The Key West citizen., 1954-12-17

SlidllOtle DeOOO, ndIuee anu
Highlands.
"Seven years of bloody warfare
with the Seminoles began in 1885,
touched off by the massacre on
December % 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.
1.-THE remaining garrison at
Fort Brooke was in peril until
reinforced by Marines from Key
West-the first time in US. his
tory that Marines and the Army
engaged in Joint operations.
when the costly fighting ended
in 1842, 1000 Seminoles had been
deported to the West and only a
few hundred remained in the Flori-
da Everglades. Their Chief OSceO-
la, captured under flag of truce,
was dead in the white mans pris-
on at Fort Moultrie, sc. Fort
Brooke was reduced in importance
and on July Is, 1848, President
Polk signed an act giving 16O acres
Of the military reservation to Hills
borough County. For the first time,
property already plated 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. Skies,
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,
with John Darling, a Storekeeper
from Vermont, as president. 1t was
a frugal and successful govern
ment. On Sept. IT, 1855, the towns
men voted to seek a charter from
the legislature.
THE legislature granted Tampa
this first corporate charter on Dec.
Is, 1855-and thus gave Tampans
of 1855 the occasion for a Centen-
NAL Jubilee!
1.-THE year 1855 also brought the
third Seminole war two more
years of Indian fighting against the
handful of Seminoles remaining in
the 'Glades.
"Bvt a greater struggle was
ahead-the War Between the
States, Tampa was blockaded,'
bomb rded and finally invaded
by Federal forces out Of Key
West, and the towns economic
life was for a time destroyed.
"The last three decades of the
10th Century brought the upswing
of Tampa's S fortunes. A flourishing
cattle trade with Cuba developed,
which pumped new money into all
South Florida.
incidentally, an English musi-
clan, J. A. Butterfield, composed
When You and l were Young Mag
gle. while in Tampa, and organlz-
ed the towns first brass band.
"A progressive Tampa group
oraanized q community telegraph
company in order to string line
from Tampa to Fort Meade, 40
miles away. where il could con-
meet with international Ocean
Cable company's trunk line run
ming down through the state TO
Key West and Havana.
lone thing was needed, rail-
road. And Henry Bradley Plant,
founder of the Southern Express
Company, brought that to Tampa
in 1888, 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
worlds richest phosphate fields
we're discovered near Tampa. An
the cigar industry moved in, under
the joint sponsorship of the cham
Der of commerce, known then as
the Board of Trade, and Vicente
Martinez Ybor, of Spain, Cuba ana
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. Senior
Ybor was invited by friend, Ga
vino Gutierrez. a New York i'm
porter, to take a look at Tampa.
The result: Ybor City sprang up al
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 100000 cigars every
working day.