Axel Peterson pauses with a favorite cat, perhaps in the midst of a day’s work in the groves, c. 1915. He wears leggings of leather as a precaution against snake bites.
In 1913, Axel Peterson traded a boarding house in Moline, Illinois, for 20 acres of land in Vero (not yet Vero Beach), Florida, sight unseen. He had made a comfortable living in Moline making plow shares for John Deere, while running a boarding house that doubled as a tavern. But Peterson was eager to give it all up after a land promoter came through Moline touting “Indian River Farms” and the allure of a new life.
At the time, Florida’s reclamation program – the draining of thousands of acres of wetlands and transforming them into rich farmland – was in full swing. A network of canals was under construction with the dual purpose of draining the land and irrigating the emerging farms. By 1913, land speculators had spent vast sums of money on reclamation and they were anxious to reap their profits by selling off parcels of the reclaimed land.
Read the entire article in the January 2004 issue
True Tails is a series written by Amy Robinson for Vero Beach’s dog lovers. Ask Amy about your dog’s behavior by clicking below.|!!| Florida|!!| sight unseen.){kind=link}
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