Harbor View an early settlement on the Peace

In the map above of the Peace River Valley, you can spot (arrow directs) a designation for Harbor View.   Still in existence now as a DRI off a road named for it, Harbor View is one of the oldest settlements in our area along the Peace River.  It was established by a man named Nathan DeCoster in 1871.  

DeCoster was the first person to take up a 160-acre homestead at Hickory Bluff ( right across the Peace River) in 1866 . He platted some of his acreage as Harbor View about 1871 and set up the first sawmill south of Tampa.  The sawmill was located at Live Oak Point along the lagoon north of Melbourne Street where logs could be floated in from the harbor.

Also visible on the map above is Fort Winder, where about twenty-five miles from the mouth of the Peace River on the west bank, he and John F. Bartholf, with $3,000 capital and money, opened a store, run briefly by Nathan.

You can see the location of Harbor View more clearly on the 1970s era map below.  

History of Twin Isles Golf Course originally Burnt Store Golf Course

When the Burnt Store Golf Course (now Twin Isles) opened in 1970 with nine holes,  its pro shop was a houseboat anchored on Alligator Creek.  The shop had been towed by three motor boats through the isles to the banks of the waterway near the then Allapathchee Lodge   

The course and ultimately club house was built on the site of the Lodge, which was erected in 1927  by Lou Calder, a paper manufacturing magnate, as a getaway hunting and fishing lodge.   In mid-January, 1969, Punta Gorda Isles, lnc. purchased 509 acres of land from a Trust that had bought it from the University of Miami. The land was inherited by the university and included the former Allapatchee Lodge, on Alligator Creek.  The by-then dilapidated lodge was burnt down during the construction of the course.  The burning building was featured on early scorecards (not the Burnt Store which has a history of its own).  

The course built  with "input" from noted Florida architect Ron Garl was completed to 18-holes in 1973. 

- Theresa Murtha

Old Fish Dock Transformed To “Fishermen’s Village”

After the last of the old fish companies on the Maud Street Dock, the Punta Gorda Fish Company, ceased operation in the late 1970s, the dock fell into ruin.    Earl Nightingale, a famous radio personality of the day, discovered the rundown pier with its magnificent view of Charlotte Harbor.    He envisioned the end of the dock becoming a perfect setting for a fine dining restaurant.  But when Nightingale partnered with local developer F.M.Donelson and publisher Robert Anderson, a plan was developed that went beyond a dining venue.   

The partners created a vision for  a major waterfront tourist attraction that would become Fishermen’s Village.  After many months of planning and negotiating, the team had constructed a complex with shops, restaurants,  apartments, a marina, and  tennis courts. 

In keeping with the fishing history, when Fishermen’s Village held its grand opening  in February of 1980, shrimp boats and mullet fishermen could still be seen at the edge of the facility. Pleasure and fishing cruises were also part of the early activity,  as they are today, adding to the atmosphere of the colorful fishing and boating history of days gone by.

Sports Fishing

What was said to have been the first big game fish, a silver tarpon, was taken by ordinary rod and reel in 1885 by W.H.Wood. Articles about the feat in the London Observer and Scientific American launched the new sport of big game fishing and attracted anglers from all over the world to Charlotte Harbor.

 

The sport not only employed hundreds of fishing guides in Southwest Florida, it also created a leisure industry that included tackle shops, hotels, and restaurants. The diversity of sport fish, habitats, great weather, and year-round fishing soon made the Charlotte Harbor area a premier fishing destination. Game fishing was popular with the wealthy from the late 1800s to the early 1900s with Frederick Remington, J.P. Morgan, and several members of the Vanderbilt family among those who came to Charlotte Harbor to enjoy the sport. 
 

Anglers traveled to Punta Gorda by rail and then by boat to the tarpon fishing grounds of Boca Grande Pass.  In 1889,  Scribners Magazine reported that all kinds of fish could be caught off the piers in Punta Gorda. In addition to boats, piers and remnants of old bridges continued to be used for fishing. Over the years, anglers would display their trophy catches on Marion Avenue.

 

Theodore Roosevelt Sport Fishing in Charlotte Harbor

On March 26, 1917, an enthusiastic crowd of over a thousand people gathered to welcome the former President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, to Punta Gorda.  He had come to conquer the “devil fish.”

Roosevelt had been drawn to Punta Gorda by an article written by a fishing guide, Russell Coles of Danville, Virginia, who had dramatically described in a magazine the catching of a manta ray weighing three tons. Roosevelt contacted Coles - he had to conquer this fish. Coles arranged for Captain Jack J. McCann and crew to take Roosevelt and himself on a fishing expedition on the E.C. Knight to what was then considered the leading sports fishing area of Florida.

Captain McCann transported the party between Punta Gorda and the inlets and passes of the area.   On their first day, Roosevelt succeeded in harpooning two “devil fish”, one of small size and the other a huge creature measuring over twelve feet across. They also explored the surrounding waters, spending one complete day inspecting the bird rookeries near Matlacha. 

Roosevelt enjoyed a week of fishing the waters of Charlotte Harbor returning to Punta Gorda on April 2, 1917,  a few days before the United States entered the First World War.  

The Long Dock

 

In 1886, after Isaac Trabue persuaded  the Florida Southern Railroad directors to locate their railroad down the east side of the Peace River, track was extended along what is now the linear park to beyond the original town of Trabue.  There a 4200-foot dock was constructed and for the next eleven years, it became the heart of Punta Gorda’s commerce. 

The Long Dock, located near where the Isles Yacht Club is today, extended to twelve feet of water which enabled steamships to arrive there.  The pier had a telegraph office, a post office, several fish companies, stores, and facilities. Among the seafood dealers located on the dock were A.K. Demiere, Carnes and Monk, M.M. Sullivan and Sons, and Bloxham and Lewis. In October of 1887, the steamer Hutchinson of the Morgan Line arrived at the Long Dock, and for the next nine years, every Friday Morgan Line Steamers left the dock for New Orleans, and every Saturday for Havana and Key West.

In 1897, Henry Plant purchased the railroad.  To eliminate any competition for Tampa, he had the rails from the Long Dock removed and terminated his railroad near the Hotel Punta Gorda,  where there was only five feet of water.   The era of Punta Gorda as a seaport ended.

The Maud Street Dock

 

Fishermen’s Village is located on the site of the former Maud Street Dock. The dock was built in 1928 to replace the King Street Pier, home to the Punta Gorda fishing industry. The old pier had been removed to make way for the new Barron Collier bridge. 

At one time there were as many as seven companies that operated the fish packing houses on the Maud Street Dock. By the mid-1930s, three packing houses remained: the Punta Gorda Fish Company, the West Coast Fish Company, and the Rose Fishing Company.  The pier was also occupied by the Gulf Oil Company and  Matt Week’s Boat Shop.

In 1939, a fire destroyed the packing plants. John Willis, houseman for the Punta Gorda Fish Company, his wife and their three-year-old son perished in the fire. The West Coast Fish Company folded, but the Punta Gorda Fish Company continued to operate. In the mid-1940s, as the fishing industry declined further, a small crab packing plant was built on the pier, later expanding to include shrimp.

Over time the dock and remaining buildings fell into disrepair, and in the late 1970s, the city council moved to permit its reuse as a shopping and dining attraction. In February of 1980, Fishermen’s Village opened on the site.

The Boating History of Punta Gorda

 

Between 1886 and  the early 1900s, the primary means of transportation south and west of Punta Gorda was by boat.

During the winters at the turn of the 20th century, many yachts could  be seen anchored near the shores of Punta Gorda.  Naphtha cabin boats like the "Myakka" owned by Charles Dean of New England brought some of the first "snowbirds" to local waters.  Sharpie sailboats engaged in commercial fishing roamed the harbor. Perry and Marian McAdow, early wealthy residents, entertained the elite of the town on their sailing schooner, the "Roamer". 

In the community's early years, paddler-wheelers carrying both freight and passengers navigated the Peace River carrying goods and travelers from Charlotte Harbor to Fort Myers, Cuba, Key West, New Orleans, and Tampa.  Steamboats, among them the "Alice Howard" and the "Clara,” brought the mail and passengers between Punta Gorda and Fort Myers.  Later the "St. Lucie" and "Thomas A. Edison" were among the ships that made the 76-mile run.  The Morgan Line steamers arrived at Punta Gorda from New Orleans at the Long Dock and left for Key West and Havana the same day.

Before the railroad ran to Boca Grande in 1907, steam tug boats including the "Albert F Dewey" and the "Mary Blue" hauled phosphate on barges down the Peace River.

Punta Gorda's Fishing Industry

 

The first Spanish fishermen sailed their smacks into Charlotte Harbor in the 17th century marking the beginning of a commercial fishing industry.  Cuban fishermen controlled the business for over 200 years until the United States took possession of Florida in 1821 and began laying claim to its territorial waters.  

In 1886, the railroad arrived at Trabue (Punta Gorda) and an ice factory was built.   By the 1890s, Punta Gorda had one of the largest commercial fishing industries in Florida.  The  businesses first operated from the “Long Dock.”  Then in 1897,  the industry was relocated to the Railroad Dock at the foot of King Street (now U.S. 41 North) and remained there until moved to the Maud Street Dock in 1928. 

Fish shacks, built on stilts over the water, served as ice houses as well as bunkhouses. They were serviced by “run boats” carrying fish, ice, and fishermen back and forth.  At its height, the industry caught and processed thousands of tons of fish annually.

Gradually as the commercial fishing industry spread throughout Florida, Punta Gorda’s role in it declined.  The last of the old Punta Gorda fishing businesses - the Punta Gorda Fish Company - ceased operation in 1977.

 

Isaac H. Trabue - Founder of Punta Gorda

This plaque honors Isaac H. Trabue, the founder of the town of “Trabue” which became the City of Punta Gorda.  

Trabue, born on March 25, 1829 was a lawyer, coal mine operator, Union soldier during the Civil War, and land developer.  He was married to Virginia Scarborough Taylor of Savannah, Georgia.  

Isaac Trabue purchased land south of Charlotte Harbor bay in 1883, which in 1885 was registered as the town of “Trabue”.   Isaac and Virginia came to Florida to live in January of 1886 in a cabin on the Peace River which they had purchased from James and Sarah Lanier, original settlers.

It was Isaac Trabue’s persuading the Florida Southern Railway to build a rail line to Trabue that ultimately accelerated its development with the railroad’s arrival in 1886.

Isaac Trabue’s life here was marked by ups and downs.  A major dispute resulted in the incorporation of the town and its renaming to Punta Gorda in 1887.  Nonetheless, Mr. Trabue led an active life in Punta Gorda as an attorney and community leader and left a lasting legacy.    He departed his town for the last time shortly before his death on July 16, 1907.  

We thank this visionary for founding our town and gifting us with beautiful public spaces along our waterfront.

The Trabue Plat and Waterfront Parks

 

In 1885 Isaac Trabue registered the land that he had purchased and platted in 1884 in Manatee County as the town of "Trabue." In 1887, it would become Punta Gorda.   He named some twenty streets in the new town after relatives, including Retta Esplanade after his sister - Henrietta,  Virginia and Taylor after his wife,  Elizabeth for his mother,  and Marion after another sister.  

The streets were planned to align with the Charlotte Harbor waterfront, rather than run strictly north and south.  At the end of the streets on the harbor were waterfront parks.  Trabue felt that a shoreline of waterfront parks along Charlotte Harbor would be irresistible to snowbound northerners.  They were originally each named after a street that led to them.

Despite Trabue's stipulation, over the years attempts were made,  some successful, to commercialize the park land.  Harvey Park, for instance, on which Perry and Marion McAdow received city permission to build their mansion became the site of an inn, later a hotel and restaurant.  But for the most part, the waterfront parks remained as lovely respites along Charlotte Harbor.  In the 1950s some of the parks, from Harvey to Berry Street, were combined and renamed Gilchrist Park.  

Thanks to Isaac Trabue and his vision we have the beautiful waterfront parks that we now enjoy.  

Sallie Jones or "Miss Sallie" as She was Called

Did you ever wonder about the woman for whom Sallie Jones Elementary School was named?   

Born in 1895 Sallie Jones was a descendant of Florida pioneer families.  Her grandfather was killed in a Civil War battle in Tennessee fighting for the Confederacy.  Her father, a tax accessor for Polk County died young in 1898.  Her mother's family, the Koons, were pioneer settlers who traveled from Lake City to Fort Meade by Oxcart where they wrestled a living from the undeveloped country.  

In 1901. Sallie came, as a little girl, to Punta Gorda from Barstow with her mother and three brothers following the death of her step-father, Charles Jennings, from malaria. Her widowed mother, Elizabeth Koon Jones,  moved with her three sons and Sallie to Punta Gorda to be near her brother, cattle baron, W. Luther Koon, who had a large home at Charlotte and Sullivan (later moved and still standing at 360 West McKenzie).  The Jones Brothers were to run a meat market on Marion Avenue when they became adults.  

Sallie started her education at Punta Gorda's first formal schoolhouse on Goldstein Street. Then, after finishing high school, at the time on Taylor Street, she attained a teaching certificate and started her long career in a one-teacher school in Chokoloskee, then Pine Island.  Ultimately she moved back to Punta Gorda,  first teaching lower grades. then on to Charlotte High School shortly after it opened in 1926.

Always determined to obtain a college degree, during the summer months, she attended Flordia State College, the University of Florida at Gainesville, and Florida Southern College, where she obtained her degree.  Tragically, the love of her life was killed in an automobile accident, and Miss Sallie, as she was called, never married. She devoted her life to the education of children.

In 1936, Miss Sallie was elected County Superintendent of Schools, the first woman to hold that position in the state of Florida. She was interested in the progress of public school education, not only locally, but throughout the state of Florida, and the nation. Among her achievements was the start of the school lunch program in Florida.  She also served as President of the Southwest Teachers Association and on many state educational boards. 

When a new elementary school was being erected in Punta Gorda, it was decided to name it in honor of Miss Sallie. She died in 1960 a few years after the Sallie Jones Elementary School opened its doors.

(From information in the archives and library of the Punta Gorda History Center.  For more information on our local history visit the Center at 512 E. Grace Street or on the web www.puntagordahistorycenter.com)

The Woman Who Could Have Been Mayor - Marian Mcadow

The woman credited with being the mother of Punta Gorda’s tropical ambiance, Marian Ann Tyrrel  McAdow,  spent most of her adult life here.  She was born Marian Wild at Put-in-Bay, South Bass Island, Lake Erie, Ohio on September 29, 1869.  When she was a few weeks old, her father, overwrought with ten other siblings to care for, gave his baby daughter to a neighboring couple, Allen Terrell and his wife, who with their new child, moved to Escanaba, Michigan.  

Marian had a life-long passion for horticulture, which she developed at the early age of five.  But it was a chance meeting that enabled her to share it with Florida. While working as a school teacher in Chicago, she met Perry McAdow, the owner of the most productive gold mine in Montana history.  They were married on  October 2, 1897.  He was to give her the opportunity to transform an area of Florida into a tropical paradise.  

Soon after they were wed, Perry brought his pretty, young bride, 31 years his junior, to Punta Gorda where he was to become a prominent citizen, owner of one of the town’s earliest banks and a major influence on Punta Gorda’s development.  He built for their home a huge mansion on filled-in submerged land right on Charlotte Harbor bay. (where the PG Waterfront hotel and Hurricane Charley’s is today).  

Dismayed when she and Perry arrived in Punta Gorda by the lack of what she expected - a tropical jungle with swaying palm trees and other flowering plants, she set about to change that. She traveled to Europe, India, and the Caribbean talking  to leading authorities on tropical landscapes and bringing seeds and plants to start her own beautiful garden and to help beautify Punta Gorda overall.  Not only was she responsible for planting what is now the huge banyan on Retta Esplanade  and the nearby jacaranda that flames red in May, she also drove the planting of the royal palms  along Marion Avenue, though it’s said she would have preferred oaks draped with Spanish moss.  

Known to thousands of readers of the Florida Grower as the “Ornamental Lady”, she influenced through her articles the creation of a tropical paradise throughout South Florida.  Determined to turn as much of South Florida as she could into a blooming paradise, she and friend Sadie Farmington, drove around in her automobile distributing the seeds of beautiful plants.  She also rewarded school children who helped with her mission. 

Perhaps overshadowed by her horticultural  achievements and recognition for being a prominent hostess, with her many dinner parties and yacht excursions, was her civic  involvement and active role as a business woman.  She took over the running of much of Perry’s business affairs after he died in 1918.  It was said that had she not been a woman she would have probably been a Punta Gorda mayor.  She was chair of the Board that developed a revised city charter and recommended to be the first  city manager.  She was also appointed by the Governor to the school board, a role she declined. She was a philanthropist who donated to many local causes and helped raise money for the high school and other community projects.  

Marion also found time for the arts.  She’s was the music director for the Episcopal Church, a good photographer and an accomplished artist.  Many homes at the time had her paintings on their walls, although unfortunately none can be located today.  Her photograph collection was lost in a fire.   

In addition to Punta Gorda, Marion spent time at her home, RyxHaven, in the North Carolina Mountains.  She died September 16, 1950 in Casey Key, Florida.  

(As a footnote and sad commentary on women’s history, while there are many excellent pictures of Perry McAdow up until a few weeks ago only a few not very good photos of Marian could be found.  Fortunately, a writer documenting the history of RyxHaven had  a much better, younger portrait and shared it with us).

Picture Courtesy of Lawrence Newman  and Susan Speight 

The Fishing Industry of Charlotte Harbor

The first Spanish fishermen sailed their smacks into Charlotte Harbor some time in the 17th century marking the beginnings of a commercial fishing industry,  They caught and carried edible fish, which had been salted and dried,  back to Cuba to earn a large profit. By 1763 when the British acquired Florida the Spanish had built “ranchos” or fishing camps that extended from Charlotte Harbor to the Caloosahatchee River.

The Cuban fishermen controlled the business for over 200 years through the British and then through Spain’s second possession of Florida. Once the United States gained ownership of the peninsula in 1821,  competition began between the Cubans and new American-based businesses. But when the railroad arrived at Trabue (Punta Gorda)  in 1886 and an ice factory was built the industry was changed forever.  

By the 1890s Punta Gorda had one of the largest commercial fishing industries in Florida.  The original businesses operated from the 4200-foot “Long Dock.” In 1897, the industry was relocated to the Railroad at the foot of King Street (now U.S. 41 North) and remained there until it was moved to the Maud Street Dock in 1928.  

The fish businesses constructed fish storage houses throughout Charlotte Harbor.  These shacks, built on stilts over the water, served as ice houses as well as bunkhouses for the fishermen sometimes with their families.  They were serviced by “run boats” like “The Chase” operated by the Punta Gorda fish dealers to carry fish and ice back and forth from the shacks to the dock where the catch was transported to the railroad.   At its height, the industry caught and processed thousands of tons of fish annually 

Gradually as the commercial fishing industry spread throughout Florida, Punta Gorda’s role in it declined.  The last of the Punta Gorda fishing businesses - the Punta Gorda Fish Company - ceased operation in 1977 when the City revoked its lease on the municipal dock at Maud Street to make way for the development of Fishermen’s Village.

The Bridges to Punta Gorda

The first bridge over the Peace River, the Charlotte Harbor Bridge, was opened in 1921 .    The bridge was built after much legal and financial haggling to insure that the Tamiami Trail would run through Punta Gorda.     It ran from Live Oak Point in Charlotte Harbor on the north bank of the river to Nesbit Street in Punta Gorda.  After the Tamiami Trail opened in 1928, it was determined that this bridge would not meet the needs of the road because of its poor construction and narrow lanes. 

Barron G. Collier, who owned the Hotel Charlotte Harbor (formerly the Hotel Punta Gorda), was one of the main proponents of building a new bridge. Work began on the original Barron Collier Bridge in 1929, built a block east of the Charlotte Harbor Bridge at King Street (now U.S. 41 North).  The construction of the bridge necessitated the demolition of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad’s dock at King Street.  

The original Barron Collier Bridge opened on July 4, 1931 with great fanfare including a community fish fry. The old Charlotte Harbor Bridge was then closed to traffic and converted into fishing piers, which were demolished in the 1970s.

In 1976, the westernmost Gilchrist Bridge was opened to traffic, and southbound traffic was rerouted there, while both lanes on the old Barron Collier Bridge began carrying only northbound traffic.  Then on January 12, 1983, a new and the now current Barron Collier Bridge was opened to traffic.  The old Barron Collier Bridge was then demolished, and its remains sunk into Charlotte Harbor for an artificial reef.

The Maud Street Dock

What we now know as Fishermen’s Village is located on the site of the former Maud Street Dock. The Maud Street City Dock was built in 1928 to replace the King Street Pier, home to the Punta Gorda fishing industry. The old pier had been removed to make way for the new Barron Collier bridge.  

At one time there were as many as seven companies that operated the fish packing houses on the Maud Street Dock. Each of the fish companies had a small fleet of “run boats” that made periodic trips down Charlotte Harbor. They transported ice, supplies, and fishermen returning to their fish camps down the bay and brought fresh-caught fish back to the packing houses.  These camps consisted of stilt houses constructed in various locations in the harbor and coves along what is now the Intracoastal waterway.  By the mid-1930s, three packing houses remained: the Punta Gorda Fish Company, the West Coast Fish Company, and the Rose Fishing Company.  The pier was also occupied by the Gulf Oil Company and the Matt Week’s Boat Shop. 

In 1939, a fire destroyed the packing plants. John Willis, houseman for the Punta Gorda Fish Company, his wife and their three-year-old son perished in the fire. The West Coast Fish Company folded, but the Punta Gorda Fish Company continued to operate on a much smaller scale. In the mid-1940s, as the fishing industry declined further, a small crab packing plant was built on the pier. Later this plant expanded to include shrimp. 

Over time the dock and remaining buildings fell into disrepair, and in 1977, the city council moved to permit its reuse as a shopping and dining attraction. In February of 1980, Fishermen’s Village opened on the original Maud Street Dock site.

The Long Dock

 

In 1886, after Isaac Trabue convinced the Florida Southern Railroad directors to locate its railroad down the east side of the Peace River, track was extended along what is now the linear park in Punta Gorda to beyond the original town of Trabue.  There a forty-two hundred-foot dock was constructed and for the next eleven years, it became the heart of Punta Gorda’s commerce.  

The Long Dock, located near where the Isles Yacht Club is today, extended to twelve feet of water which enabled steamships to arrive there.  The pier had a telegraph office, a post office, several fish companies, stores, and facilities. Among the seafood dealers located on the dock were A.K. Demiere, Carnes and Monk, Bill Lewis, M.M. Sullivan and Sons, and Bloxham and Lewis. In October of 1887, the steamer Hutchinson of the Morgan Line arrived at the Long Dock, and for the next nine years, every Friday Morgan Line Steamers left the dock for New Orleans,  and every Saturday for Havana and Key West.

The Charlotte Harbor Beacon described a steamer at the end of the Long Dock in December of 1887 with passengers in their "quaint traveling suits promenading up and down the great dock" as they waited eagerly to board the boat for New Orleans. 

The Long Dock made Punta Gorda a seaport.  Then in 1897, Henry Plant, who had purchased the railroad, wanting to eliminate any competition for Tampa, removed the rails from the long dock and terminated his railroad near the Hotel Punta Gorda where there was only five feet of water.   The era of Punta Gorda as a seaport ended. 

Sources: Vernon Peeples, Punta Gorda and the Charlotte Harbor Area.

                Lindsey Williams, Out Fascinating Past. 

                Broadside of the Florida Southern Railroad

Early Boating History

Boats have always been extremely important to the Charlotte Harbor region and were essential to its development.   The ancient Calusa used canoes to get around their domain.   European explorers like Ponce de Leon arrived at Charlotte Harbor by sailing ship.  In the early days of Punta Gorda, between 1886 and 1904, the only means of travel south and west of the town was by boat.

During the winters at the turn of the 20th century, many yachts would be seen anchored near the shores of Punta Gorda.  Naphtha cabin boats like the "Myakka" owned by Charles Dean of  New England brought some of the first "snowbirds" to local waters.  Sharpie sailboats engaged in commercial fishing roamed the harbor. Perry and Marian McAdow, early wealthy residents,  entertained the elite of the town on their sailing schooner, the "Roamer".  

Steamboat traffic was heavy during the nascent years of the community.  Paddle-wheelers carrying both freight and passengers navigated the Peace River and carried goods and travelers from Charlotte Harbor to Fort Myers, Cuba, Key West, New Orleans, and Tampa.  Steamboats such as the "Alice Howard" and the "Clara" brought the mail and passengers between Punta Gorda and Fort Myers.  Later the "St. Lucie" and "Thomas A. Edison" were among the ships that made the 76-mile run.  The Morgan Line steamers arrived at Punta Gorda from New Orleans at the Long Dock and left for Key West and Havana the same day. 

Before the railroad ran to Boca Grande in 1907, steam tug boats including the "Albert F Dewey" and the "Mary Blue" hauled phosphate on barges down the Peace River to freighters waiting at Punta Gorda and the Boca Grande Pass.  

Punta Gorda’s First Tourist Attraction - The Hotel Punta Gorda

 

The first suggestion of the Charlotte Harbor area as a tourist destination appeared in a booklet written by George Barbour in 1869.  Barbour lauding the beauty of the harbor said that at some point a winter resort needed to be established in the southern part of Florida and that Charlotte Harbor presented an ideal location for it.  It wasn't until years later that Barbour's vision was realized.  Isaac Trabue in 1885 persuaded the Florida Southern Railway to bring the railroad to his town by giving them the land to build a grand hotel on Charlotte Harbor.  

The Hotel Punta Gorda first welcomed guests for the 1888 winter season and Punta Gorda became a tourist destination.  Luxurious for the time, it was a three-storied structure with a central tower that extended higher.  Advertisements for the resort proclaimed that the hotel had gas, electric bells, steam heat, and open fireplaces.   News articles touted the magnificent grounds and fishing and sailing from the dock.  Situated on the harbor, the hotel had a large promenade, verandas with yellow roses climbing the railings, and 135 rooms, each with views of the bay.  Palm trees adorned the grounds to provide a tropical ambiance. Appealing to the wealthy, the hotel attracted guests that included  W.K. Vanderbilt, John Wanamaker, Thomas Edison, and Andrew Mellon. 

The hotel had its ups and downs and by 1924 it was acquired by Barron Collier and Cornelius Vanderbilt and the name was changed to the Hotel Charlotte Harbor.  The investors remodeled the hotel in 1927 adding a central tower and top floor ballroom. This stately hotel also had its economic problems and by the 1950s was again renamed the Charlotte Harbor Spa.  On the night of August 14, 1959, the hotel was destroyed in a fire leaving a void in Punta Gorda's tourism industry.  Other than the Municipal Trailer Park which accommodated winter visitors from 1925 to the 1980s,  it wasn't until 1980 that a tourism magnet of the hotel's scope was constructed.    Fishermen’s Village opened on the old Maud Street Dock that year and reignited the tourism industry in the area.    

A Yankee Visitor to Charlotte Harbor - 155 Years Ago Today

by Graham Segger

USS Honduras at anchor in Key West, 17 January 1865. Source:
Scott De Wolf Collection. Image from Flickr courtesy of Florida Keys Public Libraries photo # MM00042290x

Those of us who enjoy reading and learning about history will, from time to time, encounter a source that pulls together many other diverse events, personalities or facts to make more sense of or shed more light on all of them. This is exactly what happened when I came across the 1865-66 journal of George Franklin Thompson which included a section describing his visit to Charlotte Harbor and the Peace River. The leather-bound volume chronicles, in 124 hand-written pages, a tour of inspection through central and lower Florida including a visit to Fort Ogden from December 31, 1865 to January 2, 1866 (155 years ago this month). The journal was also supplemented by a series of five newspaper articles written by Mr. Thompson for the Tallahassee Sentinel in 1867, though none of the articles touch in any depth on his visit to the Peace River.

Thompson had been appointed to this tour of duty as an Inspector for the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, the federal agency charged with the task of overseeing Reconstruction in a non-slave South. This was a politically sensitive role as Thompson was an unapologetic Yankee and those he encountered in Florida were understandably cautious and just a little suspicious about his motives. While not a carpet-bagger as such, he did carry some baggage in the form of a condescending attitude toward many of the Southerners he encountered.

What makes the journal of most interest to me is Thompson’s account of his meetings with two of the significant personalities in the early history of Southwest Florida. James McKay, Sr. of Tampa and Jacob Summerlin of Polk County were conducting business at the McKay dock in Fort Ogden when Thompson arrived at this outpost located ten miles up the Peace River from Punta Gorda.  Thompson describes in some detail their characters, businesses and politics. Also present was Lt. J.C. Shaw in charge of 39 members of the 99^th U.S. Colored Troops. The Fort Ogden dock was built in 1860, primarily to facilitate the shipment of cattle from the Peace River valley and to deliver supplies to the cattlemen entering the area after the close of the Third Seminole War two years earlier.

Florida Peninsular – Oct 27, 1860, page 3  Source: University of Florida Digital Collections

James McKay was a Scottish born ship captain who had arrived in Fort Brooke (Tampa) with his family in 1846 and owned a merchandise store there as well as shipping interests. He had been mayor of Tampa in 1859 and was a leading citizen of that town (both a son and grandson also became mayors of Tampa). During the Civil War he regularly ran the Federal blockade with his ship from Tampa and Fort Ogden and was detained then released in Key West in 1861 and then captured with his ship and imprisoned in Key West in 1863. There is much speculation about his true allegiances after being released again and some have theorized that after 1863 he may have been working covertly for the north. Thompson noted about James McKay that “during the war he however floated with the current into secession and I presume with the defeat of the rebellion glided as gracefully back to Unionism as any man in Florida”.

Jacob Summerlin was the largest cattleman in southern Florida operating from his base in Bartow. George Thompson claimed that Summerlin had 15 to 20,000 head of cattle to draw from. Thompson described Mr. Summerlin as “a man of naturally great will power but devoid of culture in any of the refinements of life.  The poor look up to him as their superior and revere his ideas as law.  Though rough & uncouth in exterior from what we learn of him by others I believe he has a kind heart for quite a number testify that during the war he assisted the families of both refugees and rebels and relieved a great amount of suffering by furnishing bread and meat to them”.  Later in life (1875) Summerlin became the first President of the Orlando City Council and his family name still lives on as a major thoroughfare in Fort Myers leading down toward the cattle dock he built in Punta Rassa. Thompson further reported that “Mr. Summerlin had a party of ten or twelve men with him to herd and load the cattle. They are the poor class in the country & termed "crackers." They were as a class entirely destitute, ignorant and generally ambitious only for enough to eat regardless of quality to satisfy their hunger. They are governed almost exclusively by the cattle proprietors and present a sorry spectacle of what depths of ignorance and stupidity human nature is capable.” Ouch!

Summerlin was a pragmatic businessman who sold cattle to both the Confederates and the Union. He responded to a question about the politics of the locals by saying "I will tell you sir, though they pretend to accept the result [of the war] yet their hatred is just as intense as ever and if an opportunity is offered by a quarrel between France and the United States they would do all they could to break down the government.”

Thompson traveled to the Peace River on a small sailing boat captained by Louis Bell of Tampa. In his journal he recounts an interesting encounter on the night before passing Punta Gorda and arriving at Fort Ogden. “At dusk cast anchor near an island about 7 miles from mouth of Peace Creek. Here we were attacked by Musquitoes at first by Brigade then by Division and afterwards by Corps and doubting our ability to withstand their charges we concluded it would be wiser to retreat. Consequently we fell back about two miles and passed a miserable night in the boat.”

At Fort Ogden Thompson dined onboard James McKay’s steamer the Governor Marvin (formerly the USS Honduras which was active during the Civil War as part of the federal blockade of Florida ports and the May 1864 capture of Tampa).

Thompson reported that McKay was buying cattle from Summerlin for $10-$15 per 350 lb. cow for transportation then sale in Havana for $17-$27 per head. Thompson further described McKay as a “large commanding person of open, frank countenance gentlemanly & kind to everyone he meets.  Full of energy and enterprise he gives to Tampa whatever of life and business it possesses.” 

Thompson had this to say about the settlement prospects in the area.  “In this section I think a population would be obliged to depend upon the clouds rather than springs for their fresh water [due to the brackish nature of the water from wells].  We here find plenty of game such as deer, snipes & ducks, & wild turkeys.  The river is well supplied with fish, mullet being the most common”.

After leaving the Peace River Thompson visited the Caloosahatchee River, Fort Myers and two fishing encampments at Punta Rassa and Useppa Island. He did not reserve his negative views to the cattlemen of Florida. On January 7^th, 1866 he reached Captiva Island where he camped for the night and had this to say about its prospects “this island is good for nothing except to help hold the world together and afford a resting place for weary travelers.”

Guest blogger Graham Segger is the author of Where Do We Live? Research by a Seasonal Resident of Burnt Store Road (aka the Burnt Store Road Book). His book is available at local book stores and also online at www.wheredowelive.com with all proceeds to charity. The material for this blog was first identified during research for a February 28, 2019 lecture about Charlotte Harbor Pre-1865 at Florida Gulf Coast University’s Renaissance Academy in Punta Gorda. For a summary of Mr. Thompson’s life and the full text of the journal and newspaper articles describing his 1865-1866 visit to Florida see the online transcription by James G. Cusick of the P.K. Yonge Library of Florida History at https://ufdcimages.uflib.ufl.edu/UF/00/09/62/85/00001/GeorgeFThompson.pdf.