹⁶ in charge.

“While living on my homestead I started the store I now run at Naranja, in 1903.¹⁷ The old post office building was the first building in Naranja and my store the second. There has always been considerable activity among the packing houses in this section as it is the center of the grapefruit and tomato growing territory.

“The first packing house built in this section was made of logs and was demolished some time ago. Then came the Citrus Exchange packing house, and the houses run by Chase,¹⁸ Hickson,¹⁹ A. D. Fogel,²⁰ and Hutton & Hutton.²¹

“The development of our public schools is quite interesting. First there was the log school house on the corner opposite to where Will Anderson’s store is now. This was taken down and a new school building, a two-story affair,²² put in its place — a community school edifice in which the citizens contributed labor, cash, material and anything else of value, to enable the school to open for business. As a local school this was quite a credit to the community, but when the fine new Farm Life School²³ was built, Silver Palm, Redland, Naranja, Princeton and Modello united in a combination school that is considered one of the finest of its type in the country. The trailers employed by the school board to transport the pupils to and from school remove the greatest hardship which the children of the early days had to endure.

“Newcomers always ask questions about the Indians in those early days. Twenty years ago there were plenty of Indians in South Dade but not very many in the Naranja neighborhood. We did a big trade with the Indians at Cutler where they brought their otter furs and coon and alligator hides for barter. In those days many birds of beautiful plumage were shot by the Indians²⁴ and sold to the traders. This was before the law forbidding this trade²⁵ was passed. The Indians were pretty shrewd traders and generally got all that was coming to them. They were equally good neighbors and while we did not see a great many of them near our homestead, those we did see were quite friendly.

“Good roads have done more than anything else to build up South Dade. We who knew the country when the ‘alleged’ roads were merely trails; when the stores were few and far between; when neighbors were scarce and public improvements unknown — we know by experience what pioneer life was. Those who have come since the railroad made its advent²⁶ may know what privations are, but can only imagine what real pioneer life is.

“Yet the singular thing is, all were happy and contented. At one time when we were on our homestead there wasn’t a white man, woman or child in all the territory south of the Perrine grant.²⁷ While Mr. Brinsell,²⁸ the Slavins,²⁹ Mr. Poland³⁰ and Dan Hardie³¹ had located claims prior to this, all of them had gone elsewhere to find employment. Of course they returned within the legal period, but while they were gone, like Robinson Crusoe, we ‘Were monarchs of all we surveyed.’

“In closing I want to give credit to our community for the peaceful spirit which has existed from the beginning. There has been no unnecessary disputation or litigation. We have been living like one big family, and it is the hope of the writer, that as the years go by, the same friendly spirit shall ever prevail.”

1. George was from Appling County, Georgia,
2. Seville is in Volusia County, not St. Lucie. It is 22 miles south of Bunnell, where George’s first cousin, once removed, Isaac I. Moody, settled. Isaac was a businessman and politician who was instrumental in establishing Flagler County. He died in 1918 during the Spanish Flu epidemic.
3. George’s first cousin, once removed, Isaac I. Moody, was in St. Johns County
4. There are quite a number of Moodys buried in Volusia County. George’s brothers, Isham H. and John Tillman, are buried in Seville. New Smyrna is 54 miles southeast of Seville.
5. Flagler’s F. E. C. Railway had reached Miami in 1896
6. Moody is defining “the South Dade trade” as that which existed in the Cutler area, not what we call “South Dade” now
7. See this post, which features a map of Dade County south of Miami in December of 1903
8. George claimed his homestead at the northeast corner of Newton Road and Coconut Palm Drive on February 9, 1899
9. This is puzzling, as there was no low-lying land on his homestead
10. Moody still owned his homestead in 1912
11. 1855 – 1937
12. Perrine was due west of Cutler
13. David Chapelle Brown 1867 – 1940
14. Francis Marion Brown 1881 – 1929
15. D. C. Brown was appointed to that position by Governor Trammell in August of 1915 – Homestead Enterprise, September 16, 1915
16. This happened in 1912
17. According to Jean Taylor, the store was east of the railroad tracks and faced west and was northeast of the two-story rock building at the corner of Old Dixie and Naranja Road. The post office was located in this rock building in the 1950s – Fred Fuchs, Sr. was the postmaster.
18. Chase & Co.
19. Joseph Landon Hickson
20. Arthur D. Fogel
21. Thomas and Ernest L. Hutton
22. The Silver Palm School, erected in 1904, on the northeast corner of Newton Road and Silver Palm Drive
23. Redland Farm Life School, built in 1916 on Farmlife School Rd. and Coconut Palm Drive
24. Whites started the slaughter because of the market demand to furnish plumes to makers of women’s hats – the Indians were minor actors in the trade
25. The Migratory Bird Treaty Act, ratified in 1918
26. The railroad reached Homestead in August of 1904
27. Daniel M. Roberts would disagree
28. John H. Brinzel in 1898
29. Frank Slavin in 1897 and his brother John in 1906
30. Arthur Poland in 1897
31. Daniel Hardie, later sheriff of Dade County, in 1898