coconut farm seemed to evade the young man. He found no gold the keys with jib hauled flat amidships all the way,
and opened a bakery instead. There, he literally struck being blown out into the Gulf Stream more than
i gold, being paid in gold dust by miners for his breads once, and taking four weeks for the trip."
and cakes. After he amassed $2,000, Lum hit the Munroe wrote that Lum was looking for a
road again —going to Sandusky, Ohio, where he place to grow coconuts. The sands of Miami Beach
purchased 50 acres and began anew in the nursery must have been quite a sight to Henry Lum and
business. He moved to the Middletown -Red Bank, Grover after the rocky shorelines of the Florida Keys.
New Jersey area in 1866 and continued as a It would appear that Lum cast his eyes upon a section
nurseryman.' of land where John Braman had settled two decades
Despite the significance of the role Lum played earlier. Munroe wrote that Lum bought a tract "just
in Miami Beach history, it isn't certain if or why he north of Narres [Norris] Cut, then called Brama's
and his son were in the Biscayne Bay area in 1870, landing, and later did some planting. "5
other than looking for new Lum's presence on the ocean beach is
, adventures. According to documented by two letters he wrote to state officials.
', Nash, the Lums sailed across The first, in December 1882, sought a government
` �' ` Biscayne Bay from the Mi- survey of "the point of land across the bay from
' ami River and made landfall Miami from the south line of Township 53S to the
, on the southern tip of the cut below... as I am ready to purchase the same. "6
� ',tt , peninsula— today's Fisher The south line of Township 53S would cut across
q Island. It was there that Lum 12th street of today's Miami Beach. Obviously not
saw his coconut trees. Who having received a response, Lum wrote again in
A planted them? Braman? It is January 1883, seeking the information. In the second
` � extremely rare for a coconut letter, Lum enclosed a sketch of the shape of the
to be washed ashore, to land he wanted in relationship to the surveyed land
0 �' �� ,, sprout and to prosper unat- north of it "The land in question is within the
.`.-,�'`' tended. Coconuts in that dotted lines on accompanying slip," he said of hi
x .. lo would have to have sketch. "I would like a part of the land and other
been planted by people. parties here would take the remainder. The "other
ts
From seed to first crop of nuts
would take about seven yg r
: years. Trees of abo 20 feet ;. -
in height would be 10 to 12
Ralph Munroe (right) stands in ' � )
front of a mature coconut tree on years old. What also is puz-
the beach in 1884. (Munroe) zling is that Florida State ,,,, i , . s :: , ' i i,; ,,', ' ',,,, -
surveyors' field notes of 1873 , ,,,,4„,....*: -,:: , -."-t, 4 4., .) :.,,.,,,;,-
..,,,... ,,,,i.„„„0, , ,v; -,,..„.: Y ;.4. 4if ,f,;\_,
made no reference to Braman's Landing. How could l'° '°
a surveyor miss a dock or small building? He could , , Y ; �.' 74,4^ `
not. The answer lies somewhere akin to the mystery, p
PP g
of the disc earance of the dinosaurs. Something ,i , ti I; , '
perhaps a hurricane, perhaps the persistence of the :
jungle— erased any trace of coconut trees or man
from the lower section of Miami Beach by 1873.
g
While Ralph Munroe refers in his memoirs to a '. '
Brama's Landing for Braman's Landing, it must be
asked whether there was anything there other than
A rudimentary sketch by Henry Lum was part of a letter from him
a clearing to beach a small boat. to state officials in 1883 seeking a survey of some of his property.
Henry Lum went back to New Jersey and, The sketch shows the southern tip of Miami Beach —now Fisher
with his nurseryman's and business- oriented mind, I s l and —and the property just north of it. (Joe Knetsch)
began planning to go into the coconut plantation
business. Accompanied by daughter -in -law Effie's parties" certainly were Ezra Osborn and Elnathan
brother, Stillwell Grover of Red Bank, New Jersey, Field and their families. Lum, Osborn and Field, the
Henry Lum returned to the Biscayne Bay area in latter two Quakers, were living in Middletown, New
1882, coming up from Key West in a 16 -foot boat. Jersey in 1880. Field was in his early 40s and was a
"The journey itself was a bit of courageous pioneering farmer. It appeared that he was successful because he
for them," wrote Munroe, "since they knew nothing employed two domestic servants and three farm
whatever of sailing, and actually worked up along laborers.' Osborn, in his mid -50s, was a surveyor, as
111