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.