Biography of James Franklin Brantley, Lake Wales, Polk County, FL

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Transcribed from:  The History of Florida:  Past & Present, The Lewis Publishing Co., Vol. 
II, page 323, 1923.

BRANTLEY, JAMES FRANKLIN, one of the leading merchants and progressive citizens of the fine 
little City of Lake Wales, Polk County, was born in Mercer County, Missouri, on the 26th 
of January, 1879, and is a son of WILLIAM and CATHERINE (PATTERSON) BRANTLEY.  Mr. BRANTLEY 
was reared to the sturdy discipline of the home farm and acquired his early education in 
the public schools of his native county.  For nineteen years he conducted a general store 
at Newtown, Sullivan County, Missouri, and in 1918 he came with his family to Florida and 
established his residence at Lake Wales, where he forthwith made investment in thirty-three 
city lots, besides acquiring an orange grove of twenty-five acres in the immediate vicinity.  
He has also been successfully engaged in the grocery business, he having purchased the grocery 
and feed store of L. L. BARNES within a short time after coming to Lake Wales and having 
developed the business to one of substantial and representative order.  Mr. BRANTLEY's 
progressiveness may be somewhat of a family characteristic, and in support of this view it
may be stated that he is a first cousin of W. F. HOLT, who has been one of the foremost in 
promoting the development of the wonderful Imperial Valley in California, in which connection 
he has been associated with the Harrimans, of railroad fame.

Mr. BRANTLEY is a loyal and valued member of the Lake Wales Board of Trade, and he and his 
wife are influential members of the Christian Church in their home city, of which he is 
serving as a deacon.  Mrs. BRANTLEY is a leader in social and cultural circles and in 1922 
is president of the Lake Wales Music Club.

On the 26th of August, 1903, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. BRANTLEY and Miss BERTHA 
HICKS, who likewise was born in Mercer County, Missouri, but who was about one year old at 
the time of the family removal to Lincoln, Nebraska, in which fair capital city she was 
reared and educated.  Mrs. BRANTLEY is a daughter of B. H. and MELVINA MAY (KING) HICKS, 
the former of whom was born in Missouri and the latter in Indiana.  Mr. and Mrs. BRANTLEY 
have three children, MILDRED, KATHERINE and MARION.  Miss MILDRED BRANTLEY has the unique 
distinction of being proclaimed the most beautiful girl in the State of Florida, this honor 
having come to her by the decision of the judges selected in connection with the contest 
conducted by the Tampa Times.  The contest was closed July 22, 1922, and among 400 photographs 
entered in the competition, that of Miss BRANTLEY was elected for the highest honors, and 
she received also a cash prize of $500.  Her picture was published in daily and weekly papers 
throughout the state, as well as in leading magazines of the country, and she has been 
tendered flattering offers to appear in moving pictures.  The beauty of Miss MILDRED is 
expressed quite fully in her personal characteristics as in her facial charm, and in all 
respects she well merit's the splendid tribute that has come to her.  She was born at Newtown, 
Missouri, August 13, 1904, is a high-school graduate, and is a talented pianist and violinist.  
At the time of this writing, in the fall of 1922, Miss BRANTLEY is a student in the Florida 
State College for Women at Tallahassee, where she is specializing in music.