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| Martha Ida Strickland Sapp 1920's |
The year was 1900. A new century had arrived, but one couldn't tell in rural Taylor County Florida. Everything seemed the same. The men either farmed their land, or they worked for a local timber company. The sandy, swampy land wasn't suitable for much farming, but there was timber galore. As the timber was cut down, pines were either replanted, or the land was cleared for homesteading and farming. This was the process that had been going on for the last half century.
By the mid 1800's, most of the local Native Americans had been driven off of their land in North Florida. This opened up the land for settlement. The United States government was issuing land patents to settlers that could live on and improve their land for a few years. Once this was proved, the land would belong to the settler, free and clear.
Martha Ida Strickland's grandfather, Savage Strickland, was one of these settlers. He officially received his land patent in June of 1859. Savage's son, George Newton Strickland, followed in his father's footsteps and applied for a land patent southwest of the small town of Salem, in Taylor County. The land was rugged, infested with snakes, gators, and mosquitoes. Life was not easy, but as long as there was God, family, and friends; one could be happy and content.
Just a year into the 20th century, tragedy would strike the Strickland's household. At the age of 52, George Newton Strickland passed. He would never see the land, that he had been working on for years, in his name. Two years later, a patent was issued to Nancy, George's widow. The land was officially the Strickland's.
Adjacent to the Strickland's land was a young man named Mathew Sapp. He, too, was trying to receive his own patent. Mathew's family had moved to nearby Lafayette County from Georgia. He and two of his brothers, Irvin and "Tip," had applied for land patents in Taylor County in the area of Salem. Their other brother, Simeon, stayed behind in Lafayette County where he had already proved his land.
Less than two months after the Strickland's received their patent, Mathew and Ida applied for their marriage license. She was 23 and he was 30. Their daughter, Nancy Lorena Sapp, was born the following year.
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| Believed to be Mathew Sapp, Martha Ida Strickland Sapp and baby Nancy Lorena Sapp (1904) |
Life for the Sapp family seemed to be going well. Mathew was farming near his brothers, and Ida had her family nearby. Ida's sister, Georgia, was living with the Sapp's; helping Ida around the house. Ida's nephew, William Russell, was living with them, as well. William was helping Mathew on the farm. In 1909, Ida gave birth to their second child, Lucy Henrietta Sapp; named after her grandmother, Lucy Ann Ammons Sapp.
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| William Russell |
Ida and Mathew would take the girls into their home and raise them as their own. Both girls were roughly the same age as their own daughters. Two months after the Russell girls moved in, a vibrant boy would join the family. Mathew Fletcher Sapp was born on the 11th of July, 1916.
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| Mathew Fletcher Sapp |
Irvin Sapp was, by the standards of the day, living comfortably financially. He had acquired a fair share of land in the Salem area of Taylor County. He also had some stocks and bonds at the time of his death. Since he had never married, Irvin's estate was left to the heirs of his brother's. Since Simeon had passed not long after Irvin, Simeon's share of the inheritance went to his 4 year old son, S.E. Sapp.
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| Ida, Lucy, Annie, and Fletcher |
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| Leon Green and Annie Russell |
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| Lucy Sapp and Annie Russell |
Annie's cousin, Lucy Sapp, married Tom Clyatt Hudson from nearby Chiefland in Levy County on the 29th of December 1927. She would remain in Salem for the rest of her long life raising four children of her own and passing away in 2001.
Her mother, Ida Strickland Sapp, joined her husband's arms in heaven on the 25th of Jun 1929. Young Mathew Fletcher Sapp was just 13 years old and he had lost both of his parents. He was taken in by his sister, Nancy Lorena Sapp Parker, and raised in Salem. He would go on to enlist in the Army at the dawn of World War II and serve his country proudly. He would proceed to have 4 children between two marriages and would pass away in 1991.
Life in the Taylor County scrub was never easy for the Strickland's and Sapp's, but they made do with what they had. They had their faith and they had each other. They persevered even through hardships and deaths. Though their descendants are dispersed across the country, their roots remain between the palmettos and pines of Salem, Taylor County Florida.
