Christmas on the Peace River in 1876.

 Almost  150 years ago, Frederick and Jarvis Howard built the first homes on the south side of the Peace River, where the Elks Lodge is today. They called their home site Punta Gorda Chica. They celebrated their first Christmas there with their families December 25, 1876.  

Jarvis in his diary tells us a bit about that Christmas. 

 At daylight their little ones were up looking for Santa.  “You never saw such delighted youngsters.  The schooner hit Freddie’s idea exactly.  Phil was wild over his red dinghy [toy boats].  The oranges made their eyes flash.  The molasses cake and popcorn seemed to please them as much as New York youngsters are pleased with greater variety.”. (Jarvis and Brenda had one other child, Hampkin, Frederick and Anna were childless)

The day before Jarvis had hunted their Christmas dinner - a large whopping crane.  (Not a bird we would hunt or eat today, but it was the frontier, no Publix or Walmart’s around.)  They prepared it and vegetables on a wood stove.  Fred and Jarvis dressed  up with starched shirts, collars, Fred with black suit, Jarvis a swallowtail and chocker [formal jacket with short front and long back]. Brenda, Jarvis’s wife, “donned her blue spotted dress costing only $1.50” Anna, Fred’s wife had a dress with white collar and cuff which Jarvis noted  was manufactured.  

The whooper was their “Florida turkey” and they enjoyed it with five different vegetables, sweet potatoes, beets, onions, carrots and white potatoes.  They used stewed prickly pears instead of cranberries.  They had Indian pumpkin pie for dessert.  

Jarvis noted that the thermometer stayed at 85 degrees all day.  

The Story of the Punta Gorda Fish Company

Of the many fisheries that operated from Punta Gorda during the late 19th century into the 20th, the one that ultimately became the largest and longest surviving one was the Punta Gorda Fish Company

Eugene Knight

Eugene C. Knight, the oldest son of Joel Knight, and L.B. Giddens started their fish business in the late 1890s on the old long dock (near where the Isles Yacht Club stands today).   They were among many other early dealers at the time including A.K. Demere, Carnes and Monk, Bill Lewis, M.M. Sullivan and sons, Blocksom and Lewis and the DeSoto Fish Company.  

In 1897 Henry Plant pulled his rails to the long dock and it was soon abandoned.  The fish industry moved to the new railroad wharf at the end of King Street (now U.S. 41 North).   It was at that time,  Knight and Giddens went into business with Harry R. Dreggors to form the Punta Gorda Fish Company.  Dreggors soon bought Gidden's share in the partnership. In 1899, E.W. Smith joined the partnership.

After Mr. Knight's mysteriously death in Cuba, his family retained his share in the business.  Then in 1919 W.E. Guthrie joined the firm with E.W. Smith's interest passing to his daughter Mary Smith Knight.

King Street Wharf

Despite numerous catastrophes, including a disastrous storm in 1910 that destroyed boats and camp houses and a 1915 fire that wiped out many of the fish industy's buildings on the King Street Wharf, including the one owned by the Punta Gorda Fish Company, by 1923, the fish industry was thriving with dealers shipping over 7 million pounds of fish on ice from Punta Gorda.  

When Barron Collier took over the old Hotel Punta Gorda in 1928 to transform it into the elegant Hotel Charlotte Harbor, the King Street dock was removed to make room for a new bridge over the harbor. The fish industry was again moved to a new city dock at Maude Street.  The same year the Punta Gorda Fish Company was incorporated with Dreggors as President.

1947 photo of Harry Goulding (long term employee of the Punta Gorda Fish Company), W.H. Monson, and W.E. Guthrie (left to right)

In 1935, W.H. Munson, Eugene Knight's son-in-law, joined the company becoming its President in 1940.  In 1939 another tragedy struck, fire destroyed all the installations on the wharf except one. After this devastation, the West Coast Fish Company, owned by T.C. Crosland,  was taken over by the Punta Gorda Fish Company. 

During its history, the company operated many run boats from the fish dock, which delivered ice and supplies to the fish houses and returned fish to the dock.  The boats included The Ray, the Wallace, the Harris and others.  In 1954, the company acquired its first shrimp boat, the Miss Punta Gorda. 

The principal partners in the firm, Monson, Guthrie and Dreggors, passed away in the 1960s. The company - the last of the Punta Gorda fishing businesses - ceased operation in 1977 when the City revoked its lease on the municipal dock to make way for the development of Fisherman's Village. 

Sources:

Recolletions of Martha Ellen Monson Fish (as told to Gussie Baker)

Harry Dreggors Obiturary, Punta Gorda Herald  March 1, 1962

Punta Gorda Herald, August 28, 1947

George Gatewood, "On Florida's Coconut Coast"

 

Punta Gorda celebrates the End of a war November 11, 1918

 It was November 11, 2018 and it took a train arriving from Fort Myers to bring the joyous news that the “Great War” was indeed over and an armistice was signed to Punta Gorda.  The day became the First Armistice Day now celebrated as Veteran’s Day. Major hostilities of World War I were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, when the Armistice went  into effect.

The city, which had sent nearly 100 of its own off to training camps earlier that year many who ended up fighting the “Hun” in France, was ecstatic.  Flags were hung from many of the local businesses on Marion Avenue of the day:Goldstein’s Furniture Store (now Cubby’s),  the Seminole Hotel (FM Don’s), Ed Wotitzky’s store, Copper Hardware.  At 3 p.m. all businesses closed and people assembled at the Methodist Church for a service. Yes, it was a time to celebrate, but the war had had costs - two young Punta Gordan’s had been killed, Augustine Willis and John Davis.  Another seriously wounded seventeen-year-old would die in 1920 from his war wounds, Raleigh Whidden. 

At 7 in the evening a celebration was held in front of the Plaza Theatre.  Harry Goldstein played his violin, with JB Washington at the cello.  Stirring addresses were given by Mayor Trabue (the Founder’s nephew), Col. Hancock and others.  Norma Pepper, an early teacher, provided a recitation.  

Only a few years before, the Punta Gorda High School Valedictorian, John Boyle, told his classmates that they would likely have to join the war effort. many did including him. So did the town, sending  their town doctor, Dr. McQueen, one of Jones family, a Morgan, a Sikes , all local business people off to war in Europe.  The City also engaged in drives and other activities to support the fight. Now Punta Gorda could celebrate and that they did and continued to do commemorating the end of the war with parades, parties, picnics every year thereafter. 

The Charlotte of Charlotte Harbor - the Woman Who our Bay was Named For

Our large bay has had many names, Bay (Bahia) de Calos, Bay de Carlos,   Bay de Juan Ponce de Leon, but the one that stuck was given to it by a dutch navigator exploring for the British - Charlotte Harbor.  It was in 1775 right before the American Revolution that a British cartographer, Thomas Jeffreys, first put the name “Charlotte Harbour” on a map.  At the time King George III was on the throne and his wife, the Queen, was “Charlotte” Sophia. 

Charlotte was born on May 19, 1744. She was the youngest daughter of Duke Charles of Mecklenburg and his wife, Princess Elisabeth of Saxe-Hildburghaussen.  Mecklenburg-Strelitz was small north-German duchy that was a part of the Holy Roman Empire.   When George III became King of England’s he was 22 years old and unmarried. Needing a wife, he sought someone who could bear children and not interfere with the running of the empire.  The 17-year-old Princess Charlotte checked all the boxes partly because she had been brought up in an insignificant north German duchy, and therefore would probably have had no experience or interest in power politics or party intrigues. 

When she married George, she spoke only German,  but quickly picked up the King’s language. She bore the first of their fifteen children less than a year after their wedding. She didn’t interfere much in the politics of  Britain, but she did have influence on the King.  

Interestingly, as it has been an important element on the shores of her namesake harbor, Charlotte loved music.  A young Mozart performed at her court and she sang an aria and played the flute with him.  He named an opus for her.  She was also an amateur botanist who helped insure that species of plants brought to Britain by explorers were expanded.  The official name of the Bird of Paradise was named for her.  

After the onset of his permanent madness in 1811, George III was placed under Charlotte’s guardianship.  She could not bring herself to visit him very often, due to his erratic behavior and occasional violent reactions. While she was popular in her  early years as Queen for her patronage of education for women and care of the sick, during regency to her son, Charles, she met with growing unpopularity.  

Many other places in the U.S were named for Charlotte, including Charlottesville, Virginia  and Charlotte, North Carolina.  Statues of Queen Charlotte stand in Bloomsbury, London, and at the airport and International Trade Center in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The Sandlin House

Referred to by the name of the man who built it, the Sandlin house is one of Punta Gorda’s most treasured historic houses located in the downtown historic district.  

The Sandlin House was built  in 1893 by early merchant, shipper and developer, and town mayor James Sandlin.  With it’s gingerbread trim and wrap-around porch, the stately house is a stunning example of an old grand Floridian house.  Situated on Retta Esplanade, the house was built near the frontage of the harbor before land had been filled to extend the depth of the parks lining the bay.  The widow’s walk at the top of the home gave Mr. Sandlin a vantage point from which he could observe vessels bringing his merchandise to a nearby dock.

Sandlin came to the area before Isaac Trabue platted the town that became Punta Gorda. He originally lived on Alligator Creek.  He and his wife, Mary Lula Seward,  had six children.  Their first, who died in infancy, was the first child born in the new city of Punta Gorda.  Another boy, their second child, Felix, died at twelve.  

In 1909, Sandlin’s daughter, 14-year-old Mary, died in a fire at the house while pressing clothes using a gasoline-powered flat iron. The gasoline spilled onto Mary, catching fire.  According to local legend,  Mary’s ghost continues to haunt the house.  

James Sandlin died in 1903.