Zora Neale Hurston was an African-American novelist, short story writer, folklorist, and anthropologist. When John Hurston migrated to Florida in 1892 or 1893, he first settled in Sanford and became the pastor at Zion Hope Baptist Church. Sanford, located ten miles north of Eatonville, had a large African–American community in the early 1900’s. Zora Neale Hurston lived in the community on two occasions: in 1912, when she lived with her brother Dick for a short period of time and in 1933 when she moved to a boarding house in July to write Jonah’s Gourd Vine. She finished the book in seven weeks and was evicted from her room on the day the book was accepted for publication in early October.