LIVING HISTORY
northern market, growers
had begun shipping more
than 1 million boxes per year
from Jensen Beach. By 1895,
it became known as the Pineapple
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Capital of the Word.
In her book “Historic
Jensen and Eden of Florida’s
Indian River” Sandra Thurlow
documents accounts of
many families who settled in
the area and began growing
pineapples.
“The once exotic pineapple
was to become commonplace
for those who settled on the
south east coast of Florida
during the late 1800s,” she
writes. “Rattons, suckers
and slips, terms for the parts
of the pineapple plant used
for propagation, became
household terms. Names of
varieties such as Red Spanish,
Abakka, Smooth Cayenne
became as familiar as a
friend’s surname.”
YELLOW FLAG
Moving farther north
along the Indian River, Gail
Hallstrom Flesche’s family
emigrated from Sweden
and settled in what is now
Indian River County to grow
pineapples near Oslo Road.
Flesche’s great-uncle, Axel
Hallstrom, a horticulturist,
and her grandfather, Nels
Hallstrom, started the Hallstrom
Farmstead along Old
Dixie Highway. Axel Hallstrom
left Sweden in 1893,
first settling in Berlin and
London before immigrating
to the United States.
Glowing reports from
fellow Scandinavians in
the Oslo and Viking now
known as Indrio settlements
inspired him to try his hand
at agriculture. In 1904, he
moved to Florida and for $35
an acre bought land in Viking
close to where the Hillcrest
Memorial Gardens is today.
This is where Hallstrom
began his first pineapple
plantation.
He sold the Viking property
to R.N. “Pop” Koblegard
in 1890 and bought land
several miles north in Oslo
PHOTO BY CAMILLE S. YATES
Gail Flesche stands next to tools once used on her family’s pineapple farm. These and other relics from pineapple
farms can be seen at the St. Lucie County Historical Museum.