CLERMONT, Fla. — Walking through the Townsends' Clermont home, room by room, is like taking a step back in time.

James and Sallie Devaughn Townsend were the first black residents of Clermont, moving there in 1887. A framed vintage photo shows their home, which is on what's now U.S. Highway 50.

Photographs on the walls and everything in the house give a glimpse of what life was like back then and tell the story of a couple who brought life to Clermont — literally.

"Aunt Sallie was a midwife," family friend Devon Cole says. "Her granddaughter said she delivered about a thousand babies in Clermont, black and white, and James was an educator."

Cole knows the Townsends' life story well.

"My wife and I were caregivers for one of their granddaughters."

Sallie Townsend Benson is named after her grandmother. She shared plenty of stories over the years with Devon about her beloved grandparents. Her grandmother was affectionately called "Aunt Sallie."

The Townsend home is in a new location now, and Candy Keller-Raber gives tours of the house, some 125 years after it was built.

"She was always dressed in a nice white uniform, and she's holding the baby," she says, pointing to one of the pictures "They say she always had such a calm spirit," Keller-Raber says.

Cole has another connection with Benson. Keller-Raber points to one of many pictures and birth certificates kept in a photo album for the public to see.

"This is Devon Cole's youngest sister. She was the last baby delivered by Aunt Sallie."

In between all those years, there were a lot of deliveries. Sallie was well known for her decades of dedicated expertise. She worked long hours and was constantly on call. It was a labor of love for her community — so much so that there was a second front door to her house where Keller-Raber thinks it's likely people would knock when an expectant mother was going into labor so they could notify Sallie without disturbing her family.

"The newspaper called her an angel," Keller-Raber says of Aunt Sallie.

Her work "didn't seem that it was a racial thing back then, because white and black came and visited Aunt Sallie, and when she would go to deliver a baby, she would go and stay in the houses of the white people until the baby came, and she would care for them until the people could do for themselves," Cole says.

In 1941, Aunt Sallie took her dedication a step further, making sure expectant mothers of color in the Clermont community were able to receive the best care.

"There were white hospitals and black hospitals, and she opened a prenatal center and she could deliver the babies there. People could come there for the visits to see how you're coming along and that kind of thing," Keller-Raber says.

By all accounts, the Townsends were a power couple. Besides all the lives Aunt Sallie brought into the world, her husband, James, built his own legacy that also lives on.

"He established the first school for black kids in Clermont, the first church for black people in Clermont: St. Marks AME Church, which still has a congregation today," Cole says.

Even today, Cole says there's a lesson to be learned from the Townsends.

"No matter what color you are, you can make a difference."

You can learn more about the Townsends and not only tour their home but get a history lesson about the city of Clermont and other fascinating people who lived there as well. For information, head to clermontvillage.org.