Each building in the Florida pioneers' settlements held an important role in the lives of the settlers. The home was the center of the family life, the church was the core of the pioneers' religious and social lives, and the school was the heart of the children's education. The places they went and the buildings they lived in helped shape who they were, who they became and the legacies that they left behind.

The Home

The home of a pioneer family was where the children learned the fundamentals of living, learning, growing and working. It was a place where families could come together to enjoy each other's company.

Each home was built to meet the immediate needs of the family, as the family would grow, so would the house. Home life was built on the relationships of the family members. Each evening, the family would come together to eat and share their stories from the day. After the meal, the family would remain in the kitchen to read, study, sew, or whittle in each other's company.

The home was where children learned their work ethic; it was the source of ongoing daily chores and responsibility. As the children grew, so did their obligations to the family and to the home.

The School
 
School in the days of the pioneers was different than schools today. It was taught in a one room school house, usually only large enough to accommodate approximately twenty students, the terms were dependent upon fall harvest and spring plowing, and education generally ended after the eighth grade.

Ordinarily, schools did not have enough money for blackboards.  The price of paper was too much also; children would use re-usable slates for their written work. Teachers would generally live with one of the local families for free. If there was no teacher available, either a parent from the settlement would teach at the school, or children would simply learn from their parents at home.

The class room was commonly divided with the girls on one side and the boys on the other side. Children would usually be taught reading, writing and arithmetic. Each day, the children would walk to school from all over the settlement. They would bring their lunches in tin pails called lunch buckets, these were usually filled with leftovers from the previous night. Discipline in schools was much stricter than today. Children who greatly misbehaved were often paddled once at school, and usually again at home.

A short time later in the pioneer days, it became a requirement that there had to be twenty five students in order to open a school, and ten had to be enrolled in order for it to stay open. Teachers were then paid approximately $25 a month. The school houses were often used for public meetings, religious services and community socials.
 
The Church

Sundays were set aside as a day of rest in the days of Florida's pioneers. The families would take a break from their daily work, get dressed in their best outfits and make their way to the community church. Families often traveled by wagon or horse and buggy, sometimes they would walk if necessary.

The preacher was often a local farmer who worked during the week and preached on Sundays. It was also common that the preacher would travel to multiple towns and preach to a different congregation each week.  As he traveled, he received room and board from local settlers. 

The services would often last several hours. Singing was a very important aspect of worship. The congregation would sing the hymns without any musical accompaniment and often from memory if there were no hymnals available. Some larger churches, or churches with wealthy members, would have a pump organ for music.

After the services, the families would come together to socialize and enjoy a large meal together. Each family would bring a basket of food to share. They would eat together and then relax and delight in each other's company. The children would use this time to play games together. The church was also used for public meetings and social gatherings.