James Brown "Boss" Clopton of Georgia

James Brown "Boss" Clopton was the sixth child of William Henry Harrison "Billy" Clopton and Martha Isabel "Mattie" Lancaster Clopton. He was born in Putnam County (Eatonton) Georgia February 14, 1876 and died February 6, 1956. He never married. He is buried in Concord United Methodist Church's cemetery in Putnam County. He is a direct descendant of the first William Clopton, Gentleman, and his wife, Ann (Booth) Dennett Clopton.

Jim was called "Boss," by the family, and "Uncle Boss," by nieces and nephews who loved him dearly. When he was a little boy he used to follow his older brothers out to the fields. Too small to work, he would sit on a stump while they hoed the crops. Thus, they dubbed him, "the boss," and it stuck. He had a marvelous sense of humor and was a first rate raconteur. In our family we still bounce around his many stories and laugh as much as ever.

Early in 1904 (my brother) Watt and Cousin Jim Clopton read or heard of a fast-growing little town named Miami, in South Florida, and, in a spirit of adventure, went down to join in with what promised to be something quite different and exciting. They found something different and exciting to be sure, in fact too much so at first. Homesteads were available free, the only requirement for a deed being to live on the homestead for one year. These were all some distance south of Miami. I don't know how much acreage each one contained but the land was covered with a thick growth of palmettos and a scattering of pine trees, and inhabited by scores of rattlesnakes and millions of mosquitoes. The first job was to build a little rough lumber shack to live in.

Now if they were going to develop the land, as many others did, all they had to do was to cut away the palmettos with machetes, pile them up to dry while, with grub-hoes, they dug up all the tough and stubborn palmetto roots. Then they'd have to burn all of this, after which they must plow the land and plant vegetables. Of course they'd have to buy lumber and screens, a cook stove and a water pump to sink into the ground, and tools, and mosquito repellent, and liniment and other medicines and, of course, food. They could, instead of buying beds, chairs, table, cabinets, etc., - they could make these out of rough lumber, all the above mentioned for sale by an old-timer who had already established a store and supply house. And they could make mattresses out of pine straw. They could, maybe, but would they?

But there was an alternative. They could apply for the homestead and just hold it as an investment to sell years later. All they'd have to do was just live on it for a year. They, not surprisingly, elected the latter alternative, unanimously. They took with them on bicycles their homestead assignment paper, a few small carpentry tools, extra clothing and as much canned food as they could, all in baskets attached to handle bars. They had money enough to buy lumber, screens, tools, etc., and they built a shack, with the advice and help of the "Old Timer." Now two overwhelming obstacles loomed before them. They had to have food for a whole year; and could they really bear to stay there 365 days? Jim came up with an idea to solve both obstacles at once. They had already got acquainted with Mr. E. L. Brady, Miami's leading grocer, and Jim had worked for him for a while before he decided on the homestead. He'd ask Mr. Brady to give them a job to earn money for food, and also ask to let them both work alternate weeks to relieve the loneliness, boredom and inconveniences. Mr. Brady agreed. Jim worked the first week, having planned with Watt that they'd both leave at the same time after breakfast on Sunday on bicycles. When they met half-way each would inform the other of the situation ahead of him, what work was to be done and how to do it. This worked very well, or perhaps I should just say it worked, for two months.

Now the "Old Timers" store and supply house also served as a gathering place for homesteaders within two or three miles radius. Any time they wanted fellowship they could ride or walk the sand trails to the store, usually in the evening, build a bonfire surrounded by smoke screen fires against mosquitoes, swap stories, play cards, and drink drams. One evening Watt decided to walk to the store. When he was a few hundred yards from his planned destination, he became aware that he was being followed by a wild beast. He ran the rest of the way as fast as he could and just as he got within range of the light from the bonfire, he heard a growl and something big ran off into the bushes. The "Old Timer" said it was a panther, so all the men spent the night around that fire, sleeping on the ground and taking turns tending the fire, for the panther would not come near fire. Watt immediately lost all interest in the homestead, which interest had already undergone considerable deterioration. When he met Jim Sunday they both went to the "Old Timer," accepted what he would pay them for their meager possessions, returned to Miami in time for supper and a day or two later returned their paper to the land office.

(the rev.) wallace theodore jones

april 3, 1899-August 19, 1980

In the final months of 1904, a telephone company was organized, and the first city directory was published. At that time, there were 144 telephones, 16 of them in nearby communities from Hallandale to Cutler, and Uncle Boss had one! Possibly because the city wanted the directory of "The Magic City," to be of an impressive size, the book boasted lists of everything from the entire memberships of social organizations to everything anyone could possibly want to know about Florida's game laws. Uncle Boss was listed as a Clerk and as a Free and Accepted Mason.

So many Clopton relatives spent their retirement and declining years with Cuyler and Petrona Clopton (In Putnam County, Eatonton, Georgia). Uncle Boss was a wiry, almost diminutive, gentleman, and he, too lived with them during his last years. A number of years before his death he was afflicted with glaucoma. At least that is what it seems to me to be in retrospect. As his vision became dimmer and dimmer, everybody just attributed the condition to old age. There was no ophthalmologist in the county.

To enable Uncle Boss to get some exercise, Cuyler, his nephew, strung a rope from the front porch out to the mailbox at the road. I remember seeing Uncle Boss do his daily exercise by holding on to that rope and walking down to the mailbox and back. One day when he got close to the mailbox, he heard the snorting of a bull close by, which, of course, he could not see. Immediately he changed hands on the rope and scurried back up to the porch. Everybody in the family got a great kick out of that antic.

word was received here wednesday of the death of james b. clopton, 79, a miami pioneer, in eatonton, ga. mr. clopton came to miami at the time of the Spanish-American war, at which time he contracted yellow fever. he was a member of the miami pioneers and operated miami's first grocery store west of the bridge on flagler street. burial will be in the eatonton churchyard.

the miami herald 1956

Contributed by :

Suellen Clopton bblanton@fast.net
Henry King Stanford, Ph.D.,
and Isabel Lancaster (Clopton) Steiner