A History of the Everglades of Florida by J.E. Dovell, 1947
http://sofia.usgs.gov/memorials/dovell



CHAPTER VI

ORIGIN OF THE EVERGLADES DRAINAGE DISTRICT

1. Years of Indecision

"No one part of Florida has been so much written of and so little understood 
as the Everglades." 1  These words are among the truest ever written about 
the area, but the closing years of the last century witnessed a curious 
series of events directed toward the eventual reclamation of the region.  
The partial success of the Disston enterprises reacted to the advantage of 
southern Florida's growth, especially in the construction of canals and 
railroads.  The Disston purchase, providing the means whereby the lands of 
the Internal Improvement Fund were again made available for bestowal to land 
grant corporations, furnished the impulse for the development of the 
peninsula's latest frontier, an old story under a new name. 2

"During Governor Bloxham's first term of office, 1881-84, not only were new 
railway companies chartered, but old charters were reissued; with 17,000,000 
lien-free acres under the control of the trustees, the legislature made 
generous grants to companies seeking aid.  In disregard of the limit 
specified by law -- 3,849 acres per mile -- 8,000 to 20,000 acres per mile 
were allotted to various corporations." 3

Prior to Bloxham's governorship the Board of Trustees of the Internal 
Improvement Fund, by its interpretation of Chapter 610, Acts of 1855, had 
refused to recognize any rights of the legislature to make grants of land 
other than of the alternate sections of swamp and overflowed lands for six 
miles on each side of a properly incorporated railroad or canal. 4  The 
legislature in 1879 passed several acts granting lands beyond the six mile 
limit, "without any regard to the liabilities of the Trust Fund, or the 
provisions of Chapter 610, which placed these lands in the hands of the 
Trustees." 5  Governor George F. Drew vetoed these acts on the ground that 
they were in violation of the 1855 act creating the Trust and the subsequent 
contracts made by the Board of Trustees.  The legislature managed to 
circumvent Drew's veto by making additional land grants subject to the trust 
set up in the 1855 act. 6   From the first administration of  Bloxham in 
1881, through his second administration in 1900, the Board honored the 
legislative  grants of the swamp and overflowed lands of the Fund by 
executing deeds to the grantees.

The Joint Commission, elected by the legislature of 1907 to investigate the 
acts and doings of the Board of Internal Improvement, found that during the 
period from 1879 to 1899 ninety-two acts were passed by the various 
legislatures granting lands to corporations which "would require more than 
three million acres of land over and above what the State owns, to satisfy 
these grants in full." 7  The Commission noted that all of these grants had 
been made subject to the provisions of the Improvement Act of 1855.   
Railroad companies had received 8,286,020 acres, and canal and drainage 
companies had benefited by 2,710,953 acres in direct grants.  Including the 
Disston sale and smaller transactions the land grant corporations had 
received 15,000,000 of the 20,000,000 acres of swamp and overflowed lands 
conveyed to Florida by the United States to 1900. 8  According to Rufus E. 
Rose the period from 1885 to 1897, the twelve years between Bloxham's two 
terms, were years of extravagant legislative grants; litigation subsequently 
arose over them. Some of the grants, Rose believed, were secured honestly, 
others were not. 9

For several years the Board had been receiving proposals from other parties 
relative to the rec1amtion of the public lands of the wet classifications.  
In May, 1889, Dr. J. V. Harris of Key West, Florida, wrote the Board asking 
permission to enter, drain, and cultivate two thousand acres lying between 
the Everglades and the salt water sounds to the south in the vicinity of 
township 60 South, Range 36 East.  Harris believed the lands could be "diked 
and drained, but will not be surveyed for half a century, as they appear to 
be valueless," and he asked for the privilege of buying the acreage at 1889 
prices. 10  The Board replied in the affirmative to this request.  Three 
years later Harris again wrote the Board asking for a body of land in the 
same locality at fifty cents an acre.  Again the Board gave him an 
affirmative answer, but added that a bond in the same amount as the purchase 
price would have to be posted, assuring the Board that the land would be 
drained in two years. 11

"However, there seems to have been in the minds of the Trustees beginning 
with the first administration of Wm. D. Bloxham, and when Legislative land 
grants were first recognized, the idea that the Fund belonged to the 
railroads under these grants, and this idea, which seems to have possessed 
the Trustees at that time, found expression during the administration of 
Governor F. P. Fleming [1889-l897] . . . . 12

On May 10, 1892, the Board notified various railroad companies whose land 
grants had been earned but not fulfilled to attend a meeting on the 
following June 10 to show cause why contracts proposing to drain a million 
or more acres in the Everglades should not be consummated. 13  The 
representatives of six railroads met with the Trustees on that date, all of 
whom protested the sale or pledge of any state lands with the land grants 
due their companies were satisfied.  After hearing propositions to drain and 
reclaim the Everglades made by J. E Ingraham, and the statements of the 
railroad agents

" . . the Board took the matters into consideration, and it was decided that 
in view of the fact that there was hardy a sufficient quantity of lands 
patented or to be patented to the State to satisfy the land grants of Rail 
Road Companies earned but not yet satisfied, that the Board could not accept 
any of the propositions to drain or purchase any of the unpatented State 
lands." 14

The digging of the Oeeohobee-Ca1oosahatohee canal in 1883 had resulted in a 
set of mixed blessings.  The lowering of the water levels of the big lake 
and its surrounding territory and the consequent lowering of the 
Caloosahatchee waters had resulted in the settlement of the rich lands along 
the river.  With the shift of operations from Okeechobee to the 
Kissimmee-St. Cloud, area, maintenance of the Caloosahatchee canal stopped 
and flooding of bottom lands became an issue before the Board of Trustees of 
the Improvement Fund. 15

A petition, signed by roughly one hundred residents of Lee and De Soto 
counties, protesting the use of the Caloosahatchee River for the release of 
the excess waters of Lake Okeechobee, was read before the Board on May 8, 
1890.  The petitioners pointed to the results of making the valley the main 
outlet for Okeechobee's waters which were "tending to endanger the bordering 
lands along the river during and subsequent to the rainy season. . . ." 16  
The board was urgently requested to bring about the closing of the 
Okeechobee-Caloosahatchee canal and the constructing of embankments to 
prevent the waters of the big lake from causing further damage below the 
mouth of the canal.  The Board moved that Governor Fleming furnish the 
drainage company a copy of the petition, "and ask said company to inform the 
Board . . . if any reasons exist why the request of the petitioners cannot 
be granted" 17

On May 23, 1890, the Board received an answer from the Atlantic and Gulf 
Coast Canal and Okeechobee Land Company retarding the petition of the 
Caloosahatchee Valley residents.  J. H. Kreamer appeared before the Board in 
the interest of the Disston Company and stated that the organization would 
be willing to close the canal and construct levees "if such changes would be 
regarded by the Board as work under and in accordance with its contracts. . 
. " 18  After listening to Kreamer's proposed changes the Board agreed that 
the costs would be considered proper expenditures under the drainage 
contracts.

In compliance with the 1899 Rivers and Harbors Act which made provision for 
an examination and survey of the Kissimmee-Okeechobee-Caloosahatchee 
waterway "with a view to improving the navigation of the channels therein," 
the Chief of Engineers of the United States Army submitted a report on 
January 2, 1902.  The report recommended an expenditure of approximately 
$25,000 for the development of the Kissimmee River channel thirty feet wide 
and three feet deep between Kissimmee and Ft. Bassinger, twenty miles from 
Lake Okeechobee.  The engineer noted that the waterway from Ft. Bassinger to 
Ft. Thompson, on the Caloosahatchee, was not used for carrying trade, nor 
was there any demand for channel improvement since the country was an 
uninhabited swamp.  The survey party found no landings or settlements on 
Lake Okeechobee.  On Taylor's Creek at the northeastern corner of the lake 
were several young orange groves.  There were also several groves being set 
out and clearings under way for more.  The post office at Ft. Thompson, at 
the head of navigation on the Caloosahatchee and twenty-three miles from 
Lake Okeechobee, was the last settlement before reaching the big lake from 
the west. 20

Interest continued to develop in the lands about Okeechobee despite its 
wilderness setting.  Francis A. Hendry 21 of Ft. Myers wrote the Board in 
May, 1893, outlining the request of several citizens of Lee County who 
desired

". . . to enter upon and cultivate a tract of unsurveyed swamp and 
overflowed land, situated. at or near Rita river, bordering Lake Okeechobee. 
  Their object is to raise winter arid early spring vegetables.  . . .  If 
you will kindly grant this request it will doubtless prove of great 
advantage in the way of showing the great value of those waste lands, and 
prove to be of great interest to the State." 22

The Board granted the request with the proviso that the prospective 
cultivators occupy the land until it should be in a condition to be conveyed 
through a survey; and it fixed the price at the 1893 level for wet lands. 23 
   No reference can be found to the success or failure of the settlement.

The Okeechobee-Caloosahatchee Canal, locally known as the Hicpochee Canal 
since it passed through the lake of the same name, became somewhat of a 
bugaboo to the Board after 1890.  The promise of the drainage company cited 
above to close the canal and construct dikes was never fulfilled.  In 1895, 
F. A. Hendry sought the aid of the Board to close the Hicpochee Canal during 
the rainy season.  The Board again contacted the Okeechobee Land Company 
about closing the canal and received a reply from Hamilton Disston stating 
that closing the canal would undo all the previous work of reclamation in 
central and south Florida. 25

The discussion of the benefits of the Hicpochee canal continued through the 
intervening years until April, 1902, when the Board granted permission to a 
committee of Lee County citizens to close the eastern end of the canal into 
Hicpochee.  In June, 1903, Hendry was paid the sum of $3,325.53 as agent for 
the Board in closing the Hicpochee Canal. 27  The final paragraph on the 
Hicpoohee Canal argument was written by the Board under the leadership of
Governor William S. Jennings on November 22, 1904.  The Board resolved to 
withhold 347,288.20 acres claimed by the assignees of the Okeechobee Land 
Company.  The Board stated that

". . . from time to time the attention of the Atlantic and Gulf Coast Canal 
and Okeechobee Land Company was called to the serious damage resulting from 
the opening of the canal from Lake Okeechobee to Lake Hicpochee; and that
said Company agreed to close said canal, but failed to do so.  . . ." 28

Consequently the Board considered the remaining land claims forfeited.

Through the last quarter of the nineteenth century the lower east coast of 
Florida, and especially the Biscayne Bay area around Miami, showed a slow 
but steady growth.  From the four houses and one store noted by a traveler 
in 1874, the settlement at the site of old Ft. Dallas had grown to a community 
of two thousand inhabitants in 1897. 29  W. R. Moses commented in 1892 on 
the guests of the Cocoanut Hotel in Miami, whose thirty rooms were "well 
filled with people from New York and Boston."  Moses described pineapple, 
cocoanut, and "compte" plantings in the Dade County area as well as a sisal 
hemp factory nearby.  He observed that the stores of Miami held their prices 
twenty to forty per cent higher than those on the South Florida Railroad on 
the other side of the state. 31

With a guide and a boat furnished by Mrs. J. d Tuttle, a pioneer resident of 
Miami, a winter visitor of 1894 made the usual excursion up the Miami River 
to the Everglades.  He reported that the river tumb1es over the coral rock 
near its source in splendid rapids against which a boat is dragged, not 
rowed, with difficulty." 32  After maneuvering the boat over the point where 
the stream made its first plunge the sightseer was able to row the skiff in 
smooth waters.  The visitor recorded that he had always associated the 
Everglades with a swampy morass.

"But instead I found an inland lake, of drinkable water, lying high up in 
the sunshine, while stretching away toward sunset as far as eye could reach 
was only a vision of blue waters, green isles, and vast areas of sedge-grass 
or reeds, moving in the balmy breeze like ocean billows." 33

An article on the geography of southern Florida, published in 1896, added to 
the growing mass. of reports on the Everglades. 34  The writer believed the 
volume of water in the Everglades could be attributed to precipitation and 
underground springs, citing as evidence a large spring below the falls of 
the Miami whose issue was clear and uncolored, whereas the glades waters 
were very black.  "The fertility of the southeastern coast region is really 
beyond description. . . ." 35

The same writer declared that the eastern edge of the Everglades furnished 
every condition of soil and climate necessary to the growth of the 
India-rubber tree, and if ever drained would afford a soil of incalculable 
richness and fertility.  ". . . whether the glades are ever drained or not, 
the islands of their eastern edge will furnish the rubber of future 
commerce." 36

The inauguration of William D. Bloxham as governor for his second term in 
1897 marked the beginning of positive state interest in the reclamation of 
swamp and overflowed lands.  During this administration, "the Trustees made 
special effort to drain and reclaim, . . . to secure settlement of the 
lands, and to bring immigration to the State." 37  Rufus E. Rose, 
representing James E. Ingraham, J. R. Parrott, and other officials of the 
Florida East Coast Railway, in 1898 sought a drainage contract for the 
development and sale of Everglades lands. 38  The Board, under the 
leadership of Bloxham, replied that it was willing to enter such a contract  
for lands south and east of Lake Okeechobee on the basis of 20,000 acres of 
land for each 200,000 cubic yards of excavation for drainage purposes.  The 
Board required that the work be done "in a scientific and proper manner 
looking to the drainage of the . . . land in connection with the general 
drainage scheme to be provided for in the contract." 39  In addition the 
Board demanded twenty-five cents for each acre conveyed.  Operations were to 
be commenced within one year from the date of contract with not less than a 
hundred thousand cubic yards of excavation per year.

On June 29, 1898, the Board signed a contract with Rose, Ingraham, Parrott, 
and others on the basis outlined above. 40  These men and others became 
associated as stockholders in the Florida East Coast Drainage and Sugar 
Company and subsequently transferred their rights under the contract
to that corporation, which in turn became a subsidiary of the Henry M. 
Flagler-controlled Florida East Coast Railway. 41

In the latter part of December, Rufus E. Rose, secretary and superintendent 
of the Florida East Coast Drainage and Sugar Company, transmitted to the 
board a report, with accompanying maps and profiles.  The report stated that 
three survey parties had been employed during the summer of 1898 to run 
lines into the Everglades from the eastern boundary west of Miami, Biscayne, 
and Modelo between townships 50 and 54.  The area examined comprised, some 
180 square miles in which soundings were taken of the soil and notes made of 
its depth and character.  Rose further reported that it would not be 
"necessary or advisable to undertake the drainage of the entire area 
immediately" but by enclosing portions of it with dikes and canals in 
accordance with the progress of the work and the demand for land, "the whole 
can eventually be put into shape for agriculture." 42

The mean of the three surveys showed a seven foot fall from the head of the 
Miami River to tide-water, and a gradient of approximately four inches per 
mile on the open glades from the interior to the eastern edge.

"From a practical standpoint . . . the fall is ample to drain perfectly, a 
territory of not less than thirty (30) miles broad, west of the head waters 
of these streams, always provide a sufficient number of canals, of a total 
cross section, equal to the aggregate cross section of the streams flowing 
out of  this territory be provided. If this territory be diked on is 
northern and western boundaries, the enclosed area will be more quickly 
drained, and the water level maintained lower than if the "spill" from Lake 
Okeechobee be allowed, to pass through the interior drainage canals.

I suggest the cutting out and draining of sections of 100,000 acres each -- 4 
to 6 townships-- as distinct operations, beginning on the East and extending 
the drained territory westward." 43

In his biennial message to the legislature in 1899 Governor Bloxham declared 
that:

"The great value of the partially submerged lands in the Everglades, the 
practicability of their drainage, and the steady march of improvement 
looking to the utilization of those lands, bring forcibly to the front the 
necessity of some action by both the General and State Governments, if homes 
are to be secured for the Seminole Indians remaining in this State."  44

Governor Bloxham pointed out that the Secretary of the Interior had declared 
that certain United States lands in Florida might be assigned to the 
Seminoles.  Should such action be taken by the federal government, the 
governor recommended that the legislature authorize the Board to reserve for 
the Indians all requested lands held by the Board in the proposed territory. 
45

The governor also cited the contract made by the Board with the Florida East 
Coast Drainage and Sugar Company as proof of the march of improvement in 
Florida.  Bloxham stated that there was no doubt that it would result 
profitably to the capital invested, and would develop the region to the 
incalculable benefit of the entire state. 46  He took a very optimistic view 
of the situation and expressed the view that the region was ". . . capable, 
with small reclamation and intelligent cultivation, of furnishing the 
million and a quarter tons of sugar that are annually brought into this 
country." 47

The contract between the Board of Trustees and the Florida East Coast 
Drainage and Sugar Company made in June, 1898, had stipulated that 
commencement of actual drainage work begin within a year from its adoption.  
In December, 1900, G. R. Pride and R. E. Rose appeared before the Board and 
requested an extension of the contract for a period of two years.  After 
considering the request for an extension, the Board renewed the time limit 
for two years from December 18, 1900. 48

The interest of the Florida East Coast Drainage and Sugar Company in the 
proposed operations in the Everglades was marked by the appearance of a 
prospectus of the corporation in 1902.  The company proposed to drain 
800,000 acres in the south Florida glades by removing the rook barriers at 
the head of the Hillsboro, Miami, Cypress, Middle, Little, New, Arch Creek, 
and Snake rivers, all of which crossed the natural coast ridge in the 
territory under contract.  The impounded water was to be removed by twelve 
cana1s fifty feet wide and twelve feet deep as well as by numerous smaller 
laterals.   The proposed work would require five dredges to complete the job 
in five years at a cost of $845,000. The promotion pamphlet claimed that 
sugar cane yields on other Florida locations of similar soils varied from 
forty-seven and a half to sixty-five tons per acre. 49  The promoters set a 
value of $5 per acre on lands where reclamation had reduced the water levels 
five feet below the surface of the soil.  The company offered 50,000 shares 
of stock at $100 each to the public. 50

The release of the lands of the Internal Improvement Fund by the Disston 
sale in 1881 had paved the way for succeeding legislatures to deplete those 
resources.  The only appreciable amount of swamp and overflowed lands left 
in the hands of the Board when Bloxhan returned to the executive chair in 
1897 were those south and east of Lake Okeechobee, and the title to those 
lands was in doubt. R. E. Rose recalled in 1916 that Governor Bloxham had 
managed to transmit the fund to his successor, William Sherman Jennings, 
"still intact, though involved in litigation and hampered by injunctions 
tying up all of their resources, both lands and money." 51

During the campaign of 1896, Bloxham was accused of courting the interests 
of capitalists and corporations who had received grants of public land 
during his first term. 52  The Populist reaction to "rested interests and 
special privilege" resulted in the election of William Sherman Jennings as 
governor of Florida in 1900.  The state then "entered upon a trust-busting 
anti-corporation era, marked by long and bitter suits with railway and canal 
companies." 53

One of the difficulties in the way of the reclamation of the Everglades had 
been the uncertainty of the title to the area.  In 1897 the Swamp Land 
Bureau. of the Interior Department submitted list number 87 affecting 
2,942,000 acres to the Florida Land Office, but revoked it in May, 1898, 
"because it was thought to impinge upon the rights and interests of the 
Seminole Tribes." 54  With a view to perfecting the State's title to these 
lands," Governor Jennings proceeded to Washington on March 21, 1903, and a 
new patent was obtained for lands "aggregating 2,862,280 acres." 55 Patent 
number 137, known as the "Everglades Patent," was signed by the Secretary of 
Interior on April 29, 1903, and delivered, shortly thereafter to the State 
of Florida. 56

A motion adopted by the Board of Improvement in July of 1902 on the powers 
involved in the trusts imposed on the Fund's officials gave a definite 
indication of the stand of these state officers in regard to reclamation.

". . . It is the duty of the Trustees of the Internal Improvement Fund under 
the act creating them to ‘make such arrangements for the drainage of swamp 
ax overflowed lands as in their judgment may be most advantageous to
the fund and the settlement and cultivation of the lands.' "

". . . In the judgment of the Trustees the drainage, settlement, and 
cultivation of the swamp and overflowed lands remaining undisposed . . . can 
best be accomplished by a sale of a portion of said lands.  . . ." 57

With the adoption of the above resolution the Board proceeded to sell 
103,000 acres of "swamp and overflowed lands" in the north Florida counties 
of Taylor, Jefferson, Lafayette, Madison, and Leon to Neil G. Wade for 
$223,824. 58  In July, 1903, the Board consummated a sale of 100,000 acres 
in the Everglades counties of Lee and Monroe at thirty cents an acre. 59

The sale of these two large tracts by Governor Jennings and the Board was the 
first step in the state plan to carry out a general program of drainage.  
Money derived from these sales was used to pay the various expenses of 
administration in preparation for the concrete beginnings. 60  The sale of
wet lands in the northwestern section of the state to Neil G. Wade became 
the source of considerable criticism.  The commission investigating the 
Improvement Fund in 1907 found that "The evidence shows that effort after 
effort by competent salesmen had been made to sell this land at a price much 
below what was obtained, but without success." 61

On October 11, 1902, the president and secretary of the Florida East Coast 
Drainage and Sugar Company requested the Board to extend its contract with 
the state for two more years.  The Company officials stated that 
negotiations were pending by which they expected to obtain $1,000,000 to 
begin their operations.  The Board declined to extend the contract, "it 
being the judgment that the lands embraced . . . should not be disposed of 
on terms less favorable" than those for which similar lands were then being 
sold. 62   The Company officials, on December 8, 1902, offered to pay thirty 
cents an acre within fifteen months for the Everglades lands under contract, 
as well as to carry out the agreed works of reclamation.  To this offer the 
Board replied that future sales of swamp and overflowed lands in large 
tracts would be on a cash basis to parties actually undertaking drainage. 63

"In the latter part of 1902 Gov. Jennings took up the question of draining 
the Everglades and had much data compiled touching the feasibility and 
practicability of draining the Everglades, the topography, rainfall, 
watershed, altitude above sea level, outlets, etc. . . ." 64

The Governor collected this information in preparation for the biennial 
meeting of the legislature.  In his message to the legislature in 1903 
Governor Jennings traced the history of the area from 1835, and emphasized 
the fact that the lands had not been salable because they were undrained and 
that they could not be drained because they could not be sold.  He placed 
the state in the position of the man who undertook to lift himself by his 
own bootstraps, and, "so far, has been almost as helpless in accomplishing 
the task." 65

In order to illustrate his points on the probable benefits of the 
reclamation of the area Governor Jennings quoted extracts from the 
Buckingham Smith report and its accompanying documents, and from the more 
recant investigations of the Disston engineers, federal survey groups, and 
private investigators.  He submitted a number of charts, maps, and profile 
drawings showing the height of the Kissimmee River, Lake Okeechobee, and the 
Everg1ades.  Jennings suggested that the drainage problem could be solved by 
cutting the rock rim and sand dune barriers on the edges of the Everglades 
at the heads of all the streams from the Halpatiokee to the Caloosahatchee. 
66

Jennings closed his message pertaining to the Everglades by pointing out the 
reported crop destruction by high water on the elevated spots where 
individuals had undertaken reclamation in a small way.  The 1903 loss, 
amounting to more than a half million dollars, would justify the expenditure 
to complete reclamation and protect the small acreage under cultivation; 
consequently, Governor Jennings recommended ". . . that the Congress of the 
United States be memorialized for an appropriation of a million dollars to 
this end." 67

The sale of 103,000 acres of lands to Neil G. Wade in 1902 inaugurated a 
lengthy litigation against the Board.  The previous year several claimants 
for lands of the Improvement Fund had asked the Board to make some 
disposition "of the claims and to determine natters of priority." 68  
Several railroad companies and grantees protested the Wade sale and, led by 
the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, brought suit against the Trustees to 
retrieve the lands or monies from their sale. 69

As early as 1885, in the administration of Governor Edward A. Perry, the 
Trustees of the Improvement Fund had issued certificates to various 
railroads for the lends embraced in their legislative grants.  The Trustees 
under Jennings refused to issue any certificates for land or to honor those 
of previous Boards. 70  As a result of the Wade sale and the refusal to 
honor certificates the Trustees were challenged in various suits as to their 
right to sell land for any other purpose than to adjust the claims of the 
grantees. 71

"This led to the investigation of the whole subject matter by the incoming 
Trustees, to the publication of the minutes in book form, the employment of 
counsel to advise the Trustees, on the question of their powers and duties 
relating to the Fund, and the disposition of the lands thereof." 72

The result of the investigation of the Trustees, supported by favorable 
counsel from several of the state's outstanding lawyers, brought about the 
adoption by Jennings and his board of a resolution to 

. . adhere strictly to the provisions of the act of January 6, 1855, Chapter 610, Laws of Florida, 
as to their powers and duties and the purposes for which said trust was 
granted, and that they will assert their rights and defend the title to the 
lands granted and irrevocably vested in them for the purposes therein set 
forth of reclaiming said lands by means of levees and drains." 73

In addition to asserting a superior title to the lands in the Fund, 
proclaimed on November 24, 1904, over the railroad land grant claimants, the 
Board further resolved that swamp and overflowed lands granted for 
utilization other than reclamation were not legally deeded; that the State 
of Florida had no title to the lands except through the Trustees of the Fund 
created in 1855; and that lands included in the Everglades patent of April 
of 1903 had remained in the offices of the United States until their 
transfer.  Hence such obligations as were made with regard to them prior to 
that date by any agency of Florida were nonexistent.

During the administration of Governor Jennings, ending January 1, 1905, no 
deeds were made by the Trustees for any of the land grant claimants.  The 
contention of the Board was attacked by several grantees and the whole 
subject matter was resolved in the case of the Southern States Land and 
Timber Company versus the Trustees of the Improvement Fund in the United 
States Circuit Court, Northern District of Florida, Judge Charles Swayne 
presiding. 74  The land company sought to enjoin the Board from the exercise 
of any power over the fund or the disposition of any lands other than to 
deed them to the various holders of legislative grants. 75  "This 
proposition involved the entire Fund.  It was a test case, tacitly agreed 
upon by all of the railroad companies and so presented." 76  In two orders 
handed down by Judge Swayne on May 2 and May 20, 1907, the Court authorized 
the Board to sell or dispose of the swamp and overflow lands patented to the 
State of Florida by the Act of Congress of September 28, 1850, for the 
purposes of drainage and reclamation, 77  This decision of the federal court 
cleared the way for the Trustees to manage the wet lands of the Everglades 
as they saw fit toward the ends of reclamation and drainage.

The swamp and overflowed lands patented to Florida at the end of Governor 
Jennings' administration amounted to 20,133,837.42 acres out of the 
35,072,640 acres which comprised the land surface of the state. 78

In 1904 engineers of the United States Department of Agriculture made a 
preliminary examination of a portion of the Everglades along the eastern 
border in Dade County.  Charles G. Elliott, Engineer in Charge of Irrigation 
and Drainage Investigations of the Office of Experiment Stations conducted 
the investigation and concluded that the soil could be profitably utilized 
for the growth of subtropical fruits if it could be sufficiently drained.  
"In view of the interest taken in growing fruit and vegetables in southern 
Florida for the northern winter markets, the reclamation of the Everglades 
merits further attention." 79  Elliott made a "reconnaissance" of a belt of 
land bordering the Everglades in the vicinity of Miami with the idea of 
securing a plot of Everglades land and reclaiming it for experimental use. 
80

After observing the operations of the East Coast railroad in the opening and 
enlarging of the natural streams in order to lower the waters in the various 
arms of the Everglades for the production of vegetables for the winter 
markets, Elliott concluded that "a great deal of money has been expended in 
drainage works. . . ." 81  These private works had enabled fruit growers on 
detached tracts of muck land to drain them and to husband thriving plantings 
of trees.

The drainage of the Everglades proper, Elliott believed, would necessitate 
dredging a channel to a grade of from three-tenths to four-tenths of a foot 
per mile to their center.  One channel would afford only flood relief, since 
the area was too level and the water-flow too slow for good drainage.  The 
use of such a plan would necessitate the deepening of the beds of the 
natural streams into the Everglades to the natural divide.  All of the work 
would have to be done before the Everglades would be suitable for year round 
culture.  Elliott advocated an experimental plan of enclosing small areas 
with dikes and using inside pumping to control water levels.

"The problem which confronts the investor and cultivator is not so much the 
possibility of draining the tract as a whole as what may be done in this 
direction within the limit of individual means to fit portions of this land 
for the production of crops." 82

William S. Jennings deserves the credit for inaugurating the development of 
the wastelands at the southern end of the state.  He collected data on the 
possibilities of drainage plans and it was through his patient efforts that 
the tangled web was unwound. 83  Jennings' desire to begin actua1 drainage 
culminated in the preparation of a comprehensive plan which was presented to 
the directors of the Southern States Land and Timber Company, the 
Consolidated Land Company, and other companies who were large landholders in 
the Everglades.  Although Jennings' plans did not materialize before he 
vacated the governor's chair in January, 1905, they were "merged in the 
subsequent settlements and plans for drainage followed by the subsequent 
administrations." 84

The clearest statement of Jennings' policy in regard to drainage and 
reclamation of the swamp and overflowed lands was his testimony in the suit 
of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company against the Board in 
federal court at Tallahassee on November 28, 1904.  The governor testified 
that the  purpose of the 1850 land grant act of Congress was to have wet 
lands drained and reclaimed, and that he had acted upon that policy. 85


3. The People Choose: Napoleon Bonaparte Broward and Reclamation 86

As the Florida constitution prohibited Jennings from seeking a second term, 
the cause of Everglades reclamation was carried into the governor's race of 
1904 by one of the most picturesque characters in the long history of the
state -- Napoleon Bonaparte Broward.  Born on a farm in Duval County, 
Florida, in 1857, Broward had been left an orphan at the age of 12. 87  With 
little time for formal schooling Broward worked as a log rafter, steamboat 
roustabout, merchant seaman, harbor pilot, and by 1887 he was a partner in 
one of the St. Johns River boat lines.  He was sheriff of Duvall County from 
1887 to 1900, and in 1901 represented that political unit in the state 
legislature.  During his last four years as sheriff Broward found time to 
make several filibustering runs to Cuba on his tug the Three Friends. 88   
From 1902 until his campaign for governor he lived in Key West where he was 
engaged in a coastwise tow in and wrecking business.

". . . I decided . . to become a candidate and give the people an 
opportunity to elect a Governor who has never allowed himself to be put 
under obligations to the land grant corporations of this State, and who wi1l 
not be hampered, as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Internal 
Improvement Fund, in voting against giving away the- State's lands, or in 
adjusting their claims to the money now in the State Treasury." 89

Broward did not at first intend to enter the 1904 gubernatorial race but, 
after a futile search for a candidate "who would publicly pledge himself to 
deed no more trust lands . . . and do everything in his power to reclaim the 
Everglades," the former filibusterer qualified, for the primary elections. 
90   With a portable screen and a colored map of the state Broward made the 
campaign a veritable referendum on the Everglades proposition. At Tampa, on 
February 26,

"He read from books, pamphlets, and documents a mass of statistics relative 
to marsh lands in the Everglades and elsewhere, and their probable worth if 
properly drained In conclusion he asserted that the railroads were draining 
the people instead of the swamps. . . ." 91

In a later speech Broward declared that the Everglades area "could be 
drained so as to make it worth a hundred dollars an acre by the cutting of a 
canal eleven hundred feet long." 92  In an article Broward published in 
1908, he wrote: "When I was nominated for Governor in l905 I pledged myself 
to drain the Everglades and make this the main issue of the campaign." 93

On January 3, 1905, Broward was inaugurated Governor of Florida and turned 
his attention to the Everglades drainage problem within ten days by 
approving the employment of his predecessor, W. S. Jennings, as general 
counsel for the Trustees of the Internal Improvement Fund. 94  Shortly 
thereafter Jennings addressed a letter to Broward in which the former 
governor pointed out his testimony in the Louisville and Nashville 
Railroad-Improvement Fund litigation in regard to the Trustees' duty to 
drain lands granted the state under the 1850 act.  Jennings wrote that he 
believed the railroad companies would find evidence to sustain them in their 
contention that the Trustees were not fulfilling their commitments to 
reclaim the granted lands unless ". . . some work shall be begun to meet the 
allegations to the effect that the Trustees are not performing any of the 
trusts required of them under the law." 95

Governor Broward delivered a special message to the legislature on ay 3, 
1905, on the subject of reclamation in the Everglades. 96  Tracing the 
history of the Internal Improvement Fund from its creation under the 1855 
law and the policies of the succeeding administrators of the trust, the 
executive called attention to the fact that the legislature had granted more 
than 12,000,000 acres from 1879 to 1905 which left but 3,000,000 acres on 
hand and that this remaining acreage was the subject of six suits then being 
brought by railroads and corporations.  Broward stated it was his firm 
belief that it was the duty and within the powers of the Trustees to drain 
and reclaim the swamp and overflowed lands of the state.

Citing the several lines of levels which had been run over the Everglades 
and Lake Okeechobee, the governor expressed the view that it was feasible to 
lower the lake level and consequently drain the Everglades, a feat which 
would eventually bring 6,000,000 acres into a profitable condition for 
agriculture. 97  As a basis for his drainage proposals Broward submitted 
extracts from the engineering report made in 1886 by James M. Kreamer to the 
Disston Drainage Company.  The Disston engineer had arrived at the 
conclusion that a four foot reduction in Okeechobee's surface would be 
sufficient to bring a major share of the area south and east of the lake 
into production.  Kreamer had stated that ". .  cana1[s] 1,100 feet long 
would be entirely feasible to cut the rim [of the Everglades] at frequent 
intervals and permit the impounded waters to flow into the Gulf or 
Atlantic." 98

As a beginning Broward suggested the cutting of a canal from the big lake 
into the St. Lucia River, a distance of twenty-four miles, in order to lower 
the surface of Okeechobee from four to six feet.   The proposed canal, two 
hundred feet wide and fifteen feet deep, could be constructed in eighteen 
months at a cost of $250,000.  The governor declared that the work could be 
underway in six months after the contract was signed.  The area drained 
would ". . . be capable of producing the entire tonnage of cane sugar used 
in this country, a crop which alone would be of untold value to the State." 
99

Broward closed his message on the reclamation question with several 
recommendations.  Noting that 3,000,000 of the 6,000,000 acres of swamp and 
overflowed lands in the Kissimmee Valley, Lake Okeechobee, and Everglades 
territory had been deeded to railroad, canal, and other corporations and 
would be benefited by the successful drainage and reclamation of the 
3,000,000 acres held by the Trustees, the governor asked the legislature to 
propose a constitutional amendment which would require cooperation from the 
private owners in proportion to the suggested improvement.  Specifically, he 
recommended that the amendment create a drainage district embracing the 
Everglades, adjacent lands, and the Kissimmee Valley, and the right to 
establish other drainage districts and authorize the levy and collection of 
an acreage tax for drainage and reclamation of such lands.  Pending the 
adoption of the amendment, he asked for the enactment of a statute 
authorizing the formation of drainage districts by the Trustees of the 
Internal Improvement Fund. 100

The state legislature responded to Broward's request and in late May, 1905, 
passed an act that created a Board of Drainage Commissioners to consist of 
the governor, comptroller, treasurer, attorney-general, and commissioner of 
agriculture; a group of state officials identical to the membership of the 
Internal Improvement Fund Trustees. 101  This act empowered the board to 
establish a system of canals and dikes to drain and reclaim the swamp and 
overflowed lands of Florida.  The act further empowered the commissioners to 
levy yearly drainage taxes up to ten cents an acre.  Such taxes were to be 
assessed by the Board in districts of their creation.  The Board was also 
given the authority to exercise the right of eminent domain. 102

The legislature submitted the 1905 drainage law, with the exception of the 
amount of the tax, to the electors of  Florida at the general election of 
190ô as a proposed amendment to article sixteen of the state constitution. 
103  The proposed amendment was defeated at the polls

". . . because as is generally understood, the people believed the 
amendment, if adopted would confer power upon the Board to declare the whole
State a "Drainage District" and thus subject the whole State to the drainage 
tax to be fixed by the Board." 104

In accordance with the 1905 drainage law the Board of Commissioners 
proceeded to set up an Everglades Drainage District, sixty miles wide and a 
hundred and fifty miles long, comprising 4,300,000 acres which included all 
of the glades, adjoining prairie, and adjacent timber lands.  A uniform 
drainage tax of five cents an acre was levied over the entire zone. 105

Two months after the passage of the drainage act, which seemed to assure the 
necessary funds, the commissioners engaged J. 0. Fries, the Brevard County 
surveyor, to run a line of levels from the south fork of the St. Lucie  
River to Chancy Bay on the eastern shore of Lake Okeechobee. 106  The Board 
wanted this survey made as a preliminary step in securing information on the 
topography and geological formations to be encountered in the cutting of a 
canal on this shortest route from Okeechobee to tidewater. On September 21, 
1905, Fries appeared before the Board and presented the results of his 
labors along with a bill for $652.50. 107

On August 1, Governor Broward submitted to the Board the matter of dredges, 
to be used in cutting canals in the Everglades.  A representative of a 
Chicago foundry and machine company presented plans to the officials, and 
the chief executive explained several other propositions from machinery 
companies.  After discussion, the Trustees decided to send the governor and 
William K. Ellis, the attorney-general, to Chicago to contract for the 
necessary machinery for two dredges. 108  Within two weeks Governor Broward 
and his fellow official arranged for the purchase of $42,000 worth of 
machinery for two dredges to be delivered within from three to four months. 
109

The Trustees were not satisfied with the findings of the survey from 
Okeechobee to the St. Lucie River, and on November 9, 1905, emp1oyed John W. 
Newman to make a hydro-graphic and topographical survey of the New River 
from Ft. Lauderdale, including both branches, to a point in the Everglades 
where the altitude approximated the mean low water level of Lake Okeechobee. 
  Newman's instructions directed him to conduct his survey with a view to 
constructing a canal one hundred fifty feet wide and ten feet deep from a 
location on the New River to Lake Okeechobee. 110  The Trustees later 
directed Newman to take charge of the construction of the two dredges when 
the machinery should arrive at Ft. Lauderdale. 111

The material was assembled at Ft. Lauderdale, and in the winter of 1906 two 
dredges were built and launched in the New River.  On July 8, 1906, the 
first dredge, christened the Everglades, began the job of cutting a canal to 
Lake Okeechobee from the north fork of the river. 112  Newman's survey from 
the New River to Lake Okeechobee had been adopted for the first canal 
project on December 12, 1905.  This first state drainage canal was fifty 
feet wide and varied, in depth from ten to fourteen and six-tenths feet.  
When finished it became the present North New River Canal. 113 The second 
dredge, christened the Okeechobee, began cutting the rock rim from the south 
fork of the New River in April, 1907, in the canal which became the present 
South New River Canal. 114

Broward's plan for the engineering design of the Everglades drainage scheme 
was very simple, especially in regard to the necessary canals, for his idea 
was to "out and try." 115  When it was insinuated that it would take fifteen 
years of rainfall observations, careful topographical surveys, and expert 
engineering reports to determine the practicability of the project he was 
abashed, but replied:

"I will be dead by that time. The State will be poor and the money thus 
expended would buy a couple of dredges.  We can sell some land to build 
dredges and if my friends will hold the knockers in check, we can soon make 
a convincing ocular demonstration." 116.


Chapter Notes

1 Frederick W. Dau, "Florida Old and New," 289.

2 K. T. Abbey, "Florida, Land of Change," 350-353.

3 Fritzie P. Manuel, "Land Development in the Everglades," Hearings Before 
the Select Committee investigating National Defense Migration, House of 
Representatives, 77 Congress, 2 Session, 12868.

4 "1907 Commission Report," 296.

5 Ibid., 331.

6 R. E. Rose, "The Swamp and Overflowed Lands of Florida: The Disston Drainage 
Company and the Disston Purchase," 4; Chapter 3167; "Laws of F1orida," 1879. 
  The subject provision reads to the effect, ‘Provided, However, That the 
grant of lands made by this section is made subject to the rights of all 
creditors of the Internal Improvement Fund and to the trusts to which said 
Fund is applicable and subject, under the Internal Improvement act of 1855.  
This provision was enacted into a general law as Chapter 3226, Laws of 
Florida, 1881.

7 "1907 Commission Report," 341.

8 Ibid. ". . . a close examination of the various acts of the legislature, 
beginning in 1879 . . . attempting to grant swamp and overflowed lands 
[shows] that only a residuary interest therein was attempted to be granted 
by the legislature."  Senate Documents, Number 89, 62 Congress, 1 Session, 
8.

9 R. E. Rose, "The Swamp and Overflowed Lands of Florida: The Disston 
Drainage Company and the Disston Purchase, 5.

10 I.I.B. Minutes, IV, 42.

11 Ibid., 204. For other propositions submitted to the I. I. B. Trustees 
relative to Everglades drainage see I. I. B. Minutes, IV, 189-190, 199-200.

12 "1907 Commission Report," 292.

13 I.I.B. Minutes, IV, 205-206; "1907 Commission Report," 292-293.

14 I.I.B. Minutes, IV, 202.

15 I.I.B. Minutes, IV, 87-88.

16 Ibid., 87.

17 I.I.B. Minutes, IV, 89.

18 Ibid., IV, 97.

19 House Reports, Number 176, 57 Congress, I Session, 1. "A voyage, unique 
in every respect, may be made by steamer from Punta Rassa, following the 
river, the lakes or the canal as far inland as Kissimmee, where one sees the 
spreading cane fields redeemed by drainage at St. Cloud."  John N. 
MacGonigle, "The Geography of the Southern Peninsula of the United States," 
National Geographic, VII (December, 1896), 384.

20 House Reports, Number 176, 57 Congress, 1 Session, 3-9.

21 Francis Ashbury Hendry, 1833-1919, born in Thomas County, Georgia, came 
to Florida at the age of eighteen.  One of three brothers who settled in 
Florida, F. A. Hendry moved to the Alafia River in Hillsboro County.  He 
served in the 1850 Seminole War and the Confederate army in 1861-64.   After 
the Civil War he engaged in cattle ranching and served as a state legislator 
from Brevard, Polk, Manatee, and Monroe counties.  In 1868 he moved to Ft. 
Myers, where he lived until his death in 1919.  Taking an active part in the 
public affairs of southern Florida, he was honored by having his name given 
to one of the newer Everglades Counties.  F. A. Gonzalez, compiler, "The 
Caloosahatchee, 28-30.

22 I.I.B. Minutes, IV, 239-240.

23 Ibid., 240.

24 Ibid., 312-313.

25 I.I.B. Minutes, IV, 331-337.  Concerning developments in the Okeechobee 
area Disston wrote on May 1, 1895: ". . . we constructed a canal southwest 
from Okeechobee and established a route for an outlet to the Atlantic Ocean 
on the East in order to afford all the relief possible; and in addition to 
this we set about organizing a large Company to convert the lands near 
Hicpochee and Okeechobee into extensive sugar and rice plantations . . . but 
every condition for the past several years has had a tendency to repel 
capital from sugar and rice ventures.  . . ." I.I.B. Minutes, IV, 332.

26 Ibid., V, 110.

27 Ibid., 191.

28 I.I.B. Minutes, V, 272.

29 F. T. Townshend, "Wild Life in Florida, With a Visit to Cuba," 234; H. T. 
Willoughby, "Across the Everglades," 62.

30 W. R. Moses, "Everglades Exp1oring Expedition," 40.

31 Ibid., 42.

32 Charles Richards Dodge, "Sub-Tropical Florida," Scribner's, XV (March, 
1894), 361.

33 Ibid. Dodge makes the amusing observation that unquestionab1y "the 
Seminole is a very decent Indian -- save when he has been drinking ‘cider 
with a little Jamaica ginger in it'-- (a trader told me that was the 
formula)."

34 John N. MacGonigle, "The Geography of the Southern Peninsula of the 
United States," National Geographic, VII (December, 1896), 381-394.

35 J. N. MacGonigle, "The Geography of the Southern Peninsula of the United 
States," loc. cit., 394.  MacGonigle listed plantings of the citrus family, 
pineapple, mango, guava, avocado pear, sapodilla, sugar apple, Japanese 
plum, persimmon, vanilla, camphor, "kola," "chincona," cinnamon, and coffee 
whose culture had started with great promise of success.

36 Ibid., 394.

37 "1907 Commission Report," 292.

38 Ibid., 293; I.I.B. Minutes, IV, 432.

39 I.I.B. Minutes, IV, 433.

40 Ibid., 437-442; "1907 Commission Report," 294.  The lands covered in the 
contract lay south of township 46 south and east of range 36 east, as far 
south as township 59 and as far east as range 42, ibid., 345.

41 I.I.B. Minutes, IV, 446-450, V, 31.

42 I.I.E. Minutes, IV, 453.

43 I.I.B. Minutes, IV, 456-457. In testifying before the legislative 
commission which investigated the Internal Improvement Fund in 1907, Rose 
declared: "The Trustees are following the lines and methods suggested by the 
Florida East Coast Drainage and Sugar Company.  . . . I was superintendent 
and general manager of the . . . Company and took part in the actual surveys 
. . . [and] a plan or scheme practically the same as now being followed r 
out by the Board of Drainage Commissioners, was presented and approved by 
that Board . . . The drainage of the Everglades . . . is simply a matter of 
a sufficient number of drains of sufficient capacity to carry the water 
off." "1907 Commission Report," 319-320.

44 "Message and Documents, Florida, 1899," 26.

45 "Message and Documents, Florida, 1899," 28.

46 Ibid., 29.

47 Ibid., 38.

48 I.I.B. Minutes, V, 31-32.

49 "Prospectus of Florida East Coast Drainage and Sugar Company," 11.

50 Ibid., 1-3.

51 Rufus E. Rose, "The Disston Drainage Company and the Disston Purchase, A 
Reminiscence," Florida Quarterly Bulletin of the Department of Agricu1ture, 
XXVI (July, 1916), 122.

52 K. T. Abbey, "Florida, Land of Change," 353.

53 F. P. Manuel, "Land Development in the Everglades," loc. cit., 12869; K. 
T. Abbey, op. cit., 334, 337, 366.

54 F. P. Manuel, "Land Development in the Everglades," loc. cit., 12869.

55 Message of W. S. Jennings, Governor of Florida to the Legislature, 
Reuglar Session of 1903 With Accompanying Documents, 69. Hereinafter cited 
as W. S. Jennings, "Message 1903;" I.I.B. Minutes, V, 172.

56 Senate Documents, Number 89, 62 Congress, 1 Session, 91-93.

57 I.I.B. Minutes, V, 118-119.

58 Ibid.

59 Ibid., 62-67, 197-198.

60 "1907 Commission Report," 302-304, 346.

61 "1907 Commission Report," 355.

62 I.I.B. Minutes, V, 128-129.

63 Ibid., 136-137; "1907 Commission Report," 294.   Henry M. Flagler, the 
east coast railroad builder, ". . . had at one time hoped to get possession 
of the Everglades, partly as a grant for building the Florida East Coast 
Railroad and partly by purchase, and he had a company all formed to 
undertake their reclamation.  It may be safely set down as the luckiest day 
in Mr. Flagler's life when he was thwarted by the action of Governor 
Jennings and they became the property of the state.  They probably would 
have bankrupted him."  Frederick W. Dau, "Florida Old and New," 297.

64 Senate Documents, Number 89, 62 Congress, 1 Session, 10.

65 W. S. Jennings, "Message 1903," 67.

66 W. S. Jennings, "Message 1903," 64.

67 Ibid., 78.

68 I.I.B. Minutes, VII, 533-534.

69 Senate Documents, Number 89, 62 Congress, 1 Session, 10-13; I.I.B. 
Minutes, V, 116-119, VII, 534-535.

70 "1907 Commission Report," 283; I.I.B. Minutes, VII, 535-536.

71 "1907 Commission Report," 301. A history of the litigation that has grown 
out of the administration of the Internal Improvement Fund from its creation 
through 1907, including briefs of forty cases in which the Trustees were a 
party, is given, ibid., 273-289.

72 "Annual Report of General Counsel Trustees Internal Improvement Fund, 
1908," I.I.B. Minutes, VII, 534. W. S. Jennings, Governor 1901-1905, was 
then counsel of the Trustees and prepared the report.

73 I.I.B. Minutes, V, 267; Senate Documents, Number 289, 62 Congress, 1 
Session, 11-12, 24.

74 I.I.B. Minutes, VII, 537; 1907 Commission Report, 286; Senate Documents, 
Number 89, 62 Congress, 1 Session, 12.

75 Senate Documents, Number 89, 62 Congress, 1 Session, 12.

76 I.I.B. Minutes, VII, 537.

77 Senate Documents, Number 89, 62 Congress, 1 Session, 12; I.I.B. Minutes, 
VII, 537-538.

78 I.I.B. Minutes, VII, 532.

79 Drainage Investigations, Office of Experiment Stations, Report of the 
Secretary, Yearbook of the United States Department of Agriculture, 1904, 
House Documents, Number 424,.58 Congress, 3 Session, 109.

80 Senate Documents, Number 89, 62 Congress, 1 Session, 94.

81 Senate Documents, Number 89, 62 Congress, 1 Session, 95. This brief 
investigation by Elliott, accompanied by Peter H. Rolfs, Director of the 
Miami Pathological Station for the Bureau of Plant Industry, covered lands 
near Miami, Cutler, Dania, and Boynton beginning in August, 1904.   Hearings 
before the House Committee on Expenditures in the Department of Agriculture, "Everglades of Florida," Number 5, 208.

82 Senate Documents, Number 89, 62 Congress, 1 Session, 96.

83 K. T. Abbey, "Florida Land of Change," 366.

84 Senate Documents, Number 89, 69 Congress, 1 Session, 13.

85 Ibid., 13, 24-25. The Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company suit 
against the Trustees was instituted, in 1902 and finally decided against the 
Trustees for $251,102.25 and interest.  A second suit brought by the 
railroad to secure deeds to 1,447,000 acres of lands granted the company or 
its predecessor was pending in 1908 when the Trustees compromised both suits 
with a cash settlement of $113,936.96 and 374,834 acres of state lands.  
I.I.B. Minutes, VII, 49, 53, 121, 125 et passim.

86 On May 25, 1905, the first Everglades drainage bill passed the Florida 
House of Representatives by a vote of forty-three to two. Representative S. 
H. Melton of Duva1 County objected, saying that the bill should go to the 
people for a referendum.  Representative J. W. Knight of Citrus County 
retorted that Broward's election had settled that question.  Florida 
Times-Union. (Jacksonville), May 25, 1905.

87 Napoleon B. Broward, "Napoleon B. Broward, Candidate for Governor of 
Florida," 2.

88 Napoleon B. Broward, "Napoleon B. Broward, Candidate for Governor of 
Florida," 24-27.  "The source of Broward's strength lay in the man's  
personality.  He saw with unusual clarity the needs of the state and 
straightforwardly set about their accomplishment.  Seldom did he sidetrack 
issues, or submit to the dubious doctrine of political expediency.   . . . 
he believed throughout his career on [sic] the value of the common people, 
with the result that his most constant support came from the rural sections 
of the state."  K. T. Abbey, "Florida, Land of Change," 339-340.

89 N. B. Broward, "Napoleon B. Broward, Candidate for Governor," 16.

90 Daniel A. Simmons, "The Florida Everglades: How They Happened; What They 
Are; What They Will Be," The World Today, XVI (May, 1909), 535.

91 Florida Times-Union (Jacksonv11e), February 27, 1904.

92 Ibid., April 8, 1904.  Broward's campaign was also highlighted by his 
attack on large corporations and the railroads.  Fritzie P. Manuel, "Land 
Development in the Everglades," loc. cit., 12870.

93 Napoleon Bonaparte Broward, "Draining the Everglades," The Independent, 
LXIV (June 25, 1908), 1448.

94 I.I.B. Minutes, VI, 10.

95 Senate Documents, Number 89, 62 Congress, 1 Session, 25.  Jennings was 
reported to have possessed a large acreage in the Everglades.  Hearings 
before the Committee on Expenditures in the House of Representatives, 
Everglades of Florida, Number 7, 260-261. Hereinafter cited as "1912 
Everglades Hearings."

96 "Message and Documents of Florida" (1905), I, 1-36.

97 "Message and Documents of Florida" (1905), I, 20.

98 "Report of Colonel James M. Kreamer, chief engineer of the Atlantic and 
Gulf Coast Canal and Okeechobee Land Company, 1886," quoted in Broward's May 
3, 1905, message to the legislature of Florida, "Message and. Documents of 
Florida (1905)," I, 23.

99 "Message and Documents of Florida (1905)," I, 34.

100 "Message and Documents of Florida (1905)," I, 36.

101 Chapter 5377, Laws of Florida, 1905. "Pending the litigation referred to 
between railroad and grant claimants against the Trustees. . . at the 
beginning of Gov. Broward' s administration . . . former Gov. Jennings 
designed and prepared a drainage tax law . . ." which became Chapter 5377.   
Senate Document, Number 89, 62 Congress, 1 Session, 15.

102 Chapter 5377, Laws of Florida, 1905.  At the 1905 session the 
legislature memorialized Congress for a $25,000 appropriation to open the 
300 miles of navigable waterways in the Caloosahatchee-Okeechobee-Kissimmee 
river and lake system, Acts and Resolutions Adopted by the Legis1ature of 
Florida at the Tenth Regu1ar Session under the Constitution of 1885, 1905, 
449-450.

103 Journal of the House of Representatives (1905), 1565-15671; Florida 
Times-Union (Jacksonville), May 12, 1905.

104 "1907 Commission Report, 308; also see testimony of Congressman Frank 
Clark, "1912 Everglades Hearings," Number 4, 133-134.

105 F. P. Manuel, "Land Development in the Everglades," loc. cit., 12870.

106 I.I.B. Minutes, VI, 52-53.

107 I.I.B. Minutes, VI, 70.

108 Ibid., 57-58.

109 Ibid., 67-78.

110 I.I.B. Minutes, VI, 91.  Newman had been earlier employed as chief 
engineer of the Ingraham expedition in 1892, and had also made surveys for 
the Florida East Coast Drainage and Sugar Company in 1902.  Florida East 
Coast Drainage and Sugar Company, Prospectus, 30.

111 Ibid., 92.

112 "1907 Commission Report," 311. The cost of the first two dredges to the 
Fund was $134,000.

113 I.I.B. Minutes, V, 96.

114 1907 Commission Report, 312.

115 Thomas E. Will, "The Everg1ades of Florida," Review of Reviews, XLVI 
(October, 1912), 453.

116 John C.  Gifford, "The Everglades and Other Essays Relating to Southern 
F1orid," 98-99.