Allen Andrews

This week, News-Press storyteller Amy Bennett Williams brings us the story of one man and his enduring impact on Southwest Florida. Allen Andrews became a leader in the communal utopia envisioned and established in Estero known as the Koreshan Unity. He helped run the group’s publishing house and published their newspaper, “The American Eagle.” He was also responsible for the site’s beautiful gardens, some of which are still maintained today at the Koreshan State Historic Site. Perhaps his most lasting impact, though, involved a well-intentioned effort to convert swampland through the introduction of a certain plant species native to Australia.