Furman, who is living, their other son having died in childhood.

CHARLES EZEKIEL JOHNSON, president of the South Florida Foundry and Machine Works, at Orlando, Orange County, is consistently to be designated as a pioneer in this important line of industrial enterprise in Florida. In 1886 Mr. Johnson came to Orlando in company with the late Hon. Edward F. Sperry, and the two here established the second foundry and machine shop to be placed in operation in this state. Mr. Johnson has continued his active alliance with the enterprise from the time of its inception to the present and has been a force in the development of the business from one of modest order to one of broad scope and importance. His son Edward H. is now secretary and treasurer of the company, and the son William P. is its vice president. This progressive concern has contributed much to the industrial and commercial prestige of Orlando and the subject of this review has impregnable vantage-ground as one of the leading business men and honored and influential citizens of Orlando.

Mr. Johnson, a member of a family of three sons and one daughter, was born in New Haven County, Connecticut, on the 22d of November, 1852, and is a son of William D. and Mary (Strong) Johnson, the former of whom was born in Connecticut, of Colonial New England ancestry, and the latter of whom was born in the state of New York. The father long held the position of master car builder for the New Haven Railroad, and he continued his residence in Connecticut until his death, at the age of seventysix years, his widow having been eighty-one years of age when she passed to the life eternal.

Charles E. Johnson acquired his early education in the schools of New Haven, where his ambition was manifested by his attending night school after he had initiated his active association with business. He was but fourteen years of age when he began the battle of life for himself, and he has been continuously dependent upon his own resources since that early period in his signally active and successful career. His first position was that of office boy for a hardware manufacturing company in the city of New Haven, and later he learned in the same establishment the trade of patternmaker. For the purpose of adding to his technical knowledge and experience he later entered the employ of the Farrel Foundry Company, Ansonia, Connecticut, and there he remained until he made his independent venture by coming to Orlando, Florida, in 1886, as noted in the opening paragraph of this review. Orlando was a mere village at the time when Mr. Johnson here established his home, and it is a matter of deep satisfaction to him that he has been able to contribute to the civic and material development and upbuilding of this fair little Florida city, his public spirit having been shown in civic liberality and progressiveness and in his effective service as a member of the City Council and in other local positions of public trust. No citizen of Orange County has more secure place in popular confidence and esteem, and, while at all times unostentatious and free from self-seeking, Mr. Johnson has had much of leadership in the directing of public sentiment and action in his home city and county.

At Ansonia, Connecticut, in the year 1879, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Johnson to Miss Julia Pratt, who was born and reared in that

state, and their companionship during the long intervening years has been one of idyllic relations and associations, as attested by the emphatic and appreciative statement of Mr. Johnson: "If we had to do it over again, we would gladly do so." Of the two sons of Mr. and Mrs. Johnson mention has already been made, and the two daughters are Misses Marcia and Dorothy, who are popular factors in the representative social and cultural activities of their home community and who are giving a portion of the year 1922 to a tour of Europe.

DWIGHT A. ALLEN. A retired merchant, many years a resident of West Palm Beach, Dwight A. Allen has had a successful individual career, and he is a member of a family of great prominence in the commercial and political affairs of the state since pioneer times.

His father was William Smith Allen, of New England ancestry and a native of Enfield, Connecticut. He came South during the early forties, first locating in Georgia, where he taught school. About 1848 or 1849 he removed to Jacksonville, and became a pioneer of that city. While there he was employed as bookkeeper by the Fairchild Company, saw mill operators and lumber shippers. At the beginning of the war between the North and the South in 1861 William S. Allen, a staunch Union man, removed with his family to Key West, which was then and remained in the hands of the United States Government. At Key West William S. Allen and his three brothers, George D., Moses A. and Benjamin Whiting Allen, engaged in the mercantile business. In time this firm built up the largest establishment of the kind at Key West. William S. Allen also established a plantation at Chokoloskee, at the mouth of Allen's Creek, which was named for him, and flows into the south part of Gullivan's Bay in the extreme southern point of Lee County. William S. Allen after retiring from business lived at Key West until his death in 1891.

His wife, Mary, Jane (Sprague) Allen, soon after the war broke out between the states took her children and returned to her old home at Ithaca, New York. They embarked on a steamer at Key West, and this ship was captured by Confederate gun boats, and she and her children were removed as prisoners to Charleston, but later were released and continued their journey. She remained at her old home in Ithaca until her death in 1869.

The late George W. Allen of Key West was a brother of Dwight A. Allen. He was born at Jacksonville in 1854, and during his life, which closed at Key West, May 30, 1922, he earned a place among Florida's most distinguished and successful citizens. As a young man he was associated with his father's mercantile business. Later he engaged in banking, and became presiIdent of the First National Bank of Key West. He served several years as collector for the Port of Key West, and as one of the leaders of the republican party was candidate for governor in 1918.

Dwight A. Allen, who was born at Jacksonville in 1861, received his first conscious impressions in the University City of Ithaca, New York. He attended school there, and after his mother's death returned to Key West and as a young man had charge for several years of the Allen farm at Chokoloskee. Through the influence of his brother George he was appointed in 1885 first

assistant keeper of the Government Light House at Jupiter, Florida. Later he was promoted to lighthouse keeper, and continued on duty there something over five years. In the meantime Mr. Allen had acquired some property in the locality now covered by the City of West Palm Beach, where at the time there was scarcely a settlement. After leaving the federal lighthouse service he located on this land, and has been a resident of West Palm Beach throughout practically all the period of its growth and development. For twelve years he was deputy collector of customs here. He conducted a successful mercantile business, which he finally sold in 1922.

Until the summer of 1922 his home was the property at the Southeast corner of South Poinsettia and Fern streets. Here he had 120 feet frontage on Poinsettia and 100 feet on Fern Street. He paid only $950 for this in 1904. It was sold in 1922 for $55,000. Since then Mr. Allen has built a home on Hibiscus Street.

He married Miss Ida Russell, of Oconee County, South Carolina, member of a prominent family in that section of the state. They have six children, Claramae, William, Kibbee, George D., Margaret and Jane. The son William Allen finished a technical course in Wentworth Institute at Boston in 1922.

GEORGE WHITING ALLEN. In the language of resolutions by the Rotary Club of Key West, George Whiting Allen was a patriot of unselfish devotion, a citizen of great intellectual attainments, a friend of unswerving loyalty, a man of incorruptible integrity, and in that characterization many citizens of Florida outside of Key West express their heartiest approval.

George Whiting Allen, who died May 30, 1922, was born September 1, 1854, in the City of Jacksonville, Florida. His parentage was of sturdy New England stock, having settled in the colonies during the great Scotch-Irish immigration. His ancestors were prominent in the development of the New England States in the peaceful pursuits of commerce, afterward fighting in the Revolutionary War with distinction.

His family crossed from Connecticut to Central New York, where some of Mr. Allen's brothers were born. Subsequently Mr. Allen's father came to Florida and settled in Jacksonville. In the early days pioneering was instinctive in these wonderful men. The ambition was instinctive to convert the primeval forest into suitable human habitation. From Jacksonville Mr. Allen's family settled in Key West. At that time Key West was nothing but a refuge for fishermen and a way station for shipping; the commercial life of the settlement was entirely maritime. The citizenship of the small community was composed of several high class New England, Virginia, and Alabama families. They were distinguished for their intellectual attainments and social purity. It was within these surroundings that George Whiting Allen spent his early boyhood days. He afterward went to his father's northern home to school; he was educated at Ithaca, New York; he returned from school to Key West in 1868 to identify himself with the people of the adopted home of his parents and to begin the great career which so sadly ended May 30, 1922. He studied law and was admitted to practice in 1897.

George W. Allen held many positions of distinction, deputy clerk of the State Circuit and

the United States District Courts; he was called to serve as state senator in the Florida Senate in 1878, and was continued in this service until 1884, when he resigned to engage in the banking business in Key West. From 1884 until 1891 he was cashier of the Key West Bank, and when that institution went out of existence Mr. Allen organized and became president of the First National Bank of Key West, and it was his commercial integrity and foresight which resulted in the present tower of financial strength which we now have in this city. Mr. Allen's financial ability was recognized by other institutions, and he was chosen director in some of Florida's largest banks.

At the beginning of President McKinley's administration Mr. Allen was appointed collector of customs for the port of Key West. At that time the port of Key West exercised jurisdiction over territory extending east as far as Jupiter. He served until 1913, when the custom service was reorganized and a district collector appointed. During the time of Mr. Allen's incumbency of the collector's office many intricate problems were presented, growing out of the war with Spain. A large number of foreign vessels-prizes of war, were brought into the port of Key West involving international questions. He coped with every situation with credit to himself and honor to his country. Key West was the center of war activities, and the discreet, intelligent hand of George W. Allen guided all Government forces.

He was the acknowledged leader in commercial, fraternal and civic movements in Key West. No project could be undertaken, no enterprise launched with any degree of success unless George W. Allen approved it. It was through Mr. Allen's influence that a right of way was secured for the extension of the F. E. C. Railway to Key West. The people of Key West and the State of Florida had unbounded confidence in his loyalty, sagacity and sympathy. Mr. Allen was known favorably and intimately beyond the boundaries of the State of Florida. He numbered among his personal friends presidents of the United States, cabinet officers, distinguished jurists and literary celebrities. The companionship of the great, the friendship of the powerful, however, never diverted his love and sympathy for the poor and humble. "He could move with kings and yet not lose the common touch." The humblest citizens of Key West could receive Mr. Allen's wisest counsel, the poorest his help, and all, his friendship.

He married, May 27, 1880, Miss Leonore Ximinez Browne, of a distinguished Virginia family, who survives him. His two daughters are Mary Lilla Allen and Mrs. William R. Warren.

JOE L. EARMAN is probably as well known as any other man in the state, and his name is one of merited distinction because of his personal character and what he has done and is doing. Mr. Earman for many years was on the road as a traveling salesman, and in that way built up a large acquaintance throughout the state. His home is at West Palm Beach, where he is in the investment business, and for several years_was president and majority stockholder of the Palm Beach Daily Post. He is a former chairman of the State Board of Control and president of the State Board of Health, and as municipal judge