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1674-9 Pancoast Family-r .. w _ * geS This is Georr Moretz for the Junior League interv' w' re n , Mr. R sell Pancoast, August 26, 1970. Mr. Pancoast came to Miami from New Jersey as a boy in 1913. As a man, Mr. Pancoast was one of the early architects in the area. In 1870, or in the 1870's, a man named Lum from the Mid-West came to the Miami area and saw a few coconuts growing. He then decided that it would be a good idea to grow them commercially. After thinking over this idea for about seven years, he came back to Miami and bought a piece of what is now Miami Beach from about 5th Street to about 14th Street. On this area he then planted coconuts which came from Cuba or the Isle of Pines by sailboat. Somewhat later then, about 1882 or 83, a man named T. Field came from Long Branch, New Jersey, and saw what Lum was doing. He decided that Lum had a fine idea, but he didn't have enough land. He himself did not have enough money to buy a great deal of land, but he thought he could organize a company, and proceeded to do so by interesting a number of New Jersey people in the idea. The company was finally formed, and they proceeded to buy about forty (40) miles of ocean front, stretching from what is now Miami Beach up to Jupiter Light -- not the entire area, of course, but forty miles of it. They bought only the sandy beaches where they thought they could land a crew to plant coconuts. They were not interested in the area in the background which was mostly jungle or hard to penetrate. One of the stockholders in this company was my grandfather, John S. Collins, for whom Collins Avenue is now named on Miami Beach . He was one of the largest stockholders. The land purchased by this company was purchased from the State and cost very little per acre. One of the deeds illustrates that the deeds on the description of the land were not always too accurate. This one deed that I quote from stated that the land being purchased was "from the ocean shore to the lilly pad root. " The lilly pad root eventually has been turned into salt water and now becomes the in-land waterway. In those days, the Indians used those fresh water areas to go up and down the coast, but couldn't do it entirely without going on land. When the company was formed, it was decided that it would be necessary to engage young men who were used to dealing with the sea. They made a deal with the Lifesaving Corps on the beaches of New Jersey and put them on a sailboat and sailed them to Miami Beach with a pre- fabricated house which was floated ashore and put up so they could stay the first night they came. Of all the miles of ocean front with nobody living on it, they chose to put this house immediately next door to Mr. Lum's house, which he had put on his small plantation. As the shiploads of coconuts came up from the Isle of Pines and from Cuba, they were dumped into the sea and floated ashore and planted in the accessable portions of the sand, whereever that might be, and they didn't try to go back in-land, as I said before. Within two years many of the coconuts had come up, and the rabbits promptly ate the tops off, and the company went bankrupt. Some of the trees, however, lived and in the little stretch, comparatively, of which is now Miami Beach, many of the trees did survive, and continued to grow in spite of the hurricanes and everything else for years later, so that when I personally came down in 1913, you could still see that some of the trees had been planted in rows like an orchard. -2- When it was determined that the coconut planting was a failure, my grandfather had gotten interested then in coming to Florida. But he never did come down in the early days as far as what is now Miami and Miami Beach . He would get on a pullman train in Philadelphia and go as far as Rocky Mountain, North Carolina, where they would jack up the car and change the wide- gage wheels to narrow-gage wheels so that they could then proceed to Jacksonville. At Jacksonville he would get on a steamer that would go down the Saint Johns River where they would take the east branch and eventually it would come within seven miles of the Indian River at about Eau Gallie. Then he would get on a wagon pulled by mules and take the seven mile journey over to the Indian River. Then he would embark on a steamer that would go south the length of the Indian River to Jupiter where he would then have to take land transportation to the north end of Lake Worth . There he would get on another boat and go to the end of Lake Worth at Hypoluxo . After spending several winter vacations,sometimes with his family,at Hypoluxo, he eventually decided to come on down to the Miami area and see what it was like. We don't know the date, but we assume it was at least by 1896 when the train came through . When he got here in the Miami area, he went over to see some of the land where the coconuts had grown. He discovered that Mr. Field had kept title in his own name of about 1,600 acres on what is Miami Beach today. Much of it was mangrove swamp, but there was some beach and some of it Indian Creek area. After being a New Jersey farmer and horticulturist, he decided that he would like to plant avocados and mangos in a frost-free area, and that they would grow on the west side of Indian Creek where there was black, sandy soil . He then approached Fields to see if Fields would go into the venture with him. Fields said "no", that nobody knew what avocados were and that he wasn't about to go into any farming deal with Mr. Collins, but he would go in with him if he would plant oranges and grape- fruit. -3- But this area didn't support oranges and grapefruit too well, and my grandfather knew this, and he wanted to get a crop that hadn't been grown commercially in enough quantity. He then decided that he would have to grow an avocado that would come before the Cuban crop and after the Cuban crop so he wouldn't have to compete with anybody on the East Coast. Eventually he was able to buy the land from Field. He bought the 1600 acres of land and cleared some of Indian Creek. By 1907 he planted his first avocados. In 1908 he planted more, and in 1909 he planted more. He found out that he needed wind-breaks and so he planted pine trees to protect the avocados and young trees, and this protective planting eventually became Pine Tree Drive. In the meantime, being a farmer he knew that in growing a young orchard, he got no returns, so he cultivated on the Beach vegetables between the trees such as tomatoes, peppers, and potatoes, etc. As the farm progressed, it required more and more money and he decided there were two things that should be done. One would be to build a canal from the end of Indian Creek directly toward Miami so that his boats would not get stuck bringing supplies to the farm. They always went aground in trying to get to the north end of Indian Creek across Biscayne Bay. The other expensive thing was an irrigation system. He found that during the dry spells during the winter that water was needed, and he then decided he would irrigate the whole area. He then approached his family, who were all young businessmen or farmers in New Jersey and asked them for financial aid. They decided that their father, or father-in-law in my father's case, had thrown away a fortune in mining in the Appalachians and that this might be another similar venture; -4- and they would like to see what he was going to do with the money if they gave it to him. So they and their wives -- and this was Irving Collins, Arthur Collins, Lester Collins and Thomas Pancoast -- brought their wives by steamer to Havana, and then back to Miami, discovering that Miami was not on the ocean front. They proceeded to Miami Beach to see the land that was involved and found great mangrove swamps and the young orchards growing. They looked over and decided in their own minds that the farm might eventually pay, but that it wouldn't be worth the risk capital . But they thought, being from New Jersey, that any time, any place hot weather occurred, that people would want to go to the ocean, and spend part of the year at least on the ocean. Their conclusion was that it would make a good real estate adventure. But in talking it over, they knew people would not come in any great quantity or buy land over there if they had to go back over across Biscayne Bay. As a consequence they decided to pool their interests and build a wooden bridge across Biscayne Bay. This was accomplished. The family had come down to look over the area in 1911 . Then it was a question of who could carry on the work of building the bridge and doing some real estate development. My Mother and Father were willing to give up their business in the North and come to Florida to take on this responsibility. My grandfather, then being 74 years old, and perfectly in agreement about the arrangements, was not willing to live here in the hot weather and with the mosquitos. He probably knew more than the children about this difficulty. So my father then returned in 1912 to get the bridge started and the bridge was completed as well as the canal that had been requested in the first place, and the irrigation for the farm. The bridge was then open for traffic some time late in the Spring of 1913. -5- In the meantime, I had been left North to continue by schoolwork, and I didn't join the family until about February of 1913, at least in time for the second term of school . I then found that the nearest school was close to where we lived in Miami because we had not then moved to Miami Beach, and it was where the present downtown Post Office is. It was called Miami High School, but it also had elementary grades, and I was in the eighth grade at the time. Somewhat later, early in 1914, we were building on Miami Beach and hoped to move over there as soon as possible. The road from the end of the bridge in Miami to the ocean front was not yet completed, but the house had been started earlier and materials were then taken by barge up the new canal . At first they built a small garage, enough for two cars underneath and on top they built a combination bedroom-living room, a dining room and kitchen. There was no room for the three sons, so they decided to put up tents along Indian Creek for the boys. My younger brother and I had one tent, and my older brother,who was just finishing college, had a tent by himself. Along the shore in front of the tents, the crocodiles used to sun themselves on the beach . They didn't bother us and we didn't bother them. We got quite used to them. In fact, we missed them later on when they disappeared. The large house was completed and we moved into it, and did away with the tents. My mother really had, I think along with most women of that time, the real problems of pioneering. And this WAS pioneering on the Beach at that time. The mosquitos were beyond belief. Also the sand flies were bad, and if anyone went into the house, they were sprayed immediately after they came through the screen door (which always opened out instead of opening in) and bringing mosquitos in when they came. Then after you sprayed yourself and the mosquitos, you were able to go through the rest of the -6- house. And, if you were going in the car, in those days they weren't closed cars . . . you were very careful to see that everyone was ready and no one went back for the keys or anything else; and you would rush out and hope the starter would work, for most the time you had to crank it by hand, and the you would back out of the garage and on to the street and open the doors (they always opened forward in those days), and blow the mosquitos out; and then from then on you were safe as long as you kept moving. The workmen at that time had to put newspapers under their stockings so that the mosquitos wouldn't worry them too much, and they wore wide-brimmed hats with netting hanging over their face and down to their shoulders. The mules,which were doing a great deal of the roadwork, would be attached by the mosquitos so badly that sometimes they would break out of the mule pen and go into Indian Creek. Some times they would drown, and others had to be pulled out with a truck. These problems were only one of many I could mention. For instance, my Mother, I know had been used to having all the vegetables, fruit, etc. in a grocery store handy to her. Here there were no stores, and nowhere to buy food directly without a major undertaking. Also, the ice might come over on a barge one day but might not come over on the barge the next day. There was no fresh milk in the beginning, and canned milk was something my Mother had never used, and she had to learn how to use it. Then she had to learn how to use the various vegetables and fruits that were strange to her. This was a challenge however, and she enjoyed, I think, the experimentation. When we brought some turtle eggs home one day, she tried to cook them and she could never get the whites to coagulate. Finally she gave up. Much later, of course, we found out the whites make the best pancakes in the world, because they don't gel . But that defeated here. But she tried many things that we had never heard of before, and made some real successes out of some of them. -7- I'd like to make a point -- and that is that I think most men who came to Florida were adventurous, and got their joy of living from the adventure of the problems they had to tackle that were new to them. Whereas, the women had to do the worst part of the pioneering, and as a consequence, not too many of the women seemed to enjoy the area after they came here. However, the men did enjoy it, and the population kept growing in spite of the fact that it wasn't an equal enjoyment for each sex. When we did move to the Beach, my younger brother and I discovered immediately that we had to ride a bicycle across the bridge in order to go to school, the closest school being about six miles. So we rode our bicycles every day about six miles to school and back again in the evening. It was much easier going to school because the prevailing winds were usually with you. On the return, if you were fast enough, you could get ahold of a handle on the car that was supposed to top when it was folded down, and many of them had those handles that had the ability to fold, and then you could get a tow across the bridge. In those days cars didn't ride 60 miles an hour. They rode about 20 miles per hour, or 25 miles an hour across the bridge. But if you couldn't quite make it, you could then get directly behind the car and the suction of the car and the protection against the east wind would allow you to use half the effort if you kept up. So, as time developed I decided I would like to eliminate that long ride home every afternoon, and went to the "Miami Metropolis", which is now the "News", and got a job delivering papers on the beach. They told me that they wouldn't give me a route on the Beach because not enough people lived there. But by 1914 there were so many men working on crews, fixing the roads, clearing the -8- jungle, etc., they all wanted the paper. And I came in with thirty subscriptions the first week, and they said they'd give me a route. So, from then on I got paid for doing less work and put my bicycle and the papers on the ferry that ran from the end of Flagler Street in Miami to the south end of the Beach. The name of the boats at that time, I remember theMoratania and the Equitania, and the Lady Lou. The Lady Lou was the best of the three boats, and we all decided to make that if we could. Then I would deliver papers from the south end of the Beach to the north end of the Beach (we were at the north end ), and then I was home and through. This was a great help. As to my own personal entertainment as a boy, fishing predominated. But when I came south, I had brought with me some muskrat traps. I don't know why , although probably because I paid so much for them, I couldn't leave them. When we got here we found there were raccoons all over the place, and they were also, by that time, eating some avocados, and they wanted to get rid of them on the farm. I had fur catalogs, and I knew how much raccoon skin would sell for, and I decided to trap raccoons. So we set some traps. First we had to catch some fish in order to bait them, and that was the best part of it! Then we would tie a fish on the end of a string a leave it about four feet off the ground so the raccoon would be caught in the trap with his hind feet. This makes me shudder a little bit today, but nevertheless we did catch some. We tried to keep the first one in a pen and found out it wasn't worth it. From then on we killed them, and the Nassau Negroes who were working on the roads ate them, and we used the fur . . tried to dry the skins on the side of our work building that was in the yard . However, the insects ate up the fur and it didn't pan out. -9- We decided that wasn't worth it, because a real trapper we knew had to get up at dawn and look at his traps so the animal wouldn't suffer any longer than necessary. So, therefore, on a school day we had to get up and look at the traps and then get ready to go to school . And, of course, we had six miles to go. The people that had been eating the meat from the raccoons didn't want us to stop. So we said all right, we'll set the traps if you look at them in the morning, and you can have the meat if you want it. One morning, one of the men -- a man named Fed, who was about 6' 6" high, same to our tent and said that he had caught a catamount. We didn't know what a catamount was, but it turned out to be a bobcat, and we had heard them many times in the mangroves yelling at night. It sounded a little like a woman in her final death struggle, but we didn't ever think we would catch one. But we had one in a trap and this big fellow decided he wasn't going to go anywhere near it. We took the white man's burden and went to the trap and on the way we discovered a long wire in the mule pen. I finally got the long wire through the loop in the chain of the trap and then dragged the poor wild cat over to the mule pen. He was only caught by three toes, and I didn't know when he would escape, but he was as afraid of me as I was of him. When we got there we found piano crate - no doubt for the first piano that was ever delivered to Miami Beach that was going to be installed in the Miami Beach Pavillion, which later became the Roman Pools. We found that if we upset this crate, the wild cat ran into it without any assistance from us, and we turned it upright again, loosen the trap, and we had a wildcat that was still alive. I told this story that day to everybody I could think of at school, and the word got around so that a medicine show of some kind found out about it, and they came over and offered us $15.00 for the wildcat. That was a big bonus, and we sold it to them. -10- .11 v Our biggest entertainment, as I started to say, was fishing. And we had to learn all over again how to fish, because northern fishing wasn't anything like southern fishing. When we found out that fish ate fish in Florida, that was a great revolutionary idea: But, in going to school, we looked out in the clear waters and see where the trout were bedding over the grass, and that afternoon, if we came back that way, we knew exactly where to go for the trout. We knew where they were for that day. Now days I don't think you'd be able to see the trout if you went over the Venetian Causeway, which now takes place of the old bridge. I -11-