In 1899, Lewis R. Smoak, his daughter Lillian and son Oliver, came to Pompano. It is said that he was the first farmer in the area to plant beans, a vegetable that quickly became the "crop of choice."

Born July 23, 1847, in South Carolina, Smoak had enlisted in the Confederate Army just one week after his sixteenth birthday. According to his pension application, he was sent to Augusta, Georgia, to make shoes for the Confederate Navy.

In Pompano's early years, a number of residents were veterans of the Civil War, including the town's first mayor, John Mizell.