Historic Charlotte County

HISTORIC 

CHARLOTTE COUNTY 

An Illustrated History 

Edited by Douglas Houck 

A publication of the Charlotte County Historical Center Society

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HISTORIC 

CHARLOTTE 

COUNTY 


Edited by Douglas Houck 

Commissioned by the Charlotte County Historical Center Society 

Historical Publishing Network 

A division of Lammert Incorporated 

San Antonio, Texas

CONTENTS 

3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 

4 INTRODUCTION 

5 CHAPTER 1 The Early Years Before 1513 to 1821 

11 CHAPTER 2 United States Territory and State 1821 to 1860 

16 CHAPTER 3 Civil War Period 1860 to 1865 

19 CHAPTER 4 Reconstruction Era 1865 to 1900 

24 CHAPTER 5 First Half of Twentieth Century 1900 to 1950 

42 CHAPTER 6 Later Half of Twentieth Century 1950 to 2000 

52 CHAPTER 7 First Decade of the Twenty-First Century 2000 to 2010 

62 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

63 SHARING THE HERITAGE 

91 SPONSORS 

92 ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

First Edition 

Copyright © 2011 Historical Publishing Network 

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without permission in writing 

from the publisher. All inquiries should be addressed to Historical Publishing Network, 11535 Galm Road, Suite 101, San Antonio, Texas, 78254. Phone (800) 749-9790. 

ISBN: 9781935377337 

Library of Congress Card Catalog Number: 2011920553 

Historic Charlotte County: An Illustrated History 

editor: Dr. Douglas W. Houck 

contributing writers: Frank Desguin, Lynn Harrell, Carol Mahler, Dot Minzer 

Mary Patterson, John Pelot, Sandra Price, Joyce Schenk 

cover artist: Charles Peck 

contributing writer for sharing the heritage: Joe Goodpasture 

Historical Publishing Network 

president: Ron Lammert 

project manager: Barry Black 

administration: Donna M. Mata, Melissa G. Quinn 

book sales: Dee Steidle 

production: Colin Hart, Glenda Tarazon Krouse 

Evelyn Hart, Omar Wright 

2 ✦ HISTORIC CHARLOTTE COUNTY

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 

Special appreciation is extended to Frank Desguin, President of the Charlotte County Historical 

Center Society, for his ongoing commitment, support, and contributions. Stan and Dianne Munson 

made several significant observations and suggestions. Angelyn Patteson, Charlotte County Library 

Division Manager, is recognized for her initial support and Linda Coleman, Supervisor of the 

Charlotte County Historical Center, provided assistance and support throughout the research and 

writing process. 

Lynn Harrell did the initial review and revision of the manuscript, helped select the illustrations, 

and contributed her observations in the final chapter. Mary Patterson, John Pelot, Carol Mahler, 

Sandra Price, and Joyce Schenk, members of the Peace River Center for Writers at Edison State 

College, contributed observations and comments. Paul Holmes receives special recognition for his 

original photography and preparation of the illustrations. 

Recognition is also extended to those who have worked to maintain the memories, legends, 

and legacy of Charlotte Harbor and Charlotte County. These include Jack Alexander, Canter Brown, 

U. S. Cleveland, Michael Gannon, Vernon Peeples, Roxann Read, Robert Taylor, Lindsey Williams, 

Lewis Wynne, and many others who are listed in the bibliography. 

Acknowledgements ✦ 3

INTRODUCTION 

The modern history of North America began about five hundred years ago when Juan Ponce de 

Leon made the first recorded landfalls on the coast of Florida. Ponce de Leon left Puerto Rico with 

two caravels and a brigantine in March 1513, discovered the east coast of Florida during Easter 

week, named his discovery Pascua Florida (Easter of the Flowers), and continued on his way. Ponce 

de Leon arrived at or near Charlotte Harbor in May. He careened a ship to scrape off the barnacles, 

got into a fight with the natives, and went back to Puerto Rico. 

Ponce de Leon came back to Charlotte Harbor in 1521 with the intent of establishing the first 

European colony on the North American continent. He brought two hundred settlers, horses, 

domestic animals, and seeds. The settlers erected the first fortifications, planted the first crops, put 

up the first dwellings, and made the first attempt at conducting peace negotiations with the Calusa 

Indians. The Calusa attacked when the settlers started building a chapel. When Ponce de Leon was 

shot with an arrow, the settlers gave up the settlement and left for Cuba. Ponce de Leon died of 

complications resulting from the wound. 

Spain claimed Florida for over three hundred years before surrendering it to the British in 1763 

and reclaiming it in 1783. The United States purchased Florida from Spain in 1821 but settlement 

and development were delayed. This gave rise to the fascinating folklore of Indians, conquistadors, 

and pirates that continues to swirl around Charlotte Harbor. 

Charlotte Harbor is the defining geographic feature of Southwest Florida. The harbor is the 

second-largest open-water estuary in Florida and seventeenth-largest in the United States. Although 

the population of Charlotte County has increased from fewer than four thousand residents in 1940 

to over a hundred and fifty thousand residents at the present time, care has always been taken to 

maintain the beauty and quality of the harbor. That is one of the reasons why so many communities 

in Charlotte County are included on so many lists of the best places to live in the United States. 

This is the story of Charlotte County. 


THE EARLY YEARS 

B EFORE 1513 TO 1821 

NATIVE AMERICAN PRESENCE 

The Calusa and Timucua fought over the Charlotte Harbor region for thousands of years. The 

Timucua held the land north of a line running through the harbor at Boca Grande Pass and the Calusa 

inhabited southwest Florida down to Marco Island. Archeological evidence indicates that the two 

nations held sway over their respective areas from about 3,500 B.C. until the seventeenth century. 

Although the two ethnic groups appear to have originated from different sources, they shared 

several cultural practices. Mound building and sun worship were widespread customs. Many of the 

mounds were constructed with discarded shells. The Timucua relied on agriculture while the Calusa 

relied on fishing. Both were warlike and they practiced their trade on each other. 

When the Spanish arrived, about fourteen thousand Calusa were reported as living in seventy 

communities scattered across south Florida. The Calusa dug and cleared canoe canals to connect the 

communities. Dug-out canoes were fashioned from hard yellow pine. Controlled fire was used to 

burn away the resin-impregnated heart of each pine log. Individual canoes were about fifteen feet 

long and sixteen inches wide. 

❖ 

The Timucua lived in villages that 

contained about thirty houses 

clustered around a council house. This 

is a reproduction of a sketch made by 

Jacques le Moyne, a French artist who 

visited Florida in the 1560s. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE STATE ARCHIVES 

OF FLORIDA. 

Chapter 1 ✦ 5

❖ 

Right: This is a chart of Ponce de 

Leon’s voyage of discovery which took 

place between March 3, 1513, 

and September 21, 1513. 


OF FLORIDA. 

Below: Ponce de Leon at the spring. 

Although Ponce de Leon never 

mentioned such a quest in his 

correspondence with the crown, later 

respondents contributed this element 

of folklore. 


OF FLORIDA. 

Two canoes were sometimes joined together 

to make a single double-hulled vessel. Pedro 

Menendez de Aviles, the Spanish admiral and 

founder of St. Augustine, described the Calusa 

as using two canoes “fastened to one another, 

with decks covered with awnings of hoops 

and matting.” 

PONCE DE LEON 

Ponce de Leon came to the western 

hemisphere with Columbus on his second 

voyage. He served as the governor of Puerto 

Rico before embarking on a quest for gold and 

perhaps, the rejuvenating waters of a mystical 

spring. He came upon the coast of what he 

believed to be a large island at Eastertide and 

named his discovery Florida in honor of the 

occasion. Then Ponce de Leon sailed to the 

south and around the tip of his “island” and 

continued on the way north until he sailed 

through Boca Grande Pass and into Charlotte 

Harbor on May 23, 1513. 

The expedition spent nine days in Charlotte 

Harbor, bartered for “low gold” (perhaps 

copper), rolled a ship (San Cristobal) on its side 

to scrape off barnacles, and got into a fight with 

the Indians. Two Spaniards and several Indians 

were killed. Ponce de Leon left but returned 

eight years later. 

He came back with two ships loaded with 

settlers, horses, domestic animals, and seeds for 

planting. The first attempt at colonizing the 

mainland of North America lasted a few short 

weeks. When the Calusa attacked the fledgling 

colony, Ponce de Leon was struck by an arrow 

and hurried back to Cuba where he died of the 

complications resulting from the wound. 

PANFILO DE NARAEZ 

Panfilo de Naraez made an attempt to 

colonize Charlotte Harbor in 1528 but his ship 

was blown off course by a storm. It appears 

that Naraez confused Stump Pass with Boca 

Grande Pass and may have landed somewhere 

around Englewood. Fighting through the dense 

wilderness without adequate food or supplies, 

his forces were in desperate shape by the time 

they reached Charlotte Harbor. 


The Calusa greeted them when they got 

there. They got along for awhile but then got 

into a skirmish. Naraez broke camp and moved 

on. He left a note for anyone who might 

wish to follow them. Naraez is credited with 

the discovery of the Peace River and initial 

exploration of much of central Florida. 

HERNANDO DE SOTO 

Hernando de Soto was the next Spanish 

explorer to try his luck. He came to Florida 

with ten ships, five hundred men, and two 

hundred horses in 1539. It took five days to 

“kedge” the ships up a shallow bay at high 

tide to reach an Indian village at the end of 

the bay. Although colonization was ostensibly 

his mission, De Soto was more interested in 

finding gold. 

The local Indians told him that a “city of 

gold” was a day’s journey to the north. Heeding 

this advice, De Soto floundered about for 

the next four years, traveling through much 

of what now constitutes northern Florida, 

southern Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi but 

the elusive “city of gold” was always another 

day’s journey away. De Soto died of fever and 

was buried somewhere in the Mississippi River. 

PEDRO 

DE 

MENENDEZ 

AVILES 

Menendez de Aviles founded St. Augustine 

on August 28, 1565. This was forty-two years 

before the English established their first colony 

at Jamestown and fifty-five years before the 

Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. 

Menendez de Aviles visited Charlotte Harbor 

in 1567. He came to rescue the survivors of an 

earlier shipwreck but discovered that most of 

the survivors had been sacrificed to the Calusa 

sun god. 

Nevertheless, Menendez erected a mission 

fort that he called San Antonia. The exact 

location of the fort isn’t known, but it might 

have been on Mound Key in Estero Bay, 

Useppa Island in Pine Island Sound, or 

perhaps Cayo Pelau in Upper Charlotte 

Harbor. Menendez explored the Peace and 

Myakka Rivers while he was here. The colony 

was abandoned in 1569. 

JUAN LOPEZ DE VELASCO 

Juan Lopez de Velasco, the Spanish cosmographer, 

mathematician, and author of the Chronicle 

on America, wrote about the geography and customs 

of Florida in 1575. He mentioned a village on 

the south side of the entrance of Charlotte Harbor 

that had an entrance for frigates. He claimed that 

the Calusa were fishing with nets as in Spain. 

The Spanish Captain-General in Havana wrote 

a letter to the officials in St. Augustine in 1598 

asking them to visit Charlotte Harbor and 

mediate a dispute between conflicting fishing 

interests. Spanish fishing ranchos had already 

been established on Useppa Island, Cayo Costa, 

Gasparilla Island, Sanibel Island, Punta Rassa, 

on Fisherman’s Key, and at several other sites. 

Spanish fishing ranchos operated in Charlotte 

Harbor for about three hundred years up until the 

late 1800s. 

❖ 

Pedro Menendez de Aviles founded 

St. Augustine and was the first 

governor of Spanish Florida. 


OF FLORIDA. 

Chapter 1 ✦ 7

❖ 

This is a map of the British 

possessions in North America 

following the French and Indian or 

Seven Years War. The Royal 

Proclamation of 1763 was issued by 

King George III. The proclamation 

organized the vast territory that 

extended from the Bahamas to 

Quebec and helped stabilize relations 

with the Native Americans. 


OF FLORIDA. 

THE 

BRITISH 

The British were relative latecomers to the 

North American continent. They tried to 

establish their first colony on Roanoke Island 

in 1585. This was about seventy years after 

Ponce de Leon’s landfall and some twenty 

years after the founding of St. Augustine. The 

Roanoke Colony failed but the British finally 

established a successful colony at Jamestown in 

1607. Then the British established several other 

colonies along the coast before getting involved 

in a protracted war with France for control of 

the continent. 

This French and Indian War expanded to 

become the Seven Years’ War and Spain got 

caught up in the conflict. British troops 

captured Havana in 1762. Spain gave up Florida 

to recover Cuba under the terms of the 1763 

Treaty of Paris. England divided Florida into 

two colonies. East Florida comprised most of 

what is now Florida except for the panhandle. 

West Florida included the panhandle and 

extended along the Gulf of Mexico to the 

Mississippi River. 

As not much was known about the 

acquisition, King George III of England engaged 

Bernard Romans, a Dutch-born engineer, to 

chart the coast of Florida. Romans’ findings 

were published as a book, A Concise Natural 

History of East and West Florida, in 1775 and 

contains the following statement: …“beginning 


at the latitude 27:40 and extending Southward 

to the latitude of 25, on the main, or to 24:17; 

including the keys; this contains a large river, 

which empties into the new harbor, of which I 

am the first explorer, we have given it the name 

of Charlotte harbour, but neither harbour nor 

river have been described by the Spaniards in 

their maps, the Spanish fishermen distinguish 

the place by the names of its inlets, which 

are five.” 

Bernard Romans reported that about two 

million pounds of fish were being dried and 

shipped to Havana on an annual basis when he 

visited Charlotte Harbor in 1769. 

England’s Florida colonies opted out of the 

civil disruption and insurrection to the north 

that became the American Revolution and 

remained loyal to the Crown until England 

traded Florida for Gibraltar and the Bahamas at 

the end of the American Revolution. The 1783 

Treaty of Paris gave Florida back to Spain. 

SECOND SPANISH PERIOD 

Spain resumed control of Florida, but Spain 

had been weakened by a succession of wars. 

Many of the English Loyalists who had fled to 

Florida during the American Revolution moved 

to the Bahamas. Land-hungry immigrants from 

the United States started seeking land in 

Florida, especially on coastal land at the mouths 

of the rivers. 

Renegade white settlers, unruly Indians, and 

runaway slaves strained relations between Spain 

and the new United States. 

UNITED 

STATES 

The United States purchased Louisiana from 

France in 1803 and started making incursions 

into West Florida. Insurgents seized the fort 

at Baton Rouge, declared their independence, 

and created the Republic of West Florida. The 

United States annexed the republic in 1812, 

built Fort Bowyer on Mobile Point, and erected 

a lookout post on the Perdido River. Spain 

protested the incursions and annexation but 

could do little about it. When General Jackson 

defeated the Creek Indians at Horseshoe 

Bend in 1814, many of the survivors fled 

to Florida. 

When the British decided to use Pensacola as 

a base of operation to attack New Orleans 

during the War of 1812, General Jackson 

attacked Pensacola. As Spain was not at war 

with the United States, Spain refused to assist 

the British and they were driven out. The British 

forces were defeated at the Battle of New 

Orleans. After the war ended, some of the 

Indians who had fled to Florida launched raids 

into Alabama and Georgia. 

General Jackson pursued the Indians and 

captured a Spanish fort, San Marcos de 

Apalache. He executed two Indian chiefs, shot 

an Englishman, and hung another. Then 

Jackson captured Pensacola and seized control 

of West Florida. The Spanish minister in 

Washington voiced his disapproval but 

accomplished little. John Quincy Adams, the 

United States Secretary of State, and Luis de 

Onis, the Spanish Foreign Minister, started 

negotiating terms for the purchase of Florida. 

THE SEMINOLE AND 

MICCOSUKEE PEOPLE 

The Native Americans who comprise 

Florida’s Seminole and Miccosukee tribes 

have deep roots in the cultural prehistory of 

southeastern North America. The Creek, Yuchi, 

and other related groups who were the ancestors 

of these Indians became known as cimmarones 

after they arrived in Florida, a Spanish word 

meaning wild ones or runaways. This became 

Seminole in the Muskogean tongue. 

The Seminole started moving into Florida in 

the 1700s and took up residence in northern 

and central Florida where they established 

communities, farms, and plantations. Dozens of 

refugees fled to Florida after General Jackson 

defeated the Creeks at the Battle of Horseshoe 

Bend. Tensions increased along the United 

States border as slaves from Georgia and 

Alabama ran off to mingle with the Seminole. 

Then the United States established Fort Scott 

in the southwestern corner of Georgia. Spain 

protested the incursion but otherwise, wasn’t 

able to do anything. The Seminole reacted by 

establishing a so-called Negro Fort sixty miles 

away. The fort was garrisoned by 334 blacks 

armed with military supplies the British left after 

their defeat at New Orleans in the War of 1812. 

Chapter 1 ✦ 9

❖ 

Today’s Seminole and Miccosukee 

people in Florida are descended from 

the Native Americans who avoided 

removal during the Seminole Wars. It 

is noted that 12,431 people identified 

themselves as Seminoles on the 2000 

United States census. 


OF FLORIDA. 

An incident occurred when Colonel Gaines 

crossed the Flint River to attack the Miccosukee 

village of Fowltown. The Americans killed five 

Indians and burned the town. The Indians 

retaliated by opening fire on a boat coming 

up the river. They killed thirty-seven soldiers, 

six women, and four children. Secretary of 

War John C. Calhoun ordered General Andrew 

Jackson to Florida with the authority to wage 

war, “as he thought best.” 

THE FIRST SEMINOLE WAR 

(1817-1818) 

General Jackson reached Fort Scott on March 

9, 1818. He advanced to the south destroying 

the Indian settlements and crops, obliterated 

Kinhajo town (the largest Indian settlement in 

Florida), captured the Spanish community of 

St. Marks, executed two British subjects, wiped 

out Bowlegs Town, and turned to the west to 

recapture Pensacola. Jackson cleared the Indians 

from the Georgia border and closed the route 

used by slaves escaping into Florida. He sent a 

dispatch to Secretary Calhoun claiming, “Cuba 

will be ours in a few days.” 

Secretary Calhoun reacted with alarm and 

ordered General Jackson to cease and desist. The 

shooting war ended, but the diplomatic battles 

were only beginning. England threatened war to 

avenge the execution of British subjects. Spain 

declared the invasion to be an act of war and 

wanted its property back with an explanation 

and apology. 

Secretary of State John Quincy Adams solved 

the problem by completing negotiations 

with Luis de Onis, the Spanish Ambassador, 

for the purchase of Florida. The United States 

Congress ratified the Adams-Onis Treaty on 

February 22, 1821. 

The United States assumed $5 million worth 

of Spanish debts and surrendered its claims 

to Texas. Florida became part of the United 

States on July 10, 1821. Spanish-speaking 

residents were encouraged to move to Cuba, 

Texas, or Mexico. 


UNITED STATES 

TERRITORY AND STATE 

1821 TO 1861 

PIRATES IN CHARLOTTE HARBOR 

Some say pirates once operated out of Charlotte Harbor. If so, their names and identities have 

been forgotten but perhaps this folklore formed the basis for the legend of Jose Gaspar. The legend 

claims that Don Jose Gaspar gave Gasparilla Island its name and that Gaspar named Captiva, Sanibel, 

Cayo Costa, and Useppa Islands. 

There are stories of buried treasure. Although many have searched, no treasure has been found. 

❖ 

Pirate yarns and reenactments are a 

feature of life along the waterfront, 

in the yacht and boat clubs, and in 

many Southwest Florida 

coastal communities. 


OF FLORIDA. 

Chapter 2 ✦ 11

❖ 

Andrew Jackson served as the first 

governor of Florida from March 10, 

1821, until December 31, 1821. 


OF FLORIDA. 

STARS AND STRIPES 

The Stars and Stripes replaced the Spanish 

flag in the public square outside the government 

house in Pensacola on July 17, 1821. President 

James Monroe appointed General Andrew 

Jackson as the first territorial governor. The 

capitol was moved to Tallahassee in March 

1824. A two-story brick building was erected 

to house the capitol and an elected 

legislative council was established in 1826. 

Joseph Hernandez was selected as the 

Florida Territory’s first delegate to the United 

States Congress. 

FISH RANCHES 

IN CHARLOTTE HARBOR 

Spanish and Cuban “fish ranches” were noted 

on the barrier islands when the U.S. Navy 

ship Terrier started patrolling Charlotte Harbor 

for pirates. The Terrier entered the harbor on 

June 24, 1824, and spent about three weeks in 

Charlotte Harbor. They didn’t find any pirates 

but found one hundred-thirty men working in 

four fishing establishments. Each establishment 

had a small schooner of twenty to twenty-five 

tons. These schooners were licensed as fishing 

vessels by the Captain General of Cuba. One 

fisherman claimed he had been living in the 

harbor for thirty years. 

Isaac Clark left a military post on Hillsborough 

(Tampa) Bay in 1825 and traveled to Charlotte 

Harbor to procure supplies including hard 

biscuits, salt fish, and a hog from a Spanish 

fishery. He reported that the Indians were using 

the fishing ranches to communicate with Cuba 

and claimed that runaway slaves were escaping 

to Cuba on the fishing vessels. 

COMMERCE 

Newspaper records from the late 1820s 

through 1835 reported on the commerce 

between Charlotte Harbor, Key West, and 

Havana. The dates traveled, the names of the 

vessels, cargo, and passengers were listed from 

the Port of Key West. For example: March 21, 

1832, sloop Azelia for Charlotte’s Harbor, 89 

bushels of salt by J. Cottell & Company; Spanish 

schooner Josefa, Yanze master, for Havana, 

merchandise to P. J. Fontaine and others. 

MOULTRIE CREEK 

CONFERENCE 

The Seminole vexed the governing officials as 

they held much of the most desirable land in the 

territory. A conference was held at Moultrie 

Creek in 1823 to resolve the issue. The Indians 

were told that they had to concentrate on a four 

million acre reservation in central Florida and 

give up the rest of their territory. 

The northern boundary of the reservation 

was north of present day Ocala while the 

southern boundary fell within the lower limits 


of Tampa Bay. A demarcation line was drawn 

along the northern boundary of the reservation 

that led from Garey’s Ferry on the St. John’s 

River on the east to Tampa Bay on the west. 

The United States government promised to 

give the Indians farm equipment, cattle, hogs, and 

an annual annuity of $5,000 a year for twenty 

years. The Seminoles agreed to remain peaceable, 

renounce war, and apprehend runaway slaves and 

fugitives from justice. A road (wagon path) ran 

along the demarcation line that separated the land 

given to the whites from the land reserved for the 

Indians. Fort Brooke was established on Tampa 

Bay to anchor the southern end of the road. 

Fort Brooke became the nation’s largest military 

installation during the Second Seminole War. 

1830 CENSUS 

The census reported 34,730 people living in 

the Florida Territory. This didn’t include the 

Seminole, Miccosukee, or any remaining Calusa 

who might be living in Florida at the time. 

THE SECOND 

SEMINOLE WAR 

(1835-1842) 

Although the Treaty of Moultrie Creek had 

been signed, the Indians did not move to the 

reservation. They still held much of the finest 

land in the territory, had cleared large tracts of 

land, and built homes. Problems emerged as 

the Territorial government and army tried 

to enforce the treaty provisions. While the 

Seminoles couldn’t do anything about the 

whites, the whites felt that something needed 

to be done about the Seminoles. 

President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian 

Removal Act on May 26, 1830. The Act ordered 

the removal of all of the Indian tribes living east 

of the Mississippi River to land in the west. This 

included the Cherokee in Georgia, the Choctaw 

in Mississippi, and the Seminole in Florida. The 

Seminole resisted relocation. 

Matters came to a head on December 28, 

1835, when the Seminoles ambushed Major 

❖ 

This woodcut is an artist’s conception 

of the Dade Massacre that occurred 

on December 28, 1835. The massacre 

took place just south of present day 

Bushnell, Florida. 


OF FLORIDA. 

Chapter 2 ✦ 13

Inspector at Charlotte Harbor, Dr. Henry B. 

Crews, was murdered. His death was presumed 

to have been committed by “friendly Indians.” 

Colonel Persifor Smith of the Louisiana 

Volunteers was sent to Charlotte Harbor with 

a regiment of five hundred men to search the 

waters of the harbor and the rivers. The search 

was abandoned when he didn’t find any Indians. 

President Van Buren sent Major General 

Macomb to Florida in 1839 to negotiate a 

treaty with the Indians to end the war. General 

Macomb met with a group of Indians at 

Fort King (Ocala) and offered them the land 

south of Pea Creek, which became known as 

the Peace River, if they stopped fighting. Even 

so, the war sputtered on for three more years. 

HILLSBOROUGH 

COUNTY 

The Charlotte Harbor region became part 

of Hillsborough County when Hillsborough 

County was created by the Territorial 

Legislature in 1834. Tampa was designated as 

the county seat. 

CHARLOTTE 

TRADING 

HARBOR 

POST 

❖ 

Osceola was an influential leader of 

the Seminole during the Second 

Seminole War. The print is a 

photocopy of a portrait painted by 

George Catlin in 1837. 


OF FLORIDA. 

Dade’s detachment of a hundred troops being 

sent from Fort Brooke (now Tampa) to reinforce 

Fort King (now Ocala). Only three survived. 

Osceola led an attack on Fort King that 

afternoon. Once started, the war continued. 

CHARLOTTE 

HARBOR 

Florida Governor John Eaton complained to 

the War Department in 1836 that Cuban fishing 

vessels were providing the Indians with arms, 

ammunition, and supplies. Commodore Dallas 

sent boats from Key West to patrol Charlotte 

Harbor to disrupt this communication and cut 

off the flow of supplies between the Spanish 

fishermen and the Indians. 

The Customs Office at Key West assured the 

military that no supplies could have been 

transported without discovery, but the Customs 

General William Worth, the commander at 

Fort Brooke, decided to place a trading post on 

the south shore of Charlotte Harbor in 1845 as 

part of the peace agreement and an inducement 

to get Seminole Chief Billy Bowlegs to come 

out of his home in the Everglades. Thomas P. 

Kennedy, a sutler at Fort Brooke, was designated 

as the official “Indian Trader.” 

After the hurricane of 1848 ravaged the area, 

Kennedy was given permission to move his 

trading post up the Peace River. Bowlegs’ 

warriors burned the remnants of the damaged 

store and the area became known as “Burnt 

Store.” The trail that had led to the store became 

Burnt Store Road. 

MANATEE 

COUNTY 

The Charlotte Harbor region became part 

of Manatee County when the legislature split 

Manatee County off Hillsborough County 

in 1855. Manatee, now Bradenton, became the 

county seat. 


THIRD SEMINOLE WAR 

(1855-1858) 

The third Seminole War started in 1855 

when a survey party under the command of 

Lieutenant Hartsuff came upon one of Billy 

Bowlegs’ villages and trashed Billy’s banana 

patch. A war party of about thirty Seminoles 

retaliated by killing four soldiers and wounding 

another. For the most part, the Third Seminole 

War was a guerilla conflict that sputtered on in 

southern Florida and the Everglades. 

Billy Bowlegs surrendered in March 1858 

and was transported to the west but several 

small bands of warriors were left behind. 

Florida’s Seminole and Miccosukee people are 

descended from these people. 

COW 

CATCHING 

The army closed Fort Brooke when the 

Bowlegs War ended, and the residents of 

Tampa had to find another way to make a 

living. Jacob Summerlin and James McKay 

decided to go into the cattle business by 

catching the stray cattle running around the 

interior of the territory and transporting them 

to market in Key West and Havana. Test runs 

on McKay’s sailing vessels in late 1858 and 

1859 proved that the scheme would work. Jake 

Summerlin’s cow catchers rounded up about 

eight thousand cows and McKay rushed off to 

New York to buy a steamboat. McKay bought a 

steamer, the Salvor, and the men got ready to go 

to work. 

Unfortunately, the rains failed that summer. 

The ponds and alligator holes around Tampa 

dried up before McKay was able to ship all 

of the cows to Havana. Over two thousand 

cows died. That’s when Jake Summerlin and 

James McKay decided to move their cattle 

operation to the Peace River. They’d have a 

dependable water supply and it was closer to 

Havana. They built an eight hundred foot dock 

extending from the shore in what is now Punta 

Gorda and started shipping cows to Key West 

and Havana. 

KEY 

WEST 

Key West was the largest city in Florida. Ship 

wreckers moved to the island in the 1820s 

to salvage the merchandise from the ships 

that foundered on nearby reefs. The United 

States Navy established a base on Key 

West in 1822 to protect the Gulf of Mexico 

shipping routes and guard the gateway to 

the Gulf Coast. Key West became an official 

United States Port of Entry in 1828. Driven by 

profits from the wrecking business, Key West 

grew rapidly during the 1820s and 1830s. 

Merchants, lawyers, bankers, artisans, and 

laborers settled on the island. 

The first Key West newspaper, the Register, 

appeared in 1829. The Key West Gazette 

followed in 1831 and the Enquirer in 1834. 

Over three thousand people lived on Key West 

by 1860. Key West became the richest city in 

the United States. 

❖ 

Above: Captain James McKay was 

born in Scotland and immigrated to 

the United States in 1846. He 

transported cargo between Tampa, 

Key West, and Havana, went into the 

cattle business in 1858, and served as 

mayor of Tampa in 1859. 


OF FLORIDA. 

Left: Billy “Bowlegs” or Billy Bolek 

was a leader of the Seminole during 

the Second and Third Seminole Wars 


OF FLORIDA. 

Chapter 2 ✦ 15

CIVIL WAR PERIOD 

1860 TO 1865 

ELECTION OF 1860 

❖ 

Memories of the Civil War persist. 

Reenactments take place throughout 

the state and region. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CHARLOTTE 

COUNTY HISTORICAL CENTER. 

About 140,000 people were living in Florida at the time of the 1860 election. Abraham Lincoln 

wasn’t on the ballot. Lincoln was a northern sectional candidate so his name didn’t appear on any 

ballot in any southern state. Florida voters had a choice between Breckinridge, Douglas, and Bell. 

Breckinridge carried Florida, but Lincoln won the election. Lincoln’s unexpected victory swept the 

south with the force of a fire storm. 


Governor Madison Perry called a convention 

to consider the situation. Delegates gathered 

in Tallahassee and seceded from the Union 

by a vote of 62 to 7 on January 10, 1861. 

Florida became an independent nation and 

remained so until joining the Confederacy on 

February 4, 1861. 

These political changes probably had 

relatively little impact on the few families who 

were residing in the Peace River Valley or 

around Charlotte Harbor. Most of them were 

probably more concerned with the cattle 

business and trade with Key West and Cuba. 

War between the Union and the Confederacy 

started on April 12, 1861. It is believed that 

about 10,000 Florida men served in the 

Confederate Army and about 2,000 Florida men 

served in the Union Army. 

CONFEDERATE 

CONSCRIPTION 

The Confederacy passed a conscription law 

in 1862 to replenish the Confederate armies 

battling on several fronts. When Confederate 

conscription agents started scouring south 

Florida for draftees, many of the young men 

(aged between eighteen and thirty-five) in the 

region had to choose between fighting in 

“somebody else’s war” or “laying out the war” in 

a south Florida hiding place. Then the Union 

Navy started patrolling Charlotte Harbor. 

UNION 

NAVY 

The Union built Fort Jefferson on Garden Key 

in the Dry Tortugas to guard the passage of ships 

in and out of the Gulf of Mexico. The East Gulf 

Blocking Squadron was based on Key West. Two 

Union pickets were stationed at Charlotte 

Harbor. These were the three-mast bark-steamer 

USS Gem of the Sea which was converted to a gun 

ship carrying four 12-pounder cannon, and the 

cutter USS Rosalie that was fitted with a howitzer 

and a 12-pounder cannon. Jacob Summerlin 

decided to build a new pier in a secluded spot on 

the northern shore of Charlotte Harbor and 

move his cattle business to Live Oak Point which 

became the first settlement on Charlotte Harbor. 

Captain James McKay ran a shallow-draft, 

side-wheel steamer, The Scottish Chief, through 

the harbor’s inside passage around islands and 

hidden shoals to load the cows and haul them 

to market. Some claim that Jake Summerlin 

moved his operation to Live Oak Point to avoid 

the Union Navy’s scrutiny, but Live Oak Point 

would appear to be more exposed than the 

earlier dock up the river. 

USEPPA ISLAND RANGERS 

Tax collectors followed the conscription 

agents as the Confederacy struggled to raise 

money to support the war effort. Slavery was 

not an important issue to most of the residents 

of the region as less than one in thirty families 

owned a slave. Besides, many of the residents 

were trading with Key West. 

Key West remained a Union stronghold 

throughout the war. The Union Navy was 

stationed on the island and many of the island’s 

residents came from the northern states. When 

the Union Navy established a refugee camp on 

Useppa Island and started providing provisions, 

many residents of the region, who were trying to 

avoid the Confederate conscription agents and 

tax collectors, left their homesteads and moved 

to the island. 

Enoch Daniels, a Charlotte Harbor refugee, 

approached the Key West Commander Brigadier 

General Daniel Woodbury with a plan to win 

over the cattlemen of southwest Florida. Daniels 

offered to lead a movement to “occupy and 

conquer the territory” between Charlotte Harbor 

and Tampa Bay. Daniels and a party of fifteen 

Rangers—escorted by the USS Rosalie and a 

launch from Gem of the Sea—set out on Christmas 

Eve 1863 to enlist Union sympathizers. 

The little force landed near the mouth of the 

Myakka River and set out to make “recruiting” 

contacts. Daniels promised to be back in seven 

days. Acting-Ensign John Jenks was put in 

charge of a camp on the shore and told to wait 

for eight days. Daniels, being sighted in the 

interior, was followed and harassed. The Rosalie 

came back, just in time, on December 28th. 

The camp was under fire two hours later. 

The landing party threw up some breastworks 

and the Rosalie provided covering fire. Some 

of Ensign Jenk’s men were grazed by bullets, 

but none were killed. They claimed that the 

Confederates lost “six or eight men.” 

Chapter 3 ✦ 17

Meanwhile, Daniels was having problems. 

Six men deserted and four were cut off 

while on a scouting foray. Daniels and his 

five remaining men struggled back to the 

camp where they were picked up by 

the Rosalie on January 1, 1864. The four 

stranded Rangers made their way to the Peace 

River where they came upon a schooner 

that was being used as a blockade runner. 

The Rangers captured the schooner, two 

crewmen, and four bales of cotton. They 

sailed the schooner out to Boca Grande Pass 

where they were taken on board the Gem of 

the Sea. 

Although the Ranger expedition did not 

achieve its objectives, Union authorities 

were sufficiently encouraged to reactivate 

Fort Myers. The fort was staffed with the 

Second Florida Cavalry (Union) volunteers 

drawn from south Florida and three 

companies of the Second Regiment, U.S. 

Colored Troops. 

COW 

CAVALRY 

The Confederacy formed the Cow Cavalry 

to defend the herds of cattle grazing on 

the grasslands in the interior from the 

encroachments by Union troops and to 

organize cattle drives to a railhead at Baldwin 

in Duval County near Jacksonville and then 

on to Brunswick, Georgia after Union troops 

ripped up the rail line. The beef was needed 

to feed Confederate armies. 

There were clashes between the Cow Cavalry 

and Union Rangers as they competed for 

the cattle. Cows were being driven north to 

supply the Confederacy and being transported 

to Key West to supply the Union. Neighbors 

were fighting neighbors and relatives were 

fighting relatives. 

RAID ON FORT MEADE 

The Union Army at Fort Myers launched 

a raid on Fort Meade on May 19, 1864. The 

alarm was sounded and village residents rushed 

to seek protection at a nearby Methodist 

campground. Union forces entered the town 

and spent eleven hours seeking out family 

members, confiscating forage, and seeking 

provisions. Then the Union troops burned a 

downtown hotel, several buildings at the fort, 

and departed. 

SIEGE OF FORT MYERS 

The Cow Cavalry ceased its cattle gathering 

operations on January 9, 1865, to prepare for 

an attack on Fort Myers. They moved out on 

February 19 and got as far as the southern bank 

of the Caloosahatchee River and camped for the 

night. It rained all night. Then they moved on 

to Billy’s Creek in the morning, about a mile 

from Fort Myers. 

Confederate pickets captured several Union 

soldiers on a laundry detail at the creek, 

but they discovered that most of their 

ammunition had been ruined by the rain. That 

being the case, Major Footman decided to 

demand the surrender of the fort rather 

than launch an attack. A parley was held, 

but the defenders rejected the invitation 

to surrender. 

After firing at the fort and receiving fire for 

several hours, Major Footman determined 

that nothing was being accomplished. The 

Confederates withdrew to where the Union 

forces kept their cattle and slaughtered a few 

as the men were short of rations. The Cow 

Cavalry went home after supper, thus ending 

the siege of Fort Myers. 

END OF THE WAR 

Peace returned to Charlotte Harbor with 

General Robert E. Lee’s surrender at 

Appomattox. Postwar occupation of the 

region began when the Second Florida 

Cavalry (Union) stationed at Fort Myers 

occupied Tampa. It was said that their 

reception ranged from wild elation to 

begrudging acceptance. 

The Second Florida Cavalry (Union) 

pardoned their relatives, friends, and neighbors 

serving in the Confederate Cow Cavalry on 

June 5, 1865. Veterans from the northern 

campaigns and prisoners of war made their 

way home over the course of the next few 

months. Everyone was glad the war was over. 


RECONSTRUCTION ERA 

1865 TO 1900 

LIVE OAK POINT 

Captain James McKay from Tampa and Jacob Summerlin of Fort Blount (Bartow) loaded cattle on 

Captain McKay’s shallow draft steamship Scottish Chief at Live Oak Point, now the community of 

Charlotte Harbor, during the Civil War. Some say that Captain McKay transported these cattle to the 

Confederacy. Others claim that he sold some of the cows to the Union on Key West and the rest in 

Havana. He probably sold cattle to both parties as the Confederate authorities came close to hanging 

him in Tampa and the Union Navy caught him coming back from Cuba with a load of arms and 

ammunition for the Confederacy. He was taken to Washington where he was pardoned by President 

Lincoln after he swore an oath of loyalty to the Union. 

Captain McKay joined the Confederate Cow Cavalry when he got back to Florida. He went back 

to hauling cows to Key West and Cuba after the war ended. Cattle were driven to Live Oak Point 

(now Charlotte Harbor) along an Indian trail on the west bank of the Peace River. Ziba King, 

a former Confederate officer, went into the cattle business in a big way after the war ended and 

drove herds of cattle along the trail to sell them at Live Oak Point. The trail became King’s Highway. 

Live Oak Point grew into a bustling cow town with several stores, a saw mill, a sugar mill, 

and a school. A Methodist congregation was organized in 1873 and a Post Office established in 1876. 

The community’s name was then changed to Hickory Bluff. 

❖ 

The DeSoto Phosphate Mining 

Company put the first dredge in 

operation on November 25, 1889. 



Chapter 4 ✦ 19

CHARLOTTE 

HARBOR 

When Captain John Bartholf became the 

Hickory Bluff postmaster, he changed the name 

to Charlotte Harbor to emphasize the point that 

it served all of the settlers in the harbor by a mail 

and supply schooner. He described Charlotte 

Harbor in an 1881 brochure as, “…extending 

about four miles immediately on the water and is 

characterized by its heathfulness, adaptability of 

soil to the culture of semi-tropical fruits, and for 

farming purposes.” 

railroad, the Charlotte Harbor & Northern, to 

haul the phosphate to the deep water port at Boca 

Grande where it was shipped to northern ports. 

The ninety-six mile railroad was routed 

through virgin pine forest and cypress swamps by 

brute manpower. Shovels, grubbing hoes, and 

wheelbarrows were used to make the grade, build 

the bridges, and place the rails. Laborers got a 

dollar a day for a ten hour day. Peter Bradley built 

the Gasparilla Inn in 1911. Boca Grande, the 

Gasparilla Inn, and the Charlotte Harbor & 

Northern Railroad were successful from the start. 

SOAPY 

STONE 

ENGLEWOOD 

❖ 

Top: Ziba King was a pioneer settler. 

He became a prominent rancher, 

president of the First National Bank, 

and an owner of the De Soto 

County News. 



Above: Captain John Bartholf was a 

New York native who served in the 

Union Army and fought at 

Fredericksburg and Gettysburg. 

As a result of his wounds, he was 

transferred to Fort Myers. He lived at 

the Charlotte Harbor settlement from 

1876 until 1882. 


OF FLORIDA. 

Right: Open Pit Mining replaced the 

phosphate dredging operations on the 

Peace River by the early 1900s. 



A soapy stone that “lathered well” was 

reported by a party of five white men and two 

slaves who came down the Peace River in 1860. 

No other mention was made of the substance 

until a group of fruit and vegetable farmers 

petitioned Congress in 1880 for a cross-Florida 

canal linking the area with the St. Johns River. 

Captain Francis LeBarron of the U.S. Army Corp 

of Engineers surveyed the route and reported 

several outcroppings of high grade phosphate. 

The connecting canal was never dug but 

George Scott, a fertilizer manufacturer from 

Atlanta, formed the DeSoto Phosphate Mining 

Company to mine the phosphate deposits. They 

tried to dredge phosphate from the sand banks 

with picks and shovels but this wasn’t profitable. 

Then Scott consolidated his operation into the 

Peace River Phosphate Company in 1889 and 

started using steam-driven suction pumps. 

Peter Bradley bought the controlling interest 

in the Peace River Phosphate Company in 1894 

and changed the name to the Peace River 

Phosphate Mining Company. He then built a 

William Goff, captain of the schooner Nelly 

Bly, and his wife Mary settled on the shore of 

Lemon Bay in 1878. Captain Goff remarried 

when Mary died and eventually fathered 

nineteen children with three wives. Many of his 

descendants live in the area. 

John Cross bought several hundred acres of 

land in 1886 on what was called “Mangrove Bay.” 

He renamed it Lemon Bay and plotted a town he 

called Grove City. Then Cross came up with a plan 

to attract winter-weary prospects from the north. 

He sold lots with ten acre lemon groves, put up a 

twenty room inn called the Tarpon Inn, opened a 

Post Office, and went to Chicago where he rented 

a booth at the 1893 Exposition. While he was 

there, John Cross sold a thousand acres of land to 

the Nichols brothers from Englewood, Illinois. 

The Nichols brothers set out acres of lemon 

seedlings but a severe frost killed the trees. Not 

giving up, the Nichols Brothers opened the 

Englewood Inn in 1896 to compete with the 

Tarpon Inn. 

1870 CENSUS 

The 1870 census reported 187,748 

people living in Florida. 

PUNTA 

GORDA 

James Madison Lanier and his 

wife Sarah bought thirty acres of 

land on the south side of Charlotte 

Harbor in 1872. They secured the 

title in 1882 and sold the land to 

Colonel Trabue about six weeks later. 


Isaac Trabue was born in Kentucky. He 

served in the Union Army, married Virginia 

Taylor in New York City in 1865, and went 

back to Kentucky before coming to Florida. 

Colonel Trabue laid out the plat for a town 

after he bought the land but didn’t sell 

many plots. He needed a railroad. The Florida 

Southern Railway had acquired the old 

railroad charter and land grant of the 

Gainesville, Ocala, and Charlotte Harbor 

Railroad that was due to expire. The Florida 

Southern needed to start construction to 

hold their contract, so they started laying 

track south of Bartow. The destination 

remained in doubt for some time although 

the odds tended to favor Charlotte Harbor. 

Colonel Trabue took a trip to Boston to meet 

with directors of the Florida Southern Railway 

to try and convince them to come to his side of 

the harbor. He got the railroad but had to give 

the company a lot of land to get it. 

Colonel Trabue wanted to name the town 

Trabue, but thirty-four men got together in Tom 

Hector’s second-floor pool hall at the corner of 

West Olympia and Taylor Street in 1887, they 

voted to name the town Punta Gorda (Spanish 

for “fat point”). The name was derived from the 

area (now Punta Gorda Isles) that juts into the 

harbor. Twenty-one men walked thirty miles to 

the county seat at Pine Level to file the petition 

for incorporation. 

HOTEL PUNTA GORDA 

The Hotel Punta Gorda opened for business 

in 1887. A railroad spur brought passengers 

down King Street (now North 41) to the door of 

the hotel and wealthy guests parked their 

private railroad cars alongside the hotel. The 

hotel grounds were planted with palm trees and 

tropical flowers. White-jacketed waiters served 

elaborate meals in the big dining room. As the 

hotel was the southernmost resort in the United 

States, the rich and famous came from all over 

the world to relax, sail, hunt, and fish. Yachts 

sailed in and out of the harbor. 

President Teddy Roosevelt visited Punta Gorda, 

stayed at the hotel, and went fishing for tarpon and 

“devil fish” manta rays. John Wanamaker, Andrew 

Mellon, Thomas Edison, Caldwell Colt, W. K. 

Vanderbilt, Harvey Firestone, Henry Ford, and 

Charles Dawes were a few of the other famous 

guests who stayed at the Punta Gorda hotel. 

❖ 

Below: The Hotel Punta Gorda was 

the largest hotel in south Florida when 

it opened. The hotel served over three 

thousand guests during its first year 

of operation. 


OF FLORIDA. 

Bottom: The first Florida Southern 

Railway passenger train arrives in 

Punta Gorda. Regular service started 

shortly thereafter. 


OF FLORIDA. 

THE RAILROAD COMES 

TO PUNTA GORDA 

The first passenger train chugged into Punta 

Gorda in August 1886. The Punta Gorda Hotel 

and pleasure ground were built in 1886-87 as a 

resort destination for the railroad. The Florida 

Southern Railway merged into the Jacksonville, 

Tampa, and Key West Railroad to become part 

of the Plant System of Railroads in 1897. 

A 4,200 foot “long dock” (located near 

today’s Punta Gorda Isles Yacht Club on 

West Marion Avenue) was built into the 

deep water where Morgan steamships could 

tie up. An artesian well was put down near 

the end of the dock to replenish the train 

and ship boilers. An ice factory was built in 

1891 so fresh fish could be shipped north on 

the railroad. 

Chapter 4 ✦ 21

DESOTO 

COUNTY 

The Charlotte Harbor area became part of 

DeSoto County when the state legislature split 

DeSoto County off from Manatee County in 

1887. Pine Level was the county seat. 

EL 

JOBEAN 

El Jobean has been described as the town 

that would not die. Daniel and Jane 

MacPherson, residents of New York City, came 

to the region in 1887 and launched the first 

attempt at building a community on the 

Myakka River. They wanted to build a tropical 

paradise so they hired Albert Gilchrist to survey 

and build a community called Southland. Jane 

died in 1888 and Daniel died five years later. 

Daniel bequeathed the property to Susan 

Howard, their housekeeper. She came to Florida 

to take a look but figured the land wasn’t worth 

anything, so she didn’t bother paying her 1906 

tax bill of $7.64. 

F. M. Loomis from Tampa bought the 

delinquent tax certificate. He might have 

known about Peter Bradley running the 

Charlotte Harbor & Northern Railroad through 

Southland on the way to Boca Grande. Loomis 

sold the railroad right-of-way to the CH&N 

on March 2, 1907, although he didn’t possess 

the title. When Susan Howard heard about the 

railroad, she scurried back to reclaim her land. 

She paid the delinquent taxes, let the CH&N 

keep its right-of-way, and sold the rest of the 

land to Harry Roe of Maryland for $500. 

PINEAPPLES 

The region was one of the nation’s leading 

producers of pineapples for a short period of time 

beginning in the late 1800s. Cultivation on the 

north side of the harbor was well underway by 

1881; five years later several large pineries had 

been established on the south side, mostly in the 

Solana area. In 1904 the Solana Pineries Company 

reported a yield of 2,231 crates from just one 

five-acre plot. The tender slips and shoots were 

planted under slatted half-sheds that shielded 

them from the direct sunlight. Some of the largest 

pineapples in the world, reported to be 35 to 40 

pounds each, grew under the protective shade. 


❖ 

Opposite, starting from the top: 

The Mary Blue was built in the early 

1890s and used to haul phosphate. 


OF FLORIDA. 

A special railroad siding called Pineapple 

Center was built near present-day Highway 17. 

The railroad shipped the fresh pineapples to 

market in New York, Chicago, and other 

northern cities. Pineapples still grow in the wild 

and can be found off Alligator Creek near Jones 

Loop Road. 

PADDLE WHEEL STEAMERS 

Shallow draft paddle-wheel steamers played 

an important role in the history of Charlotte 

Harbor. The first such ship of record was 

Captain McKay’s ocean-going Scottish Chief. The 

first locally operated stern-wheeler was the 127- 

foot Alice Howard owned by Henry B. Plant, the 

president of the Florida Southern Railroad. He 

used the stern-wheeler to carry passengers, mail, 

and freight from Punta Gorda to Fort Myers. 

The ocean-going side-wheeler Morgan ran a 

regular route from New Orleans to Havana 

stopping at Tampa, Punta Gorda, and Key West. 

Captain Albert Dewey built a stern-wheeler 

with a thirty inch draft, the Mary Blue, to haul 

phosphate on the Peace River. The Mary Blue was 

later replaced by the Bassinger and the Phoenix 

after the Mary Blue burned at the dock in 1902. 

The paddle-wheelers St. Luce and Thomas A 

Edison raced from Punta Gorda to Fort Myers in 

1902 to see which one would get the mail contract. 

The Edison won the race by a close margin. 

The H. B. Plant was large enough to carry a 

crowd from Punta Gorda to Boca Grande and 

back. The paddle-wheeler left the dock at Punta 

Gorda at 7:00 p.m. and got back at about 2:00 

a.m. Food and drink were provided on the 

voyage and the crowd was entertained by the 

Punta Gorda Brass Band or the U.S. Marine 

Band. A ticket cost fifty cents. 

FREDERIC 

REMINGTON 

Fredric Sackrider Remington is famous for 

his paintings and sculptures of the old west. 

He came to Punta Gorda in 1895 to illustrate 

a story about the “cracker cowboys” of Florida. 

He took a room at the Hotel Punta Gorda and 

started exploring the 

area. He was enthusiastic 

and wrote a 

letter to his friend 

Owen Wister telling 

him, “Come down— 

deer, bear, tarpon, 

red snapper, ducks, 

birds of paradise, 

curious cow-boys 

who shoot up the 

railroad trains, summer 

clothes on— 

Write when I can 

expect you?” 

The Thomas A Edison carried mail, 

passengers, and freight on the eighthour 

run between Punta Gorda and 

Fort Myers until the railroad was 

extended to Fort Myers in 1904. 



The H. B. Plant was a popular sidewheeler. 

It provided service between 

Punta Gorda and Fort Myers between 

1899 and 1902 and was used for 

excursions on Charlotte Harbor. 


OF FLORIDA. 

Above: Pineapples were planted and 

grown under slatted half-sheds. 


OF FLORIDA. 

Below: Remington sketched several 

local cow catchers and fishermen 

while he was in Punta Gorda. 



Chapter 4 ✦ 23

❖ 

Right: This photograph of Governor 

Gilchrist depicted him while he served 

as governor of Florida. 


OF FLORIDA. 

Opposite, clockwise, starting from top: 

The Royal Casino offered food, fun, 

music, and “illegal” liquid refreshment 

during the “Roaring Twenties.” 

Patrons came from as far away as 

Boca Grande and Punta Gorda. 



Peter and Florence Buchan came from 

Georgia. Peter came to Englewood to 

take a job as the bookkeeper for the 

Chadwick Brothers who were running 

a fishing operation on Lemon Bay. 



Florence Buchan played an active role 

in the community. 



The political cartoon celebrates the 

business community’s enthusiastic 

response to Governor Gilchrist’s 

support of the “local option” which 

allowed counties to decide for 

themselves whether to be “wet” 

(sell alcohol) or “dry”( no alcohol). 


OF FLORIDA. 

FIRST HALF OF THE 

TWENTIETH CENTURY 

1900 TO 1950 

GOVERNOR 

GILCHRIST 

Albert Waller Gilchrist from Punta Gorda became the governor of Florida on January 5, 1909, 

and served until January 7, 1913. Governor Gilchrist was the son of General William E. and 

Rhoda Elizabeth (Waller) Gilchrist of Greenwood, South Carolina. He was born on January 15, 

1858, and attended the Carolina Military Institute for two years before completing three years at 

the United States Military Academy at West Point. 

Albert Gilchrist left the military academy to become a surveyor and civil engineer before laying 

out the right-of-way for the Florida Southern Railroad that came to Punta Gorda in 1886. He left 

the railroad to take up a career in real estate and surveying at what was then the southernmost 

railroad destination in the United States. Gilchrist was at the meeting in Tom Hector’s second-floor 

poolroom where thirty-four men signed incorporation papers to name the town Punta Gorda. 

Gilchrist worked to improve the town. 


He planted Royal palms along Marion 

Avenue and donated land for the Good 

Shepherd Episcopal Church (then at the corner 

of Virginia and U.S. 41 South). He surveyed 

Southland (later El Jobean), was elected to 

the Florida House of Representatives in 1893, 

and appointed brigadier-general in the Florida 

militia. He resigned the militia commission to 

enlist as a private in the United States Army to 

serve in the Spanish-American War, advancing 

to the rank of major. 

“convict leasing.” Governor Gilchrist was a 

good governor. 

Governor Gilchrist died in New York on May 

15, 1926, and was buried at the Indian Spring 

Cemetery in Punta Gorda. Gilchrist County, 

Florida is named for Governor Gilchrist. The 

Gilchrist Bridge (now the southbound route 

of U.S. Route 41 over the Peace River) honors 

the governor. A student dorm at Florida State 

University is named after Governor Gilchrist. 

Gilchrist Park (the waterfront park along Retta 

Esplanade in Punta Gorda) is named after the 

governor as is a street in the historic district of 

Punta Gorda. The A. C. Freeman House (on the 

National Register of Historic Places) located at 

the junction of Retta Esplanade and U.S. 41 is 

alternatively known as The Gilchrist House due 

to the period of time that Governor Gilchrist 

lived in the home. 

BUCHAN’ S 

LANDING 

Gilchrist went back to the legislature after 

returning home and served three terms, the 

last as speaker of the house. He ran for 

governor in 1908, won a run-off election for 

the Democratic nomination and then the 

general election by a wide margin. He reformed 

the county courts, appointed judges on merit, 

and led a drive to abolish the practice of 

Although the Nichols Brothers founded 

Englewood, Peter and Florence Buchan played 

an important role in developing the community. 

They came to Englewood in 1902 and took 

over the Nichols store in 1912. When they 

purchased property at the corner of Dearborn 

and Old Englewood Road, they moved their 

store, post office and dock to the site. The area 

became known as Buchan’s Landing. 

The Royal Casino was built offshore at 

Buchan’s Landing in 1924. 

Chapter 5 ✦ 25

CIGAR 

MAKING 

The Punta Gorda Cigar Manufacturing 

Company was incorporated in 1905 and 

produced 350,000 cigars in 1907. It outgrew its 

existing facilities in 1913 and constructed a 

new factory. The factory was destroyed by fire a 

few months after it was built. 

It was a popular war and young men rushed 

to enlist. The Punta Gorda Herald published 

the names of sixty-four white boys from Punta 

Gorda, five from Charlotte Harbor, and seven 

“colored boys” who were serving in the armed 

forces in May 1919. 

CHARLOTTE HARBOR & 

NORTHERN RAILROAD 

❖ 

Above: The Charlotte Harbor & 

Northern Railroad crossed what 

would become the northern portion of 

Charlotte County connecting Fort 

Ogden with the deep water port at 

Boca Grande. 


OF FLORIDA. 

Right: Dr. David McQueen served with 

the 2nd Infantry Military Detachment. 



The Charlotte Harbor & Northern Railroad 

(CH&N) placed a section workers’ bunkhouse 

and loading dock for a nearby turpentine still 

at the intersection of the railroad and a sand road 

connecting Charlotte Harbor and Englewood in 

1907. J. B. Moody built a store at the intersection 

and was awarded a post office on April 15, 1908. 

The post office was named Charlotte. 

John M. Murdock, a real estate salesman 

from Chicago, bought Moody’s store in 1911. 

He changed the post office name to Murdock, 

put up a hotel, and platted the property into 

five and ten acre lots. 

THE GREAT WAR 

The Unites States declared war on Germany 

and entered the Great War on April 4, 1917. 

The Great War became the war to end war. 


A. C. Frizzell sold 70,000 acres of land to 

the West Coast Development Company for 

$2.3 million in 1954. This company became 

the General Development Corporation that 

developed Port Charlotte. 

TURPENTINE 

The Charlotte Harbor and Northern (CH&N) 

Railroad constructed a small station near the 

Myakka River at Southland. Four or five houses, 

a fish processing house, a five room hotel, and 

a store were built over the next four or five 

years. Harry Roe held onto this land for twelve 

years before selling it to W. D. Bell of DeSoto 

❖ 

Left: A. C. Frizzell was a telegraph 

operator for the Charlotte Harbor & 

Northern Railroad before becoming a 

land owner, rancher, and 

businessman. 



MURDOCK 

Arthur Cleveland Frizzell and his wife Martha 

Elizabeth Frizzell moved to Murdock in 1917. 

They lived in Murdock’s Inn and worked for the 

CH&N Railroad for two years before they 

bought Murdock’s store and property. They 

eventually acquired an automobile dealership, 

bought a couple of lumber companies, and took 

over a retail business in Fort Myers. A. C. Frizzell 

bought up property at bargain rates during the 

depression and went into cattle ranching. He 

ended up owning thousands of acres of property 

in Sarasota, Charlotte, and DeSoto Counties. 

Above: Several turpentine camps and 

stills were located in the county in the 

early 1900s. Rosin was gathered from 

tapped trees, taken to a “still,” and the 

turpentine collected. 


OF FLORIDA. 

Left: “Hauling Turpentine”—barrels 

of turpentine were hauled to 

the railroad. 



Chapter 5 ✦ 27


County, Florida. Bell bought the land for $4,000 

on December 21, 1920, and sold it six days later 

to P. L. Weeks and D. W. Gurganious for $7,000. 

Weeks and Gurganious set up a turpentine 

camp using convict labor “rented” from the 

state but the Hurricane of 1921 came through 

on October 25th. 

1921 HURRICANE 

The 1921 Hurricane developed in the 

Caribbean on October 20th and came ashore as 

a Category Three storm with winds in excess of 

one hundred miles per hour. Chest-deep water 

flooded the streets of Englewood. The storm 

blew Buchan’s house and store off its foundation. 

Peter and Florence were in the building 

but survived the storm. 

The hurricane tore up the turpentine camp 

at Southland. Then Weeks and Gurganious 

experienced financial problems when the state 

legislature stopped “renting out convicts.” They 

gave up the turpentine business and sold their 

land to Thomas Stephens of Hernando County 

for $5,619.55. Stephens then sold the land to 

Joel Bean, a real estate developer from Boston, 

for $62,141 in 1923. 

CREATION OF EL JOBEAN 

Joel Bean decided to place a planned 

metropolis of six hexagonal communities on the 

land at Southland. Each community would have 

a civic center and the communities would be 

connected by wide boulevards. Bean named his 

city El-Jobe-An, an anagram of his name, to give 

it exotic appeal. The plat and street dedication 

was filed on July 31, 1924. 

Northern customers started buying 50 x 100 

foot lots, sight unseen, for small down payments 

and large mortgages. The railroad 

changed the station’s name from Southland to 

El-Jobe-An. Bean moved to El-Jobe-an and 

built a small cottage on the shore of the 

Myakka River. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer filmed 

Tarzan movies on the site. A roadway bridge 

was built paralleling the railroad trestle and a 

school was built. Then the financial “crash” of 

1929 occurred. 

When people started defaulting on their 

mortgages during the Great Depression and 

winter visitors stopped coming south for the 

season, the community declined but managed 

to survive. 

ELECTRICITY COMES 

TO PUNTA GORDA 

A kerosene generator and electric lights 

were installed in the Punta Gorda City Hall 

in 1906. The town marshal tended kerosene 

lamps lighting city streets but these lamps were 

replaced with a hundred electric lights in 1908. 

Power was furnished by the city generator. 

❖ 

Opposite, top: This photo of Buchan’s 

Store at Buchan’s Landing in 

Englewood was taken before the 

1921 Hurricane. 



Opposite, bottom: Tarzan movies were 

filmed in El Jobean. 



Above: Joel Bean came to Southland 

with a vision and a plan. 



Left: The Punta Gorda Ice and Power 

Company was located along the King 

Street (now U.S. 41) railroad 

extension in Punta Gorda. 



Chapter 5 ✦ 29

It was then determined that it would be more 

economical to purchase power from the Punta 

Gorda Ice and Power Company. The system 

was expanded to serve private customers. 

Transmission lines were run along city rights of 

way. The system operated independently until 

the Southern Utilities Company offered to buy 

the distribution system for $25,000. 

City voters approved the sale by a vote of 

58 to 33 on December 28, 1925. 

THE CLEVELAND MARINE 

STEAM WAYS 

When George Brown opened his Cleveland 

Marine Steam Ways in 1916, it was the largest 

marine repair facility in Southwest Florida. The 

facility was able to repair sail and power boats 

of all sizes. Although George Brown happened 

to be African-American, all of the residents of 

Punta Gorda called him “Mr. Brown.” 

❖ 

George Brown was a native of 

Charleston, South Carolina. He came 

to Punta Gorda in the 1890s and 

worked barging phosphate down the 

Peace River before opening his 

Cleveland Marine Steam Ways. 

He is shown holding John Teter, his 

next door neighbor’s son. 


OF FLORIDA. 


Mr. Brown hired black and white workers 

and paid them on the basis of their ability. He 

sold the county two lots on the corner of Taylor 

Street and Olympia Avenue that became the site 

of Charlotte County’s historic Court House. 

BUILDING THE 

TAMIAMI TRAIL 

Captain James J. Jaudon of Miami owned a lot 

of land in the Everglades and came up with the 

idea of linking Florida’s east and west coasts by 

a highway. E. P. Dickey in Tampa supported the 

notion and suggested a name, the “Tamyami Trail.” 

Construction started on the north-south section 

along Florida’s west coast in 1915. The new 

highway ran from Tampa to Bradenton, through 

Sarasota, and on to Charlotte County before being 

extended to Lee County. When Lee County ran out 

of money in 1919, Captain Jaudon offered to 

build a section through his land in the Everglades 

if the route came through his property. His offer 

was accepted and Captain Jaudon’s construction 

company started working on the road. 

Even so, the state ran out of money to finish 

the road. Barron Collier came to the rescue by 

offering to pay for that portion of the highway 

if the state would name a county after him. The 

southern half of Lee County was split off to 

become Collier County and the highway work 

continued. It took a dozen years of sweaty, 

buggy, boggy work to complete the Tamiami 

Trail. The highway cost over eight million 

dollars and was considered one of the world’s 

great engineering feats when it was finished. 

FIRST BRIDGE 

OVER THE PEACE RIVER 

William M. Whitten designed the bridge. 

Whitten started building the bridge in 1916 

but had to halt construction in mid-span 

because of the soaring costs and scarcity of 

materials brought on by the First World War. 

The unfinished bridge sat as it was for almost 

two years after the war ended. 

❖ 

Above: The first bridge over the Peace 

River connected Sand Point in 

Charlotte Harbor with Nesbit Street 

in Punta Gorda. 


OF FLORIDA. 

Below: Heavy construction equipment 

was used to build the Tamiami Trail. 

The highway, connecting Tampa with 

Miami, was considered an engineering 

marvel when it was completed. 


OF FLORIDA. 

Chapter 5 ✦ 31

❖ 

This Post Office once served the 

Englewood community. 



Whitten had to advance several thousand 

dollars of his own money to finish the bridge. 

Over six thousand people showed up to 

celebrate when the bridge was completed and 

opened for business on July 4, 1921. 

BABCOCK 

RANCH 

E. V. Babcock purchased 156,000 acres in 

1918. Babcock developed a deep water port on 

an additional piece of property east of Punta 

Gorda and started the largest timber operation 

east of the Mississippi River. The enterprise 

became a successful cattle and farming operation. 

PROHIBITION 

of the way locations although some used the 

municipal facilities. Officers of the Punta Gorda 

Police Department apprehended two gentlemen 

near the old Long Dock site in 1926 while they 

were transferring 610 gallons of alcohol from 

their boat to a Tampa bread truck. 

The two biggest moonshine raids took place 

in 1928 when Sheriff Lipscomb discovered a 

500 gallon still on the north side of Shell Creek 

and another 500 gallon still on an island in 

Telegraph Cypress Swamp, now part of the 

Babcock Ranch property. Prohibition was 

repealed with the passage of the Twenty-first 

amendment on December 5, 1933. 

ENGLEWOOD LAND BOOM 

Prohibition became the law of the land on 

January 16, 1920. When the manufacture, sale, 

and distribution of alcohol became illegal, 

several local gentlemen took up “farming in the 

woods.” Old timers liked to say, “There was a 

still behind every palmetto.” 

Others were bringing in boatloads of 

contraband, unloading crates and casks in out 

Local developers planned an expansion of 

Englewood in 1925. A bank came to town and 

there was talk about a railroad, a resort hotel, a 

Hollywood movie studio, an actor’s colony, and 

a university. The National Memorial University, 

cornerstone of the development, was going to 

be built on a fifty acre site along the proposed 

route for the Tamiami Trail. 


The university would be built to honor 

American soldiers killed during the European 

War. A distinguished group of citizens 

including Peter Harris, the adjutant general of 

the Army, started raising money for the 

proposed university by selling “memberships” 

ranging in price from one to ten dollars a 

year. The Royal Casino opened offshore at 

Buchan’s Landing. 

Englewood’s population jumped from fewer 

than a hundred people to more than six 

hundred. There were rumors about a 

community center, a country club with a golf 

course, a railroad line and depot, and a 

palm-lined hundred foot wide boulevard. 

Then the crash came. The bank failed, the 

railroad canceled its plans to build a line to 

Englewood, the university group disbanded, 

and the Tamiami Trail was moved to the east, 

bypassing Englewood. 

EL JOBEAN GRAND HOTEL 

AND FISHING LODGE 

The Grand Hotel, at 4381 Garden Road, was 

built in 1919 for Joel Bean, the founder of El 

Jobean. Joel Bean sold the hotel to Leo Simon 

and his wife Donna in 1942. Leo and Donna ran 

the hotel until 1969. 

Leo worked the carnival circuit as “Suicide 

Simon” and specialized in “fancy diving” by 

doing the jackknife, swan, and other dives off a 

120 foot high diving board. He even set himself 

on fire before diving eighty feet into a blazing 

tank. Then Leo perfected a dynamite act where 

he detonated sticks of dynamite placed a few 

inches from his head. When Leo discovered that 

the dynamite made a lot of noise but wasn’t 

much to look at, he added commercial talcum to 

the act which burst into a cascade of brilliant 

flames when the dynamite went off. 

❖ 

The Punta Gorda Beach Pavilion was 

built on a portion of Chadwick Beach 

on Manasota Key in Englewood. 

The property was purchased in 1933 

and renamed so that Punta Gorda 

business interests could claim that 

Punta Gorda possessed a beach on the 

Gulf of Mexico. The twenty-seven 

miles between the beach and city 

wasn’t mentioned. 



Chapter 5 ✦ 33

❖ 

Fish companies maintained ice houses 

in the harbor. Run boats left Punta 

Gorda at 7:00 am on Monday, 

Wednesday, and Friday. They stayed 

overnight at the farthest ice station 

and returned to Punta Gorda on 

Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. 



Other acts wintered at the El Jobean Hotel 

and Lodge during the winter season. The Flying 

Valentines practiced their trapeze acts on rigging 

behind the hotel and the Great Wallendas, 

quartered in nearby Sarasota, sometimes visited. 

FISHING IN 

CHARLOTTE HARBOR 

Over seven million pounds of fresh fish 

were shipped out of Punta Gorda in 1920. A. K. 

Demere, Carnes and Monk, M. M. Sullivan and 

Sons, and Blocksom and Lewis were some of the 

early fish dealers. Fancy fish—pompano, trout, 

mackerel, and king—were packed on the dock. 

These were sent to New York, Philadelphia, 

Chicago, and the other northern cities. 

Bottom fish were packed in bins with 

alternating layers of fish and ice. These were sent 

to Birmingham, Charleston, and other southern 

cities. Fishing started to die off in the 1950s and 

’60s after canals were dug that discharged silt 

and pesticides into the harbor. This severely 

damaged the sea grass beds—an essential link in 

the aquatic food chain. The Punta Gorda Fish 

Company operated until 1977. 

CREATION OF 


The Charlotte Harbor area had been part of 

Hillsborough County when Florida became a state. 

Southern Hillsborough County was then split off 

to become Manatee County after the Second 

Seminole War. There was talk about dividing 

Manatee County in a three-way split in 1887, but 

the Legislature created one new county. This 

happened to be DeSoto County. The Charlotte 

Harbor region became part of DeSoto County and 

Pine Level continued to be the county seat. 

Punta Gorda got its own newspaper, The 

Herald, in 1893 and the paper pushed for the 

creation of a separate county. The matter was 

taken up by the state legislature in 1895 but 

failed to pass. Requests continued in 1906, 

1908, and 1910. These were denied. 


Punta Gorda and Charlotte Harbor wanted better 

roads, more schools, and a bridge across the 

river. DeSoto County officials were more concerned 

about Arcadia. The matter came to a head 

in 1913 when the DeSoto County Commissioners 

decided to build a new $104,000 court house in 

Arcadia. Folks living around Charlotte Harbor 

objected to being taxed for a building in Arcadia 

while there was no bridge across the river. 

The Herald continued to mount a spirited 

campaign for separation from DeSoto County. 

A new strategy was formulated for separation by 

enlisting support from the other regions of the 

large county. The state legislature finally divided 

the large DeSoto County into DeSoto, Charlotte, 

Glades, Hardee, and Highlands Counties on 

April 20, 1921. Punta Gorda became the county 

seat of Charlotte County. 

❖ 

Above: The Herald building stood 

on the corner of Taylor Street and 

Herald Court in downtown 

Punta Gorda. 



Left: This is a photo of Elmer Powell’s 

fish crew at work in the harbor. Over 

three hundred people worked in the 

commercial fishing industry in the 

early 1900s. 



Chapter 5 ✦ 35



COURT HOUSE 

The Charlotte County Commissioners started 

meeting in the Johnson Building on Marion 

Avenue and rented court space in the Masonic 

Lodge at the corner of Marion and Sullivan Street. 

They didn’t have enough money to build a new 

courthouse until 1927. Then they hired the firm 

of Leitner and Henson from St. Petersburg to 

design the building and purchased George 

Brown’s lots at the corner of Taylor and Olympia. 

The Court House was dedicated on March 

20, 1928. The commissioners planned to spend 

$134,000 constructing and equipping the 

building, but the cost actually came to a little 

over $200,000. As Florida was a segregated 

state, separate restrooms and drinking fountains 

were provided for “colored” and “white” people. 

There was a jail on the second floor that 

included living quarters and a kitchen for the 

jailer and his family. A balcony in the courtroom 

was reserved for African-Americans. 


SCHOOLS 

Charlotte County’s school system started 

when DeSoto County was divided into five 

parts. There was a high school on Taylor Street 

in Punta Gorda and rural elementary schools 

at Charlotte Harbor, Gasparilla, Vineland-San 

Casa, McCall, Murdock, Placida, Bairdville, 

Bermont, Sparkman, and Acline. W. E. Bell was 

the first superintendent. In his 1924 school 

report, Bell urged that students failing to 

comply with the state’s compulsory attendance 

law be jailed. 

Students living north of the river were 

transported by boat to high school in Punta 

Gorda until the first bridge was completed in 

1921. After the bridge was built, the county 

needed a new high school. A site was selected 

in the Forest Park subdivision on Cooper Street 

and construction started. The new Charlotte 

High School opened on Cooper Street in Punta 

Gorda on August 19, 1927. 

❖ 

Opposite page, top: The Charlotte 

County Court House was built on 

Taylor Street in Punta Gorda. Punta 

Gorda was designated as the county 

seat in 1922 and the courthouse was 

dedicated in 1928. 



Opposite page, bottom: The old Punta 

Gorda School stood on the block 

fronting on Taylor Street and 

Charlotte Avenue. The school opened 

in 1911 and housed grades one 

through twelve. 


OF FLORIDA. 

Above: The Charlotte Harbor School 

offered grades one through eight. 



Chapter 5 ✦ 37

❖ 

Above: This is a photo of the school 

boat that once transported Charlotte 

Harbor pupils to high school in 

Punta Gorda. 



Opposite page, starting from the top: 

The Women’s Club on Sullivan Street 

has played an important social and 

educational role. 



The 1926 Hurricane came ashore at 

Miami as a Category 4 storm with a 

fifteen foot storm surge on September 

18, 1926. The hurricane crossed the 

Florida peninsula exiting over 

Charlotte Harbor and continued up 

the Gulf Coast to Pensacola. The 

Seminole Hotel was located at the 

corner of Marion Avenue and Sullivan 

Street in Punta Gorda. 



Punta Gorda’s new municipal dock 

was built off Maud Street in 

1928-1929. 



W. E. Bell served as the County School 

Superintendent until 1933 and was replaced by 

Paul Eddy who served for four years. Sallie 

Jones, who was teaching English and science at 

the high school, became the first female school 

superintendent in the state of Florida. Sallie 

Jones served with distinction for sixteen years. 

1926 HURRICANE EMPTIES 

CHARLOTTE HARBOR 

The “Great Miami” Hurricane blew the water 

out of Lake Okeechobee, breached the southern 

dike, and flooded Moore Haven. It blew the water 

out of the upper reaches of Charlotte Harbor as it 

approached. Then it blew the water back into the 

streets of Punta Gorda and Charlotte Harbor as it 

passed. Bridges on the road between Punta Gorda 

and Fort Myers were swept away. 

The storm killed 373 people and injured 

six thousand. Seventeen thousand people in 

Florida were left without homes or shelter. 

Some claim that the hurricane’s impact ended 

the “Florida Boom” three years before the 1929 

stock market crash. 

FEDERATED WOMEN’ S CLUB 

OF PUNTA GORDA 

The Married Ladies Social Club, Fortnightly 

Literary Club, and Women’s Civic Improvement 

Association merged as the Punta Gorda Woman’s 

Club and joined the General Federation of 

Women’s Clubs on April 17, 1925. A building 

was constructed at 118 Sullivan Street to house 

the club. The land had been donated by a winter 

resident, Judge William F. Cooper of Cook 

County, Illinois. The building is now owned by 

the Punta Gorda Historical Society and used for 

community activities and events. 

The club’s mission was civic improvement but 

social graces were important. Hats and gloves 

were expected, and tea and cake were served at 

the meetings. The Woman’s Club served as a 

United Service Organization (USO) during the 

Second World War for soldiers on leave and 

airmen training at the Punta Gorda Air Base. 

MAUD STREET DOCKS 

The Maud Street City Docks were built to 

replace the old King Street (now North 41) pier 

that gave way to the Barron Collier Bridge. 

Seven fish companies and the Gulf Oil 

Company were housed at the new dock. Matt 

Weeks’ Boat Shop was next door. Each fish 

company had a fleet of “run boats” that made 

periodic trips down Charlotte Harbor carrying 

ice and supplies to the fish camps. 

The camps were stilt houses constructed in 

various locations on the islands in the bay. The 

“run boats” brought the fish back to the dock 


where they were sorted, packed in ice, and 

shipped to the northern markets. Just two 

companies, the Punta Gorda Fish Company and 

the West Coast Fish Company, survived the early 

years of the Great Depression that hit during the 

1930s. A fire destroyed two large packing houses 

in 1939. The West Coast Fish Company folded 

but the Punta Gorda Fish Company continued 

to operate on a smaller scale. 

The dock and surrounding buildings fell into 

disrepair during the 1970s. 

CENSUS 

DATA 

The 1930 federal census reported 4,013 

people living in Charlotte County. The 

population dropped to 3,663 people by 1940. 

BASS BIOLOGICAL 

LABORATORY 

The Bass Biological Laboratory and 

Zoological Research Supply Company was 

founded in Englewood in 1931 and operated on 

Gottfried Creek until 1944. A large compound 

of buildings was constructed to house the lab 

and a number of uncommon-looking cabins 

were built to house visiting scientists who came 

to conduct their research at the lab. The cabins 

were built by slicing pine logs into rounds that 

were stood on edge and embedded in mortar. 

Only one cabin, called the “Cookie House,” 

remains. It was relocated to the Cedar Point 

Park in Englewood and restored by the 

Historical Division of the Charlotte County 

Parks and Recreation Department. 

Marine scientists came to the lab from all 

over North America and Europe to collect 

specimens, conduct research, and write their 

reports. The Bass Lab identified and catalogued 

470 marine and terrestrial creatures during its 

existence, some of these were virtually 

unknown at the time. The lab also pioneered 

the idea and concept of salt water aquariums for 

marine enthusiasts. 

After the war, the Bass family helped build 

and equip William and Alfred Vanderbilt’s Cape 

Haze Marine Laboratory near Placida. The Cape 

Haze Lab moved to a new home in Sarasota 

County on Siesta Key to eventually become the 

Mote Marine Laboratory. 

Chapter 5 ✦ 39

❖ 

Right: This is a latter day photo of 

Joyce Hindman while he served as 

mayor of Punta Gorda. 



Below: Several lucky German 

Prisoners of War were stationed at the 

Air Field and given routine grounds 

maintenance tasks. 



WORLD WAR II 

The U.S. government instituted the draft 

(selective service) on December 1, 1940. Joyce 

Hindman of Punta Gorda was Florida’s first 

volunteer-draftee. The term of enlistment was 

one year of active service to be followed by three 

years of reserve duty. Joyce reported for duty 

on December 4 and was the first draftee to be 

inducted at Camp Blanding near Starke, Florida. 

His picture appeared on the cover of Life 

magazine, a national publication. 


Hindman served his year of active duty and 

came home. The United States entered the war on 

December 7 and he was called back to active duty 

two days later. He served for the duration of the 

war and was discharged in 1945. Hindman came 

home to later become the president of the 

Chamber of Commerce, Mayor of Punta Gorda, 

and Chairman of the Interstate 75 Task Force. 

PUNTA GORDA 

ARMY AIR FORCE BASE 

There were forty-two Army Air Force Bases in 

Florida during the Second World War. Work 

crews started building the Punta Gorda Air Field 

in October 1942 and the first soldiers arrived a 

year later. There were sixty-one buildings and 

three runways. The 502nd Fighter-Bomber 

Squadron and 490th Fighter Squadron were 

stationed at the field. P-40s were used for 

training until they were replaced by P-51s. 

The Army Air Field was dedicated by U. S. 

Senator Claude Pepper on March 19, 1944. There 

were 930 officers and 4,162 enlisted men 

stationed at the base by the following May. 

Fighter pilots received their final training at the 

Punta Gorda Air Field before being sent overseas. 

FIRST 

HOSPITAL 

When the Charlotte Hospital in Punta Gorda 

opened with twenty-two beds and five bassinets 

in August 1947, it was the first hospital in 

Charlotte County. Dr. Walter Clement, a local 

physician who had served with the 101st 

Airborne Division as a flight surgeon during 

World War II, led the drive to build the hospital. 

The initial one-story structure was built on land 

purchased from Mrs. C. C. Carlton, the widow of 

a prominent fruit packer. The hospital was 

expanded to twenty-five beds in 1949. The hospital 

changed its name to Charlotte Community 

Hospital in 1959 and continued to grow. 

The hospital was accredited by the Joint 

Commission in 1963. There were 148 beds by 

1966. Fourteen physicians were on the medical 

staff by 1969. The original hospital has become 

the Charlotte Regional Medical Center. 

❖ 

Above: The Punta Gorda Army Air 

Field was activated in 1943. 



Left: Three meals a day were served 

to over four thousand enlisted men 

and officers stationed at the Punta 

Gorda Army Airfield during the later 

years of World War II. 



Below: The new Charlotte Hospital 

held an open house on 

August 1, 1947. 



Chapter 5 ✦ 41

❖ 

Above: The seventy-five foot 

lighthouse replica at Conway 

Boulevard and U.S.41 welcomed 

potential buyers to the “Port Charlotte 

Exhibition of Homes.” 



Opposite, top: The Pure Oil gas 

station at the corner of Easy Street 

and U.S. 41 was the first business in 

Port Charlotte. 


OF FLORIDA. 

Opposite, bottom: Port Charlotte’s 

first store was a 7-Eleven located at 

the corner of Easy Street and U.S. 41. 



LATTER HALF OF THE 

TWENTIETH CENTURY 

1950 TO 2000 

1950 CENSUS 

The census reported 4,286 people living in Charlotte County. 

THE VANDERBILTS COME TO CHARLOTTE COUNTY 

Alfred and William Vanderbilt were direct descendants of Commodore Vanderbilt, the nineteenth 

century railroad magnate, and they were well-known in their own right when they came to Charlotte 

County in 1951. They wanted to go into agriculture and cattle ranching so they paid $700,000 for 

about thirty-five thousand acres of scrub, pine, palmetto, and marsh on the Cape Haze peninsula. 

The ranch flourished for the next two decades as the Vanderbilts continued to improve it. 


CAPE HAZE 

MARINE LABORATORY 

Anne Vanderbilt, William’s wife, was credited 

with bringing the Marine Laboratory to Cape 

Haze. Dr. Eugenie Clark, an acclaimed SCUBA 

diver, a talented author, and a noted ichthyologist 

started directing the program in January 1955. 

The lab became known for its studies on 

shark and skate behavior and soon attracted the 

interest of the Office of Naval Research. The 

laboratory moved to Sarasota County in 1960. It 

eventually became the Mote Marine Laboratory. 

The names also had to be something that 

prospective customers would find desirable or 

acceptable. Easy Street was already reserved as a 

marketing venture and they ran out of relatives 

and friends. They turned to flowers, place names 

from northern states, cities, birds, and animals. 

MACKLE 

BROTHERS 

The Mackle brothers—Frank, Elliot, and 

Robert—bought 70,000 acres of land along 

Tamiami Trail from A. C. Frizzell for $2.3 

million in 1954. After they sold their first 

250 homes, they merged with the Chemical 

Research Corporation of Delaware and launched 

a massive advertising blitz in the major northern 

newspapers. They sold another 125,000 lots in 

short order. 

Naming the streets became a major problem 

because every street name had to be different 

from all other street names in Charlotte County. 

Chapter 6 ✦ 43

❖ 

Above: Port Charlotte was advertised 

on a national basis with full page ads 

appearing in the nation’s 

leading publications. 



Opposite, top: There was so much 

interest in the Port Charlotte 

development that a Port Charlotte 

Chamber of Commerce was formed 

and housed in a tiki hut. 



Opposite, bottom: “Ten dollars down 

and ten dollars a month” became a 

national slogan used to entice retirees 

coming from the industrial cities in 

western New York, Pennsylvania, 

Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois. 



PORT 

CHARLOTTE 

The Mackle Brothers constructed their first 

building on the corner of Elkcam and U.S. 41 in 

October, 1955. The building housed four onsite 

employees and is now the O’Connor Realty 

Building. Construction on the first model homes 

on Martin Drive started that December. The 

Renshaw family moved into their home at 

102 South Easy Street about ten months later 

to become the first residents of the new 

community. Then the Goetz family moved into 

their house at 467 Sunrise Trail. They were the 

first to build a house of their own design. 

Businesses started arriving in 1958 when Jack 

Brandel opened his gas station at the corner of 

Easy Street and U.S. 41. The 7-11 Convenience 

Store, Brobst-Taylor hardware store, and Mike 

Hoop’s Barber Shop followed. The first Port 

Charlotte Shopping Center opened a couple of 

years later where the Promenades Shopping 

Center now stands. The first traffic light was put 

up at the intersection of Easy Street and U.S. 41. 

GENERAL DEVELOPMENT 

CORPORATION 

The Mackle Brothers merged with the Chemical 

Research Company of Delaware in 1956 to form 

the General Development Corporation (GDC). 

The chairman of the GDC Board published Look 

magazine. The company erected a Florida tract 

house inside Mandel Brothers Department Store in 

Chicago and stationed bathing beauties in New 

York City’s Grand Central Station to pass out 

orange juice and brochures. Houses started at 

$9,960 with $210 down. 

So many young “retired” servicemen rushed to 

Port Charlotte that the average age was 42 in 1960. 

When the Labor Unions started negotiating earlier 

and better retirement programs in the late 1950s 

and the federal government strengthened its social 

security program during the 1960s, General 

Development targeted its publicity to older 

workers. Thousands of retirees from New York, 

Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois 

rushed to buy a piece of the American dream. 


SMITH’ S PLANTATION 

RESTAURANT 

Kaye Ellis and Herman Smith opened Smith’s 

Plantation Restaurant in Charlotte Harbor on 

U.S. 41 in 1957. The restaurant was about the 

only business establishment north of the river. 

Over 300 people could eat in the two-floor 

restaurant and there was seldom a lull in business. 

The restaurant was noted for its legendary 

six-pound steaks. The Mackle Brothers 

entertained prospective customers in the 

restaurant and Colonel Sanders, Ed McMahon, 

Pete Rose, O. J. Simpson, and Billie Jean King all 

ate there. Arthur Godfrey came to the restaurant 

to broadcast one of his nationally syndicated 

radio shows The building still stands at 4536 

Tamiami Trail. 

FLORIDA 

BOOM 

The May 10, 1958, edition of TIME magazine 

featured an article stating, “Mackle houses are 

hard to beat.” The Mackle brothers were selling 

houses in Port Charlotte ranging in price from 

$6,960 (one bedroom, one bath, living room, 

kitchen, and screened porch) to $16,260 (three 

bedrooms, living-dining area, two baths, garage, 

terrazzo floors, and tiled roof). The Mackles 

were avoiding the “project look” afflicting many 

mass building projects by laying out streets in 

winding arcs, alternating models, setting houses 

at different angles, and surrounding them with 

fast-growing trees and shrubbery. 

The Mackle brothers’ General Development 

Corporation (GDC) became the most heavily 

traded stock on Wall Street. Lots were being 

sold in Port Charlotte for ten dollars down 

and ten dollars a month for ten years. The 

Mackles were not worried about a slowdown 

in the housing market. Frank Mackle claimed, 

“Anyone can sell when the housing market 

is good. But when the market gets tough and 

choosey, we can really go to town because we 

can undersell the competition.” 

CENTRAL 

INTELLIGENCE AGENCY 

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) came 

to Southwest Florida after the 1959 Cuban 

Chapter 6 ✦ 45

evolt to train troops on Useppa Island and fly 

people, material, and supplies out of the Punta 

Gorda airfield. Al Johns and Bud Cole were two 

of the CIA pilots who flew over the large 

undeveloped area west of town. They quit their 

jobs to go into the real estate business and 

developed Punta Gorda Isles. 

PUNTA GORDA ISLES 

Wilber H. “Bud” Cole, Al Johns, Sam 

Burchers, and Bob Barbee formed the Punta 

Gorda Isles Corporation. They purchased 

the mangrove wetlands west of Punta Gorda 

on December 31, 1957. W. T. Price then went 

to work with his dredging company to 

transform the area into a network of canals 

and home sites. Sales were slow during the 

first two years but picked up in the 1960s. 

The group laid out fifty-five miles of canals 

a hundred feet wide and seventeen feet 

deep. Dredged sand was piled on the flats 

to raise the land four feet. This provided dry 

home sites with access to the harbor. 

Initial PGI lots sold for $5,000 and homes 

for $32,000. Other subdivisions were then 

developed at Burnt Store Isles, Burnt Store 

Meadows, Seminole Lakes, Burnt Store Lakes, 

Burnt Store Villages, Burnt Store Marina, and 

Deep Creek. 

HOTEL 

GORDA 

PUNTA 

BURNS 

The once grand Punta Gorda Hotel caught 

fire at 2:30 a.m. on August 14, 1959. Homer 

Monson was coming home from work at 

the fish dock when he spotted flames 

leaping from the hotel tower. He dashed to 

the fire station behind City Hall and 

alerted Fireman Derrill Moore. Derrill 

turned on the siren and called Fire Chief 

Robert Barley. The volunteer firemen came 

running, but they couldn’t save the woodframed 

building. 

1960 CENSUS 

The 1960 census reported 12,594 people 

living in Charlotte County. The population had 

tripled in a ten year period. 


HURRICANE 

DONNA 

Hurricane Donna, a Category 3 storm, struck 

Charlotte County at about 1:00 p.m. on Saturday 

September 10, 1960. The 115 to 120 mile per 

hour wind gusts toppled trees, damaged car 

ports, and ripped roofs off houses. The water 

was blown out of the harbor and it was claimed 

that one could walk a couple of hundred feet out 

into the harbor during the eye of the storm. 

Several trailers in the Punta Gorda Municipal 

Mobile Home Park (now Laishley Park) were 

crushed and destroyed. 

PORT CHARLOTTE 

CULTURAL CENTER 

As hundreds of people started moving to Port 

Charlotte, many of the newly-retired residents 

were reported as having difficulty adjusting to idle 

time without having their friends or family nearby. 

Frank Mackle, the General Development Board 

Chairman, decided to solve this problem by 

starting an adult education school. Jim Ball, the 

local General Development Supervisor, was told to 

rent a store on Easy Street near Tamiami Trail and 

hire a couple of retired teachers to conduct classes 

in literature, art, sewing, and other subjects. 

Hurricane Donna delayed the start of classes 

in September 1960 but a group of men cleaned 

up the site. Classes started late but 250 enrollees 

signed up for classes in thirteen subjects. The 

first graduation exercises were held in June 1961 

for twenty-nine students. The event was featured 

in Life magazine and broadcast on television. 

Classes were moved to a larger facility on 

the second floor of the Sunny Dell plaza in 

October 1963. The Adult Education Charter was 

transferred to The Adult Education Association of 

Charlotte County, Inc. on March 29, 1965. Plans 

were made for a new facility containing a 418 seat 

theater, a 10,000 square foot library, and 16,000 

square feet of classrooms. Work began on the 

Aaron Street site in late 1966. The Cultural 

Center was dedicated on January 6, 1968. 

PONCE DE LEON PARK 

Fred Babcock donated a spit of land on 

Charlotte Harbor at the far western end of 

Marion Avenue to the City of Punta Gorda 

in 1954 for a city beach park. Sam Burchers, 

one of the developers of Punta Gorda Isles, 

suggested that the park should be called 

Ponce de Leon Park to honor the Spanish 

explorer and conquistador. 

The Punta Gorda City Council renamed the 

park Ponce de Leon Historical Park in 1966. 

Parking and a boat ramp were provided by the 

city. A picnic area with a barbeque pit and shelter 

were built by the Punta Gorda Kiwanis Club. 

Roger Enger, the Ponce of the Royal Order of 

Ponce de Leon Conquistadors, suggested 

renaming the park access road to Ponce de Leon 

Parkway. The Punta Gorda City Council passed 

the resolution doing so on February 18, 2009. 

The park, with its boat ramp, nature trails, and 

white sand beach, remains an attraction for 

residents and visitors. 

1970 CENSUS 

The census revealed that 27,559 people were 

now living in Charlotte County. The population 

had more than doubled in the last ten years 

A BANNER YEAR (1971) 

IN PORT CHARLOTTE 

The General Development (GDC) reported 

that more than 26,000 owners and prospective 

buyers were given over 7,500 tours of the Port 

Charlotte community during the previous year. 

Four hundred homes were constructed and the 

country club was expanded with new meeting 

and social rooms, new locker rooms, and 19th 

Hole Lounge. 

ROTONDA 

WEST 

Joe Klein and his Hungarian born father, 

Zola, owned the Cavanagh Leasing Corporation 

that purchased the Vanderbilt property at Cape 

Haze. Cavanagh Leasing became Cavanagh 

Communities Corporation in 1970 when Joe 

decided to build his version of a circular city 

with parks, golf courses, thoroughfares, and 

community centers in Charlotte County. 

Promotional material portrayed Rotonda West 

as a new community-in-the-round, a unique 

circle of pie-slice-shaped subdivisions, seven 

with their own golf courses and marinas, and 

❖ 

Opposite, starting from the top: 

The novelty of a house with a 

waterfall was used as a feature to 

entice buyers to Punta Gorda Isles. 



The statue and structure in Ponce de 

Leon Park was built to commemorate 

Ponce de Leon’s landing in 

Charlotte Harbor. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF HOLMES. 

The Cultural Center opened in 1968 

to become the hub of the social, 

cultural, and educational activities for 

the residents of Port Charlotte. 



Chapter 6 ✦ 47

County Commission Chairman Bigelow about 

changing the name of Elkcam Boulevard in Port 

Charlotte to Ponce de Leon Boulevard honoring 

the Spanish explorer, over a hundred Elkcam 

homeowners signed petitions and threatened to 

take the matter all the way to the United States 

Supreme Court. 

General Development Corporation (GDC) 

left the name the same and so it has remained. 

“Elkcam” is Mackle spelled backwards. 

AIRPORT 

TERMINAL 

❖ 

Several county offices were moved to 

the new Murdock Circle complex. 


an eighth with a broad waterway (Coral Creek). 

The whole would be surrounded by a circular 

waterway, offering, in all, “thirty-two miles of 

navigable, blue-green waterways well-stocked 

with freshwater fish.” 

Entry would be across four bridges, from the 

north, south, east, and west, each with its own 

security gate. 

CULTURAL CENTER 

EXPANDS 

The senior lounge, gift shop, and trash and 

treasure wings were added to the Cultural Center 

in 1974. Adult education classes enrolled 

students in over four hundred classes offered 

during the year. They ranged from ballet and 

ballroom dancing to art, crafts, music, 

oceanography, world affairs, and television repair. 

Former First Lady Betty Ford visited the 

Cultural Center in 1977 and Ronald Reagan 

stopped on his campaign tour a week later. 

Candidate Reagan told those in attendance, “This 

Center is a model of community cooperation and 

I’m going to spread the word.” 

ELKAM HOMEOWNERS 

PROTEST 

When Postmaster Hugh McGibbon announced 

on May 2, 1972 that he had been approached by 

A new passenger terminal was dedicated at 

the Charlotte County Airport on May 13, 1972. 

The $187,000 terminal building housed a 

passenger lounge, airline ticket counter, and 

offices for the Development Authority and 

Airport Manager. 

EDISON JUNIOR COLLEGE 

Edison Junior College opened in Fort Myers 

in 1962 and expanded in August 1974 by 

placing a Charlotte County Center upstairs over 

the Sunny Dell Plaza Laundromat in Port 

Charlotte. The college offered four three-credit 

courses: psychology, effective speaking, western 

civilization, and mathematics. 

PORT CHARLOTTE 

SALES DOUBLE 

The General Development Corporation 

(GDC) announced on October 5, 1972, that 

home site sales during the first seven months of 

1972 reached $16 million. This was more than 

double the $6.9 million recorded for that period 

during the previous year. 

COUNTY 

ADMINISTRATIVE 

COMPLEX 

Plans were finalized for a new Administrative 

Complex on Murdock Circle in Port Charlotte 

on July 24, 1978. Charlotte County allocated 

$750,000 to build phase one near the General 

Development Welcome Center. The project 

consisted of pilings, first floor columns, and a 

second floor. It was scheduled for completion 

by March 1979. 


PONCE DE LEON 

CONQUISTADORS 

After a festival and reenactment of the Ponce 

de Leon landing held in 1979, Don Donelson 

and Bob Anderson, developers of Fisherman’s 

Village in Punta Gorda, decided there should be 

a permanent organization to perpetuate the 

discovery of Charlotte Harbor, honor Ponce de 

Leon, and promote Charlotte County. Local 

businessmen were invited to join an organization 

that became The Royal Order of Ponce de Leon 

Conquistadors of Charlotte County. 

In recent years the organization has for the 

most part become an organization of retirees 

who are active in community activities. 

Although membership is restricted to men, 

wives participate in many activities. 

1980 CENSUS 

The population doubles again. The federal 

census reported 58,460 people living in 

Charlotte County. 

FIRST OF ITS KIND 

BUILDING REPORT 

The 1981 “first of its kind” building report on 

the construction industry in Charlotte County 

noted that construction shot up more than $40 

million to an all time high of $120 million in 

1980. Chief Plans Officer Hans Behrens 

claimed, “A hundred and twenty million 

is actually a conservative valuation since 

it reflects construction costs rather than 

market value.” 

The County Commissioners decided to let 

the residents of Englewood decide. They left 

Englewood as it is. 

DEVELOPMENT OF 

PORT C HARLOTTE 

Port Charlotte became the largest of General 

Development’s seven planned communities by 

1984. Over 45,000 residents lived in 23,000 

dwellings on what had once been rural pasture 

land. Several shopping areas included the new 

52-store Promenades Shopping Center located 

on U.S. 41 at the site of Port Charlotte’s first 

shopping center. 

Port Charlotte had more than 2,000 miles of 

paved and graded streets, 45 bridges, over 165 

miles of man-made waterways, 2 hospitals, and 

an eighteen-hole golf course with country club. 

FISHERMAN’ S 

VILLAGE 

Fisherman’s Village opened on the site of the 

old Maud Street City Docks in Punta Gorda in 

1980. The revitalized complex became an integral 

part of the Historic Punta Gorda Community. 

It contains boutiques, coffee shops, a book store, 

and several restaurants. Fisherman’s Village has its 

own marina and provides live entertainment, 

fishing charters, and boating excursions. 

Lodging is provided along with tennis courts 

and a swimming pool. 

❖ 

The old Maud Street dock was 

converted into a shopping and 

restaurant complex celebrating the 

seafaring and fishing legacy of Punta 

Gorda and Charlotte Harbor. 



ENGLEWOOD 

INCORPORATION 

CONSIDERED 

State legislators released a 42-page 

Englewood Incorporation Study in early 

October 1981. The study proposed 

incorporating 39 square miles on the 

Gulf shore that would include all of 

the area served by the Englewood Water 

District. Those against incorporation 

collected six hundred signatures of 

residents opposing incorporation. 

Chapter 6 ✦ 49

took place on June 4, 1986. The $5.8 million 

complex was completed in time for the 1987 

Spring Training season, and the Rangers opened 

the season on March 6 by playing the Detroit 

Tigers before a sellout crowd of 5,400 spectators. 

CONQUISTADORS 

VISIT PALENCIA 

Twenty-five members of the Royal Order of 

Ponce de Leon Conquistadors of Charlotte 

County and their wives visited Palencia, Spain, 

on September 4, 1985, to celebrate the San 

Antolin Festival. The Conquistadors and 

dignitaries from Punta Gorda and Charlotte 

County met with the mayor and vice mayor of 

Palencia to exchange courtesies and sign 

documents proclaiming Punta Gorda and 

Palencia sister cities. Ponce de Leon came from 

the region now known as Palencia. 

❖ 

The Charlotte campus of Edison State 

College offers Associate and Bachelor’s 

Degrees in a number of 

academic areas. 


MURDOCK OFFICE COMPLEX 

Work continued on the Charlotte County 

Office Complex at Murdock Circle through 1979 

and 1980. Bid requests for the project’s final 

two phases went out on January 21, 1981. The 

County Commissioners then approved a $742,000 

contract to complete interior work on the project 

by September 1981. 

County workers moved into the Murdock 

Administrative Complex on October 12, 1981. 

The new complex housed the Board of Charlotte 

County Commissioners; Building, Planning, and 

Zoning Officials; Purchasing Department; Fire 

Prevention Bureau; and branch office of the 

County Engineer’s Department. 

PROFESSIONAL 

BASEBALL 

General Development Corporation (GDC) 

gave Charlotte County two parcels of property 

in 1984 to build a professional sports stadium. 

Charlotte County voters went to the polls on 

March 12, 1984, and passed a 2% tourist bed 

tax to fund construction of a $5.5 million 

stadium and sports complex on the property. 

The Texas Rangers signed an agreement on June 

19, 1985, to move their 1987 Spring Training 

Program to Charlotte County. Groundbreaking on 

the stadium and sports complex near El Jobean 

CELEBRATING DISCOVERY 

DAY IN OLD SAN JUAN 

Twenty-seven Conquistadors and their wives 

then visited San Juan, Puerto Rico, on November 

19, 1986, to celebrate Discovery Day, the annual 

event held to commemorate the day that 

Christopher Columbus and his lieutenant, 

Ponce de Leon, discovered the island of Puerto 

Rico. The mayor of San Juan thanked the 

Conquistadors for joining them in “…paying 

tribute to the great men who brought Hispanic 

culture to America.” 

REGIONAL SHOPPING MALL 

Charlotte County’s first regional shopping mall 

opened for business on Wednesday August 2, 

1989. Twenty-two thousand shoppers crowded 

the sixty-three stores of the 931,534 square-foot 

Port Charlotte Town Center at the corner of 

U.S. 41 and State Road 776. The Port Charlotte 

High School band played the school fight song 

inside the mall but shoppers didn’t seem to need 

much encouragement. 

Miss Universe was on hand in the JCPenney 

store welcoming them to the mall. Over fifteen 

thousand shoppers registered for the prize 

drawings being offered. John Reily won a new 

Pontiac Sunbird. 


1990 CENSUS 

The 1990 census revealed that 110,975 

people were now living in Charlotte County. 

The population had almost doubled again. 

EDISON 

COMMUNITY COLLEGE 

The Edison College Charlotte Center moved 

to leased facilities in Punta Gorda in 1990, and 

the Charlotte County Commission donated 

eighty acres of land on a long-term lease to build 

a permanent campus. Vernon Peeples, who 

served two terms on the Edison College 

Board, was a representative to the Florida 

Legislature and worked to secure state funding 

for the campus. 

The legislature appropriated $1.3 million for 

planning in 1992 and then another $14 million 

to construct the campus. Charlotte County 

expanded its original gift of eighty acres to the 

present 204 acre site. The Charlotte County 

campus on Airport Road in Punta Gorda opened 

in 1997. 

PUNTA 

WATERFRONT 

GORDA 

DEVELOPMENT 

The Charlotte County Commissioners 

endorsed a Punta Gorda City Council 

proposal on May 27, 1992, to build a 

new county Justice Center on a ten 

acre portion of a planned waterfront 

development. The development would be 

built on the thirty acre site of the former 

municipal mobile home park fronting the 

Peace River. 

The project was to include the Justice 

Center along with several retail shops, a 

240 room hotel, condominiums, a drydock 

storage facility, and river walk. 

on October 11, 1995. More than ninety murals 

were painted at twenty different sites in Punta 

Gorda before Hurricane Charley struck on 

Friday August 13, 2004. Ten sites were 

destroyed by the hurricane but at the time of 

publication, the Society has restored seven. 

The Historic Mural Society provided the 

Conquistador print on the book’s cover. The 

print commemorates Ponce de Leon and the 

other Spanish explorers who came to Charlotte 

Harbor in the early 1500s. 

JUSTICE 

CENTER 

The Charlotte County Justice Center was 

dedicated on Friday June 21, 1999. Several 

hundred people toured the $22.6 million, 

185,000 square foot building. The new Justice 

Center contains eight courtrooms, twelve 

holding cells, and numerous offices including 

the state attorney, public defender, traffic court, 

and probation department. 

2000 CENSUS 

The 2000 census revealed that 141,627 

people were living in Charlotte County. The 

county’s population jumped from 4,286 

residents to 141,627 in fifty years. 

❖ 

Charlotte County Courts meet in the 

Justice Center in Punta Gorda 


HISTORIC 

MURAL SOCIETY 

The Punta Gorda Historic Mural 

Society was formed in 1994 to place 

historic and educational murals in the 

business district of Punta Gorda. The 

first mural was finished and dedicated 

Chapter 6 ✦ 51

FIRST DECADE OF THE 

TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY 

2000 TO 2010 

❖ 

This is a picture of a Charlotte 

County home damaged by Hurricane 

Charley. The photograph was taken a 

couple of weeks after the hurricane. 


OF FLORIDA. 

Several community residents share their observations, perceptions, and memories of significant events 

and activities that have occurred in Charlotte County during the first decade of the twenty-first century. 

An event: Hurricane Charley, a Category 4 storm on the Saffir-Simpson Scale, struck Charlotte 

County on Friday afternoon, August 13, 2004. A Charlotte County resident shares her experience: 

H URRICANE 

C HARLEY 

BY MARY PATTERSON 

We were not prepared for Hurricane Charley. The weather forecaster and National Hurricane advisories 

said it was headed toward Tampa Bay. At about noon they announced the eye was starting to wobble and 

taking a more easterly direction. Then they said it would hit either the Fort Myers area or Charlotte Harbor. 

The announcement came to evacuate low-lying areas and mobile homes, and the police went through 

the mobile home parks urging everyone to leave at once. We had picked up anything that might blow 

away and put away our lawn furniture but had not put storm shutters on our windows. My husband, 

Richard, parked our truck in front of the dining room window to protect the windows from flying objects. 

The gusty wind started whipping through the trees and the rain began to come in solid squalls. The 

intensity of the wind and rain grew steadily. We could see trees bending as the force of the wind blew 

against them. Some were almost touching the ground, and some broke, splintering like toothpicks 

snapped in two. Roof shingles were sailing through the air, tossed about like small Frisbees. We could 

hear objects hitting the house and became increasingly nervous as we were afraid the roof might go. Then 

we heard a huge thud and the sound of ripping metal as something hit our back lanai with great force. 


We ran to the bedroom and saw that a pine 

tree had landed on the lanai, missing our sliding 

glass door by inches. There was a gaping hole, 

and the wind was pushing against the wall to 

the other part of the lanai. The wall was bending 

as torrents of rain fell. Richard drew the curtains 

on the sliders, shut the bedroom door, and ran 

to the living room. Our large china cabinet was 

helping to keep the wall from breaking on the 

other side of the lanai. Wind and rain were 

coming into the room as the vinyl windows gave 

way to the force of the storm. The ceilings began 

leaking in the dining room, living room, and 

hallway. I ran to get pans and tried to put them 

where the water was coming in. We huddled in 

the living room, expecting the worst, and 

praying that the roof would hold. 

The noise was thunderous as objects pummeled 

the house and tree branches flew about. 

Richard was visibly shaken. I was scared. I didn’t 

realize the magnitude of the hurricane as I had 

never been in one before. I kept looking out the 

window and Richard would repeatedly tell me to 

get away in case it shattered. Finally, the hurricane’s 

force lessened. Eventually the hurricane 

dissipated and an eerie silence settled over the 

countryside. We hesitantly ventured outside. 

The devastation was overwhelming and pent-up 

tears ran down my face. Trees were everywhere. 

Our floating dock lay against a Melaleuca, its pontoons 

resting against the thin willow tree. The arbor 

going down to the lake was shattered and a pine 

had broken our picnic table and lattice work. A tree 

lay in the center of our utility shed with its broken 

limbs protruding through the top and side. Our 

back lanai was partially crushed. Over half of the 

shingles lay on the ground and bare spots could be 

seen on the roof. Fascia and soffits were gone. 

The TV antenna hung in midair, attached to the 

house by a thin strip of twisted metal. The front 

yard was buried in trees, shingles, pieces of metal 

from our neighbors’ homes, and debris from 

everywhere. Pine trees covered the back yard. 

Some were uprooted, some splintered with jagged 

trunks protruding toward the sky. A massive 

cleanup job lay before us, and I wondered how we 

would ever get it done. 

❖ ❖ ❖ 

Impact of Hurricane Charley: The storm 

destroyed 85% of the county’s public housing, 

damaged 50% of the county’s affordable housing, 

destroyed four public schools, damaged three others, 

and destroyed and damaged over 130 businesses 

including Charlotte County’s Memorial 

Auditorium. The county embarked on a massive 

building and recovery program as soon as the 

debris was cleared. 

The old auditorium was replaced by the 

43,500 square foot Charlotte Harbor Event 

Center. The Best Western Hotel was rebuilt 

and soon joined by the new Wyvern and Four 

Seasons hotels to serve conference attendees. 

The County School Board rebuilt Punta Gorda 

Middle School and Charlotte High School. 

❖ 

The Charlotte Harbor Event and 

Conference Center in Punta Gorda is 

the largest conference and meeting 

facility in Southwest Florida. 


Chapter 7 ✦ 53

❖ 

Charlotte High School in Punta Gorda 

is the oldest and newest high school in 

Charlotte County. Originally opened 

in 1926, the three story structure was 

severely damaged by Hurricane 

Charley but then rebuilt within the 

shell of the original building. 


Education: Public schools, libraries, historical 

museums, and institutions of higher education 

have played a significant role in Charlotte County: 

L EGACY 

OF 

L EARNING AND E DUCATION 

BY JOHN PELOT 

The early residents of southwest Florida started 

building schools when the region was wild and 

unsettled. Nathan H. DeCoster, a former Union 

Officer at Fort Myers, built the first public school 

at Pine Level in 1869. Joseph Patten was the first 

teacher and John F. Bartholf was the first 

Superintendent of Schools. 

This first school was followed by others. The 

first building designated as a school in Punta 

Gorda opened on the corner of Marion and 

Harvey Streets in 1888. A larger school building 

was built at 215 Goldstein Street in 1896. It has 

been converted to an apartment building. The 

first school for African American children 

opened in Punta Gorda in 1893. 

The Punta Gorda Grammar and High School 

opened in 1907. Overcrowding forced construction 

of a new building between Charlotte Avenue 

and U.S. 41 on Taylor Street in 1911. The site is 

now occupied by a medical office building. As professional 

teachers were hard to find, many teachers 

combined their passion for education with 

other occupations like farming. Pioneer teachers, 

although not paid well, were highly respected. 

W. E. Bell became the first Superintendent of 

the county school system after Charlotte County 

split off from a portion of DeSoto County. He 

served from 1921 until 1933. Miss Sallie Jones 

became the first female superintendent in the 

state when she was appointed to the position in 

1936. She served until 1953. Dr. David Gayler 

now holds the position. 

Charlotte High School opened in 1927. 

Benjamin Baker Academy started in the 1940s. 

Benjamin Baker was an African-American teacher 

who came to Punta Gorda to teach in a two room 

wood-frame “colored school” built on East 

Marion Avenue at the foot of Cooper Street. Later 

on, a four-room school building was constructed 

at the southeast corner of Mary and Showalter 

streets, now the playground of the Cooper Street 

Recreation Center. Mr. Baker served as a teacher 

and principal until his retirement. A new school 

for African-American children was built on 

Charlotte Street two years after Mr. Baker’s death. 

It was named Baker Elementary School and 

served African-American children until the 

schools were integrated. 

Student population remained relatively stable 

until the county started experiencing rapid population 

growth in the late 1950s and 1960s. Sallie 

Jones Elementary opened in 1957, the Adult and 

Community Education Center opened in 1960, 

Peace River Elementary opened in 1961, Lemon 

Bay School (Elementary) in 1962, East Elementary 

in 1963, and Charlotte Junior High School in 

1964, the same year Charlotte County schools 

became integrated and Benjamin Baker Academy 

became the Baker pre-school center. Neil 

Armstrong Elementary opened in 1970, Port 

Charlotte Middle School in 1971, Punta Gorda 

Middle School replaced Charlotte Junior High in 

1971, and Meadow Park Elementary opened in 

1975. Junior high grades were added to Lemon 

Bay during the ’60s and it became a junior high 

school in 1970 when Englewood Elementary was 

built in Sarasota County. 

Construction continued in the 1980s with 

the Charlotte Harbor Center and Charlotte 

Vocational Center coming on line in 1980. Port 

Charlotte High School opened in 1982, L. A. 

Ainger Middle School in 1984, and Vineland 

Elementary School in 1986; Murdock Middle 

School and Kingsway Elementary opened in 

1989. Lemon Bay became a junior-senior high 

school when grade 10 was added in 1976 and 

was converted to a senior high school in 1983. 

Deep Creek Elementary and Myakka River 

Elementary opened in 1990, the Academy in 

1999, and Sallie Jones Elementary’s new campus 

in 2003. The Punta Gorda Middle School and 


Charlotte High School had to be rebuilt following 

Hurricane Charley in 2004. The county school 

system now has ten elementary schools, four 

middle schools, three high schools, five learning 

centers, and one chartered Collegiate High 

School at Edison State College. It is noted that 

Charlotte High School became one of the first 

high schools in the state to be integrated. 

Community residents took an active role in 

bringing about voluntary integration. 

The Charlotte County Library System, part of 

the county’s Parks, Recreation and Cultural 

Resources Department, consists of the Mid-County 

Regional Library, Englewood Library, Punta Gorda 

Library, and Port Charlotte Library. It is believed 

that the first library opened in the Punta Gorda 

Episcopal Church sometime around 1905. Books 

were later housed in the Masonic Temple on 

Sullivan Street and then the Woman’s Club. 

Property on Retta Esplanade was donated for a 

library in 1958. This was used until the Punta 

Gorda Library opened on Henry Street in 1974. 

The Englewood Library opened at 1560 McCall 

Road in 1963 and moved to its current location at 

3450 McCall Road in 1989. The Port Charlotte 

Library, originally located in a small Easy Street 

storefront, opened at its current location, the 

Cultural Center of Charlotte County in 1968. The 

Murdock Library opened in a new building 

adjacent to the County Administration Center in 

1985 and moved to the new Mid-County Regional 

Library in 2005. Mary Ellen Fuller became the first 

director of the county library system in 1975 and 

served in that capacity for almost thirty years. 

Angelyn Patteson became director in 2004. 

Higher education came to Charlotte County 

in August 1974 as a branch of Edison Junior 

College. The first classes were held over the 

Sunny Dell Plaza Laundromat, just off Tamiami 

Trail (U.S. 41). A small but respected faculty and 

Dr. Richard Yargar, a leader with vision, worked 

to bring about a program of higher education for 

the county’s increasing population. The scenic 

and strategically placed Edison State College 

campus on Airport Road in Punta Gorda has 

become the county’s center for higher education. 

Complete with its classroom buildings, 

Klein Bell Tower, and Vernon Peeples Learning 

Resources Center housing the Lifelong Learning 

Institute and Peace River Center for Writers, the 

college has evolved to become a community asset. 

The campus provides a broad array of academic 

programs and hosts classes for Florida Gulf 

Coast University, the Renaissance Academy, and a 

new Collegiate High School. Edison State College 

strives to meet the educational, social, and cultural 

needs of the residents of Charlotte County. 

C HARLOTTE 

H ISTORICAL 

C OUNTY 

C ENTER 

BY FRANK DESGUIN 

The Charlotte County Historical Center 

evolved from a private organization chartered 

in 1969 to become today’s collaboration between 

the Charlotte County Board of Commissioners 

and the Charlotte County Historical Center 

Society (Museum Society, Inc.). The Center has 

grown from a small youth-oriented museum to a 

countywide center providing a wide variety of 

exhibits, programs, and historic preservation 

services for all ages. 

The original Youth Museum of Charlotte 

County was established in 1969 by the school 

superintendent at the time, Dr. Hugh Adams, 

and Vic and Peggy Desguin. Original locations 

were a vacated fire station on East Marion 

Avenue in Punta Gorda and then the second 

floor of a store building near the Center’s present 

location. The museum then moved to a vacant 

county library building on the corner of West 

Retta Esplanada and U. S. 41 in Punta Gorda. Les 

Wilcox was hired as the first director. 

❖ 

The Charlotte County Historical 

Center is located at the site of the 

county’s original settlement. First 

known as Live Oak Point, the name 

of the community was changed to 

Hickory Bluff and then Charlotte 

Harbor. The center is the home of 

the Charlotte County Historical 

Museum Society. 


Chapter 7 ✦ 55

❖ 

The Trabue Land Office in the History 

Park on Shreve Street in Punta Gorda 

housed the Peace River Center for 

Writers for a number of years before 

it moved to Edison State College. 


The museum changed its name to the Museum 

of Charlotte County in 1989 and became the 

Florida Adventure Museum in 1995. The goal has 

always been to engage children in learning about 

the area’s rich heritage. The Society relied on 

private contributions and occasional local and 

state grants for operating funds. 

The building was lost to mold contamination 

in 2002 and Society members decided to form 

an alliance with county government. The Board 

of County Commissioners added a focus on 

county-wide historic preservation and created 

the historical division that is now housed in the 

Charlotte County Historical Center. The Center 

is located at Bayshore Live Oak Park on 

Charlotte Harbor’s waterfront. 

The Charlotte County Historical Center is 

situated near the site of the county’s first pioneer 

settlement and post office. The Society has 

become its fundraising arm, sponsoring annual 

events which include Florida Frontier Days, the 

Symphony of Trees and the Authentic Maine 

Lobster Bake. The Historical Center provides a 

number of programs, events, and services to 

encourage historic preservation and educate 

people of all ages in the community about the 

rich history of Charlotte County, the southwest 

Florida region, and the state of Florida. 

P EACE R IVER C ENTER 

FOR W RITERS 

BY CAROL MAHLER 

The Peace River Center for Writers was 

created from a dream and idea derived from five 

years of teaching writing workshops at Arcadia 

and All Books, a used book store once located on 

Marion Avenue. I had accumulated a long list of 

people interested in writing. The Center for 

Writers was incorporated on April 2, 2002. 

Rufus Lazzell was our president, Lori Tomlison 

vice-president, Judy Mulbuisson our Secretary- 

Treasurer, and Michael Haymans our agent, 

incorporator, and director. I became the 

Executive Director at the first board meeting on 

May 14, 2002. 

The first Center was my house at 420 West 

Olympia Avenue in Punta Gorda. My children— 

Claire, Rachel, and Jahna—answered the 

telephone, and my bedroom was the office. The 

Board hired Phil Cutajar as a part-time staff 

member at our June meeting. Phil designed 

our web site, edited our first newsletter, 

and taught one of our first seminars. I taught 

several seminars and writing workshops at 

Laurel Oaks Academy in Lake Suzy and at the 

All Books store. We held our first “open mic” and 

“meet-the-author” program at the Summer 

Mood Café. 

We participated in an art and poetry show 

cosponsored by the Charlotte County Arts and 

Humanities Council and held our first literary 

cruise. Kathy Futch volunteered to keep our 

accounts and Lynn Harrell Jones started editing 

our newsletters. We moved to the Trabue Land 

Office at the History Park on November 3, 

2002. The Center held a poetry reading/bake 

sale/silent auction fundraiser as part of Punta 

Gorda’s annual Holly Days Celebration. Our 

featured poets were Richard Brobst, Steve Reilly, 

Lynn Swanson, Jesse Stone, and me—was it the 

coldest night of the year, the decade, or the old 

or new century? 

We shivered and the Peace River Center for 

Writers endured as it would Hurricane Charley, 

my retirement as Executive Director, and the 

move to Edison State College, but those are 

other tales. The Center has proved itself able 

to meet the needs of writers for workshops, 

services, and resources. Through its creation 

and participation in significant literary events 

and community activities, the Peace River 

Center for Writers has strengthened the quality 

of life in Charlotte County. 

❖ ❖ ❖ 


Recreation: Boating and water activities are 

an important part of life in Charlotte County. A 

resident shares her experiences and observations: 

B OATING IN 

C HARLOTTE H ARBOR 

BY DOT MINZER 

Charlotte Harbor brought us to Charlotte 

County. My husband and I are sailors. When we 

realized we could dock our boat in our backyard 

and be within a short distance of the harbor, 

we were sold. 

Not as large as Tampa Bay, Charlotte Harbor 

is the second largest harbor in Florida. Not as 

deep; she is spared the commercial and shipping 

traffic found in her big sister to the north. 

Uncrowded and unhurried, Charlotte Harbor’s 

waters are wide and well-protected. Shallow 

around the edges, deep enough for recreational 

boating in the middle, and ringed with a 

necklace of mangroves, Charlotte Harbor is a 

welcoming watery playground for all craft, from 

the smallest kayak to the largest yacht. 

Boaters from the area are quick to tell you of 

the many marinas, yacht clubs, boat clubs, 

waterside restaurants, anchorages, and (soon to 

come) mooring fields found in and around 

Charlotte Harbor. There are many day-trip 

destinations available without ever leaving its 

beautiful blue-green waters. 

If one is competitive, fishing contests like the 

Tarpon Tournament, the Redfish Tournament 

and the Kid’s Cup plus sailing regattas like the 

Conquistador’s Cup are held every year. 

“I’ve traveled every mile of Florida’s coastline,” 

says one longtime boater. “There is no place like 

Charlotte Harbor.” National magazines and other 

polling venues must agree because the harbor 

continually finds itself included in many a top ten 

listing of best places to boat or anchor in the 

whole United States. 

Charlotte Harbor is the most unspoiled 

harbor in the state. With over two hundred 

miles of shoreline—nearly all of it government 

owned—the majority of the harbor’s waters 

lie inside a pristine aquatic preserve. As fresh 

waters from the Peace and Myakka Rivers mix 

with the salt waters of the Gulf of Mexico a 

perfect brackish combination is created to 

host the multitude of fish, fowl, and aquatic 

animals that make the harbor their home. 

Sharing the harbor with those creatures is a 

marvelous experience. 

For my part I love the dolphins. I love their 

fins arching out of the water, their blowholes 

whooshing hello. They often swim alongside my 

boat, converging at the bow to ride its waves. 

Sometimes they dance, diving in and out of the 

water. I’ve seen them stand on their tails and spin. 

Enter shallower waters in a flats boat and you 

are in for other treats. Closer to shore you might 

see tailing redfish. It all starts when mullet, 

chased by predators, race through the water like 

torpedoes. When this happens, shrimp and 

crabs are dislodged from the mud where they 

make their homes. It is then that the redfish 

move in. They race to the scene, stick their 

noses into the mud, and eat the shrimp and 

crabs. Heads down, their tails stick straight out 

of the water and look like waving flags. 

Kayakers really get “up close and personal” 

with land and sea life alike. This sometimes 

means alligators. A kayaking friend tells me of 

the time he encountered a whole pile of them 

sunning on a nearby shore. He said he wasn’t 

afraid. He respected them. 

“If left alone they will usually leave you 

alone,” my friend claimed, but he paddled by as 

quietly and quickly as he could. 

There are so many amazing things to see 

as you wend your way around the harbor. 

Stingrays travel in such numbers they look like 

a velvet carpet passing by, an undulating carpet 

that makes a second set of waves beneath the 

water as your boat makes its waves on top. 

❖ 

The city of Punta Gorda opened its 

new municipal marina in front of the 

Crab House at Laishley Park in 2007. 


Chapter 7 ✦ 57

The Keys, the 10,000 Islands, and other 

Florida waters hold treats like these as well. But 

those destinations are just that—destinations— 

and they have nothing on large, accessible 

Charlotte Harbor. A short distance from your 

house you can feel like you are in the middle of 

nowhere. Yet, you can still come home to 

supper and a real bathroom. 

The owner of a local charter fleet sees 

another side to boating in Charlotte Harbor as 

he caters to the many tourists who visit our 

county. “Grandma and Grandpa are the number 

one reason people visit our area,” he tells me. 

“But the harbor is number two.” 

He suggests that someone should keep 

statistics of how many people came first to our 

county by boat, sailed in, fell in love with the 

harbor, and decided to stay. 

“It started with Ponce de Leon,” he opined. 

“And there has been a steady stream ever since.” 

I know this is true because I am one who came, 

saw, fell in love, and stayed. That’s why we live 

and boat on beautiful Charlotte Harbor. I wish to 

thank Len Harris, Ron McGuire, Ralph Allen, and 

Mike Markgraf who shared their knowledge and 

experience of boating on Charlotte Harbor. 

❖ ❖ ❖ 

Gardening: Horticulture, gardens, and lawn 

care are important activities in Charlotte 

County. A resident shares her knowledge, 

observations, and experience: 

G ARDENING 

IN THE C OUNTY 

BY SANDRA PRICE 

Charlotte County’s unusual climate is unique 

to Southwest Florida. Charlotte County is in 

agricultural hardiness zone nine, but that 

designation fails to address the varied growing 

conditions in the 858 square miles that 

comprise the county. Its location at 26.90 

degrees north and 81.95 degrees west places 

Charlotte County in the subtropics; rarely 

does the temperature fall below 32 degrees. 

What cold weather does arrive, is mitigated 

by Charlotte Harbor, the Peace River, naturally 

occurring tidal marshes, and manmade canals. 

Sub-freezing temperatures are perhaps the 

only weather extreme from which Charlotte 

County is safe during most years. The other 

destructive weather events, thunderstorms, 

tornadoes, and hurricanes, occur with varying 

degrees of regularity and often leave ravaged 

gardens in their wakes. This being Florida, new 

growth begins immediately. 

Gardeners new to the area quickly learn that 

temperature is only one of the factors that must 

be taken into account in planning gardens. 

While average annual rainfall is a respectable 

49.68 inches, almost half occurs in only three 

months: June, July, and August. The other nine 

months are so dry that drought conditions 

prevail. This makes for some interesting 

landscapes. Prickly pear cacti grow side-by-side 

with water-loving flora. But succulents that 

thrive during the dry season are less happy 

when summer monsoons deliver daily 

drenchings. Raised beds ensure the survival of 

plants that don’t like wet feet. 

What Charlotte County has instead of abundant 

rainfall is humidity, heavenly for orchids, 

bromeliads, and other epiphytes. Those are 

plants not dependent on soil for nourishment. 

One of Florida’s loveliest native orchids, Encyclia 

tampensis, thrives outdoors with virtually no 

care beyond what Mother Nature provides. 

Terrestrial plants that need soil are not so 

fortunate. Charlotte County’s soil has very little 

organic matter. Because the Florida peninsula 

is relatively young on the earth’s timeline, 

it has not had much soil-building time. Thirty 

million years ago, Florida was still mostly 

under water. Compare that with Pennsylvania, 

which has been high and dry, and making rich 

loam, for ten times that long. Clearly, soil-based 

plants need all the help gardeners can give. 

Compost and organic mulch work wonders in 

improving the texture and fertility of sandy, 

alkaline soil. 

Of the three necessities for successful 

gardening—water, soil, and light—the last is the 

only one Charlotte County possesses in such 

abundance that two growing seasons are the 

norm. There is virtually no period when 

Charlotte County gardens lie fallow. Something, 

either ornamental or edible, is always in season. 

It takes only a minor adjustment in expectations 

to maximize your pleasure in gardening here. 


The growing season is longer, but days are 

shorter. Never do we have the 14-to-16-hour 

summer days that are so common in the north. 

The hours of the day and evening get more 

evenly divided as you get closer to the equator 

and the periods of time available for extended 

photosynthesis get shorter. But few other 

American gardeners can enjoy fresh corn in March. 

The large number of plants that can be grown 

with excellent results means more variety and 

diversity than is common farther north. Nurseries 

are introducing new and better cultivars of old 

favorites. And the ranks of gardeners are swelling 

as retirees discover the pleasures of gardening. 

Recent enthusiasm for native plants and 

Xeriscaping is introducing a new class of plant 

into the general trade. While not carefree, they 

require less coddling to produce excellent results. 

Xeriscaping, whose root word is Greek for 

dry, is the practice of using plants whose 

requirements are appropriate to naturally 

occurring conditions. This reduces the need for 

supplemental watering, saving the gardener 

both time and money while curbing the overuse 

of a precious resource. That makes good 

ecological—as well as financial—sense. 

Native plants, those growing in the New World 

prior to the fifteenth century arrival of Europeans, 

have evolved to thrive in existing conditions with 

little additional help. Less irrigation preserves 

precious water resources. Less fertilizer means less 

pollution of that water and the resulting havoc 

that nutrient-enriched runoff can create in 

delicately balanced ecosystems. 

Clearly these nearly self-sufficient plants, 

usually identified by Florida Friendly labels, are 

better for gardeners, for Florida, and for Mother 

Earth. Responsible gardeners are choosing 

them over those less well-adapted to Charlotte 

County’s unique conditions. 

Every gardener’s an optimist. Whether buying 

a packet of seeds to produce a home-grown salad 

or selecting a live oak that will not reach maturity 

for several generations, a gardener looks forward 

to a desired outcome. That expectation is hope. 

It’s the fourth ingredient of a successful garden 

after the physical necessities of soil, water, and 

light. Knowing as much as possible about the 

prevailing conditions wherever you garden is the 

first step to turning the garden inside your mind 

into the garden outside your door. 

❖ ❖ ❖ 

Tapestry of the County: Charlotte County 

has created and maintained a unique blend of 

“the old” and “the new.” Effort has been taken to 

maintain the history, traditions, and identity 

of the people of the county as the population 

jumped from about 4,000 people in 1950 to 

over 140,000 people by 2000. It is believed that 

something over 165,000 people now live in 

Charlotte County for all or part of the year. Most 

came from elsewhere. 

The Southwest Regional Planning Council 

estimates that about 40% of the newcomers came 

from the Northeast, 33% from the Midwest, 5% 

from the South, and fewer than 2% from the 

West. About 8% came from elsewhere in Florida 

and another 2% came from other countries. 

Two county residents (one a newcomer) and 

(the other, a long time resident) share their 

experiences and observations: 

T APESTRY OF P ARADISE 

BY JOYCE SCHENK 

The tapestry of Charlotte County is made up 

of people from across the country and around the 

world. We became part of the tapestry in 1993. 

When my husband George neared 

retirement, we started searching for the ideal 

wintertime home for our family of three which 

includes Tim, our full-grown son. After much 

deliberation, we decided to follow the lead of 

the many before us who had blazed the pathway 

from the Snowbelt of Western New York to the 

Sunshine of Florida. In November of that lifechanging 

year, our overstuffed Chevy with its 

three weary travelers rolled into a wonderful 

waterfront campground in Punta Gorda. This 

was to become our winter home for a decade. 

From then on, when we heard the first 

autumn-time cries of the Canada Geese soaring 

south on their annual migration, we started 

planning our own seasonal journey. We sorted 

and packed for weeks. We checked long-range 

weather forecasts and studied road maps for the 

best route. Then, with the must-have items of 

our lives filling every inch of the car, we turned 

away from our northern home and joined the 

Snowbird pilgrimage to the Sunshine State. 

Chapter 7 ✦ 59

The two and a half day, 1,200 mile trip became 

a blur of highways, rest stops, and motel rooms. 

At the end of the journey, like thousands of 

fellow Snowbirds, we basked in the warmth of 

our seasonal friends. Year by year we learned 

about the beauty and bounty of Charlotte County. 

Skipper George and his sailboat became a 

vital part of our seasonal experience. Thanks to 

his bonnie boat, we discovered the blessings of 

Charlotte Harbor and quickly understood why 

this magnificent body of water is known far 

and wide as one of the best cruising grounds 

anywhere. After spending ten winters in the 

county, we decided to make Punta Gorda and 

Charlotte County our permanent home. 

We made this leap by selling our place in New 

York in 2003 and making our last seasonal 

migration. We had the good fortune of finding 

a small, older home on a canal in a quiet 

Punta Gorda neighborhood. But, as we all know, 

timing is everything. A year later…August 13, 

2004…our little house and everything else was 

destroyed by Hurricane Charley. But, as they say, 

what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. 

We moved as quickly as possible to restore 

our lives…with the help of so many friends, 

neighbors, and family members. We welcomed a 

new home to our site on the canal in February 

2005 and have been living there ever since. 

I’ve learned many things during the fifteen 

years that I’ve lived in Charlotte County: 

1. You can find almost anything you could ask 

for right here, except snow. That assurance 

keeps former Snowbirds anchored to 

Southwest Florida. 

2. All roads eventually lead to Charlotte County. 

Follow the warmth, balmy breezes, and 

hospitality on your way south and you’ll end 

up in Charlotte County. 

3. Sea oats are not a breakfast cereal. 

4. The words “fall” and “spring” must have originated 

in Florida. When autumn closes in on 

the northern states, highways like I-75 fill up 

with cars, campers, and trucks. The coast 

appears to sink a little or “fall” into the sea 

with the onslaught and “springs” back up 

when most leave at the end of March. 

5. Most important, no matter what you need, 

no matter what your problems, no matter 

what help you require, there is always 

someone in Charlotte County who knows the 

answer, has been where you are, found their 

way out, and is there to lend a helping hand. 

Charlotte County is blessed with the warmest, 

most welcoming, and most diversely-experienced 

folks that you can find anywhere. Lifelong 

residents and newcomers alike share this 

mystique. Every new person adds to the tapestry. 

We’ve been here for fifteen years and are grateful 

to be part of the collage of Charlotte County. 

C YCLES OF A C ITY 

BY LYNN A. HARRELL 

When my family moved from Sarasota to 

Punta Gorda in 1958, the grand old hotel still 

graced the shoreline with its imposing presence. 

The venerable spa was the focal point of the 

waterfront and, even shabby and abandoned as 

it was, it imbued the town with a well-worn 

elegance that lingers today in my memory. 

The towering banyan tree on Retta Esplanade 

stretched its massive branches all the way across 

the street. The three storied McAdow house, the 

Morgan house with its five turrets, the Rigell 

house with its five gables, the “Walled Gardens’ 

estate with its statues, fountains and exotic 

foliage all remained; the red brick Princess 

Hotel covered half a downtown block and some 

of the merchants on Marion Avenue were apt to 

lock up in the heat of the day for an afternoon 

siesta for the creaky paddle fans on the ceilings 

did little but stir the heat. Air conditioning had 

yet to become the norm. 

But the Hotel Punta Gorda burned in 1959 

and Hurricane Donna hit in September 1960. 

With these two events, the first an act of man 

and the second of nature, the face of the city 

changed forever. That was not the first time fire 

and storm had altered its visage—there had 

been fires on the docks and fires downtown, 

and storms too many to count. But this time the 

change was cataclysmic, because the developers 

had arrived. 

Punta Gorda Isles wasn’t much more than a 

glint in Al John’s eye and Port Charlotte had 

barely started its labor pains. The trickle of northerners 

coming to the county became a stream 

and then a flood. Meanwhile, given a head start 

by Hurricane Donna, the city officials stumbled 

upon a new concept and embraced it heartily. 


It was called Urban Planning. Instead of enhancing 

what remained of the already gap-toothed 

settlement, they launched a program of destruction. 

Established neighborhoods were zoned out 

of existence because they didn’t fit the plan. 

All eyes were on the future, not the past. 

Contemporary architecture, however ugly and 

utilitarian, was preferred to traditional styles. 

Impressive structures with unique detailing and 

historic significance were razed simply to make 

the land underneath them more marketable. 

In a way, that was true—for once a building is 

erected it limits the site and puts a cap on its 

potential. And I concur that the asking prices 

for those vacant lots—many still vacant-have 

certainly escalated over the past half-century. 

The harm didn’t become apparent until the 

1990s. When you zone the residents out of 

downtown, you end up with a dead downtown. 

Contemporary architecture is quickly out-dated. 

A return to traditional styles began. Historic 

homes gained value. Mixed-use zoning gained 

favor. Preservation became cutting edge in 

other parts of the country—an industry unto 

itself, impacting tourism, construction styles, 

and planning methods. Here, public outcry over 

the ongoing loss of historic buildings led to the 

creation of Punta Gorda’s History Park, a 

receiving site for “endangered” structures. 

Then came Hurricane Charley, a category 

four equal-opportunity destroyer. For every 

vintage building demolished, he took out a 

’70s-style shoebox. But by this time, lessons 

had been learned. Hindsight balanced foresight 

in recovery efforts. We could not return to the 

past, but we had learned to appreciate it, and 

this nostalgic outlook was incorporated into the 

fabric of reconstruction. With very enticing 

results, I must say. 

There will, no doubt, be more storms, fires, 

and floods in the future. That’s nature’s way of 

keeping us from complacency and showing us 

that we do not need to artificially accelerate the 

process of attrition. Cities, towns, and settlements 

have cycles, just as all living things do. A 

community is far more than lines on a plat map. 

It’s a living thing too. Preservation is an important 

part of these cycles. It’s not a dead-end, a go-nofarther 

roadblock to progress. It’s a continuum. It’s 

the thread that ties our past to our future, a bridge 

from what was to what will be. 

There are some who equate preservation with 

simple aesthetics, they think it’s all about curb 

appeal, appearance, and façade. I think they’re 

wrong. Preservation is a representation of our collective 

growth, a mélange of memory, the embodiment 

of community character. Some has been 

saved; much has been lost. Preservation is necessary, 

for preservation is knowledge. We would do 

well to remember that, as the cycles continue 

. 

COMMEMORATING AND 

REMEMBERING FIVE 

HUNDRED YEARS 

OF HISTORY 

STATUE OF PONCE DE LEON 

The Royal Order of the Ponce de Leon 

Conquistadors of Charlotte County raised the 

money for the larger-than-life bronze statue of 

Juan Ponce de Leon that was dedicated in 

Gilchrist Park in Punta Gorda on July 8, 2005. 

The statue was cast at the American Bronze Fine 

Arts Foundry in Sanford, Florida. The statue’s 

facial features were made to resemble those 

of the Ponce de Leon statues located in St. 

Augustine and San Juan, Puerto Rico. 

Stan Munson, one of the Charlotte County 

Historical Center Society Directors, was “Ponce” 

of the Conquistadors at the time and served as 

the model for the statue. The statue reminds us of 

the debt and obligation that we owe those who 

came before us to create the historic tapestry of 

Charlotte County, Florida, and the United States. 

❖ 

The statue of Ponce de Leon 

commemorates the man and event. 

It occupies a prominent position in 

Gilchrist Park in Punta Gorda. 


Chapter 7 ✦ 61

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Alexander, Jack, Rotonda: The Vision and the Reality (Charlotte Harbor, 1995) 

Brown, Canter, Florida’s Peace River Frontier (Orlando, 1991) 

Brown, Canter, Tampa in Civil War and Reconstruction (Tampa, 2000) 

Brown, Canter, Fort Meade 1849-1900 (Tuscaloosa, 1995) 

Brown, Robin, Florida’s Fossils (Sarasota, 1988) 

Browning, Robert, Success Is All That Was Expected (Washington, 2002) 

Godown, Marian and Alberta Colcord Rawchuck, Yesterday’s Fort Myers (Fort Myers, 1975) 

Missall, John and Mary Lou Missall, The Seminole Wars, Americas Longest Indian Conflict (Gainesville, 2004) 

Cason, Marjorie, The History of Early El Jobean (El Jobean, 2003) 

Gannon, Michael, ed. The New History of Florida (Gainesville, 1996) 

Jahoda, Gloria, River of the Golden Ibis (Gainesville, 1973) 

Kaserman, James, Gasparilla, Pirate Genius (Fort Myers, 2000) 

Mahon, John, History of the Second Seminole War 1835-1842 (Gainesville, 1967) 

Ogle, Maureen, Key West: History of the Island of Dreams (Gainesville, 2003) 

Oppel, Frank and Tony Meisel, ed. Tales of Old Florida (Secaucus, 1987) 

Read, Roxanne, Images of America, Port Charlotte (Arcadia Publishing, 2009) 

Peeples, Vernon, Punta Gorda and the Charlotte Harbor Area (Virginia Beach, 1997) 

Surdam, David, Northern Naval Superiority and the Economics of the American Civil War (Columbia, 2001) 

Taylor, Paul, Discovering the Civil War in Florida (Sarasota, 2001) 

Taylor, Robert, An Illustrated History of Florida (New York, 2005) 

Viele, John, The Florida Keys, A History of the Pioneers (Sarasota, 1996) 

Williams, Lindsey and U.S. Cleveland, Our Fascinating Past, Charlotte Harbor: Early Years (Punta Gorda, 1993) 

Williams, Lindsey and U.S. Cleveland, Our Fascinating Past, Charlotte Harbor: The Later Years (Punta Gorda, 1996) 

Wynne, Lewis and Robert Taylor, Florida in the Civil War (Charleston, 2002) 


SHARING THE HERITAGE 

Historic profiles of businesses, 

organizations, and families that have 

contributed to the development and 

economic base of Charlotte County 

Coastal Dermatology & Skin Cancer Center ........................................64 

First Financial Employee Leasing, Inc. ...............................................66 

Farr Law Firm ...............................................................................68 

Palm Auto Mall ..............................................................................70 

Fero Construction, Inc.....................................................................72 

Mosaic Fertilizer, LLC .....................................................................74 

Towles Corp ...................................................................................76 

Nautilus Pools, Inc. ........................................................................78 

Amberg Insurance Center, Inc. ..........................................................79 

Security Alarm Corporation..............................................................80 

Goff Construction, Inc. ....................................................................81 

Scribner Contracting of South Florida, Inc..........................................82 

Zusman Eye Care Center 

Neil B. Zusman, M.D., F.A.C.S. ...................................................83 

McGinnis Bail Bonds .......................................................................84 

Biehl’s Slip-Not Lounge....................................................................85 

Five Star Realty 

SandStar Homes, LLC 

SandStar Kitchen & Bath Remodeling...........................................86 

Sunland Paving Company, Inc. ..........................................................87 

Charlotte Insurance Agency, Inc. .......................................................88 

D. M. Construction Corp..................................................................89 

Butwell Stone & Soil, Inc. ................................................................90 

SPECIAL 

THANKS TO 

Dr. Goodroof, Inc. 

Sharing the Heritage ✦ 63

COASTAL 

DERMATOLOGY & 

SKIN CANCER 

CENTER 

❖ 

Above: Stephen A. Spencer, M.D. 

Coastal Dermatology & Skin Cancer Center 

was established in 1986 by Stephen A. Spencer, 

M.D. His ambition was, and still is, to provide 

the highest quality medical and surgical 

dermatologic service in Charlotte County, as well 

as the best patient care. He constantly achieves 

this goal as the practice has been named “The 

Best of the Best” of Charlotte County since 1999. 

Coastal Dermatology’s board certified physicians 

and knowledgeable nurse practitioners, along 

with a friendly staff, make each visit an enjoyable 

and memorable experience. 

Coastal Dermatology began with only Dr. 

Spencer, two nurses, and one receptionist. 

Today, the practice has a staff of twenty, 

including an associate, Jeffrey R. Hunek, M.D., 

and two nurse practitioners, Jennifer Patterson, 

ARNP, and Elizabeth ‘Beth’ Geier, ARNP. 

Dr. Spencer is a board certified dermatologist 

treating disorders of the skin, hair, and nails. 

He specializes in skin cancer detection and 

removal, including Mohs micrographic surgery. 

He received his medical degree from the 

University of South Florida School of Medicine. 

His internship was completed at the 

Washington, D.C., Veteran’s Administration 

Medical Center and Georgetown University 

Hospital. He completed his dermatology 

residency at the University of South Florida 

College of Medicine in 1986. 

Dr. Hunek is a board certified dermatologist 

with special interest in diagnosis and treatment 

of benign and malignant lesions and medical 

skin diseases, including inflammatory disorders 

such as psoriasis, eczema, autoimmune 

skin diseases, acne, rosacea and infections. He 

received his medical degree from the Medical 

College of Ohio in Toledo. He performed his 

internship in internal medicine at Metro Health 

Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio. He 

completed his residency in dermatology at the 

Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan. 

The Mohs micrographic surgery offered by 

Coastal Dermatology is a specialized, highly 

effective technique for the removal of skin cancer. 

Mohs surgery differs from other skin cancer 

treatments in that it permits the immediate and 

complete microscopic examination of the 

removed cancerous tissue, so that all ‘roots’ and 

extensions of the cancer can be eliminated. Due 

to the precise method in which tissue is 

removed and examined, Mohs surgery has been 

recognized as the skin cancer treatment with the 

highest reported cure rate. 

Coastal Dermatology also provides cosmetic 

procedures such as Botox ® , Vitalize peels 

and Juvederm © , as well as treatment for acne 

and rosacea. 

Botulinum Toxin, more commonly known 

as Botox, is an effective rejuvenation treatment 

used by dermatologic surgeons to improve fine 

lines and wrinkles without surgery or scars 

and without any “down time.” By injecting 

minimal amounts of Botox into a specific facial 

muscle, only the targeted areas of the muscle 

will be affected, thus causing a more refined 

appearance. This treatment has been shown to 

be highly effective on facial lines due to repeated 

action of facial expressions, frowning, or 

squinting which have left deep furrows and 

wrinkles across the forehead, between the 

eyebrows, and around the eyes. 


While there is some immediate fading of 

facial lines, the benefit builds over two weeks 

and typically lasts four to six months. Radical 

change is not the goal with Botox. However, 

subtle, yet effective results will provide for a 

younger, softer appearance. 

Vitalize peels have alpha hydroxy acid and 

other peeling agents in a unique blend to provide 

a strong, but gentle treatment that is appropriate 

for all skin types. Vitalize Peels have been 

clinically proven to help reduce the visible signs of 

aging, as well as improving skin texture and tone. 

Juvederm is injectable smooth gel filler the 

doctor eases under the skin to instantly smooth 

out wrinkles and folds along the side of the nose 

and mouth. Results are so smooth and natural 

that everyone will notice but no one will know. 

Dr. Spencer is a very well known physician 

who has spent twenty-four years building a 

successful practice. He is actively involved in 

the medical community and has served on the 

Boards of the Florida Society of Dermatologic 

Surgeons and the American Society for Mohs 

Surgery. He is also a member of the Charlotte 

County Medical Society, the American Academy 

of Dermatology, the Florida Society of 

Dermatology, and the Florida West Coast 

Dermatology Society. Dr. Spencer is also active 

in the community, serving as a member of the 

Chamber of Commerce. 

Coastal Dermatology & Skin Cancer Center 

is located at 1617 Tamiami Trail in Port 

Charlotte and also operates an office at 1111 

South Tamimai Trail in Punta Gorda. 


FIRST 

FINANCIAL 

EMPLOYEE 

LEASING, INC. 

First Financial Employee Leasing, Inc. 

(FFEL) has seen dramatic growth in sales since 

it began operations in 1996. FFEL currently 

serves more than 2,000 clients with over 20,000 

leased employees and processes more than $500 

million of annual payroll. FFEL offers payroll 

services, human resources assistance, benefits, 

and risk management. 

The firm started as a spinoff of Larry 

Bennett’s investment brokerage firm, First 

Financial Services of Charlotte County, and 

Bruce Smith’s insurance agency, J. Smith 

Insurance Services, founded in 1958. Smith 

serves as FFEL’s CEO and Bennett as COO. 

Other officers appointed from the early days 

included Corporate Secretary and Operations 

Manager Rose Utterback, Benefits Manager Bev 

Pershing, and CFO Kirt Bennett. The firm was 

incorporated in 1995 and began operations in 

March 1996. 

The company started as a family business and 

remains so today. In the early days, the owner’s 

family members helped answer phones, and 

worked during summers processing and 

delivering payrolls. One family member, Ian 

Smith, is currently associate vice president and 

risk manager. 

FFEL’s professional processing staff helps 

business firms eliminate the headaches that 

come from managing a payroll. Clients need to 

pay only one total figure that includes 

payroll wages, taxes, workers’ compensation, 

and administration fees. Advanced IT 

services allow clients the option of managing 

their payroll through the Internet. Clients, who 

love the simplicity of the payroll program, 

benefit from the ease of use and fast access to 

payroll reports. 

As First Financial Employee Leasing, Inc. 

grew, it became apparent that clients needed 

more than payroll services and workers’ 

compensation insurance. With human resource 

management more important than ever, FFEL 

now offers expert advice on human resource 

compliance and policies. The risk related 

to unemployment claims, wage and hour 

regulations, and other human resource 

issues can jeopardize any business. The HR 

experts at FFEL work closely with clients to 

control these problems. 

Through First Financial Employee Leasing, 

Inc., clients are also able to access quality 

employee benefits for better employee 

recruitment and retention. The Benefits 

Department shops constantly for the finest 

benefits to satisfy client’s and employee’s needs. 

This allows clients to offer the best benefits 

possible to their employees. 

In any business, there is not only reward, but 

risk as well. FFEL helps clients manage that 


isk. Because work-related injuries can 

seriously affect the profitability of any 

business, FFEL has trained experts 

to help minimize that risk. FFEL 

helps reduce the number of workers’ 

compensation claims through its expert 

on-site surveys and training programs 

aimed at eliminating safety hazards 

before they cause an injury. In addition, 

FFEL provides world-class workers’ 

compensation claims handling. 

FFEL always goes the extra mile to 

serve its clients, even during difficult 

times. For example, the firm’s Port 

Charlotte office was spared severe 

structural damage from Hurricane Charley 

in 2004. The Monday after the hurricane, 

payrolls were still being processed under 

generator power and the severe heat. All 

leased employees that were able to accept 

payroll around the entire state received 

their checks. The week after the storm, FFEL 

delivered 15,000 checks to more than 1,400 

clients. If the client’s business was open, they 

received their payroll. 

First Financial Employee Leasing, Inc., with 

ten Florida locations and two locations in 

Georgia, is one of the top five largest privately 

owned Professional Employer Organizations 

in Florida. The company has grown from 

fifty internal employees in 2002 to 165 

currently. Company plans call for expanding 

operations throughout the Southeast 

region, including Alabama, Mississippi, 

and Texas. FFEL is looking forward to 

this expansion and will continue providing 

additional valued services through its 

family of companies. 

The firm ranks as the forty-sixth largest 

privately owned corporation in Florida. 

In 2005 the Charlotte County Chamber 

of Commerce awarded FFEL its “Large 

Business of the Year” award. 

FFEL contributes to and sponsors 

many community events in Charlotte 

County and surrounding areas. As the 

owners say, “It’s all about the kids!” 

Most contributions are directed to 

events that provide scholarships and 

other opportunities for kids/students in 

the area. These organizations include 

Big Brothers/Big Sisters, YMCA, high school 

project graduations, and athletic teams. 

Organizations FFEL contributes to regularly 

include the Earl Morrall Foundation, the 

Nat Moore Foundation, the Johnny Damon 

Foundation, and Jim Kelly’s Kelly for Kids 

Foundation. FFEL also provides scholarships and 

support for local universities, including Florida 

Gulf Coast University and University of Tampa. 

For more detailed information about FFEL, 

please visit www.ffel.net. 


FARR LAW FIRM 

❖ 

Above: Earl Drayton Farr, Sr., 

1900-1988. 

Below: Farr Law Firm c. 1924. 

The law, wherein, as in a magic mirror, we see 

reflected, not only our own lives, but the lives of all 

men that have been! When I think on this majestic 

theme, my eyes dazzle. 

-Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., 1885. 

Lawyers, by necessity and by choice, are 

citizens of the community they serve. They not 

only reflect the values and dreams of their 

community, as in Holmes’s magic mirror, they 

also are instrumental in the creation of a civic 

life, often adding what is unique and special 

about a place many love as their home. 

This could not be more true than when 

applied to the persons and personalities who 

have comprised the Farr Law Firm since its 

founding in 1924. When Earl D. Farr graduated 

from the University of Florida Law School in 

1923, his first thought was to join the law 

practice of his brother in his home town of 

Wauchula. Within a year, though, he found that 

there was not enough business in the small 

Florida frontier town for the both of them, so he 

moved on down the Peace River until he landed 

in the growing city of Punta Gorda. 

Starting with $500 and a typewriter, Farr 

hung out his shingle and founded what has 

become the largest law firm in Charlotte County 

and among the oldest in all of Florida. Farr 

represented the City of Punta Gorda and the 

Florida Fish and Game Commission and served 

as the elected county attorney for thirty years. 

He counseled the Babcock family, which was the 

largest private landowner in the county and 

helped found and represented First Federal 

Savings and Loan Association of Charlotte 

County, the largest home lender for much of 

the county’s greatest period of growth. He was 

instrumental in the acquisition of lands for the 

creation of U.S. 41 and in clearing the land titles 

for all the property that would become Port 

Charlotte. Known as a demanding taskmaster of 

both himself and his associates, Farr established 

a culture of responsiveness to the needs of his 

clients while showing compassion for others and 

giving back to his community in often private 

ways known only to those closest to him. 

The culture of the Farr Law Firm based on 

client and community continued under the 

watch of Earl’s son, Earl Drayton Farr, Jr., also a 

UF graduate, who came back to Punta Gorda 

to practice with his father in 1951. Drayton 

continued the practice of representing some 

of the families and corporations which most 

prominently influenced the growth and 

character of Southwest Florida. These included 

Punta Gorda Isles, Inc., the developer of one 

of the largest totally-waterfront communities 

in Florida, and serving as an officer of and 

general counsel to Sunset Realty Corporation, 

the developer of much of Boca Grande and 

Gasparilla Island. 


Drayton successfully represented Charlotte 

County in convincing flood insurance regulators 

not to raise flood elevation levels to a height that 

would have effectively restricted construction in 

the county. He continued the firm’s representation 

of the Babcock family, serving on its board, 

and was a key factor in the sale of the family’s 

92,000-acre ranch to a company controlled by the 

respected investment and development firm 

Kitson & Partners in a transaction where 72,000 

acres of it was purchased by the State of Florida 

for preservation. 

Though over the years the official name of 

Farr, Farr, Emerich, Hackett and Carr, P.A. has 

changed from time to time, today the Farr Law 

Firm remains a cornerstone in the practice of 

law and community life of Southwest Florida. 

Many of its lawyers are board certified in their 

area of expertise and enjoy the highest ratings 

of any in the state. While the largest part of 

its practice is focused on the three biggest 

needs of the community, real estate, trusts and 

estates, and litigation, the Farr Law Firm also is 

experienced in personal injury and wrongful 

death, marital and family law, business and 

corporate matters, asset protection, physician 

services and mediation. 

The majestic theme started by Farr lives 

through the people who make up the Farr 

Law Firm today. Charlotte County and the 

Southwest Florida region truly do dazzle 

the eyes, and the Farr Law Firm has played a 

prominent role in the creation of its community 

throughout history. 

Farr Law Firm is located at 99 Nesbit Street 

in Punta Gorda and at www.farr.com. 

❖ 

Above: Farr Law Firm, 2010. 

Left: Earl Drayton Farr, Jr. 


PALM 

AUTO MALL 

❖ 

Bob and JoAnn Helphenstine. 

Punta Gorda was still a very small town 

when JoAnn and Bob Helphenstine opened 

their first auto dealership in 1955. The town 

had only one traffic light and U.S. 41 and the 

bridge over Peace River were still two lanes. 

North of the river, Charlotte County was mostly 

farm land. 

JoAnn’s father was a 

Chevrolet dealer in South 

Georgia and Bob was working 

for a Chevrolet dealer in 

Jacksonville, Florida, when the 

two married in 1955. With 

their automotive background, 

they decided they would like to 

own their own dealership. When 

they learned of a Chevrolet/ 

Oldsmobile dealership available 

in Punta Gorda, they 

quickly agreed to purchase the 

store from Carl Dietrich. The 

final agreement to purchase was 

made on a Wednesday. The 

following Friday, all the parties 

met at the Chevrolet Zone office 

in Jacksonville and signed the 

documents. The next Monday, 

Palm Chevrolet opened for 

business with only four 

employees. Bob sold the cars 

and JoAnn kept the books. The 

only other employees were a 

mechanic and a porter. 

Originally, the Helphenstine’s 

intended to name the dealership 

Charlotte Chevrolet/ Oldsmobile, 

after Charlotte County. However, 

they learned at the closing 

that no geographical location 

could be used as part of 

a General Motors franchise 

name. After much discussion, the name 

Palm was suggested, and Palm it became. 

Incidentally, JoAnn was not present at the 

meeting to close the deal. In those days, 

women were not accepted in the automobile 

business and she was not asked to attend 

the meeting. 


In the beginning, Bob and JoAnn had no 

financing for inventory, no connections for retail 

financing of the cars they sold, and, actually, 

no inventory—new or used. There was lots of 

work and anxious moments ahead as they 

began to build the business. The population 

base was very small in 1955 and car sales were 

limited. Bob and JoAnn had to be innovative 

just to survive, and this included accepting 

baby chicks and a cow as down payments 

for autos. 

The dealership opened in a rented building 

at 1801 Tamiami Trail. Bob and JoAnn purchased 

the building in 1970 and, two years later, 

decided to build a new facility. Property was 

purchased adjacent to the current building at 

added later. Palm Toyota was purchased in 

1990, Palm Mazda/Hyundai in 1991, and Palm 

Mitsubishi in 2002. Buick and GMC were 

added to the mix in 2009, although General 

Motors discontinued production of Oldsmobile 

in 2005. 

By the end of 2009, the Palm Auto Mall 

campus was completed and now provides space 

for all the Palm franchises. 

From four employees in 1955, employment 

grew to more than 300 at one time. At present, 

the business has 225 employees. Sales reached 

a high of more than 6,000 units in 2004 and, 

despite the recent nationwide slowdown in the 

auto business, Palm sold nearly 4,000 units 

in 2009. 

1901 Tamiami Trail and a new building was 

constructed in 1972. The move to the new 

building gave sales a boost and, as time went 

by; additional property was purchased on both 

sides of the highway. The additional property 

was utilized as the Palm organization grew. 

The dealership buildings were damaged 

by Hurricane Donna in 1960 and Hurricane 

Charley in 2004. Damage from Charley was 

so extensive that new facilities were 

constructed for the Toyota and Chrysler/ 

Jeep/Dodge franchises. 

Business increased as Punta Gorda and 

Charlotte County began to grow and Bob 

and JoAnn were able to add additional 

dealerships. Palm Chrysler/Dodge was 

purchased in 1982 and a Jeep franchise was 

The Helphenstine’s record for giving back to 

the community has been an example for the 

rest of the business community. Both Bob and 

JoAnn served on the Boards of the YMCA, 

Edison Community College Foundation, and 

were active in the First United Methodist 

Church. JoAnn currently serves on the Board of 

Trustees for Edison State College. In 1966, Bob 

and JoAnn received the Pacesetter Award from 

the Charlotte County Chamber of Commerce 

for outstanding community service. 

Bob was diagnosed with lymphoma in 1994 

and succumbed to the disease in November 

2002. Today, the business continues to thrive 

under the guidance of JoAnn, her son, Brett, 

son-in-law Jody Lombardo, an expert managerial 

staff and excellent employees. 


FERO 

CONSTRUCTION, 

INC. 

Fero Construction traces its beginnings from 

December 1973 when Tom and Karen Fero and 

their infant son, Stephen, relocated to Port 

Charlotte from Fox Lake, Illinois. Tom had been 

a school teacher in Illinois but held a union card 

in Cook County, Illinois, which allowed him to 

pursue his passion for construction. 

Tom’s first job in Port Charlotte was as a 

carpenter with a local builder, Double T 

Construction. However, the building industry 

was in a recession at the time and Tom was laid 

off from his job. With three mouths to feed, Tom 

took a job as a laborer on the southbound 

Gilcrest Bridge, which was being built over the 

Peace River. During this time, Tom obtained his 

Class “C” contractor’s license from the State of 

Florida, the catalyst that led to the founding 

of Fero Construction. 

In 1975, Tom purchased a vacant lot on 

Easton Drive and built his first spec house. This 

two-bedroom, two-bath house with a tile roof 

enabled Tom to showcase his talents and 

introduce Fero Construction to Charlotte 

County. The first model home for Fero 

Construction was located at the corner of 

Lakeview Drive and Midway Boulevard. During 

this time Tom built his own personal home and 

began construction on two more spec homes 

across the street. 

During the first twelve years, Fero 

Construction operated from a small office in 

Tom and Karen’s home. As business grew, the 

company rented an office on Tamiami Trail, 

several doors down from the Dairy Queen. In 

1987, Tom and a personal friend, John Cole, 

purchased property on Paulson Drive and 

constructed a twelve-thousand-square-foot 

warehouse/office building. 

Bob Killian joined Fero Construction in 1978 

as a carpenter, working side by side with Tom. 

During the next thirty years, Bob became not 

only an invaluable construction manager, but 

a true friend for life. His dedication to Fero 

Construction through the industry’s ups and 

downs never faltered. 

Jeffrey Fero, Tom’s nephew, joined the 

company in 1979 as an apprentice carpenter 

and remained with the firm until 2008. During 

this time, Jeffrey learned the construction 

business, obtained a contractor’s license, and 

formed his own company. 

Stephen joined the company in 1995 and, 

working alongside the other employees, learned 

first hand the many facets of the construction 

industry that will aide him in continuing the 

family business. 

A top-notch sales force plays a big part 

in promoting a builder’s product and Fero 

Construction has had the best. The first to join 

with the company were Betty Decker and Alma 

Hue, who have both since retired. Next came 

Claire Bowie who now lives in Georgia and 

Maureen Rosenbaum, who left the company to 

join her husband in business. Sandra Ejnik has 

been with Fero Construction twelve years, and 

her dynamic personality and construction 

knowledge has been an extraordinary asset to 

the company. 

Fero Construction has been blessed with 

many wonderful employees during its thirtyfour 

years, such as Katherine Gallagher, 

Ray Trp, Derek Iwanycky and Rodney English, 

just to name a few. Whether they left for 

health reasons, retirement, or a slowdown in 

the construction industry, they all were valued 

employees who helped Fero Construction 

become one of the top quality custom 

homebuilders in Charlotte County. 

Since its beginning in 1975, Fero 

Construction has built more than two thousand 

homes, several condominium projects, a 

medical facility, real estate offices, and duplexes. 

Fero Construction has been the premier builder 

in Seminole Lakes, Riverwood and Bobcat Trail. 

The Feros have found Charlotte County to be a 

wonderful place to live, raise a family and build 

a business 

In the early 1980s, Fero Construction joined 

the Five-County Builder’s Association, which 

was composed of builders and suppliers in 

Charlotte, Lee, Collier, Desoto and Hendry 

Counties. The organization had only a handful 

of builders and subcontractors at the beginning 

but grew into a influential organization 

dedicated to improving the industry. With the 

growth in Charlotte County rising, the local 

builders broke away from the Five-County 

Builder’s Association and formed Charlotte 

Builder’s & Contractor’s Association. Today the 

organization has again changed to include 

Desoto County, hence the name Charlotte- 

DeSoto Building Industry Association. 


The mission statement of Fero Construction 

is: “Quality Is a Standard in Every Home 

We Build.” That philosophy has helped 

the company grow into one of the most 

respected building firms in the area and will 

continue to be its guiding philosophy in the 

years to come. 

For additional information about Fero 

Construction, visit www.feroconstruction.com 

or www.southwestfloridabuilder.com. 


MOSAIC 

FERTILIZER, 

LLC 

❖ 

Above: A late 1800s suction dredge 

burned wood to create steam power 

for mining and washing 

phosphate pebble. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF RICHARD FIFER 

Below: Formerly a phosphate mine, 

this reclaimed forested wetland 

provides seepage to Payne Creek in 

Hardee County and features a 

boardwalk ideal for bird watching. 

As a global leader in crop nutrition products, 

the Mosaic Company helps feed the world— 

literally. Its Florida-based subsidiary, Mosaic 

Fertilizer, LLC, is the world’s largest producer 

of phosphate, an essential ingredient in 

fertilizers and feed products that enable farmers 

to grow abundant, high-quality crops and 

improve livestock nutrition. In fact, farmers 

across America rely on Florida phosphate for 

seventy-five percent of their annual crop 

nutrition requirements. According to The 

Fertilizer Institute, commercial fertilizers are 

responsible for forty to sixty percent of world 

food production. 

Florida’s phosphate industry has had a 

continuing presence in the Charlotte Harbor 

watershed for over a century and remains a major 

economic force in the Tampa Bay and Central 

Florida region. Mosaic employs approximately 

3,000 central Floridians directly and supports 

tens of thousands of jobs in related fields like 

shipping, engineering, environmental consulting 

and transportation. 

Florida’s rich phosphate deposits, consisting 

of sediments and remains of ancient sea life 

buried fifteen to thirty feet below the earth’s 

surface, were formed millions of years ago when 

the state was under water. In 1881, J. Francis 

LeBaron, an engineer for the U.S. Army Corps of 

Engineers, discovered phosphate pebbles while 

surveying the Peace River. 

Beginning in 1887, phosphate companies 

were formed from Arcadia to Cleveland to mine 

the river pebble phosphate, using dredges and 

rudimentary washers to recover pebbles of this 

important mineral. These mining companies 

loaded the phosphate onto barges and shipped 

it out to Charlotte Harbor, where it would 

be transferred to schooners—tall wooden ships 

with typically four or five masts—as well 

as steamships. 

Land pebble phosphate was discovered in Polk 

County in the late 1800s—and the area became 

known as “Bone Valley” because of the many 

fossils found there. In 1906, Peter B. Bradley 

became president of the American Agricultural 

Chemical Company, one of Mosaic’s early 

predecessor companies. Bradley envisioned a 

company-owned shipping terminal at South Boca 

Grande. He became known as the “Founding 

Father of Boca Grande” after buying much of 

Gasparilla Island and developing the town. In 

addition to the phosphate shipping terminal, 

Bradley built the Gasparilla Inn in an effort to 

entice wealthy Northerners to spend the winter in 

Florida. Bradley was also responsible for building 

a railroad, the Charlotte Harbor & Northern 

Railway, which came from central Florida, over 

the Myakka River and onto Boca Grande to the 

phosphate terminal, which was a key shipping 

operation until 1978. 


Throughout the 1900s phosphate operations 

in Florida changed dramatically. Modern 

dragline machines made mining more efficient, 

and fertilizer manufacturing plants were built 

in the 1940s and 1950s to transform the 

phosphate pebbles into water soluble crop 

nutrients for farmers. As with most heavy 

industries throughout America, there was 

far less consideration for the environment and 

a greater lack of regulatory oversight prior 

to the 1970s than exists today. Companies 

consolidated, technology improved, and safety 

and environmental standards made Florida’s 

phosphate operations one of the most 

stringently regulated industries in the nation. 

Mosaic, formed in 2004 through the merger of 

Cargill Crop Nutrition and IMC Global, must go 

through multiple layers of federal, state and 

local permitting in order to operate. 

Before mining occurs, a comprehensive 

restoration and environmental preservation 

plan is conceived, perfected and executed by 

Mosaic’s team of environmental specialists and 

consultants. Mosaic plants approximately one 

million trees each year, along with native 

plants to establish successful wildlife habitats, 

uplands and wetlands. Reclaimed lands become 

public fishing lakes and parks, pasture, 

farmland, golf courses, commercial property 

and residential communities. 

Before mining begins, Mosaic develops 

wildlife management plans with biologists, 

ecologists and local environmental experts. 

Reclaimed habitats are home to many animals 

that are designated as endangered, threatened 

or “of special concern.” Working with wildlife 

agencies, Mosaic has successfully relocated 

many of these wildlife species that are now 

thriving on reclaimed lands. 

Special attention is given to safe and efficient 

water management practices. Mosaic recycles 

over ninety-five percent of the water used at its 

mining facilities, and protection of neighboring 

waterways is a top priority. Mining activities are 

set back from the Peace River and major 

tributaries like Horse Creek to preserve the 

floodplain of these important water resources. 

The company also monitors water quality in 

accordance with strict state standards, ensuring 

that water released from their facilities is safe 

for recreation and wildlife. 

The phosphate industry has been operating 

in the Peace River watershed for over a century, 

and the Charlotte Harbor Estuary is considered 

one of the most productive in the nation— 

home to thousands of plant and animal species. 

Mosaic and its environmental specialists 

understand the need for carefully balancing the 

extraction of an essential natural resource with 

preservation of Florida’s precious ecosystem. 

While there are no phosphate operations 

in or planned for Charlotte County, Mosaic 

supports the residents of southwest Florida 

through integral educational, community, and 

environmental initiatives. Mosaic is committed 

to fulfilling the company’s mission to help the 

world grow the food it needs, and to being a 

good neighbor. 

❖ 

Above: American farmers count on 

Florida phosphate for seventy-five 

percent of their annual 

crop requirements. 

Below: Fish and wildlife thrive in 

reclaimed lakes, wetlands and upland 

areas, like the deer shown here in a 

young forest. 


TOWLES CORP 

The Towles family has deep roots in the 

history of Southwest Florida, beginning with 

William H. “Wild Bill” Towles, a mover and shaker 

in Fort Myers in the early 1900s. 

Wild Bill is remembered as an entrepreneur 

with extensive holdings in cattle and as the 

owner of the primary commercial steamboat 

service between Fort Myers and Punta Gorda, 

as well as the cattle boats on which Towles’ and 

other ranchers livestock was shipped from 

Southwest Florida to Cuba. Wild Bill was also 

the fiery chairman of Lee County’s first elected 

County Commission. 

Tim believes firmly in the old saying, “Success 

occurs when preparedness meets opportunity.” 

“I had become established by 1986, with a 

solid reputation for fair dealing and for building 

an exceptional home at a competitive price,” Tim 

says. “At that time, I had just transitioned from 

working in a partnership to owning and operating 

my own homebuilding company. Opportunity 

then appeared in the form of Richard Konover, the 

owner of a real estate brokerage in Punta Gorda, 

who approached me with a proposition. 

“Richard, whose firm specialized in the 

sale of waterfront property, had developed a 

It is not surprising, then, that William’s greatgrandson, 

Tim Towles, has become a prominent 

businessman in his own right and that his son, 

Keith, and his daughter, Amy, are following in 

Tim’s footsteps. 

Tim’s stepfather, Cecil H. Lowe, a native of 

Punta Gorda, moved Tim’s mother, Lillian, and 

their young family from Fort Myers to Punta 

Gorda in 1952. Tim graduated from Charlotte 

County High School in 1967 and began what 

would evolve into a forty-plus-year career in the 

homebuilding business. By age twenty-one, he 

was in partnership with his uncle, Harry Taylor, 

in a masonry contracting company and, by age 

twenty-eight, had obtained a general contracting 

license and become a homebuilder. 

uniquely effective marketing program which 

was beginning to produce a growing stream of 

prospective buyers from all over the country, 

and was seeking an exceptional homebuilder 

to include in his presentation. After confirming 

that Richard had a spotless reputation and 

that his firm was a market leader, I agreed to 

participate,” Tim explains. 

The affiliation with Konover produced a 

steady stream of new home buyers and was a 

critical factor in the success of Tim’s company, 

which evolved from Tim Towles Custom Homes 

to Towles Corp of Southwest Florida. By the 

late 1990s, Towles Corp was building more than 

fifty custom homes each year, most for 

customers generated by Konover’s sales team. 


Konover agrees that the association was 

mutually beneficial. “By 1986 the outreach of 

my brokerage’s national waterfront real estate 

marketing program was really starting to bear 

fruit,” says the now-retired real estate broker. 

“However, we were in need of a tie-in with a 

dependable, high quality custom homebuilder 

to maximize its effectiveness. 

Tim really turned out to be 

the answer to our prayers. He 

was always available to meet 

with prospective buyers and 

contracted customers, who 

all thought he was wonderful 

to deal with. And he repeatedly 

designed and built 

‘dream home’ after ‘dream 

home’ of impeccable quality, 

while providing the best warranty 

service I’ve seen in my 

years in the business.” 

Towles Corp became the 

premier custom builder 

in Charlotte County and 

received the ‘Builder of 

the Year’ designation several 

times from the local 

Homebuilders Association. 

Tim and his son, Keith, truly embodied the 

company motto: “Homes built with pride— 

A reputation build on service.” 

Like his famous, larger-than-life greatgrandfather, 

Tim has built a legacy of success. 

Unlike his colorful ancestor, however, Tim has 

done it very quietly and humbly. Year after 

year, Towles Corp has constructed exceptional 

homes, ultimately serving more than 1,000 

satisfied customers in Punta Gorda and 


In 2004, Tim handed the reins of Towles 

Corp to his son, Keith, who is continuing his 

father’s work with an emphasis on building 

a lesser volume of larger homes for the most 

discriminating home buyers. 

Tim continues to remain active in business 

as the owner/manager of several prime strip 

centers. He also provides consulting assistance, 

when requested, to his sister, 

Paulette Brown, and her husband, 

Dwight, who own and operate the 

homebuilding firm of Brown & 

Brown Contractors. 

In 2008, Tim assisted his daughter, 

Amy, in opening a luxury ‘resort’ 

kennel for dogs, the Towles Club K-9 

Resort. The K-9 Resort is the first of 

its kind in Charlotte County, and 

initial response has been fantastic. 

The Towles family will continue to 

flourish and contribute to Charlotte 

County, now that Tim has passed the 

baton to his son, Keith, and his wife, Laurie; and 

Amy Towles Michalski and her husband, Ed. 

Waiting in the wings to make their imprint on 

the community’s future are Tim’s grandchildren; 

Madison and Mason Michalski, and Gavin and 

Gage Towles. 


❖ 

NAUTILUS 

POOLS, INC. 

Below: Nothing is more dramatic than 

this blend of fire and water. 

Bottom: The possibilities are endless. 

If you can dream it, we can build it. 

Close your eyes and imagine your 

perfect oasis. Then call us to take 

the plunge. 

Creativity counts when it comes to building 

swimming pools. At Nautilus Pools, the focus is 

on creative design and quality workmanship in 

every pool the company builds. 

Nautilus Pools was established in 1989 by 

Pete Coccaro. Pete started in the trade at age 

eighteen and worked his way through all 

phases of pool construction in the Southwest 

Florida area. Pete is state-certified for residential 

and commercial pool/spa construction, as well 

as specialty structures. Pete brought the late 

Cles Perkins—with his thirty years of pool 

experience, extensive knowledge of hillside 

pool construction, and sales management—on 

board as a co-owner. Pete and Cles had a great 

partnership that lasted thirteen years until Cles 

retired in 2002. Nautilus Pools is now owned 

and operated by Pete and his wife, Beth. 

The company grew in the early days by building 

a rapport with local home builders. One of 

the most memorable projects was a 1995 collaboration 

with a Naples builder who was building 

a 20,000 square foot ‘Dream Home’ in Quail 

West sponsored by Home and Condo magazine. 

Nautilus Pools’ was chosen from more than 

200 award entries. The pool, which had to be 

completed within nine months, was designed 

with the latest technology consisting of a 46,000 

gallon pool and spa combination. This combination 

required use of 4 pumps: 3 in-floor cleaning 

systems, 2 heat pumps, auto controls and 1 gas 

heater and has the ability of automatic controls 

by calling the home to set on-off status. The pool 

design won several awards for Nautilus Pools, 

including an international gold award, a state 

gold award, and the front cover and a featured 

article in Aqua magazine. 

Nautilus Pools has an enviable track record, 

having successfully completed more than 2,200 

water environment projects. The goal of Nautilus 

Pools is to provide the utmost level of quality, 

superior construction, and luxurious style. The 

company takes pride in the pools it constructs 

and the craftsmanship of its pools speaks for 

itself. Nautilus uses only the finest materials and 

state-of-the-art construction techniques. 

In addition to residential and commercial 

pools and spas, Nautilus Pools provides screen 

enclosures, heating systems, in-floor cleaning 

systems, water features, decking and paving 

systems, natural rock waterfalls, railing systems, 

interiors and infinity edges. 

For additional information about Nautilus 

Pools, please visit www.nautiluspoolsusa.com. 


Amberg Insurance Center, Inc., organized 

in 1974, is a large multi-line Independent 

Insurance Agency committed to providing 

quality products at a competitive price, coupled 

with outstanding claims service. 

The firm was founded by the Amberg family, 

which moved to Charlotte County in 1957. 

David Amberg, who worked for his father 

Ralph’s auto dealership in Punta Gorda, wanted 

to start his own business and decided an 

insurance agency could be successful in fastgrowing 


When the business first started, David had 

only one phone, an answering machine, one 

file cabinet, and a manual Smith-Corona 

typewriter. If he needed a copy machine, he 

used the one at his father’s auto dealership. 

Becoming a member of the Florida Association 

of Insurance Agents in 1975 was instrumental 

in securing contracts with major insurance 

companies and, by 1979, Amberg Insurance 

was in a position to offer competitive products 

from many A+ insurance companies. 

David’s wife, Patricia, became a vice 

president of the firm in 1988, and their son, 

David, Jr., became a vice president in 1990. 

The company built a new building at 1900 

Tamiami Trail in Punta Gorda in 1984 and 

opened a branch office at 17801 Murdock 

Circle in Port Charlotte in 1988. 

Hurricane Charley, which devastated the 

area in 2004, destroyed the Port Charlotte 

office and caused considerable damage to the 

office in Punta Gorda. Even though some 

employees were forced to work outside under 

extreme weather conditions, Amberg Insurance 

was open at 6:30 a.m. the Saturday and Sunday 

after the storm and processed more than 4,000 

claims, paying out in excess of $145 million for 

Hurricane Charley. 

Today, Amberg Insurance’s technology is 

cutting edge and a large portion of the 

company budget is committed to technological 

improvements. The firm has contracted with 

a disaster service so that, in the event of a 

disaster, they will automatically arrive with 

mobile offices, computers, and generators. 

“This type of service is not inexpensive, 

but in this day and time, it is imperative 

that we are prepared for our clients,” 

says David. 

Amberg Insurance has grown in recent years 

through the acquisition of Deyloff Insurance 

in 1994, Port Charlotte Insurance in 1996, 

and J. Smith Insurance in 2000. The firm was 

voted the “#1 Insurance Agency” and “Agent” 

in the Charlotte Sun’s Reader’s Choice Awards. 

“The key to success as an Independent 

Agency is having an educated staff and quality 

companies with competitive products for our 

clients. Amberg Insurance has been here for 

the people of Charlotte County through good 

times and bad. We stand ready to work with, 

and for, our valued customers,” says Pat. 

AMBERG 

INSURANCE 

CENTER, INC. 


SECURITY 

ALARM 

CORPORATION 

❖ 

Kalman Nagy. 

Security Alarm Corporation, a family-owned 

business that started on a shoestring more than 

thirty years ago, has grown to become an industry 

leader, providing security, fire alarm systems, and 

monitoring for homes and businesses. 

Kalman “Kal” Nagy and his wife, Julianna, 

founded the business in 1979. During the early 

days, Kal sold alarms in the morning, then 

changed into work clothes and installed alarms 

in the afternoon. While he was drumming up 

new business, Julianna would hand-lace 

security screens on the back porch with their 

daughter, Agnes. 

As the business grew, SAC purchased a house 

on Harbor Boulevard and started its monitoring 

and answering services. The firm grew steadily 

through “word of mouth” advertising and, in 

1988, became a UL-certified Central Station. 

SAC has serviced more than 6,000 customers 

and has averaged revenue growth of ten percent 

per year in recent years. The company now has 

thirty employees. 

Agnes Nagy Allbright, daughter of the 

founders, and her husband, Peter Allbright, 

became principals in 1999, with a cousin, 

Erick Toth, as manager. The company moved 

its headquarters to a state-of-the-art building at 

17776 Toledo Blade Boulevard in 2002. 

According to Agnes, the foundation for SAC’s 

success is customer service. SAC is the local 

company that its customers can depend on 

twenty-four hours a day, every day. 

SAC has made major investments in 

technology over the past several years and is 

poised to move forward with continued 

confidence in its ability to deliver a premium 

service at affordable rates. “Being local does not 

mean SAC’s technology or services are not 

keeping pace with industry changes,” says 

Agnes. “SAC will always be there to provide the 

best value for its customers.” 

Security Alarm Corporation has a long history 

of community involvement, including support of 

youth sports and donations of equipment to 

many local charitable organizations. 

For more information about Security 

Alarm Corporation, please check the website at 

www. securityalarmcorp.com. 


GOFF 

CONSTRUCTION, 

INC. 

Goff Construction is Charlotte County’s 

oldest general contracting firm and the county’s 

first state-certified general contractor. Although 

the firm was founded by Wayne Goff in 1960, 

its roots go far deeper in the community. 

The Goff family was the first settlers of 

Englewood in the mid-1800s and, by necessity, 

had to learn to build all their own facilities. Later, 

Wayne Goff’s father, Woodrow, was one of only 

three builders in Charlotte County. Wayne grew 

up on construction jobs and began working for 

his Dad when he was only nine years old. 

Wayne received a degree in Planning, Design 

and Construction from the University of 

Florida. Wayne obtained his general contractors 

license and worked his way through college as 

a contractor in the Gainesville area. He also 

obtained a general contractor’s license in 

Charlotte County. This allowed his father and 

brother, Leon, to operate under the license in 

Charlotte County. Meanwhile, Wayne went to 

work as a construction engineer for DuPont Co. 

Wanting to provide his children with local 

roots, Wayne returned to Florida in 1970 

and became Vice President of Construction 

for Punta Gorda Isles for fourteen years. During 

this period he licensed five companies: 

Punta Gorda Isles, Inc., Punta Gorda Isles 

Construction, Inc., Punta Gorda Developers, 

Inc., Burnt Store Marine Construction, Inc., and 

Goff Construction, Inc. 

During his employment with Punta Gorda 

Isles, Wayne received national recognition with 

his award-winning houses of the year: 1977 

House of the Waterfall, Punta Gorda Isles; 

1978 House of Fountains, Sugar Mill Woods, 

Homosassa Springs; and 1979 House of 

Glistening Waters, Palmetto Point, Fort Myers. 

Widely respected as Charlotte County’s finest 

builder, Goff Construction has six full-time 

employees and works with a number of highly 

qualified subcontractors. Wayne’s son, Keith, is 

now taking on more responsibility within the 

company, and his grandsons, Jensen and 

Connor, are expected to some day take a role in 

the company. 

Wayne and his company are involved in a 

number of community activities including the 

Cultural Center of Charlotte County, Tidewell 

Hospice, Punta Gorda Rotary Club, Chamber of 

Commerce, Punta Gorda Little League Baseball, 

Charlotte High School athletics, and Charlotte 

DeSoto Builders Association. The company has 

been involved—with no fee—in a number of 

local buildings, including the Visual Arts 

Center, Punta Gorda Habitat for Humanity 

office and warehouse, Florida Southern College 

DeSoto campus, and a number of churches. 

❖ 

Three generations of Goff 

Construction, Inc. leadership, Wayne 

B. Goff, his son Keith Goff, and 

grandsons Jensen Desguin (far left) 

and Connor Ford (center). 


SCRIBNER 

CONTRACTING, 

INC. 

Scribner Contracting, Inc. of Punta Gorda 

specializes in residential design, new home construction, 

remodeling, pool cage screen enclosures 

and all phases of aluminum construction. 

The company is owned and operated by Ron 

Scribner, Jr., and wife, Crystal. Ron is a Michigan 

native who moved to Florida in 1983. Crystal is 

a Maine native who moved to Florida in 1994. 

Crystal is involved with all daily operations 

and is also a local Realtor. She attended Thorton 

Academy in Maine and obtained her Realtor’s 

license in 2001. Ron attended Charlotte High 

School and graduated from Tampa Technical 

Institute in 1989 with a degree in Computer 

Aided Drafting and Architectural Design. 

After being impressed by the window 

products used on several new homes and 

renovations, Ron became the local Punta Gorda 

dealer for windows and glass doors. Scribner 

Contracting carries a large variety of windows; 

including single and double hung windows, 

picture windows, garden box windows, sliding 

glass patio doors, hinged glass patio doors, arch 

windows, storm windows and storm doors. 

All of the window and door products come in 

impact or non-impact glass and have earned 

the Energy Star Award seven years running. 

If you would like to add style and quality to 

your pool, Scribner Contracting is an authorized 

dealer for beautiful pool enclosures. Scribner 

Contracting will custom design your pool 

enclosure to get the most for your outdoor 

living. Beautify your enclosure with the new 

architectural design pool cage enhancement, or 

retrofit your existing structure to provide a lovely 

space where you can dine, relax, entertain and 

escape to the outdoors while enjoying all the 

comforts of home. To view some of Scribner’s 

pool enclosures and architectural enhancements, 

go to www.scribnercontracting.com. 

The focus of Scribner Contracting is on 

doing quality custom work while providing 

excellent customer service. This approach has 

enabled the company to work in premier 

custom home communities, private gated 

communities and resort golf communities. 

Scribner Contracting has experience in 

designing and building high quality projects 

including residential, commercial, custom 

homes and remodeling projects in Charlotte 

County and Southwest Florida. 

Ron is a state-certified licensed contractor with 

more than twenty years experience in Southwest 

Florida. Scribner Contracting adheres to all county 

building codes and can design, build, or repair to 

withstand the forces of nature, while ensuring your 

property is in compliance with hurricane codes. 

Ron and Crystal have three children and the 

two oldest attend Sallie Jones Elementary School 

in Charlotte County. Ron is very family oriented 

and he and Crystal are actively involved with Pop 

Warner Football, Liberty Community Church 

and many family activities. 


ZUSMAN EYE 

CARE CENTER 

NEIL B. 

ZUSMAN, M.D., 

F.A.C.S. 

Dr. Neil B. Zusman, a specialist in no-stitch, 

no-needle, no-patch cataract surgery under 

topical anesthesia, has served the residents of 

Charlotte County since 1988. 

Dr. Zusman also performs laser surgery and 

eyelid surgery, provides treatment for glaucoma, 

diabetes, and macular degeneration, and offers 

routine eye examinations. His on-site optical 

shop offers a variety of glasses and contact lenses. 

Dr. Zusman was inspired by his late father, 

Paul Zusman, an optometrist in Michigan 

for more than forty years, to enter the field 

of ophthalmology. 

After completing pre-med studies at 

Kalamazoo College, Dr. Zusman received his 

medical degree from Wayne State University in 

Detroit, served his internship at Oakwood 

Hospital in Dearborn, Michigan, and completed 

his residency at Emory University in Atlanta. 

Dr. Zusman practiced at Inter-Medic Health 

Center in Port Charlotte for eleven years before 

opening his own practice in 1999. He quickly 

outgrew the office he opened on Harbor Boulevard 

and moved to the Harbor Professional Centre at 

the corner of Harbor Boulevard and Tamiami Trail. 

Instead of hiring an architect, Dr. Zusman 

called on his staff to design the 5,000 square foot 

Zusman Eye Care Center. The result is a circular 

design, with an optical shop occupying the 

center, surrounded by individual exam rooms. It 

is a patient-friendly office where all aspects of 

the business can be accessed comfortably. 

The new facility opened three weeks before 

Hurricane Charley hit in August 2004. The clinic 

received substantial roof damage and Dr. Zusman 

operated from a tent in the parking lot for a week. 

While affiliated with Peace River and Fawcett 

Memorial Hospitals, Dr. Zusman performs most 

of his surgery at Charlotte Surgery Center on 

King’s Highway. 

Dr. Zusman considers it 

both a joy and a privilege 

to provide eye care to 

the citizens of Charlotte 

County. He personally 

sees each patient on an 

individual basis and 

spends as much time as 

necessary to insure the 

patient understands the 

results of the examination. 

With the assistance 

of his professional staff— 

some of whom have been 

with him ten to twenty 

years—Dr. Zusman’s goal 

is to see that proper professional 

diagnosis and 

treatment of patient’s eye 

problems are accomplished 

in a way that 

instills complete confidence 

and satisfaction in 

the care received. 

❖ 

Above: Zusman Eye Care Center. 

Below: Neil B. Zusman, MD, FACS. 


MCGINNIS 

BAIL BONDS 

❖ 

McGinnis Bail Bonds at 26501 

Airport Road in Punta Gorda. 

McGinnis Bail Bonds has provided bail 

bonding services, an essential part of the 

American justice system, for defendants and 

their families in Southwest Florida for more 

than twenty-three years. 

McGinnis Bail Bonds was established in 

December 1987 by Mac McGinnis, who served 

as a Charlotte County Deputy Sheriff during the 

1970s and started writing bail in 1982. His son, 

Patrick, joined the firm in 2001 after service in 

the U.S. Air Force. 

McGinnis Bail Bonds is the oldest ongoing 

bail bond company in Charlotte County. 

The company was located in the heart of 

Punta Gorda until its office building was 

destroyed in 2004 during Hurricane Charley. 

After the storm, McGinnis Bail Bonds moved to 

a convenient location next door to the Charlotte 

County Jail. 

“We don’t decide on the guilt or innocence of 

an individual, we just help the defendant get 

out of jail until their trial,” explains Patrick. 

“We bond out individuals from all segments of 

society. Most are good people who have gotten 

into trouble and very few skip bail.” 

The firm writes more than 3,000 bonds each 

year, many for driving under the influence. 

“People really beat themselves up over DUI 

charges,” he says. In recent years, McGinnis has 

seen an increase in drug related charges, 

especially prescription medicine abuse. 

Bond schedules, normally ten percent of the 

bail, are set by the state and McGinnis Bail Bonds 

are backed by Accredited Surety and Casualty, 

Inc., one of the nation’s premier surety companies. 

McGinnis Bail Bonds is committed to 

providing prompt, reliable, courteous and 

confidential bail bonding service on a twentyfour 

hour daily basis. The company’s bail 

agents are professionals who understand the 

tremendous stresses faced by families and 

individuals when bail must be secured. 

The firm is a strong supporter of youth 

activities in the community, sponsoring softball, 

Little League and YMCA functions. 

In addition to bail bonds, McGinnis 

Investigations offers investigative services and 

process serving. The parent company, McGinnis 

Enterprises, Inc., plans to provide pawn broking 

and check cashing services soon. 


With its pirate ship, lighthouse, old fashioned 

cheeseburgers, and thirty-four kinds of beer, 

Biehl’s Slip-Not is one of the most popular 

lounges in Charlotte County. It also has the 

distinction of being the oldest business in the 

county with the same owner, same location and 

same building. 

Biehl’s Slip-Not Lounge was established in 

1952 when Willard Biehl and his wife, Evelyn, 

moved from Illinois looking for business 

opportunities in the growing Punta Gorda area. 

However, residents of south Florida were not 

eager to embrace “Yankees” from up north in the 

early 1950s and Willard and Evelyn found it 

tough going at first. Danny Biehl, who was six 

years old when his parents relocated to Punta 

Gorda, recalls that some days the business 

brought in less than five dollars. In a ledger 

Evelyn kept in the early days, she noted that 

“only eleven cars passed by the entire day.” 

Willard earned the respect of his new 

neighbors when they began to notice how hard 

he and his wife were working to make a go of 

the business, which also included an adjacent 

mobile home park. “He was pushing loads of 

dirt by the shovel full to even out the parking lot 

one day when three men showed up with a 

tractor to help out,” Danny explains. “After that, 

the customers started coming around.” 

Danny and his wife, Barbara, took over 

management of the operation in 1968 and their 

son, Kevin, and daughter, Danielle, are now 

active in the business. 

Located at 1601 Tamiami Trail 

in Punta Gorda and on the Internet 

at www.biehls-slipnot.com, Biehl’s 

Slip-Not Lounge is famous for the 

colorful lighthouse and pirate ship 

that serve as the centerpiece of 

a pleasant outdoor gathering area. 

Biehl’s Slip-Not features three 

full-service bars, a package store, 

and live entertainment by local 

performers. The mouth watering 

menu includes locally famous 

burgers, cheeseburgers, cheese and 

chili dogs, fish sandwiches and 

mini pizzas. 

Biehl’s Slip-Not Lounge attracts 

both tourists and a loyal local 

clientele who enjoy the friendly 

atmosphere and great food and drink. 

BIEHL’S 

SLIP-NOT 

LOUNGE 

❖ 

Left: Willard and Evelyn Biehl. 

Below: Barbara and Danny Biehl. 


FIVE STAR 

REALTY 

SANDSTAR 

HOMES, LLC 

SANDSTAR 

KITCHEN & 

BATH 

REMODELING 

For Jim and Cathy Sanders, Punta Gorda is 

their little piece of heaven on earth. Having 

grown up in the area, they understand the 

unpredictable weather patterns and appreciate 

the slower pace and historic beauty. As owners 

of Five Star Realty, SandStar Homes, and 

SandStar Kitchen & Bath Remodeling, the 

Sanders have been deeply involved in the area’s 

growth for a quarter century. 

Jim and Cathy first met at Harbour Heights 

Park when both were in high school but Jim 

went off to the University of Florida while Cathy 

attended Florida State University. Both were 

accomplished water skiers and they happened to 

meet again during an annual skiing event at 

Fisherman’s Village. “She stood on my shoulders 

doing tricks,” Jim explains. “We were a pretty 

good team.” 

Not long after they were reunited as ski partners, 

Jim and Cathy were wed and went on to raise 

two children and grow three successful businesses. 

Cathy, who grew up in the first home ever 

built in Punta Gorda Isles, became a real estate 

broker and founded Five Star Realty in 1987. 

Meanwhile, Jim became a homebuilder and also 

established Five Star General Contracting, dba 

SandStar Custom Homes, and SandStar Kitchen 

& Bath Remodeling, which represents seven 

different cabinet companies. 

After building a reputation as one of the 

finest homebuilders in Southwest Florida, Jim 

and a partner, Larry Sandles, were selected in 

2006 to become exclusive builders of Arthur 

Rutenberg Homes in Charlotte County. 

Part of Jim and Cathy’s success can be 

attributed to witnessing the aftermath of Hurricane 

Andrew on Miami. After observing the devastation 

brought on by the storm, Jim realized new building 

methods were needed so homes could withstand 

such fury. He incorporated these techniques into 

the homes he constructed and when Hurricane 

Charley hit the Suncoast every one of the Sandersbuilt 

homes emerged with roofs intact. 

Jim and Cathy have seen Punta Gorda grow 

from a little town with a single stoplight to a 

bustling community and plan to continue 

providing the high quality and service their clients 

have come to depend on. 

Contact your hometown realtor at 

941-637-6116, and see the design center and 

model home at 1203 West Marion Avenue 

(across from Fishermen’s Village). For more 

information, please visit www.fivestarrealty.com, 

www.standstarhomes.com, or www.arhomes.com. 


SUNLAND 

PAVING 

COMPANY, INC. 

Sunland Paving Company, Inc., now operated 

by the fourth generation of the Gross family, is 

one of the oldest paving companies in the area. 

The firm, known originally as A. K. Gross & 

Sons Paving Company, was established in Lee 

County, Kentucky, in 1963 by the grandfather of 

the present owner, A. K. Gross. 

Gross’ son, Bobby J. Gross, had fond memories 

of summer vacations in Port Charlotte as a 

child, and decided to move the company to 

Florida in 1970. The name was changed to 

Sunland Paving Company to reflect the sunny 

weather of the company’s new location. In the 

early days in Florida, Bobby, Sr., would go doorto-door 

to drum up business. Sunland Paving 

Company was incorporated in 1972. 

Bobby J. Gross, Jr., took control of the 

family business in 1980 and, in 1984, 

Sunland Paving purchased its current 

asphalt plant in Punta Gorda from Dr. 

Fred Swing. 

Sunland Paving Company is noted for 

performing quality work in a timely 

manner. Sunland operates as a paving 

contractor and also offers asphalt sealing 

and stripping, driveway paving, and 

general asphalt paving. 

In addition, Sunland Paving provides 

concrete work, overlays, crack sealing 

and coating, stripping, and infrared and 

conventional patching. All of Sunland’s 

services are backed by a written warranty. 

All of Sunland’s employees are fully 

trained and knowledgeable about common 

paving issues. 

The current corporate officers of Sunland 

Paving Company are Bobby J. Gross, Jr., his wife, 

Geri, and their son, Bobby J. Gross III, who 

represents the fourth generation of the familyoperated 

business. The company employs 

fifteen persons, including Superintendent Bruce 

Barlow who has been with the company for 

twenty-six years. 

The company and its employees are very 

supportive of such community activities as local 

schools, Veterans of Foreign Wars, and numerous 

area churches. 

Sunland Paving Company is located at 1012 

Las Palmas Court in Port Charlotte. For 

additional information about the company, click 

on their website at www.slpaving.net. 

❖ 

Above: Bobby J. Gross, III, Joshua 

Gross, and Bobby J. Gross, Jr., who is 

holding Nathan James Gross. 

Below: Bobby J. Gross, Jr., president, 

holding his grandson, Nathan James 

Gross, on a loader. 


❖ 

CHARLOTTE 

INSURANCE 

AGENCY, INC. 

President Rodney Taylor, CIC, CRM. 

For more than a century, Charlotte Insurance 

Agency, established in 1901, has provided 

customers with a full range of insurance 

products, including home, renters, auto, 

business, life and health. As an independent 

agency, Charlotte Insurance is licensed to sell 

for a variety of insurance companies, enabling 

the agency to tailor your insurance to meet your 

specific needs at the best price possible. 

The agency has a ledger book recording 

policies written as far back as 1901. However, 

the company history dates back even farther— 

to the late 1890s—when several bankers in 

Punta Gorda began selling insurance as a 

sideline to the banking business. During its 

history, the agency has represented several 

major companies: Travelers, Hartford, St. Paul, 

Ohio Casualty, Maryland Casualty and Zurich 

among others. Records show that in 1901, 

Aetna was the prime company along with 

Continental and Pacific. Hartford was added 

in 1905. 

As the insurance business grew, the bank 

established an insurance agency to service 

the insurance operations exclusively. This agency 

was later sold to Farkuson Johnson, who began 

operating under the name of Johnson Insurance. 

The agency had several owners and name 

changes from the 1930s to the 1980s, but 

the name was eventually changed to Charlotte 

Insurance Agency, Inc., so its name would 

better reflect the community 

it served. 

In the late 1970s the 

agency moved from Punta 

Gorda to Tamiami Trail 

on Charlotte Harbor. The 

agency moved to its present 

location at 4061 Tamiami 

Trail in Port Charlotte 

in 1983. 

George Taylor purchased 

fifty percent of the agency 

from Martha (Marti) 

Wadsworth in 1989, after a 

distinguished career on the 

carrier side of insurance. In 

1991, his son, Rodney, came 

to the agency and purchased 

thirty-five percent interest 

from Wadsworth in 1999, 

and in 2003, George retired 

and Rodney purchased the 

remaining shares of Charlotte 

Insurance Agency, Inc. 

The agency’s biggest 

challenge came on August 

13, 2004, when Hurricane 

Charley, a category four 

storm, hit Charlotte County. 

Insured losses in Charlotte County alone 

exceeded $6 billion. The agency’s staff, many of 

whom were personally affected by the storm, 

was resolute in taking care of their customers 

during extremely difficult times. Charlotte 

Insurance Agency served its 4,500 policyholders 

well during this period. It is estimated that $84 

million was paid by carriers represented by 

Charlotte Insurance Agency to policyholders. 

Last, given the long history of the agency, it 

is not surprising that it has ably served, not 

only its present policyholders, but many of 

their great-grandparents. 


D. M. 

CONSTRUCTION 

CORP. 

It all started in 1948, when Morris Davis 

decided to purchase two old dump trucks from 

Henry Renfroe. Morris hauled dirt to anyone 

who needed it, loading the dump trucks “by 

hand with a shovel!” To get some relief in the 

summer, Morris would hire high school boys to 

load the trucks for him. 

Work was slow in the late 1940s until the 

Mackle brothers came to town. The Mackle 

brothers, who later became the General 

Development Corp. which developed Port 

Charlotte, hired Morris to haul and move dirt 

for their projects. This contract enabled Morris 

to replace his old trucks with new ones and buy 

a new loader. No longer did Morris have to load 

the trucks by hand. 

The relationship with the Mackle brothers 

was a long and successful one and Morris 

worked with them in other areas, helping to 

develop the communities of Deltona and Marco 

Island. The venture produced enough profit for 

Morris to purchase additional trucks and hire 

more employees. 

Charlotte County was growing in the 1960s 

and Morris, who had incorporated and now 

operated as D. M. Construction Corp., was hired 

to help develop a tract of land that became Punta 

Gorda Isles. The project required a dragline, ten 

dump trucks for hauling, and dozers and 

tractors for moving and grading dirt. Punta 

Gorda became a beautiful community, offering 

boating and fishing access straight to Charlotte 

Harbor and creating a real estate empire. 

In the 1970s, development projects kept 

D. M. Construction working throughout Charlotte, 

Lee, and Desoto Counties. Projects included 

Charlotte Ranchettes and the development of 

Lehigh Acres. Parts of Punta Gorda were aging and 

deteriorating and Morris added demolition to the 

list of services he provided. 

The early 1980s brought change to the D. M. 

family. After Morris was injured in a fall from a 

roof, his son, George, returned from college to 

take over the family business. Christi Davis, 

George’s wife, also joined the company in an 

administrative capacity. Underground utilities 

were added to the firm’s list of services and a 

new generation of employees, many of whom 

are still with the company, were hired. 

Since the recession of the early 1990s to the 

present, D. M. Construction has continued to 

grow, at times offering employment to as many 

as forty-eight persons. Jared and Morissa Davis 

joined the company after graduating from 

college, making them the third generation to 

work in the family business. 

The Davis family and their employees believe 

strongly in giving back to the community and 

take pride in supporting the youth of Charlotte 

County through such organizations as 4-H, 

Project Graduation, Young Life, Pop Warner, 

Little League, Youth Basketball, Make-a-Wish, 

Special Olympics, Drug Free Charlotte County, 

and many others. 

“We credit our success to the work ethic and 

integrity that was established early on, to the 

loyal employees who have dedicated their 

many years of service to the company, and a 

community which has supported and demanded 

quality and efficiency,” says Christi Davis. 

❖ 

D. M.’s key employees. 


❖ 

Clockwise from top, left: 

BUTWELL 

STONE & 

SOIL, INC. 

When company founder, Jack Butwell 

sang country music he was 

enjoying life. 

The Butwell family—Jeanette, Jack, 

Paul, and Norman, 1967. 

Paul and Norman Butwell, 1999. 

Below: Butwell Stone & Soil’s pleasant 

and heplful staff. 

Butwell Stone & Soil, Inc., a 

major supplier of landscaping 

materials, was founded in 1966 by 

Jack Butwell and his wife, Jeanette. 

Their sons, Norman and Paul, 

became owners of the company 

in 1980. 

According to family members, 

the company got its start because 

of the decreasing need for coal in 

the 1960s. A Tampa coal supplier 

visited Punta Gorda looking for a 

motivated individual to sell gravel 

and Jack recognized an opportunity 

for a new business. Soon the 

firm was selling a wide variety of 

landscaping materials from river 

rocks and flat rocks to mulches and 

soils. The development of Punta 

Gorda Isles helped establish a 

market for landscape supply and 

decorative gravel. 

Butwell Stone & Soil still operates 

from its original location at 611 

Nesbit Street in Punta Gorda. A 

second location was opened in 2003 

in Avon Park. The company has 

maintained a high level of employee 

retention through the years because 

of the ‘family atmosphere’ that 

prevails throughout the organization. 

Customers are invited to visit the gravel 

yard and see the largest variety of landscape 

and aggregate products in southwest Florida. 

Butwell Stone & Soil offers a full range of river 

rock, sea shells, mulch, dirt products, fertilizers, 

stepping stones, flag stones, garden boulders, 

sod and pond supplies. The company also sells 

a variety of white and brown river rock with a 

round, smooth appearance, as well as pink and 

rose marble chips. 

For customers who want a natural look for 

their landscape, Butwell offers a variety of 

mulches, including cypress, eucalyptus, and 

dyed red hardwoods. 

Butwell provides beautification and aggregate 

products for both home and business. 

The company is a proud supporter of many 

local youth organizations and is a long time 

member of the Charlotte County Chamber of 

Commerce and the National Federation of 

Independent Business (NFIB). 

For additional information, please visit 

www.butwellstone.com 


SPONSORS 

Amberg Insurance Center, Inc.............................................................................................79 

Biehl’s Slip-Not Lounge .....................................................................................................85 

Butwell Stone & Soil, Inc. .................................................................................................90 

Charlotte Insurance Agency, Inc. ........................................................................................88 

Coastal Dermatology & Skin Cancer Center .........................................................................64 

D. M. Construction Corp. ..................................................................................................89 

Farr Law Firm.................................................................................................................68 

Fero Construction, Inc. .....................................................................................................72 

First Financial Employee Leasing, Inc. ................................................................................66 

Five Star Realty 

SandStar Homes, LLC 

SandStar Kitchen & Bath Remodeling ............................................................................86 

Goff Construction, Inc. .....................................................................................................81 

McGinnis Bail Bonds.........................................................................................................84 

Mosaic Fertilizer, LLC ......................................................................................................74 

Nautilus Pools, Inc. ..........................................................................................................78 

Palm Auto Mall................................................................................................................70 

Scribner Contracting of South Florida, Inc. ..........................................................................82 

Security Alarm Corporation ...............................................................................................80 

Sunland Paving Company, Inc.............................................................................................87 

Towles Corp ....................................................................................................................76 

Zusman Eye Care Center 

Neil B. Zusman, M.D., F.A.C.S......................................................................................83 

Sponsors ✦ 91

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

D OUGLAS 

H OUCK 

Douglas Houck is a native of Chautauqua County having been born in Silver Creek, growing up on his family’s farm in the town of 

Arkwright, and graduating from the Forestville Central School and the State University of New York at Fredonia. He completed his 

bachelor’s degree at Fredonia, two master’s degrees from the SUNY at Buffalo, and a doctorate from the SUNY at Buffalo. He currently 

teaches writing courses at Edison College in Southwest Florida and lives part of the year in Punta Gorda, Florida, and the rest of 

the year in Westfield, New York. 

He is the author of three published books: The Legacy of the Farm, Family and Old Chautauqua, The Visionary, and For Fame and 

Glory. He has also published several professional articles in various journals. He is a member of the Chautauqua County Historical 

Society and president of the Peace River Center for Writers in Florida. 


✦ 93

For more information about the following publications or about publishing your own book, please call 

Historical Publishing Network at 800-749-9790 or visit www.lammertinc.com. 

Albemarle & Charlottesville: 

An Illustrated History of the First 150 Years 

Black Gold: The Story of Texas Oil & Gas 

Garland: A Contemporary History 

Historic Abilene: An Illustrated History 

Historic Alamance County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Albuquerque: An Illustrated History 

Historic Amarillo: An Illustrated History 

Historic Anchorage: An Illustrated History 

Historic Austin: An Illustrated History 

Historic Baldwin County: A Bicentennial History 

Historic Baton Rouge: An Illustrated History 

Historic Beaufort County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Beaumont: An Illustrated History 

Historic Bexar County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Birmingham: An Illustrated History 

Historic Brazoria County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Brownsville: An Illustrated History 

Historic Charlotte: 

An Illustrated History of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County 

Historic Chautauqua County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Cheyenne: A History of the Magic City 

Historic Clayton County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Comal County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Corpus Christi: An Illustrated History 

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Historic Hampton Roads: Where America Began 

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Historic Illinois: An Illustrated History 

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An Illustrated History of Bakersfield and Kern County 

Historic Lafayette: 

An Illustrated History of Lafayette & Lafayette Parish 

Historic Laredo: 

An Illustrated History of Laredo & Webb County 

Historic Lee County: The Story of Fort Myers & Lee County 

Historic Louisiana: An Illustrated History 

Historic Mansfield: A Bicentennial History 

Historic Midland: An Illustrated History 

Historic Mobile: 

An Illustrated History of the Mobile Bay Region 

Historic Montgomery County: 

An Illustrated History of Montgomery County, Texas 

Historic Ocala: The Story of Ocala & Marion County 

Historic Oklahoma: An Illustrated History 

Historic Oklahoma County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Omaha: 

An Illustrated History of Omaha and Douglas County 

Historic Orange County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Osceola County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Ouachita Parish: An Illustrated History 

Historic Paris and Lamar County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Pasadena: An Illustrated History 

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Historic Pennsylvania An Illustrated History 

Historic Philadelphia: An Illustrated History 

Historic Prescott: 

An Illustrated History of Prescott & Yavapai County 

Historic Richardson: An Illustrated History 

Historic Rio Grande Valley: An Illustrated History 

Historic Rogers County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Santa Barbara: An Illustrated History 

Historic Scottsdale: A Life from the Land 

Historic Shelby County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Shreveport-Bossier: 

An Illustrated History of Shreveport & Bossier City 

Historic South Carolina: An Illustrated History 

Historic Smith County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Temple: An Illustrated History 

Historic Texarkana: An Illustrated History 

Historic Texas: An Illustrated History 

Historic Victoria: An Illustrated History 

Historic Tulsa: An Illustrated History 

Historic Wake County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Warren County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Williamson County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Wilmington & The Lower Cape Fear: 


Historic York County: An Illustrated History 

Iron, Wood & Water: An Illustrated History of Lake Oswego 

Jefferson Parish: Rich Heritage, Promising Future 

Miami’s Historic Neighborhoods: A History of Community 

Old Orange County Courthouse: A Centennial History 

Plano: An Illustrated Chronicle 

The New Frontier: 

A Contemporary History of Fort Worth & Tarrant County 

San Antonio, City Exceptional 

The San Gabriel Valley: A 21st Century Portrait 

The Spirit of Collin County 

Valley Places, Valley Faces 

Water, Rails & Oil: Historic Mid & South Jefferson County 


$34.95 

Charlotte County Historical 

Center Society 

ISBN: 9781935377337

Historic Charlotte County

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