A Land Remembered

A Land Remembered is a best-selling novel written by author Patrick D. Smith, and published in 1984 by Pineapple Press. It is historical fiction set in pioneer Florida. The story covers over a century of Florida history from 1858 to 1968.

It is available in both hardcover and trade paperback editions. There is also a two-volume edition for children, which is used in many Florida schools.

A Land Remembered focuses on the fictional story of the MacIveys, who migrated from Georgia into Florida in the mid-19th century. After settling, this family struggles to survive in the harsh environment. First they scratch a living from the land and then learn to round up wild cattle and drive them to Punta Rassa to ship to Cuba. Over three generations, they amass more holdings and money, and move further from their connection to the native, untamed land.

Patrick D. Smith, a multiple award-winning author, was born in Mendenhall, Mississippi, and later moved to Florida in 1966. A Land Remembered is his sixth published novel, following The River Is Home, The Beginning, Forever Island, Allapattah and Angel City.

Tobias

The first grown main character. He became rich from cattle herding and later an orange grove. He gets malaria from an attack of several hundred thousand 'skeeters', but is healed (temporarily) by Miami Billie, an Indian medicine man. Died near the end of Zech's piece of the book when he became too weak from the cold to fight his malaria when he tried to save orange trees from a freeze. Is the father of Zech.

Emma

Tobias's wife. Her main occupation is cooking for all the men with the help of Pearlie Mae and Glenda. She never complains. Everybody loves her. She dies from a heart attack a few years before Tobias does.

Zech
The second generation's main character. He lived a somewhat lonely life away from other children and had two dogs, Nip and Tuck who were killed, and a Marsh Tackie horse named Ishmael. He marries Glenda and has the son Solomon, called Sol. He has an affair with an Indian woman named Tawanda, which results in another son, Toby Cypress. Zech is an experienced gunman and horse rider and kills several bandits. When getting revenge his foot is shot and he is weaker till his death in a horse-riding accident and drowns.

Glenda
Zech's wife. She seems more of a tomboy in her adulthood and gives birth to two children throughout her life, one of which ends in a miscarriage. Sadly she dies near the end of Zech's life when she's impaled by a bull. Zech shoots the bull out of rage.