After she passed away, the intersection at Brevard and Stone was closed. The Rotary Club built the Myrtice Tharpe Square landmark to honor her memory.

Today, the gazebo is used for weddings and celebrations. Story tellers tell their tales and, of course, jazz , blues, country and other musicians perform on Fridays and Saturdays to put us in an upbeat frame of mind. We savor our lunches or sip our evnng coffee, tapping our feet, wrapped in warm breezes and the good company around us.

The beginning was in Ft. Pierce under the mentorship of A.E. "Bean" Backus, a renowned Florida artist, who encouraged many of the artists who became Highwaymen.

Originally, paintings were on inexpensive upsom board with whatever house paints were available. The frames were made of crown molding, much less costly than frame molding. As these young men and one woman (Mary A. Carroll who still paints today) began to ply their trade, the demand for their work proved more lucrative than working in orange groves.

Alfred Hair is considered the original Highwayman and encouraged his friends to join him in his new career. He organized backyard painting sessions which were referred to as "assembly lines" with one artist painting trees, one painting sky, and so on.

Artists such as Harold Newton, Sam Newton (who lives in Cocoa and continues to paint), Lemual Newton, George and the late Ellis Buckner, Hezekiah Baker and many others have been recognized by several art and culture organizations, including "Florida Living" magazine and "Antiques and Art Around Florida". Although their work can still be found at garage sales (if you are lucky), prices range from $100 to $2,500 and are going up.

More information about the Highwaymen Art may be available Antique Adoption Center, www.antiqueadoptions.com, at 100 Harrison Street in October. Many of the paintings of the Highwaymen are on display there and are for sale. For more information on the Highwaymen and their history.

Two south Brevard cattlemen, Hiram and Jerome Platt, agreed to buy the cows if they could be driven across the Indian River on the new wooden bridge between Merritt Island and Cocoa. The County Commissioners agreed, if the Platts would post $25,000 bond, the cost to replace the bridge if damaged. They said they didn’t understand about a bond, but would a check do, on which they would make their mark.

Excerpt from the "Golden Era of Steam boating on the Indian River 1877-1900" by Fred Hopwood available at the Tebeau Library Gift Shop:

...Why Captain T. J. Lund decided to bring the steamboat Pioneer to the Indian River remains a mystery. Only two hundred and fifty persons lived between Eau Gallie and Key West in the late 1980’s. Since most of these individuals lived on the Indian River and because very few businesses required large cargo carriers, most of the travel and trade was carried out by sailboat. Indeed, most residents of the Indian river area owned a sailboat, and men, women, and young children quickly learned to skillfully sail the clear waters of the lagoon.

Life along the lagoon was best described as bucolic. Subsistence farming, hunting and fishing, cattle ranching, lumbering, and the cultivation and harvesting of citrus crops dominated the local economy. Few manufacturing concerns existed south of Titusville. With the arrival of the Pioneer, however, changes were inevitable.

During the Civil War, the Pioneer made runs up and down the St. Johns River form Jacksonville to Enterprise. In the early 1870’s she was purchased by the Lund-Pioneer Steamboat company and put into service on a route from Jacksonville to Salt Lake Landing, about eight miles west of Titusville. Passengers and freight were transported from Salt Lake Landing to Titusville aboard the rickety cars of the Jacksonville, Tampa and Key West Railroad......