Pent Family

Down the bay about five miles was the next settlement where Johnny Frow and his family, the Pents, and Jack
Peacock's family lived. Before we arrived on the bay the Charles Peacock family had built a hotel that was known as
The Peacock Inn. Here also lived a Frenchman named James L. Nugent, a well-educated gentleman who spoke the most perfect English. Another resident of this part of the bay was Sam Rhoads. Some nine or ten years earlier his wife had died, leaving him with a very small baby to care for. Rhoads would not ask for or accept the help of any woman in the care of his child but did all the work himself. The Pent family consisted of three brothers, John, Ned (known as Uncle Ned), and Dad Pent. These three brothers were as different from one another as possible. Ned Pent was the boat builder and while some claimed he did not know the figures of a rule or square, he built some fine model boats. A story that was told about him was that someone had died and the family went to Uncle Ned and asked him to build a coffin. Now this to him was rather gruesome. He did not like it and flatly refused at first, but when they furnished him with a jug of whiskey to brace his nerves he went at it and spent most of the night drinking whiskey and working on the coffin. Unfortunately, by the time the coffin was finished Uncle Ned's ideas became confused and he thought he was building a flat-bottom sailboat. When they visited him in the morning to see how he had made out with his work, there was Uncle Ned fast asleep on the floor beside a well-made coffin fitted with a perfect centerboard.

Well, coming back to Madeira Bay; in 1894 when we used to go to Planter Post Office on Key Largo from Madeira, you could see flocks of flamingoes on the banks half a mile long between Cape Sable and Madeira Bay. There was a good many crocodiles up the creeks in Little Madeira Bay and the mosquitoes were the worst I have ever seen.
And coming back to Lemon City in 1894 there was, in addition to what I have mentioned before, Uncle Ned Pent.
He used to carry the mail on foot from Lemon City to Lake Worth. Pulled across Biscayne Bay to the beach at Bakers Haul Over and walk the beach to Lake Worth. They say they charged one dollar a head for passengers to walk the beach with them .They had skiff boats at New River and Hillsboro Inlet to cross in. Old man Fulford kept the house at Bakers Haul Over. Then there was Bill Pent and Willie Pent's barber shop, Knight saw mill, and Spivy's store and Argile Hendry's meat market. Then old man Sanders lived out back. They called him Old Jailer for nickname. William Mettair was Jailer's son-in-law.

Excerpts from “Man in the Everglades” by Charlton Tebeau and from “Gladesmen” by Glen Simmons