My great grandfather, Edward Vose (E.V.) Babcock and his brothers founded Babcock Lumber Co. in 1887. It quickly became one of the leading lumber companies in the United States. My family timbered from upstate New York and later moved the headquarters to Pittsburgh, PA. Under the leadership of three generations, the company expanded through the mid-1900’s buying coal mines, coke mines, and railroads as it purchased vast tracts of land along the eastern seaboard.
In 1914, my family purchased 156,000 acres of South Florida land, 90,000 comprised our family ranch, and 65,000 was transferred to the State of Florida. The family stewarded this land, timbering Florida slash pine, matt logging sustainably cypress, mining aggregate, ranching 5,000 head of Brangus in a calving operation, farming watermelon, and managing hunting leases, a quarter horse farm, ecotourism, and a sod farm on the ranch.