LIVING HISTORY
74
IRIS WALL COLLECTION
Wall addresses the audience after receiving the Woman of the Year Award
from the Florida Department of Agriculture.
1995 Cattle Drive. They along with her grandchildren and
several hundred cattlemen rode their horses and drove 1,000
head of Cracker cattle from Yeehaw Junction to Kissimmee, to
celebrate Florida’s 150-year anniversary.
They rode for a week along the dusty trail, camped, told
stories around the campfire and slept on the ground under a
starry sky — just like their Florida ancestors. Perhaps, it was
listening to the storytelling around the campfire or maybe
it reminded her of her own cow hunting days long ago, but
something ignited a spark with this cowwoman and rekindled
her passion for Old Florida.
At the event, Wall renewed old friendships, people she had
not seen since she was a teenager. They kept in touch following
the cattle drive and cattle organizations throughout the
state began to seek her out. She rode the cross-state Florida
Cracker Trail the following year then became active and
later served on the boards of the Cracker Horse Association,
the Cracker Cattle Association and the Martin County Farm
Bureau for many years.
“After my dad died, I saw the blossoming of this person
and this personality that was as big as my father’s personality,”
Flewelling says. “How many women are strong enough
after the loss of the love of their life to go back and pick up
a thread that has been laying for 49 years — pick up and reenjoy
all the things she did when she was a young girl and a
woman?”
CRACKER EDUCATION
Education is important to Wall, and she enjoys opening
children’s eyes to the natural beauty of Florida and its
agricultural traditions. For more than 10 years, she has been
a regular at Warfield School telling her Cracker tales. She also
has hosted field trips to the Seminole Inn and the High Horse
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