Sanibel Pioneers

Sanibel Pioneers. . , The Gavin and Walker were the first black families to settle on Sanibel and were among the island’s early pioneers. Hannah and Isaiah Gaven arrived on Sanibel in 1917 from Wakulla County, near Tallahassee, with their four children. Harry and Pearl Alice Walker moved to Sanibel in 1927 from Freeman Grove, Georgia to raise five girls and two boys. Both Isaiah Gavin and Harry Walker Sr. began as sharecroppers. However, the Hurricane of 1926 flooded agricultural fields with salt water, ruining Sanibel’s farming industry. As a result, the Gavin and Walker families became truly entrepreneurial, offering services such as lawn maintenance, land clearing, garbage removal, electrical and plumbing work, shell collecting and any job that could help feed their families., Two Families Become One , The two families were united when Edmund Gavin Sr. and Elnora Walker married at an early age. Edmund Gavin Sr. carried on his father’s reputation as an innovative worker. He once fashioned a power saw by attaching a drive belt to a gasoline engine. The tool he referred to as his “contraption “ could be easily maneuvered to fit the blade in order to efficiently cut trees into logs. This tool was instrumental in quickly clearing fallen trees from Sanibel properties following Hurricane Donna in 1960. His son Edmund Jr., spent time working under Tommy Wood, the first refuge manager of the Sanibel National Wildlife Refuge, and served three tours of duty in the United States Air Force before returning to Sanibel to operate a successful landscaping business for 21 years., Sanibel Cable Hut - A Repurposed Home , In the late 19th century, a telegraph cable brought messages from Havana, Cuba to a station located on Punta Rassa, which by extension brought communications to a small structure on the east end of Sanibel Island, near the Sanibel Lighthouse. The 100 square foot, tin-roofed structure was later relocated to the area now referred to as the "Gavin Site" at J.N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge, where the Gavin and Walker families, among others, lived for over 50 years. The building underwent numerous modifications to accommodate the needs of its residents. This structure was later abandoned and eventually destroyed during a prescribed burn at the Refuge property in 1992., (captions) , Hannah Gavin (left), and her husband, Isaiah Gavin (right) , Pearl Alice Walker (left), and her husband, Harry Walker (right) , Edmund Gavin Sr. and Elnora Walker Gavin , Edmund Gavin, Jr. , Edmund Gavin Sr.’s "contraption" used to clear land. following Hurricane Donna in 1960 , Telegraph Cable Hut on the J.N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge property