Florida Facts, Both Bright and Blue (1887)
Oliver Marvin Crosby’s book on Florida, published in 1887 — a year after the founding party reached the site of Avon Park, and a year before the Common Sense pamphlet that names the town. Crosby was selling Florida land while he wrote it, and the book is his long argument that Florida was worth buying into provided the buyer went in with open eyes. It concedes heat, insects, sand, crop failure and sharp dealing, and then makes the case anyway. [crosby-1887-book]
Forty-nine engraved plates run through it, reproduced here in place. They are the promotional picture of Florida that Avon Park’s founder put in front of northern readers: groves, packing houses, hotels, steamboats, spring runs and cypress swamps, together with plates that depict Black and Seminole Floridians in the terms of 1887 publishing.
One thing the book does not do is name Avon Park. A search of this transcription finds no mention of Avon Park, Lake Forest, or Pabor anywhere in the text, though Hamilton Disston appears three times. In 1887 Crosby was selling Florida in general; the named town enters his printed argument only with the 1888 pamphlet.
References
- crosby-1887-book — Oliver Marvin Crosby. Florida Facts, Both Bright and Blue. 1887. https://archive.org/details/floridafactsbot00crosgoog
Where this comes from
- Evidence
- single-source — One source. Treat as reported, not established.
- Review
- unverified — Drafted from sources but not yet checked by a volunteer.
- Rights
- society
Sources
- Oliver Marvin Crosby, Florida Facts, Both Bright and Blue (1887)
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