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Dr. Junius E. Dovell (1911-1986)
Dr. Junius E. Dovell was an important contributor to the understanding of the history of the Everglades. In 1947, the 36-year-old historian compiled three hundred source materials describing the Everglades area from which had had 1,379 footnotes in his PhD thesis. Dovell has written a large number of articles, book reviews and press reports on the history and government of Florida and is referenced within the Florida Historical Quarterly archives. His work continues to be important, as acknowledged by journalist Michael Grunwald, author of the book "The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise" that was published in 2006.
Dovell was interested in Florida's history since his childhood, a fascination shared by his parents. His mother, Alma Amelia Chapman, came to Orlando in 1884 at the age of 12 from Newberry, South Carolina. His father, Milton Obidiah Dovell, settled in Orlando in 1886 from the town of Luray in the Old Dominion of Virginia.
Dovell was educated in Orlando, Florida through ninth grade, at which point he enrolled at the Bailey Military Institute in Greenwood, South Carolina. He graduated in 1929 with high honors and as champion high school debater of South Carolina, already possessing presentation and factual detail skills that are well evident in his later writing. He attended Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio from 1929 to 1931, the University of Florida in 1931, and he graduated with a bachelors degree and a masters degree from John B. Stetson University in 1933 and 1934 respectively.
From 1934 to 1939, Dovell taught in the public schools of Orlando, Florida, and in 1936, he married Lois Adrienne Daane at the edge of Lake Okeechobee. Lois's father, Dr. Adrian Daane, died that same year. At the time, Daane was director of the University of Florida Experiment Station at Belle Glade.
From 1938 to 1939, Dovell attended the University of North Carolina for graduate school. He returned to the Orlando schools for another year in 1940, but in 1941 he returned to continue graduate work at Chapel Hill. In 1942, he accepted an interim appointment as professor of history at Flora Macdonald College in Red Springs, North Carolina.
In 1942, he was appointed a lieutenant (junior grade) in the United States Naval Reserve, and he served with distinction in active duty until 1945, achieving the rank of lieutenant commander. In 1946, Dovell returned to graduate school and was made an instructor in social sciences at the University of North Carolina, from which he received Ph.D. in 1947.
In June 1946, Dovell again returned to his native state and accepted a position as assistant professor of history and political science at the University of Florida. Dr. Dovell retired in 1967.
The children of Dr. and Mrs. Dovell are Alma Elizabeth, Adrian Junius, Mildred Beth and Catherine Jean.
Source material for this information: "Biographical Sketch of Dr. J. E. Dovell", Florida's Business, May 1955
Read Michael Grunwald's account of the significance of Junius Dovell's historical work regarding the Everglades...
Without a doubt, 1947 was the most important year in the history of the Everglades. Everglades National Park was established that year, ensuring federal protection for the marsh, but two hurricanes overwhelmed South Florida that year, ensuring the development of a federal flood-control project that has ravaged the marsh. That was also the year that a veteran newspaper reporter named Marjory Stoneman Douglas introduced the marsh to the world in her book "The Everglades: River of Grass," declaring in her first sentence that 'there are no other Everglades in the world.'
Junius Elmore Dovell also wrote about the Everglades in 1947, completing a dissertation titled "A History of the Everglades of Florida" for his doctorate at the University of North Carolina. It was never published, and it never had a sliver of the impact of River of Grass. Dovell was not a lyrical writer, and he didn't seem to grasp the beauty of the Everglades. He didn't even try to gush about its 'vast glittering openness' or 'the miracle of the light,' as Douglas did in her first page. He stuck to the facts.
And I, for one, am glad he did. River of Grass was also supposed to be a history of the Everglades, but Douglas didn't include any footnotes, and she took more than a few liberties with the facts for the sake of her story. Dovell did not take any liberties, and he documented where he uncovered every fact; when I wrote my own Everglades history, "The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise," I found Dovell's work more useful. His meticulous accounts of the Everglades sugar industry, the Everglades development industry, and the politics of the Everglades were indispensable to my research. They will be indispensable to future historians as well.
I don't want to make Dovell sound like an automaton; he had a genuine passion for Florida history. And I don't want to make Douglas sound like a dilettante; she was a reporter at heart, and picked the brains of some of the best Everglades geologists, biologists and historians. But it's fitting that Douglas became a famous Everglades activist, crusading for the ecosystem she loved, while Dovell became a well-respected Florida historian, documenting the stories of his state. There is a place for passion, and there is a place for objectivity. In 1947, the Everglades was the place that got both.
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The Everglades Before Reclamation
The Everglades Before Reclamation by J. E. Dovell, THE FLORIDA HISTORICAL QUARTERLY, Volume XXVI July 1947 Number 1 (Pages 1 - 43) (permission to post this article was granted by the Florida Historical Society). The Florida Historical Quarterly (ISSN 0015-4113) is published by the Florida Historical Society, Cocoa, Florida, in cooperation with the Department of History, University of Central Florida, Orlando.
This article is derived from Dr. Dovell's thesis "A History of the Everglades of Florida".
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The Everglades, a Florida Frontier
Dovell, Junius E.: The Everglades, a Florida Frontier, Agricultural history: Volume 22, Number 3 (Pages 187-197) Agricultural History Society, Fargo, N.D. : July, 1948 (available from the Albert R. Mann Library, Cornell University website)
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J.E. Dovell's review of The Everglades: River of Grass
The Florida Historical Quarterly
Volume XXVI January 1948 Number 3
Book Review (Pages 275 - 278)
http://fulltext6.fcla.edu/DLData/CF/FullText/fhq_26_3.txt
The Everglades: River of Grass.
By Marjory Stoneman Douglas
(New York : Rhinehart and Company, 1947. pp. 406.)
J.E. Dovell's review:
The publication of Mrs. Douglas's volume on the Everglades marks the third study of Florida's natural waterways in the Rivers of America series. With the previously published books on the Suwanee and the St. Johns, the Everglades volume ranks Florida with Virginia as another state to be thrice honored...[read more]
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| Jud and Lois Dovell on their wedding day, June 4, 1936, along with Lois' sister, Beth, and Gordon Watson. [larger image] |
Lois and Jud Dovell with daughter Alma circa 1941. [larger image] |
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| Jud Dovell (above, left) in the Navy during WWII. He was the signals officer on a hospital ship in the South Pacific. [larger image] |
Adrian, Catherine, Lois, Jud (back row) and Beth Dovell (front) circa 1956. [larger image] |
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Thanks to Adrian Dovell, Robert Mooney, Tracy Enright, Joel VanArman, Mark Finn, and Jay Goodwin for volunteering their time to help make this memorial available.
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