Hauling turpentine in the Canoe area early in the last century. It has been said this photo was taken in what is now the parking lot of Baker's Service Station.
The 1930s were hard times for many Americans. Wall Street had crashed, and the nation was in the depths of the Great Depression. The government sought desperately to put people back to work as in many jobs had disappeared overnight. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal sought to restore confidence and create economic security through a host of projects.
The effects of those projects can be seen today. Little River State Park was a Civilian Conservation Corps project, whereby young men from around the country came to the park and carved it out of the piney woods. Yet it was by no means the only project.
Highway 4 in Northwest Florida was a project as well. In the Canoe area, Mrs. McMurphy was paid by the Works Project Administration (WPA) to run a cannery from her home for local people to bring their fruits and vegetables for her to can.
In some areas, the WPA paid men and women to deliver magazines and books by horseback or automobile, a sort of rolling library. In our area, Ms. Annie Bowman was paid to write. She was paid $47 per month to write profiles and biographies on memorable people in the area. Her efforts created lasting documents as to some of those who lived in the region.
Ms. Bowman was raised in Wawbeek, from the prominent Bowman family for which the cemetery is named. The local newspapers of the early 1900s refer to her often, as she visited with her friends at the Hall home in Canoe. Later she attended teacher's college and was over the Canoe School at one time. She also taught in various areas of Baldwin County.
She was teaching as late as the 1930s census, where she is listed as residing in Canoe with her sister in law's family and the Brocks. The home was recorded as being on the main street of Canoe in house number 83. By the 1940 census she lists herself as a writer and she was still living with the Brocks.
One of the profiles she wrote was that of Mr. Boyd McQueen and family. McQueen lived near the present location of the refinery in the Robinsonville/Wawbeek area.
Bowman noted of McQueen, "It was his habit, on leaving the dinner table in any afternoon, to drop in the swing and read the days mail before going out in the field to plow. On this particular afternoon, you will him lolling on the front porch with his pipe, smoking peacefully and busily engaged in reading the daily papers that had just come in on the daily rural route. Near him in a rocker padded with cushions sat his mother a little old aristocratic lady reading letters from her girls who are away from home."
Of Boyd's mother she notes, "She is seventy-three years old and has lived on this farm all her life. Her father, William Leatherwood, was one of the first settlers in this county. At that time, he was considered a man of wealth. He was born and raised here and owned several hundred acres of heavily timbered land. Since the country was thinly settled, he had hundreds of sheep and cattle that roamed all over the woods. With his stock and timber, he had accumulated what was considered a small fortune."
As to the lady's mother she stated, "Her mother, Susanna Emmons, who was raised here in the piney woods, was his childhood sweetheart and they were very young. They had never been further than Pensacola, Florida. They traveled in an ox-cart which was the only mode of transit in those days. This slow method would take three or four days to make the trip."
Ms. Bowman described Mrs. McQueen as, "a very small woman, with a curvature of the spine that causes her back to hump. She walks with a crutch most of the time. Her hair is snow white and she combs it slick with a coil at the back. Her eyes are blue, and her complexion is very fair. Her voice is a low course monotone. She has no characteristic gestures and always dresses neatly and with great care."
Mrs. McQueen's son, Boyd, is described as, "a small man, weighing about 120lbs. He steps quickly with a slight stoop of the shoulders. He has red hair, black eyes, red freckled face and is very fair. His voice is loud, and he expresses himself with many gestures. He is very positive with his likes and dislikes."
Mrs. McQueen noted that she married John McQueen, from South Carolina. He was in the turpentine business. She was sixteen when they married. John McQueen was said to be the finest watermelon grower in Escambia County. He was a scientific farmer and people from all the area would come and get his advice. He died around 1919 and Boyd took over the farm and his brother Price went to business school.
Next week: More on Annie Bowman and her writings.
Coming soon: Shadows and Dust III-view the trailer on Canoe Civic Club's Facebook Page.
