You get a glimpse of rough and tumble pioneer life in Davie when you view, “A Living History,” the Broward 100 mural by artist Andrew Reid at the Old Davie School.

A woman pioneer is seen casually feeding her chickens with a shotgun tucked under her arm. A wild cat watches from nearby.

Rather than create the woman from his imagination, Reid dipped into Davie’s actual past.

The woman is Blanche Collins Forman who moved to the Davie frontier from Illinois in 1910, her story is one of many featured at Old Davie School Historical Museum, where Reid did much of his research on Davie’s pioneer days.

Forman protected her chickens from Florida predators such as wild cats and alligator. One alligator made it all the way to her chicken coop.

“She became an excellent shot. She was a tough lady,” says Kim Weismantle, education director at the Old Davie School Historical Museum.

“And she probably ate the alligator and sold the skin. This was the frontier.”