Ralph M. Munroe
Commodore Ralph Middleton Munroe grew up in New York and became a designer of yachts. In 1874 he met William Brickell, who told Munroe about Biscayne Bay, and three years later Munroe visited for the first time. In 1881-1882, Munroe brought his wife Eva (Hewitt) Munroe hoping the environment would help her tuberculosis but she passed away in 1882. Over the next four years, Munroe visited South Florida frequently in the summers, spending time with Charles and Isabella Peacock. He helped the Peacocks establish the Bay View House in Cocoanut Grove, the first hotel on the Bay, which later was renamed the Peacock Inn. In 1886 he purchased land on the Bay and moved to Florida. In 1887 he built a boathouse with living quarters on the Bay and he continued designing yachts and also began to salvage shipwrecks. Munroe founded the Biscayne Bay Yacht Club in 1887, and he served as the Commodore of the club for 22 years. In 1890 he started the Biscayne Manufacturing Company and set up a factory for canning fruits and processing sisal hemp. In 1891 he began construction of his house "The Barnacle," which is now the Barnacle Historic State Park. Munroe published The Commodore's Story in 1930.
The Expedition party visited with Munroe and toured his sisal hemp factory, which was about a quarter of a mile south of the Peacocks' hotel in Cocoanut Grove. Munroe showed them hemp samples, and he loaned them a fiber sample. He showed them he used a Van Buren Tropical Fiber Machine, and explained that Charles Richards Dodge of the U.S. Department of Agriculture made his experiments there. He also showed them his saw and grist mill and his dessicated coconuts, which are coconuts that have been shredded and dried.
- Birth: April 3, 1851, New York, New York
- Death: August 20, 1933
Name Variations:
- Commodore Munroe
- Ralph M. Monroe
- Mr. Monroe
Credits:
Sources:
- The Forgotten Frontier: Florida Through the Lens of Ralph Middleton Munroe, by Arva Moore Parks, 1977
- The Commodore's Story, by Ralph Middleton Munroe and Vincent Gilpin, 1930
- Ralph M. Munroe Family Papers, University of Miami Special Collections
- "The Commodore's Story: Early Miami History," An Exhibition of Photographs from the Ralph M. Munroe Family Papers, University of Miami Libraries Special Collections
- "Everglades Biographies: Ralph Middleton Munroe," by Gail Clement, Reclaiming the Everglades: South Florida's Natural History 1884 to 1934, Florida International University
- "Ralph Munroe," Wikipedia.org
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