THE SETTLING OF SARASOTA (25th in a series)

In previous episodes, we revealed little about Harry Higel, one of early Sarasota’s foremost citizens. He was mayor when Sarasota was incorporated as a city in 1913. He constantly fought for progress including being first to plat Siesta Key in 1907. On January 7, 1921, he was found brutally beaten and left to die in the middle of Beach Road. A reward of $1,000 was offered for evidence to convict. Although a suspect was identified, the evidence was circumstantial and the reward was never claimed.

On May 1, 1925, an eight page newspaper size advertisement entitled “Sarasota on the Gulf” was published and widely distributed. It stated, “Fortunes have been made overnight in Sarasota” and included articles to prove it. “Jim Bishop, a fisherman, sold a lot on Longboat Key for $30,000 and retired.” “Senator Park Trammell made a profit of over $10,000 on an initial investment of $750. Widows who had been land poor bought player pianos. Dozens of Similar articles appeared.

During the month of October 1925 real estate sales in Sarasota exceeded 11 million dollars.

Starting in 1923, John Ringling employed three huge dredges to make solid land of mangrove islands creating St. Armand’s, Lido and the southern end of Longboat Key. Sewer and water lines were installed, canals were dredged and roads were built. A causeway that cost $750,000 was built to connect the area with the mainland. The day that the causeway opened, February 7, 1026, Ringling Estates reported real estate sales exceeding one million dollars.

In 1925, Dr. Fred Albee purchased 2,916 acres south of Sarasota from the Palmer Real Estate Sales Group. He employed John Nolan, a respected city planner to design a city to be called Venice, a model city that would attract the elite.

The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers (BLE) built the Cooperative National Bank of Cleveland, Ohio to increase pensions for their members. Profits grew by a million dollars per month and they sought property in Florida for an investment.

Based upon the fact that the Seaboard Airline Railway accessed the area, and that it fronted on the Gulf of Mexico, the BLE decided to buy Dr. Albee’s holdings in 1925. They retained John Nolan and planned to build Venice, the ‘Queen of the Gulf’ in a period of three years. Retirees would buy farms complete with a house built and crops planted.

The BLE spent $500,000 per month developing the property. There were sidewalks, gutters, storm sewers, six miles of graded streets, a new train station and an operating water plant. There was a 40 acre demonstration farm, a 160 acre dairy farm, 188 residences, 141 apartment units and 83 stores.

In the summer of 1927 a BLE audit committee discovered that the project had lost $3.4 million by June 30 and projected that if the remaining property were sold at the same price-to-expense ratio, more losses would be incurred. Four top officers of the BLE were removed and it was voted to get out of Venice as quickly as possible.

(To Be Continued)..

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THE SETTLING OF SARASOTA (17th in a series)

Even before Sarasota was incorporated as a town, community spirit was strong. People helped their neighbors without being asked to do so and donated money, property and/or manpower for the common good.

This issue of “Settling” is devoted to biographies of a few persons who have contributed to the growth of early Sarasota but whose names have not been included in the narrative thus far.

JOHN BLACKBURN
John and Belinda Blackburn came to the Horse and Chase Area (now known as Nokomis) in 1881 with their 15-year-old son George. John was a farmer and cattle broker from Iowa. Jack Webb, the youngest son of the Spanish Point Webbs helped them build their first house.

John grew potatoes, sugar came and bananas and built a large sloop that carried heavy loads of hogs, chickens, fish, produce and syrup to Tampa area markets and brought back, tourists, lumber and hardware. George was elected to the Town Council in 1902.

LEWIS COLSON
Lewis Colson and his wife came to Sarasota in 1884 with Richard Paulsons’ team to survey 50,000 acres for the Florida Mortgage and Investment Company and plotted the town of Sarasota. Lewis drove the stake in the ground at Five Points to mark the center of the town.

Lewis and Irene were among the early members of Sarasota’s black community, then called Overtown. Irene was the community midwife. Lewis donated property that they had bought to the Bethlehem Baptist Church. Lewis, a lay preacher, was the first minister. The church at the corner of Central and Seventh Streets was the community center for education, cultural and recreation activities.

JOSEPH HALTON, M.D.
Joseph Halton was born in England in 1881, arrived in the United States with his parents and grew up in Ohio and Indiana. As a boy, he worked for 12 ½ cents per hour, saved $130, and enrolled in the medical school at the University of Cincinnati.

Immediately after graduation in January 1907, he came to Sarasota, a city of 1400 people. He was met at the depot by a citizen who said that his mother was bleeding to death. Dr. Halton jumped into a boat with the man, went to Siesta Key, and saved the woman’s life. that act established his reputation in Sarasota.

A year later, with the help of Sir John Gillespie, Joseph and his brother Dr. Jack Halton founded the Sanitarium at 300 North Gulfstream Avenue, Sarasota’s first hospital.

Dr. Joe made regular calls as far away as Bradenton and Venice with horse and buggy. When the call was for childbirth, he went by horseback because it was faster. He said, “I’d make a call to one house in the country and before I could get away from there, a messenger would meet me and tell me to stop somewhere else.”

During his years as a physician in Sarasota, Dr. Halton performed over 1600 operations for needy children and secured free hospitalization and nursing for them.

Copyright © Leland G. Desmon. The information on this page may not be reproduced or republished on another webpage, website, or other printed material. Please LINK TO US instead at www.simplysarasota.blogspot.com

THE SETTLING OF SARASOTA (15th in a series)

The last issue of the Settling of Sarasota described the three weekly visits of the Steamship Mistletoe to pick up fish for the Tampa market. With the Mistletoe in regular operation, more fishermen moved here and the industry grew.

The following is J. W. Walden’s description of a trip he made in 1896 in the fishing boat Sea Turtle: “as we approached Sarasota Pass with the incoming tide we met a school of mullet. They darted to and fro in the sea green water. They bumped against the boat and leaped over the rudder.. I captured two six-pounders with my dip net while they were leaping through the air. The school was more than a mile long. It was a sight I shall never forget.”

None of these fishermen became wealthy however; they considered themselves lucky to be paid one dollar for one hundred pounds of fish.

During the Spanish-American War (1898) nearly 40,000 troops were stationed at Tampa for months awaiting transport to Cuba. The demand for fish soared, prices rose, the fishermen made enough money to buy better equipment, and the industry grew.

The war also brought prosperity to the cattlemen in the area. Thousands of cattle were driven to slaughterhouses at the edge of Tampa to supply meat for the soldiers and the booming town. “Cattle money” didn’t help Sarasota, however, because it was deposited or spent in Tampa

Fewer than a dozen families lived in the unincorporated town. Sarasota was in a depression.

On June 1, 1899, C.V.S. Wilson and his wife moved his newspaper plant from Bradenton to Sarasota after having heard a report that it was enjoying a boom. The ‘boom’ consisted of the sale of the DeSoto Hotel and 200 feet of waterfront land for $1,500 and the sale of the Sarasota House and all it’s considerable land for $500.

Soon after arriving in Sarasota, Wilson published the first issue of the Sarasota Times. There were a total of 300 people in the entire area. Wilson never missed an issue for twenty-two years, at which time it was sold.

Three partners, Highsmith, Turner and Prime bought an abandoned store that sold everything from diapers to caskets, groceries, hardware, feed and hay, plows and stoves. In one year they sold almost $100,000 worth of goods without receiving $1,000 in cash. Taken in trade were alligator hide and cow hides, furs, sweet potatoes, chickens, et al. These goods were shipped to Tampa for whatever cash remained after transportation and handling costs were taken.

Also mentioned in the last issue was Harry lee Higel’s purchase of the dock at the foot of Main Street. He was also the agent for the steamship “Mistletoe,” and bought the steamship “Vandalia” which filled in on those days that the “Mistletoe” didn’t stop at Sarasota. He became a major contributor to the growth of Sarasota.

Listed below are some of the Harry Higel’s accomplishments: He
· Installed gasoline and kerosene tanks on the pier.
· Donated the land for the First Methodists Church.
· Built the post office/telephone building
· Developed Sarasota Key which later became Siesta Key and
· Arranged with Gulf Coast Telephone Company to string wires from Bradentown to · · Sarasota using pine trees as telephone pole.

One telephone was installed in the post office and a second one in Higel’s office on the pier. The phone crackled and jangled; a person “needed ears as sharp as a village gossip and deep concentration to comprehend what was being said.”

To be continued..

Copyright © Leland G. Desmon. The information on this page may not be reproduced or republished on another webpage, website, or other printed material. Please LINK TO US instead.

Photo credit: Sarasota County Historical Resources