LIVING HISTORY
THE LIFE OF WALDO SEXTON
14
VERO AT 100
1885 — Waldo Emerson Sexton is born
March 23 in Shelby County, Indiana,
the sixth child to Isaac Sexton and
Sarah Buckingham Sexton. Throughout
childhood, he works on the family’s 80-
acre farm.
1906 — Graduates from Shelbyville
(Ind.) High School and enters the
University of Indiana to study medicine
but later drops out and enrolls in Purdue
University to study animal husbandry in
1908.
1911
— Graduates
from Purdue and
moves to Barberton,
Ohio, where he
works as manager
on the farms of O.C.
Barber, known as
the Diamond Match
King.
salesman for the Spalding Deep Tilling
Machine and travels to Vero for a
demonstration. When the demonstration
goes awry, he decides to make Vero
his home, buys small plots of land and
works as a sales agent for Indian River
Farms Co.
1915 — Begins the purchase of large
pieces of property on the beach and
southwest Vero.
1917 — Moves into his bungalow on
12th Street as a bachelor.
1918 — Marries Elsebeth Martens.
They later produce a family of two girls
and two boys.
1920 — Opens Oslo Packinghouse.
1924 — Founds Vero Beach Dairy, the
first commercial dair` in the area
with Arthur McKee.
1934 — Begins building the Driftwood
— then referred to as the Breezeway
— as a weekend beach getaway for his
family. The project evolves into a hotel
that becomes known as the Driftwood
Inn and a restaurant now known as
Waldo’s.
would become known as the Patio
restaurant.
known as the Ocean Grill, which opened
as Gus and Emma’s Ocean Grill.
1943 — With 160 acres received from
the dissolution of the Kenmore Cattle
Company held with three other partners,
starts Treasure Hammock Ranch.
1947 — Begins a series of
hospitalizations for the treatment of
manic depression.
1956 — Begins building Waldo’s
Mountain and completes it in 1960.
Club, now the Szechuan Palace.
Sexton Day is
celebrated in Vero
Beach on Nov. 5.
28 at the age of
82 and is buried
in Crestlawn
Cemetery in Vero
Beach.
1932 — Opens McKee Jungle Gardens
1957 — Completes and opens the Turf
1958 — Waldo
1967 — Dies Dec.
1913 — Begins work as a traveling
1937 — Completes and opens what
1941 — Completes the building now