One of the reasons the Hanson Farmhouse has been considered to be historic is that its story mirrors the story of how this part of western Broward County was settled on land reclaimed from the Everglades. This page is a brief sketch of that story: what came before the settlers, what they faced when they arrived, how the area grew and developed, and one key event that helped pave the way for the residential development that followed. Today the area is densely developed, primarily with homes. The house was built c. 1928 by a pioneer promoter and builder, and it still stands as a reminder of those early years.
What came before
Islands in a river of grass
The farm lies at the edge of the Pine Island chain, known in the 1800s as Sam Jones Seven Islands. These islands of high ground stretched four miles west through the sawgrass (from today's Tree Tops Park to Long Key). For some 5,000 years they were home to Indigenous people, first the Tequesta and later the Seminoles.
In 1838, about two miles from the farm, Seminole and Miccosukee War Chief Apiaka (also known as Sam Jones) held off a much larger force led by Major Lauderdale, in the last significant battle of the Second Seminole War. The State of Florida took ownership of the Everglades under the federal Swamp Act of 1850. Seminoles, however, returned to the Pine Islands after the wars and continued to live there until the area was surveyed and subdivided (Newman's Survey of 1908) and sold to settlers.
Draining the swamp
Napoleon Bonaparte Broward was elected Governor of Florida in 1904 on a promise to drain the Everglades (which many people thought would be impossible). By 1906 dredges were digging west from the New River toward Lake Okeechobee. One of them, the dredge Okeechobee, cut the South New River Canal, which runs across Griffin Road from the farmhouse. The canals were finished in 1912.
Under the sawgrass lay a deep layer of black, organic muck. Once the water was drained, the muck made rich farmland. Speculators and land companies moved in even before the canals were finished.
Selling the dream
In 1908, R. P. Davie, who had made a fortune growing sugar beets in Colorado, joined other investors to buy 28,000 acres of reclaimed land along the canal. Their Everglades Sugar and Land Company advertised across the country. By 1915 they were offering tours of "The Davie Farm in the Everglades, the Black Soil Belt of Florida," where settlers could grow "produce for the northern markets when most other parts of the country are snow and ice bound."
People came from all over. The Griffin family, for example, came from Kentucky around 1909, after William Griffin saw an advertisement while working for the railroad. Until a rock road was finished in 1916, boats on the canal were the only way to carry passengers, produce and mail.
Workers who had built the Panama Canal arrived around 1911, and for years the area in which they settled, today's Davie, was known as "Zona." The name Davie was chosen when the town first incorporated in 1925.
This farm was part of that rush. Its 20 acres, Tract 29 on Newman's Survey of 1908, were bought from the State of Florida in 1914 for $35 an acre.
Life on the new land
Hard times on new land
Many of the people who came to the reclaimed Everglades had never farmed before, and they were buying land that had never been farmed either. So they were unprepared for what came next. The hardships were many, as highlighted below: flooding, hurricanes, the risk of fire, taxes, and life without electricity or ready access to clean water.
Also, the Florida land boom collapsed in 1926, and the Miami Hurricane that September made it worse. South Florida's economy then slid into hard times (years before the Great Depression reached the rest of the country), and recovery was slow. By the 1930s, farm after farm, including this one, had changed hands, some repeatedly.
Still, the settlers showed grit, determination and resilience, with many staying to rebuild.
Water: too much and too little
The canals were built mainly to drain and irrigate, not to control flooding. So pioneer farmers faced significant, repeated flooding. At the same time, clean drinking water was hard to get, which is why Ralph Horton built this farm's water tower.
Horton, who owned the farm in parts of the 1920s and early 1930s and built both the first house and the present one, was at the center of these fights. He promoted Everglades farming, helped establish the Napoleon B. Broward Drainage District (a forerunner of today's South Florida Water Management District) and later chaired the Drainage Board. In 1919 he also represented local farmers in a lawsuit to recover drainage taxes they had paid under protest.
Wind and fire
The Miami Hurricane of 1926 reportedly destroyed nearly every building in the western part of the county. It hit Davie so hard that the new town dissolved itself within a year. On this farm, only the water tower and the concrete piers of the first house survived. Horton rebuilt, putting up a new, sturdier 1928 house on 3-foot concrete piers to withstand the next storm, and it still stands today.
See also: Surviving Hurricanes
Without electricity, cooking meant an open fire, so cooking was done outside the house, away from the wooden walls. Lighting in the area was probably provided by low-BTU gas lamps, which avoided the risk of open flames in the house. At this farm, the lamps are believed to have been fed by pipes in the attic (though no such pipes remain).
Life before and after electricity
In March 1930, Florida Power and Light announced that power lines would reach Davie, "one of the first wires extended into the Everglades." The announcement gave no timeline, and we do not know exactly when power came to Davie, much less when it was extended beyond Davie proper to the rural area where the farm stood. Nor do we know whether the Minton family, the owners who brought power into the house, did so as soon as it became available or had to wait until they could afford to do so. The best estimate is that this house got electricity in about 1938, over 20 years after downtown Fort Lauderdale.
Electricity had a huge impact, making life on the land significantly more comfortable and inviting. An indoor kitchen was added, electric lights replaced the gas lamps, and electric pumps made deeper wells and indoor plumbing possible.
See also: The House Through Time
Davie, then Cooper City
During the pioneer years, the farm was part of rural Davie, and the Minton children went to the Davie School. Cooper City was founded by real estate developer Morris Cooper in 1959, and the farm was annexed into the city in 2004. Thus, the history of the farm is the history of both Davie and Cooper City.
What came next
One event that helped change the area: the flood of 1947
The pioneer era did not end all at once. But the floods of 1947 were one turning point. When John and Arline Hanson bought the farm in April 1947, it was still deep in the countryside. That fall, a hurricane followed by a massive rainstorm flooded Davie for weeks. John's brother-in-law, Mark Gibson, drove out both during and after the second storm. In his eyewitness account, he wrote: "Nothing but water as far as you can see."
Frank Stirling, Davie's first mayor, surveyed the flooding and said, "This is the greatest thing that happened to Davie... Now the government will come in and do something about this flooding." He was right: modern flood control followed in the years after. Flood control made the land far more livable, and it helped pave the way for the residential development that now blankets the area.
A rare survivor
The Hanson Farmhouse is the oldest remaining structure in Cooper City. Other pioneer-era buildings nearby, such as the Belcher farmhouse and the Chaplin Nursery cottage, have been lost. The Hanson Farmhouse remains a reminder of how this part of western Broward was settled.