have to make the dangerous trip back home.
Cattle herds kept expanding during the 1830s
and by the time of the Armed Occupation Act of
1842, Florida was, and still is, the largest calf
producing state in America. After 1842, hundreds
of cowmen homesteaded over 200,000 acres of
Florida grassland and ran huge free-range cattle
operations. They brought their own herds with
them and interbred them with the wild Florida
scrub cattle. Even though they homesteaded the
land, they really didn’t own the land they just
occupied it and made use of it with the herds they
either brought with them or the wild cattle that
they found to already be there when they arrived.
Wars meant money for the cowmen of Florida
during this time. The cowmen supplied both sides
of the war with a source of beef for the armies
and the hides and meat became so important that
the Confederate Army formed a Cow Calvary to
protect the herds from thief by raiders from the
north.
After the Civil War, the cattle boom grew so much
that by 1878 Florida was the leading cattle producer
and exporter in all of America. It was during this time
the Florida cowmen exported over 1.5 million head
of cattle to Cuba.
By this time my family was already well established
in the central Florida cattle industry and was raising
herds in western Manatee and Hardee counties.
About this time, the importation of the Brahman
bulls from India began. The cowmen wanted to create
a better bloodline and thought that the Brahman
would be a good fit for the Florida environment since
it came from a place even hotter than here and was
also immune to disease. The idea worked, and the
cattle appear as part of the same bloodline and
became tastier too. I guess the idea of “finished beef ”
was not invented yet, because I read a quote from a
hand that when asked what he thought of the cattle
and how it tasted, he said, “Well if I keep eating this
stuff, I guess I’ll be bulletproof.”
Author Tim Spain is a ninth-generation Floridian
who grew up in Arcadia, Florida. He is fascinated
with Florida’s heritage and nature and spends
much of his spare time reading and researching
how life in Florida was hundreds of years ago.
Tim can emailed at Tim.Spain1973@gmail.com
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