The Historical Society of Avon ParkAVON PARK, FL · EST. 1886
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Whidden & Christopher’s Lake Okeechobee Power Boat (1916)

Boat construction and specifications (March 1916)

On 23 March 1916, The De Soto County News reported under its Avon Park correspondence column that local partners were completing a specialized marine craft:

“Whidden & Christopher are building a 25-foot power boat with 50-horsepower engine. They intend to run it on Lake Okeechobee.”[dsc-1916-03-23]

The vessel’s recorded dimensions and power plant distinguished it from the recreational skiffs and light launches common on Highlands County’s inland lakes. In 1916, pleasure launches on Florida inland waters typically operated with single- or two-cylinder inboard motors rated between 3 and 12 horsepower. Equipping a 25-foot hull with a 50-horsepower marine engine provided heavy-duty propulsion and substantial payload capacity, indicating an intended commercial role such as hauling fish, towing supply scows, or providing high-speed transport across the wide, unpredictable waters of Lake Okeechobee.[dsc-1916-03-23][vanlandingham-okeechobee-ch4]

Lake Okeechobee commercial context and transport routes

The Whidden & Christopher venture coincided directly with an unprecedented economic expansion on Lake Okeechobee. In early 1915, the Florida East Coast Railway completed its branch line to the northern lake shore at Tantie (incorporated as the City of Okeechobee in July 1915).[vanlandingham-okeechobee-ch4] Rail service transformed the lake’s commercial catfish industry: major packing operations—including the T. A. Bass Fisheries Company, Southern Fisheries Company, Booth Fisheries, and Standard Fisheries—relocated their primary distribution hubs to Okeechobee, shipping four to seven refrigerated carloads of dressed fish north every week.[vanlandingham-okeechobee-ch4]

Commercial fishermen established sprawling camps along the lake’s rim at Utopia, Upthegrove Beach, and Eagle Bay. Because no paved roads connected these remote settlements, power boats and freight launches served as the sole practical link for carrying fresh catches to the railway docks and returning with ice, gasoline, groceries, and gear.[vanlandingham-okeechobee-ch4]

For Avon Park entrepreneurs, Lake Okeechobee represented the region’s most active trade frontier. In spring 1916, the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad’s Haines City branch terminated at Sebring, ten miles south of Avon Park; surveyors were only then plotting its extension toward Lake Istokpoga, Hicoria, and the Kissimmee River valley.[dsc-1916-03-23] Before the railway reached Okeechobee from the northwest, water transport via the Kissimmee River, Taylor Creek, and connecting canals carried passengers, cattlemen, and freight between interior ridge communities and the lake basin.[vanlandingham-okeechobee-ch4] A power boat constructed in Avon Park could be moved overland to the Kissimmee River or Lake Istokpoga and navigated into Lake Okeechobee.

Identification of the partners

The firm “Whidden & Christopher” united two pioneer South Florida families who were active in Avon Park civic and business life before shifting their principal operations toward Okeechobee:

  1. Marion Thomas Whidden (1889–1952): Born on 11 April 1889 in Crewsville (then DeSoto County, later Hardee County) to pioneer cattleman Francis Whidden (1853–1930) and Sarah Williams Whidden (1852–1936), M. T. Whidden belonged to the extensive Whidden family that developed central Florida’s cattle industry and erected downtown commercial blocks in Avon Park. In May 1916, the DeSoto County Board of County Commissioners appointed Whidden as Clerk of Election Precinct No. 14 (Avon Park), where he served alongside precinct inspectors George F. Kellogg, J. C. Skipper, and John Wilson, and Deputy Sheriff Love Cash.[dsc-1916-05-11][fl-secstate-1915-1916] On 16 October 1916, Whidden married Lillie Louise Hazellief (1900–1993) in Avon Park. During the early 1920s, he worked in local banking as an assistant cashier in Avon Park. He later served as Mayor of Arcadia (1938), established extensive cattle ranches at Eagle Bay on Lake Okeechobee and in Martin County, and became cashier of the Okeechobee Bank in 1944.[okeechobee-news-1952-whidden] He died in Okeechobee on 3 June 1952 and was buried at Evergreen Cemetery.
  2. Clyde Steven Christopher: Born in Florida in the 1890s, Christopher was part of the Christopher family of southwest and central Florida (brother to Lloyd Spencer Christopher of Wauchula). His ties to Avon Park were confirmed through family residence, including the birth of his son Hildry Harmon Christopher in Avon Park on 3 December 1919. The Christopher family maintained close commercial, ranching, and community ties with M. T. Whidden and the Hazellief family across DeSoto and Okeechobee counties. When Marion Thomas Whidden died in June 1952, Clyde Christopher and his son Hildry Christopher served as pallbearers at his funeral services alongside Maxie, Merle, and Emory Whidden.[okeechobee-news-1952-whidden]

The March 1916 boat venture illustrates how Avon Park’s mercantile and trades network engaged with the emerging Lake Okeechobee water basin prior to the completion of southern rail connections and modern highway systems.

References

Where this comes from

Evidence
corroborated — More than one independent source agrees.
Review
unverified — Drafted from sources but not yet checked by a volunteer.
Rights
society

Sources

  1. The De Soto County News, Arcadia, Fla., The De Soto County News, 23 March 1916, page 5: Avon Park (1916) · newspaper
  2. The De Soto County News, Arcadia, Fla., The De Soto County News, 11 May 1916, page 2: County Commissioners Proceedings (1916) · newspaper
  3. Kyle S. VanLandingham, The Boom Era 1915–1920 (Chapter Four, History of Okeechobee County) (1978) · book
  4. Florida Secretary of State, Report of the Secretary of State of the State of Florida, 1915–1916 (1917) · official
  5. The Okeechobee News, Okeechobee, Fla., The Okeechobee News, 6 and 13 June 1952: Marion Thomas Whidden Obituary and Funeral Services (1952) · newspaper

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