THE SETTLING OF SARASOTA (16th in a series)

The previous installment of the The Settling Of Sarasota told of the telephone that Harry Higel had installed in the Post office/Telephone building in 1899. Carrie Abbe, Postmistress, answered every call, "took" the message, and was expected to deliver it ASAP, regardless of the distance from the building and the weather.

It was 1900 and Sarasota was in the doldrums. Ralph Caples was on honeymoon with his wife Eileen and had just arrived in Sarasota after a 4-hour spine jarring horse and buggy trip from Bradingtown. If Sarasota was to grow, a better means of land transportation was needed. Caples first job while attending college was yard work for the Lake Erie and Western Railroad Co. With that as a background, he organized the Florida West Coast Railroad Co. with the objective of building a line from Tampa to Sarasota. Before his company could start, however, members of the governing body of the Seaboard Airline* Railroad got word of Caples’ plan and started laying track south from Turkey Creek (Plant City) to Sarasota, using parts of the Slow and Wobbly right-of-way. The official title of the railroad was the United States and West Indies Railroad and Steamship Company. It later was absorbed by the Seaboard.

With the railroad nearing Sarasota and the depot under construction at the corner of Lemon and First Streets, the economy began to improve. On October 20, 1902, upon the urging of Harry Higel, 53 voters, essentially everyone living within the township, caused the town to be incorporated.

John Gillespie was elected Mayor and Higel was elected Councilman. In their exuberance, the township erected a fountain at five points and, to their chagrin, cattle would wander over for a drink and leave remains of their presence.

On December 10th, the Council gave orders to Marshall Blair to repair a bridge across a slough at the foot of Main Street. The job was completed in three weeks; the bill was $7.99 and payment was approved only after a long argument in council. Blair later resigned his job as Marshall, saying that he could not live on starvation wages.

On March 22, 1903, the railroad reached Sarasota. The Sarasota Ice Fish and Power Co. built an electric power plant that provided electricity to nearby homes and businesses. Harry Higel and partners built the Higelhurst Hotel that had hot and cold running water and electric lights in every room. The rent was $2.50 per day. The dining room could seat 150 people and the kitchen had gas (?) for cooking.


*Before the existence of aircraft that flew commercially, the word airline was defined as the shortest distance between two locations.

(To be continued)..

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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

THE SETTLING OF SARASOTA (14th in a series)

In the last installment, you read about Sarasota’s first train, the “Slow and Wobbly”. This link between Bradentown (now Bradenton) and Sarasota was Sir John Gillespie’s attempt to assure Sarasota’s survival.

After less than three years of spasmodic trips, the Slow and Wobbly was retired. Construction had stopped, the workers had gone and there was little money to spend. The engine and flat cars were left to rust. Gillespie’s problems were multiplying.

His wife Mary was a cantankerous woman who enjoyed frequent nips of scotch or bourbon or rum often resulting in, shall we say, embarrassing situations. Sir John, an ardent Episcopalian was serving as a lay reader at church services one Sunday and Mrs. Gillespie strolled in after services had begun and took a seat close to the pulpit. She opened a large red parasol and held it over her head until services ended. She then stood up, closed the parasol and said “nice going darlin” and left the building, weaving down the wooden sidewalk towards the De Soto Hotel (inset).

Some months later, in an effort to get a church in Sarasota, Gillespie invited an Episcopalian bishop to be his guest at the DeSoto Hotel. The bishop arrived accompanied by a large group of church dignitaries. While he was seated in the dining room Mrs. Gillespie entered, lurched into a waiter who spilled the entire contents of a soup tureen on the bishop’s lap. The bishop rose, said nothing, left the dining room and the DeSoto Hotel the next morning. Sarasota did not get its Episcopalian church that year.

As a result of Mary Gillespie’s shenanigans, the couple he had hired to manage the DeSoto Hotel left it in 1891 and built their own fancy hotel; the guests moved and soon the DeSoto closed.

Sir John and Mary moved to Bradentown for a short time, after which they returned to Scotland for a visit. When Gillespie returned to Sarasota a few years later he was alone.

The winter of 1894-95 was the coldest in the state’s history. Temperatures fell to 17 degrees, killing the vegetable crop and ruining the season’s citrus crop. As a result, in 1895, fishing was the only economic stimulus remaining and Sarasota was referred to as a fishing village. Fortunately the trees in the groves escaped being killed by the frost; citrus growers from farther north in Florida moved to the area and started new groves.

Until then, fish caught in the Sarasota area were gutted and salted for transportation to other areas. Beginning in 1884, the demand for salted fish declined because fresh fish shipped in ice had become available. Ice plants were being built in Tampa but economical transportation of ice and fish did not yet exist. In 1895, channels were cut in Sarasota Bay that allowed steamers to take the inland waterway from Tampa directly to the dock at Sarasota. The bill from the U.S. Swanee Dredge was $9,998.43.

Harry Lee Higel came to Sarasota in the early 1890’s and bought the dock at the end of Main Street that was built by the defunct Scottish Colony. He became the agent for the Tampa line whose steamship, “Mistletoe”, made its maiden trip on Monday, October 7, 1895, to pick up fresh fish. The scheduled stop developed into three visits per week.

On each trip the captain blew the whistle as the ship was coming down the bay and many of the town’s residents turned out to see if new tourists were aboard.

The community now had a dependable connection with the outside world. Sarasotans could sell their vegetables and fruit in Tampa and buy goods in the “big stores” there with the proceeds.

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

THE SETTLING OF SARASOTA (9th in a series)

THE DEMISE OF THE ORMISTON COLONY

The last installment of “Settling" ended with the 68 Scottish colonists experiencing a snowfall on January 9, 1886. Dead fish washed ashore and Selvin Tate, the nephew of the Archbishop of Canterbury and promoter of the Florida Mortgage and Investment Company (FMIC) disappeared. The high hopes of the colonists, who had left Scotland three months ago, were dashed.

One reason for the failure of the colony is that the families were of the upper middle class. Not one had ever been a farmer. If housing had been available as promised, the colonists might have stayed. Nearly all had left by May 1, 1886.

Weeks before the intended arrival of the Colonists, Sir John Gillespie an official of the FMIC had ordered A. C. Acton, their local manager, to erect temporary housing for the colonists. He was also ordered to have a dock ready to moor the arriving shipload of Scotsmen. Acton was a very sick man, however, and unable to get much done.

In January 1886, John Hamilton Gillespie, Sir John Gillespie’s son was sent to Sarasota to relieve Acton and he began to lay out roads and sidewalks in the “downtown” area, build the DeSoto Hotel on Main Street (inset ca.1886), and more. A number of the colonists were employed in the building program.

Had the “Colony” arrived six months later, or the construction begun six months earlier, it might have been a success. Lumber for the dock and hotel was brought by schooners to the foot of Main Street, thrown overboard and floated to shore where it was transported by mule “powered” wagons to its final location.

Construction of the dock was backbreaking work that required the workers to stand in the cold water as deep as chest high. For this they earned $2.00 for a long day. A warehouse was built at the end of the dock to house merchandise.

Immediately upon its completion the side-wheel steamer Erie began making regular stops at Tampa and Sarasota.

In 1886, Dr. Thomas Wallace, who came with the colonists had a 1½-story house built on Main Street and placed a cot in one of the rooms where patients could be treated. He also established the first drug store.

Furman and Bill Whitaker opened the first General Store, aside from the Company Store. Hamlin Whitaker opened a market where he sold meat from a freshly butchered steer (ice was not available).

The first blacksmith, cobbler, and wagon builder whose name was Jack Tatum, came to town in 1886. He could shoe the most stubborn mule, remake any part of a wagon, mend any saddle and fix any sewing machine. It was said that he had a “wheel” left over after fixing a clock and it still kept good time.

In 1888 the FMIC issued a promotional booklet touting the weather, investment and recreational opportunities. It pointed out that Massachusetts’s death rate was 1 in 254, New York’s was 1 in 473, and Florida’s was 1 in 1,457. Establishment of these numbers was not explained.

In 1894, the Inn on Main Street hosted its’ first convention, a group of Baptists. The DeSoto Hotel had 30 rooms to rent.

The DeSoto Hotel and its furnishings cost 5,000 pounds (about $15,000). Tourists returned annually to spend 2 or 3 months to shoot birds, catch fish, and sail the calm waters of Sarasota Bay. Others came to fight tuberculosis or rheumatism.

Steamers carried passengers from the dock at the Hotel’s front door to the Tampa terminus of the railroad. The Mary Disston, known as the Dirty Mary, that also hauled freight, was one of the steamers.

Sarasota was becoming a “boom town.”

DeSoto Hotel - Credit: Sarasota County Historical Resources.

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.