While the patch-eyed John Ashley is historically acclaimed as the leader of what became known as Florida’s notorious Ashley Gang, it was John’s suave father, Joe Ashley, who forged a path of criminality for John and his four brothers.
John Ashley spent much of his career as a criminal on the run, hiding out in the Everglades while in frequent communication with his family in Fruita
The city of Port St. Lucie sprang up in 1961, seemingly out of nowhere. From jungle-like riverbanks, swarms of giant mosquitos and no residents, its population zoomed from zero to 240,000 in 63 years.
In the vast circle of life, only humans display a fascination with the past. Quality 16th-century historian William Camden called it our “back-looking curiositie.”
The killing of Seminole DeSoto Tiger thrusts pioneering Ashley family on wrong side of law. Today, exactly a century after John Ashley, Hanford Mobley, Ray Lynn and Clarence Middleton were killed at the Sebastian River bridge, the shootout and the gang’s activities still stir the public imagination.
At the dawn of the 20th century, Fort Pierce boasted two watering holes within walking distance of each other.
We all have questions about our family history. In childhood, I only gathered bits and pieces about my father’s family from what I heard from my dad or my paternal grandfather, E.R. “Putz’’ Enns, who arrived on what we now call the Treasure Coast exactly a century ago.
The saga of South Florida’s boom and bust during the Roaring Twenties gets a fresh take in this look back at an era of frenzied speculation in real estate
They traveled from the valleys of Prussia to the steppes of Russia, the wheat fields of Kansas and, finally, to the citrus rows of Florida. The precise reason for the Enns family’s move to Florida is lost to the memories of those who have long since passed, but it resulted in the creation of a citrus grove, construction of a development called Maravilla and the purchase of the local newspaper.
Who exactly was Pop Koblegard and why did he build the Sunrise on such a grand scale?
