Location: West Palm Beach, Florida, USA Lost Town of Mangonia, Settlement between 1884-1925, West Palm Beach, Florida

In November of 1884, Reverend Elbridge Gale moved here and became the first pioneer to settle on the west shore of the Lake Worth Lagoon. Months later his wife Elizabeth followed and Elbridge purchasing 160 acres of wilderness. Elbridge Gale was a retired college professor and horticulturalist who taught at Kansas State Agricultural College, Manhattan, Kansas. Due to Elbridge's declining health, his doctor recommended relocating to a warmer climate. In response, Elbridge Gale settled and farmed raw land in what was then known as "the Lake Worth Country", part of the vast roadless wilderness of Dade County in Southeast Florida. The Lake Worth Lagoon was a 22-mile long mostly freshwater body lined by a paradise of tropical growth. The first few European-American settlers started trickling into the area around the 1860s, partly to escape Civil War conscription. By the 1880s, about twenty pioneer families lived along both sides of the Lake Worth Lagoon. No formal towns or cities existed and transport was mainly by boat. A hamlet and post office called "Lake Worth" sprang up 1000 feet directly east (of today's Northwood Shores, West Palm Beach) on what is now the Palm Beach Country Club on the Island of Palm Beach.

In 1889, Reverend Gale set about establishing a commercial mango growing plantation (along with 3-4 subsequent nearby farmers). Over a number of years he developed a unique, sweet tasting and ship-able variety using the Mulgoba Mango as his parent stock. Today, a significant portion of the world's commercial mangos can trace their development roots back to the Gale's enhanced variety developed in Mangonia, Florida.

On February 2, 1885, Elbridge and Elizabeth's son George Gale and his family arrived. These included: Mattie Gale (George's wife); Hattie Gale (Elbridge and Elizabeth's daughter - who later became the first school teacher in Southeast Florida in 1886); and Nellie Simpson (a cousin within the Gale family). With their great carpentry skills, Elbridge and George Gale constructed two excellently engineered homes, mainly using driftwood gathered from the shore of the Lagoon and nearby beach, as well as using local trees.

In the spring of 1885, George Gale, who later became a prominent local businessman in what later became West Palm Beach (founded in 1894), built his and Mattie's home and established a pineapple and poultry farm directly on the shoreline of Lake Worth (see photo). Today the former site of the George Gale home (the very first permanent home constructed on the west side of the Lake Worth Lagoon) is situated in what is now 210-214 33rd Street in today's Northwood Shores neighborhood of West Palm Beach. This choice spot, with sandy soil underlain with limestone sat directly on the Lagoon's original shoreline and next to a prominent cape called Gale's Point. Elbridge and George also built the second pioneer home (for Elbridge and Elizabeth in 1886), which was a little higher on the bluff on a ridge line on what is today's intersection of Poinsettia Avenue and 29th Street (see photo). Later in 1925-26, a massive public works land reclamation project added 200-600 feet of additional fill to create what is today's more eastward coastline (refer to graphic).

As part of Elbridge Gale's vision, in September 1892 he and his son George subdivided and officially platted a portion of their land north and south of Gale's Point. They named this new community the town of Mangonia. New settlers arrived, purchased lots from the Gales, built homes, and collectively established a small coastal village and seaport. Boat captains in the Lagoon could easily recognize Mangonia's location because it was adjacent and immediately south of the distinct cape originally referred to as Gale's Point (later referred to as Lake Point (between 1915-1918) and Liddy's Point (between 1918-1925).

One early pioneering family arrival included Henry and Lucretia Hannong in 1893. The Hannongs purchased a lot from the Gale's and built a modest wood house on what would be today 237 33rd Street (originally referred to as 237 Mulberry Street, Mangonia, Florida). It was situated east of Poinsettia Avenue on the north side of Mulberry Street. Lucretia Hannong garnered worldwide fame for living to 110. She died in 1951 as one of the last living pioneers of the South Florida wilderness. Her husband Henry Hannong was the first groundskeeper and custodian of the historic Palm Beach County Courthouse, first constructed in 1916. In December 1933, Lucretia Hannong was interviewed by a reporter of the Palm Beach Post, on the 40th anniversary of her family's arrival in Mangonia in the summer of 1893.

Reprinted article (below) from the Palm Beach Post, December 24, 1933 Title: "1893 - Christmas in West Palm Beach Is Contrast to Yuletide This Year - 1933"

Note: Bracketed type [ ] is added clarification from today's orientation. Otherwise you are reading the unedited Palm Beach Post article written during the Great Depression in 1933.

Forty years ago Mrs. Lucretla Hannong observed her first Christmas in West Palm Beach. Monday [December 25, 1933] she will mark her forty-first Christmas here—in the same house all the time—and the ninety-first Christmas she has seen in her life. And what changes this 90-vear-old pioneer can tell, if you visit her at her home at 237 Mulberry Street [today's combined parcel that is home to 233 33rd Street, West Palm Beach]. In 1893 you could shoot wild turkeys from the back porch. You sometimes had to shoot deer to keep them out of the potato patch. The squirrels were so thick their chirping was as bothersome as today's traffic noises. Fish were so thick in Lake Worth that pompano, leaping out of the water, often landed in your boat. Indians brought you food. Your nearest neighbor was blocks away.

Yes, Christmas was different then. Mrs. Hannong, despite eyes dimmed by the years, can look back and see clearly that first Christmas here.

For 40 years ago [in 1893] there were six children, most of them small kiddies, watching for Santa Claus and there was wild turkey and venison to prepare, and a possible visit to the neighbors several blocks away during the afternoon.

Monday, Mrs. Hannong plans to observe the day quietly for "times have changed a lot in 40 years," she said. Children and grandchildren and even great grandchildren will come to see her during the day, and she said that she would be as happy as she ever was, because she was "thankful to be here."

Living in the small frame house that she has called home for the last 40 years, Mrs. Hannong laughed and said that it seemed funny but that she was also living on the oldest street in West Palm Beach and yet it has never been paved. It is a continuation of Thirty-Fourth street [today's 33rd Street; called Mulberry Street in 1933] from Poinsettia avenue to the Lake [today's Lake Worth Lagoon and Intracoastal Waterway]. It is hard-surfaced but has never been paved. The street was cut through to a wagon trail [today's Poinsettia Avenue] that led to Juno "away back in the nineties [during the mid-1890s]." [Juno was the county seat of an enormously sized Dade County at the time.]

Mrs. Hannong, with her husband. the late Henry Hannong, and their six children, left their home near Columbia, S. C., in 1885 and started on the long and hazardous trip to Florida. After living in Gainesville, Cape Canaveral and Pine Island, near Fort Myers, Mr. Hannong chartered a boat, the "Sultana," captained by a Mr. Colby of Tampa, to bring them to West Palm Beach in 1893.

When they arrived off Palm Beach, the old inlet, north of the Blue Heron Hotel [located north of today's Ocean Reef County Park] on Singer Island, had just been cut through and the boat, with the aid of several negroes helping, came sailing into Lake Worth. This was in June, and that night a nor'easter blew and by morning the inlet was filled with sand. After waiting for several days, Captain Colby finally had to sail down the inland waterway [completed in 1893] and come out at the Keys in order to get back to his home port.

The family settled at the present homesite, which was several yards from the Lake, and near what at that time was known as Gale's Point, [also referred to as Liddy's Point until David Dunkle's 1925-1926 land fill moved the coastline 200-600 feet east, essentially smoothing out but not removing the cape. Gale's Point is situated at today's 3330 North Flagler Drive in Northwood Shores]. [Prior to his death in 1922,] Captain George Gale owned considerable property in that section and had a general store at the Point. [The establishment called Gale & Otwell's General Store, began in 1891, and later renamed the "Lake Worth General Store at Mangonia", ultimately burned down in 1906. Between 1894-1906, the Mangonia U. S. Post Office was co-located here with George Gale serving as its postmaster.]

The land, virtually a wilderness, was overgrown with scrub oaks and palmetto so that you could not get through except where paths had been cut. No roads led out of the community and the only way to get to Juno, which was the county seat at the head of Lake Worth, was by boat.

Asked if she didn't have a hard time getting to the town and back, she said "No, you see, U. D. Hendrickson had a store on the Palm Beach side of Lake Worth and owned two boats, the "Emily B" and the "Mary B," and these boats plied back and forth from the town of Juno to all points on the Lake and then there was the mail boat that Will Sanders had charge of, so it wasn't so bad."

Mr. Hannong farmed on a small tract of land along the Lake and sold vegetables, pineapples and fruits at the store and at Juno and even sent some produce farther up the coast. Later he was gardener for several Palm Beach estates and was the first custodian of the Palm Beach County Courthouse when the townsite of West Palm Beach was laid out and the Courthouse moved here.

Mr. Hannong and the oldest boys worked on the Poinciana Hotel when it was being built, Mrs. Hannong said. [Palm Beach's Royal Poinciana Hotel was constructed in 1893 and demolished in 1935. It sat immediately south of the Flagler Memorial Bridge (the North Bridge) along the Lake Worth Lagoon. It was the world's largest wooden structure. From its roof one could easily see Gale's Point and Mangonia's general store located near the tip.]

Asked what her most thrilling experience was during her life here, Mrs. Hannong said that she believed it was the first visit of a band of Seminole Indians. [A Seminole Indian village existed where the Palm Beach Outlets Mall stands today.] About 60 of them came and camped near her home for more than a week in the early nineties and then for years they always came about twice a year and hunted and fished and traded with the local residents.

And while she was talking about fishing and hunting, Mrs. Hannong told some stories that the present day hunter or angler would find it hard to imagine such a paradise.

"Many a time," she said, "Henry, my husband, went out on the back porch of our home and shot wild turkeys in the back yard and sometimes there would be as many as a dozen at one time, and I have seen the time that he had to shoot deer to keep them out of the potato patch."

"And quail and ducks, why they were here by the thousands and were so tame that it wasn't much trouble to kill as many as we wanted. And another thing, the squirrels were so thick that they even worried you chirping in the scrub oaks all around the house,' she added.

Glancing out the window, the aged pioneer said, "see right out there? Well I have seen more deer hiding on an old oak that stood there for years, than I guess you'll ever see as long as you live." Then smiling, "no, it wasn't any trouble to get plenty to eat back then."

Asked if the fishing was as good as the hunting, she laughed and told this experience: "Any time you wanted a mess of fish, it wasn't any trouble. Why, when you rowed across the Lake to the store. you would always have from ten to 25 pounds of pompano in the boat when you returned. You see: they would skip through the water and right into the boat." (Local anglers now consider it phenomenal when even one small pompano skips into their boat).

Mrs. Hannong said that the Indians always brought almost everything they owned when they came for a stay. Even the dogs and pigs in their home-made canoes. She went to a corner of the living room and brought back a piece of soft leather and explained that her husband had bought the tanned deer hide from the Indians about 35 years ago to make shoe strings out of.

She said that often lone Indians would come riding through the scrub trails with a "saddle of venison" across a pony and would leave it at their home. She said that she could never make out their language but that her husband could read their signs.

On the present site of the Northboro school, Mrs. Hannong said a little one-room shack was constructed for the school (in the summer of 1889), shortly after they came here and this building also served as church on Sunday. [This school house was the second school building constructed in all of Southeast Florida].

The Rev. Eldridge Gale, father of George Gale, was the preacher and Will Sanders led the singing, Mrs. Hannong said. "Those were good times," she said, "and we had some fine meetings." Mrs. Hannong is now a member of the Northwood Baptist Church and has been for a number of years.

Will Sanders, who led the singing at the church, is the son of Henry Sanders, one of the oldest pioneers in this section, who now lives on Gale Street [today's 31st Court], Mrs. Hannong said. Mr. Sanders is 94 years old. [In 1933 Gale Street (earlier A.K.A. Gale Avenue, terminated at the Lagoon and the Mangonia Town Wharf. This is today's 212 31st Court, West Palm Beach. A fish processing plant called the Peninsula Fish Company sat next to the wharf.]

Asked the age of her children, she said that she had forgotten the exact dates, but went to the dresser and brought out a small New Testament, with a hand-made cloth back and faded yellow leaves. In the front of it were the names and dates of birth of all of her children. The oldest, a girl, is dead as is one son, Robert, who died 11 years ago [in 1922]. She said that for several years he was a deputy sheriff of Palm Beach County.

Five are now living and all live in West Palm Beach. The oldest living is Mrs. Hattie Crosby. 504 Thirty-Sixth Street. Others are Will Hannong, 510 Fifty-Fifth Street, who is the only son living; Mrs. Lizzie Pay, corner Mulberry Street (today's 200-300 block of 33rd Street and 33rd Court) and Poinsettia Avenue; Mrs. Betty Gale, 431 Jessamine Street, and Mrs. Idella Benner, 241 Mulberry Street. Mrs. Bettner lives next door to her mother.

She said that the New Testament was brought across from Germany by her husband when he was 14 years old. He lived in New York for a short time before coming to South Carolina, where she met him and was married to him.

Her eyes are growing dim with the years, and she said that she could hardly see without her glasses, but otherwise she is in good health and always has been. She does her own cooking and house work and still is able to sew and patch "when it needs doing."

One viewpoint of the pioneer that differs from many of the older set is that she is glad that Prohibition has been repealed because "there were good times before Prohibition and low taxes too, but you just ought to see the way taxes have gone up on my home during the years of Prohibition." she said.

She said that she only hoped that the government would control the distribution of it so that the boys and girls wouldn't get it," as, she said, "it was a sin the way they carry on nowadays."

When asked to what did she attribute her longevity, she said softly, "Trusting on the Lord and trying to obey the Golden Rule, and that's the only way for you to do."

Reporter: J. D. The Palm Beach Post, December 24, 1933 (Note: Lucretia Hannong lived to be 110 while residing on 33rd Street in Northwood Shores. She died here on Wednesday, May 16, 1951, as one of the last surviving South Florida pioneers. At the time, she was among the world's longest living persons.)

The southern reaches of what was collectively known as Mangonia extended to today's Currie Park, West Palm Beach. In the late 1880s, this part of the coastline also sat about 300-400 feet inland (prior to the 1925-1926 land reclamation). On its marshy shore, pioneers Fred S. Dewey and his wife Byrd Spillman Dewey would disembark their boat, after sailing across the Lake Worth Lagoon from their rented boathouse on Palm Beach. In 1887 this commute was regularly done over a number of weeks as the Dewey's finished construction on a modest home about a half mile inland. Situated on the area's sand pine ridge, the small cabin that they dubbed "The Hermitage" gave them a wide view of Lake Mangonia. As years passed, Byrd became a world famous author, the toast of Palm Beach society, and Fred and Byrd platted and founded the town of Boynton Beach. Their humble origins in the roadless frontier of South Florida started in what is now Northwood, West Palm Beach.

One principal reason for establishing Mangonia was Henry Flagler's southward continuation of the Florida East Coast Railway (FEC). Originally terminating in St. Augustine, the railroad was extended by Flagler after he toured a beautiful tropical island that originally carried the name "Lake Worth Post Office". This later became Palm Beach in 1887. As part of constructing his railway's next segment, Flagler subsequently built two flagship resorts and his new home on the island of Palm Beach. These were the massive Royal Poinciana Hotel and the Palm Beach Inn (later known as the Breakers Hotel), as well as his impressive new residence called Whitehall. By 1893, Flagler's FEC rail line had blazed by Mangonia and connected south to West Palm Beach (see map). Flagler's plan for a new city to house workers took hold adjacent to his railroad terminal and the Lagoon. This is today's downtown West Palm Beach.

George Gale opened an official United States Post Office with a "town of Mangonia" cancellation stamp in early 1894. It was co-located inside his 1891 two-story general story located on the south side of Gale's Point (today's 3322 North Flagler Drive). History buffs will note that 1894 is the same year that West Palm Beach was incorporated. Mangonia, with its own post office, 1890s town wharf, 1889 school, 1891 general store, 1925 church, 1890s "Mangonia Boat Works" shipyard, and protected anchorage, was recognized as a distinct town or village and FEC railroad stop until about 1920-1925. As West Palm Beach rapidly expanded, Mangonia increasingly became known as a northern suburb. So over time, locals forgot that the establishment of this lost town pre-dated by two years the incorporation of West Palm Beach.

In 1920-21 with the newly coined name of "Northwood", the platting and marketing of new homes in what is now Old Northwood essentially replaced all references to Mangonia. To add further historical confusion, in 1947 the fledgling one-square mile Town of Mangonia Park was incorporated along 45th Street, west of Australian Avenue. Town leaders had originally applied to Tallahassee with the name "Magnolia Park". But the State responded that this particular name had already been claimed. State officials unilaterally assigned the replacement name of Mangonia Park, borrowing the term from the adjacent lake. Town leaders adopted this change, thus continuing to obscure the original 1892 town of Mangonia.

Today you can still experience the original street layout of Mangonia's heart by walking the 130 year old village centered on Liddy Avenue, Floral Avenue, 33rd Street, and 31st Court in Northwood Shores. Notice the former 1925 church at 3315 Liddy Avenue (southwest corner at 33rd Street). This hamlet is the Gale family's Mangonia and these streets are the town's bones. (See the graphic's 1914 re-filed plat referencing the original 1892 platting of the town.) Today's Northwood Shores sits on top of the oldest organized and platted settlement in West Palm Beach.

The oldest surviving structure in West Palm Beach (dating to 1886) was part of the second cabin erected by Elbridge and George Gale (referenced before). According to historic records and newspaper accounts going back to 1920, a piece of Elbridge Gale's cabin was moved slightly west and incorporated into what is now called the "Gale House" located at 401 29th Street, West Palm Beach, Florida 33407 (see graphic). In 1920, Developer David Dunkle and his business associates in the Pinewood Development Company purchased a large tract of the Gale homestead and mango farm. In 1921 they platted the first phase of "Northwood". This is today's southeastern section of Old Northwood, West Palm Beach. The 1920 Gale House is considered to be Old Northwood's first structure. To spot the remnant section of the older Gale homestead cabin, look for the western extension to this green house. (see attached photo.) Although it's just a piece, you will be looking at the oldest structure still in existence in West Palm Beach.

The Lost Town of Mangonia & Gale's Point Archaeological Site Video tap or click on the following website link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRs6a2blw-w Title: "Lost Town of Mangonia - Historic Boatyard Unearthed in West Palm Beach, Florida" Alternative: Google the phrase: Lost Town of Mangonia, YouTube

Sources: Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page without content in them (see the help page). Palm Beach Post - early editions The Palm Beach County Historical Society, West Palm Beach, Florida The Miami Herald - early editions The Gale and Sanders family archives, Kansas The Palm Beach Preservation Foundation archives, Palm Beach, Florida Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page without content in them (see the help page).

Author: Carl A. Flick, West Palm Beach, Florida