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Highlands Today

Simple life made boy a man

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By Norm Cukras | Highlands Today

Published: May 22, 2009

It was the late 1800s when the Rich family came from Georgia by wagon train headed to homestead somewhere in Florida's Manatee County.

Along the trail they had to stop briefly to deliver the newest addition to the pioneering family. It was a boy.

A few years later, in December 1884, another boy was added to the family.

He was named Grover Cleveland (Cleve) Rich after the newly elected president of the United States.

Cleve eventually staked claim to 20 acres or so in a Manatee County settlement named after the local Bethany Baptist Church. It was located along Route 64: the now famous Cracker Trail.

It was on this farm that was located behind the church that Sam Weaver, proprietor of the Lake Placid Family Restaurant, was raised. Sam and his sister Flora Mae spent some of their formative years with their grandparents Cleve and Alice because their mother suffered from TB.

When her health improved, the Weaver family moved to Clewiston, where Sam's father worked in the sugar industry. However, because Sam's asthma was aggravated by the atmosphere caused by the mills he continued to stay with the grandparents. This was fine for the growing boy. He had a horse he could ride – when the animal let him. He had a .22 rifle that he could "strike a match" with. His one-room schoolhouse was just across the road.

And at least once a month he got to accompany his grandfather on a Saturday when the old Model A truck was loaded with goods grown on the farm and taken to market at the big city of Wauchula. A place where a farm boy could see a movie or get a haircut.

Since all the bridges were yet to be built on Route 64, "We had to cut through the Kibler pasture to get to Rt. 62 and take that into town," Sam related. "And then Grandpa would drive with two wheels on the dirt because the pavement tore his tires up."

Life's lessons learned

Living on the farm as he did brought an awareness to the developing young boy.

He learned many of life's lessons there. "You do what you have to do," the restaurateur said reflectively. "You did not question it, you did it." Like the time Sam's horse could no longer function. He was nearing 40 years of age. It was his horse so it was his responsibility to "put it down."

"My world was right there," Sam says of his childhood environment. "I didn't know there was bad in the country. To me getting in trouble was putting a frog in the well."

By the time Sam, who will be celebrating his 70th birthday this October, was born, the cattle drives along the Cracker Trail were but echoes of local history. And the commemorative rides of today along the trail didn't begin until 1988. Still the events of those years fill the native Floridian with memories to last a lifetime.

By the time Sam entered his teens, new asthma medicines became available and the young man was able to join his parents in Clewiston and a new chapter of his life was begun.

Remembering the days

Cleve died in 1966 and Alice in 1988. Both are buried in the Bethany Baptist cemetery.

The Bethany Baptist Church and its cemetery, located about 30 miles west of Zolfo Springs, continue to serve as a reminder of the area's formative years.

Sadly, other items influencing Sam's youth are but memories. The schoolhouse is gone and a few years ago the old Rich homestead burned down.

Fortunately, Sam's wife, Reba, who died in 2006, was an amateur painter and captured the house on canvas before it was destroyed.

This picture, as well as others that she painted, are on display at the popular Lake Placid restaurant.

The homestead painting is a nostalgic reminder of a time when life was simpler and living was more rustic. A time before electricity and running water. A time when baths were taken in the Manatee River. A time when dogs and cats were not pets but had a purpose in maintaining the delicate balance of every day rural living.

A time filled with events that shape a man's life.

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