1644-7 Middletown, N.J.T .. . X30 THE COMMODORE'S STORY
spirit which prompts such things among pioneers, nor
the value of small delicacies on that lonely coast.
Just after daylight on Christmas morning, in the
brightness of a glorious sunrise, with the sea white with
foam, we passed the Field and Osborn coconut-planting
camp on what is now Miami Beach, where all hands
waved to us. With Mrs. Field at that time was Miss Ella
Mathieson, of Staten Island — an interested spectator;
it is interesting to record that her nephew, Gordon
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Raymond, has been in recent years one of the best and
keenest sailors on the Bay. .
A few minutes later on Narres Cut Bar we shipped a
breaker over the stern which filled us up, but quickly
dropping sail, we were carried in by the strong flood tide.
Once inside we bailed her out and headed for Coconut
Grove and a hot breakfast.
The winter was a rather quiet one. It was saddened by
the final illness of Mrs. Ewan, mother of J. W. Ewan, at
Miami. She was a very fine woman, of a good old Charles-
ton family, and with Mrs. Peacock's help had started the
first "community uplift" work on the Bay, beginning
with a Sunday school. Distances were great between
Bay families, and the only conveyances were sailboats,
so that much more than the simple school exercises
had to be planned by the two unselfish women. Dinner
was provided, the ailing ones doctored and comforted,
and many other duties assumed that were more or less
' unusual and exacting, and all performed with the most
loving care and patience. Their work should be recorded
in the annals of our present-day women's clubs as the
beginning of such labors on the Bay.
Mrs. Ewan suffered a long and painful illness, and all
winter I carried Mrs. Peacock back and forth to Miami ,
in the Kingfish, to nurse and comfort her. To Mrs.
Peacock, "Aunt Bella," all her life came most of the
sicknesses and family troubles, and she always responded,
through sunshine, darkness or storm.
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