The Great Fire of Thanksgiving 1905 Arcadia, Florida

On March 4, 1886, the Florida Southern Railroad had arrived in the small community of Arcadia (48 miles east of Sarasota) with its first passenger train. Construction of the Charlotte Harbor Railway began on July 17, 1885 in Bartow, the county seat of Polk County, along a route surveyed that summer under the supervision of Albert W. Gilchrist. On September 19, 1885, the roadbed was extended to Fort Ogden (the largest town in what was then Manatee County) and by Christmas of 1885, Fort Meade was anticipating the arrival of its first train. Due to unmitigated circumstances, the train did not service Fort Odgen until July 7, 1886, leading settlers to Arcadia instead. 
 
Originally known as Tater Hill Bluff, the small community was later renamed Arcadia by Reverend James M. Hendry, after the daughter of his friend Thomas H. Albritten. On November 19, 1883, Arcadia received its first US Post Office. By the time the Florida Southern Railroad had arrived, Arcadia had only sixteen families in the surrounding vicinity. Canter Brown notes in his book Peace River Frontier, “By October (1886) the town had about 40 dwelling houses, mostly two stories and about ten more being erected…four general stores, general merchandise, all doing a rushing business; three boarding houses, all doing a good business and still many campfires can be seen in town.” 
 
On December 6, 1886, Arcadia became an incorporated city and by November of 1888, it had become the county seat of Desoto County replacing the town of Pine Level. In the last decade of 19th century, Desoto County was considered to be as violent and dissolute as the Wild West. Gunfights endured on Arcadia’s main street and in 1892 the town had corroborated its first lynching of Walter Austin, strung up by an angry mob. Cattle rustling, shootings, and murders were frequent.
 

By the late 1890’s, Arcadia was gaining a reputation as home to some of the wealthiest and most progressive citizens in Desoto County and coming in second to Punta Gorda in population. Wood-framed cypress and heart pine buildings built during the boom of the 1880’s and 1890’s dominated the commercial business district. Arcadia did not have a public water system or fire fighting provisions. On November 30, 1905, Thanksgiving day, forty-three buildings in the business district would be consumed by fire causing over $250,000 in damage. Only three buildings would survive the devastating fire: the D.T. Carlton Building (built in 1899), the William Seward Building (constructed in 1900), and the First National Bank of Arcadia established in 1900.
 

In George Lane Jr.'s The Day Arcadia Burned he writes: "Arcadia's only newspaper, The DeSoto County News, was also a victim of the flames. Their offices and printing press had perished but it didn't prevent the newspaper editor from ‘reporting the news.’ He [the editor] boarded the first train north to Zolfo Springs and went to the offices of the Zolfo Springs Advertiser where he published an extra edition, the DeSoto County News on December 1, 1905 and reported Arcadia's losses, dismay and shock."

The newspaper stated the following:

ARCADIA FIRE SWEPT - Quarter of a Million Dollars Worth of Property Destroyed Including Nearly Every Business House in the City - The Desoto County News, Arcadia, Florida,  December 1, 1905.
 
Today (Friday), Arcadia presents a scene of ruin and desolation rarely ever visited upon a city. Where yesterday stood substantial business houses well filled with merchandise now repose a bed of smoldering ashes. 
 
Today, businessmen who were yesterday counted financially strong are again poor and are preparing to again begin life after a few short hours' ravages of the fire fiend. About 8:30 last night fire was discovered enveloping a small stable in the rear of Gore & Scott's store, and, in about three hours, nearly every business house in the city and several residences were in ruins. 
 
The fire had gained considerable headway before it was discovered; and, assisted by a strong wind blowing toward the main business houses of the town, soon communicated the flames to Gore & Scott's store and it was soon seen that, with no effective means of fighting the flames at hand, the town was doomed. Gore & Scott's big building was soon a mass of roaring flames and, in a few minutes, had ignited the buildings west across the street and the buildings adjoining on the east. From there the fire rapidly swept east two blocks on each side of Oak Street to the railroad and south one block to and including the "DeSoto County News" building and three residences south across the street. Here the flames were finally checked at Heard & Reynolds' packing house after a fierce fight. In all forty-three buildings were burned, all excepting three being business buildings. 
  
Dynamite was used in a number of places in effort to check the flames but all efforts along this line failed, and every hand was turned to saving goods in the various stores. The only buildings saved in the path of the flames were the First National Bank Building, Seward's store and the Carlton Block, all being substantial brick buildings. The total loss on buildings, fixtures, and merchandise was estimated at close to $250,000, probably one-fourth of which was covered by insurance. 
  
The following is a list of the losers, but at this hour an accurate estimate of the loss of each individual cannot be made: 
 
F. Morqus, jewelry; F. Morqus, shoes and harness; C.C. Wheatly Co., paints and paper; J.J. Hendry, meats and groceries; Lee Gibbs, barber shop; L.D. Harley, merchant tailor; A.G. Frederetre, jewler; Thad Carlton, harness and saddlery; J.W. Craig, livery stable; DeSoto County News; W.H. Seward, warehouse; D.T. Carlton, damages to building; Arcadia Mercantile Co., damage to stock; Dr. D.G. Barnett, damage to dental outfit; Arcadia Electric Light, Ice, & Telephone Co.; Jake Wey, warehouse; W.F. Espenlaub, meats and building; J.M. Lanier, fruits and confectionery; F.S. Gore, two store buildings; R.E. Whidden, building. 
 

Many years later, Mrs. Kate Appleby told this story about the Arcadia fire in her 1978 interview: "It seems just like yesterday, I was just a girl but something like the big fire, you don't forget. It was a horrible night which lasted, it seemed, a very long time and destroyed so much of our town." She also noted, "Since so much [sic] we needed was lost in the fire, supplies had to be shipped in by rail from Wauchula, Bartow, Ft. Ogden, Punta Gorda and other Florida cities, to help us out." She continued, "it was like only a few days before new brick and stone buildings were being built on the ruins."
 
In fact, many of the buildings in the business district imprint the date of 1906 on the tops of the buildings as evidence and as testimony to rebuilding after the great fire.  The Old Opera House (circa 1906) was one of the first to be rebuilt at the original location of its wooden counterpart. To the west of Oak Street remain many of the older wood-framed boom-town architecture of the 1880's and 90's, including the Mourning Jones House circa 1892, Thomas Gaskin Sr. House circa 1886, Micajah Singleton home circa 1889, The Parker house circa 1895, and the The Old St. Edmonds Episcopal Church circa 1897.

The Ghost Town of Pine Level, Florida

The first government surveys were conducted near the Peace River Valley in 1849. Settlers began to move to the interior along rivers and creeks, with the majority of development occurring in the coastal areas. Manatee County was created on January 9, 1855, and within its borders it contained 5,000 square miles extending from the Gulf of Mexico to Lake Okeechobee. The small Village of Manatee, one mile east of present day Bradenton, was chosen as the county seat. By 1860 the population was 854.

Early settlers in eastern Manatee County soon protested that the Village of Manatee was unsuitably located since some settlers had to travel the full width of the county to visit the courthouse. Representatives where appointed by the Manatee County Commission to select a central terminal for the new county seat. On April 29, 1866 a plot of land in the SW Quarter, Section 22, Township 378, Range 23E, was proposed by the representatives as the designated county seat and given the name “Pine Level.” The proposal was approved and county seat was moved to Pine Level. It must not be overlooked that the county seat was possibly relocated from the Village of Manatee since it was considered to be the “center of Rebel thinking” in an era during the Civil War. Thus moving the government to the neutral interior of the state, and specifically to Pine Level, may have been a reconstruction ploy to punish Confederate sympathizers.

The new courthouse played a central role in Pine Level’s history and demise. The following are specifications for the first courthouse built at Pine Level on May 29, 1866 according to George Lane Jr.’s research in his Arcadia & Desoto County: “One log house, 20 feet square in the cleaved 10-foot story with a room added to the end, 20 feet by 10 feet, with a partition through the room making two 10-foot Jury Rooms to be cased with 2 foot hart [sic] pine or cypress board and floored with planked or hyghed puncheon boards. One door in each side and two windows to be case and faced with shutters. The house to be furnished with one table, 2 feet by 8 feet long, 22 10-foot benches, 1 box bench for the Judge.” The courthouse would later be secured with locks and enlarged.

This first courthouse was destroyed by fire, a second courthouse would succumb to the Great Hurricane of 1878, and the third would later become the residence of Mr. D.W. Mizell. Joseph Herman Simpson notes in his book The History of Manatee County: “The courthouse was constructed of small peeled unhewn logs. There were a few inches of sawdust put on the floor and the suffering people had to endure from fleas…was almost unbearable. It was said to be the worst courthouse in Florida.”

John H. Bartholf, a Captain in the Union Army during the Civil War, was Pine Level’s first appointed postmaster in 1871. In 1876, Bartholf tried to annul the ballots in the Tilden-Hayes presidential election by resigning his position as court clerk. Joshua Gates and Ziba King were authorized to pick up the ballot report, but Bartholf refused, as he had no authority to release it. King and Gates forced Bartholf at gunpoint to sign the report which Gates and King then sent to Tallahassee. In Louise Frisbie’s Peace River Pioneers she writes: “A subsequent attempt to investigate this incident ended at the county line, where a group of armed Democrats met the committee. The delegation found it expedient not to pursue the matter.”

By the 1880’s, Pine Level could claim a courthouse, a jail, two churches, dry goods stores, a sawmill, a cattle brokerage, a real estate brokerage, a drug store, boarding houses, a restaurant, a school house, a post office, warehouses, a newspaper, and many homes and several saloons. Saloons out numbered other businesses 14 to 1 and Saturday night was a host for lawlessness, gambling, drinking and shootings. Charles Hagan, raised on the town’s main street said: “We had the wild west right here. Tombstone, Abilene and Deadwood had nothing on us! We probably had more blood spilled right here in Pine Level than in all the Seminole Indian Wars combined…” An unknown settler was once quoted, “they’d kill a man for Christmas!”

In the spring of 1884, a group of men organized the secret Sarasota Vigilance Committee, which they first described as a political fraternity. The gang included a total of twenty-two men consisting of local farmers, planters, storekeepers, and cowboys. The New York Times called them the "notorious Sarasota Assassination Society." The Sarasota gang made Pine Level their headquarters where they ransacked banks, terrorized land speculators and new settlers in the area.

On March of 1885, twenty members of the infamous Sarasota vigilantes were captured and prosecuted by Sheriff A.S. Watson. There were only nine men to stand trial; eleven had escaped. James Warnke purports in his book Ghost Towns of Florida that “at the time, the courthouse was not finished due to lack of funds. The jail was so flimsy that it leaked prisoners like a sieve.” Reporters from New York, Boston and Chicago endured the heat and fleas to cover one of the most bewildering court cases as the gang was tried for the murders of Harrison Riley and Charles E Abbes, a Sarasota postmaster.

Of those tried, Charles B.Willard and Joseph C. Anderson were convicted; however, one of them escaped from a hole in the jailhouse roof, leaving behind a thank you note. The others were released after only serving three years of a life sentence. By 1892, all of the Sarasota gang members were free.

In 1886, The Florida Southern Railroad was built from Bartow to Arcadia on the east side of the Peace River, but the town of Pine Level was passed by. Residents of the Village of Manatee and the surrounding area were pressuring legislators to create a new, smaller Manatee County. On May 10, 1887, Desoto County was created from Manatee County. Pine Level remained the county seat until November of 1888 when Arcadia received this designation. George Lane notes in his book Arcadia & Desoto County that “Pine Level began its decline into a farming village, diminishing in importance and population.”

Today, what remains of Pine Level are scattered bricks from the chimney of the old courthouse, the Pine Level Campground Cemetery (dating back to the town’s inception in 1850), and the Methodist Church (organized in 1868 and the oldest in Desoto County). Across Pine Level Road, the old hanging tree remains commemorating the location where justice was once dispensed behind the courthouse.

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The Lynching of Fred Rochelle: Bartow, Florida, May 28, 1901

Information about the lynching of Fred Rochelle is scarcely documented, as very few cases of this type of punishment never reached the courts. This fact is not surprising, as Southern White newspapers helped mold together the racist disquisitions of the times.

Rena Smith Taggart, the 26 year-old wife of baker, Ed Taggart, was a descendent from one of Bartow’s first families. Her grandfather was Streaty Parker, who came to the area in 1851 with his father-in-law, Reading Blount. On May 28, 1901, Rena Smith Taggart was killed near the Peace River Bridge; her body was found lying in the swamp, covered in mud and water. Her throat had been allegedly cut.

The Bartow Courier-Informant reported, “From the innumerable stabs in her throat and breast, the horrible bruises on her body and limbs, it is evident a desperate struggle ensued.” A black man had witnessed 16 year-old Fred Rochelle (who was also black) with the body, and immediately alerted several Whites about the murder. A manhunt for Rochelle was hereupon initiated with no particular concern for the law.

On May 29, 1901, the Bartow Courier-Informant reported, “While there is an air of quiet determination about the men of the community, there is no undue excitement apparent and it’s safe to say cool judgment prevails.” The newspaper’s headline read the following:

BLACK BRUTE’S HEINOUS CRIME! A Well Known White Woman Murdered Near Peace River Bridge – Men scouring County – Lynching Almost Certain – Wednesday, Bartow Courier-Informant May 29, 1901
Another article from the Bartow Courier-Informant a week later stated the following:

BURNED AT THE STAKE – Rochelle Meets Death at Hands of Mob - Taken from the Scene of the Crime – Placed on a Hogshead, Coal Poured On and Match Touched – Mob Quiet But Determined. Bartow Courier-Informant June 5, 1901
The article continued: "Fred Rochelle, the fiend who outraged, tortured and stabbed to death Mrs. Taggart on Tuesday morning of last week, was not captured until late Wednesday afternoon. Several colored men had voluntarily joined in the search and, though he had been seen by several persons, both white and colored, at various points, they had not at the time known of his fiendish crime.”

“Three colored men, Max Bruton, James Alexander and James Hodge, were going to their work about three miles southwest of town, when Rochelle called to them and asked if that was not Bruton who said, ‘Yes, come over here, Fred, I want to talk to you.’ Rochelle approached and in answer to questions, told the awful story, but, when he found the men intended to arrest him he broke and ran. Two of them gave chase while Hodge, not believing the other two could catch Rochelle, jumped on his wheel and started to town to give the alarm. But, after a long chase, Bruton and Alexander caught the brute, and intended to bring him in when two young white men came along and they turned him over to them.”

"The young men brought the prisoner to town where a crowd of cool headed, but determined citizens took charge of him, despite the sheriff and his deputies. In the presence of the throng, he answered the questions put to him as cool and unconcerned as though the matter was an everyday occurrence, detailing the awful crime in a perfectly unmoved way. To the credit of this community, it should be remembered that the whole affair was conducted so quietly that those living three blocks away heard nothing of it.”

"After due deliberation, it was decided to take him to the scene of his hideous crime. As they passed his victim's home, her stepfather asked that further action be deferred until the men who had been scouring the country could get back, most of them having already been notified by telephone. The crowd consented, and at about 7 o'clock he was placed upon a hogshead filled with inflammatory material, and chained to the trunk of a tree. Around the hogs head, light wood was piled, but it was a few minutes past 8 when coal oil was poured over the pile. The Negro, who maintained his utter indifference, saying he knew he was going to hell, at last, asked if he was ready he said, ‘All right,’ and the husband of his victim touched a lighted match to the pile, there was a burst of flame, and in eight minutes there was only a charred mass to tell the tale. Awestruck, the throng turned homeward, and by midnight the town was as peaceful as ever, and ever since has been trying to forget."

The Bartow Courier-Informant’s reporting demonstrates a very common portrayal of lynching as a justified punishment such that the victim's family participated in the very punishment itself. Moreover, one can note the insinuating remarks in the Bartow Courrier-Informant’s headline, “Lynching Almost Certain," which would entail punishment by a mob of people taking justice into their own hands. However, the body of the text states, “there is no undue excitement apparent and it’s safe to say cool judgment prevails,” thus conveying that there is no public outcry occurring and that legal, hence, "cool" justice will be sought.

It should be noted that some crucial elements leading to a lynching in the 19th century often described a colored man carrying out a crime on a white man or woman, public outrage, and frontier justice; however, this sort of violence was not a common practice in Polk County. Cantor Brown writes in his, In the Midst of All That Makes Life Worth Living that “Polk for the most part--with the possible exception of the Mulberry vicinity--has [had] resisted this trend (mob violence) from the early 1870’s until 1901, when a Bartow mob lynched accused rapist/murderer Fred Rochelle, hanging then burning him alive…”

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The Battle of Peace River

In this article we will examine the events that led to the ambush by Seminole Indian, Chief Oscen Tustenuggee and a group of 15 Indians on the Willoughby Tillis Homestead 1 ½ miles south of Fort Meade. In 1854, the US government instituted laws to break the morale of the remaining Indians to facilitate their emigration to, what was then, Arkansas. Trade between the Indians was banned and white settlers were encouraged to move further into Indian Territory.

By the fall of 1855, a general council of nearly all Florida Indians was held near the site of the 1837 battle of Okeechobee. Concerns, tension, and resentment over the white settlers ran ramped and all favored war except Tallahassee Chief Echo Emathla Chopco, which resulted in his banishment from the Indian Nation.

On December 1855, Lieutenant George L. Hartsuff and a group of six men led a survey company in the Big Cypress Swamp to assess the lands. Hartsuff found Seminole Chief Billy Bowlegs’ most cherished banana grove and destroyed it. Billy Bowlegs demanded compensation from Hartsuff and was physically accosted by the Lieutenant. The following morning, Bowlegs and thirty warriors ambushed Hartsuff’s camp, killing four soldiers and wounding Hartsuff. This was catalyst of the Third Seminole Indian War.

Within days, the Indians had ravaged and plundered many plantations on the Manatee River including the Braden Castle owned by Dr. Joseph Addison Braden. A wagon train was attacked in what is now Hillsborough County, as well as the Willoughby Tillis Homestead near Fort Meade. On June 14th, Mrs. Tillis, along with her two sons and a Negro servant named Line, discovered a band of Indians near their cow pen crouching behind the fence. While the Indians shot their rifles, missing their human targets in a shuffle of agitated cows, luckily, the Tillis family was able to escape.

Thomas Underhill, Mr. Tillis’ neighbor, along with Tillis himself and his eldest son, Lafeyette, fired at the attacking Indians through small openings in the wall near the brick chimney, while the heavy logs gave protection from the oncoming gunfire. Nearby, a boy heard the shots and quickly ran towards Fort Meade to report the incident. Lt. Alderman Carlton swiftly ordered six volunteers to immediately mount their horses and aid the family. On this quest was his son Daniel Carlton as well as John C Oats, William Parker, William McCullough, Henry Hollingsworth, and Lott Whidden.

Mr. Tillis had warned the soldiers they were outnumbered by the Indians. By this point, the Indians had reorganized and fled, but the soldiers relentlessly pursued them. Within minutes, Lieutenants Carlton, William Parker and Lott Whidden were killed. Hollingsworth was severely injured. An Indian perished after McCullough and (Daniel) Carlton cut his throat with his own knife (the Indian had killed Lieutenant Alderman Carlton).

Daniel Carlton, wounded in the right arm, journeyed off to get help in Fort Fraser, 15 miles to the north, situated between modern-day Bartow and Lakeland. Capitan F.M. Durrance, Mrs. Tillis’ brother, left Fort Fraser along with fifty men to help the Tillis family. By the time they arrived, the Indians had already fled the scene.

A second skirmish occurred two days later at the banks of the Peace River. Two solders were killed and many others were injured. Captain W.B. Hooker, Commander of Company M (a group of Florida volunteers at Horse Creek), estimated that twenty Indians were killed and six wounded.

Reactions among settlers were exceedingly bitter over this encounter and a bounty on Indians was consequently announced in a Tampa newspaper. Louise K. Fresbie noted in her book Peace River Pioneers: “On being delivered captive to Fort Brooke or Fort Myers, a [an Indian] warrior would be worth $250 to $500; a woman, $150-$200; a child, $100 to $200.”

The following year, Indian resistance was deflated when a company commanded by Capitan John Parkhill attacked their main defense sector near Ten Thousand Islands. Parkhill was killed; however, Colonel George Rogers along with 300 men defeated the Indians and the war was over. On May 7, 1858, a steamer departed from Egmont Key with 175 Indians aboard bound for Oklahoma and the reservations they struggled so vehemently to avoid.

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Kennedy-Darling Indian trading post at Hatse Lotka

Many people who think of Florida tend to think of palm trees, sandy beaches and tourists. Florida is one of the most visited states in the country; however, many people do not know its true origin as a Southern State. Florida was granted statehood on March 3rd, 1845 becoming the 27th state of the United States of America. Almost half of its population were slaves from the coastal areas of Georgia and the Carolinas. In the 1850's, white settlers had been encroaching on lands occupied by the Seminoles. Increased Army presence and the building of forts strategically located to protect white settlers caused many hostilities. This article will concentrate on one of these hostile situations.

Fort Chokonikla is a Seminole word for "burnt house." In 1849, Captain George Payne had built a large two-story log store, a wharf and a wooden bridge in what would later be named Paynes Creek. The store was called the Kennedy-Darling Indian trading post and was well patronized by the Seminoles.
"Every Indian received a present of one quart of whiskey," was written in the diary of Indian Agent J.C. Casey, as noted in Canter Brown's Florida Peace River Frontier. George Payne had a strong dislike for whiskey and after taking control of the store, he would no longer give whiskey to the Indians.

While expecting to be offered a quart of whiskey (which Florida law prohibited), and the interdiction of their right to frequent the store, the Indians shot dead Captain Payne and Dempsey Whidden (an employee). William McCullough (a clerk) was shot in the shoulder and leg, but he managed to flee the building with his wife Nancy. Two fugitive Indians and Echo Emathla Chopco a Tallahassee chief continued firing at them, though they made it over a bridge escaping into darkness.

Days later the store was burnt to the ground leaving behind the incinerated remains of Captain Payne and Dempsey Whidden. After the massacre, the Indians left a blatant statement for future settlers: an untouched barrel of whiskey. Hatse Lotka creek would later be named Paynes Creek in honor of Captain Paynes’ sacrifice and would become the future site of Fort Chokonikla. The Fort began on October 26, 1849, which was part of General Twiggs' impressive line of fortifications but was abandoned on July 18th 1850, after he had ordered the closing of most of the surrounding forts.

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