The late Rev. Henry Sloan was life-long resident of the Basinger area. He watched it go from being a large bustling community, to dwindling down to nothing, to starting to come back again.

In 1988 at the age of 82, he recalled incidents from the past in both Basinger and Okeechobee. He related some events that most people would rather were not remember.

There was a shoot-out at the church (Basinger Baptist church). Two fellows fell out and one of them got a gun ad kept punching him (the other man) in the stomach with it. The other fellow didn’t have a gun. His wife went and got his gun and tried to give it to him, and he wouldn’t take it. So he just stood there and the man kept punching him in the stomach. He finally took the gun out of his wife’s hand and shot him and killed him. I don’t remember the names of the people, he said.

There was no law at that time, he said.

Kissimmee was the closest sheriff we had back then. If somebody killed someone, you had to ride on horseback to Kissimmee to get the sheriff, and he had to ride back here. By that time, the man would be out of the country, he aid.

He recalled another killing that occurred and because it was so hard to get the sheriff, a group of citizens held an inquest and they decided he had shot the other man in self defense. While Sloan could not remember the names, it appears this was an incident that was recorded by Kyle VanLandingham in his book, "History of Okeechobee County."

Shadrach Chandler’s general store was the commercial center of the Basinger community during the 1890’s. It was in this store that Croft Bass killed Archilbald Raulerson about 1893. Bass was foreman of the Lesley cattle interests and got into an argument with Raulerson. Bass drew his knife, stabbed and killed Raulerson, and then left the area. He as concealed at the Lesley home in Tampa for several weeks and then made his way to Texas and Colorado Springs. Shadrach Chandler, who was the only witness to the killing, died in 1898. Bass then returned to Florida and was acquitted on a plea of self defense.

Rev. Sloan recalled that as a boy he used to go by wagon to Okeechobee with his father over a dirt track where present-day Highway 98 is now located. He said it took the better part of the day to get there.

In Okeechobee, there was but one little store (Lewis Raulerson’s store). I went to that store in a wagon once, and I was surprised that it was so small when our stores (in Basinger) were so big, Sloan said.

Rev. Sloan’s first wife was Alice Thompson Sloan. The Thompson family as one of the early cattle families in Basinger and the young girl grew up learning the cattle business from her father.

My first wife brought the first Brahman cattle to this part of the country. She brought them on the train from Texas and unloaded them up on the river and drove them to her house over there.

Sloan pointed to a polished set of mounted, preserved horns, so perfect they looked almost artificial. That old cow must have been 30 years old when she died, he said.

After Aunt Merida Raulerson moved with her family from Basinger to the city of Okeechobee soon after the turn of the century, Alice Thompson Sloan took over the medical care in the community, according to her husband.

My wife was a nurse. She took care of this whole community. There was a lot of times we couldn’t get out to get a doctor. She was a trained nurse, but she as more than a nurse. She was nearly a doctor. Everyone used to call on her when they needed help, Rev. Sloan said.

My daddy as one of the old timers here. The Raulerson family was her and they had nine children and they are all raised out here in Basinger. The Campbell’s were old timers, he recalled.