Palm Harbor Family Had 85 Kids

Editor's Note- Robyn Poppick is off this week, she will return soon. In the meantime, here's one of her columns that was about an especially unique and large family in Palm Harbor. Robyn has many other great columns about Palm Harbor history as well. Enjoy!

It's hard to imagine being part of a family with 85 children. Just cooking three meals a day would be a full time job, never mind the reams of homework generated or the number of shoes needed! 

Two people who settled at the old Blue Heron Hotel in Crystal Beach loved being parents to all those children. The Rev. Fred C. Markert and his wife, Cora, brought their Faith Mission from Tampa to Crystal Beach in 1928 with only 27 children. By March 1940, the Markerts were legal guardians to 85 children ranging in age from 2 months to 16 years.

The Markerts took care of these children without soliciting funds.  What they lacked in funds, they certainly made up for with the abundance of love they had for the kids. 

Luck and benefactor generosity allowed the Markerts to move into the new Faith Mission. Food and financial donations were regular and came from caring individuals and local businesses. 

Weekly donated truckloads of food arrived from Tampa. Back then, potatoes, onions, flour, cabbage, sugar and bread were among the basic necessities that families relied on. It was reported that in 1940, the children went through $100 of milk a month, or almost 295 gallons! That's a costly amount of milk when the minimum wage was 30 cents an hour.        

Once a child reached age 5, he or she was assigned age-appropriate chores. The Markerts thought that the assignment of daily chores helped the children become more altruistic, confident and self-reliant. 

Music was also important to the Markerts. The Faith Mission cultivated a 26-piece Little Symphony where children ages 7 through 16 performed during the winters. A 20-member boys’ Glee Club performed on Sundays for visitors to the home. 

The Markerts had two of their own children, Irene and Margaret, not long after they married in 1896. Their daughters helped out at the Mission. Irene taught the children to play the piano and stringed instruments.

Sometime in the late 1930s, the Markerts went to New York to appear on a CBS radio show called “We The People,” which showcased regular folks performing extraordinary deeds.

The Markerts were extraordinary people who had a colorful life. Before beginning Faith Mission in Tampa in 1923, they were field missionaries in the Canary Islands. 

Accounts differ on when Cora Markert passed away, but it is known that the Reverend passed away after his wife in 1948. In 1951, the home was demolished, and it was replaced in 1953 with a 10-room building. From the late 1950s until 2001, the properties were utilized as retirement housing for those on a modest income. 

The Faith Mission continues to serve the Pinellas County community in a different way. When the board of directors of Faith Mission determined that the cost to run the properties was too high, a decision was made to sell all of the properties, with the exception of the youth center. The proceeds established the Faith Mission Fund, which is currently administered through the Pinellas County Community Foundation. 

The Markerts were special people who touched the lives of many children in a positive way. Today, their work continues to help others through the Faith Mission Fund. It only took two people with a vision and lots of love to change our little part of the world.