Along Powell Road, about a mile past the railroad tracks, there is a sprawling and meticulously kept orange grove. A long driveway leads you past majestic oaks and along the western edge of the grove to a humble home. There I spoke to Lynn Endsley Bruce, granddaughter of A.B. and Adelia Endsley who purchased the property in 1916.
“There are no more Endsley’s left except me,” explained Lynn Endsley Bruce. The grove is still in her family just the same and her grandson, now in college, wishes to take over the property someday.
Lynn’s grandparents, Arthur Bade (A.B.) and Adelia Endsley, first moved from Birmingham Alabama to Fort Myers. Her grandmother was not happy in Fort Myers because she missed the mountains. While her grandfather was at the Florida State Fair, he happened to ask somebody at the Hernando County booth if they knew of anything for sale in the area to buy for his wife. “That’s how this place came about,” said Lynn.
The North part of the property was oranges, the south part was a barn and pasture. “They had any kind of field animal you would want,” stated Lynn.
The orange grove has been a family business since her grandparents established the grove. One harsh winter in the 1980’s, the whole grove froze out. Today in addition to the grove, they have 2 acres of novelty fruits. Shorty Young often sells their fruit at his roadside stand starting around Thanksgiving.
Lynn’s grandfather was a County Commissioner and State Representative (1933). The house they lived in had no electricity and no running water. A.B. played an instrumental role in getting the Withlacoochee Power Company to come into Brooksville.
She explained that back then, Powell Road was not the main road in the area. The main road came straight off the railroad tracks down Saturn Rd to the first bend and then it came straight to the east. “The house that sat here was a big two story wrap around porch which faced the west,” she said.
A.B. and Adelia had six children. There was a one room schoolhouse by the railroad tracks on Powell Road that the children attended. Lynn describes her eldest Uncle, Owen, as “absolutely brilliant.” He worked for a telegraph company which sent him to Tegucigalpa, Honduras to start up a system there in the middle of a banana grove. On his way there, the pilot flew right into the side of a mountain. Owen was killed, but the pilot walked away from the crash.
Her father Jack was the third child and the youngest son. Despite the circumstances of his brother’s death, Jack became an avid flyer. “My dad was a fascinating man. He was a self taught civil engineer. He helped engineer Weeki Wachee Springs, the underwater theater; He was one of the lead engineers to put in the Brooksville airbase… during the second World War. He was the first pilot from this county which is a story all its own,” said Lynn.
Jack and some colleagues were interested in flying airplanes. Jack was the only one with a pilot’s license. There was an airfield somewhere near Saxon Manor. The group undertook building their own airplane. They bought the pieces and scrounged around and built the plane. “And Dad flew it,” said Lynn. “I guess you could call it an experimental airplane…”
“Dad one time was flying and he came in and turned the airplane upside down. That was before my brother or I were born. Mom and Dad lived in a little apartment in very South Brooksville. He got out of the airplane and walked home to show Mother he was alright before they even realized what had happened! ”
For many years the small group of aeronautical adventurers flew that plane. When Lynn was a Senior in High School, Jack finally purchased his own plane.
During World War II, the military did not take him into any branch because they determined he would be more useful as a Civil Engineer. They sent him to Recife, Brazil for a year to help construct a secret airbase built beneath the jungle.
Lynn’s mother was equally interesting. She started the first Kindergarten in the county out of their home on Mondon Hill Road. Another longtime Brooksvillian, Frasier Mountain, recalls Lynn’s mother as a very respectable and sophisticated lady with the nickname of “Dutch.” He has always wondered how she got that nickname. His two children attended the Kindergarten.
When asked about her mother’s nickname, Lynn said that when her mother was a little girl, she would follow around her father and ask him questions. He would say that she sounded like a little Dutch girl when she spoke. Eventually he just called her Dutch and it stuck with her. Everyone in town knew her as Dutch Endsley.
Lynn explained that her mother never really liked flying, but when it came to seeing her grandchildren she would take advantage of it. At the time Lynn and her family lived in Orlando. Dutch and her friend Thelma Dawson would take the airplane to Orlando to pick up Lynn’s three young children and take them back to Brooksville for a visit. Thelma piloted the airplane and Dutch was always the navigator. Both women eventually became part of the Grasshopper Club, an organization for women in flight.
Lynn has lived at the orange grove with her husband Phillip Bruce since 1987. She grew up here in Brooksville, went to college at the University of Florida, where she and her husband met. After they were married, the couple moved to Orlando where her mother’s family is from. Her husband worked for Martin Marietta for nearly 30 years, a very stressful job, and said oneday ‘If I don’t get out of here it’s going to kill me.’
He retired and the couple moved to the orange grove on Powell Road. They have been here ever since. Referring to her husband Lynn stated, “He has maintained everything around here, probably up until six months ago and I finally talked him into hiring someone who at least mows the lawn and all the rest he does.”
“In fact [right now] he’s got the tractor out in the grove… doing something,” said Lynn.
Lynn Endsley Bruce has a wealth of stories to share about Brooksville and Hernando County. We look forward to publishing more of her fascinating accounts.