"One night, the family heard hogs squealing, and my grandfather took a lantern out to see what was happening. There was a big, black bear on top of a hog and eating it – alive.

"My youngest uncle, Connie Raulerson, was the first white man born here. When he was a little toddler, my grandmother put a bell on him. The panthers were so plentiful they would run right through the yard. He had a habit of running out of the yard. So, she put a bell on him to keep up with him and to sort of scare the panthers away."

Peter Raulerson and his sons had gone into the cattle business in a big way. The cattle they had were known as "scrub" cattle. These were cattle that roamed freely all through Florida and had to be rounded up and branded. They would then be driven cross-state to the West Cost where there was a market for their sale to Cuba. The Raulerson family had their scrapes with the cattle rustlers in those days. Marie recalls a story about one of those occasions. "I won’t mention any names, but I remember my grandmother and Aunt Faith (Raulerson Merserve) telling me about this. One night, way in the middle of the night, they heard the cattle howling and they knew something was wrong.

"My grandfather got Uncle Lewis, and several of the men - they had a good idea of what was happening - and they went out to where the cattle were. My grandmother was so frightened that my grandfather would shoot someone. But, they got away. This sort of thing happened all the time.

"This man, who was behind the rustling, wanted everything around here. He was quite jealous of my grandfather and the cattle he had. He wanted them too. He hired a man to kill my grandfather. "They were camped out in the woods and this man (the hired killer) was in the camp. Later on, he told my grandfather what had happened. My grandfather told him, "We knew what you were there for and every eye was on you." "The man told my grandfather, "You have treated me so well. I just could not do it."