$20 BOUGHT AN ACRE ON COCOA BEACH I am reminded of the time when the only publicity the town of Cocoa received (and there wasnt any town of Cocoa Beach) was sent out by traveling salesmen (drummers) who told their fellow sufferers that the best place to eat on the territory was The Cocoa House at Cocoa where Ed Grimes, an old drummer himself, was host. This was in 1912 and the land was listed on what is now Cocoa Beach at $20 per acre -- and no sales . . . too many mosquitos. Cocoa was a quiet, peaceful hamlet of about 650 persons -- fishermen, citrus growers, guides and homesteaders. There was no blacktop paving -- if any at all the holes in the streets were filled with oyster shell from Indian mounds in the area. There were no Federal highways and the Dixie highway passed through the center of town. This highway was also made by filling the car ruts with oyster shell. I recall one of the members of the faster set who made a wager of $50 he could drive from Cocoa to Jacksonville by car all the same day -- 176 miles away. The gamblers argued a day meant from sun up to sundown -- and the poor fellow lost his money. Gator Travis ran the general store in Cocoa (his father Col. Travis was president of Brevard County State Bank -- it gave up during the great depression of the 30s) and the first real estate operator on Cocoa Beach was Gus Edwards, an attorney in Cocoa. The Cocoa Real Estate authority, back in those days was Roy Trafford. A man by the name of Canfield also sold some real estate on commission -- he claimed to be some kin to the nationally known gambler whose name is still known as a game of solitaire. The summer days in early Cocoa were long but it was cool under the huge oak tree which shaded the bench outside the entrance to Johnny Weathers Pool Hall -- and most of the merchants in town stopped there sometime during those lazy, pleasant days. Even Homesteaders from Merritt Island stopped to rest after a brisk shopping tour of the Cocoa stores, to listen to the tales of the even earlier days along Indian River. Dr. Noah Counts would stop occasionally to check on the health of some of his rare patients -- no one seemed to ail much in those days. It was about this time that Marie Holderman brought her newspaper, The Tribune, from Palmetto, across from Bradentown (yes, they didnt change the citys name until much later) and started the Cocoa Tribune. I soon became a correspondent to the Tribune from Courtenay on Merritt Island and wrote of the goings and comings there for a few months when Marie asked if I would like to work on the paper in Cocoa -- I did. Her husband Chauncey (we called him Chance) would sit in his wheelchair and give customers prices on job printing. I believe we got $35 for a full page of advertising in that 8-col. sheet.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Jul 2014 17:54:11 +0000
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