Cornelius Pinder was a Key Largo farmer born in the Bahamas circa 1862. At age 12, on June 18, 1874, he became a U.S. citizen.
When the 1880 census was taken, Cornelius was identified as a cigar maker living in Key West. If he hadn’t started farming by 1880, it was coming soon.
The June 11, 1884, edition of the Deland Florida Agriculturalist noted: “Mr. Cornelius Pinder brought into market this week 134 pines averaging 9.5 pounds apiece. He succeeded in realizing 39,000 pines from his first cutting and has about the same number left in his field – Key West Democrat.”
Not quite a year later, he was granted a 160-acre homestead on the land where he had been busy farming pineapples. After the turn of the century, the pineapple farms began to disappear due to a series of events that included hurricanes, blight and an influx of competing Cuban pineapples. Many farmers replanted their former pineapple fields with Key lime trees, which were referred to in those days as lime trees.
I’m writing about Mr. Pinder and his homestead because I’ve been trying to solve a little property mystery that has me stumped (when I’m usually pretty good at this), and I’m feeling a bit like a dog with a bone. While I’ve not traced every subsequent property transaction after Pinder began selling his parcels, I’ve been trying to track down the history of Lots 15 and 16 of Township 61S, Range 39E, Section 1. The location might be better recognized as MM 105.
I’ve pieced together bits of the story, and at least some of the Pinder homestead was owned by a fellow Bahamian transplant named T. Jenkins Curry. In the 1920s and 1930s, he appears to have bought and sold a substantial amount of property, including significant holdings on Key Largo. A resident of Key West until his divorce, after moving to Key Largo, he served as a county commissioner and ran for sheriff. He also did a little farming.
The Miami Herald, dated Sept. 22, 1923, noted that Curry was planting tomatoes in Key Largo. The Sept. 6, 1936, edition of the Bradenton Herald quoted Curry. “T. Jenkins Curry, grower of Key Largo, said the lime crop was big this year but still is bringing good prices. Buyers visit the groves, he said, and pay $4 to $7 a crate as fast as the limes are picked.”
Referencing what might be the former Pinder homestead, the following advertisement appeared in the Miami Herald on Jan. 22, 1938: “On Key Largo, 125 acres. Half mile oceanfront, half double highway. Laborers house. Packing house. Two extra large cisterns. Every car going to Key West passes through this property. Sell all or parts at almost raw land price. See T. Jenkins Curry, Key Largo, Fla. Dealers Protected.”
What I know for sure is that in 1940, T. Jenkins Curry sold a two-acre parcel to Lewis and Rosalind Albury, located in the area of MM 105, across from the Family Dollar, which was once part of the Cornelius Pinder homestead. The home where the Alburys lived was built circa 1950 and is still there.
There are other structures on the property that indicate it wasn’t just a residence and that some other business was being conducted, including corrugated walls that once belonged to a shed or something, concrete steps that lead nowhere, a large metal tank that could have held oil, gas or water next to a concrete base with a curved feature that might have once held the tank, and a metal pole about 20 to 25 feet tall that looks as if it could have held an advertising banner.
Figuring out what all those old structures were used for has become a personal goal. Research has uncovered a lot of clues, and I’ve learned about Pinder, Curry and Lewis Benjamin Albury. He was the son of Oliver (1881-1952) and Romalda (1884-1960) Albury, both Bahamians. Oliver was a farmer living in Key West when Lewis was born on Nov. 28, 1904.
The Alburys left Key West circa 1920 and moved to the Key Largo community of Rock Harbor. According to his military registration, Lewis Albury was 5’10”, 150 pounds, with blue eyes and brown hair. The 1930 census says he was employed in road construction. In the 1940 census, his occupation is listed as a service station manager: Bernice Station Manager.
I cannot find a record for a Bernice Station, and it is likely misspelled in the record. The 1945 state census identified Lewis Albury as a water tender. That fits as the first freshwater pipeline in the Florida Keys opened in 1942, and Albury spent the rest of his career working for the Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority.
In 1928, he married Rosalind Sawyer. They had two boys, Gerald Lewis (born Feb. 20, 1930) and Royce Lyn (born Dec. 18, 1931). Lewis Benjamin Albury died in July 1967. He was 62. The Albury family owned the property for more than 50 years and sold it in 2001.
This is where the story initially becomes interesting and then frustrating. I reached out to family members from both sons, and I thought I was on the cusp of discovering why those relics were there. One of the son’s daughters responded and said that, although she was too young to remember, her oldest brother did and that he would be happy to talk to me.
I was so close. I reached out through the requested channels and have heard crickets ever since. The answer is out there, apparently, but I haven’t been able to access it yet. If the story, the people or the relics spark a memory, please reach out to me at 305-395-9889, via text, or email to keyshistorian@gmail.com. I’m hoping that nothing stays buried forever.
