Madam Atzeroth—Birth, Parentage and Marriage—Arrival in New York—Visit to Philadelphia, Easton and New Orleans—Arrival in Florida—Locates on Terraceia Island—Vicissitudes of Pioneer Life—A Friend in Need, a Friend Indeed—Arrival of her Sister and Family—Trip to Newnansville—Corn-Dodgers and Sawdust-Death of Mrs. Nichols—Removal to Fort Brooke, Tampa—Col. W. W. Belknap and Family—Return to Terraceia—Homestead Papers Illegally Executed—Return again to Tampa—Gale of 1846—Remove to Palmetto—Indian War—Scenes during the War of the Rebellion—Sell out at Palmetto and Settle in Fogartyville—First Coffee Grown in the United States—Its History.
Madam Atzeroth—Birth, Parentage and Marriage—Arrival in New York—Visit to Philadelphia, Easton and New Orleans—Arrival in Florida—Locates on Terraceia Island—Vicissitudes of Pioneer Life—A Friend in Need, a Friend Indeed—Arrival of her Sister and Family—Trip to Newnansville—Corn-Dodgers and Sawdust-Death of Mrs. Nichols—Removal to Fort Brooke, Tampa—Col. W. W. Belknap and Family—Return to Terraceia—Homestead Papers Illegally Executed—Return again to Tampa—Gale of 1846—Remove to Palmetto—Indian War—Scenes during the War of the Rebellion—Sell out at Palmetto and Settle in Fogartyville—First Coffee Grown in the United States—Its History.
MADAMJULIAATZEROTH, whose maiden name was Hunt, was born in the City of Bradford, near the River Rhine, in Bavaria, on the 25th day of December, 1807. Of a family of four children—two males and two females—she is the only survivor. The death of her mother occurring when she was eleven years of age, she was adopted by an uncle on the maternal side, with whom she resided until she attained her majority. At the age of twenty-four years she married Joseph Atzeroth,also a native of Bavaria. The young couple soon after the birth of their first child, a daughter, left the Fatherland and immigrated to America. They arrived in New York in the month of August, 1841, where they remained only a few months. In consequence of the failing health of Madam Atzeroth, they visited Philadelphia and Easton, Pa.; but deriving no benefit from change of location at the North, her physician advised her to go South. They accordingly went to New Orleans, where they remained about one year. Madam Atzeroth’s health not improving, her attending physician, a German, proposed a trip to Florida. Laying in a supply of provisions and medicines, and accompanied by the physician, they engaged passage on board the schoonerEssex, a tender for the United States troops stationed at Fort Brooke, Tampa, where they arrived in the spring of 1843.
Soon after landing at Tampa, Mr. Atzeroth commenced prospecting for a desirable place to locate. After looking about for two or three weeks, he concluded to homestead one hundred and sixty acres of land on Terraceia Island, and on the 12th day of April, 1843, accompanied by his wife, little daughter, the German physician and his dog Bonaparte, landed on the east side of the island about midway of Terraceia Bay. The hammock was so dense that the men were compelled to usetheir axes to clear a space on which to pitch their tent. The underbrush and vines were so thick, and the progress made by the men so slow, that Madam Joe seized an axe and assisted them. This was her first attempt at chopping and grubbing in Florida. Since that time she has become an expert at the business. When the tent was erected and dinner prepared, it was eaten with a keen relish. From that time forward Madam Joe felt new life and strength. Her torpid liver began to perform its normal functions, and she forthwith discharged the physician and destroyed his medicines. The doctor went to Key West, where he died soon afterward.
Having become weary of tent-life, Madam Joe proposed to her husband the erection of a palmetto hut. Mr. Joe, as the madam always called her husband, drove the stakes for the frame and gathered the palmetto fans or branches. The madam mounted the roof and thatched it; but her work was performed so badly that the first shower of rain deluged the interior, and its inmates sought refuge under the table. The hut was subsequently re-thatched, and three of its corners made fast to trees, which prevented the wind from blowing it down. Soon after the completion of the hut, their provisions ran short, and Mr. Joe started in a canoe for Tampa to replenish them. On his return, adverse winds blew his frail craft aroundShaw’s Point into Palmasola Bay, and becoming bewildered, he landed at Sarasota instead of Terraceia. After being buffeted about by the wind and waves for more than a week, he finally reached home. During his absence, Madam Joe and her child had no companion save the dog Bonaparte. The panthers, wild hogs and owls made the nights hideous with their screams, growls and hootings. One night a raid was made by an owl on the chickens roosting on the trees overhanging the hut. Madam Joe seized an old musket of the Methodist persuasion, which usually went off at half-cock, with the intention of frightening away the “wild varmints,” but it was unloaded. Never having loaded a musket, she was in a quandary whether to put in first the powder or the shot. Luckily, she put in the powder before the shot, and stepping to the door of the hut, discharged the musket into the tops of the trees. She put in too much powder, and like another gun we read about, it
“Bore wide the mark and kicked its owner over.”
“Bore wide the mark and kicked its owner over.”
“Bore wide the mark and kicked its owner over.”
The owl escaped that time in consequence of being at the wrong end of the musket. It was subsequently killed by Mr. Joe, and peace reigned once more among the chickens. Madam Joe subsequently became an expert with both the shot-gun and rifle, and if reports are reliable, her unerring aim has caused more than one red-skin to make ahasty exit to the “happy hunting-grounds.” She can also ride a horse astride or otherwise—seldom otherwise—like a Camanche.
Becoming disgusted with their frail palmetto hut, Madam and Mr. Joe felled the trees and commenced the erection of a log-pen house, consisting of two rooms, with a wide passage running between them. As there were no saw-mills in the country, boards could not be had at any price. The roof of the house was covered with split cedar planks, and the interstices between the logs filled with moss and clay. A chimney was improvised of sticks plastered with mud. Subsequently, glazed sash for the windows were imported from New Orleans. Meanwhile the axe had not been idle. The stately live oaks and graceful palms around the house had been felled and burned, the land grubbed, and a good-sized vegetable garden was in successful cultivation. Fort Brooke, some thirty miles distant, offering a good market for their surplus produce, they hired a man with a boat to transport and sell their vegetables. Although bountiful crops rewarded their labor, they were not entirely happy. Madam Joe was anxious that her only sister, residing in New York, should emigrate with her family to Florida. But how was the matter to be accomplished without money? Where there is a will, there is always a way to accomplish things which at first sight seem to beimpossibilities. The matter was laid before Col. W. G. Belknap, the commander of Fort Brooke, who cheerfully advanced the required funds, and Mr. Joe left immediately in a schooner for New York,viaKey West. The voyage was long and tedious, but it was accomplished, and in due course of time, Mr. Joe returned safely with his brother-in-law, wife and child.
Another trouble now presented itself. The Armed Occupation Act having expired previous to locating their land on Terraceia, they were compelled to go to the United States Land Office, at Newnansville, one hundred and sixty miles distant, to file the requisite papers. The country being wild and sparsely settled, Mr. Joe and Mr. Nichols, his brother-in-law, were compelled to pack their provisions on their backs, which rendered their journey wearisome and slow. On the third day they reached a cabin, where they remained over night. While at breakfast on the following morning, most of their provisions were stolen by some thieving negroes. The theft not being discovered until they stopped at mid-day to lunch, they were in a sad plight. They pushed on as fast as possible, and late in the evening came to a cabin inhabited by very poor people. A scanty supper was set before them, which they ate and retired for the night. The breakfast-table on the following morning was bountifully supplied with hog, hominyand corn-dodgers. Mr. Nichols having never before seen a corn-dodger, took a large mouthful of one, and then walking deliberately to the door, spat it out. On resuming his seat at the table, he requested Mr. Joe, in German, not to eat thosesaw-dustcakes. Mr. Joe, knowing the difference between saw-dust and corn-meal, continued to put away the dodgers, to the great disgust of his brother-in-law, who finished his breakfast on hog and hominy. They finally reached Newnansville, transacted their business and returned safely home, after an absence of about two weeks.
Soon after the return of her husband from Newnansville, Mrs. Nichols gave birth to a child. It lived only two hours, and in less than one week from its birth its mother followed the little angel to
“The undiscovered country, from whose bourneNo traveler returns.”
“The undiscovered country, from whose bourneNo traveler returns.”
“The undiscovered country, from whose bourneNo traveler returns.”
The surviving child, a little girl two years old, was adopted by Madam Joe, who reared and educated her. She is at this time the wife of Mr. William O’Neil, who resides at Palmetto, on the north side of the Manatee Bay.
The money borrowed from Colonel Belknap still remained unpaid, which was a source of great trouble to Madam Joe. She had the inclination, but not the means to cancel the debt. The colonel proposed to send for his family at the North, andinstall Madam Joe as housekeeper. The proposition was cheerfully acquiesced in; and early in the year 1845, Madam Joe, accompanied by her husband, daughter and niece, went to Tampa and resided in the house of Colonel Belknap, at Fort Brooke. The Terraceia homestead was left in charge of Mr. Nichols and a hired man. The colonel’s family at that time consisted of his wife, two daughters and a son. That son, General W. W. Belknap, at present a resident of Keokuk, Iowa, made an honorable and enviable record during the war of the Rebellion, and was afterward Secretary of War during a part of President Grant’s administration.
During the eight months Madam Joe resided with the family of Colonel Belknap, she frequently saw the wily chief, Billy Bowlegs, and other noted Seminoles, for whom, to use her own words, she “cooked many a meal.” Close confinement caused a recurrence of her old disease—liver complaint—and she reluctantly left the hospitable house of Colonel Belknap for her homestead on Terraceia, where by constant out-door exercise, she soon regained her usual health. Even at the present day, Madam Joe’s universal panacea is “the grubbing-hoe and elbow-grease.” She practices what she preaches, and unlike the medical profession, takes her own medicine. Soon after the return of Madam Joe and family to Terraceia,Mr. Nichols concluded to go to New Orleans. During that year—1846—the yellow fever nearly depopulated the city, and Mr. Nichols was probably one of its victims, as he has never been heard from by his friends since he left Terraceia.
In the fall of 1846, one of the severest gales that ever visited this section of the country passed over Tampa, Terraceia, Palmetto and Manatee. Madam Joe’s house was blown down and all her furniture destroyed. The hen-house was the only structure that survived the storm. The fowls were dispossessed of their domicile, and the family occupied it until another house was built.
In 1848, a government official visited this part of Florida to examine proofs of claimants to land under the Armed Occupation and Homestead Acts. On examining Madam Joe’s papers, it was discovered that two permits had been issued for the same number. This error could only be rectified at the General Land Office in Washington. It was deemed advisable by Madam Joe and her husband to return to Tampa and remain there until the mistake in relation to their homestead could be rectified. Mr. Joe hired a man to assist him in building a house at Tampa, and they went up the Hillsborough River to cut logs and make shingles for the structure. In the month of September the logs for the house were formed into a raft and the shingles placed on it. Everything being in readinessfor a start, a furious gale set in, which destroyed the raft and scattered the logs and shingles for miles along the banks of the river. Having gathered the logs and shingles together and rafted them down to Tampa, Mr. Joe visited his family at Terraceia, where he learned that during the late storm his wife, child and niece had taken refuge in the house of a friend on another part of the island. He returned to Tampa, and his family followed soon after. When Madam Joe arrived, she did not admire the location her husband had selected for the house. The frame was taken down and erected on a lot on the town-side of the river, and was soon occupied by the family. The property is still owned by Madam Joe.
Misfortunes, it is said, never come single-handed. In the early part of 1849, Mr. Joe injured one of his feet, and soon after was attacked with chills and fever, which, despite medical treatment, continued nine months. At this time Madam Joe’s finances were at a fearfully low ebb; but being equal to the emergency, she cast about for something to do whereby she could earn an honest penny. She accordingly started a home-made beer and cake shop, which being liberally patronized by the soldiers, soon placed her in easy financial circumstances. Her husband at the same time kept a sutler’s store at Fort Chiconicla.
About this time a partly-finished house, built bya friend—Mr. Reece—in Palmetto, was sold by the sheriff, and Madam Joe became the purchaser, with the hope that Mr. Reece would be able to redeem the property. Failing to do so, Madam Joe and family left Tampa and located in Palmetto in the year 1851. Here they opened a small store, in which they did a thriving business. They also cultivated their farm on Terraceia Island, and by degrees, as their means permitted, stocked it with cattle, horses and hogs. Additions were also made to their stock of goods, and finally they purchased a colored man, who was an excellent farm hand, and proved of great service to his owners.
In 1855 another Indian war broke out. Volunteer companies, home-guards and boat companies were organized for protection against Indian incursions. Many plantations were abandoned and homes broken up. Mr. Joe belonged to one of the boat companies, and a ten days’ scout being prolonged to twenty days, it was reported that the entire party had been massacred by the Indians. During the scout they visited the Indian camps in the Everglades, from whence Mr. Joe brought away as trophies a silver cup and a spoon belonging to Billy Bowlegs. The cup was subsequently sold to Colonel Jewett, U. S. A. The country was in a state of commotion and fever of excitement until the close of the war, in 1858. Duringthese eventful years, Madam Joe stood guard with her musket or rifle whenever her services were required. She never showed the white feather.
Peace had scarcely been restored, when the civil war of 1861 broke out, and Florida was again in a state of anarchy. Mr. Joe enlisted in the Confederate service, and served in Tennessee and Kentucky. At the close of the war, Madam Joe sold her place at Palmetto, with the intention of returning to Europe, but her physician informed her that she could not survive a change of climate, which induced her to abandon the idea of visiting the Fatherland. The family again took up their residence on Terraceia, where Mr. Joe died on the 29th of October, 1871. Madam Joe sold part of her Terraceia plantation and moved to Fogartyville, her present location, in the year 1873. Her garden at this place comprises only four acres, but nowhere else in Florida can be found so many different varieties of trees, plants, vegetables, vines, shrubs and flowers. Mrs. William Fogarty, the daughter of Madam Joe, with her husband and son, reside with the madam. Here, in the year 1876, was planted a few grains of Mexican coffee, received from a neighbor, Mrs. E. S. Warner. On the 20th of February, 1880, Madam Joe sent to the Commissioner of Agriculture, at Washington, thefirst pound of coffee grown in the United States, for which she received ten dollars. Thisspring she has sent to the Agricultural Department, at Washington, four pounds of coffee, the product of two trees. Next year she will have eight coffee trees in bearing, and at least one hundred young trees in her nursery. As quite a diversity of opinion exists in relation to the origin of the seed from which the first coffee was grown in the United States, I append the following communications from Mrs. E. S. Warner, of Manatee, Fla., and Dr. A. A. Russell, of Cordova, Mexico, published in the TampaTribune, of September 26th, 1880:
“Manatee, Fla.,August 30th, 1880.“Dr. Wall: Dear Sir—I inclose a letter from Dr. A. A. Russell, of Cordova, Mexico, the gentleman from whose plantation the coffee-seed was procured that has been successfully reproduced by Madam Atzeroth here. As the subject of coffee-raising in this State is causing considerable inquiry, and as this letter contains much valuable information on the subject, I submit it to you for publication, asking the favor of having a copy forwarded to the doctor from your office as soon as issued. Very respectfully,“E. S. Warner.”
“Manatee, Fla.,August 30th, 1880.
“Dr. Wall: Dear Sir—I inclose a letter from Dr. A. A. Russell, of Cordova, Mexico, the gentleman from whose plantation the coffee-seed was procured that has been successfully reproduced by Madam Atzeroth here. As the subject of coffee-raising in this State is causing considerable inquiry, and as this letter contains much valuable information on the subject, I submit it to you for publication, asking the favor of having a copy forwarded to the doctor from your office as soon as issued. Very respectfully,
“E. S. Warner.”
“Cordova, Mexico,May 19th, 1880.“Mrs. E. S. Warner: Madam—It was quite a pleasure to receive your very kind letter of April 1st. I congratulate you most heartily, and am proud to learn that from theseed I sent was produced the first coffee in the States. I think I wrote you that the plant requires shade. In this climate we prefer to plant in fresh, timbered land; cutting out at first only the undergrowth, and taking out a few treesevery year after for two or three years, thus graduating the shade and ventilating as appears to be required. The palatine (or plantain, or banana, as you probably call it) makes a good shade, and may be cut out, or under leaves trimmed off as may seem to be necessary. Coffee requires a rich, vegetable soil, or manure. The berry is fully ripe when dark red, but the grain is matured if the berry is picked when it has become yellow or only turning red; however, the coffee is of better quality if the berry is fully ripe, that is, of a deep or dark red. When gathered, it should be spread out at once to dry in the sun. It may be dried on mats, scaffolds or platforms of planks or boards. In good or favorable weather it requires about three weeks to dry. Here it is often dried on the ground. It may be spread from two to four inches thick, and should be stirred twice or three times a day; and if it should get wet a few times on the dryer, before half dry, no harm will be done and the coffee not injured in the least, if frequently stirred to prevent fermentation. When half dry it should be protected from rain and dew. If it has been wet a few times it will be more easily cleaned, but if frequently wet it will be of a darker color; also much darker, and even black and spoiled, if allowed to heat and ferment. It may be pulped by some of the pulping machines now in use, the day it is gathered, then washed and dried. The pulped coffee will dry in a few days, occupies less space in drying, and is of a lighter color, which, with you, I presume, are considerations of little importance at present.“You will know the coffee is sufficiently dry when the hull crushes readily under the foot. The most simple, and, by the way, not a very bad process for cleaning the coffee, is the primitive mode of cleaning rice; that is, to beat it out in a deep mortar with a heavy pestle, and as the chaff accumulates dip out the coffee with a cup in the left hand, pouring back into the mortar from the same height, at the same time blowing off the chaff with a fan in the right hand, repeating the process until clean.“There are a variety of machines for hulling and cleaning coffee, which will be a matter of consideration when the production requires it. Now that you have succeeded in producing the grain, you will have less difficulty in propagating from the acclimated seed, which should be thoroughly ripe, squeezed out of the pulp and dried in the shade. Hope you will continue successfully, and establish plantations of importance.Your obedient servant,“A. A. Russell.”
“Cordova, Mexico,May 19th, 1880.
“Mrs. E. S. Warner: Madam—It was quite a pleasure to receive your very kind letter of April 1st. I congratulate you most heartily, and am proud to learn that from theseed I sent was produced the first coffee in the States. I think I wrote you that the plant requires shade. In this climate we prefer to plant in fresh, timbered land; cutting out at first only the undergrowth, and taking out a few treesevery year after for two or three years, thus graduating the shade and ventilating as appears to be required. The palatine (or plantain, or banana, as you probably call it) makes a good shade, and may be cut out, or under leaves trimmed off as may seem to be necessary. Coffee requires a rich, vegetable soil, or manure. The berry is fully ripe when dark red, but the grain is matured if the berry is picked when it has become yellow or only turning red; however, the coffee is of better quality if the berry is fully ripe, that is, of a deep or dark red. When gathered, it should be spread out at once to dry in the sun. It may be dried on mats, scaffolds or platforms of planks or boards. In good or favorable weather it requires about three weeks to dry. Here it is often dried on the ground. It may be spread from two to four inches thick, and should be stirred twice or three times a day; and if it should get wet a few times on the dryer, before half dry, no harm will be done and the coffee not injured in the least, if frequently stirred to prevent fermentation. When half dry it should be protected from rain and dew. If it has been wet a few times it will be more easily cleaned, but if frequently wet it will be of a darker color; also much darker, and even black and spoiled, if allowed to heat and ferment. It may be pulped by some of the pulping machines now in use, the day it is gathered, then washed and dried. The pulped coffee will dry in a few days, occupies less space in drying, and is of a lighter color, which, with you, I presume, are considerations of little importance at present.
“You will know the coffee is sufficiently dry when the hull crushes readily under the foot. The most simple, and, by the way, not a very bad process for cleaning the coffee, is the primitive mode of cleaning rice; that is, to beat it out in a deep mortar with a heavy pestle, and as the chaff accumulates dip out the coffee with a cup in the left hand, pouring back into the mortar from the same height, at the same time blowing off the chaff with a fan in the right hand, repeating the process until clean.
“There are a variety of machines for hulling and cleaning coffee, which will be a matter of consideration when the production requires it. Now that you have succeeded in producing the grain, you will have less difficulty in propagating from the acclimated seed, which should be thoroughly ripe, squeezed out of the pulp and dried in the shade. Hope you will continue successfully, and establish plantations of importance.
Your obedient servant,“A. A. Russell.”
MADAM JULIA ATZEROTH. The lady who raised the first coffee grown in the United States. From a photograph by F. Pinard, Manatee and Tampa.MADAM JULIA ATZEROTH.The lady who raised the first coffee grown in the United States.From a photograph by F. Pinard, Manatee and Tampa.
The portrait of Madam Joe is a truthful likeness. Above the medium height of her sex, with features bronzed by a tropical sun and the exposure and hardships of a pioneer life, she is nevertheless a well-preserved matron of seventy-four years, with as noble and generous a heart as ever pulsated within the breast of a human being. She is passionately fond of music and waltzing, and can
“Trip the light fastastic toe”
“Trip the light fastastic toe”
“Trip the light fastastic toe”
as gracefully as a miss of sixteen. May her days in the land be prolonged beyond fourscore years and ten.
The Warners, Mother and Sons—Palmasola City—Steam Saw-mill and other Improvements—Sam Nichols and his Shell-mound—Palmasola Bay—Sarasota Bay and its Surroundings—Snead’s Island—Shell-mound—Date-palm and Olive Trees—Uncle Joe and his Dogs with Glass Eyes—Sapp’s Point—Palmetto—The Patten and Turner Plantations—Judah P. Benjamin—Oak Hill—Terraceia Island—Landing of De Soto in 1539.
The Warners, Mother and Sons—Palmasola City—Steam Saw-mill and other Improvements—Sam Nichols and his Shell-mound—Palmasola Bay—Sarasota Bay and its Surroundings—Snead’s Island—Shell-mound—Date-palm and Olive Trees—Uncle Joe and his Dogs with Glass Eyes—Sapp’s Point—Palmetto—The Patten and Turner Plantations—Judah P. Benjamin—Oak Hill—Terraceia Island—Landing of De Soto in 1539.
WESTWARDof Fogartyville, on the south side of the bay, among the most prominent residences, are those of the Warners, mother and sons. Thence westward, across a bayou, on a sand-spit projecting into the bay, stands the steam saw and planing-mill of Messrs. W. S. Warner & Co., just completed. This mill, wharf and warehouse are thenucleiof Palmasola City, which is soon to skirt the adjacent sand hills, and cause the surrounding “wilderness to blossom as the rose.” Mr. Warner is a Bay State Yankee of indomitable pluck, and his partner, Mr. J. S. Beach, who resides at Terre Haute, Ind., controls the money bags of a national bank. If capital and pluck wean build a city, the success of Palmasola may beset down as assured. Along the bay, west of the Warners, are the ranches of Messrs. Sweetzer, Burgess, Sykes and Bishop. A few miles further west is Shaw’s Point, at the mouth of the bay. Here, on an immense shell-mound, surrounded by hammock and pine land, Mr. Sam Nichols, a native of Alabama, has entered a homestead of 160 acres of land. Although severely wounded during our late “unpleasantness,” Mr. Nichols has beaten his musket into a plowshare, his sword into a pruning-hook, and, like a good citizen, is earning his bread by the sweat of his brow.
Along the Gulf coast, southward, skirting Palmasola and Sarasota Bays, may be found the hospitable homes of Messrs. Farrar, Adams, Moore, Buckner, Harp, Stephonse, Tyler, Spang, Crowley, Dorch, Callan, Riggin, Dunham, Smith, Helveston, Whitaker, Willard, Bidwell, Edmondson, C. E. and M. R. Abbe, Liddell, Greer, Yonge, Boardman, Young, Lancaster, Cunliff, Woodworth, Jones, Anderson, Crocker, Hansen, Bronson Bros., Clower, Lowe, Webb, Griffith, Bacon, Knight, Guptrel and Roberts.
On the north side of Manatee Bay, at its entrance into Tampa Bay, is Snead’s Island, separated from the mainland by a narrow and shallow “cut-off” leading into Terraceia Bay, and also by a wider and deeper channel opening into Tampa Bay, and separating it from Terraceia Island.Midway of the island, fronting on Manatee Bay, is a curiosity in the shape of a shell-mound or earth-work, crescent-shaped, and some forty feet in height. The distance between the points of the crescent on the bank of the bay, is five hundred feet. On the highest point of the mound, and nearly in the centre, stands a frame dwelling, somewhat dilapidated, erected by a former owner of the place. On the eastern angle are two date-palm and two olive trees. The former are fifteen inches in diameter and forty feet in height. The latter are eighteen inches in diameter two feet above the ground, and fifty feet in height. Both the olive and date-palms bear fruit; the former in large quantities. On the mound in the centre of the crescent, and near the house, are two olibanum trees, eighteen inches in diameter and fifty feet in height. Was this mound an Indian burial place, or was it thrown up by the early Spanish invaders as a defense against the Natchez, a warlike and semi-civilized tribe of Indians, who, at the time of the Spanish conquest, inhabited this part of Florida?Quien sabe?
The only human occupants of the island at this time are uncle Joe Franklin and his wife, an aged couple. Uncle Joe lives in a palmetto hut with a shell floor, and with the old ’oman and two glasseyed dogs as companions,
“His hours in cheerful labor fly.”
“His hours in cheerful labor fly.”
“His hours in cheerful labor fly.”
Uncle Joe is a character, and all visitors to the Manatee should call on him, examine his mammoth wild fig tree and hedge of century plants.Mem.Ask him to chain his dogs before you go ashore, otherwise the seat of your inexpressibles will require repairs. I have been there.
Eastward, above the Terraceia cut-off, is Sapp’s Point. Further along, and directly opposite Braidentown, is Palmetto, a young town containing two stores and a post-office. The reader will perceive that Uncle Sam distributes post-offices in Florida with a lavish hand. We have three of these convenient institutions within a radius of one and a half miles—Braidentown, Manatee, Palmetto—and Palmasola City, only three miles distant, will have one as soon as Postmaster Warner shall build an office to protect the mail matter of that growing city.
Immediately in the rear of Palmetto is a prairie of several miles in extent. North-east of the town, about one mile distant in the hammock, Mr. Hendricks, of Palmetto, has a promising six-years-old orange grove, grown from seeds planted with his own hands. Mr. Hendricks cultivates vegetables between the rows of his orange trees, and last year he realized several hundred dollars by shipping his early tomatoes, cucumbers and snap-beans to New York and other Northern markets. To Mr. Hendricks belongs the creditof starting the early vegetable boom in the Manatee region.
Mr. David Zehner, from Louisiana, has recently purchased a strip of scrub hammock, east of the town, where he intends to make the cultivation of grapes and strawberries a specialty. He has already received several thousand cuttings and plants of the choicest varieties. A few miles further eastward, you reach the plantation of Major W. I. Turner, the god-father of Braidentown, who has forty acres in tomatoes, cucumbers, squashes and beans. He has already commenced shipping his vegetables to the Northern markets.
Half a mile east of Major Turner’s is the extensive plantation of Major George Patten. General Hiram W. Leffingwell, ex-United States Marshal for the Eastern District of Missouri, has recently purchased 200 acres of this land, and is negotiating for more. Two of the general’s sons, with their families and an unmarried nephew, are now encamped on the land, and are busily engaged in erecting dwelling-houses and the necessary out-buildings. The general and his wife will arrive later in the season. In addition to the cultivation of the various fruits of the citrus family, the general will devote his attention to general farm crops and the growing of early vegetables for the Northern and Western markets. Another St. Louis gentleman, Mr. C. G. B.Drummond, Assistant U. S. District Attorney, has purchased 120 acres of land on the Rogers’ hammock near Oak Hill, on which he will set out an orange grove this summer.
Mr. H. O. Cannon, a California Argonaut, and late resident of New Albany, Ind., after having spent several winters prospecting Florida, has, like a sensible man, concluded to pitch his tent on the Patten plantation. With this view, he has purchased twenty acres of land, which he has commenced grubbing and fencing, preparatory to planting an orange and lemon grove. Mr. C. H. Walworth, of Milwaukee, has purchased twenty acres of land adjoining Mr. Cannon, which he will have cleared, grubbed and planted in orange and lemon trees this year.
Inante bellumtimes, the present Patten plantation was known first as the Gamble, and afterward as the Cofield and Davis plantation, and was the largest and most thoroughly equipped sugar plantation in the State of Florida. The owners worked 200 hands, and had 1,400 acres of sugar-cane in one field. Their sugar-mill and refinery contained all the modern appliances, and, at the commencement of the war, was worth half a million dollars. Soon after the breaking out of hostilities, most of the slaves were sent to Louisiana, and work on the plantation was abandoned. During the last year of the war, a Federal gunboat entered theManatee Bay, and a boat’s crew, commanded by an officer, blew up the sugar-house and set fire to the refinery. The destruction was complete; and to-day may be seen the ponderous fly-wheel of the engine, broken shafts and crumbling walls—sad mementos of the event. The family mansion, a large two-story brick structure, with galleries around three sides of both stories, escaped the hand of the destroyer. Although bearing the finger-marks of time, it is at this day, a substantial structure, and, with slight repairs, would weather the storms of another century. Connected with this old mansion is a history, now for the first time published.
Within these walls during the last days of the Southern Confederacy, when that fabric (on paper) was fast crumbling to pieces, Judah P. Benjamin, a fugitive from justice, and flying for his life under the assumed name of Charles Howard, was the guest for nearly two months of Captain Archibald McNeill, its then occupant. When on that memorable Sunday, in the spring of 1865, Jeff. Davis and his cabinet hastily fled from Richmond, Benjamin and Breckinridge struck out for the wilds of Florida, which seemed to offer a secure retreat. Arrived at Gainsville, Breckinridge sought refuge on the Atlantic coast, and Benjamin, under the guidance of Captain L. G. Leslie, started for the Gulf coast,viaTampa, and arrived safely at the mansion of Captain McNeill. After remainingnearly two months at Captain McNeill’s, Benjamin was conveyed in a boat to Manatee, and from thence to Sarasoto Bay in a horse-cart, by Rev. E. Glazier, of Manatee; from thence to Cape Florida in a small sail-boat, commanded by Captain Fred. Tresca, also a resident of Manatee. At Cape Florida a larger boat was procured, and after several hair-breadth escapes from Federal gunboats and the perils of the sea, Captain Tresca landed his charge safely on one of the islands of the Bahama group, and returned to Manatee $1,500 richer than when he left home. Benjamin reached England safely, where he has acquired fame and fortune. Should this page by chance meet his eye, he will no doubt be pleased to learn that Captain McNeill, past threescore and ten, has retired from active life and settled in Manatee, surrounded by a large family. Captain Tresca, or Captain “Fred.,” as he is called by his friends, lives with his wife and two children on a small plantation near Braidentown. Although he counts his years away up among the nineties, he is still a well-preserved “old salt.” Rev. E. Glazier is still a resident of Manatee, and looks as though he had renewed his lease of life for another half century. Judas betrayed his Master for the paltry sum of thirty pieces of silver. Twenty-five thousand dollars was the price offered by the United States Government for thecorpusof the fugitive.The example of Judas was not followed by those who assisted Benjamin to escape.
There are more than a thousand acres of the rich hammock land belonging to this plantation for sale at from $15 to $25 per acre, according to location. When the fact that it cost originally $75 per acre to clear this land, is taken into consideration, it will be seen that the price at which it is now offered is very low, and places it within the reach of persons of small means. The land will be sold in lots to suit purchasers.
Adjoining the grounds of the Patten mansion is the residence of Hamet J. Craig, who has a young orange grove of three hundred trees and ten acres of hammock land under cultivation. Five miles further on, in a north-easterly direction, is Oak Hill, the former residence of Major W. I. Turner. At this place the major has a bearing orange grove of several hundred trees, and also one of the most promising six-years-old groves of six hundred trees to be found in the Manatee region. Adjoining Major Turner is the grove of Walter Tresca, just coming into bearing, and near by is the young grove of Mr. William Gillett.
Terraceia Island, separated from Snead’s Island by a narrow channel, is bounded on the west by Tampa Bay, on the north by Frog Creek, and on the east by Terraceia Bay. This island contains several tracts of excellent hammock land, most ofwhich is under improvement. On this island are located the bearing orange groves of Messrs. Hallock, Lennard and Williams; Messrs. Kennedy, Howard, Gifford, Watkins, Hobart, Patten and Wyatt are also located on this island. Judge Cessna, of Gainesville, has recently purchased a plantation on the island, and will soon locate there. Other persons on the line of the Transit Railroad having become disgusted with frost and ice, are seeking homes in the Manatee region. On the mainland, on the east side, and about midway of Terraceia Bay, is the plantation of Mr. John Craig. Mr. Craig raises the finest cane and has the reputation of making the best sugar in Manatee County.
A short distance north of Terraceia Island, on the mainland, Hernando De Soto, fresh from the conquest of Peru, where he was associated with Francisco Pizarro, landed his troops in the latter part of May, 1539. He sailed from Havana on Sunday, May 18th, 1539, with his troops embarked in five large ships, two caravels and two brigantines. The disastrous fate of his predecessors in Florida cast no gloom on the mind of De Soto, and his assurances of success imparted confidence to those who accompanied him. He had never been defeated in battle, and was believed by his soldiers to be invincible. His officers were men of valor and ripe experience, and his troops werewell disciplined, a majority of them having served in many campaigns, and all were well acquainted with Indian warfare.
His wife, Dona Isabella, did not share his enthusiasm, and desired to accompany him and share the dangers she believed he was about to encounter; but De Soto strenuously opposed her wishes, and encouraged her to believe that the time of reunion was not far distant. The conquest of Florida appeared to De Soto to be an easy task, from which he could soon return with large accessions of wealth and glory.
Contrary and baffling winds kept the squadron tossing about in the Gulf of Mexico for several days. De Soto and his troops obtained their first view of the Land of Flowers on the morning of the 25th day of May, and in the afternoon of the same day they came to anchor about two leagues from the shore. The shoals which extended along the coast prevented the ships from coming nearer. They had, in the meantime, been discovered by the natives, who had kindled beacon-fires along the beach, now known as Pinellas, as signals to collect their forces and be in readiness to repel their enemies. De Soto’s vessels were anchored off the mouth of Tampa Bay, called by the Spaniards the Bay of Espiritu Santo.
The Natchez, who inhabited the neighboring country, were governed by a chief named Ucita,whose hatred of the Spaniards is easily explained. When Pamphilo de Narvaez visited this region in 1528, he was kindly received and hospitably entertained by the Chief Ucita, and a treaty of peace between them was formed; yet, on a very slight pretense, the wily and bloodthirsty Pamphilo caused the chief’s nose to be cut off, and his aged mother to be torn to pieces by dogs! Hence, the reason why Ucita displayed implacable resentment in his behavior to De Soto and his companions in arms.
Thus, it will be seen that from the earliest history of our country, the aborigines have been treated with the most impolitic and unchristian-like barbarity; and it is highly probable that much of that ferocity which characterizes the Indians of the far West at this time, may be ascribed to the harsh and merciless treatment which their ancestors received from the early Spanish explorers, who acted on the principle that the Indians had no rights that a white man was bound to respect.
Wishing to avoid a collision with the Indians at that time, De Soto weighed anchor, and proceeded with his fleet two leagues further up the bay, where he disembarked his troops in boats. The place where he landed was on the eastern shore of Hillsborough Bay, above the mouth of the Little Manatee River, and near the line which separates Hillsborough and Manatee Counties.
The Indians being anxious to get rid of De Soto and his followers, informed them thatEl Dorado, for which they were seeking, was further northward. De Soto sent his ships back to Havana, and commenced his toilsome march overland, which ended with his death and burial in the Mississippi River, on the 5th day of June, 1542, three years and one month after the date of his arrival in Tampa Bay.
SUNNYSIDE COTTAGE. The Residence of Samuel C. Upham, Braidentown, Florida.SUNNYSIDE COTTAGE.The Residence of Samuel C. Upham, Braidentown, Florida.
“Sunnyside”—Orange and Banana Groves—Lemons And Limes—Coffee Trees and Pine-apples—California Grapes—Quality of the Land—Mode of Cultivation—Florida, Past, Present and Future—Increased Production—Better and Cheaper Transportation—Interrogatories And Answers.
“Sunnyside”—Orange and Banana Groves—Lemons And Limes—Coffee Trees and Pine-apples—California Grapes—Quality of the Land—Mode of Cultivation—Florida, Past, Present and Future—Increased Production—Better and Cheaper Transportation—Interrogatories And Answers.
HAVINGgiven the reader a hasty outline of the Manatee region, I will add a briefresumeof my personal experience at “Sunnyside” during the past eighteen months. On my arrival in Braidentown, in the fall of 1879, my land was a “howling wilderness.” At this time I have a young orange grove of six hundred trees, sixty lemon, fifteen lime, ten guava, half a dozen olive, two soft-shell almond, twenty coffee, four each Japan plum and persimmon, two pomegranate, two cocoa-nut and four Le Conte pear trees, all of which are growing luxuriantly. I also have one acre in bananas and sixty pine-apple plants, both of which will bear fruit next year. Around the fence inclosing my house lot, I have sixty California grape-vines of the choicest varieties, viz.: Flaming Tokay, White Muscat of Alexandria, Mission and Rose of Peru. The vines are looking well, and will bear fruit next year.
The land on which I am located is spruce-pine, interspersed with water-oak and scrub palmetto, which would be pronounced by the average Floridian worthless. I had at the commencement, and still have, abiding faith in the white sand of Florida with a mulatto sub-soil. No matter how white the surface, if underlaid by a mulatto or yellow sub-soil, the citrus family will thrive. The foliage of my young trees is dark green, and their vigorous growth astonishes the “crackers,” who predicted a failure. Owing to the mildness of the climate—my location being exempt from frost—my trees grew all last winter. My orange trees are set in parallel rows, thirty feet apart each way; the lemon and lime trees twenty-five feet apart; the bananas twelve feet, and the pineapples two feet apart. I hoe my grove every two months, and plow it four times a year. Thus, by keeping the soil constantly tickled with the hoe, my trees laugh with a bountiful foliage. What I have done, can be performed by others. There is no secret about the matter. We welcome immigrants from the frigid North, from the prairies of the West, and from the lands beyond the sea. To all we say, come and tarry with us.
Florida, the first State belonging to the Union, discovered and settled by Europeans, has, during the past 350 years, been hustled about from pillar to post like a shuttle-cock. The repeated Indianwars from 1816 to 1858, rendered life so insecure, that the early settlers literally carried their lives in their hands. Is it then a matter of surprise that Florida is so sparsely populated? Mr. J. S. Adams, former Commissioner of Immigration, truthfully remarks: “The wonder truly is, not that she has not attained a more flourishing condition, but that she exists at all, and that her boundless forests, her lovely rivers and her beautiful lakes are not fast locked in the silent embrace of a moveless desolation.” Since slavery, which rested like an incubus of original sin on the soil of Florida, has been removed, immigration has been pouring in from the North and the West, and from the isles of the ocean. Germany, Italy, France and England have each furnished their quota, and the forests along the line of the railroads, as well as those accessible by steamboats, are beginning to show the effects of an advanced civilization. The gigantic undertaking of draining Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades, together with the construction of a ship canal, connecting the Atlantic Ocean with the Gulf of Mexico, by Mr. Hamilton Disston, of Philadelphia, and his coadjutors, is proof positive that a new era is beginning to dawn on the Land of Flowers, and, ere many years, the southern portion of the State will be one vast orange grove, interspersed with the guava, lemon, lime, pine-apple and banana.I hear the skeptic say: “You will overstock the market, and your fruit will not pay the cost of transportation.” The orangepar excellencecan be grownonlyin the soil of Florida, therefore competition with foreign countries need not be feared. Florida will soon be able to supply the cities of the Mediterranean with a superior fruit to that grown on their own shores, and more cheaply. Increased production and transportation will cause a corresponding reduction in freight, and also insure greater and better facilities in the modes of transportation. There will also be a large reduction in price to the consumer, which will enable the man of limited means—in other words, the poor man—to indulge with the millionaire in the daily luxury of the golden apple of the Hesperides—the Florida orange. The above may be deemed by some persons chimerical, but time, the great arbiter of events, will solve the problem.
By every mail I am in receipt of letters asking all manner of questions in relation to the climate, soil, productions, etc., of this part of Florida. At first I cheerfully complied with the requests of my numerous correspondents, but the novelty has worn off, and the task has become slightly monotonous. Recently, I received a four-page capsheet letter from a gentleman in Utah Territory, to which was appended seventeen interrogatoriesin relation to the Gulf Coast of South Florida. That straw broke the camel’s back, and, in reply to the following question: “I see by the last census that Manatee County has a population of over 4,000, and not a death recorded for 1880. Do people ever die there?” I wrote immediately, “Hardly ever. When we want to start a graveyard, we kill a man.” I am firmly impressed with the belief that my Mormon correspondent, with a “family of ten persons,” will not immigrate to the Land of Flowers. Below will be found twenty-five questions in relation to Florida, from correspondents the “wide world over,” with answers appended:
1st. “At any time of the year do you have severe storms of thunder and lightning?”
During the rainy season, thunder showers, accompanied by lightning, frequently occur, but they are not more severe than in the Northern and Western States.
2d. “Are venomous reptiles numerous?”
During my residence and travels in Florida, I have never seen a rattlesnake; I have seen a few moccasin, garter, coachwhip and blacksnakes. The two latter are harmless, and are seldom killed by the natives. Alligators are not numerous in this vicinity, and are comparatively harmless. Scorpions and centipedes are seldom met with. Their sting is no more severe than that of a bee.
3d. “Is the land about Braidentown sandy or clayey?”
The land on the margin of the bay is sandy; further back in the hammock, the soil is dark gray and chocolate color, underlaid with clay and limestone.
4th. “Are the people mostly Northern?”
Like an Englishman’s favorite beverage, they are ’alf-and-’alf.
5th. “What is the name of your nearest town of any importance?”
Have no towns of “importance” in this section of the country; they are in the womb of time—not hatched yet.
6th. “What is the character of your society?”
Mixed.
7th. “Do you consider Florida as healthy as California?”
I consider this Manatee region the sanitarium of the world. A more healthful spot cannot be found on God’s footstool.
8th. “Do malarial fevers prevail in your section any time during the year?”
In the rich, low hammock lands, where vegetation is rank, malarial fevers exist in the fall of the year. Chills and fever here yield more readily to proper medical treatment than in the West. Pine land is exempt from malaria.
9th. “Does the summer heat prove enervating?”
That depends on a man’s constitution. If born tired, yes.
10th. “Is it true that the summer weather with you is more pleasant—less oppressive—than at the North?”
Yes; the thermometer rarely registers more than 96°. It reached that point only twice last summer.
11th. “Are the nights in summer always cool?”
Generally; sometimes cooler than in the winter.
12th. “Can you work out of doors during the day in summer time?”
Yes, when it does not rain. I have not seen a day too hot to work out of doors since my arrival in Florida.
13th. “Do the crops of vegetables and grass burn under the summer sun?”
We don’t raise vegetables in the summer. Our vegetables are grown in the winter and spring, when the land at the North is locked fast in the embrace of frost and ice. The grass here is very nutritious, and large herds of cattle fatten on it. This section of country supplies Cuba with beef.
14th. “Are insects—fleas and mosquitoes—more troublesome than at the North?”
Fleas sometimes make it lively with us; but there are fewer mosquitoes in this locality than in a majority of the Northern States.
15th. “Do you consider Manatee County one of the best to settle in?”
It suits me better than any other part of Florida. You might go further and fare worse.
16th. “Do you think the Gulf Coast equal to the Atlantic Coast for climate, health, etc.?”
Yes; far superior.
17th. “What is the price of land in your section?”
That depends upon quality and location. Here, in the settlement of Braidentown, land is selling at from $25 to $100 per acre. A short distance back of the town, pine land can be purchased at from $1.50 to $5 per acre; and hammock land at $10 per acre. Across the bay, nearly opposite Manatee, on the Patten plantation, good hammock land, once under cultivation, can be purchased at from $15 to $25 per acre, according to location. This land is being rapidly metamorphosed into vegetable gardens, whose products—tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, peas, etc.—reach the Northern markets during the month of March.
18th. “What are the business prospects for a new-comer?”
That will depend a great deal on the “new-comer.” Come, investigate and judge for yourself.
19. “Can sugar-cane be grown to advantage in your neighborhood? and what amount of sugar can be made to the acre?”
The Manatee region is the natural home of thesugar-cane. Here it tassels, and consequently fully matures. Florida is the only State of the Union in which the cane tassels. When the Cofield and Davis, now Patten plantation, was in full operation, the average product was two hogsheads of sugar to the acre. The cane here ratoons from six to eight years.
20th. “What is the cost of clearing land?”
That depends on the quality of the land. The average pine land can be cleared and grubbed at from $10 to $20 per acre. Hammock land will cost double that price.
21st. “Can lumber be had on the Manatee, and if so, at what price?”
Heart-pine lumber, suitable for fencing or building purposes, can be had here at $15 per M. Light wood posts can be purchased at $10 per hundred.
22d. “What is the price of labor in your vicinity?”
Colored laborers can be hired at from $15 to $20 per month, with board or rations. The price is $1 per day when the laborer boards himself.
23d. “Are fish, oysters and game plentiful?”
Our rivers and bayous are literally alive with mullet—the mackerel of the South. Sea-trout (black bass), jack-fish, sheepshead, red-fish, angel-fish, drum and pompino can also be had in abundance in the water around Palm Key, at the mouthof the bay. Oysters and clams of a superior quality can be had in Terraceia and Sarasoto Bays. Deer, squirrels, quail and wild turkeys abound in the adjoining hammocks.
24th. “Can you refer me to any person in your vicinity whose health has been benefited by the climate?”
Yes; several. Rev. Edmund Lee, of Manatee, arrived here forty-five years ago, a confirmed invalid; in fact, nearly gone with pulmonary consumption. On his first arrival he was so weak that it required considerable effort to pull a mullet off a grid-iron. The healthfulness of the climate, together with out-door exercise and a clear conscience, have enabled him to fight the flesh and the devil successfully to the present time. He is at this time a well-preserved patriarch of seventy-two years; has outlived two wives, and bids fair to remain many years longer on this side of Jordan.
Mr. John M. Helm, residing some three miles south-east of Braidentown, arrived from Windsor, Ind., about four years since. He also was nearly gone with consumption. One lung was hepatized, and on the other a tubercle formed, and discharged after his arrival here. Physicians at the West pronounced his case hopeless—beyond the reach of medicine—and recommended the climate of Florida as a last resort. He is now a wellman, and can hoe more orange trees in a day, and hoe them better, than any man I know in Florida.
Two years ago I arrived here, clad in porous-plasters, suffering with chronic rheumatism. Two months later I was as frisky as a lamb in spring time. I am convinced that my old complaint has left me never to return, so long as I remain here. I could record other cases, but the above must suffice for the present.
25th. “State the most direct route to Braidentown.”
By rail to Cedar Key, the terminus of railroad communication, thence by the boats of the Tampa Steamship Company to this place. A boat leaves Cedar Key on Monday and Friday afternoon of each week, and arrives at Braidentown early on the following morning. Fare, $8. The above is the advertised programme, but it is sometimes changed to suit wind and weather. Captains Jackson and Doane are thorough seamen, and do everything in their power to render passengers comfortable. Whatever may be the opinion of travelers in regard to the speed and accommodations of the boats, they will unanimously agree that the fare—$8 for a distance of less than 100 miles—isfirst-class. A line of light draught, modern-built and comfortably fitted-up steamboats, between Cedar Key and Braidentown, would be liberally patronized. Shall we have the boats? Echo repeats the question.