History of Sarasota, Florida
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![Florida et Regiones Vicinae (1640)](#/media/File:"Florida_et_Regiones_Vicinae"_(9124298123).jpg)
The earliest known identification of the area known today as Sarasota, Florida, was identified on a sheepskin Spanish map from 1763 with the word "Zarazote" written over the location of present-day Sarasota and Bradenton.[1] A 1776 British map by Bernard Romans lists a "Boca Sarasota" in the local area.[2]
The municipal government of Sarasota was established when it was incorporated as a town in 1902.[3] Incorporation under the city form of government followed in the next decade. In 1921, Sarasota County was formed out of Manatee County, with Sarasota city serving as the county seat.[4]
Prehistory
Fifteen thousand years ago, when humans first settled in Florida, the shoreline of the Gulf of Mexico was one hundred miles farther to the west. In this era, hunting and gathering was the primary means of subsistence. This was only possible in areas where water sources existed for hunter and prey alike. Deep springs and catchment basins, such as Warm Mineral Springs, were close enough to the Sarasota area to provide campsites, but too far away for permanent settlements.
As the Pleistocene glaciers slowly melted, a more temperate climate began to advance northward. Sea levels began rising; they ultimately rose another 350 feet (110 m), resulting in the Florida shoreline of today, which provided attractive locations for human settlements.
Archaeological research in Sarasota documents more than ten thousand years of seasonal occupation by native peoples.[5] For five thousand years while the current sea level existed, fishing in Sarasota Bay was the primary source of protein and large mounds (middens) of discarded shells and fish bones attest to the prehistoric human settlements that existed in Sarasota and were sustained by the bounty of its bay.
People living in the area of the present boundaries of Sarasota were part of the Manasota culture, an archaeological culture that existed in the area from Pasco County to Sarasota County from about 500 B.C. until about 900.[6] The Safety Harbor culture, which developed out of the Manasota culture around 900, covered much of the same area. Safety Harbor sites continued to be occupied after the Spanish reached Florida, as European artifacts have been found in the sites. Safety Harbor people built temple mounds in the primary towns of their chiefdoms. About twenty temple mound sites are known, including the Whitaker Mound that used to stand near Sarasota Bay in what is now downtown Sarasota,[7] "Mound Street" being named for it.[citation needed] The Whitaker Mound, and a number of other mounds in what is now Sarasota, were destroyed in the twentieth century to make room for development.[8] The "Whitaker Mound' is named for early area settler William Whitaker.
Spanish exploration
Europeans first explored the area in the early sixteenth century. The first recorded contact was in 1513, when a Spanish expedition[Ponce de Leon?] landed at Charlotte Harbor, just to the south. Spanish was used by the natives during some of the initial encounters, however, providing evidence of earlier contacts.[citation needed]
In 1539, Spanish Conquistador Hernando de Soto sailed into southern Tampa Bay landing near the mouth of the Manatee River at Shaw's Point which is now part of the De Soto National Memorial. On early maps, the smaller bay along the coast to the south and the areas of contemporary Bradenton and Sarasota were identified as Zara Zota, Zara Sota, Sarazota, or Sarasota on maps.[citation needed]
European settlement
Sarasota Bay was known to be a prolific fishery as described by early area settlers.[9] During the second Spanish Colonial period (1783–1821) there were fishing camps, called ranchos, along the bay that were established by Spanish fisherman from Cuba who traded fish and turtles with merchants in Havana.[10]
Following the Adams–Onís Treaty, there were several claimants to Spanish land grants in and around Sarasota Bay, which were subsequently rejected by the United States.[11]
After the conclusion of the War of 1812, some of the British Corps of Colonial Marines stationed at Prospect Bluff retreated to the Tampa Bay area.[12] At least some of them established a farming community on Sarasota Bay.[13]: 7–8 Subsequently, with the destruction of the Negro Fort and after the battles of First Seminole War, many maroons and Red Stick Creek Indians moved into the region.[12]
With the Treaty of Moultrie Creek in 1823, most of the remaining Native Americans who had lived in the area were pushed to a reservation in the interior of Florida.[citation needed]
Fort Armistead
In May 1840, Brigadier General Walker Keith Armistead established Fort Armistead in Sarasota along the bay during the Second Seminole War. Fort Armistead was established because Armistead wanted to move against Native American settlements to the south of Fort Brooke.[citation needed] The fort is thought to have been located in the Indian Beach area of north Sarasota. It was short-lived and only existed for seven months.[14] [broken link] The army established the fort at a rancho operated by Louis Pacheco, an African slave working for his Cuban-American owner Antonio Pacheco.[citation needed] Shortly before the fort was abandoned because of severe epidemics, the leaders of the Seminole and Miccosukee peoples gathered to discuss their impending removal to the Indian Territory, in accordance with the Treaty of Payne's Landing.
Following the closing of the Second Seminole War in 1842 many American settlers took advantage of the new Armed Occupation Act to secure land in the Florida Territory. Soon after Florida was admitted as the 27th state in 1845 and nearly ten years later the influx of new residents into the region helped ignite the Third Seminole War.
The American Civil War and Reconstruction
In 1860, Sarasota was still a part of Manatee county. While the county results of the vote to secede have been lost, or otherwise yet undiscovered, some scholars have deduced that the residents of Manatee were not overly enthusiastic about disunion.[citation needed] There were 20 slave owners reported in Manatee county in 1860.[13]: 137 All the same, the county did begin raising a militia unit in that same year, in anticipation of secession.[citation needed] Over a hundred men from the county would end up serving, with some recruited to the 7th Florida Infantry Regiment, which fought as part of the Army of Tennessee.[15][16]
Union parties would occasionally raid in the Sarasota area. These raids were meant to sap the locals' willingness to continue supporting the Confederate cause as well as deprive the southern armies of potential supplies. A.K. Whitaker, grandson of Sarasota settler William Whitaker, kept most of his cattle in the eastern section of the county, farther from Sarasota Bay, in an effort to keep them safe from Union raiders. Besides going after Florida cattle, Union raiders also destroyed many salt works along the Gulf Coast. However, the Whitaker's operation was not destroyed.[17]
During the Union occupation in Florida, A.K. Whitaker's wife Mary is said to have given a Union soldier a block of matches saying, "Sir, I want to look into the eyes of a man who can stoop so low as to burn the home of a helpless woman and her family." Their house was not burned but others in the Manatee region were.[18]
People profiles
There were several individuals and families who helped develop Sarasota, including the following.
Whitaker - William Whitaker was the first documented pioneer of European descent to settle permanently in what became the village of Sarasota.[19] After time spent along the Manatee River at the village of Manatee, Whitaker built upon Yellow Bluffs, just north of present-day Eleventh Street. He sold dried fish and roe to Cuban traders working the coast and in 1847, he began a cattle business.
Edwards - In 1874, Arthur Britton Edwards, better known as A. B. Edwards, was born in what now is The Uplands neighborhood on bay front land homesteaded earlier by his parents who settled in the area soon after the Civil War. His parents died when he was fourteen and he became the sole supporter of his siblings. Eventually, he became a major contributor to the attraction of migrants to and developers of Sarasota and, when the community changed its form of government to that of a "city", he was elected its first mayor and began to serve on January 1, 1914.[20][21]
Webb - In 1867, John G. Webb and his family moved from Utica, New York to Florida, looking for a place to settle. After arriving in Key West, the pioneer family met a Spanish trader. He told them about a high bluff of land on Sarasota Bay that would make a good location for a homestead.[22] When the Webbs arrived in Sarasota looking for the bluff, they described it to William Whitaker. He led them right to it because of the description. The site was several miles south of the settlement of the Whitakers and after settling, the Webb's named their homestead Spanish Point, in honor of the trader.
Lewis Colson - Born in 1844, Lewis Colson came to Sarasota as a surveyor with the Florida Mortgage and Investment Company in 1894. Colson was a former slave, a fisherman, a landowner, and a Reverend in early Sarasota. He and his wife Irene, a midwife, settled in the neighborhood then known as Black Bottom (later known as Overtown). During his early years, Colson worked for engineer Richard E. Paulson. He later donated property to build the city's first African American Church, Bethlehem Baptist Church. Colson was its reverend from 1899 to 1915.[23] Historian Annie M. McElroy describes Colson as "one of the most respected black men in Sarasota during his lifetime".[24] In the early years of Overtown, black residents developed a thriving community with businesses, shops, churches, and social centers. The Colson Hotel, constructed in 1926, was named in Lewis Colson's honor, and catered to African American tourists up until the 1950s when it was renamed the Palm Hotel. Colson Avenue is also named in his honor. A historical marker at Five Points Park in downtown Sarasota, credits Colson as the "former slave [and] respected community leader... who drove the stake that marked the center of Five Points."[25] Colson, who died in 1922, and his wife Irene, are the only African Americans buried in Rosemary Cemetery.
Browning and Gillespie - In 1885 a Scots colony was established in Sarasota, which at the time was portrayed as a tropical paradise that had been built into a thriving town.[26] A town had been platted and surveyed before the parcels were sold by the Florida Mortgage and Investment Company. When the investors in the "Ormiston Colony" arrived by ship in December, they found that their primitive settlement lacked the homes, stores, and streets promised.
Only a few Scots, such as the Browning family, remained in Sarasota along with a determined member of the developer's family, John Hamilton Gillespie. He was a manager for Florida Mortgage & Investment Company and began to develop Sarasota following the plan for the failed colony. In 1887, he built the De Sota Hotel that opened on February 25 hosting a large social event and celebration. Eventually, tourists arrived at a dock built on the bay. In May 1886 he completed a two-hole golf course. By 1905, he had completed a 110-acre (45 ha) nine-hole course.
Owen Burns - Owen Burns had come to Sarasota for its famed fishing and remained for the rest of his life.[27][better source needed] He became the largest landowner in the city, founded a bank, promoted the development of other businesses, and built its bridges, landmark buildings, and mansions. He dredged the harbor and created new bay front points with reclaimed soils. He created novel developments such as Burns Court (located in what now is referred to as Burns Square) to attract tourists and he built commercial establishments to generate additional impetus to the growing community.
He also went into a business partnership with John Ringling to develop the barrier islands, a fateful decision that bankrupted him when his partner failed to live up to commitments on development agreements. In 1925, Burns built the El Vernona Hotel, naming it after his wife, Vernona Hill Freeman Burns. Shortly after the opening of the hotel, the land boom crash in Florida struck a fatal blow to his finances because of the unfulfilled partnership agreement. Ironically, it was the same former partner, John Ringling, who took advantage of the situation and purchased the hotel for a portion of its value, although several years later, with the crash of the stock market, Ringling met the same financial fate.
Beside the landmarks, bridges, and developments he built, Burns contributed to the attraction of many around the country to Sarasota. Among his five children, he also raised the most important historian for the community, his daughter, Lillian G. Burns.
Bertha Palmer- Bertha Palmer (Bertha Honoré Palmer) was the region's largest landholder, rancher, and developer around the start of the twentieth century, where she purchased more than 90,000 acres (360 km2) of property.[28] She was attracted to Sarasota by an advertisement placed in a Chicago newspaper by A. B. Edwards. They maintained a business relationship for the rest of her life. The Palmer National Bank, established on Main Street at Five Points, remained a strong bank led by her sons through the depression and merged with Southeast Bank in 1976.[29]
Bertha Palmer also owned a large tract of land that now is Myakka State Park. During this period this land was operated as a ranch. She developed and promoted many innovative practices that enabled the raising of cattle to become a large-scale reality in Florida. At her "Meadowsweet Farms", Palmer also pioneered large-scale farming and dairy in the area, making significant contributions to practices that enabled the development of crops that could be shipped to markets in other parts of the country. The contemporary "Celery Fields" now developed into an internationally recognized birding destination, is located on an area she developed to raise celery for shipment to those markets she envisioned. Her experimentation was coordinated with the state department of agriculture.
As war in Europe threatened, Bertha Palmer touted the beauty of Sarasota and its advantages to replace the typical foreign destinations of her social peers. Palmer made her winter residence on the land that the Webb family had homesteaded. She built a resort intended to appeal to these new visitors to the area. She quickly established Sarasota as a fashionable location for winter retreats of the wealthy and as a vacation destination for tourists, which endured beyond the war years and blossomed for the new wealth that developed more broadly in the United States during the 1920s and after the Second World War.[30]
In her early publicity, Palmer compared the beauty of Sarasota Bay to the Bay of Naples, and also touted its sports fishing. As the century advanced, the bounty of the bay continued to attract visitors, until overfishing depleted its marine life.
Palmer retained most of the original Webb Family structures and greatly expanded the settlement. The pioneer site has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Historic Spanish Point and is open to the public for a fee. Her tourist accommodations at The Oaks have not been preserved, however.
Also arriving in 1910, Owen Burns closely followed Bertha Palmer to Sarasota and, with two purchases, he quickly became the largest landholder within what now is the city, therefore many of the huge Sarasota properties she owned are in what now is Sarasota County (which did not exist during her lifetime). Many of its roads bear the names she put on the trails she established. She did participate, however, in speculation in the city along with others, purchasing undeveloped land in great quantities, and many parcels bear her name or that of her sons among those in abstracts.
Her sons continued her enterprises and remained as investors and donors in Sarasota after the death of Bertha Palmer in 1918. Aside from drawing worldwide attention to the city as a vacation destination and a chic location for winter residences, as well as being renowned for the ranching and agricultural reforms she introduced, two state parks are located on properties she held, portions of the Oscar Scherer State Park and the enormous Myakka River State Park, that may be counted as her greatest tangible legacy to Sarasotans.
