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JANE CLAYTON
(Florida)
About fifteen miles north of Miami and
six miles west of Hollywood is located the small, well-kept dairy farm of
the Clayton family.
They live in a large, rambling stucco house consisting of an immense
living room, three bedrooms, kitchen and bath. The house was built after
the 1928 hurricane and is very strongly constructed, all the essential
connections being bolted together and the whole structure embedded in
solid cement.
The house is entirely surrounded by bushes, shrubs and vines of every hue
and description, for Jane Clayton, the wife, is a great lover of flowers
and, as they have lived here for eight years, she has had time to
accumulate a wide variety.
Upon entering the living room, I was reminded of a club room in a hunting
lodge. It is an extraordinary room not only because of its immense size
but because of the unusual furnishings. Everywhere I looked, I saw some
sort of wild bird or animal perched on the wall. There are several
alligator and snake hides of various lengths, stuffed squirrels, an owl,
chicken hawk, eagle, skunk and wild cat, all arranged in a very life-like
manner. I learned that all of the specimens had been caught in the nearby
Everglades and that they were mounted by one of her sons, Richard, who had
studied taxidermy as a hobby.
Jane said that Richard used to go out in an old model T Ford roadster and
when he would return he would have the rumble seat filled with live
alligators, and various animals that he had captured in the Everglades.
The remainder of the living room is furnished in simple but comfortable
style. There are several large rugs on the floor, a grand piano, radio,
three piece overstuffed living room suite consisting of two chairs and a
sofa, several odd chairs and an immense dining table. Two sides of this
room are made up of a series of French doors which open on the front and
back porches respectively. As these doors face east and west there is
always a maximum of light and breeze, making this one of the most
delightful rooms I have ever seen. The remaining two sides open into the
three bedrooms and the kitchen, two doors being on each side of the room.
The bedrooms are large and well furnished with the usual standard bedroom
furniture and bright chintz draperies. All the walls throughout the house
are painted white and the floors are of highly polished oak.
The kitchen floor is covered with linoleum and this cheerful room contains
a large modern four burner gas stove with oven and an up to date electric
refrigerator. There is running hot and cold water throughout and it is
quite unusual to find such conveniences so distant from any settled
community. Jane explained that they used bottled gas and generated their
own electricity, having two gasoline plants, one for the house and
adjoining tool shed and one for the dairy and pasteurizing house.
The dairy is located about 700 feet from the house and consists of a large
milking shed and adjoining bottling and pasteurizing rooms. Nearby are the
pump house and electric plant. All of the buildings are made of cement and
are painted white inside and outside. The floors are also made of cement
and are painted grey.
The Claytons own about 50 head of fine registered cattle, some Jersey and
some Guernsey. They have four fine calves at present but had very bad luck
with them last year. It seems that John Clayton was forced to drive the
milk truck on his route during the past winter season as the boys were in
school most of the time and he was short-handed.
While he was away, their big police dog "Fritz" suddenly began chasing the
calves and before he was through he had killed them all. Upon asking Jane
why they didn't get rid of the dog she said, "Fritz is a very valuable dog
and a good watch dog and we sure need one around here. He is a
great-grandson of "Rin Tin Tin," the movie dog and we paid $200 for him
when he was a little puppy. Now he is about seven years old but he sure is
a great protection for he sleeps most all day and prowls around all night,
hunting wild cats or anything that might be about."
I don't believe that I have ever seen a larger police dog. He weighs about
150 pounds and is all solid muscle. He is a rather friendly dog, but very
vicious when crossed, and will allow no one to touch any member of the
family. The Claytons also have another dog, part bulldog and part police.
He romps and plays with the children all day and, as he is only six months
old, he naturally chases after every animal on the place, much to their
discomfort.
As Jane first showed me around the farm and buildings I will try to
describe their farm before going into their family history.
Their farm consists of ten acres with an option of 100 acres of pasture
land for grazing. They have a few citrus trees, guava bushes, papaya
plants and banana trees. At the banana trees Jane stopped and pointed to a
large group of cannas which were planted along the side of the milk house.
"Do you see those?" she asked. "Well, one time when we had all gone to
town and Dad was home alone, he saw a bunch of these cannas growing way up
the road. He dug them up and transplanted them where they are now and
didn't say word to anyone about it. A few weeks later as they began to
take root and grow, he smiled all over and told us one day, 'Do you know,'
he said, 'I've got a big surprise for you, in a little while I'm going to
have some mighty fine bananas on this farm." He took me over to where they
were and proudly showed them to me. 'Why those are cannas,' I said. 'No,
they're not,' he said, 'you just wait and see they're fine bananas.' He
kept right on thinking they were banana trees until the flowers bloomed.
After that he never mentioned them again, but the family and I kid him to
this day about them and always refer to them as 'Dad's banana trees.' You
see, we came from up north but we have been in Florida for over twenty
years. Until we came to this farm we were always in the northern part of
the state and had never seen some of the bushes and trees that grow down
here."
Besides the dogs and cows, the Claytons have a pedigreed bull, 12 cats,
about 350 chickens, 30 ducks, two rabbits, 21 beehives and a half grown
goat. This goat is the special pet of Elizabeth, the youngest daughter and
it follows her wherever she goes. He jumps over everything in his way and
runs in and out of the house just like the dogs and even jumps up in her
lap when she sits down. John bought the goat for her when he was just a
few days old and Elizabeth and her mother fed him with a bottle.
After walking over the farm and looking at all the live stock, we went
back to the house and sat down to talk. Jane Clayton is a very pleasant
woman, small in stature, attractive and a little beyond middle aged. She
has brown eyes and a dark complexion which is set off beautifully by a
mass of wavy grey hair. She is a devout Catholic and she goes with the
children to church every Sunday. Although she is kept very busy with the
work on the farm, she is never too busy to lend a helping hand to some
neighbor less fortunate than herself.
"John and I like it very much here and all the children seem to enjoy it.
We have eleven children, all living and in good health. There are four
girls and seven boys. Five of the children are at home with us and the
rest are scattered in the northern states. One of my oldest daughters is
married and has two children of her own, that is Beatrice. The other,
Margaret, is a trained nurse in one of the big hospitals in New York. They
come to visit us whenever they have the chance but I never seem to get
time off to visit them. They both appear to be well contented with their
lot and are doing very well financially.
"The other two girls are here at home and I guess I'll lose one of them
very shortly for Frances, the oldest, is 21 and engaged to an engineer who
lives in Fort Lauderdale. Elizabeth, the youngest of all the children is
ten years old and she and the three boys all go to the Catholic school in
Hollywood. Robert, the oldest boy at home, is 17 and he drives the school
bus. He gets $5.00 a week to drive it and besides it makes it very handy
for the rest of the children because he parks the bus in front of the
house after school and they all leave together in the morning. Frances
drove the county school bus last year but this year she wanted to stay
home and help me. After school, the boys have to help their Dad at the
dairy.
"The four oldest boys are all up north and three of them work together in
one of the large airplane factories on Long Island. My oldest son, James,
is an aviator out on the west coast. My boys at home are all interested in
aviation. They are always building some kind of a model airplane and have
the parts strewn all over the house. If they ever decide to make aviation
their life work we'll pretty near have enough to start our own airline. I
think it's as safe today as any business and I don't worry about them.
"We get along very well here on the farm and Dad would never be contented
to live in the city. We have nearly everything we need and are as happy as
the average family. Maybe one of the reasons we get along so well with
each other is the fact that we all share some in the business of running
the farm. Frances and I own and take care of all the chickens. Whatever we
buy or sell and the cost of the feed we divide equally and share the
profits and losses together.
"Robert owns the 21 hives of bees. He
extracts all the honey, boils it down and then bottles and labels it
himself. He got $10 worth of honey out of one hive alone. He has quite a
few steady customers and sells the honey from the milk truck.
"John, Jr. who is 16, saved up his money and bought a couple of calves
from his Dad and he has great expectations of raising a herd of his own
with these and sharing in the business by the time he gets a bit older.
"Nelson, my youngest boy, who is now 12 years old, is the proud owner of
the ducks and hopes some day to make a lot of money with them. He never
gets tired of watching them and they really are a sight. Every so often
they will get a notion to take off and away they go, flying all around the
house, dairy and the surrounding country. At night they usually roost on
top of the house. They are hard to catch and he and Elizabeth have a great
time chasing after them.
"Last but not least of my children is little Elizabeth who is also a share
holder in this business. The goat and the rabbits belong to her. She hopes
to have a small herd of goats and sell the milk along with the cows milk.
There is good money in goat milk. It brings anywhere from 40 to 60 cents a
quart and there is a good demand for it during the season. Some people
must drink it all the time as it is good for certain ailments. I sometimes
wish we had goats instead of cows for they are much cheaper to keep as
they will eat any kind of grass and only require about a pint of feed a
day.
"We have been in the dairy business about ten years now. Before that Dad
used to farm, but he doesn't trust farming any more, says that it is too
uncertain. Some years ago he had a good big crop of potatoes and, as the
price was right, he made 6,000 dollars that year. But he lost all of it in
the next two years and hasn't had any faith in farming since.
"We like the dairy business pretty well but Dad and the boys get awful
tired of it sometimes. Then we all get mighty discouraged when the
neighbors next to us start fussing up. I think that they are just jealous
of us because we have been able to accumulate a few things and they have
practically nothing. It's not that they couldn't have anything but they
just don't try and then think that the world owes them a living. With all
this open country for miles around, I don't know why they had to build
right next door to us. They sure are mean and no account. Why, I couldn't
begin to count all the chickens they have stolen from me and lately we
have been forced to fence them in right back of the house so I can keep a
close watch on them.
"We haven't been able to prove anything on them but I know that the
chickens would not disappear by themselves and they are our only
neighbors. There was a time when we could all go to town at once and take
"Fritz" with us but lately, things have gotten so bad that we have been
unable to do that. One of us must always be at home and now either Dad or
one of the boys has to sleep at the dairy with a loaded shotgun always at
hand. Why, it was only two weeks ago that one of them cut the fence and
let all of our cattle loose. We sure had one awful time getting them back
in again. They even cut one of our cow's tail off and if Dad hadn't of
found it out right away the poor thing would have bled to death. We have
tried to get the sheriff after them and we even brought the matter to
court but we can't get enough evidence against them. We have finally
decided to take matters into our own hands and if we ever catch one of
them on our property we intend to shoot. We don't want trouble with anyone
but we can't afford to keep losing our chickens and having our cattle
molested."
I then asked Jane some questions regarding the running of the farm, to
which she replied:
"In the summer time when the boys don't have to go to school they help
their Dad with the milking and other chores but in the winter time he has
to hire a man to help him with milking and delivering the milk in
Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale and the rest of the countryside. They milk
twice a day, at one o'clock in the afternoon and again at one in the
morning. After the cows have been milked, the milk is then put into a
pasteurizer and heated in order to kill any germs. Then it is cooled
through pipes, bottled and sealed. They also make chocolate milk and
buttermilk for their customers and butter and ice cream for our own use.
Up until this year, Dad had only one small Chevrolet truck to do all the
delivering but his business has picked up now so that he was forced to buy
another truck. We don't own a car for our own personal use. Whenever we go
anywhere, we use one of the trucks.
"The hot water for the pasteurizer is heated by a large wood-burning
furnace which is located outside the building. In order to get enough wood
to run this furnace, John has to take his tractor out in the surrounding
country and cut down a large tree, which he hauls back and saws and chops
until it is the right length to fit the furnace. Each time he has to
venture further away as all the suitable timber nearby has been used.
"After the milk has been bottled, the truck has to be loaded, empty
bottles washed, floors scrubbed and everything put in order for the next
milking. Dairy life is not easy but it furnishes us a fair living and as
times are now, we feel that we are pretty lucky.
"We are kept busy most all the time but Dad and I manage to get off a few
hours once or twice a week. Dad likes to go to the movies and sometimes he
and the boys go over to the beach and have a swim. When the boys grow up
they will probably want to make their own way in the world and by that
time Dad hopes to retire to some little farm where he can take it easy.
Right now with times as hard as they are I feel that we have to keep on as
we are now.
"Dad has one particular hobby and whenever he has a spare moment he is
always in the pump house working on it. It is some sort of perpetual
motion machine that consists of a long series of rods and gadgets rigged
up in series. Every once in a while he adds something more to it and
swears that it will work some day. He has been working on it for years now
and the boys sure do kid them about it.
"We are never much to go visiting but on Sunday the children always have a
few of their friends to dinner. We never have any time to read books or
magazines but always read the newspapers and listen to the radio. In that
way we try to keep abreast of the times.
"Both Dad and I had a high school education but we were both born and
raised on a farm. I suppose it's only natural that we like farming best
and we would never be happy working for someone else or living in the
city. Dad often says 'there may not be much money in this business but at
least we're our own boss and as long as people eat and drink milk I guess
we'll always be able to make a fair living,' and I agreed with him."
2,830 Words
January 15, 1939
The Grant Family (white)
North Miami
Miami, Florida
Dairyman
Walter A. DeLamater
Writer
Text from: Library of
Congress, Manuscript Division, WPA Federal Writers' Project Collection
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