Page 231 - some-stuff-i-wrote-and-some-stuff-i-didn't-(2011)-h-morris-williams

Some Stuff I Wrote and Some Stuff I Didn't (2011) H. Morris Williams

A LIFE OF FAME AND FORTUNE

(A partial history of the John Paul Family)

♦Including Watertown, Florida*

By Nancy Frank

Fame and fortune were his companions as he was growing up in the
North Florida community of Watertown.

“Fame” because crowds gathered from miles around when he cranked

the engines of his biplane, the first to be privately owned in Florida.

“Fortune” because his family owned over one million acres of timber

land, as well as interests in several other booming industries in Florida

during the pre-Depression era.

A.G. (Alexander Gunn) Paul, Jr., known to most people as Sandy, is part

of a family that once was among the wealthiest in Florida history.

“All of the land they owned would be worth about $500,000,000 today”

Paul revealed.

The history of the Paul family in Florida began in 1885 when John Paul,
the grandfather of Sandy Paul, migrated from LaCrosse, Wisconsin,

after the timber in that area had run out and he was forced to close a
prosperous lumber business.

Traversing the northern part of the state by horse and buggy, John Paul
bought 365,000 acres of timber land in Columbia and Baker counties

and in south Georgia. Later, the Paul family purchased an additional
600,000 acres in Dixie, Lafayette, and Taylor counties.

“At that times, land cost anywhere from fifty cents to a dollar an acre,”
Paul said.

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