​Contemporary historians describe my ancestor Morgan Bonaparte “Bone” Mizell as "an expert horseman and a crack shot with rifle and six-gun, lightning fast at roping and branding, and no four-legged brute was too big or too bad for him to tackle and master." If famed Western cowboy artist Frederic Remington didn't actually coin the title, he certainly perpetuated it by conferring it on Bone Mizell in 1895. The urbane Remington traveled from New York City to Florida that year to paint the scruffy-looking Mizell astride his horse. Remington called the painting A Cracker Cowboy. Other paintings of Bone and his cowboy colleagues appeared in the August 1895 issue of Harper's New Monthly Magazine. The appellation stuck. Eventually it evolved into Florida Cracker, the title now reserved for the Sunshine State's native-born sons and daughters.

Bone was, some say, the most skilled cow hunter in all Florida and at the same time, one of the most humorous men alive. Some of his humor was self-generated with substantial wit and a wonderful sense of timing. However, his prestigious thirst for strong drink was legendary and created many humorous situations where the laughs were at his expense. In the movie, "Cat Baloo", the title role played by Lee Marvin often comes to mind when mentally trying to picture Bone Mizell. It seemed that Bone enjoyed being laughed at as much as being laughed with and sometimes he combined both. Such as the time he arrived at a two-story church on Sunday morning after a bout of heavy drinking. He went to the second floor, talked with someone and started back downstairs. He tripped at the top, came tumbling down end over end to land on his feet at the bottom. He responded to the shocked group of people who had observed the fall and asked if he was hurt, "Naw" he said, " That's the way I always come down stairs."

Another favorite story about Bone has two versions. V.K. Graham in the Tampa Tribune told of an attempt on the part of several cowboy friends to scare Bone into slowing down his drinking. Bone had arrived in camp dead drunk, fallen off his horse and lay passed out on the ground. The cowboys rested his head on his saddle and then placed a circle of dried, highly flammable cow dung all around him. The first one up in the morning lit the circle of fire, tugged Bone awake while they pretended to be asleep. Bone stood up, looked at the ring of fire, uttered an oath and commented to the heavens, "Well, by God! Dead and in hell! And I'm the first one up."​

Another version related how Bone, passed out again, was deposited in a graveyard and one cowboy stayed in the cemetery hidden behind a nearby gravestone. He reported that Bone came to in the morning, sat up rubbing his eyes and staring at his surroundings. In his own ingenious style, Bone commented, "Here it is Judgment Day, and I'm the first one up." perhaps both events happened.

Jim Bob Tinsley, in his book about Bone, tells the various versions of what's reputed to be the greatest legend of Bone's humorous life. It starts with his good friend, John Underhill, becoming sick and Bone riding to the cow camp to take care of him. After a few days, John died and Bone admonished the cow hands who were preparing to wash the body before dressing it for burial, "Hellfire no, you ain't going to wash him. You all know he'd never allow it if he was alive and you all ain't going to take advantage of him now he's dead." Subsequently, a young boy from a wealthy New Orleans family drifted into the area became mesmerized by Bone and followed him wherever he went. The boy was described as weak and sickly and he died shortly thereafter with only Bone to take care of his burial. Bone buried the young man next to where he had previously buried his friend John. When the young man's family eventually learned of his death, they sent several hundred dollars to the local undertaker to exhume the body and send it by rail to be re interred in the family plot. The undertaker paid Bone to retrieve the body. However,  there were two things bothered Bone on the way to the grave sites. One, the young man, he knew, was fed up with trains and traveling and never wanted to go home again. Two, on the other hand, his friend, John, had always wanted to take a train ride and had never been able to afford to do so. The answer was obvious to Bone and since he was the only one who knew which grave was which, he pointed out the wrong site to his helpers. To Bone's mind, he had done right for both.

My favorite story was the one my mom told me, after her dad (my granddaddy Morgan Albritton) told her  about when Bone was finally arrested for his cattle stealing. During his trial in the Lee County Courthouse, several of  his friends tried to bribe the jury throwing a rock through an open window into the jury room with a rope attached. On the other end was a basket containing good food and good whiskey. It didn't help. The jury found Bone guilty of rustling on March 2, 1896, and he was sentenced to two years' hard labor in the state pen. But good news followed bad, as it usually did for Bone. When his friends in DeSoto County learned of this latest problem, they circulated a petition to get Bone pardoned on the Lee County conviction. A petition for Bone's pardon was circulated in Arcadia, but his many supporters were told the request could not be granted until Bone had actually served time. So, they outfitted him in new clothes, escorted him to the train station, and gave him a send-off worthy of a hero. The truth is, they sent Bone to the state pen in new duds and a haze of alcohol. When he arrived at the penitentiary in northern Florida, it was to a hero's welcome. His celebrity had preceded him. After being wined, dined and taken on a grand tour of the prison, Bone was placed on the next train back to Arcadia–presumably in another welter of booze.

The only sad note in the entire tale was that Bone Mizell was only 58 years old when he died. Entered, as the cause of death on the certificate was "Moonshine, went to sleep and did not wake up." His funeral was held in Arcadia and he was buried in the Joshua Creek Cemetery.