The Key West Citizen Newspaper, December 17, 1954, Page 9

Tampa Centennial Anniversary Booklet Key West And Tampa Are Linked In History (Contributed By FRANK W. LOVERING). In @ pamphlet being prepared under the direction of the Gi er Tampa Chamber of Commerce in anticipation of the observance throughout next year of the Cen- tennial Anniversary of the city as a municipality, numerous in- teresting references are made to Key West and the part it has had as one of the sinews in the growth of the community on Hillsborough Bay. .Parts of the pamphlet were re- leased in a recent issue of the Tampa Tribune, and were print- ed on the page, “Pioneer Flori- da," edited by D. B. McKay. This summary, still further edit- ed, follows. THE STORY OF TAMPA “In celebrating 1955 as its Cen- tennial Year, Tampa freely ac- knowledges that only one of its more recent ariniversaries is being observed, for actually 100 years is but a fraction of Tampa’s exist- ence. It is one of the oldest place names in North America. The shores of Tampa Bay were echoing to the clang of Spanish armor a full century before Plymouth and Jamestown were settled. “Indeed, if anniversaries are wanted, Tampa could already in this 20th Century have celebrated the 400th anniversary of the arriv- al of Ponce de Leon in 1521; or the 1528 expedition of Panfilo de Nar- vaez, whose chronicler, Cabeza de Vaca, was the first white man to write of Tampa Bay: ‘The. port is the best in the world.” “And 1539 brought Hernando de Soto, who gave Tampa. Bay its first Spanish name, Espiritu Santo —Holy Spirit—at the same time bequeathing to scholars and to the civic pride of a later day the un- settled question of where, on the shores of this sunlit bay, he made his first landing. The question is largely academic, since he cover- ed every foot of it in the six months his expedition was based on Tampa Bay. He set the fashion for today’s visitors to whom Tam- pa says: ‘See all of Florida from Tampa.’ Tampa’s magnificent De- Soto oak, under whose branches he is said to have conferred with the Indians, is a legendary landmark of his stay. “These Indians were not the Seminoles familiar to today’s tour- ists. They were Timucuans and Caloosas, both now extinct. The latter masters of South Florida. Tampa is a Caloosan word, and was recorded by the Spanish his- torian Fontaneda in 1572 as the | | name of the leading town of the Caloosa Indians, though he spelled it ‘Tanpa.’ Herrera’s early map of Florida, done in 1601, used the modern spelling and the name ‘Tampa Bay’ in preference to De- Soto’s ‘Espiritu Santo.’ “Hillsborough River and Hills- borough Bay, the upper arm of Tampa Bay, were later named for Lord Hillsborough, British colonial secretary of state in 1772. xk wk * “The Seminole Indians, separat- ists from the Creek tribes of Geor- gia, were established in North Florida and had already given Gen. Andrew Jackson an excuse for a brief military adventure in 1817—the so-called First Seminole War—resulting in moving the tribes southward. The U.S. acquired Florida from Spain in 1821. One of the first results was the establish- ment in 1824 of Fort Brooke at the mouth of the Hillsborough River. Here was the nucleus of the future city of Tampa, and here the first white child of the area, John Mer- cer Brooke, was born in 1826, son of Col. George Mercer Brooke, the fort commander. John Brooke grew up to become chief of the bureau of ordnance of Confederate Navy and directed the conversion of the Merrimac into the world’s first ironclad warship. “Being located entirely on a gov- ernment military reservation, the community of Tampa offered little lure to developers for a quarter of acentury. Weekly sailing vessel service between Pensacola and Key West via Tampa offered the only contact with the outside world. The first post office, officially the Tampa Bay Post Office, was estab- lished Nov. 24, 1831, with William Saunders, a native of Mobile and proprietor of the first general store, as postmaster. “But new faces appeared from time to time. One newcomer was Augustus Steele, a Yankee, who had wrangled an ap- pointment as deputy collector of| customs at Fort Brooke in 1832. Two years later he was credited with inducing the state legislature to create, on January 25, 1834, the new County of Hillsborough, carv- ed out of old Alachua County, with the county seat at Tampa and Au- gustus Steele as county judge. He had already replaced Saunders as postmaster. “Hillsborough was vast in those das. Its 5,500,000 acres included all the present counties of Hills- borough, Polk, Pinellas, Pasco, Wt Never Had 5 ‘Em So baad Look At These { _— 1949 PLYMOUTH FULL PRICE $395 Black - Two-Door - Stock No. 1332 1948 16 Red - Four-Door - Stock No. 1373 1947 PLYMOUTH .... ... Dark Green - Four-Door - Stock No. 1375 1948 BUICK ... .. 150 Four-Door - Stock No. 1380 1947 PACKARD ........ - 15 Black - Two-Door - Stock No. 1388 1940 OLDSMOBILE 65 Black Convertible - Stock No. 1394 1949 395 Dark Green - Two-Door - Stock No. 1400 1947 OLDSMOBILE _........ 195 Coupe - Two-Tone Tan - Stock No. 1403 1949 CHRYSLER .... Green - Four-Door - One Owner - Stock No. 1411 1948 Cream - Four-Door - Stock No. 1412 1947 CHEVROLET .......... 127 Club Coupe - Two-Tone - Stock No. 1413 INCORPORATED 601 Duval Street TELEPHONE 2-7041 \ USED CARS Connecticut | . | gle, while in Tampa, and organiz- Manatee and Sarasota, as well as Charlotte, DeSoto, Hardee and Highlands. “Seven years of bloody warfare with the Seminoles began in 1835, touched off by the massacre on December 28 of Maj. Francis L. Dade and his detachment of 107 men near Bushnell while on march from Fort Brooke at Tampa to Fort King near Ocala. “The rei ing garrison at Fort Brooke was in peril until reinforced by Marines from Key West—the first time in U.S. his- tory that Marines and the Army engaged in joint operations. “When the costly fighting ended in 1842, 4000 Seminoles had been deported to the West and only a da Everglades, Their Chief Osceo- la, captured under a flag of truce, was dead in the white man’s pris- on at Fort Moultrie, S.C. Fort Brooke was reduced in importance and on July 25, 1848, Polk signed an act giving 160 acres of the military reservation to Hills- borough County. For the first time, property already platted as Tampa could be legally sold to private owners, and tracts were quickly disposed of, one to Capt. James McKay, who built the county’s first Courthouse. “The first municipal government | was formed in 1849, when a group of Tampans chose M. G. Sikes, a stone mason from Savannah, as president of the township trustees. But lacking taxing powers, ° the trustees were unable to meet the costs of government, and in 1852 were forced to sell the town hall furnishings and public market stalls to liquidate the public debt, which had reached $42.50! “But the very next year the town council was reestablished, from Vermont, as president. It was a frugal and successful govern- ment. On Sept. 17, 1855, the towns- | | men voted to seek a charter from | the legislature. “The legislature granted Tampa this first corporate charter on Dec. 15, 1855—and thus gave Tampans of 1955 the occasion for a Centen- nial Jubilee! “The year 1855 also brought the third Seminole war — two more years of Indian fighting against the handful of Seminoles remaining in the ’Glades. “But a greater struggle was ahead—the War Between the States, Tampa was blockaded, | bombarded and finally invaded by Federal forces out of Key West, and the town’s economic life was for a time destroyed. “The last three decades of the 19th Century brought the upswing of Tampa's fortunes. A flourishing }eattle trade with Cuba developed, | which pumped new money into all South: Florida. “Mincidentally, an English musi- Gan;J. A, Butterfield, composed “When You and I were Young Mag- few hundred remained in the Flori-| President | with John Darling, a storekeeper) > (well-known in those days to Key West) in operation on Jan. 7, 1886. With the other Plant ship, the Oli- | vette, the Mascotte made an emer- gency run to Havana before the outbreak of war to bring back to Tampa cigar factories huge car- 8oes of tobacco. Bales of leaf were jammed even into staterooms of the two vessels. pictured in the present official seal of the City of Tampa. “It was not surprising that even | before the Spanish war Tampa, numbering among its citizens hun- | dreds of Cuban born, was an tense partisan of the Cuban cause. Cigar workers pledged one day’s| pay each week to the Cuban Jun- ta’s representatives here. Filibust- erers’ ships, loaded with arms, sailed for Cuban waters with the} absolute minimum of local inter- ference. Jose Marti, great Cuban patriot, set up headquarters in| now a Cuban national shrine. x & *& “With the end of the war and the arrival of the 20th Century, Tampa | moved to take its place among the! modern, progressive cities of America. Perhaps in 1898 it was, as Richard Harding Davis describ- | ed it, ‘a sand-blighted city.’ But not for long. “It got deep water for the port the Spanish chronicler had called 12 feet, then 20 feet, then on to 30 and more. It got new industries, | during two World Wars. And it got | Soaring population figures. The town that could count only 720 in- | habitants in 1880 had 5532 in 1890 | and 15,838 in 1900. By 1910 there| | workers, men and women, in the | cigar factories alone. | “Three more ‘firsts’ — the first commercial air line in the world began operations New Year’s Day, 1914, between Tampa and St. Pet- ersburg, with Tony Jannus as pilot of the one-plane, a Benoist flying boat. The world’s first air express shipment was made Jan. 12, smok- St. Petersburg. “And in 1915 Tampa became the The Mascotte is | in-} Tampa, and his small cottage is| ‘great’ four centuries before—first | | including huge shipbuilding plants | were 37,782, with more than 10,000 | ed meat from a Tampa packer to} Soldier Finds ‘Peeling Spuds \pendioe Task FT. KNOX, Ky. (®—There’s no @ppeal like it—the appeal in peel- | Ing potatoes. | “it’s relaxing,” says Pfc. Robert | |F Cordy, who can clean 11 spuds jin one minute. After he took the | Speed test recently, his mess ser- geant commented: “Cordy is so good a peeler in | the kitchen I'd like to have him {on KP every day.” That would be fine with the 25- | year-old Korean veteran. who often | volunteers for KP duty. Cordy’s prowess as a potato peel- er won him recognition this week as KP of the year, a newly created honor for outstanding kitchen per- |fermers. He also got a three-day Pass from this post but he can't! wait to get back. “It’s alw warm and clean in| \the kitchen,” he says. “We. have | jlots of coffee to drink, and you} never hear of KPs marching, ae | you?” | The Louisville soldier’s enlist. | |ment is up in July and he hopes} to enter the restaurant business, ‘Reunion In Court | SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (® — There was a little family reunion in Mu- | nicipal Court when 20-year-old | Wayne Niederhuth was brought ia ;on a speeding charge. The court clerk who called the {case was his mother Mrs. Lucile Niederhuth. ‘The judge who took | jhis plea of guilty was his grand- | father John Levan. and it was his | Grandpa who assessed the $25 fine, {plus $8.50 costs. first American city- to enjoy city- | | wide automatic telephone service. “The Tampa of today has a population of more than 233,000, and wide diversity of industries and | interests.” | Friday, December 17, 1954 THE KEY WEST CITIZEN Page 9 | WHEN ONLY THE BEST IS A gift of Schlitz is as personal as a handshake during the holiday season. The man who receives it knows that you not only remembered him, but that you thought enough of him to send him the best. For those who enjoy the finer things of life, there is no substitute for that famous taste and satis- faction found only in Schlitz. A, yor Che barr yrilt Love Sehlaty THE BEER THAT MADE MILWAUKEE FAMOUS SAUNDERS WHOLESALE, Inc. 316 Simonton Street Phone 2-2444 | ed the town’s first brass band. | “KR progressive Tampa group | | organized a community telegraph | company in order to string a jine from Tampa to Fort Meade, 40 miles away, where it could con- nect with International Ocean Cable Company’s trunk line run- ning down through the state to Key West and Havana. “One thing was needed, | road, And Henry Bradley Plant, | founder of the Southern Express | Company, brought that to Tampa in 1883, thereby starting a chain | of reaction of prosperity. The first bank—the Bank of Tampa, later renamed the First National Bank— | was opened that year. New indus: tries followed the railroad. The | world’s richest phosphate field: | were discovered near Tampa. An the cigar industry moved in, under the joint sponsorship of the cham | ber of commerce, known then |the Board of Trade, and Vicente Martinez Ybor, of Spain, Cuba and Key West. “The cigar industry had been driven out of Cuba by revolutionary disorders moving first to Key West | but labor troubles plus ‘a disas: |‘ trous fire prompted leading manu- facturers to seek a new base. Senor Ybor was invited by a friend, Ga- vino Gutierrez, a New York im- | porter, to ‘take a look at Tampa. The result: Ybor City sprang up a‘ the northeast corner of Tampa, Ybor sold sites to other manufac- turers, and in 1886, fine handmade cigars were rolling out of three | factories—those of Ybor, Sanchez & Haya, and Lozano, Pendas & Co. Descendants of some of the pioneer cigarmakers are still roll ing fine cigars in Tampa today— ‘more than 2,000,000 cigars every working day. “On the west bank of the Hills- | borough River, Plant, the railway magnate, wrought an Arabian | Nights miracle in the wilderness with his Tampa Bay Hotel, a $3, 000,000 specimen of Moorish archi | tecture, whose 13 minarets remain today a distinctive feature of Tam- |pa’s skyline. The imposing 6-acre structure, which now houses the | University of Tampa, was begun in 1888 and opened to the million- aires of the ‘90s on Feb. 5, 1891. It was for many years one of tle great luxury hotels of this world. | | | | a rail as ..evrolet trucks alone give you all these more work per day... And they’re lowest-priced line ot trucks! JOB-TAILORED HIGH-COMPRESSION POWER! You get exactly the tight power for your job. All three great valve-in-head engines deliver gas - saving, hour-saving high-com- pression performance! AMERICA’S For the First-Choice Features Buy America’s First-Choice Trucks 55 CHEVROLET TRUC EXTRA RUGGEDNESS AND RELIABILITY MORE COMFORT, CONVENIENCE, SAFETY! ADVANCED FEATURES FOR EASIER DRIVING! Cabs have efficient ventilation and insula- mountings that cushion frame vibra- Sturdy single unit tu- bular steel rear axle Less effort needed with efficient Recircu- housings! Strong, rigid tion; lating Ball Steering Gear; Torque-Action and Twin-Action brake design helps you stop surely and easily. frames! Diaphragm- Spring Clutches with tions; one-piece curved windshield with full- width defroster outlet. high torque capacities and built-in long life. FIRST CHOICE TRUCK! Chevrolet is first in sales in all these weight capacities—‘2 ton, Sel %-1 ton, 2-2 tons! j _ MULBERG CHEVROLET CO. “Plant had previously establish- | ed a steamship line to Cuba, plac- |ing the luxury steamer Mascotte Corner Caroline Street and Telegraph Lane