NOTABLE PERSONS OF BROWARD COUNTY FLORIDA


This is a small but growing list of people whose contributions to the world, or their influence on Broward County was memorable. Please check back for updates.

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Francis Luis Abreu 1896-1969 and May (Patterson) Abreu 1891-1976
Architect. Francis was the son of Diego and Marie (Jova) Abreu who owned a Cuban sugar plantation, but also lived in upstate New York. Graduated from Cornell with a bachelor's degree in Architecture and moved to Fort Lauderdale after graduation. Became a partner with James Robeson in the firm of Abreu & Robeson in GA. Built numerous homes and structures in Broward County, but better known for his out-of-state work including the Cloister Hotel and the home of playwright Eugene O'Neal at Sea Island, GA, the Trust Company of GA Tower and St. Joseph's Infirmary in Atlanta. In the 1920's, his wife, May Patterson, worked at Porter and Porter, an interior design firm in Atlanta to help pay off her father's debts during the Depression. She married James J. Goodrum , an Atlanta Banker, but he died after two years of marriage . May met Francis Abreu at Sea Island and they married on Apr. 14, 1938 . The couple were philanthropists and supporters of the Arts. The Atlanta Francis L. Abreu Charitable Trust carries on their tradition of giving. The following is a partial list of Abreu designed or engineered structures in Broward:

  • The Moroccan-style Casablanca Cafe at 3049 Alhambra St. Fort Lauderdale Beach, a 1920s era home converted to a restaurant
  • The Casino Swimming Pool, 1928
  • The Las Olas Sailboat Bend Fire Station
  • Dania Beach Hotel, 1925
  • Needham House, 1925
  • The Anthony School at 820 NE. 3rd St ,Ft. Lauderdale, 1926, which is on the National Register of Historic Places
  • The Fort Lauderdale County Club, 1926
  • Old Post Office at 330 SW 2nd Street, 1927
  • The Riverside Hotel, 720 E. Las Olas Blvd., 1936 (the city's oldest hotel)
  • Probably built the Mediterranean Revival Croissant Park Administration Building

Frank C. "Tootie" Adler b. 1919 - 1997
Dania City Commissioner, Mayor, Broward County Commissioner and attorney for Dania. Was responsible for the City of Dania's acquisition of Dania Beach from the State of Florida, and in 1997 Dania Beach Park was renamed Frank C. " Tootie " Adler Park. Tootie's Great Floridian plaque is located at the Nyberg-Swanson House (see flheritage.com).

Robert L. Agee Mar. 8, 1898 - Sept. 26, 1918 when his boat " Tampa " was torpedoed by a German submarine and sunk with all onboard during WWI. (See Fort Lauderdale Herald Weekly, Oct. 24, 1919, Imprints 19-4-2000)

David Clifford "D. C." 1883-1950 and Grace Louise ( Gartside ) Alexander
D.C. Alexander was the first developer of Fort Lauderdale Beach and has a park named after him, located just south of Las Olas Boulevard on the beach. DC Alexander was one of the first to recognize the beauty of Fort Lauderdale's beaches and worked to preserve them. He married Grace Louise Gartside , dau . of M/M John M. Gartside June 1, 1915 in Chicago (Ft. Lauderdale Sentinel, June 4, 1915; See Imprints 17.2-1998, p. 40).

Capt. Frederick Lee 1882-1936 & Ossie May (_________) 1885 - 1910 during flue epidemic Alexander; 2nd wife Ruby Lee (Humphrey) Lee 1900-1950; Free Lee and Ruby Lee are buried at South Lawn Cem ; Ossie May's burial is unrecorded but may be one of the 3 unrecorded ones in the Alexander plot at South Lawn.
Pompano Farmer & first bridge tender of the bridge at Hillsboro Inlet. Owner of a 10X30' flat-bottomed barge known as a lighter used to transport crops to market. Lived Huntersville, Mecklenburg Co. NC and settled at Pompano after 1907 with two young children where the couple purchased a home before having two more children. After Ossie May died of the flu, Capt. Alexander married again and had two more children. (See First Families of Broward, Imprints 14.2-1995.)

John Aunapu b. Apr. 20, 1882 on island near Estonia in the Baltic - 1929 from a pumpline accident and Liisa (Leisberg) Aunapu b. and married on same island c. 1906. Both buried at Lauderdale Memorial Park . 4 Children.
Farmer, tractor manufacturer, boatline operator & canal lock employee. Early settlers to Davie. John built one of the first tractors used in the Davie muckland and worked on the C-11 Canal Lock. He also operated a boatline from Lake Okeechobee and Fort Lauderdale. Registered for the draft in Broward Co. on Sep. 12, 1918 and listed birthplace as Russia and occupation as transportation. See Imprints 3:4-1984 bio.

A. P. Anthony
Listed in R. L. Polk & Co., Florida Gazetteer of 1925 as a the President of the Bank of Pompano. It had capital of $15,000 and listed C. H. Cates as the cashier.

Jackson Arthur
Listed in the R. L. Polk & Co. Florida Gazetteer of 1925 as an excavating contractor in Hallandale.

James G. Aucamp, Sr.May 31, 1936 Richmond, VA - Mar. 1, 2002
On June 13, 2002, the Town of Davie declared a "James G. Aucamp , Sr. Day" to honor James Aucamp, a 1955 graduate of South Broward HS and the District Manager of the Central Broward Drainage District, where the administration building is named after him. There is also a marker at the Old Davie School with his name on it.

Marshall of Dania Barfield
Marshall from Dania. It was reported in the Fort Lauderdale Herald of Aug. 25, 1922 (see Imprints 22.1-2003, p. 25) that Marshal Barfield had arrested Will Redmond who was operating a shine and mash still.

Albert J. "Doc" Beck
Operated Fort Lauderdale's 1st drug store which opened in 1917. Active in the development of Fort Lauderdale including the College Swim Forum est. 1935. Husband of Annie Beck.

Annie Beck Dec. 4, 1886 Ocala , FL - 1985
Wife of Albert J. "Doc" Beck. Moved to Fort Lauderdale Dec. 1, 1916 . Organized the First Study Club, a woman's literary group in 1919 and in 1921, the Women's Auxiliary of the Episcopal Church. She also purchased the property where All Saints Episcopal Church was established. Formed a library in her home in 1938. President of the Fort Lauderdale Women's Club and became a nationally accredited flower show judge. Think of Annie when you visit the Annie Beck Library, Annie Beck Park (Victoria Park) or see the glorious silver trumpet trees ( Tabebuia Caraiba ) blooming in the spring. She planted one of the first in 1939 in front of her home. "The Annie Beck Tree" still blooms every year, but now in it's location at 333 East Las Olas Blvd.

Alfred Alexander Berghill 1865 -
Son of a wealthy Finnish businessman and the daughter of a minister, Alfred A. Berghill served as the first lighthouse keeper of Hillsboro Lighthouse Mar. 9, 1907 - Aug. 1, 1911 . At the time the light was produced by a single vaporized kerosene lamp known as an i.o.v . system. Also served as a lighthouse keeper for the American Shoal Lighthouse located east of the Florida Keys, the last of six iron-pile reef lights that were built, the Dry Tortugas light house and the Rebecca Shoal Lighthouse located between the Marquesas and the Dry Tortugas.

William O. Berryhill (1878-1954 )
William O. Berryhill was the first Tax Collector of Broward County.

Blanche Bertershaw
Was hired from Miami to be the first school teacher of Dania in 1903, about six years after Ivy Julia Cromartie Stranahan became the first school teacher of Fort Lauderdale. (Source: A Century of Pioneer Spirit (Book on Dania), and The Legacy, Vol. 11, pp 3-4.)

Charles L. & Irene (Jones) Beville, m. Nov. 1921 at the home of Dr. R. D. Tracy, Ft. Lauderdale.
Ticket agent with the Florida East Coast Railway (FEC). Charles came to Fort Lauderdale in 1919, but moved to Gladcrest by the time of his marriage. Irene Jones was the daughter of M/M J. E. Jones. (See Imprints 18.4-1999, p. 109)

Hugh Taylor Birch Aug 2 1848 - 1943
Chicago Attorney Hugh Taylor Birch was the son of Erastis Mitchell and Sally (Milligan) Birch. He was married to Maria Sophronia Root on June 1, 1876 in New York. Birch was shipwrecked in 1898 and brought to the Stranahan camp for 10 days. Some years later, he purchased beachfront land about $1 an acre, eventually owning about 3 1/2 miles of property . The motion picture producer, D.W. Griffith reportedly offered him $250,000 in 1920 for 2/3 of the land, but he refused to sell. At the age of 90, he built his last home there and named it Terramar which means "land to sea." Birch donated his land as a public park and in 1949, the 180 acre Hugh Taylor Birch State Park opened, with his Art Deco & Mediterranean style home used as the visitor's center. (See Imprints 22.1-2003 for reprint of Fort Lauderdale article of Sep. 1, 1922).

William Barnwell (May 22, 1825 Stubenville, OH - Jan. 14, 1908, Miami, FL) & Mary (Bulmer) Brickell Feb 20, 1836 England - Jan 13,1922 FL).
Both buried at Woodlawn Park Cemetery, Miami, FL.
Mary Brickell and her husband, William,purchased the old Frankee Lewis Development in 1873 in what is now the vicinity of Broward Blvd., 12th St. and Federal Highway. When the Stranahans moved here in 1893, the Stranahans built a trading post and a camp on their property. However, the Brickells wished the property to stay in a natural condition, and Stranahan was forced to move his business west to it's current position. Flagler wished to use the property for his railroad, but was forced to relocate west as well. Mary owned a tremendous amount of land in South Florida , and leased land to fish packing operators who built unattractive fishhouses. The woman's club began a dispute about who owned the property rights to the banks of the New River and in 1914, Mary Brickell was sued by the City of Fort Lauderdale. Eventually the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the City controlled the rights, and this lawsuit became known as the Riparian Rights Lawsuit.
Mary Brickell also owned land around the area of the Rio Vista subdivision, located east of Federal Highway near the intersection of the Tarpon & New Rivers. She recorded the first plat there and had intentions of building a high class neighborhood, but passed away before development of the area was completed. About 400 acres of her holdings were purchased by C. J. Hector who completed the subdivision with numerous changes.
According to census records, the family moved quite a bit. The children were born in Australia (1860), Pennsylvania (1865), Ohio (1866-1873) and Florida (1876-1878). William Brickell was shown as a steamboat clerk at the age of 26 in Cincinnati, OH and a capitalist in Miami in 1900.

William L. Bracknell
Commissioner. Served on the first Board of County Commissioners for Broward County .

George W. Bredrick
Occupation listed in R.L. Polk & Co.'s Florida Gazetteer of 1925 " feed and grocer" of Hallandale.

George W. Bloom
City Clerk, Treasurer of Dania and tomato farmer. Settled in Dania in 1904 from Baltimore, MD with schoolmate, Harry T. Tubbs. On May 1, 1909 (Miami Metropolis), it was reported that he and Mr. Tubbs were tomato farmers.

Salvatore Phillip "Sonny" Bono Feb. 16, 1935 Detroit, MI - Jan. 5, 1998 . Buried Desert Memorial Park, Cathedral City , CA.
Entertainer, Mayor of Palm Springs, CA & U.S. Congressman. Married in 1964 to Cher, briefly to Susie Coelho, and in 1984 to Mary Whitaker who assumed his position as Congressman. Resident of Fort Lauderdale during the 1960s when daughter Chastity was born. Also parent of Chesare Elan & Chianna Maria.

Napoleon Bonaparte Broward Apr. 19, 1857 Duval Co. , FL - Oct. 1, 1910.
Namesake of Broward County. Worked as a logger, farm hand, steamboat owner, roustabout and pilot. Elected Governor of Florida in 1904 & proceeded to drain the Everglades to create farmland & inhabitable property. After second attempt, was elected to the U.S. Senate, but died before taking office.

Danny Joe Brown Aug. 24, 1951 Jacksonville , FL - Mar. 11, 2005 Davie, FL
Singer & Composer. Founding member of Southern Rock Band, Molly Hatchet. Died from complications of diabetes in Davie. Buried Lauderdale Memorial Park Cemetery .

John J. "Pig" Brown
Pig farmer who settled along the New River in 1868 with his family. He, along with Washington Jenkins, were the first known post Seminole War settlers to the area. Ran for the State Legislature in 1872 but was defeated. Won election for the Legislature in 1876 at the end of the Reconstruction period, but never returned to South Florida .

Franklin Americus 1874-1934 and Frances Josephine ( Bessent ) Bryan 1880-1961 Both buried Evergreen Cemetery.
Circuit Court Clerk. Franklin A. Bryan was the son of Lewis Hawthorne and his second wife, Georgiana Goodrich. Started his career as a truck farmer on leased land in 1910. Became chairman of the Dade Co. Board of County Commissioners and after Broward County 's courthouse was built on Andrews Avenue in 1910, Franklin Americus Bryan became the first Circuit Court Clerk. He retired in 1932 from ill health. Frances Josephine Bessent was the daughter of William Abraham and Ursula Pauline (Wall) Bessent of Starke, FL.

Sheriff Paul C. Jan 13, 1891 Glencoe, Volusia Co., FL - July 16, 1942 and Elizabeth Maude (Henson) Bryan. Buried Evergreen Cemetery with wife Maude.
Second Sheriff of Broward County 1925-1927. Also worked as Asst. Postmaster and ran Bryan's Cafe in Dania after being Sheriff. Veteran WWI. (Sgt. US Army at Columbia, SC.)
Moved to South Florida in 1900. Son of Louis H. Elizabeth M. (Willis) Bryan. Sister to Susie M. Craig who was a postmaster for 15 years who arrived in 1898. Bryan and his deputies got into trouble during Prohibition for selling liquor and Broward County was briefly left without a police force. He married Maude, the d/o M/M R.J. Henson of Dania on Aug 11, 1920. (See First Families of Broward, Imprints 17.3-1998, pp. 74-75 & Imprints 20.4-2001, p. 110.)

Louis Henry Aug, 23, 1860 - Columbia Co., FL - Feb . 12, 1918 Ft. Lauderdale and Elizabeth M. (Willis) Bryan 1862 - May 10, 1929. Buried Evergreen Cemetery .
Truck farmer. Louis H. Bryan was the son of Nathan and Nancy (Manning) Bryan. He arrived in S. Florida after the Florida Each Coast RR arrived and helped lay out the towns of Fort Lauderdale and Dania. 5 children. (See First Families of Broward, Imprints 17.3-1998, pp. 74-75.)

Lucian c. 1880 - and Susan "Susie" M. Bryan Craig 1879 Jasper, Hamilton Co., FL - July 14, 1942 Ft. Lauderdale. Susie is buried at Evergreen Cem., Ft. Lauderdale.
Postmistress. Susie Bryan was the Fort Lauderdale Postmistress for 15 years and reportedly the first white woman to be settle in Broward Co., FL in 1898. Lucian Craig was the son of Henry. R. & Mary (Aldrich) Craig. Susie was the d/o Louis H. and Nancy (Manning) Bryan. Lucian and Susie married May 10, 1916 at Ocala, FL. Susie Bryan-Craig was buried at Evergreen Cem. in a double ceremony with her brother Paul C. Bryan who died 2 days after her. Survived by her husband and daughter Althea Bryan MacDonald of New York. (See First Families of Broward, Imprints 17.3-1998, pp. 74-75.)

Nathan P. Bryan US Senator by March 1912. Son of M/M John Milton Bryan of Dania, FL

Philemon N. (Oct. 16 1844 - Apr 17, 1925) and Lucy Catherine Bryan(June 24, 1852 - Aug. 31, 1924) Both buried Evergreen Cemetery. Son of Lewis Hawthorne Bryan by is first wife Amanda Elizabeth Lowe.
When Philemon and Lucy Bryan arrived in Fort Lauderdale , they lived in a wood-frame home that became the Bryan Hotel. Their hotel was later replaced by the New River Inn. In 1905, at the request of their sons, Reed and Tom, Edwin T. King built them a new home of hollow-concrete block. During WWII, their house served as a boarding house for wives of servicemen. Located at the Old Fort Lauderdale Village, the house is open to the public and is the oldest remaining example of residential masonry architecture in Ft. Lauderdale. Philemon Bryan is listed on the 1900 Census for Lemon City, Dade Co., FL living with son Reed A. Bryan. Both were listed as fruit growers.

Tom Bryan 1878 - 1969
In 1913, Tom Bryan led a delegation to the Florida Legislature to request a separate county for our area. Prior to this time, Broward County was part of Dade and Palm Beach Counties, the request to form Broward County was granted in 1915.

W. Q. Bryan c. 1875 - d. Dec. 1921 of complications from dengue fever, Buried Fort Lauderdale Cemetery.
Tax Assessor. According to his obituary in the Fort Lauderdale Sentinel of Dec. 30, 1921 , WQ. Bryan was the Broward County Tax Assessor. He was survived by wife Claudia (Dixon) Bryan and a son and a daughter. (See Imprints 18.1-1999, p. 109).

Henry John Burkhardt
Mailman. Built a home at Hillsboro Inlet in 1891. Considered the last of the barefoot mailmen, a group of mailcarriers who delivered mail along 40 miles of beach & 28 miles of water. For more information, see Hillsboro Lighthouse Preservation Society on the Links Page for a complete list of the barefoot mailmen.

Lucius Broward Campbell Sep. 1, 1915 - Apr. 9, 1920.
Buried in the pioneer section of the Pompano Beach South Lawn Cemetery .
Lucius Broward Campbell was the first white child to be born in Broward County, Florida.

C.H. Cates
Listed in the R. L. Polk & Co. Florida Gazetteer of 1925 as the cashier of the Bank of Pompano.

A. G. Chrane
In 1919, Mr. A.G. Chrane received word that his son, R. Lyndell Chrane, had been killed in the line of duty. In 1922, his long-lost daughter, Mrs. W.R. Oliver of Johnstown, PA, wrote with the exciting news that this was in error. His son had enlisted with the Canadians and was planning to return to Fort Lauderdale to visit his father after a 17-year absence. (Excepted from Imprints 22.1-2003, p. 27 reprint of Fort Lauderdale Herald of Sep. 22, 1922).

Sheriff Walter Reid Clark Dec. 11, 1904 - Apr. 24, 1951 Broward Co., FL
Buried at Evergreen Cemetery
Four term sheriff of Broward County 1933-1950. Son of James W. and Annie (Miller) Clark who settled along the New River in Fort Lauderdale from Tampa in 1902. Walter was one of the first children born to a founding family of Broward County . He helped his mother run a diner and later worked at a grocery and butcher shop. Walter Reid Clark has the distinction of having held the longest tenure of any sheriff in Broward County.

John S. Cook c.1861 - July 1922 at 61Y of chronic nephritis aggravated by pneumonia.
See Fort Lauderdale Herald of July 7, 1922 . Obit reprinted in Imprints 22.1-2003
Prominent proprietor of 3 hardware stores in Atlanta, GA. He and his wife, along with nephew, Frank Cook, settled in the West side Fort Lauderdale around 1919 for health reasons.

The William Cooley Family
Millers. William Cooley built a coontie mill (an arrowroot starch) along the New River after settling there in 1826. In Dec. 1835, the Second Seminole War began around Tampa when Major Francis L. Dade and over 100 of his troops were ambushed. The War spread south and while away on a wrecking expedition, William Cooley's wife, 3 children and tutor were massacred by Seminole Indians on Jan. 6, 1836. This tragedy led to the abandonment of the New River Settlement which had been started in 1824. The surviving settlers fled south to safety on Indian Key. There is a site on the New River called Cooley's Landing which is thought to have been the site of a stockade & fort built by Major William Lauderdale along the New River in March of 1838. This Seminole War lasted until 1842 and the remaining Seminoles resided mainly on Pine Island west of what is now known as Davie.

Augustus Whitfield "AW" Cromartie Apr. 8, 1852 NC - & Sarah ( Elizabeth ) Driver Cromartie b. c. 1860 FL
Note, there is an AW Cromartie who died Nov. 18, 1932 & is buried at Evergreen Cemetery who may be Augustus Sr. or Jr.
Progenitors of the pioneering Cromartie family of Fort Lauderdale. Augustus Cromartie worked as a farmer, but moved to North Florida around 1873 where he taught music. He married Sarah Elizabeth Driver on Dec. 25, 1879 in Jasper, Hamilton Co., FL and they appear on the 1880 census with the William & Annie Turner family for Precinct 4, Columbia FL. They were the parents of Ivy Julia b. 1881 w/o FrankStranahan, Bloxham Alva b. 1882, Pink Elizabeth b. 1884 (h/o. a Ross or a Moss), De Witt b. 1888 h/o Frances H. Ten Brook, Augustus b. 1889 h/o Vera Walker, an infant b. Apr. 23, 1891 and Albert Eugene Cromartie b. 1896.

Bloxham Alva "BA" Cromartie/ Apr. 20, 1882 - Sep. 1952
Buried in historic Evergreen Cemetery, Fort Lauderdale.
Early Fort Lauderdale merchant and tax assessor. Bloxham A. Cromartie was the son of Augustus Whitfield and Sarah Elizabeth (Driver) Cromartie . He was also brother to Ivy Julia Cromartie Stranahan and husband of Louise King. He is listed among the Broward County Civilian Draft Registration records of 1917-18. After the Hurricane of Sep. 17, 1926 , B. A. Cromartie was named by Governor Martin as general chairman to whom funds could be sent to help victims.

Ivy Julia Cromartie Stranahan Feb. 24, 1881 White Springs , FL - Aug. 30, 1971
Died at her home on the New River in Fort Lauderdale and was buried at the Historic Evergreen Cemetery
Known as The Mother of Fort Lauderdale. Teacher and suffragette. Daughter of of Augustus Whitfield and Sarah Elizabeth (Driver) Cromartie. It is reported that in 1899, at the age of 18, she moved to Fort Lauderdale from Lemon City, Miami, to become Fort Lauderdale's first school teacher, earning $40 a month and boarded at the Edwin T. King home until she married Frank Stranahan (August, 1900) and went to live with him at the trading post. However, the census of 1900, dated July 1, showed that she was a single female school teacher living with her parents in Lemon City, Dade County, Florida. She taught school formally for 17 years to Whites & informally to Indians for 15 years. Founded the "Friends of the Seminoles" & persuaded some of the Seminoles to move to the reservation in Dania. Active in Women's Civic Improvement Association (Women's Club) and accompanied Mrs. William Jennings Bryan on delegation to the capital to ask for the right to vote. Became President of the Women's Suffrage Association of Florida in 1917. Florida finally ratified the 19th Amendment in 1920. See Frank Stranahan's bio.

Pink Elizabeth Cromartie Moss or Ross - 1926 from medical complications (miscarriage) at the Stranahan House. Buried at the Evergreen Cemetery in the old Cromartie plot, but the stone is missing.
Sister and best friend of Ivy Julia ( Cromartie ) Stranahan . Daughter of Augustus Whitfield and Sarah Elizabeth (Driver) Cromartie . Pink's name was derived from a flower called Pink and she was frequently called Pink E. She married a man named Moss or Ross, suffered about 3 miscarriages, but never had children. The marriage was sad, as her husband had another family in another state.

Dean and Emil Cross
Dean and Emil Cross were two of the first permanent settlers of Davie, FL in 1909.