Who was Issac Trabue?

Issac Trabue was the founder of Trabue which became Punta Gorda.  A Kentucky lawyer descended from French Huguenots, Trabue purchased land on Charlotte Harbor in 1883 for about $1.25 an acre and in 1884 hired Kelly B. Harvey to survey and plat it.  To bring more value to his holdings, in 1885,  he negotiated a deal to have the railroad come to his town.

Trabue was a man of contradictions For example, he was a slave owner, who fought for the union.   Concerned about perpetuating his name and those of family members, he gave the town his family name and named many of the streets after relatives (names like Virginia, his wife, Chasteen, his father, Gill, a brother-in-law, and more  that still adorn Punta Gorda's street signs).  Yet Trabue, was not willing or able to pay Harvey's  surveyer's bill or to provide the residents, who moved to the town as a result of his efforts and promotional activity,  the basic infrastructure required.  In the end this cost him the very name of the  town which was so important to him.  Angry with the lack of responsiveness to their needs, Harvey and other settlers joined  together and incorporated Trabue into the City of Punta Gorda in 1887.

Issac Trabue will be one of the first inductees to the Punta Gorda Founders Hall of Honor on December 5 at the PGHC Southern Supper.

Reference:

Vernon Peeples, Punta Gorda in the Beginning 1865-1900.