Historian and author Dr. Joe Knetsch and his wife, Linda, currently live in Tallahassee. Knetsch has published more than 200 articles and given more than 150 papers on the history of Florida. He has written several books: Florida’s Seminole Wars: 1817- 1858 and Faces of the Frontier: Florida Surveyors and Developers in 19th Century Florida. His most recently published book is Fear and Anxiety on the Florida Frontier: Articles on the Second Seminole War 1835 – 1842, published by the Seminole Wars Foundation. Knetsch taught history at Ramblewood Middle School in Coral Springs, and served on the Broward County Historical Commission in the early 1980s. He was once a resident of the greater Pembroke Pines area, and was active in that city’s Historical Society. This article first appeared in the 1983 spring issue of the New River News, volume 21, number 4, a publication of the Fort Lauderdale Historical Society, and is reproduced here with the permission of the author.
