Australian Everglades

My great Grandfather Luke was born and raised as the only child in the deep Australian Everglades.

Not having any siblings or friends he entertained himself with the animals he would come across on his adventures. Or should I say the animals would entertain him.

His father, Great-Great Grandpa Joshua and Great-Great Gramma Silky, worked on the settlement of which they lived.

The settlement was the village of Cape Sable. East of the Mississippi-that existed along the coast of what is now Everglades National Park.

My Pa told me lots of stories of my Grandparents life and hardships. My Pa told me that early mariners were aware of the village Cape Sable, located west of the village of Flamingo as it appeared on the maps.

It was here in 1838 that ‘Doc Henry Petrine’ was given a grant of land. But apparently the history story tell us-the Doc’s plans for a settlement did not happen due to his untimely death at the hands of Indians.

Another plan for a settlement was materialized by ‘Surgeon General Thomas’ who had explored the Cape in 1838 for the U.S. government.

This man built-‘Fort Poinsett’ on Cape -Sable. In 1856 during the third Seminole-War, Fort Cross was established-‘Middle Cape’.

In 1893 Cape Sable had its own post office, but it wasn’t until 1910 when there was finally a large group of forty nine people living in Cape Sable, and Flamingo. Families! Yes children for young Luke to play with.

The profession for most was cane-farming, and charcoal making, and fishing.

My great Grandparents were servants. Grandpa Joshua worked tirelessly wherever he was needed at the time. He hauled cane and charcoal at a hundred pounds a sack. He worked and sweated all day-everyday. While great Gramma Silky cooked and cleaned for the boss.

Many of the settlers fished for cash and food, but not the servants. They ate what the boss gave them to eat. Which I’m thinking would probably be the leftovers of what my Grandmother cooked for them.

One of the stories my Pa seemed to enjoy relating over and over again, was about the 1909 hurricane.

Low-lying farm fields were salted by flood tides and most cisterns were polluted. It was a disaster for an area where few springs or wells existed.

Unfortunately, many of the inhabitants of the outlying islands had no choice but to abandon their homesteads.

Not long after the hurricane - a local resident was suspected of being a serial killer. That must’ve been an awful scary time. Wondering who was going to be next.

The very fact that it’s a local resident! Wouldn’t want to have cross words with that neighbour.

Pa never did say whether this man was ever caught and punished by the law or not. Or perhaps the law was the town-folks themselves.

Grandpa Joshua in ear shot of his son, was heard saying-“this uncivilized animal must be sent on his last journey down-river”!

Makes one wonder!

Sometimes I only heard bits and pieces of stories. One bit that I overheard one evening when my parents thought I was asleep in bed, but I had sneaked into the kitchen for another piece of Ma’s homemade mincemeat pie.

The living room being just off the kitchen- I just happened to hear Pa say-“Gramma Silty would chop those bones up, throw them in the big stew pot out back of the shack, and boil the meat off those suckers, then feed the bones to the crocks”!

Wow! That had my mind racing and wondering and shaking my head. We’re my Grandparents capable of such!

I wish I knew the truth about the serial killer and did he go floating down the river, or did he end up in Gramma Silty’s stew pot?

The best and the worst part of that story - was that the stew was served for supper to the boss - his family, their friends by none other than Gramma Silty herself.

Story-time with Pa was always something I cherished, and now I love spending quality time with my own son and watching his facial expressions, and his eyes going huge when relating the same stories.

Another favourite family story about the Australian Everglades - that would definitely have been a memory-builder.

Pa and Ma took a trip to the Everglades to visit the old-homestead-settlement in Cape Sable.

They decided to go for a walk and take their lunch with them. Apparently, they had walked quite a distance, and it was time to eat before heading back.

They came across a big log to sit and rest awhile on. Pa felt it was time to get going, so he got up-stretched while Ma was wiping the sandwich crumbs from her face.

All of a sudden the log was moving and Ma was going for a ride! Pa yelled and Ma screamed and fell off - and the log continued on its merry way.

Come on now-it’s not everyday one has the opportunity to ride an anaconda!

By Brenda Lee Lord-Hinger

BLBlogWritingNews1. ( KMZ2OL )

[email protected]