THE SETTLING OF SARASOTA (The start of a series)

Before the encroachment of the paleface, the area now known as Florida, was a vast wilderness inhabited by as many as 45 tribes of Indians. The origin of the term 'Indian' is credited to Columbus. When he landed on Hispanola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic) in 1492, he believed he had discovered a new route to India and hence he called the inhabitants Indians.

In 1513, Juan Ponce de Leon, after having sailed with Columbus in 1493 on his second voyage, left from Puerto Rico and reached the east coast of Florida (St. Augustine), on April 2 (Palm Sunday). He named the land "Pascua de Florida" (Feast of Flowers), and claimed it for Spain.
In 1521, while searching for Bimini, where he hoped to find gold and the Fountain of Youth, he arrived on the West Coast of Florida.

In 1819, Spain ceded Florida to the USA. As a result of the Armed Occupation Act of 1842, and after having spent four years fighting in the Seminole Indian Wars, 21 year old Will H. Whitaker, said to be the first white settler, arrived in the Sarasota area, and homesteaded 145 acres on Yellow Bluffs, (now Whitaker Bayou). He planted a large orange grove, caught mullet that he cleaned, salted, and sold to Cuban traders for one cent each. In 1847, Will purchased his first stock of cattle and named the brand #47.

On June 10, 1851, he married Mary Jane Wyatt, youngest child of Colonel William Wyatt and wife, Mary. It was said of Mary Jane that she could ride horseback like a man, herd cattle, and shoot the head off a wild turkey at 100 yards.

On April 19, 1852, Nancy Catherine Stuart Whitaker, the first of ten children, was born. Will and Mary's first home was destroyed by Seminole Indians, and in 1857 they built another home at what is now the intersection of 12th Street and U.S. 41 in Sarasota. Except for frequent raids, swarms of mosquitoes, bears, wolves, wildcats, 180-pound panthers, alligators, razorback hogs, and poisonous snakes, life was peaceful.

(To be continued)...

(C) Copyright, 2007 - Leland Desmon.

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