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Photographed at life saving station on Atlantic Ocean beach, east of Lemon City.

The keeper, in vest, is Hannibal Dillingham Pierce. Charles W. Pierce, son, 4th from left.

Hannibal Dillingham Pierce was born 16 November 1834 at Readville, Maine. Married Margretta Louise Moore (born 11 November 1840) on 2 May 1857. Their son Charles William Pierce was born 16 July 1864. The family moved to Florida from Illinois in 1871. After spending a year in Jupiter, where Hannibal worked as assistant lighthouse keeper, they sailed to Lake Worth in 1873 and settled in Hypoluxo. In 1876, the U.S. Government built five houses of refuge along the South Florida coast to give aid to ship-wrecked sailors. Hannibal accepted the position as keeper of the Orange Grove (Delray Beach) House of Refuge and moved his family there in May 1876. After thirteen months Hannibal resigned his job as keeper of the House of Refuge and moved his family back to their home on Hypoluxo Island. H.D. Pierce was appointed keeper of Biscayne Bay House of Refuge in 1882 and moved the family once again, they stayed until early 1885 and then returned to Hypoluxo. Around 1887, Hannibal became postmaster of Hypoluxo, the starting place for the barefoot mailmen, and retained this post until his death in 1898. Margretta died in 1912. Their son Charles died in 1939 and his book "Pioneer Life in Southeast Florida" was published posthumously in 1970.