NOTABLE PERSONS OF BROWARD COUNTY FLORIDA
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Dr. Anna "Doc Anner" (1879-1959)
and Dr. Roy Darrow (d. c. 1926)
Known as the "petticoat doctor of the Everglades (Anna). In 1909, Anna
and Roy Darrow came to Florida from Chicago to take the medical exam.
Anna achieved a score of 98%, which was the highest score ever, and so
the Darrow doctors decided to return in 1911 with their two children to
practice medicine. Anna became the second female physician in the State
of Florida. The Darrows lived in various places including Jacksonville,
Fort Pierce, Okeechobee, and finally Fort Lauderdale in 1924. Roy died
soon after the Hurricane of 1926, but Anna continued to practice
medicine for 47 years. After retiring, she moved to Coral Gables and
became a painter. There are many colorful stories about the Darrows,
and especially "Doc Anner" who traveled alone into the Everglades
treating patients without regard to their race or ability to pay.
Indians, persons of color & even gangsters were treated by Doc
Anner.
Robert Marshall Darsey (Oct 07, 1869 - May 13, 1933)
Buried Pompano Beach South Lawn Cemetery.
Owner of a fish market on Old Dixie Highway and a murder victim. After
counting the day's receipts, Marshall was beaten and robbed of $96 in
Pompano, FL and died the following day. In their zeal, law enforcement
officers arrested 40 African Americans and coerced four men (Davis,
Williamson, Chambers and Woodward) to confess and be convicted. The
NAACP sued arguing that the confessions were coerced from undue
pressure. The court case went to the Supreme Court, resulting in the
convictions being overturned and landmark changes made in legal
proceeding. Murder convictions obtained by coerced confessions became
void under the 14th amendment and the court also ruled that repeated
inquisitions of prisoners without friends or counsel present were
unacceptable. As a result of this brutal murder, three members of the
Darsey family entered law enforcement. Darsey's daughter Myrtle, who
had helped him count the receipts, became the valedictorian of the
first graduating class of Pompano High School (1928), a class which
totaled 8.
Robert Parsell Davie (Aug 22, 1867
Flushing, MI - d. after 1930); m. 1890 Martha Hays (Dec
29,1869 IL - May 15, 1949 Los Angeles, CA)
SSDI shows Martha'a mother was a CADLE.
Manufacturer, real estate developer, executive and
namesake of the town of Davie. R. P.
Davie was the son of Lyman Ellis and Luella (Lopersus)
Davie and was married to Martha
Hays in 1890. Around 1905, Governor Broward urged in his campaign that
100,000,000 acres of land in the Everglades be sold
for $2 an acre to finance drainage projects to make mosquito-infested land
inhabitable. The number was an exaggeration, but about 100,000 acres were
later sold by the government. In 1909, R. P. Davie organized the Everglades Land
Sale Company which purchased 28,000 acres in South Florida.
This was around the time that the Panama Canal was
built, and early settlers who worked in the Canal Zone came to South Florida. They saw the similarities in
the two places and call the area Zona. Zona was marketed as the first improved town of the Everglades,
but in 1916 was renamed Davie in R. P. Davie's honor.
R. P. Davie also lived in Colorado where he engaged in the drug business in Colorado
Springs and in the manufacture of beet sugar as a
stockholder in the Loveland Sugar Mill of Loveland, CO. In the early 1900s, Davie
financed sugar factories in Garden City, KS and Phoenix,
AZ. According to a Who's Who in the
Pacific Northwest bio, he was a resident of Los
Angeles in 1913 and had been VP of the Western Sugar
& Land Co, president of. Southwestern Sugar & Land Co., and a director in the Colorado Title & Trust Co.
He served in Colorado National Guards in 1899 and was a member of the Masonic fraternity, 32nd
degree; Knights Templar; B. P. O. E. and a Grand Master of Pike's Peak Commandery K. T. at Colorado Springs.
Source: Census records & Who's who in the Pacific Southwest (1913); 1911
Colorado Business Directory, Grand Junction, Mesa County.
Theo. Demro
Blacksmith/horseshoe business owner and tomato farmer. Settled in Dania in
1907. (See Miami Metropolis May 1, 1909 / Imprints 13.1-1994)
George Francis Devlin, Jr. (Dec. 5, 1945)
One of the members of a 13-member Fort Lauderdale
training mission that disappeared over the Bermuda Triangle in 1945. His
position was gunner of the FT-28, a plane that was part of the infamous
Flight 19.
Emily Mildred Olson (b. December 8, 1916 West Palm Beach -
1996) and Edward Dietrich
Emily was school teacher, 1st president of the Deerfield Beach Historical
Society and historian of Deerfield Beach. After obtaining her education and
teaching school in S. Florida and California,
she returned to Deerfield Beach
in 1954. Became active in the community. Organized the adding the Deerfield
Elementary School to the National
Historic Register. Founded the Deerfield Beach Friends of the Library
organization, served on the Library Advisory Board and became the 1st
president of the Historical Society in the 1970s. She was instrumental in
saving Deerfield Island
and became Deerfield Beach's
official historian. Also consulted on the restoration of the Deerfield Beach
Atlantic Coastline Railway. A Great Floridian plaque is located at the Butler
House on Hillsboro blvd. in Deerfield
Beach.
Hamilton Disston
Land Owner. Purchased vast amount of
land in Florida, including
portions of what became Broward County
in 1881. He sold his holdings in 1883 to the Florida Land & Mortgage
Company.
Marjorie Stoneman Douglas (April 7, 1890 Minneapolis, MN - 1998 Florida)
Her ashes were scattered in the Everglades.
Author, Reporter, Feminist, Environmentalist. Nicknamed the Mother of the Everglades.
Moved to Miami in 1915 and worked
for her father at the Miami Herald where she became a society reporter and
editorial columnist. She became a champion of various causes including equal
rights and conservation. In 1947, she wrote The Everglades: River of and
Grass which focused the first attention on the importance of preserving
the Everglades. In total, she published about 13 books
and In 1987, although she was legally blind, she wrote her autobiography
which she called Voice of the River. Helped establish Everglades
and Biscayne National
Parks. She spent a lifetime of 108 years
championing the environmental causes of South Florida.
Posthumously installed into the Women's Hall of Fame.
Michael Dunn (Oct. 20, 1934 - Aug. 30, 1973)
Actor. Known for his portrayed of Dr. Miguelito
Loveless, the arch enemy of James West, on the 1960s TV series, "The
Wild Wild West". Buried Lauderdale Memorial Park Cemetery.
Charles Henry Elston (Oct. 1, 1891 Marietta, Washington Co., OH - Sep. 25, 1980 Fort Lauderdale)
US Congressman from Ohio 1939-1953. Veteran of WWI (US Army). Buried Lauderdale Memorial
Park Cemetery.
Harry E. Lancaster(1865 PA - Aug. 6 ,1940) & Adolfa (Lawrence) Earle (d. Jan 16, 1964)
Harry is buried at Woodlawn Cem., Dania,
FL and Adolfa is buried at Hollywood Memorial
Gardens.
Botanist, tomato grower and civic minded settler of Zona (Davie).
One of the first 10 residents of Zona, later Davie.
Harry E. Earle married his wife Adolfa in Panama while working on the construction of the Panama Canal.
In 1910, they became settlers of Zona, so named because it reminded them of the Panama Canal.
He purchased 10-acre tracts of land sight unseen from the Everglades Sugar
and Land Company. The couple had a son, Harry A. Earle, born in Dania in
1911. Their home was built at the corner of Griffin
and Davie Roads, where they also ran a tomato farm and packing house. Earle
was a stockholder, director and the first elected Secretary of Davie's first telephone company. He was a member of the
board of supervisors of the Davie sub-drainage district in 1914 and was active in the community..
(See First Families of Broward Bio, Imprints 4.2-1985, p. 45-46.)
Harry E. (1911 - Sep. 16, 1984) & Helen
(Keating) Earle, Jr. (b. Scotland)
His ashes were scattered over Florida Bay in Flamingo, Everglades National park.
Farmer, Superintendent of the Central Broward Drainage District, and Author
of stories about the Everglades & Davie. Veteran of WWII Army)
Harry Earle Jr. was much like his father. They were both civic minded and he
was instrumental in establishing the Central Broward Draining District. He
was a member of the Davie Chamber of Commerce and the Everglades Fire Control
Board. He and his wife Helen met during WW II while he was stationed at Fort
Dix, NJ and they married in
NY. The couple were the parents of five children.
(See First Families of Broward Bio, Imprints 4.2-1985, p. 45-46.)
Earl Ehmann
Farmer who introduced pineapple to Pompano.
J. K. English
Listed in R. L. Polk & Co., Florida Gazetteer of 1925 as the manager of the Queen Theatre.