Take a Step Back in Time at Dudley Farm Historic Park

A windmill spins slowly in the breeze. The smell of wood smoke wafts through the air as brush is burned in a garden near the old wooden farmhouse. A man guides a push plow through the soft soil in the vegetable garden.

He pauses to survey his work.

“It’s still crooked,” he says and shakes his head.

The year could be 1858, but it is 2008, and this working farm is managed very much the way it was more than a century ago.

Step onto the grounds of Dudley Farm Historic State Park and step back in time, to a time before electricity and indoor plumbing. The buildings are authentic, not re-created. The split rail fence is 100 years old and once surrounded the original log home of Phillip Benjamin Harvey Dudley. Even the corn harvested these days is authentic, grown from heirloom seed handed down through the ages from original Dudley stock.

It all began in 1859 when P.B.H. Dudley, Sr. (1814-1881) came down from South Carolina and bought 360 acres of land between Jonesville and Newberry. Dudley was a plantation employee and cattleman who came to the area before the Civil War. Farm life in the 1800s was brutal, but Dudley and his family carved their niche in the wiregrass and longleaf pine, leaving their legacy to be enjoyed by young and old for generations to come.

The Dudley family worked this land for three generations. They began with cotton and cattle. Soon they had a country store, a cane-grinding complex and a livestock-dipping vat. Dudley was quick to lend a helping hand, and the farm became a neighborhood community center. In later years, they even ran a post office where people would gather to swap tales and hear the local gossip.

When the railroad came through the area, Dudley and his son, P.B.H. Dudley Jr., cut a 12-mile road from the farm to Gainesville. Weary travelers on this road would stop at the farm to rest. A portion of this road still exists in front of Dudley Farm.

Dudley Jr. expanded the farm, and as the farm grew, so did the family. In the 1880s, he built the home and other structures that still stand to this day. The Georgian-style farmhouse — built with longleaf pine like other buildings on the property — accommodated a family of fourteen (eight girls and four boys). Myrtle Dudley, the youngest of the family, was born in 1901. Miss Myrtle donated the family homestead to the Florida Park Services in 1983.

These days, the original fences, metal latches and buildings — 18 in all — dot the farmstead. Original furnishings can still be seen within the family farmhouse. Outside, visitors can explore the kitchen outbuilding, general store and post office. There is a hand pump to draw the water from the well and a wooden trough to channel the water to feed livestock. The cane-syrup complex is still put to good use each November and December for annual cane-grinding events, an event commemorating the birth of Miss Myrtle Dudley.

Dressed in period clothing, volunteers and park staff work the farm the way it was worked by the Dudley family.

Sally Morrison, wearing appropriate 19th century garb, walked the path leading from the entrance of the historic park back to the old homestead, and talked about the restoration efforts. Morrison is a park services specialist who has worked at the farm for 20 years.

In the old days, pioneer kitchens were separate from the farmhouse. This kept the homes cool and protected them in case of fire. Morrison said the Dudley family had moved the original kitchen in the early 1950s. It was mothballed to make way for a new kitchen with modern conveniences. But that was not the end of it.

“The Dudley’s saved it just like everything else,” Morrison said. “They used it as a storage building. Rolled it on logs with mules pulling it.”

In early 2000, the kitchen was moved again, this time using modern equipment. Morrison said they hired South Arc to conduct the archeological research needed to place the structure back where it had been. Morrison said they placed it within four inches of its original location.

“The lift crane had to back the kitchen back into place, and the upper crane part had to touch the store to make that angle,” Morrison said. “And the well was on the other side.”

In 1989, while Morrison and others were cleaning out the old general store to get it ready for showing, they made a remarkable discovery.

“In a huge Crisco can was a cigar box and, wrapped in muslin, was a letter from 1862 from Dudley to his wife Mary Magdalena,” Morrison said. “It was miserable work, sorting through farm chemicals and spiders, but when we came upon that, it was as if our work was rewarded.”

The letter is now in their archival collection building, along with five or six other letters from Myrtle’s collection, Morrison said.

Back at the corncrib, Stephen Cotton hauled out ears of corn for shucking. Cotton has worked part time at the park for a year. He and volunteers Dick Walker and Bill Dunk — docent of the year — then sat upon hand-hewn benches, shucked the corn and talked about working the farm the way the Dudleys had.

Some corn had weevils — it went to feed the livestock. The rest would be used for making grits and corn meal.

Next stop — the fields of sugar cane. Each year, usually after the first frost, the sugar cane is stripped and harvested. Using a machete or cane stripper (a double-bladed knife), the leaves are stripped to reveal the maroon-colored sugar cane, just as the Dudleys would have done.

Cotton cut off a piece of cane, put it in his mouth.

“It’s already sweet,” he said.

Once harvested, the cane is brought to the syrup-house complex for grinding. The top of the stalks and leaves are left on the ground to protect the mounds during the cold winter months. Later they are burned and the ashes heaped upon the mounds to provide nutrients to the new crop of sugar cane.

Harvesting the cane is a tremendous effort. In the past, family members and hired hands did the work.

“Neighbors would help, too,” Morrison said. “It’s a whole syrup complex. Neighbors would use it. Myrtle said the neighbors would bring their own horse or mule and sugarcane.”

In the early years, a mule or horse would be used to grind the cane. But in 1930, the Dudleys began to embrace new technologies and traded two mules for their first John Deere tractor.

To commemorate Ms. Myrtle Dudley’s birthday, each December the park hosts the cane-grinding event, using a mule or horse to do the work. This year, it is on Dec. 6.

Sometimes, children do the work for the annual cane-grinding event.

In the days of the Dudleys, the final cane grinding occurred around Thanksgiving. The kids would be home from school for the holiday, and the horses normally used for travel would be hitched to the mill.

Now, as then, the cane stalks are hand-fed into the mill, and as the mule walks in circles, the cane is crushed. Sweet juice pours through a burlap screen and into a barrel. A bucket brigade then takes the juice and pours it into the cane kettle, where it simmers for about four hours over an authentic stone furnace, fashioned from sandstone with an old crosscut saw.

“Heart pinewood is used to fire the furnace,” Morrison said.

It cools for about 10 minutes.

“Once it has cooled enough to handle, it is bottled by the ladies using glass syrup bottles,” Morrison said.

Cane events are big affairs. Hosted by the Friends of Dudley Farm, this event offers something for the entire family. There are traditional activities such as craft demonstrations, wagon rides and old-fashioned games. Syrup and other farm products will be on sale. Visitors can tour the farm and hear live music – and take a step back in time.

There are seasonal events scheduled throughout the year. The domestic skills and crafts programs meet Wednesdays (except the third Wednesday) from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. This program teaches a variety of traditional domestic skills, including quilting, rug braiding, basketry, woodworking and corn-shuck crafts.

Interested in volunteering? The Dudley Farm volunteer and docent program is ongoing from January through November on the third Wednesday of the month from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.,  meeting at the Visitor Center. These educational training programs are open to the public with diverse and interesting topics:  Cracker Florida, Genealogy, Florida’s Landscape Plants and Florida Pioneer Days. For information, call 352-472-1142. There are opportunities for tour guides, seasonal events, gardening and other farm chores.

Cane Grinding in Myrtle Dudley’s own words, courtesy of Dudley Farm Historical Park

“CANE GRINDING AND MAKING SYRUP
By Myrtle Dudley
Haul in wood for cooking syrup.
Cut the cane, strip it, top it, haul to mill where it will be stacked for grinding.
Cover so it will not freeze.
Have cane mill cleaned, dried, and well oiled. Hitch mules to mill, someone to feed the cane into the mill for getting the juice out of it. Have a barrel to catch the juice. Have a strainer on the barrel for straining trash out of the juice.
Have the syrup kettles clean and hot. Pour the juice into them. Boil and skim the juice for about three hours. When it becomes nearly done and when it begins to get thick, dip it up and down until you know that it is done by letting some drop off the dipper and it forms a thread. Sometimes there is a thermometer to tell if it is done. Then strain the syrup into a trough. Let cool for a little while before putting into glass bottles, but you can put into barrels at once. Seal bottles with corks. Seal all containers at once.
There is a party, all the neighbors are invited and some syrup is cooked until it is candy. We all join in pulling candy and drinking cane juice.
Yellow jackets and wild bees swarmed around the mill and syrup kettles and someone always got stung.”