Kirk Munroe
Expedition members visited with author Kirk Munroe at Cocoanut Grove. His cottage was about a half mile south of the Peacocks' hotel. They did not meet Munroe's wife, Mary Munroe, because she was ill with malaria. Munroe gave them a canoe chart of the coast from Lake Worth to Biscayne Bay. Munroe was not pleased to learn of the Expedition, probably because he knew it would lead to development of South Florida and efforts to drain the Everglades. The texts also mention that Munroe was the author of "In the Everglades," a story in the March issue of Harper's Young People. This is probably a reference to Munroe's story, "Canoemates: A Story of the Everglades," which appeared in serial form beginning with the March 1, 1892 issue of Harper's Young People. It is a story about boys who travel through South Florida and the Everglades in the late 1800s. The story was later published as a volume by Harper & Brothers entitled Canoemates: A Story of the Florida Reef and Everglades.
Munroe began his career as a writer in 1876 working as a reporter for the New York Sun. He was the first editor of Harper's Young People in 1879-1881. An avid outdoorsman, he helped found both the American Canoe Association and the League of American Wheelmen (later the League of American Bicyclists) in 1880. He was commodore of New York Canoe Club from 1879 to 1884. He married Mary Barr in 1883 and they settled in Cocoanut Grove in 1886. He was a co-founder of the Biscayne Bay Yacht Club along with Ralph Munroe, and he helped found a library and school in Cocoanut Grove. Munroe continued to author stories and edit for Harper & Brothers and other publications, and his first book Wakulla was published in 1886. Munroe was a conservationist and became a leading member of the Florida Audubon Society.
- Birth: September 15, 1850, Wisconsin
- Death: June 16, 1930, Miami, Florida
Name Variations:
Credits:
- Photo, Group on the steps of Kirk Munroe and Mary Barr Munroe's house in Coconut Grove, circa 1886-1890, State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory (Kirk Munroe is on the front row, seated on the left; Mary Barr Munroe is on the back row, with her face turned; Ralph Munroe is on the middle row, beside the Seminole man)
- Photo, Kirk Munroe's House, Ralph M. Munroe Family Papers, University of Miami Libraries Special Collections
Sources:
- Canoemates: A Story of the Florida Reef and Everglades, by Kirk Munroe, 1892
- Kirk Munroe Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
- "Kirk Munroe," Wikipedia.org
- "A Lost 'Psyche': Kirk Munroe's Log of a 1,600 Mile Canoe Cruise in Florida Waters, 1881-1882," edited By Irving A. Leonard, Tequesta, 1968
References in the Texts:
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For other topics referenced in the Expedition texts, please refer to the Index to Subjects and Names.
1892 Everglades Exploration Expedition : Three Digital Texts, 2015