Pioneering Polk County Citrus with Dr. Canter Brown, Jr.

Discover how citrus developed into a premier commodity in Polk County – a top producer for the State’s citrus industry.

Canter Brown Jr. is an historian, professor and author. He was born in Fort Meade, Florida, and earned his degrees at Florida State University. He taught at Florida A&M University and has worked at Fort Valley State University in Fort Valley, Georgia. He is the author or co-author of thirteen books about Florida and southern United States history. These include the book, Florida’s Peace River Frontier, which earned him the Florida Historical Society’s Rembert W. Patrick Award, and the book Ossian Bingley Hart: Florida’s Loyalist Reconstruction Governor, which won the Certificate of Commendation of the American Association of State and Local History, about Ossian B. Hart, one of Florida’s Reconstruction era governors.

In addition to Florida’s Peace River Frontier, Mr. Brown has also written two other books specific to Polk County. At the request of the Polk County Historical Association, he prepared the county’s prized two-volume history that covers early times to 2000: In the Midst of All That Makes Life Worth Living: Polk County to 1940 and None Could Have Richer Memories: Polk County Since 1940. He has also written extensively about his hometown in the book, Fort Meade, 1849-1900. His most recent work, issued in 2019 by the University of Alabama Press, was Henry Plant: Gilded Age Dreams for Florida and a New South.

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