Woman Is Last Child Of Barefoot Mailmen

Q: Are any of the original barefoot mailmen still living?
A: They’d be pretty old; about 150. The 11 legendary mail carriers, who walked barefoot along the hard sand at the ocean’s edge from Palm Beach to Miami before roads and trains connected South Florida, operated between 1885 and 1893, In fact, the only surviving child of a mailman is believed to be Margaret Garnett Harris, who turns 94 this month.
Harris’ father, Andrew Garnett, came to the area in 1885. When James Edward Hamilton vanished on Oct. 11, 1887, swimming across the Hillsboro Inlet in Broward County after someone had apparently stolen his boat, Garnett took over the route for 1 1/2 years.
Margaret, who was in the first freshman class at Lake Worth High School in 1922, is a member of the Lake Worth Pioneer Association, which includes descendants of people who came to the area before Henry Flagler brought his railroad south in 1894. Her husband, Clyde E. Harris, was principal of Palm Beach High from 1948 to 1958 and later Palm Beach County’s first assistant superintendent of schools.
The couple moved in 1996 to Johnson City, Tenn., and Clyde Harris died Feb. 22, 2002 at 95.
In December 1989, Harris self-published a memoir of her colorful life in a magical frontier that is long gone. She’s now trying to get it reprinted for a new generation of readers.
Historical Society of Palm Beach County: 832-4164