LIVING HISTORY
INDEPENDENT FORTUNE
The first written evidence of pineapple farming on what is
now known as the Treasure Coast goes back to 1845, when
settler Caleb Drayton took stock of his crops in a letter. According
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to researchers Edward Caleb Choker and Daniel L.
Schaefer, writing in the Florida Historical Quarterly in 1992,
Drayton grew the crops south of the site of the original Fort
Pierce and wrote to his wife, who was living in Augusta, Ga.:
There are Pine Apples here now bearing, & if there is anything
that looks beautiful it is them. I have just obtained 38 & have 30
Bananas which will give me by fall more than two hundred. I shall
have considerable fruit another year, & from the plants I now have,
shall be able to obtain more than 1,000 in a year from this time, &
5,000 the year following, & 25,000 the next — 50,000 is a large
plantation of them. 200 Orange trees, 100 lemon, 50,000 bananas &
50,000 Pine Apples are an independent fortune to any man, & there
is no difficulty in having them, besides many other valuable fruits,
such as Citron, Tamarind, Lime, Guava, Custard apple etc.
While farmers such as Drayton had moderate success,
pineapple production didn’t take off until 1879 when Capt.
Thomas E. Richards homesteaded property on a high bluff
overlooking the Indian River 13 miles south of Fort Pierce
and named it Eden.
Workers harvest pineaple in the Indian River region. This is the first of a series of articles exploring the history of
Treasure Coast agriculture.
Pineapple Primer
The pineapple is native to southern Brazil and Paraguay. It was
spread by the Indians up through South and Central America to the
West Indies before Columbus arrived. In 1493 Columbus found the
fruit on the island of Guadeloupe and carried it back to Spain and it
was spread around the world on sailing ships that carried it for protection
FLORIDA PHOTOGRAPHIC COLLECTION
against scurvy. Because the pineapple superficially resembles
a huge pine cone, the Spaniards called it pina de Indias, or Pine of
the Indes. The Spanish introduced the pineapple into the Philippines
and may have taken it to Hawaii and Guam early in the 16th century.
The pineapple reached England in 1660 and began to be grown in
greenhouses for its fruit around 1720. After the Europeans colonized
North America in the 17th century, they began importing pineapples
from the Caribbean. Because the pineapple was a rare fruit to North
America, it became a symbol of hospitality. Because the pineapple
symbolizes warmth and friendliness, it is often used, in modern
times, as the “crowning” piece in large displays of food. Also, the
pineapple has been used to decorate bed posts, tablecloths, or
napkins — anything that is associated with welcoming guests.