The Barkers of Branford: Life in America Through a Local Lens10

The following is an excerpt from Ted Braun’s book “The Barkers of Branford: Life in America Through a Local Lens”. It is available for $30 at the Blackstone Library in Branford. Details at www.BarkersOfBranford.com

Amidst the short dark, cold winter days, many New Englanders of today fantasize about a mid-winter escape basking in the Florida sun for a well-deserved break. But Llewellyn in 1894 was not seeking a vacation. The shop where he worked was under threat of being sold, a 20% wage cut had been instituted, and the atmosphere was, in his words, “little less than a prison”. He was looking for a way out. A newspaper ad for land in the Sarasota/Bradenton area for fruit production caught his attention. The following correspondence was found folded in Llewellyn’s diary.

“Mr. Barker....... It seems to me with the energy you speak you ought to succeed here on these pine lands. The prospect looks bright for a good community. I have 120 acres (that) could be divided up into 8 or 10 homesteads giving each a river front and each high low land suited to fruit vegetables for northern markets as well as rice & sugarcane. The orange, lemon, cattle and Chinese guavas, grape fruit and grapes … are the money crops. The climate is delightful. … ….Our transportation is the best as the river and bay connect by water to the whole outside world........ I.M. DePew”

More letters were exchanged. This from his diary.

“I got a letter from I M DePew Fla... Dell got a letter from Mrs I M Depew... She wants me to go down there” 2/8/1894

On June 29th, he was on his way.

"Sat, June 30, 1894 ...Hot ...Hotter.... Hottest... NC ...SC ...Ga... The country we are passing through is a terrible one for a Northerner... Scrub corn & cotton ground is red and white clay shanties without shade"

"Sun, July 1, 1894... Hot with thundershowers... I awoke early got up & washed & dressed...we stopped at Plant City Tampa at 9 o'clock .. saw Plants great hotel & grounds...Evening I went to an Adventist meeting with two fellows... I sang in the old way...the man tried to prove there was a Devil.”

Only accessible by river, Llewellyn made the eight mile trip up the Braden River to the DePew property. The following offers a glimpse of the area at the time. “Think ‘frontier.’ There were no banks, only a few wooden stores, cattle roamed the streets, no water or sewer pipes and the Braden River was the back of beyond,”

"Tues July 3, 1894 ...Clear & warm... I went about Mr DePew’s grove... saw his fruit... picked bananas plumbs grapes & melons.... His place is pleasant if it was settled about.... It is too isolated to bring my children.”

In 1900, when Branford had two hundred people per square mile, Manatee had only five. This statistic alone provides stark contrast.

On the heels of this trip, Llewellyn returned to work at the Branford Lock Works and supplemented income whenever possible including, as when a boy for Harvey Beach, cutting ice on the millpond, this time for Tom Ward. From his own garden he produced the majority of the food that fed his four daughters, his wife and himself!

He raised chickens. In his diary in each day’s entry was the egg count. When the egg count waned as the chickens aged, it was time for the stew pot. His diary entry suggests he had a few good candidates on this day just in time for Thanksgiving!

“Some of our chickens are old enough to vote”.

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“The Barkers of Branford: Life in America Through a Local Lens” is available for $30 at the Blackstone Library in Branford. Details at www.BarkersOfBranford.com