17
eration in Fort Pierce, build a slaughterhouse and open the Raulerson
Grocery Co. in downtown.
K.B., a state legislator, is influential in the establishment of Fort
Pierce as a city in 1901 and the creation of St. Lucie County in
1905 and serves as one of the first county commissioners. When he
dies in 1913, younger brother Frank comes into his own.
He establishes the Raulerson Cattle Co., builds ice houses in Fort
Pierce and Miami and becomes a St. Lucie County commissioner
in 1919. In the early 1920s, he builds the landmark Raulerson
Building in downtown and an impressive Mediterranean revival
home on Orange Avenue. In 1923, in the days of the open range of
cattle-grazing, he begins buying parcels of land that would become
the 23,000-acre Cow Creek Ranch on the St. Lucie/Okeechobee
county line.
He wins election to the state Senate in 1931 but in 1935 resigns
and returns to his position on the Livestock Sanitary Board, where
he has more influence and sees the demise of the open range coming.
By the time legislators in 1949 enact a law requiring livestock to be
fenced in, Raulerson has acquired two other ranches the size of Cow
Creek as well as a smaller ranch in Fellsmere.
His rise is not without tragedy. In 1938, his only child, Alfred, is
killed in a boating accident. Alfred’s only child is 8-year-old Jo Ann,
whom Frank and wife, Annie Louise, wrest from her mother, arguing
that they have the better means to raise Jo Ann.
The death of Jo Ann’s father and separation from her mother steel
her emotions, allowing her to endure anything without complaint.
She is raised a child of privilege, influenced by her grandfather’s
desires for her to become a cattlewoman capable of taking over
his empire while at the same time adhering to her grandmother’s
Victorian view that women have both certain responsibilities and a
limited and deferential role in a man’s world.
Enter T.L. “Tommy’’ Sloan, a clothing salesman at I.M. Waters
men’s store in downtown. Jo Ann and Tommy meet at the store
and fall in love, though Tommy is from a modest background. They
marry in 1952. She’s 21 and he’s 19.
They have their first daughter, Kathy, in 1953 while Tommy is
away in the Army. When Frank Raulerson dies in 1954, he leaves
Cow Creek Ranch and his entire estate, worth at least $5 million in
today’s dollars, to Jo Ann with the stipulation that the estate should
be overseen by three trustees until past Jo Ann’s 30th birthday.
Tommy and Jo Ann also have their second daughter, Debra, in
1954. After Tommy is discharged from the Army, he learns the
ropes of running the ranch and raising cattle.
Despite an awkward beginning, he earns the respect of fellow
ranchers, becoming president of the St. Lucie Cattlemen’s Association
in 1958 and later developing an automated system for dipping >>
The landmark Raulerson Building was built by Frank Raulerson in 1924 and designed by William Hatcher.
Frank Raulerson founded Cow Creek
Ranch about 1923, first buying a
small section of land to run cattle
during the days of the open range.
K.B. Raulerson arrived in Fort Pierce
in 1896. A former state legislator, he
was influential in the establishment
of Fort Pierce as a city. His brother,
Frank, joined him in 1907.