Chosen, Florida

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Chosen is a ghost town in Palm Beach County, Florida [1] near Belle Glade, Florida and Lake Okeechobee. The deadly 1928 Okeechobee hurricane devastated the area. [2] [3]

Contents

History

The Mayaimi established mounds in the area. A town was established by J. R. (John Robert) Leatherman, a Christian pietist Dunkard from Virginia. [4] A school was established in 1921. [5]

Alan Lomax and Zora Neale Hurston planned to visit the area during a recording expedition. [6]

Isaac W. West was nominated to be postmaster. [7]

Legacy

A historical marker commemorates the community. [8]

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The history of West Palm Beach, Florida, began more than 5,000 years ago with the arrival of the first aboriginal natives. Native American tribes such as the Jaegas inhabited the area. Though control of Florida changed among Spain, England, the United States, and the Confederate States of America, the area remained largely undeveloped until the 20th century. By the 1870s and 1880s, non-Native American settlers had inhabited areas in the vicinity of West Palm Beach and referred to the settlement as "Lake Worth Country". However, the population remained very small until the arrival of Henry Flagler in the 1890s. Flagler constructed hotels and resorts in Palm Beach to create a travel destination for affluent tourists, who could travel there via his railroad beginning in 1894.

Palm Beach County is a county in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Florida. Its history dates back to about 12,000 years ago, shortly after when Native Americans migrated into Florida. Juan Ponce de León became the first European in the area, landing at the Jupiter Inlet in 1513. Diseases from Europe, enslavement, and warfare significantly diminished the indigenous population of Florida over the next few centuries. During the Second Seminole War, the Battles of the Loxahatchee occurred west of modern-day Jupiter in 1838. The Jupiter Lighthouse, the county's oldest surviving structure, was completed in 1860. The first homestead claims were filed around Lake Worth in 1873. The county's first hotel, schoolhouse, and railway, the Celestial Railroad, began operating in the 1880s, while the first settlers of modern-day Lake Worth Beach arrived in 1885. During the 1890s, Henry Flagler and his workers constructed the Royal Poinciana Hotel and The Breakers in Palm Beach and extended the Florida East Coast Railway southward to the area. They also developed a separate city for hotel workers, which in 1894 became West Palm Beach, the county's oldest incorporated municipality. Major Nathan Boynton, Congressman William S. Linton, and railroad surveyor Thomas Rickards also arrived in the 1890s and developed communities that became Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, and Boca Raton, respectively.

References

  1. "Chosen, Florida". www.pbchistoryonline.org. Archived from the original on April 5, 2023.
  2. Neely, Wayne (December 9, 2014). The Great Okeechobee Hurricane of 1928. iUniverse. ISBN   9781491754467 via Google Books.
  3. Will, Lawrence E. (July 24, 1961). "Okeechobee Hurricane and the Hoover Dike". Great Outdoors Publishing Company via Google Books.
  4. "The Florida Handbook". Peninsular Publishing Company. July 24, 1973 via Google Books.
  5. Morris, Allen (October 17, 2015). Florida Place Names: Alachua to Zolfo Springs. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN   9781561648399 via Google Books.
  6. Szwed, John (December 30, 2010). Alan Lomax: The Man Who Recorded the World. Penguin. ISBN   9781101190340 via Google Books.
  7. Senate, United States Congress (July 24, 1945). "Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States of America". order of the Senate of the United States via Google Books.
  8. Information, Palm Beaches (July 18, 2016). "Origins & History of the Palm Beaches: The Short Life and Sudden End of God's 'Chosen' City".