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OLD CITY HALL, HOME OF BOCA RATON HISTORICAL SOCIETYJeanne Nixon Baur, Artist

A report to the membership of

Boca Raton Historical Society, Inc.

P.O. Box 1113 • Boca Raton, Florida 33432

Board of TrusteesRobert I. MacLaren II, Chairman

David Ashe Mrs. Gilbert J. Pomar, jrDonald W. Curl Mrs. Dorn Lee ReddJ. Herman Dance Frank D. SchuylerMrs. David Dickenson Charles B. SchwadererMrs. Robert L. Kester Mrs. Stephen F. SnyderMrs Randolph S Merrill jr Mrs L. Bert StephensGlenn E. Partin Mrs. L. Peter Welch

Clement C. Winke

Mrs. Michael W. O'Brien, PresidentMrs. George R. Canty, First Vice President

Mrs Charles F Mohaupt, Second Vice PresidentMrs Richard D Notes, Recording Secretary

John D. Girard, TreasurerMrs. Howard McCall, Archivist

Honorary TrusteesRobert D. Tylander Charles H. Goby

l iurrSPRING 1984 VOL X I I . NO. 3

I first met Theodore Pratt in 1968 afterJudge James R. Knott had asked him to write theForeword for the manuscript I had edited of earlypioneer life in southeastern Florida wri t ten byCharles Pierce. As Geoffrey Lynfield points out inthe following article, Pratt used the Foreword ofwhat became Pioneer Life in Southeast Florida(University of Miami Press, 197O), to "recognize amost excellent piece of Florida history," and to"acknowledge a debt." The debt was the use ofthe original Pierce manuscript, then called "On theWings of the Wind," in gathering material for hisbest known Florida book, The Barefoot Mailman."Although we only talked a few times, usually inthe Theodore Pratt Room of the Florida AtlanticLibrary, I quickly came to appreciate his seriousinterest in Florida, and particularly, southeastFlorida, history. How he gained this interest andcame to write the "Florida Trilogy" is detailed inMr. Lynfield's article.

The two short articles by Professor Daniel F.Austin of Flor ida A t l a n t i c ' s Depar tmen t ofBiological Sciences recount the story of twonatural "landmarks" in Palm Beach County .Certainly this is the first time that I knew amountain existed in the county.

Donald W. Curl,Editor

THEODORE PRATT (1901-1969)

A REASSESSMENT

by GEOFFREY LYNFIELD

Theodore Pratt lived in the Old Florestasection of Boca Raton from 1946 to 1958 and thenanother twelve years in Delray Beach. He wasthe author of some thirty-five books of whichseventeen had a Florida setting. Five of his bookswere made into Hollywood movies. His mostfamous contribution to local history is his trilogy:The Barefoot Mailman (1943), The Flame Tree(195O), and The Big Bubble (1951). As Prattbased these novels on detailed research, they areof great interest to the local historian.

Pratt also wrote a large number of articlesand short stories, many about Florida. At the timeof his death in 1969, Pratt was well known locallyand heralded as the "Literary Laureate" of Florida.Four of his books are still in print today andreassessment of his life and work is overdue.

Theodore Pratt was born in Minneapolis in1901, the son of Thomas A. and Emma Pratt. Hisfather was French-Canadian and his mother Irishand German. His family moved to New Rochelle,New York, where Pratt attended high school. Atthe age of sixteen he secured his first writing jobon The New Rochelle Daily Star producing acolumn entitled "The Poor Fish." (A check throughthe microfilm at the New Rochelle Library failedto turn up any examples of "The Poor Fish" columnand it is possible that this was written for theschool paper.)

From New Rochelle, Pratt went to ColgateUniversity for two years and to Columbia for

another two years but never received a degree.Following college, his literary career started inearnest and during his first working years he heldat the same time the jobs of play reader, staffreader for a movie company, and columnist for TheNew York Sun.

In 1929, Theodore Pra t t married BelleJacqueline (Jackie) Jacques, having met on a blinddate. From his freelance magazine articles, whichstarted appearing in The New Yorker and othernational publications, he had saved some moneyand the newlyweds left for Europe where theyremained for the next four years, Pratt serving asEuropean correspondent for The New York Sun.

In this way, he came to the Spanish island ofMajorca where he wrote notes for The DailyPalma Post, published locally in the Englishlanguage. In 1933, Pratt wrote an outspokenarticle which appeared in the July issue of H. L.Mencken's American Mercury entitled "ParadiseEnjoys a Boom." In the story, Pratt accused theMajorcans of unspeakable cruelty to animals,dishonesty, ignorance, insular prejudice, and othersuch delectable qualities:

M a l l o r c a n s are among thecruelest people to animals extant inthe civilized world. They think nothingof skinning a rabbit alive or plucking achicken before it has expired. Theykick harmless dogs to death and putout the eyes of cats from puremalicious sadism. . . . The natives ofthe Isle of Light are nearly 7O%illiterate. . . . They will press theirnoses to your bedroom window andstare in for hours. . . . They makeinept servants, and when not shirkingtheir work from pure laziness orcontrariness, they are stealing food totake to their own homes. . . .The issue of the magazine somehow found its

way to Majorca. The Pratt article was partiallytranslated and reproduced in a local rival Spanishlanguage paper La Ultima Hora.

Pratt's local popularity at this point took anunderstandable slump. The Pratts were living in arented cottage in the small village of Puerto dePollensa where Ted was known as El Sadalio (TheSandalled One.) The events which followed areclearly set out in a letter dated July 22, 1933.This letter and related documents were located inthe National Archives, Washington, GeneralRecords of the Department of State (File 352.112).Pratt's statement reads as follows:

On July 16th 1933, in PuertoPollensa, Majorca, two members of theSpanish National Guard appeared at theresidence of my wife and myself andrequested to see our joint passport, no.48, issued at Seville about June, 1932.The passport was found in order. Itwas then stated that the "government"in Palma wished to see the passport. Igave it to the Guardias and they gaveme a receipt for it.

On the night of July 17th, ademonstration was made outside myhouse by a well-organized mob of aboutthree hundred people, natives, fromPuerto Pollensa and the Town ofPollensa. In the morning friends ofours brought us food, saying that theyhad heard there was to be a boycottagainst us not to sell us food. On thehouse I found a sign stating: 'Indecentspy, paid by the National Board ofTourism of the U.S.A.1 Later that daywe were informed by the Guard that wecould not leave Pollensa without theirpermission. This was changed stilllater and we were given a chance togo to another part of the Island for thesake of safety. We chose the capital,Palma, and a single Guard officeraccompanied us at the Hotel Pahna andwere then given to understand that wewould no longer be welcome there andthat we could stay at no other Palmahotel. We then moved to the home of

an American friend, where we are nowresiding.

The above actions against us areclearly the result of an article of minecalled 'Paradise Enjoys a Boom,'published in the July, 1933, issue ofThe American Mercury, in New York,N.Y.

I wrote to Mr. Dawson, ourConsul in Barcelona, on the 18th,explaining what had happened ,requesting the return of my passportand expressing my wish to leave Spaini m m e d i a t e l y . On the 2Oth Iinterviewed Mr. Dawson in Palma andhe said that he had not received myletter before leaving Barcelona. I gavehim a copy of the letter. He at firsts tated that he could not aid mewithout consulting the Embassy inMadrid. He stated that in a talk withthe Governor of Mallorca, my name hadbeen brought up in connection with apossible action to be taken by unknownpersons against The Daily Palma Postwhich it is alleged had been attackingMr. Dawson.

Claude Dawson, the American Consul General inBarcelona, filed his own report in which Mrs.Pratt comes out rather well as keeping her "cool"in a difficult situation.

Pratt agreed after leaving Spain "not towrite any untruth or any libelous attack againstMallorca or Spain." Their passport was returnedand on July 29, the Pratts were allowed to leavethe island on the steamship Exochorda bound forBoston.

While the Pratts had been overseas, thedepression in the United States had deepened.Many writers and artists were out of work. ThePratts first went to stay briefly with Ted Pratt 'sparents in New Rochelle and then proceeded toFlorida in their Ford car, which Mrs. Pratt recalls

had a rumble seat at the back. From 1934 to 1946the Pratts lived in the City of Lake Worth, first at1428 North Lakeside Drive and later at 313 ThirdAvenue, South.

His first novel Springout in 1933 followed twoWithout the Wedding.(1936) was dramatized andtitle opened in New York onthe WPA Federal Theaterremembers a near-hurricanenight.

from Downward cameyears later by Not

The novel Big Blowa play under the sameOctober 2, 1938 underProject. Mrs. Pratthitting New York that

The play was well received by the NewYork Times' t hea t re c r i t i c " . . . a lustymelodrama, of life in the Florida crackerland, werethe wind is wont to blow with a terrifying howl . .. If Tobacco Road accepts the Georgia crackerfor what he is, Mr. Pratt is no less considerate ofsuch kinfolk as destiny chanced to place furthersouth." The play ran for six months and firmlyestablished Pratt as a literary figure. In June,1950 Big Blow, as many of his other books later,was reissued in pocket book edition and wasrenamed My Bride in the Storm.

Theodore Pratt came to love his adoptedstate and made a point of leaving the tourist coastto t rave l inland. He re la tes in FloridaRoundabout (1959) how he attended everyCracker Holy Roller meeting he could find, everycockfight,and old-time medicine show. He went onfishing trips with the Conch people of the FloridaKeys and snuff-gobbed on the steps of countrystores. He journeyed to the mangrove coast, jukejoint on a "high" night, he attended the backcountry barbecue and any other manifestation ofnative Florida to which he could gain entrance.When he wrote Mercy Island (1941) he lived inthe Keys in order to truly depict the life of theisland dwellers.

His many writings and frequent appearanceson television and radio did not go unnoticed and a

commentator in The Miami Herald wrote inJanuary, 1951: "Most amazing thing about Mr.Pratt, from the viewpoint of native Floridians . . .is how this comparative newcomer (he's just beenhere since 1935) has managed to catch the realspirit of Florida."

During his exploration of Florida, TheodorePratt-—as he liked to recall when interviewed bynewspaper men--had several near brushes withdeath. On one occasion, he was on a tripexploring the Everglades by boat with members ofthe Audubon Society when the boat carrying theparty ran out of gas and was stranded for a dayand a half in the mosquito-laden wilderness of theGlades infested with alligators and watermocassins (The Miami Herald May 28, 1967).Much of the material for Escape to Eden(1953)was gathered on this trip through the Lost Manand Shark River Country, which is now theEverglades National Park.

Writing candidly about the rural life inmagazines and books, Pratt received many lettersof protest. Pratt's article, "Land of the Jook," inthe April 26, 1941 Saturday Evening Post told ofthe incredibly dreadful housing conditions andcheap skin-game gambling joints of the itinerantlaborers of the winter vegetable-growing sectionaround the south-east shore of Lake Okeechobee."Many of the migrants, white and black, continueto live in indescribable squalor in ramshacklecamps, boardinghouses, tin and burlap shacks,brokendown trailers, trucks, old automobiles—andthe screaming jooks." The people of that sectionwere so incensed that Pratt was warned to stayaway to avoid trouble. The Belle Grade peopleeventually forgave Pratt after the story had beenmade into a movie but it was some years beforeP r a t t dared to rev i s i t the area. Prat tcharacteristically embroidered this story and goesas far as saying that there was "wild but seriouslymeant talk of coming in and lynching me" (FloridaRoundabout, p. 7).

Based on the "Land of the Jook" article, in194O Prat t wrote the screen play for the motionpicture Juke Girl produced by Warner Brothersand s t a r r i n g Ronald Reagan. The publicitymaterial stated that before becoming a screens t a r , Rona ld Reagan was a l i feguard andsportscaster. "His voice won him a chance in themovies . . . good looks and ability made him sure-fire star material . . . " The movie opened in NewYork on June 18, 1942. Pratt later complainedthat when Warner Brothers made Juke Girl theyshot some Florida scenes out in the San FernandoValley and showed mountains in the background.

Whilst at Lake Worth, Prat t wrote fourmurder mysteries under the pseudonym TimothyBrace (Timothy was the name of Pratt's dog butMrs. Pratt does not recall where Brace camefrom): Murder Goes Fishing (1936); Murder Goesin a Trailer (1937); Murder Goes to the Dogs(1938); and Murder Goes to the World's Fair(1939). He also completed his most famous book,The Barefoot Mailman.

The first three mystery novels have Floridas e t t i n g s . In Murder Goes Fishing which issubtitled "Anthony Adams' First Mystery," Adams,an amateur criminologist, yachtsman, and big gamefisherman, discovers Lonzo Cayber ry , t h ewea l th ies t winter res iden t of Palm Beach,strangled to death in his deck chair on the PalmBeach fishing pier.

In Murder Goes in a Trailer, the setting isa trailer park modelled on Briny Breezes. ThePratts stayed at this camp for a while to get thefeel of trailer life. Anthony Adams, the suavedetective, is called upon to solve the mysteriousmurder of a retired army general who was founddead in his pajamas with the door, windows, andsky light of the trailer all closed and locked fromthe inside.

When Lake Worth began to expand, TheodorePratt and wife Jackie moved to the then secluded

area of Old Floresta in Boca Raton They firstlived in a house rented from Fred Aiken wherePrat t finished The Barefoot Mailman (1943).After a brief stay in Cal i fornia , the P r a t t sreturned to Boca Raton and in 1946 bought one ofthe Addison Mizner Spanish style houses fromHermann von Hoist at 755 Azalea Street. Theystayed there until 1958. This was one of Pra t t ' smost productive periods during which he turnedout Valley Boy (1946) and Mr. Thurtle 's Trolley(1947). Pratt also completed the Florida trilogywith The Flame T r e e (1950) and The BigBubble (1951).

The T o r m e n t e d ( 1 9 5 0 ) , a s t u d y ofnymphomania, had been turned down by thirty-fourpublishers as too hot to handle. It eventually soldmore than a million copies. Another sex novel,Cocotte (1951), a story about a sexually naiveyoung American who falls in love with a Parisiandancing girl followed. Handsome (1951) and TheGolden Sorrow (1952) were also completed duringthis period. Seminole (1953), about ChiefOsceola, sold nearly one million copies and is stillin print today. Smash-Up (1954) was about theaftermath of an automobile accident.

Pratt twice tried to get away from Florida.Although he spent some time in California andlater in Arizona, he believed that both thesewestern s ta tes were being ruined by too muchcommercial expansion.

The Pratts finally settled down in the pinywoods west of Delray Beach and from 1958 to1969 made the i r home on secluded BradyBoulevard, a short street off Barwick Road facingwhat is now Barwick Golf Course. When Prattmoved there in 1958 horses still grazed at theback of his house. Theodore Pratt continued tolive in Delray Beach until his death on December16, 1969.

Delray Beach at the time had acquired thereputation of an artists' colony. During the 1930s

of the Barefoot Mailmen of Florida. . . .I searched out the pioneers who hadlived at that time. I talked with overa hundred of them. I managed to findtwo men then still living who actuallyhad carried the mail. • . . The Garnettfamily of Hypoluxo was extremelyhelpful in showing me a handwrittenaccount about James Hamilton, theBarefoot Mailman who lost his lifeswimming the river at Pompano whilstcarrying the mail.

He also explained how he had arrived at the nameof the fictional hero in the book, Steven Pierton.He used the first part of the Pierce name (CharlesPierce was one of the barefoot mailmen) and thelast part of Hamilton to make up Pierton (A fullreport on this talk is to be found in The LakeWorth Herald of January 6, 1958).

During his frequent interviews withnewspapermen—usually at the time a new bookcame out—Pratt touched upon the question ofpriority between the author and Steven Dohanoswho painted the murals in the West Palm BeachPost Office depicting the saga of James Hamilton'slast trip on six beautiful panels. Pratt thenaverred that: "Steve Dohanos and I, each unknownto the other, were working on the projects at thesame time. Only after both were finished did welearn this, and then we beat our heads for wecould have saved ourselves a lot of research bypooling our data." Pratt makes a similar assertionin Florida Roundabout (1959), see p. 6. "In theWest Palm Beach Post Office there are six veryexcellent murals (painted by Steven Dohanos atthe same time (italics added) I was writing mybook) depicting the barefoot mailman."

This writer has gone through the author'snotebook on The Barefoot Mailman in the FAUcollection page by page. None of the material inthis folder is dated before 1941. P r a t t ' sinterviews with the pioneers were around 1941 butapparently not earlier. On April 18, 1941 he

wrote to Charles (Chuck) Leon Pierce, the son ofCharles W. Pierce who authored Pioneer Life inSoutheast Florida:

Since you kindly talked with mefor a few moments I have decided toenlarge on this subject and investigateit for a larger work of fiction . . . Iwould like to take advantage of yourprevious offer to read your manuscriptabout your father . . If your manuscriptis defintely helpful, and my ideas workout . I would be glad to make anacknowledgement in the prestatementto my work, of your cooperation.

Pratt duly perused the manuscript but in the"author's note" of the The Barefoot Mailmanthere is no reference to the Pierce diaries. Thisomission may be one of the reasons why Mrs LilliePierce Voss (the sister of Charles W. Pierce andthe first white child born in Palm Beach County)was so upset about Pratt when she made a taperecording (in the possession of Professor Curl) andcame out in rather harsh language against Pratt:unusual for this usually placid and agreeable oldtimer. Pratt wrote the foreword to PioneerLife. He used this opportunity, twenty-sevenyears later, to thank "unfortunately in postmortemfashion" some members of the Pierce family whohad helped him with the book. As it happened, bythe time Pioneer Life came out, Pratt himself haddied.

The six murals in the Palm Beach Post Officehad been installed by March 194O and thefavorable publicity which they received must havegiven Pratt the "push" to get on seriously with hisresearch although he may have thought about thesubject earlier.

On August 4, 1943 Prat t wrote to Mr.Dohanos from Hollywood, California: "I startedcollection back in 1935 and needed more detail forthe general life of the people. When I gotdiscouraged I would go in and look at yourpictures. Then I'd go on again." The interviews

with the various pioneers and the letters in theFAU collection are all dated after the installationof the murals.

Mr. Steven Dohanos of Westport, Connecticuthas kindly furnished this writer with a detailedchronology in a letter dated February 8, 1984:

I was contacted to do the muralson April 3, 1939 and visted the Floridaarea to seek out helpful data fromsurviving people such as Chas. Piercewho was my g r e a t e s t source ofinformation. He knew it well andremembered James Hamilton and thelegend that began when he lost his lifeat Hillsboro Inlet. Pierce was well inhis eighties but seemed to have totalrecall and was a very alert person andimmensely helpful to me.

I was assigned to this muralproject by the Section of Fine Arts,Treasury Dept., Procurement Division,an agency set up in Roosevelt's timeand headed by Edward Bruce, a closefriend of his.

Edward Bruce was aware of myart and believed me to be the properrealistic (representational artist) totake this assignment. I might add thatthey gave out severa l hundredcontracts to artists in every area ofAmerica to record folk art anddecorate public buildings with paintedmurals.

The subject was spelled out inthe contract as six 4' x 8' 'Legend ofJames Edward Hamilton, Mail Carrier.1

No reference to Barefoot Mailman wasin the contract. . . I believe it was Mr.Pierce who used the phrase first withme when I had arrived to interviewhim. From then on the phrase"Barefoot Mailman" was carried forwardby all involved-

Steven Dohanos's first visit to Florida on thisassignment was probably in February of 1939-Dohanos was then thirty-two years old and hadalready exhibited widely in the United States andin Europe. The six murals were actually paintedin Westport, Connecticut later in 1939 and thendelivered to the West Palm Beach Post Office.

In 1939, Charles W. Pierce was s t i l lPostmaster at Boynton Beach and he wrote toDohanos on March 15 and April 8 of that year inregard to some old photos taken in 1887. Theseshowed James Hamilton wearing the same kind ofclothing and the same kind of hat which he woreon his mail carrying trip.

The earl iest published use of the term"Barefoot Mailman" this writer was able to findwas in an article by Hustin McMillan in The PalmBeach Post-Times of March 31, 194O whichappeared following the installation of the murals.This precise phrase is not used in the Piercediaries. Therefore it would seem that TheodorePratt did not first use the term "BarefootMailman." Pratt having made this assertion somany times it is not surprising that some localhistorians have accepted this as a fact (see forinstance Mary Linehan in Early Lantana, HerNeighbors—and More (198O, p. 20).

Donn Curl in editing Pierce's Pioneer Lifein Southeast Florida has used for his Chapter 7the heading "New Settlers and the BarefootMailman." Pierce himself however used the term"Barefoot Route" (p. 194). "On my return I founda number of important changes had taken place.First and foremost of these was the establishmentof a mail route from Palm Beach to Miami by wayof the ocean beach. It was called the barefootroute because the mail carrier went barefoot. . ."Pratt never met Charles W. Pierce who died in1939 but did manage to talk to Dan McCarley ofLantana, "the only real barefoot mailman I couldfind at that date still living." (This seems toconflict with Pratt's statement at the Kiwanis

Club Dinner December 28, 1958 that he found"two men still living who actually had carried themail, and from them I obtained much material.")

In an article which appeared in "Lake WorthNotes" of The Palm Beach Post (June 23, 1943)Pratt is reported as saying that several barefootmailmen still lived and that he "talked with dozensof pioneers and every former barefoot mailman hecould l o c a t e . " Apart from Dan McCarley ofLantana, Pratt never identified in any of hisarticles or notes any other mailman. Having seenthe Post article, Mrs. Lillie Pierce Voss, whosebrother Charles W. Pierce was one of the lastcarriers, wrote to Pratt from Hypoluxo on June 27,1943 at the age of sixty-eight:

I was the girl of twelve yearswho took the mail carrier, Ed Hamilton,over to the ocean beach with his skiff(boat) at the starting on that fatefuljourney of his where he met his deathat a day or two later, and it was mybrother who went to look for him. . .

I do not know who you contactedas former mail c a r r i e r s over the"Barefoot Route" as at the present timethere is only one of them living (if heis). My brother Chas. W. Pierce, one ofthe carriers and the face of the muralsin W. Palm Beach Post Office, has beendead for four years.

Mrs. Voss concluded her letter by asking Pratt foran autographed copy of his book.

On July 6, 1943, Pratt replied to Mrs. Vossfrom North Hollywood, California:

Your nephew, Char les Pierce("Chuck"), was one of approximately1OO people I talked with in gettingmaterial for the book. As I wrote tohim recently it is impossible for me tosend copies to all my references, and itwould be unfair to send it to anyone inthis case. There a re , by the way,several men still living who carried the

i\

mail for short periods of time, these Italked with at great length. (Italicsadded) For the greater part of mybackground material however, I had torely on research work on my own, dueto the fact that the stories of thepioneers differed so much in fact andfancy. • . .

The tone of this letter and Pratt 's refusal to giveher a free copy of the book rather annoyed Mrs.Voss who replied to Pratt on July 12, 1943:

. . . There may have been manywho on account of advanced age andthinking may have told you that they"carried the mail," certainly a numberstill living walked the barefoot routewith the mail carrier.

Dan McCarley of Lantana mayhave carried it a few trips. There areno others except a man who may beliving in Miami at the present time.

You see, I personally knew allthese men; have been President of ourPioneers Association for two years. . . .I wish to apologize for assuming thatyou would gladly give your book to oneof the central figures of the tragedy.

I did not know that you were insuch financial straights. You see I justdid not comprehend, as we are thosewho raise vegetables, fruits e tc . for aliving, but although this is true, and myhusband is in his 79th year, still inaddition to what we sell for subsistencewe annually give away, to our friendsquantities of oranges, grapefruits andvegetables and I hope the time will notcome when we feel that we cannot dothis. I believe this concludes ourbusiness.Pratt prompty replied to this letter on July

20, 1943 again from Hollywood:I spent nearly two years of work

and travel getting the material for mybook all the way from Cocoanut grove

to New York C i t y . It cost mesomething over $2,000 simply to getthis material and purchase old books,pamphlets, and for library researchwork.

I have received the munificentsum of $2225 from my publishers inpayment. The reason I did not givecopies to the nearly 1OO people whohelped me with material is that eachcopy would cost me about $2. And if Igave to one I feel I should give to all.

In the circumstances, I did notfeel, and still do not feel, that I shouldpresent a copy to you, who aided mein no way whatever.Theodore Pratt recalls in That Was Palm

Beach (1968) how Dan McCarley explained to himthe curious technique of walking the beach:

McCarley demonstrated the special wayof this to keep the legs springy andprevent them from tiring. It came fromthe fact that there is of course a slantto the beach, and walking on a slant istiring. So the mailman, when walkingsouth, made his stride of the right leg,the higher part of the beach, just alittle quicker than the left, so that thes t eps were equalized. When goingnorth he reversed the process.

When a c a r r i e r or a footpassenger had mastered this techniquehe was called a good "Beach Walkist."

In 1968, Pratt donated to Florida AtlanticUniversity at Boca Raton, his collection of notes,manuscripts, records of manuscript submissions andrejections, and correspondence with his publishers.The Pratt Collection is now housed in a specialroom on the third floor of the S. E. WimberlyLibrary on the FAU campus. The co l l ec t ioncontains Pra t t ' s complete set of first editions ofhis books together with foreign edi t ions andanthologies. Of great interest to the student arealso many of his unpublished s t o r i e s and

correspondence. There is a mine of information onPalm Beach history as Pratt interviewed many old-time residents and direct descendants of thepioneers. These interviews are recorded in hiswork books for the "Trilogy." The notebook onThe Barefoot Mailman includes 230 single-spaced, typewritten pages of material.

In 1944, the Boca Raton Hotel was boughtfrom the Geist estate by the Schine Hotel chain.Included in the deal was substantial acreagecover ing much of t o d a y ' s Boca Raton andpractically the entire seafront property stretchingfrom Delray to Deerfield. Mrs. Hildegarde Schinewas instrumental in making this acquisition for$1.2 million and subsequently restored the historicbuildings which had been occupied during the lastwar by the Army Radar School. During thisperiod, Mrs. Schine and her husband, J. MyerSchine occupied a cabana on the hotel grounds.

At a recent interview at her spacious homeon Spanish River Road, Mrs. Schine told us howshe met the Prat ts and eventually arranged forThe Barefoot Mailman movie to be produced byColumbia Pictures. According to Mrs. Schine, TedPratt one day appeared at the gates of the Hoteland asked to see her. He introduced himself andsaid, "Mrs. Schine, my name is Theodore Pratt. Iam a writer and I would like to know whether youwould let me have the use of one of the emptycabanas on the hotel property so that I can sitthere and write." Mrs. Pratt could not recall thisstory and was sure Ted did all his writing athome. However, she was able to confirm thatMrs. Schine called Ted over to the hotel to meetIrving Thalberg and Sylvan Simon, producers ofColumbia Pictures, who visited with the Schines atthe hotel . Mrs. Schine had been reading anautographed copy of The Barefoot Mailman givento her by Pratt. She interested the movie peoplein the story of the mail carrier. They all read thebook and that same weekend signed a contractwith Theodore Prat t acquiring the rights to thescreen play.

Pratt was consulted as to the location andduring the shooting of the movie stayed at one ofthe Schine hotels in Miami. There was quite aproblem to find an untouched stretch of beachwithout telegraph wires and high-rise apartmentsin the background. Pratt eventually thought ofKey Biscayne which in 195O had not yet beendeveloped. Pratt gave detailed instructions to themovie makers where to take the different shots tomake the movie look authentic--down to the shapeof the rocks: "You can't find any large boulders onthe southern Florida coast. . . You will find someoutcroppings of rough rock. . . This rock is nothigh or pointed on top but usually flat with veryrough small potholes worn in it."

In 1949, Bantam Books reissued TheBarefoot Mailman in paper back with the tileDanger Trail but this was later dropped. Thepaperbacks now on the market again bear theoriginal title. It is not clear why Pratt hadconsented to this change of title. Was it to boostsales? Pratt always regarded The BarefootMailman as his personal trademark.

P r a t t became very aroused when theproducers thought of renaming the movie and hewas asked to suggest an "action title." The MiamiHerald reported in detail on Pratt's effort toretain the original name. In December 195O,Pratt got together a petition bearing some 175names of prominent Boca Raton residents whichwas promptly dispatched to Columbia Studios inHollywood. The petition included signatures fromthe mayor of Boca Raton, president of the LionsClub, commander of the American Legion, head ofthe Boy Scouts, all five city councihnen, the firechief, city clerk, and an assortment of realtors andhousewives.

In the author's note for the second book ofthe Trilogy, Pratt states that "very few liberties(were taken) with the actual happenings duringthe opening up of Florida around the turn of thecentury." The Flame Tree portrays the Palm

Beaches at the time Henry Flagler build the RoyalPoinciana Hotel and brought the railroad down asfar as West Palm Beach. Before starting to write,Pratt spend a year on research. Included in theresearch notes are plans for the Royal PoincianaHotel, the largest wooden hotel structure everbuilt, and Bradley's famous Casino. On The FlameTree notebook cover there is this typed notation:

Approximately 455 pages of single-spaced typewrit ten notes , over aquarter million words. . . Included areplans of Bradley's Beach Club and copyof the Rules.

The information of Flagler movinginto the Palm Beaches in the 189Os anddetails of the Royal Poinciana Hotel,and life there, are believed to be themost extensive ever gathered.

There is no question that Pratt did quite athorough job in researching the background forThe Flame Tree. He interviewed a number offormer employees of the hotel, including a formerheadwaiter who furnished many details of theinterior and the "Cake Walk." This was a kind ofminstrel show in which the black servantscompeted with the Afromobile operators. Prattalso interviewed the head electrician, thetelephone operator, and the head housekeeper.

Pratt was meticulous in his research andmade sure that the detailed description of theinside workings of the hotel were correct and didnot contain any anachronisms. Thus, in January1948 he wrote to AT & T in New York enquiringwhen the first switch boards with little indicatorlamps went into service. AT & T replied: "If thePoinciana house board actually opened in 1894, itis most likely that the board had annunciator flapsbut if the hotel opened in 1895, . . then it is quitepossible that lamps were provided." The hotelactually opened for business in February, 1894 sothat either system could have been installed,Pratt got over the difficulty rather neatly bywriting: "A small telephone system had beeninstalled with old secondhand equipment. . ," (p.

we*

151) (This seems rather unlikely as Henry M.Flagler was not one to save pennies in the puttingup of the largest wooden structure in the world.)

The description of Bradley's Beach Club areequally authentic down to the initials "B. C."which were engraved in the frosted glass panels ofthe white wooden entrance doors to the club.When the Beach Club was being torn down in the1940s (it had operated continuously since 1898)Theodore Pratt called his friend Waldo Sexton, whobuilt the Driftwood Inn at Vero Beach. Waldocame down right away and bought both entrancedoors. They are now in Vero Beach.

For background of the Beach Club, Prattinterviewed Thomas (Tip) Reece who had beenClub Secretary for many years. In the researchnotes, there is a letter from Pratt to Tip Reecedated July 9, 1947 in which Pratt wanted to know:"Was bird game played around 1904? What did thevarious chips sell for around 19O4? What was thecheapest and its color? What was the highest andits color?" Pratt cleverly weaved these historicdata into the story of The Flame Tree. Thus weread on p. 266: "Choo Choo pedalled them up tothe entrance of Bradley's. . . They descended fromthe wheel chair . . . and approached the rathernarrow white wooden door. Its upper panel was offrosted glass in which were the clear le t ters"B.C." Here stood a tall, husky, keen-eyed whitedoorman, clad like themselves in full eveningdress."

After "Timothy" had died, the Prat ts gotanother dog, a dachshund and named him "ChooChoo" after the Afromobile operator.

In the research notes there is a newspaperclipping stating that the two boys who used towork the front gates of the Club made about$14,000 in tips every winter. The man who usedto supervise the little parking area behind thebuilding used to average about $8,000 in tips in a9O-day season. Gambling was illegal in Florida

but Col. E. R. Bradley managed to openly run hisgambling casino from 1898 until World War II, butonly allowed out-of-state visitors into the gamingrooms.

After Henry Flagler, Bradley was consideredPalm Beach's most important figure. He certainlymust have had one of the largest incomes in thecountry for anyone working from early in January,when he arrived in Palm Beach, to the end ofMarch. The taking at the Casino enabled Col-Bradley to maintain a hundred horses on histhousand-acre racing stud at Lexington, Kentucky.Pratt in a few lines manages to draw a sharppicture of Colonel Bradley (p. 234): "A tall ,dignified, straight-backed man, clad in faultlessevening dress, appeared at the side of their table.Colonel Edward R. Bradley had icy blue eyes, thinlipss and a severe expression. It was said that hepreferred horses to men because he knew men sowell. Now, frostily, he regarded the three ofthem. . . .

The reviews of The Flame Tree weremixed. The New York Times' reviewer found thecast of characters pallid against the razzle-dazzlebackground of "The Ponce" as the Poinciana Hotelcame to be called. "Veteran Floridians whoremember the hotel in its heyday will endorse thepicture Mr. Pratt paints in this excellent regionalnovel. . . . Once again we hear the hotel orchestraserenade the private railroad cars of the Belmontsand the Vanderbilts as they back across the LakeWorth bridge." The Bookmark review was lessfavorable. "The factor of overdramatization andoverdrawn situations seems to be the majorw e a k n e s s of the book. This weakness iscompounded by the hardly successful attempt theauthor has made to research fairly large chunks ofAmerica's last frontier. . . and by handling itfictionally to infuse the breath of life into thematerial."

In the third book of the Trilogy, The BigBubble, Pratt takes up the story of Palm beach inthe early 1920s when Addison Mizner introduced

his pseudo-Spanish architecture. "Adam Paine" isa thinly disguised copy of Addison Mizner. Adam,like Mizner, has a pet monkey and has a backer,Michael Sumner, modelled on Paris Singer. Michaellived in a tower apartment in the Flamingo Club.In real life, Paris Singer had a fancy apartment inthe Everglades Club which he controlled. Michaelintroduces Adam to Mrs. Bradbury. In real life,Addison Mizner got his first big Palm Beachcommission from Mrs. Stotesbury. In the book,Adam lived in the tower apartment in Via Paine.In real life, Addison Mizner had built himself anapartment on Via Mizner.

Pratt includes some authentic description ofthe Florida boom in 1925. Adam came to RocaFaro (Boca Raton) about twenty miles south ofPalm Beach where he headed up the Roca FaroDevelopment Company to build a dream resort.They run full page advertisements in the Floridanewspapers with flamboyant statements which arealmost word for word copies of the MiznerDevelopment Corporation's publicity material.

P r a t t is l eas t successful with The BigBubble which seems to have been written ratherhurriedly and without the careful research whichwent into the other books. Margaret Montague ina Master Thesis "Theodore Prat t : The FloridaTrilogy" (1978) analyzes in detail the faults of thebook. To the reader familiar with the Palm Beachscene, the book is an amusing "roman a clef."Some entertaining hours can be spent identifyingreal persons and actual events which figure undera thin disguise in the book. Thus Adam Paine'ssecond wife Mona does no t g ive up hernymphomaniacal ways and seduces Gerry Vance(Wilson Mizner). In real life, Paris Singer broughtdown to Palm Beach Isadora Duncan, the dancer,who had a weakness for prizefighters and wasfound by Paris Singer with a muscular instructorfrom Gus's Bath.

There is no question that Theodore Pratt haspreserved in his Flor ida novels with some

authenticity a little of the old and quality of theplace before it was taken over by the developers.Pratt, in a number of interviews, made the self-serving assertion that evidence "was piling up"that his works started to become part of theculture, history, and literature of Florida. TheBarefoot Mailman, which is still in print today,seems to have reached this goal. The Big Bubbleis also on a Florida Book List prepared by a statelibrarian. It is doubtful, however, whether this istrue for any of his other work.

We should like to conclude with this caveat.Within the scope of this article, already too long,a comprehensive analysis of Pra t t ' s prodigiousoutput and full assessment of the man has not beenpossible.

c H. Geoffrey Lynfield

A HILLSBORO RIVER IN PALM BEACH COUNTY

Daniel F. Austin

Examination of any modern map will showthat Florida has only one Hillsboro (also spelledHillsborough) River. That river is now inHillsborough County near Tampa. Further study ofcurrent maps will show that, between Broward andPalm Beach Counties, there is a canal that iscalled the Hillsboro Canal. Few people seem torealize that both exist and have a related history.

It does not take much searching throughhistorical documents to find that the canal wasformerly the Hillsboro River, and that it drainedthe Hillsboro Marsh (now the Loxahatchee Refuge).These names, however, have long and complexhistories that date from the late 17OOs.

Before the names came into existence theriver that was to become the Hillsboro Canal oftoday was either unknown, or thought to be partof what was then known as Rio Seco. Thesenames appear from the early 1600s on the Sansonand Ruesta maps as well as others. Someconfusion occurred during the 17OOs and the sitewas alternately called Rio Seco, Rio Nuevo, andNew Inlet on the Gibson, Romans, and DeBrahm'smaps. New Inlet was continued for this site atleast until the 1790s when the Gauld map waspublished.

During the first three centuries of Florida'shistory few of the European explorers venturedinland in this region. On the available maps ofthat time, coastal features were emphasized. Themaps were intended mostly for mariners andcontained largely those aspects of the coasts thatwould be useful for determining their geographicallocation. Hills, unusual tree clusters, and mostimpor t an t rivers and inlets were commonnotations. Little detail was given for the inlandparts of the peninsula.

Apparently the first application to any sitein Florida of "Hillsboro" or "Hillsboroughrf camefrom the first English surveys in the 1760s.William DeBrahm first called the Mosquito Lagoonand Indian River branches the "HillsboroughStream" in honor of the Earl of Hillsborough. ThisIrish gentleman, one Wills Hills, who became theSecretary of State for the colonies in 1768, wasparticularly interested in Florida. Indeed, he andDeBrahm may be counted among the first landspeculators in Florida.

Most subsequent map-makers did not,however, like changing the names of those sites tohonor Lord Hillsborough. So, the name was shiftedabout the peninsula. James Grant Forbes, whovisited the area in 18O3, was one of the first toapply Hillsborough's name to a bay formerly knownas "Espiritu Santo" or what we now call TampaBay. Later both a river feeding into that bay, andthe county surrounding it came to be called by theIrish Lord's name.

A th i rd site also came to bear LordHillsborough's name in the 1820s. CharlesVignoles decided to retain older names for bothTampa Bay and the Indian River regions, butnamed the inlet on the southeastern coast as the"Hillsboro Inlet." In so doing he moved theoriginal Hillsborough Inlet named by DeBrahnabout eighty miles south down the eastern coast.Vignoles wrote on his map the standard usage ofthe time, calling the inlet the "Hillsboro or MiddleRiver Inlet" and the stream feeding into it the"Potomac River." It was the late 1830s before thestream ceased to be called the Potomac andbecame the Hillsboro River. Of course, there wereexceptions to these names. For example, theBaldwin & Cradock map of 1834 called the upperpart of the stream the Potomac River and thelower reaches the Rio Seco. There were evensome, such as the Mitchell map of 1831, thatcalled it the "Sharkstail River," but retainedHillsboro Inlet.

With the first military maps of the SecondSeminole War, such as the Poinsett/Hood map of1838 and the MacKay & Blake map of 1839, thewaterway began to settle on either "Hillsborough"of "Hillsboro" River and Inlet. This appelation wascontinued on the first State map, and the Bruffmap of 1846, as "Hillsborough" and the IvesMilitary map of the Third Seminole War as"Hillsboro." This terminology finally settled, andwas kept for the following decades.

With the upsurge of power of that politicalforce known as Mr. Napoleon Bonaparte Broward,new plans began to be made for the HillsboroRiver. In the first decade of the 190Os Browardcampaigned for governorship on a drainageplatform. He is said to have gone about the statearmed with graphs, pictures, and maps of theEverglades as he argued for drainage of this vastmarsh system. He won his governorship (from19O5 to 19O9) and Fort Lauderdale (in what wasto become Broward County on 3O April 1915),became the center of operations for draining theEverglades. By 19Z1 the Hillsboro River had beenreduced to a canal, much of it having been dug by1913.

Today there is little indication that theHillsboro Canal was once a flowing river. Thewaterway is spanned at various points by bridges,and blocked in several places by salt-water dams.These is still a lighthouse near the Hillsboro Inlet,and a town named Hillsboro Beach, but thecharacter of the area is drastically changed.Fishing may still be good, but it is rarely like thatdescribed for the inlet in the 176Os by BernardRomans. He said that ". . . Jewfish are veryabundant both within and without the river. . ."Similarly, the ". . .five tall cabbage trees on thepine land. . ." about two and one quarter milessouth of the inlet are no longer in evidence toguide sailors.

Inland the story of change is similar. Duringthe Second Seminole War Dr. Jacob R. Motte, a

physician attached to General Jesup's command,marched down the coast past the Hillsboro River.Although he did not mention the river by name, hedescribed it as a series of ". . . cypress swampswith deep streams flowing through the center. . ."In truth, the Hillsboro River was one of the majorplaces where excess water escaped from theEverglades. It still serves that purpose eventhough channelized, but the timing and manner haschanged.

BLEACH YARD alias HOBE MOUNTAIN

Daniel F. Austin

From the ocean at the Jupiter Inlet one ofthe most remarkable natural features inland is ahill called "Hobe Mountain." This hill is within theJonathan Dickinson State Park, and is presentlytopped with a platform that makes a convenientplace to survey the surrounding countryside. Fewwho visit the site realize the role in history thispromontory has played.

Although the naming of the hill dates fromthe first Spanish occupation of Florida (1513-1763), most of the early Spanish maps contain toolittle detail for this inland feature. Still, it wasknown at an early date to the Spanish mariners asan important landmark for determining theirposition along the coast. One of the firstreferences to the site was given by Calderon, theBishop of Cuba, in 1675. Yet, it was the mapsfrom the English Period (1763-1783) that broughtinto common usage the name for the hill.

The first English surveys down the easterncoast of Peninsular Florida were made in the early1760s by W. G. DeBrahm and Bernard Romans.

^

While DeBrahm had a tendency to give sites newnames, usually commemorating rich or powerfulpeople in Europe, Romans attempted to retain theold Spanish place names. It is from the Romans'survey that we learn that the tall hill north ofJupiter was ". . . the hill by the Spaniards calledRopas Tendidas, and by us . . . (called) BleachYard." On their map of 1776 Sayer & Bennettwrote: "the Bleach Yard a High Hill full of whitespots remarkable Land Mark." These commentariesare consistent with the later historical record thatBleach Yard was also the place called by theSpanish "Ropas Estendias." This idea, according toVignoles in 1823, was ". . .from the large spots ofland uncovered by vegetation, presenting to thecoasting mariner the appearance of linen spreadout on the hills. . ." Both the names "Beach Yard"and "Ropas Estendias" continued in use well intothe Second Seminole "War and appeared on theHood map of 1838 and the Tanner map of 1839.

Another old name for the same site wasappa ren t ly given first by Stork in 1767 as"Baldhead Mount." This appelation appearedsporad ica l ly on subsequent maps, as on theJefferys map of 1792, and the Gauld map of 1794.Following this time period it seems to have beendropped. Even this descriptor alludes to a hillwith areas open of vegetation so that it seemedbald.

These names give some of the natural historyof this particular site. First, they all refer to ahigh hill which was either bare on top or hadmany open spots t ha t showed be tween thevegetation. The vegetation of these high ridgesand hills was then and continues to be scrub. Thisis a pine woods dominated by several plantsadapted to living under stressful conditions. Thetrees are scrub pines (Pinus clausa), and theunderstory of shrub layer is made up of a varietyof oaks (Quercus spp.), saw palmetto and a shrubcalled rosemary (Ceratiola ericoides). Somethink that this habitat may have occupied thesesandy hills for about 15,000 years or even longer.

One of the striking features of this hill todayis that there are only a few open spots of whitesand visible from any angle. Even from the oceanwhere early surveyors and explorers would haveseen it, the site appears as a dark green hill.This suggests that it was changed markedly sinceat least the middle 17OOs. The change has been amaturing of the scrub vegetation so that it hasclosed in the white sandy spots and made themgreen. A time-frame for the change is still notvery good, since it is not possible to determinewhen the final shift occurred. Indeed, we do notknow for sure that it has occurred only once.Still, the hill continued to be called Bleach Yardor Ropas Estendias in the late 1830s. Perhaps itwas a change that occurred after that time.

Such an interpretation of the disappearanceof the white spots is further supported by a shiftin the location of a place called Bleach Yard. Inthe 184Os a place on Lake Worth began to belabeled "Bleach Yard Haulover." Other sites in theregion were not named with anything resemblingthis. Through the Third Seminole War the LakeWorth site continued to be called "Bleach YardHaulover" and appeared, for example, on the IvesMilitary map of 1856. On later maps the termsBleach Yard and Ropas Es tendias finallydisappeared.

Although it has not been possible to pindown the time "Hobe Mountain" began to be used,it possibly dates from near the beginning ofJonathan Dickinson State Park. The first part ofthis name is clear enough in i ts origin, havingcome from the Indians the early European visitorsfound t h e r e - - t h e Jobe. This name has seenvarious renditions on maps, from Hobe to Hoe-bay.English map-makers saw this as a reference to theGreek Diety Jobe, and Anglicized it to "Jupiter."The name Jupiter is now applied only to a townand inlet.

The second word "mountain" may seem out ofplace in the flatlands of peninsular Florida, but

historically it is not. Many of the early 16OOs and17OOs Spanish maps depict a range of mountainsdown the center of the peninsula. While thesehave been shown to be fictitious, the elevation ofHobe Mountain does make it distinctive from thesurrounding lands. Although an average elevationin that part of Martin County may be about 2Ofeet, Hobe Mountain reaches up to 86 feet. Surelythis seemed like a mountain to people morefamiliar with elevations ranging from sea level toabout thirty feet.

Useful References

Austin, D. F. "Florida Scrub." FloridaNaturalist. 49 (1976), p. 2-5.

Austin, D. F. "Spanish River." BrowardLegacy. 2 (1978), pp. 2-5.

Baldwin & Cradock Map. North AmericaXIV. Florida. (London, 1831). P. K. YongeLibrary #262.

DeBrahm, W. G. DeBrahm's Report of theGeneral Survey in the Southern District ofNorth America. (1773). Edited by LouisDeVorsey, Jr., University of South Carolina Press,Tricentennial Edition, No. 3. 1971.

Forbes, J. G. Sketches, Historical andTopographical , of the Floridas. (1821).Floridiana Facsimile & Reprint Series, Universityof Florida Press, 1964.

Gauld, G. A Chart of the Gulf of Floridaor the New Bahama Channel Commonly Calledthe Gulf Passage Between Florida, the Isle ofCuba & the Bahama Islands (Charing Cross,London, 1794) P. K. Yonge Library #112.

Gibson Map. "A Map of t h e newGovernment s , of Eat and West Florida."Gentleman's Magazine . 33 (1763), opposi te p .552. London.

Hood Map. Map of the Seat of War inFlorida. Compiled by order of the Hon. Joel R.Poinsett, Sec. of War, under the Washington, 1838).

Ives, J. C. Military Map of the Peninsulaof Florida south of Tampa Bay. (Washington,1856).

Jefferys Map. "A map of the Isle of Cubawith the Bahama Islands, Gulf of Florida andWindward Passage." In Jefferys, T. A Descriptionof the Spanish Islands and Settlements on theCoast of the West Indies. (1792) (Reprint byAMS Press Inc., 197O).

MacKay, J. & J. E. Blake. Map of the seatof war in Florida (Washington, 1839).

Mitchell Map. Map of Florida accordingto the la t e s t Philadelphia, 1831). P. K.Yonge Library #815.

Motte, J. R. Journey into Wilderness.Edited by J. F. Sunderman. University of FloridaPress, 1963.

Romans, B. A Concise Natural History ofEast and West Florida (1775). Edited by R. W.Patrick, Floridiana Facsimile Reprint Series,Gainesville, 1962.

Ruesta, S. de. Duke of Alba Collection#7O (Madrid, 1654).

Sansom, N. "Florida." GeographiaExactissima. Die Ganze Erd-Kugel, Frankfort,1679).

Sayer & Bennett Map. East Florida (15October 1776, London).

Stork Map. Accompanying Stork, W. ADescription of East Florida, ed. 3 (London,1769).

Tanner Map. Florida (Philadelphia, 1839)-Vignoles, C. Observations Upon the

Floridas (1823) (Bicentennial Floridiana FacsimileSeries, University Presses of Florida, 1977).

Wenhold, L.L. "A 17th Century letter ofGabriel Diaz Vara Calderon, Bishop of Cuba,describing the Indians and Indian Missions ofFlorida." Smithsonian MiscellaneousCollections. 95:16 (1937), pp. 1-14, pi. 1-12.

c. Daniel F. Austin

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