Indian River oranges, one of Florida's most outstanding products, were developed in the 19th century by Douglas Dummett. The Dummett family immigrated from the Barbados in 1807, and by 1825 Thomas Dummett had acquired sugar plantations on the east coast of Florida. His son Douglas, born in 1806, established his plantation in this part of Merritt Island and began to grow oranges. He used a new grafting technique later widely adopted in Florida, grafting buds from sweet orange trees onto his sour orange trees. This top-grafting method, so called because budding began several feet above ground, produced frost-resistant trees. Unlike many coastal planters, Dummett did not abandon his property during the Second Seminole War from 1835 to 1842. He served as captain in the Mosquito Roarers, a Florida Militia company formed to protect property in this area from Indian raids. Dummett continued to cultivate what were regarded as East Florida's most valuable orange groves until his death in 1873, and he also held elective and appointive political offices. The Dummett groves were damaged beyond recovery in the 1893 hurricane and the freeze of 1894-95, and the property became part of Kennedy Space Center in 1963.