Page 113 - a-columbia-county-boys-recollections-and-memories-of-columbia-county-florida-(2012)-lenvil-h-dicks

A Columbia County Boy's Recollections and Memories of Columbia County Florida (2012) Lenvil H. Dicks

macle to him was S400.00 per acre, and he said he could not take that but he would take S500.00. That
was too much for me, and so 1 let it slide and then a few months later I would run in to Doc at the Post
Office again and bring up the subject of buying the farm, but although I was willing to pay more than
my previous offer had been, Doc’s asking price would have advanced to a figure which I felt I could not
afford to pay.

This went on for about 2 years, with my offer gradually going up and Doc’s asking price going up
correspondingly. Finally, after about 2 years of this, I asked Doc one day “Doc tell me what you would
actually take for the Old Hancock Farm”. He said “well Lenvil, I feel like if 1 could get S1,250.00 an
acre for it I would sell it”. Notwithstanding the fact that I knew that Doc had not paid more than S200.00
for the farm several years before, I told him that his price had finally got high enough to suit me, and 1
would take it. He allowed me to make a reasonably small down payment, and carried the mortgage on
the farm for many years thereafter. I paid him by the month.

He allowed me to cut the 450 acre tract in to 21 separate independent subdivisions, and was willing to
sign the plat to have each of those subdivisions recorded at the Courthouse, as he had faith that I could
sell all of the lots.

The only part of Doc’s farm that did not end up in a subdivision was a 12 '/z-acre tract that had been the
Old Wes Hancock home-stead, and I sold it to County Attorney Marlin Feagle the same day I got my
Deed from Doc Melton.

What I did was to offer an entire subdivision to various builders in the County, to treat as their very
own, and to pay me so much per lot as they needed to have a lot free and clear.

Doc went along with all of this and pretty well let me do whatever I wanted to do insofar as releasing
lands from the master mortgage, and he allowed me to pay more or less whatever 1 wanted to pay him.
He was always fair to me, and 1 tried to be very fair with him.

Except for Marlin Feagle’s home-site, this tract of land now consists of the original 21 separate
subdivisions, and some of these subdivisions, beginning on the Country Club Road at Price Creek, and
running south to Highway 252 is Woodhaven, Deerwood, Indianwood, and several other independent
subdivisions.

Some of the local builders to whom I sold entire subdivisions were Vernon Norton, Jim Roughton, Fred
Perry, Lamar Dupree, Clyde Timmons, and several other builders whose names do not come to mind at
the present. I could do a little research and come up with all those names, but 1 am simply going to
apologize to those builders who I have left out, due to my deterioration of memory.

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