English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL)

Settlers from Georgia and the Carolinas began arriving in the communities of the Kathleen area in the 1840s, well before the establishment of Polk County, Florida, in 1861. In the summer of 1851, circuit-riding preacher Rev. J.M. Hayman offered his first sermon at Br. William T. Rushing's homestead at Indian Pond in Socrum, a site soon to become home to Bethel Baptist Church. Against the backdrop of the Seminole Indian Wars, the Civil War, public land incentive programs, and the coming of the railroads in the 1880s, the seven other northwest Polk County communities of the Kathleen area (Galloway, Gibsonia, Green Pond, Griffin, Kathleen, Providence, and Winston) soon followed and were well established by 1900. Self-sufficient and resilient pioneers set up homesteads, nurtured large families, built churches and schools, served in positions of leadership, and created an agricultural-based economy with cattle raising, citrus, timber and logging, and strawberry farming.

Join Lakeland residents Randall M. MacDonald, Susan Priest MacDonald and Sarah E. MacDonald as they explore the differences between the Lakeland of yesterday and today. Historical images of eclectic buildings and notable scenes stand side by side with their modern equivalents in order to depict the changes that have occurred in Lakeland over the past century. Take a look at downtown Lakeland, Munn Park and local lakes as they were transformed by transportation, industry and technology. This fascinating book documents how the rural crossroads of Lakeland turned into a thriving modern city.

A Land Remembered has been ranked #1 Best Florida Book eight times in annual polls conducted by Florida Monthly Magazine. In this best-selling novel, Patrick Smith tells the story of three generations of the MacIveys, a Florida family who battle the hardships of the frontier to rise from a dirt-poor Cracker life to the wealth and standing of real estate tycoons. The story opens in 1858, when Tobias MacIvey arrives in the Florida wilderness to start a new life with his wife and infant son, and ends two generations later in 1968 with Solomon MacIvey, who realizes that the land has been exploited far beyond human need. The sweeping story that emerges is a rich, rugged Florida history featuring a memorable cast of crusty, indomitable Crackers battling wild animals, rustlers, Confederate deserters, mosquitoes, starvation, hurricanes, and freezes to carve a kingdom out of the swamp. But their most formidable adversary turns out to be greed, including finally their own. Love and tenderness are here too: the hopes and passions of each new generation, friendships with the persecuted blacks and Indians, and respect for the land and its wildlife. A Land Remembered was winner of the Florida Historical Society's Tebeau Prize as the Most Outstanding Florida Historical Novel. Now in its 14th hardcover printing, it has been in print since 1984 and is also available in trade paperback.

Table of Contents:
In Depression's depths, 1940
All consuming war, 1940-1945
Peace and prosperity, 1945-1950
The building tide, 1950-1955
The ordeal of change, 1955-1960
Surprises of transformation, 1960-1965
Waiting for the mouse, 1965-1970
Taking our breath away, 1970-1975
Unsettling progress, 1975-1980
Spiraling down, 1980-1985
Breaking old ties, 1985-1990
Glimpses over the horizon, 1990-1995
At the turn of a century, 1995-2000.

Eighteen of Florida's best-loved writers here share with you their affection for Florida's wild side--the beautiful heart of a state under siege from development. nbsp;Carl Hiaasen, Randy Wayne White, Al Burt, Patrick Smith, the late Archie Carr, and others evoke a Florida thick with pinewoods, alligators, and palmetto scrub; ribboned by miles of coast and dune; blessed with backcountry lakes, rivers, creeks, and springs. Strip malls and concrete cannot tame this wild Florida, but they can kill it. These essays offer passionate argument why that should not be allowed to happen. nbsp;Coming from a variety of backgrounds--fiction, journalism, poetry, and environmental writing--the writers turn their talent to one thing they have in common--a love for Florida's natural beauty and a commitment to preserve it. Their essays--some old favorites, most appearing here for the first time--are both a celebration and a pointed reminder of what we stand to lose. Many of the areas singled out (the Lake Wales Ridge, the Panhandle's Topsail Hill, Goethe State Forest, and Tampa's Brooker Creek) were purchased through Florida's Preservation 2000, one of the nation's foremost land acquisition programs. All royalties from the book are being donated to the Florida chapter of The Nature Conservancy. Printed on recycled paper with soy ink. Jeff Ripple, natural history writer and photographer, is the author of five books of interpretive natural history, including Sea Turtles, Florida--The Natural Wonders, and Southwest Florida's Wetland Wilderness: Big Cypress Swamp and the Ten Thousand Islands (UPF, 1996). He lives in Gainesville, Florida. Susan Cerulean, writer and biologist, is co-author of Florida Wildlife Viewing Guide. In 1997, the Governor's Council for a Sustainable Florida honored her with an Individual Environmental Educator Award. She lives in Tallahassee, Florida.