LIVING HISTORY
R.R. Gladwin built boats during his first decade in Fort Pierce, with his
boathouse located at the north side of the mouth of Moore’s Creek. It was
later sold to George Backus, father of artist A.E. “Bean” Backus.
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R.R. claimed to have shipped the state’s first grapefruit
from Florida in 1895, when he dispatched two sugar barrels
to Savannah. The venture proved unsuccessful, though, after
he received instructions on the other end not to ship any
more because the people there did not know what they were
or what to do with them.
But riding the rails as an express agent, R.R. undoubtedly
knew what promises South Florida held. By late January
1894, Henry Flagler’s railway had been extended to Fort
Pierce, and seven weeks later reached West Palm Beach. By
April 1896, it had reached present-day downtown Miami,
and R.R. relayed to relatives that he was on the first passenger
train that went to Miami over the East Coast Railway.
These expansions meant R.R. had spent the 12 years of his
career as an express agent witnessing the growth and transformations
that would happen in Florida communities as the
railway arrived in them.
By 1901, R.R., then 31, decided to strike out on his own,
leaving his railway job and moving his family from Jacksonville
to Fort Pierce. His newfound freedom and entrepreneurial
drive would lead him through careers as a fish dealer,
boat builder and store keeper before finally returning to his
family’s roots as a citrus grower.
The earliest proof for the family’s arrival in Fort Pierce is a
mortgage executed March 9, 1901, between R.R. Gladwin and
James Andrews, with the deed being recorded the next year.
The mortgage was for an unspecified piece of property but apparently
related to where the Gladwins established their home
on the Indian River, just a block south of where the circle at
the Citrus Avenue Overpass is today. The move coincided
with the same year that Fort Pierce became incorporated.
My grandmother, Margaret Susan Gladwin, was born in
Fort Pierce in 1902, and my great uncle, Robert Usher “Bob’’
Gladwin, was born here in 1904.
On arriving in Fort Pierce, R.R. Gladwin operated a
wholesale fish business, Price and Gladwin Salt and Fresh
Water Fish, according to the letterhead the 1901 mortgage
was written on. Later, he started a boat-building business
called R.R. Gladwin, which was located on the north
shore of Moore’s Creek, east of where the boat ramps at the >>
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POPPEL HOUSE
A Designated Historical Property
4 2 6 A V E N U E A , F O R T P I E R C E , F L O R I D A 3 4 9 5 0
FRED F EE ( 1 8 8 8 - 1 939 ) • F RANK F EE ( 1 9 1 3 - 19 8 3 )