In 1896, the FEC Railway was completed from West Palm Beach to Miami,and various development companies began to promote South Florida, near and far. A little more than a year later, the Weekly Miami Metropolis ran a story that questioned the wisdom of recruiting new residents from too far afield:

Persistent and very expensive efforts are being constantly put forth to induce settlers from distant States to locate in Florida. Many inducements are held out to that class. Many of them are induced to settle in Florida, and what is the result? As a rule they are men who have been employed in offices, counting rooms, stores and factories, and know nothing whatever about farming. Even if they are farmers, they know practically nothing about those methods which are essential to success in Florida. After a year or two of injudicious attempts at farming in this State they frequently lose what little money they have and "cuss" the country when the fault is really with themselves -- not with our soil or climate.

It frequently does more harm than good to bring such people into this section. If the same money which is spent in bringing settlers from Michigan, Iowa and other Western states to Florida was expended in an effort to induce the people of those sections of our own State which have suffered so severely from the freeze to locate in this section, it seems to us the money would be far more wisely invested.

The freeze referred to was the one that hit most of Florida, save the most southerly parts, during the winter of 1894 and 1895. Supposedly that freeze provided the motivation for Henry Flagler to extend his railroad farther south.

One has to question, however, exactly how many northern and western settlers had come to South Florida by 1897, nevermind those who, as the newspaper claimed, lost their money after "a year or two of injudicious attempts at farming."

Everything is relative, I suppose.

(Excerpted from Broward Legacy, Winter/Spring, 1985)