Deerfield’s unique location attracts farmers
Essay number one ended in 1926 when Granddad Eller’s finish carpentry work-contract for the Boca Raton Hotel was completed, and he built his own house on the west side of Dixie Highway about 100 yards south of the Hillsboro canal bridge. Most everyone in Deerfield at the time lived near Dixie Highway because it was the only road going north and south, and it was near the very essential Florida East Coast railroad which Henry M. Flagler had completed around 1900. Later in 1912, when the Hillsboro Canal was dredged, the steam engine coal-fired trains had to stop in Deerfield near the canal in order to get water for their steam engines. While the trains were stopped, local farmers could load their winter-grown produce packed in bushel baskets on the trains for shipment up north, and receive essential materials and passengers at the FEC Railway Station.
Two brothers from Texas, J.D. and George Emory Butler, came to town during this period of time and perfected the growing of vegetables in large scale on the “sugar sand” soils around Deerfield by applying large amounts of fertilizer. Deerfield eventually became such an important stop for the FEC Railroad that they had four houses built for the workers to man the watering point and direct the loading the Deerfield-area-produced farm products. Thus, when Granddad Hoyt Eller finished his contract at the Boca Raton Hotel, he decided to stay in Deerfield and take up farming.
However, before he could even get started on his new career, the infamous 1926 hurricane hit Deerfield full force, and Hoyt’s new house was destroyed. Fortunately, he and the family were able to take refuge across the street in a gas station operated by J.B. Wiles.
Now, Wiles is an interesting man who lived in Deerfield from the age of 20 until he died a few years ago at the age of 102. He was a friend of my Granddad Hoyt, my dad Marlin, and a friend of mine. J.B. loved to talk about the “old days” in Deerfield. A few years ago, I asked him if I could record him on video, telling his story. He agreed, so the video was made and donated to the Deerfield Beach Historical Society, where you can view it if you are so inclined.
J.B. Wiles was born in South Georgia, and at age 18 was drafted in to the U.S. Army to be sent into World War I. He had just completed basic training when the war was declared over, and he was summarily discharged. Jobs were scarce, so he ended up going to Cuba to work helping to construct a sugar mill. When the mill was finished, he made it back to Florida, bought a bicycle and headed up Dixie Highway on his way back to Georgia. Arriving in Deerfield, he stopped at the Australian Hotel, then located at the intersection of Hillsboro Blvd. and Dixie Hwy. He immediately liked Deerfield because people were friendly and several invited him to come back. He didn’t forget.
He married when he got back to Georgia, and his wife soon became pregnant. But the only job he could find was operating a one-man, coal-powered electric generator, supplying electricity for a small town in South Georgia. The work was hard as it consisted primarily of shoveling coal into the furnace of the generator. Sometimes he would get so tired that he’d fall asleep, the generator would stop running, and the mayor of the town would come out, angrily wake him up and threaten to fire him. Finally, the mayor told him the next time it happened, he would be fired.
One night, his young wife went into labor. J.B. had made arrangements with someone else to take over the generator responsibility, but he dropped the ball. Unaware of that problem, J.B. rushed to his wife’s side to be with her. He stayed until, unfortunately, she died in childbirth. Before dying, she had given birth to a beautiful little baby girl, which they had agreed beforehand to name Molly.
Completely distraught, J.B. was trying to figure out what to do, when someone sent word that the mayor, true to his word, had fired him. So, J.B. wrapped his little girl up in swaddling clothes, placed her in the basket of his bicycle, with the rest of his possessions tied to the back and headed down south on Dixie Highway to join the friendly people in Deerfield who had been kind to him and invited him to come back. He not only came back, he spent the last 80 years of his life here as a businessman, a farmer and a politician. He eventually was elected and served as both a Broward County commissioner and a Deerfield Beach city commissioner. Wiles Road is named after J.B. Wiles as it runs adjacent to his former farm. His little girl, Molly, grew up to become a beautiful woman and married Jack Butler, the son of George Emery Butler, the Texas farmer and Deerfield’s first mayor. Molly and Jack still live here. (To be continued...)
David Eller
Publisher