The Historical Society of Avon ParkAVON PARK, FL · EST. 1886
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Byrum W. Shockley (1895–1964)

Byrum W. Shockley (November 17, 1895 – April 1, 1964) was an Avon Park citrus and rose grower, the federal enumerator for the 1920 census of Avon Park and its surrounding precinct, and one of the five charter founders and first official historian of the Old Settlers Association of Avon Park (now The Historical Society of Avon Park, Inc.).[census-1920-ed23][aps-1948-09-10][aps-1957-10-10][maxwell-1976][fg-byrum-shockley]

Family Background and the Bunbury House on Lake Pythias

Byrum W. Shockley was born in Kentucky on November 17, 1895, the elder son of the Reverend James B. Shockley (a native of Kentucky) and Sarah Teresa Woodyard Shockley (born in West Virginia around 1862).[census-1920-ed23][maxwell-1976][fg-byrum-shockley] Before moving to Florida, both of his parents served as instructors at Asbury Methodist College in Wilmore, Jessamine County, Kentucky, and lived for a period in West Virginia, where Byrum’s younger brother, Francis W. Shockley (1905–1954), was born.[census-1920-ed23][maxwell-1976][fg-francis-shockley]

Before coming to Florida, Rev. and Mrs. Shockley had both been instructors at the Asbury Methodist College at

Reverend James B. Shockley and Sarah Woodyard Shockley, instructors at Asbury Methodist College in Wilmore, Kentucky, who settled at the Bunbury estate on Lake Pythias in 1908. The First Hundred Years of Avon Park, Florida (1976), page 79. Avon Park Historical Society.[maxwell-1976]

In 1907, Rev. and Mrs. Shockley arrived in Frostproof, Polk County, Florida, with their sons Byrum and Francis, where Rev. Shockley taught school.[maxwell-1976] In 1908, the family purchased the sixty-acre Bunbury House estate on the shore of Lake Pythias north of Avon Park and moved into the house, which had been built in 1889 by architect J. H. Nettleton for English settlers George H. and Lady Bunbury and had stood vacant for nine years.[darsey-1937][maxwell-1976] Rev. James B. Shockley taught at the Avon Park public school during the 1908–1909 term.[maxwell-1976] Inside the German-walnut-paneled house on Lake Pythias, the Shockley family preserved the Bunburys’ carved upright English piano, Lady Bunbury’s watercolor paintings of pioneer Florida, photographic glass plates, and Lady Bunbury’s diary.[darsey-1937][maxwell-1976]

Byrum’s younger brother Francis W. Shockley married Lucille Able, daughter of Avon Park dentist Dr. A. H. (also printed A. B.) Able and Lula Able, and served as City Clerk of Avon Park in the 1930s (documented in city records and cabinet photographs from January 1932 through 1936, when he served as a principal municipal informant for the Federal Writers’ Project chronology of Avon Park).[darsey-1937][maxwell-1976][fg-francis-shockley]

Enumerator of the 1920 Federal Census (Enumeration District 23)

In January and February 1920, at age twenty-four, Byrum Shockley served as the United States census enumerator for Enumeration District 23 of DeSoto County (Supervisor’s District 41, NARA microfilm publication T625, roll 217, images 0439–0476), signing every sheet as Byrum Shockley.[census-1920-ed23] Because the town’s future historian took the 1920 census in person, the manuscript schedules reflect firsthand local familiarity with Avon Park’s families, neighborhoods, and surrounding citrus groves, cattle ranges, sawmills, crate mills, and turpentine camps.[census-1920-ed23]

On Sheet 10A (image 0457, lines 32–34), enumerated on January 19, 1920, Shockley recorded his own family at the Lake Pythias estate (Fm, Dwelling 218, Family 247, Farm Schedule 68), immediately between the citrus-nursery household of widow Mattie Thomas and her sixteen-year-old son W. Cliff Thomas (Dwelling 217, Family 246) and the fruit-farm household of Henry T. Wray and his eighty-one-year-old English-born mother Louisa E. Wray (Dwelling 219, Family 248):[census-1920-ed23]

Line Name Relation Tenure Sex / Race / Age Marital Birthplace (Self / Father / Mother) Occupation & Industry
32 Shockley, Sarah W. Head Owns free (O, F) F, W, 57 Widowed West Virginia / West Virginia / West Virginia Farmer, Fruit Farm (OA, Farm Sched. 68)
33 Shockley, Byrum W. Son — M, W, 24 Single Kentucky / Kentucky / West Virginia Laborer, Home Farm (W)
34 Shockley, Francis W. Son — M, W, 14 Single (in school) West Virginia / Kentucky / West Virginia None

Shockley’s nineteen manuscript sheets are organized into three distinct divisions whose line counts match the Census Bureau’s published 1920 Florida bulletin to the single person:[census-1920-ed23][census-1920-fl]

  1. Incorporated Town of Avon Park (Sheets 1A–9B, images 0439–0456, January 6–17, 1920): On every page from Sheet 1A through Sheet 9B, Shockley wrote Avon Park Town in the NAME OF INCORPORATED PLACE field and marked X in WARD OF CITY.[census-1920-ed23] Sheets 1 through 8 contain 800 filled lines, and Sheet 9 (0455–0456) ends at line 90 (John Blake, Family 169/195), leaving lines 91–100 blank.[census-1920-ed23] Across line 97 of Sheet 9B (0456), Shockley wrote in his own hand: Here ends the enumeration of Avon Park town.[census-1920-ed23] The 890 filled lines on Sheets 1A–9B match the Census Bureau’s published Table 3 count for the incorporated Town of Avon Park (890 inhabitants) and include 83 Black and mulatto residents (9.3 percent of the town’s population).[census-1920-ed23][census-1920-fl]
  2. Unincorporated Precinct 14 Outside the Town Limits (Sheets 10A–18A, images 0457–0473, January 19 – February 7, 1920): Starting on Sheet 10A (0457) with the rural fruit farms along Lake Pythias, Shockley left NAME OF INCORPORATED PLACE and WARD OF CITY blank on every page from Sheet 10A through Sheet 18A, entering only Avon Park Precinct 14 in the township/precinct field.[census-1920-ed23] Sheets 10 through 17 contain 800 filled lines, and Sheet 18A (0473) contains 8 filled lines (ending with Calvert C. Rimes, Family 502, followed across line 12 by Shockley’s closing note, Here ends the Enumeration).[census-1920-ed23] Those 808 rural residents outside the 1913 corporate boundary—together with the 890 town residents on Sheets 1A–9B—equal 1,698 inhabitants, matching the Census Bureau’s published Table 2 figure for Precinct 14 (Precinct 14, Avon Park, including Avon Park town: 1,698) to the person.[census-1920-ed23][census-1920-fl] Within these unincorporated precinct sheets live 330 Black and mulatto residents (40.8 percent of the rural precinct, and 79.9 percent of all 413 Black residents in Precinct 14), concentrated at Pittsburg (Sheet 11B), the 88-person turpentine-farm settlement and Sebring road (Sheet 13), Crate Mill Road and the Owen McClary boarding house at the mill complex south of town (Sheet 14), and the log-train and lumber camps (Sheet 15).[census-1920-ed23]
  3. Precinct 30, Ft. Bassenger Addendum (Sheet 19A–19B, images 0475–0476, February 7, 1920): Headed Ft. Bassenger Precinct 30 with NAME OF INCORPORATED PLACE blank, containing 57 filled lines of White farm and cattle households (followed by Here ends the enumeration), matching the Census Bureau’s published Table 2 figure for Precinct 30 (Bassenger: 57) to the person.[census-1920-ed23][census-1920-fl]

Citrus Scholarship and Commercial Rose Nursery

Throughout the interwar and postwar decades, Shockley cultivated citrus and ornamental plants at the Lake Pythias estate and was regarded across the community as an authority on citrus varieties and culture.[maxwell-1976] When Barbara Berry Darsey compiled the Federal Writers’ Project Avon Park Guide in 1936–1938 (where the typist twice typed his given name as “Byron Shockley”), she documented his commercial rose nursery on the Bunbury-Shockley grounds:

“Byron [Byrum] Shockley, at his home on Lake Pythias, once the hunting lodge home of Lord and Lady Bunbury, pioneers from England, has a commercial rose garden supplying beautiful cut flowers to local markets as well as rose bushes of fine varieties budded on the sturdy Cherokee stock for northern and other State markets.”[darsey-1937]

Co-Founder and First Historian of the Old Settlers Association (1945–1964)

When pioneer residents organized the Old Settlers Association of Avon Park on October 9, 1945, and signed its charter at the inaugural covered-dish picnic in November 1945, Byrum Shockley was one of the five founding Executive Committee members—alongside May Walden, Cora Gray Wray, Clara Davidson, and Alice Davidson—who signed the charter first, and was named the organization’s first official historian.[aps-1948-09-10][aps-1950-09-29][aps-1957-10-10]

At the association’s annual October reunions at the Winter Guest Clubhouse in Donaldson Park, Shockley presented a series of historical papers based on his research into Avon Park’s pioneer era:

  • October 13, 1948 (4th Annual Assembly): Delivered the historical paper “Our Lakes,” examining the naming and settlement of the Avon Park lake basin alongside papers by Dr. E. G. Woods and O. C. Wilcox.[aps-1948-10-15]
  • October 12, 1949 (5th Annual Reunion): Delivered “Influence of the Early English Settlers on the Culture of Avon Park,” drawing on the Bunbury diary and records of the English colony around Lake Pythias, Lake Viola, and Lake Isis.[aps-1949-10-21][maxwell-1976]
  • October 11, 1950 (6th Annual Reunion): Delivered “A History of Our Citrus Industry,” a comprehensive treatise on Ridge citrus growing from pioneer seedling groves and the 1894–1895 freezes to modern cooperative packing houses, which The Avon Park Sun published in full on its front page on October 20, 1950.[aps-1950-09-29][aps-1950-10-20]

By October 1957, as The Avon Park Sun reported prior to the 13th Annual Reunion, Shockley had completed a full manuscript history of Avon Park.[aps-1957-10-10] He died on April 1, 1964, at age sixty-eight, and was buried in Bougainvillea Cemetery in Avon Park, where his brother Francis W. Shockley had been buried in 1954.[fg-byrum-shockley][fg-francis-shockley] Twelve years after his death, Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell credited the writings of Byrum Shockley—together with those of William A. King, Oliver M. Crosby, Samuel D. Lee, and Cora Gray Wray—as foundational sources for The First Hundred Years of Avon Park, Florida (1976).[maxwell-1976] East Shockley Road on the shore of Lake Pythias preserves the family’s name on the site of their 1908 homestead.

References

  • census-1920-ed23 — United States Bureau of the Census (Byrum Shockley, enumerator). Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, population schedules, Florida, DeSoto County, enumeration district 23 (Precinct 14, Avon Park, Sheets 1A–18A, and Precinct 30, Ft. Bassenger, Sheet 19A–19B), NARA microfilm T625 roll 217, images 0439–0476, enumerated by Byrum Shockley. 7 February 1920. https://archive.org/details/14thcensusofpopu217unit
  • census-1920-fl — United States Bureau of the Census. Fourteenth Census of the United States: 1920, Population, Florida, Number of Inhabitants: Table 2, Population of Counties by Minor Civil Divisions, page 7, and Table 3, Population of Incorporated Places, page 13. 1921. https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1920/bulletins/demographics/population-fl-number-of-inhabitants.pdf
  • darsey-1937 — Barbara Berry Darsey. Avon Park Guide, typescript for the Federal Writers’ Project, pages 22, 119, 138, 142 and 150. 31 December 1938. documents/avon-park-guide-federal-writers-project-1937.md
  • aps-1948-09-10 — The Avon Park Sun. Notice of Old Settlers Association Executive Committee Meeting. 10 September 1948. Avon Park Historical Society Newspaper Archive (1948-10-13 reel)
  • aps-1948-10-15 — The Avon Park Sun. Baldwin Heads Old Settlers; Fourth Annual Assembly and Picnic Held Wednesday. 15 October 1948. Avon Park Historical Society Newspaper Archive (1948-10-22 reel)
  • aps-1949-10-21 — The Avon Park Sun. Old Settlers Hold 5th Annual Reunion; 114 Register at Guest Club House. 21 October 1949. Avon Park Historical Society Newspaper Archive (1949-10-14 reel)
  • aps-1950-09-29 — The Avon Park Sun. Old Settlers Plan Annual Picnic Oct. 11. 29 September 1950. Avon Park Historical Society Newspaper Archive (1950-10-11 reel)
  • aps-1950-10-20 — Byrum Shockley (The Avon Park Sun). A History of Our Citrus Industry (Read before the Old Settlers’ Club Oct. 11, 1950). 20 October 1950. Avon Park Historical Society Newspaper Archive (1950-10-11 reel)
  • aps-1957-10-10 — The Avon Park Sun. Old Settlers Plan 13th Annual Picnic Wednesday, Oct. 16. 10 October 1957. Avon Park Historical Society Newspaper Archive (1957-10-10 reel)
  • maxwell-1976 — Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell. The First Hundred Years of Avon Park, Florida, pages 13, 68, 77–79, 121, 192 and 206. 1976. documents/the-first-hundred-years-of-avon-park_leoma-bradshaw-maxwell_1976.md
  • fg-byrum-shockley — Find a Grave. Byrum Shockley (1895–1964), Bougainvillea Cemetery, Avon Park, Find a Grave memorial 35079025. 6 September 2026. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/35079025/byrum-shockley
  • fg-francis-shockley — Find a Grave. Francis W. Shockley (1905–1954), Bougainvillea Cemetery, Avon Park, Find a Grave memorial 35079111. 6 September 2026. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/35079111/francis-w-shockley

Where this comes from

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

  1. United States Bureau of the Census (Byrum Shockley, enumerator), Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, population schedules, Florida, DeSoto County, enumeration district 23 (Precinct 14, Avon Park, Sheets 1A–18A, and Precinct 30, Ft. Bassenger, Sheet 19A–19B), NARA microfilm T625 roll 217, images 0439–0476, enumerated by Byrum Shockley (1920) · official
  2. United States Bureau of the Census, Fourteenth Census of the United States: 1920, Population, Florida, Number of Inhabitants: Table 2, Population of Counties by Minor Civil Divisions, page 7, and Table 3, Population of Incorporated Places, page 13 (1921) · official
  3. Barbara Berry Darsey, Avon Park Guide, typescript for the Federal Writers' Project, pages 22, 119, 138, 142 and 150 (documents/avon-park-guide-federal-writers-project-1937.md) (1938) · archival
  4. The Avon Park Sun, Notice of Old Settlers Association Executive Committee Meeting (Avon Park Historical Society Newspaper Archive (1948-10-13 reel)) (1948) · newspaper
  5. The Avon Park Sun, Baldwin Heads Old Settlers; Fourth Annual Assembly and Picnic Held Wednesday (Avon Park Historical Society Newspaper Archive (1948-10-22 reel)) (1948) · newspaper
  6. The Avon Park Sun, Old Settlers Hold 5th Annual Reunion; 114 Register at Guest Club House (Avon Park Historical Society Newspaper Archive (1949-10-14 reel)) (1949) · newspaper
  7. The Avon Park Sun, Old Settlers Plan Annual Picnic Oct. 11 (Avon Park Historical Society Newspaper Archive (1950-10-11 reel)) (1950) · newspaper
  8. Byrum Shockley (The Avon Park Sun), A History of Our Citrus Industry (Read before the Old Settlers' Club Oct. 11, 1950) (Avon Park Historical Society Newspaper Archive (1950-10-11 reel)) (1950) · newspaper
  9. The Avon Park Sun, Old Settlers Plan 13th Annual Picnic Wednesday, Oct. 16 (Avon Park Historical Society Newspaper Archive (1957-10-10 reel)) (1957) · newspaper
  10. Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell, The First Hundred Years of Avon Park, Florida, pages 13, 68, 77–79, 121, 192 and 206 (documents/the-first-hundred-years-of-avon-park_leoma-bradshaw-maxwell_1976.md) (1976) · book
  11. Find a Grave, Byrum Shockley (1895–1964), Bougainvillea Cemetery, Avon Park, Find a Grave memorial 35079025 (2026) · secondary
  12. Find a Grave, Francis W. Shockley (1905–1954), Bougainvillea Cemetery, Avon Park, Find a Grave memorial 35079111 (2026) · secondary

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