In 1884, Reverend Elbridge Gale retired as professor of Horticulture, Kansas State Agricultural College, Manhattan, Kansas, to the west shore of the lake named Lake Worth. His wife, Elizabeth, stayed behind in the family home at McPherson while their daughter, Hattie, attended her father’s college. Their other daughter, Ella M. Kedzie, was already married. Their son, George, and his family followed Elbridge to Florida, arriving in February 1885. Hattie was graduated in 1890 and she and her mother joined the family in Florida. Hattie’s fiancé, Will Sanders, came too, and he and Hattie were married by her father (see the Will Sanders story).
Elbridge homesteaded 160 acres in present day Northwood Hills. He experimented with producing hybrid mangoes, crossing the native variety with imported seeds, and produced the popular Haden mango. He named his place Mangonia, which gradually became the name of the whole section of town.
Elbridge served one term as school superintendent of Dade County, which at that time encompassed all the land between the St. Lucie Inlet and Biscayne Bay. He was the first president of the Lake Worth Pioneers’ Association. He was also the first president of the Christian Union, the first religious non-sectarian league on the lake, which met in the Mangonia school.
Elizabeth and Elbridge Gale were both natives of New Hampshire. She died in 1893, Elbridge died 4 November 1907, and they are both buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, West Palm Beach.
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