History Fun Facts Part 2


In the turpentine industry, young men and boys dipped raw turpentine, while the older men kept the younger ones working. The woods-rider oversaw the entire operation and checked the trees each week to be certain they had all been dipped. Each laborer carried a bucket from cups on the trees. He emptied the filled bucket into a barrel, held by a mule-drawn wagon. Turpentining paid thirty cents per barrel in the Depression years.
Photo Courtesy Florida State Archives
ABOVE: Hazel and Lloyd Porter, children of tax collector
Charles Porter, posed in a early model Roadster near Lake Huntington.
Photo Courtesy Bay County Public Library


Photo Courtesy Bay County Public Library.
World famous aviatrix Jackie Cochran lived in Millville for several months as a child during the World War I era. While in the mill town, she and the family that adopted her stayed in a windowless shack. Cochran slept on a pallet on the floor. When hunger overcame her, she begged a neighbor for sweet potatoes being fed to the hogs. Her favorite meal was hot mullet, fried in lard. The self-made young woman first worked as a hair dresser and nurse. In South Florida, she met her financier Floyd Odlum. He encouraged his future wide to take flying lessons. Cochran's love affair with aviation resulted in her serving as a test pilot for new planes. She became a close friend of Amelia Earhart and daringly outperformed male pilots to win the famous Bendix Air Race in 1938. During this same period, she established her famous Jacqueline Cochran Cosmetics line. In World War II, Cochran was appointed director of the Woman's Air Force Service Pilots. She also served as correspondent at the end of the war. After breaking the sound barrier in a jet plane and setting new female altitude records, the woman from the Florida Panhandle's sawdust road received the International Flying Organization's gold medal for 1953.
Photo from the author's collection
Photo from the author's collection
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