“As affecting as Marjorie Rawlings’s The Yearling, as enthralling as Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, as provocative as Willa Cather’s My Antonia” — Ormond Beach News

A Land Remembered

A Land Remembered has been wildly popular with people of all ages. Literally thousands have written Patrick Smith to say how much the story moved them and changed forever the way they think about Florida. It has been said by many, many people that it should be required reading for every Floridian.

A Land Remembered
by Patrick D. Smith

If you live in Florida, you have to love a book that tells the right and wrong way to capture a gator or how to build a home from scratch in the wilderness. Patrick Smith's "A Land Remembered" does that and more.

It traces the struggles and triumphs of three generations of the MacIvey clan who settle in North Central Florida on the eve of the Civil War. We follow Tobias and Emma as they eke out a hardscrabble existence and raise their son, Zech, to learn by trial and error the lessons nature teaches.

The family lives first in a palmetto lean-to in the scrub until Tobias can finish their cypress-shingled cabin. They fight a hostile environment as well as natural predators, fending off bear attacks, panthers and wolves. Trapping small game, they survive on a diet of raccoon, squirrel and the occasional wild hog, supplemented by swamp cabbage and poke greens. The women make flour from cattails and "koonti" roots. Emma wishes only for a Dutch oven, not ribbons or a new dress.

Tobias is recruited to drive wild cattle to the Georgia border to feed Confederate troops. On the drive he learns to wield a rawhide whip, making it crack to guide the herd. The whip also serves as a tool for killing snakes, catching game, and for communication: one snap means dinner, two cracks mean danger. From the pioneers' skillful use of this whip comes our word for the Florida "cracker."

After their cabin in the scrub is burned by rebel deserters, Tobias moves his family south to a hammock along the banks of the Kissimmee River, 50 miles from the nearest trading post, where they become ranchers. With their marshtackie - a small Seminole stallion - and two gray wolf dogs, the MacIveys succeed in herding the wild "yellowhammer" cattle and drive them across the state to the ports of Tampa and Punta Rassa for shipment to Cuba. As their savings grow, they plant citrus and accumulate large tracts of land.

Historical events like the great freeze of 1895 and the deadly hurricane of 1928 form the backdrop as the MacIveys and their descendents struggle for survival. They face drought, floods, plagues of mosquitoes and murdering cattle rustlers. Despite the harshness of nature, they are enchanted by its beauty - by red-orange sunsets illuminating the forests, and egrets and herons gliding above the flowing Pay-hay-okee, the River of Grass.

The early MacIveys are honorable, heroic and self-sacrificing. Although the closeness between friends and partners is idealized, perhaps such sentiment is justified where survival depends on strong partnerships. Innocence is lost, however, when the MacIvey heirs sever their connection with the land, fencing it off, clear cutting and paving.

Smith's message proclaims that the beloved land of wild parakeets and pristine streams has become the victim of greed. It can now only be "remembered" for its rare beauty.

In a recent interview Smith talked about gathering material for the novel by listening to stories from fourth- and fifth-generation descendants of pioneers who settled here. He also spent a year with the Seminoles and was taken with their belief in the sacredness of the land. His characters are symbolic of those pioneer settlers - strong men who fought the elements and strong women who were their partners, holding the family and homestead together.

The importance of preserving the land is a central theme. When Smith wrote the book in 1984, he was worried that Old Florida would disappear if the massive development continued. He is cautiously optimistic about recent efforts of local and state governments to purchase lands for preservation.

"A Land Remembered" has been honored as winner of the Tebeau Prize for the most outstanding Florida historical novel and has been the reading selection for the One Community/One Book program in many counties. For lovers of nature, hunting and "Old Florida" history, this book is a must read.

Lynne Boele is a retired professor of English and humanities at Central Florida Community College.

ISBN: 0-910923-12-4, Size: 6 x 9, 404 Pages

Hardbound, $19.95 -

Softbound, $13.95 -