WPBFD History

CHAPTER ONE Early Settlement on Lake Worth 500 B.C. to November, 1894 The farther back you look, the farther forward you are likely to see. Winston Churchill

pursuit thought differently.

500 B.C. The earliest inhabitants on the southeast coast of Florida were Indians. At the Jupiter Inlet a great oyster shell mound, twenty feet high and six hundred feet long, contained evidence of blackened campfires from tribes dating back to 500 B. C. The area provided sufficient food in the form of oysters, fish, and game to sustain these primitive people, but the land was wild. In the cen- turies before explorers landed on the shores everyday life was a matter of providing the basics necessary for sur- vival and nature’s perils were accepted as normal by the rugged Indians. These native Americans survived many hardships, but the coming of the white man marked the beginning of the end for their civilization and simple way of life. 1500 - 1600s Historians credit Ponce de Leon as the first explorer to investigate the southeast coast of La Florida. In 1513 he landed at Jupiter Inlet to replenish food and water. In 1555 Menendez visited the area, finding the Jeaga Indians living on the high shell mound at the inlet. Conflicts with these early explorers set the tone for later encounters be- tween the white men and Indians. The most detailed account of the Jeaga Indians was written by Jonathan Dickinson, a passenger aboard the barkentine Reformation, when it ran aground near Hobe Sound on September 24, 1696. The natives were not par- ticularly friendly to the strange intruders cast upon the desolate beach by fate. Dickenson and his fellow survi- vors were bound and imprisoned by what they considered brutal savages. After several weeks, the survivors of the Reformation were released. The Indians pointed north- ward along the barren white beaches, pushing the weak- ened white invaders away from their domain with spear points. Descendants of these pale strangers would none- theless return in even greater numbers. 1800s Documentation from participants in the Seminole Indian Wars (1835-1842) offered evidence why the south- eastern coast of Florida had not yet been settled. Many Indians, pushed southward by hostilities in the north, found the interior swamps a perfect retreat while those in

In 1838 General Thomas Sidney Jesup led an expe- dition to the Jupiter Inlet, fighting the Indians in the Loxa- hatchee swamp at the eastern end of the Everglades. Dr. Motte, serving the command as a surgeon, stated: After all, Florida is certainly the poorest country that ever two people quarreled for. The climate in the first place is objectionable; for even in Winter, while per- sons farther north were freezing, we were melting with heat. In the next place the larger portion . . . is a poor, sandy country in the north; and in the southern portions nearly all wet prairies and swamp; healthy in winter but sickly in summer. . . . It is in fact a most hideous region to live in; a perfect paradise for Indi- ans, alligators, serpents, frogs, and every other kind of loathsome reptile . . . Then why not . . . let the Indi- ans have kept it? The population of Florida in 1845 at the time of statehood was 66,500, concentrated mostly in the northern third of the state. The major population areas were Jack- sonville, St. Augustine, Key West, and the panhandle. Transportation around the more desolate areas of the pen- insula was accomplished by ship. The southeast coast remained unsettled. Construction of the Jupiter Lighthouse, near Fort Jupiter of the Seminole Indian Wars, was completed in 1859. The workers and keepers of the lighthouse were the only white persons on the coast south of Fort Pierce. At the outbreak of the Civil War the illumination equip- ment was disabled by attendant August Lang, a southern sympathizer. Fearing arrest by coastal patrols, Lang hid out on an island that is now known as Palm Beach and is considered to be the first resident of the island. Michael Sears and his son were exploring present day Lake Worth in a small schooner in 1866. They discovered Lang, liv- ing with his wife, in a small cabin unaware that the Civil War had ended. Lang later moved north, near Fort Pierce, where he was murdered in 1874. The next settlers arrived in 1872. Charlie Moore moved into the old Lang place which was several miles south of the Palm Beach Inlet. Mr. and Mrs. Malden set- tled on the north side of the inlet. W. M. Butler and Will H. Moore lived near the south end of the lake on an island that would later be known as Hypoluxo, an Indian word meaning "big water all around, no get out." In 1873 the

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