Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire FLORIDA history - when ALL game was 'fair'

in the meme thread was a pic of a t-shirt with a manatee roasting on a spit over a fire..........

There was a time when this sort of thing happened, and it reminded me of a letter from the 1800s that had been preserved........... and Family.

Characters in the letter, primarily the Allens, are my cousins, aunts, uncles and G.G. Grandparents.....

'...Sis since we have been on the river the boys have killed two porpoises they were a show they must have weighed 400 or 500 lbs each they got 10 gals oil out of them it is worth $1 or !.50 per gal it is very good for lamp oil--- now sis I must begin to draw my letter a close. ..'

For those 'in the area' of Citrus County the site is Ozello


Transcription of Letter by Sarah Johns Willis, Salt River, Fl 1872


The following transcription is a letter1 from Sarah J Willis (Sarah J. Johns, daughter of Leroy Jefferson Johns and Lucinda Jones, who married G. T. Willis) to her sister N. E. Efurd (Nancy Johns, daughter of Leroy Jefferson Johns and Lucinda Jones, who married Giles Efurd.) written at Salt River, Florida on April 21st, 1872. Salt River is located at Ozello which is south of the town of Crystal River. This letter is one of the most valuable primary sources which shows linkages/relationships to various family members. The letter is four pages in length and written in very tiny cursive ink. All attempts are made to transcribe the letter as accurately as possible. In a few instances there are words which are illegible and a series of dots is used to denote the break in legibility. The use of punctuation in the original is not real clear. Generally, instead of adding punctuation extra spacing is added to help separate the sentences and ideas conveyed. In most cases the original spelling has been maintained with the occasional use of (sic) to denote different spellings/meanings.

page 1--- Salt River, Fla Apr 21st 1872 "Dear Sister, brother and nephews. I take the present opportunity of droping(sic) you a few lines in answer to your kind letter which I received a short time back and was very glad to hear from you all once more and to hear you tolerably well-- This leave us tolerably well. Mr. Willis had a severe attack of cholic short time back caused from kidneys from hard lifting. He is about over it now. It seemed as if he die -- it was the first spell he has had since Mat was a baby. He had been hauling up some cedar very hard work for one hand to do. I think was what brought it on him ---. The children are all going to school now to a Miss Blane from South Carolina we have a nice school room as near as sister Puss was to mother in Ala. Our neighbor Mr. Morton is a little farther than the schoolhouse-- It is nearly half way between us -- This is the Mr. Morton that lived at the Middle ground near Early Allens when you lived in this country -- we can pass on land back and forth --the only places on the Island arranged so conveniently -- the children are learning very fast = we have a three months school now but we expect to continue it 3 or 5 more my children have had no advantages of school much since we have been in this county we exspect (sic) to have a school every year now we until educate our children it is pretty tite (sic) to $20 per month and board a teacher that is what we are paying now the school has been in sission (sic - session) 7 weeks I have had the teacher up to this time we are very well pleased. Sis you wanted to know how we like the islands. I am well pleased the longer I stay the better I like. We are all well pleased none of us willing go back to the country --- we can live like fighting cocks when once get a (........) - We are eating hard head cabbage, Irish potatoes, onions,......., turnips, sweet potatoes and all such every day. page 2--- second page plnat (sic) potatoes raised last year we have a quite lot many..... of the finest kind more than we can use we averaged upwards 400 bushels to the acre. Last year we have 1 blsl (sic - bushel) of Irish potaotes planted now. I wish you had some of them. They are fine some of them large as my fist nearly---our cane and corn looking well we have some cotton growing it is looking well they cultivate their crop with hoes what work it get too rough for plowing until the roots rot out --- once and while we have a blow from the southwest that send us a big tide it has covered our little island that our houses are on several times nearly all over only once all over, but it last but a short time before it is off and gone --- it is small about one acre dry land and it is is cut off from the island we cultivate by a little marsh like it is between us and Mr. Morton. We have a good road across to the field. We have about 5 acres in cultivation, 3 in cane and three in corn now waist high in places some as high as a man head. sis I wish we had found these islands when we all first came here and settle we might all have a great deall(sic) better than we are. when you were at Wesly Rock you heard of Salt river and probably saw it. Giles has I know we are 4 miles down the river from there Dick Willis lives there on what they called buzzard roost island. they have not had good health there. they have been sick good deal it is thought to be on account of the salt and fresh water meeting there --- They were all well there yesterday Lenora has had 2 children since you left here about 13 months between them girl and boy. Uncle Mc and John's family all well last account I heard Uncle Johns wife has 3 children 2 younger than one she had directly after you left here which died, I think I wrote to you of Samantha and Warren Paul marrying She has no heirs as yet Jim's wife has had 2 more children since you left he is living on an island near Dr. Hodges Warren Paul also Uncle Mac is livng at a place called bear landing on the Withlacoochee River that old man Rogers settled and died there last fall Uncle John is living where Uncle Mac lived when you left here he owns both places now I believe I have not been to Uncles in 3 years I have not seen some of them in over 3 years. Uncle Mc Jimmy and Warren Paul were here last fall and picked them out page 3--- an island back west of us 2 miles and said they were coming to go to work soon. but they afterwards decided to go where they are now --- after they did not come to the Island they had picked out George and Proctor has laid claim on it and has cut down some and planted in cotton it is a very large island. they no (sic - know) not how large no one has been all over it 2 or 3 beautiful settlements near together on it right on the bank of the river. beautifiul shell banks for building on there is a great deal of scenery there to all these nice shell mounds as large as houses all rounded up like potato banks. All up and down the river The school children and teacher went out yesterday to the bird keys to get eggs but they too late to get many they were all hatched and spoilt. they also went to Shell Island out at the mouth Crystal River -- Sis you wanted to no (sic-know) of Bob and his tribe but you no (sic- know) nearly as much as I do I have not heard from them in some time and have not seen them since last summer. Milliann and the children were here. I have not seen Bob in 18 months They were well last we heard from them They live down on the hammock near Westy (sic Wesley) Allens they only had 2 children last I heard from them. Lucy Allen has 4 children She is making rather a slow start you will think. I reckon old Aunt Tilda and George Allen are keeping house down there near Bud --- I like to forgot to tell you Lucy Ann Allen an (sic- and) Henry King married last Thursday night - Old man Christia (sic- Christie) died about 4 weeks ago I hardly know what was the matter he was taken with severe cold and chill and died in three days as wicked as ever. Lody Christia has gone entirely!! blind and Fady Ann is confine to her bed all the time and has been for 3 years or more Aunt Betsey Allan was down here 4 or 5 weeks ago and stayed 2 weeks. She was well and looking well. Mary Allen, Early's wife, has had 2 children since you left here. sis although we live on an island we have more company here than any place we have been in the country it is only half mile by water to the mane (sic) land where people can come with their horse or buggy and at a dry time they can walk to the river rite (sic) in front our house and then only have cross the river it is up a creek. where they can ride That is the way we moved and floted (sic) our things across We have a large flat We are all perfectly healthy here as we could expect to be anywhere. page 4--- .......... gedding (sic - getting) very well fixed up here we have a ...... house, corn crib and potato house --- our dwelling is 40 ft long 2-16 ft square rooms with 8 ft passage between then a shed on the back side. The boys room 16 ft long 10 ft wide then at the other end joining my room we have a cook room an (sic - and) dining room the shed at that end the house is extended 2 ft further out leaving a shed 18 ft long then a petition ( sic- partition) run through dividing it in 2 rooms cookroom 8 by 10 dining room 10 by 10 then I have a good stove up in my cook room --- the cistern right out at the door of the cook room meat house a few steps farther (sic - further) --- a sentence written so small it not decipherable.................. Then salt water around me plenty --- we have oysters in abundance 8 months out of the the 12 and we have fish when ever we want them we were out some time ago and Mr. Willis caught the largest red fish I ever saw It must have weighed 50 or 60 lbs its head weighed 12 we had nothing to weigh it with right straw scales 25 lbs. Sis since we have been on the river the boys have killed two porpoises they were a show they must have weighed 400 or 500 lbs each they got 10 gals oil out of them it is worth $1 or !.50 per gal it is very good for lamp oil--- now sis I must begin to draw my letter a close. It has been so long since I have written that I make a poor out and I have got so I can't see without glasses. I don't expect you read it in a week it is so bad. --- you wanted to no (sic-know) about the children. They are nearly grown all of them George is only a few lbs behind his pa and Proctor weighs 125 or 30 lbs. Mattie is nearly as tall as I am and I don't think far behind in wieght. I am lean myself and have been ever since I came to this country --- The children will write to you before long --- You said something of some nice tetin..... (sic- tatting ??) you would send if you could for Mattie --- She is very anxious for it you might........ some in a letter so it is spread out in thin so as not to make too large a bulk and the letter not be too heavy. she would hardly no (sic-know) what to do with herself if she was to get it. she has the little cup you gave her yet --- sis you said you wanted the children pictures. I aim to send George and Proctor in this letter. They have 2 but Mattie only has one and her Pa one and I can't let them go until I get some more. I will send them as soon as they can get some . The the artist that took the ones we have is over at Dr. Hodges he may be at the head of the river before long. It is 8 miles to the head from here there is where we go to preaching when we have any We have had none this.........so far. We have Sunday school at our academy sabbath. Sis mother sent me yours and the childrens pictures last year. I have them in my album a very nice one a present from my old man. I was proud to get yours an (sic - and) now I want Giles to send me his in next letter to put yours in the album. I have plenty room in it. it hold about 50 pictures. I have been expecting Buds and his family pictures but never have got them yet. I have not had a letter since last summer from home in answer. I sent my picture to Bud to forward onto you and it was so long before I heard from it I thought it was lost. I guess by your getting it ..... it went through but I have not heard from Bud yet. I do not no (sic - know) what is the reason they don't write to me. sis when you write again tell me how far you live from Gamdy and if Liza Cadenhead went with them to Festas and Giles mother I want to hear the news generally tell Giles to write too We will be glad to hear from you any time Sis you wanted to no (sic - know) if I had quit snuff. I have been trying to quit for the last 2 months but have not yet. I have been trying smoking some but it is to much trouble. I have to quit everything else to smoke so I don't get time to smoke often. I had been troubled with hurting in my breast for some time. some thought it was caused by snuff and I concluded so too. I have been better off since I have used less of it. I had nearly a whole jar of snuff and sent it back to the Haiad (sic ?). I was not satisfied without it and am not yet out and broke from it. some I have looking poor and crong this spring some thought it was ..... dipping snuff. I have improved some lately --- sis Islands are carrying the day now a great many talk of settling islands. severall (sic) have already below us on the river 3 or 4 miles.... old man Christia had settled and (sic) island near Dick Willis. Well I must close by asking you and Giles to write often and will answer all your letters and the children will write to you as soon as they get a little better advanced. Mr. Willis send his best regards (sic ?) to you all the children have all grown so you would hardly know them if you was to see them. They want to see you all , often talk of either........ I would be so glad to see you all once more, but we have but little idea that we will ever meet on earth again, but hope to meet in a better world. Sis I have some strong ties in that bright world I hope to meet again to part no more.... Although I don't live ..... I should ......the Lord will forgive.......... good. We all join in love to you all. S J. Willis to N. E. Efurd This letter makes mention of the fact that Nancy and Giles Efurd had lived in this Florida area previous to the writing of this letter but had moved elsewhere, probably Pike County, Alabama. The "state" census2 of 1867 for Hernando County, Florida bears out the fact that Giles Efurd was a resident during that census.

1872 Salt River, Citrus County, FL

Interesting, used to visit my grandparents in Citrus Co, he remarried a Van Ness from down in there.

I used tube on the Crystal River. clearest water, like swimming pool water.

Good stuff Muffin !

That region is old school florida , Grandparents spent winters Inglis , Fl. and loved it there . They'd rent a little block cabin near a place called Big Bass Village .
I'd go over and spent -4-5-6-7 days with them usually after New Years , nice quiet little place back then .

I remember quite a few times water puddles would freeze - seemed like it was colder down there than Biloxi and now [not for long] fort walton area .

Back then if it had a use it got - got .

Wow....hands busy at the moment, will be back in a bit. Thanks for posting this.

In 1880, the little settlement of Ozello had a serious problem in locating a school. Until this time the only school was a tiny building on a point of land on the bay. A family had settled there and since there was no school, the mother collected eight or ten children and taught them herself. As other families moved into the area and settled on both sides of the St. Martin's River a new school was needed. People on the south side of the river didn't want the school located on the north side. People on the north side didn't want it on the south side. Finally a compromise was reached. The school was built on an Indian mound on a small island in the middle of the river. This was agreeable because it was said that a child who could not row a boat by the time he was six years old was beyond the hope of education. The peak enrollment at this school was fifty-two pupils.

Mr. Robert Wells of Crystal River, who attended the island school many years ago, described it as a 24' x 30' building with a wood burning heater and three hanging coal oil lamps. There were never any electric lights in the building. He had very pleasant memories of the school, except for one man the teacher who made derogatory remarks about the community and the way of life there. He was “run off” by the pupils and replaced by a woman teacher. Robert Wells remembers the school as being like a big happy family. He related that after the school closed it was used as a polling place for a time. When a storm washed the building off its blocks it was finally demolished. The island in the middle of the river is still known as “School House Island.”

Crystal river is good but the crystal clear tubin' river is the Rainbow.....

Croft's, Van Ness's, Spooner's....place is full of um......

Fella long passed was born on the first island one crosses westbound on the Ozello Trail around 1940. Name was JC Wells. Met him down in the Keys and he was quite a remarkable man. Will tell the story after I get a pic scanned.

Fascinating.

Some thing never change. Like two communities bickering over where a school should be built, lest the location favor one or the other party.

Some things do change. Kids entrusted to row themselves and whoever was in their charge, across a body of water by rowboat twice daily to attend school on an island. No power, no phone (assuming). And evidently, they had the skills and experience to do it safely, and the parents were fine with it. Just terrific. Amazing.

Today that rowboat would be weighed down with more blinking lights than an airliner on approach and more reflective tape than a construction site, the capacity cut by two-thirds because they needed room for a licensed rowboat pilot, a rescue swimmer, and an administrator-type to assign blame away from the school should it capsize.

Those pictures are fantastic ! The turtles bring back great memories. Growing up in Key West I vaguely remember the turtle corrals when there were still turtles in them and you could get a turtle steak. Later there was always a grapple hook ready on Hectors boat. If a Green turtle came up around the boat we’d look around and if there weren’t any boats near we’d try and catch the turtle. I was there for six or eight. Pretty hard to drag a big turtle into the boat with a 12-13 year old me and and a little sixty something year old man. We managed and butched them and hid the meat under the fish. I’ve fished all my life in Florida and commercial fished off and on and have never seen sawfish that big.

This is a great thread. I am a long way from Florida and the only time I’ve ever been there was to Orlando for a trade show, but this is very interesting history to me.
What are sawfish, a type of shark or ray? Of course the Greenies would schit at the turtle pic.

I've ate sea cow and turtle both ways and also have a couple of sawfish bills. I sure feel blessed to have been born in Florida 62 years ago also glad I left 20 years ago. Excellent book on some of the history of old Florida.
https://www.amazon.com/Land-Remembered-Patrick-D-Smith/dp/1561641162

Eagerly awaiting DD’s post !

Love the expression on the face of the guy with the white shirt and bow-tie

My Dad’s family moved to Florida from VA in 1923. High Springs. Prior to that, they were from Middle Georgia since the early 1700s.
Florida was very rural when I was a tad. We supplemented the family table with a varied catch. Fish of all kinds, turkey, quail, doves and cranes, manatee, alligator, turtle, bear, raccoon and squirrels.

The kids of the era mentioned in the OP's post were subject to a much different life than kids today.
It was pre-child labor laws in the south and many of the kids growing up in those days that were within the vicinity of a Seafood Packing Company would have been working...

The following I am snipping from archives of some Child Labor investigations of these canneries along the gulf coast from Florida to around Mississippi published in March of 1911.


Manuel, the young shrimp-picker, five years old, and a mountain of child-labor oyster shells behind him. He worked last year. Understands not a word of English.


They all shuck oysters, the boy on left end is George Wikowski, nine years old; next is John Collins; next is Steve Strupeck, who worked last year; on right hand end is Frank Obin, eight years old whom I found asleep on the floor of the shucking shed at 4 o'clock in the morning.


Scene in canning factory showing a 7-year old girl who shucks 3 pots of oysters a day, and works regularly, and her 6-year old brother who helps some. Also a 11-year old boy who does six pots a day. Several others here under 12 years, but there were more last month. Mostly negro workers. The boss said "We keep only enough whites so we can control the negroes and keep them agoing.


10 year old Jimmie. Been shucking 3 years. 6 pots a day, and a 11 year old boy who shucks 7 pots. Also several members of an interesting family named Sherrica. Seven of them are in this factory. The father, mother, four girls shuck and pack. Older brother steams. 10 year old boy goes to school. Been in the oyster business 5 years. Father worked for 25 years in the Pennsylvania Coal Mine, and the oldest brother there[?] They said they liked the oysters business better because the family makes more.



Rosy, an eight-year-old oyster shucker who works steady all day from about 3:00 A.M. to about 5 P.M. in cannery. The baby will shuck as soon as she can handle the knife.



And they even gave them houses



Then along came the bloody liberals of the day.....

Saw Fish are Rays.



Not to be confused with the Saw Shark



At one time there were many of the larger Saw Fish along the Florida coast, some can still be found.
They were hurt pretty bad by the net fishermen due to being easily entangled in their nets.

There is still a decent population of Saw Fish in Florida and on occasion a larger one being caught will make some local headlines. The larger population I am familiar with is along the Mangrove Islands in the Everglades but they seem to be mostly younger, smaller fish.


From the looks of these vintage images I have collected over the years it must have been a sport to collect the Saw Fish bills.

I have a recipe book that was published by the Department of Agriculture if I recall correctly, it is a federal publication that was printed in the early 1900's. It has Porpoise recipes and lists the nutritional value of the meat. I'll dig it up here and get the title of it.....

Thanks again for all the pics JeffA. This is something I was completely unaware of but now I’m fascinated. I guess I should have figured there was “frontier” history in Florida, it’s just a place that has never really been on my radar.

Pretty neat to have that letter from relatives Muffin. We have a good bit of family historical stuff from OK and it’s a neat look back into the ways of the past.