Barbara D. Oeffner - Around Lake Okeechobee

One of Floridas toughest pioneers was Dr. Anna Darrow. Nicknamed the petticoat doctor, she rode on horseback around the lake with her medicines curing the sick and distraught. She delivered babies to women who couldnt get any medical care in places that no one else could reach. Her husband, Roy, tended the office, since his health was frail. A member of the notorious Rice gang, Leland Rice got half his jaw shot off one night. Pretending to be his mother, Doc Anna held his hand, bandaged up the outlaw, and sent him to a hospital in St. Augustine. She also pumped out the stomach of a new doctor who bragged he was going to run the petticoat doctor out of town. The doctor had accidentally swallowed poison intended for another purpose. (LEWM.)

Dr. Anna shows her painting. She won second prize, a bond worth $1,000 in the Medical Art Exhibition sponsored by Mead-Johnson Company during the 1947 American Medical Convention. The years theme was Courage and Devotion Beyond the Call of Duty. (LEWM.)

Lawrence E. Will (center) is standing with the Poulter girls (left and in white right) in 1919. Will wrote books about the early days around the lake: A Cracker History of Okeechobee , A Dredgeman of Cape Sable , Okeechobee Hurricane and the Hoover Dike , A Pioneer Boatman Tales of Okeechobee Boats and Skippers , Okeechobee Catfishing , and Swamp to Sugar Bowl . In these true accounts, he relates his boating experiences in the pioneer days of Lake Okeechobee settlement. (LEWM.)

This man is ? Cunningham, a guitar player from Gardenia. Since he was expecting a sudden stroke, he dug his own grave in a canal bank, but he lived to return to England. With Mrs. Little and her granddaughter, he drove 8 miles on Bolles Road from Gardenia to Okeelanta on the Miami Canal. (LEWM.)

Black Gold is a festival celebrated every year in Belle Glade. A high school or college girl is selected from several candidates to be Miss Black Gold. The event is held at the Dolly Hand Cultural Center auditorium and is judged professionally. The women dress up in evening gowns and give the audience information about their goals. They are asked a question and are judged on their responses. The term black gold refers to the rich soil of the farmland, where sugarcane, corn, beans, and other crops are harvested every year. In this photograph, Mr. and Mrs. John C. Heck, Dave Hetherington, and a Bishop boy are shown at Geerworth in the spring of 1925. (LEWM.)

The Lawrence E. Will Museum in Belle Glade was founded in 1976 in honor of the United States bicentennial. Dr. Orseingo, director of the Glades Historical society, was director for many years. He received his doctorate in agronomy and soil science from Cornell University in 1948. In World War II, he served his country in an army armored field artillery unit. In 1933, he received his undergradute degree in agronomy and statistics from Cornell University. In 1955, he joined the Instituto Interamericano de Ciencias Agricolas, in Turrialba, Costa Rica. He later joined the staff of the University of Florida Everglades Experiment Station (EREG) in 1957. He worked diligently for the betterment of Glades farmers until 1975. At the research center, he held several positions, including horticulturist and professor of plant physiology. Upon his retirement in 1975, he was named professor emeritus. He helped more farmers in more ways to be successful than anybody you have ever known. He was a friend of the whole industry, said Joe Marlin Hilliard, owner of Hilliard Brothers of Florida in Clewiston. He was a heck of a scientist. In 1976, he became the director of agricultural research for the Florida Sugar Cane League in Clewiston. (LEWM.)