The first generation of MacIveys consisted of the father and husband, Tobias, the mother and wife, Emma, and their young son, Zech. The family had decided to escape the pressures of the Civil War in their native Georgia, and move to the scrub of Northern Florida. The MacIveys experience many troubles and learn many new things during their stay in the scrub, such as meeting Indians, that will turn out to influence their life greatly. Other experiences included Tobias being recruited by Marshall Adler to drive cattle to the confederate troops and also being recruited to chop trees to build walls of defense for the confederate forces. During the excursion to chop down trees, confederate deserters raided Emma and Zech and burned down their house. Tobias and Emma made the decision that the war was getting to clo

se to the scrub, and that moving South would be a good idea. The MacIvey clan packed up their wagon and headed south along the St. John's and Kissimmee rivers and settled in a hammock along the Kissimmee river.

In Kissimmee is where Tobias begins his empire that turns the family into one of the wealthiest families in Florida. In the swamps of Florida, wild cows live and Tobias tries his best to capture these cows and make a drive, but without horses and dogs, Tobias makes little headway in his project. In the woods one day, Skillet, a freed slave, was found. Skillet agreed to stay on with the MacIveys and help them start their empire. Dogs and a marshtackie were given to the MacIveys by their Indian friends they helped in the scrub. The MacIveys now popped cows out of the swamp and their first drive to Punta Rassa ended in a disaster with all the cows being lost to a great flood. The determined MacIveys never looked back and gathered another heard and the whole clan drove the cows to Punta Rassa. In Punta Rassa, the cows were sold for fifteen dollars a head and the MacIvey empire begins. Also on this first trip, Hendry, the cattle buyer, bets a 150 acres of land that Ishmael, Zech's marshtackie, can't beat his bay horse. Ishmael beats him and the MacIveys got the deed.

The people of nineteenth century Florida were not by any means advanced, yet incredibly diverse. Crackers, Seminoles, and easterners all shared the land and what it had to offer, each group making a living. Life in the center of the state was hard and coast life had more amenities. People in Cracker country feared fires and floods, and coast people feared hurricanes, but would stand up to the weather to live in their tropical paradise.

The setting the author, Smith, portrays is unbelievably accurate. Smith talks of many things that specifically include the description of the type of people that settled around the state, the landscape of the vast inner region of Florida, the tropical paradise of nineteenth century Miami, and the landscape of the Great Cypress Swamp. Smith wrote of how the coasts were being filled up with the Yankees, and Don Groom said, " All the Yankees congregate on the seacoasts. You get two miles inland and you're in deep Cracker country. Alligator hunters. Cattle Ranchers. Seminoles." The inner part of the state is portrayed as a grassy plain with palmetto clumps dotting the landscape, and the

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1631
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)