Historic Lee County

HISTORIC
LEE COUNTY
The Story of Fort Myers &
Southwest Florida
By Pamela Sustar
Edited by Matt Johnson
A publication of the
Southwest Florida Museum of History Foundation, Inc.

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HISTORIC
LEE COUNTY
The Story of Fort Myers &
Southwest Florida
By Pamela Sustar
Edited by Matt Johnson
Commissioned by the
Southwest Florida Museum
of History Foundation, Inc.
Historical Publishing Network
A division of Lamert Incorporated
San Antonio, Texas

Our history here in Lee County is a rich one, filled with facts and tales passed down through the ages of battles won and lost, fortunes
made, discoveries of ancient civilizations, and the rough and tumble grit of the men and women who came and settled here. Some may
disagree with what lies herein whether it be fact or fiction, but all will be mesmerized by the story that is Lee County.
First Edition
Copyright © 2008 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, 11555 Galm Road, Suite 100, San Antonio, Texas, 78254. Phone (800) 749-9790.
ISBN: 9781893619876
Library of Congress Card Catalog Number: 2008929460
Historic Lee County: The Story of Fort Myers and Southwest Florida
author: Pam Sustar
editor: Matt Johnson
cover artist: Marcus Antonius Jansen
contributing writers for “Sharing the Heritage”: Susan Cumins
Doris Kraus
Historical Publishing Network
president: Ron Lammert
project managers: Joe and Robin Neely
administration: Donna M. Mata
Melissa Quinn
book sales: Dee Steidle
production: Colin Hart
Craig Mitchell
Charles A. Newton, III
Roy Arellano
Evelyn Hart
HISTORIC LEE
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CONTENTS
4 CHAPTER 1 before the discovery
9 CHAPTER 2 the beginning of Lee County
18 CHAPTER 3 growth of Fort Myers
23 CHAPTER 4 transportation history of southwest Florida.
27 CHAPTER 5 the other side of the river
31 CHAPTER 6 Lee County’s barrier islands
35 CHAPTER 7 other communities in Lee County
38 CHAPTER 8 sports history of Lee County
43 CHAPTER 9 aviation in Lee County
51 EPILOGUE
52 BIBLIOGRAPHY
53 SHARING THE HERITAGE
84 SPONSORS
85 ABOUT THE AUTHOR
85 ABOUT THE EDITOR
86 ABOUT THE COVER
CONTENTS
3

CHAPTER I
B EFORE THE D ISCOVERY
✧
Juan Ponce De Leon.
Long before any European gazed upon the shores of today’s Lee County, the Calusa Indians lived and
loved and constructed their villages of palms and shell and fished the waters. They inhabited the area
for possibly four thousand years before being discovered or written about by European settlers in the
early 1500s.
The Calusa, nicknamed “The Shell Indians”, were the ruling tribe of the Florida peninsula,
feared by other smaller, subordinate tribes in the territory. Their name “Calusa” presumably came
from a digression of the real name “Calos” which is said to be an abbreviation for the Choctaw
words kala lu-sa, meaning strong and black. Fontaneda, a Spaniard taken captive around the age
of thirteen and held by the Calusa for seventeen years, called the chief of the tribe “Carlos”, i.e. the
real name of the tribe “Calos” without the “r,” which more than likely, was not his actual name, but
sounded that way in Fontaneda’s Spanish language. The meaning of “Carlos,” according to
Fontaneda, was “brave and skillful, as indeed the Carlos Indians were.” From the chief’s name we
have derived San Carlos Bay, Big Carlos Pass, and Little Carlos Pass.
Tales told of the reputation of the Calusa have been conflicting, some depicting them as ruthless,
bloodthirsty warriors who sacrificed their captives, be them tribal enemies or Christians, by
cutting off their heads and presenting them to one of their three deities. Yet others have told of the
fairness of Carlos. One story tells of Christian captives being put to death at the hands of their
guards without reason. When brought to Carlos’ attention, he recognized the captives were not
being obstinate when not following orders; they merely did not understand the Calusa language.
Chief Carlos proclaimed no captives would be ordered to do anything unless an interpreter was
present, thus saving many captives’ lives.
The Calusa were a indeed a tribe with a vicious reputation, yet they were a people with a beautiful
artistic side as well. Artifacts have been found of intricately carved statues of animals and
HISTORIC LEE
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wooden masks. Among the most famous artifacts
discovered was a statuette of a panther or
cat, named “Marco Cat”, unearthed in 1896
by archaeologist Frank Hamilton Cushing and
now on display at the Smithsonian museum.
It is speculated that the Calusa had the opportunity
to delve into such intricate work due to
the abundant food supply in the estuaries,
and thus less time was spent in search of sustenance
and more in creative expression.
Unlike Indians in other areas, they were not
agricultural; they existed instead on fish, shellfish,
and game. This, of course, made them quite
adept at making fishing nets, using hooks, and
creating devices for entrapment. The Calusa
were mainly seafaring people using many different
types of boats, including sailing canoes,
which were tied together in a catamaran style,
traveling as far as Cuba and possibly the Yucatan
peninsula. A theory of the disappearance of the
small remnant of Calusa that remained after
being ravaged by Spanish slave traders and diseases
was of them fleeing in their sailing canoes
to the far side of the Gulf of Mexico.
The most renown legacy the Calusa left
behind were the shell mounds, some enormous
in size, as was the nineteen-foot temple mound
located where Old Marco Village in today’s
Collier County. The most amazing aspect of
these mounds was the amount of work and
manpower it took to move and place the millions
of cubic yards of shell. Some find it hard
to believe it was possible. We do not know if
this was a volunteer effort or slave labor, but
we do know that it must have taken a powerful
central authority to accomplish such a task.
These shell mounds served as domiciles,
temple sites, dwelling places for their chiefs,
burial and refuse mounds, among other uses.
Some of these mounds still stand today
throughout Southwest Florida and are preserved
on Pine Island, which may have been
the location of the Calusa’s capital city. The
Randell Research Center includes a 3,700-foot
interpretive walkway that leads through the
mounds, canals, and other features of the
Pineland “live” archaeological excavation site.
The Calusa discovered many wrecks of
Spanish trade ships washed upon their shores
filled with treasure, silver, gold, precious
gems, which, in the beginning, did not
interest the Indians at all. They found the
tools, clothing and food to be of much more
value. The Spanish shipwrecks were so
numerous the Calusa lost track through the
years of just how many there had been. The
origin of the Spanish ships was unknown to
the Calusa and also of little concern. What the
Calusa did not realize was the intention of the
Spaniards to take over the Florida peninsula,
which ultimately became their demise.
Some of the beached shipwrecks held survivors.
We do not know how the Calusa treated
the captives they found, but it is known
many escaped or were traded to the Spanish
for Indian captives One thing was certain, the
Calusa hated the Spaniards and took captive
or killed as many as they could find.
The Spanish efforts to protect their trade
routes and their treasure brought about the introduction
of Pedro Menendez de Aviles, a ruthless
man known as a great fighter and leader. During
his travels toward Southwest Florida, he massacred
many men, women, and children in numerous
ports all in the name of Spain.
In February 1566 Menendez’s party sighted
land close to the mouth of the
Caloosahatchee River. While searching for a
harbor, Menendez spotted a canoe carrying a
tanned, almost naked man speaking in
Spanish and welcoming the Spaniards. He
✧
Pedro Menendez De Aviles.
CHAPTER I
5

✧
Top, left: Seminole Chief William
“Billy” Bowlegs.
Top, right: Seminole Chief Holata Micco,
known as Billy Bowlegs.
Below: Seminole Chief Osceola.
told of being captured from a Spanish ship
along with eleven others. This was the beginning
of the strange tale of the interaction of
Menendez and Carlos, chief of the Calusa.
In their negotiations, Carlos released several
Spanish captives and gave Menendez his sister
as his wife, which was the first known “marriage
of convenience” occurring in America.
Although Menendez tried to convert the
Indians to Christianity, Carlos and his people
were not impressed with the message or what
they had seen of the practice of Christianity.
Menendez left the harbor he had named
“San Anton”, but did not forget the area;
instead he ordered one of his captains,
Francisco de Reinoso, to go and establish a
fort there and search for a cross-state waterway.
The relations between the Spaniards and
the Calusa were strained to say the least. The
Spaniards eventually tricked Carlos into coming
to the San Anton fort, where he and 20 of
his men were captured and put to death.
By December of 1568, the Spaniards had
slaughtered numerous Calusa chiefs. The
Calusa in their retaliation had isolated the
Spaniards in their fort, forcing them to abandon
the fort and mission due to starvation. For
roughly a century after the Spaniards departure,
the Calusa lived in peace and flourished.
As the years passed, the Calusa once again
returned to their way of life. During this time,
they reached their peak in population and
made their greatest strides in culture. The day
was coming when they would see their first
Spanish trader since the days of Menendez. He
arrived with his family and he came in peace.
Surprisingly, the Calusa had no fear of him,
realizing he was just as he appeared. This time
their encounter with the Spanish was a nonviolent
one; a business relationship profitable for
both parties. This was the beginning of an era
of successful trade and improved relationships
between the Calusa and the Spaniards.
With tensions all but nonexistent,
Lieutenant Juan Rodriguez de Cartayo on a
peace mission from St. Augustine, arrived in
1612. He was greeted by more than sixty
canoes filled with men and women welcoming
him to their town. His hope was to send
monks to the Calusa to “Christianize” them.
This hope was never was realized. The Calusa
had had their fill of missionaries and wished
to live and let live. Even though missionary
efforts in 1680 and 1697 were met with opposition
and turned away, the Calusa continued
to welcome Spanish traders.
Unbeknownst to the Spanish or the Calusa,
the threat the Spanish visitors presented was
not that of a vicious attack, but something
much more insidious. They brought diseases—white
man’s diseases; small pox,
measles, tuberculosis, and yellow fever. This
was the beginning of the decline of the Calusa.
Their decline was hastened by the arrival of
the English slave traders, just as ruthless as the
Spanish before them. Between the epidemics
and the slave traders the once proud and
strong Calusa tribe was all but extinguished. It
has been told the few that remained fled for
Cuba or the Yucatan Peninsula, or hid deep
within the swamps of the Everglades.
THE SEMINOLE TRIBE
While the most numerous Indian tribe in
the area had been the Calusa, the Seminole
presence was also felt here in Southwest
Florida. Contrary to popular belief, the
Seminole were not native to Florida. They
migrated here from Georgia, Alabama, and
South Carolina, and were previously known
as the Creek Indians. In addition to the
Creeks, the Seminole tribe included Yuchis,
HISTORIC LEE
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Yamasses, and Chocktaws. Their numbers
increased with runaway slaves who sought
refuge with the Indians. The term “Seminole”
is a derivative of “cimarron,” which means
“wild men” in Spanish.
The Seminole Indians during the First and
Second Seminole Wars had been pushed farther
and farther south down the Florida
peninsula. The Macomb Treaty of 1838 stated
the Indians should stop fighting and in
exchange would be allowed to remain below
the Peace River and Lake Okeechobee, which
gave them free use of the old canoe trails
through the Everglades. The war was declared
finished, except the attacks continued.
In July 1839, the Seminole attacked a small
detachment of soldiers guarding a trading post
at Harney Point (city of Cape Coral today).
In May 1841, General Worth took command
of the army and at once sent parties into
every swamp and hammock where the Indians
might be found. The army even resorted to
using bloodhounds, with poor results.
The unrest became even more apparent with
the admission of the territory of Florida as the
twenty-seventh state of the Union in 1845.
There was no more than a restless foreboding
here in Southwest Florida until 1848, when
Congress passed a bill granting to the state of
Florida “all lands, lakes, and water courses south
of the established survey.” The Indians protested
this invasion of their territory, which the United
States had given them. The answer they were
given was “Go west and we will give you gold for
each man, woman, and child—$250 for a warrior,
lesser amounts for the others”.
Once the bill was signed and the interior
lands officially belonged to the state of Florida,
Governor Thomas Brown immediately called
for the removal of the Seminoles and all Florida
Indians. An elaborate plan was set into motion
to encroach on Indian land surveying farther
and farther south, sending scouting parties
deep in to the Everglades. In order to protect
the advancing settlements a series of Fort were
construct along the borders of the Everglades.
On February 15, 1850, an order came from
headquarters at Fort Brooke (Tampa) establishing
the post, Fort Myers, by Major General
Twiggs. When completed, the fort consisted
of 57 buildings, including a $30,000 hospital.
The fort extended from the foot of what is
today Hough Street, in a half-circle to Second
Street, and back to the edge of the
Caloosahatchee River at Monroe Street in
what is today’s downtown Fort Myers.
The Seminoles, the only Indian tribe who
never officially surrendered to the U.S.,
successfully resisted removal and did so
fiercely. The U.S. Army became so frustrated
with the resistance and successes of the
Seminoles tactics, they resorted to deception to
capture the famous chief, Osceola, under the
guise of a meeting on peace.
By 1855 only five hundred Seminole
remained in Florida, managing to hideout in the
Everglades. The Third, and last, Seminole War,
was fought against a remnant of Seminole under
the leadership of yet another well-known chief,
Chief Billy Bowlegs. He eluded capture until his
beloved granddaughter and other women and
children were held hostage. It was only then Billy
Bowlegs brought his band of followers out of
✧
Above: A map of the 1839 treaty of the U.S.
and Seminoles. granting lands south of
Caloosahatchee to Seminoles.
Below: A map of U.S. forts established
along the Caloosahatchee during the
Seminole Wars.
CHAPTER I
7

✧
Top, left: Colonel Abraham C. Myers,
c. 1883.
Top, right: General David Twiggs.
Below: Marion Twiggs Myers,
wife of Colonel Myers and daughter
of General Twiggs.
Bottom, right: Fort Myers “Block House”
erected by the US Army in 1856.
ILLUSTRATION FROM FRANK LESLIE’S ILLUSTRATED
NEWSPAPER, OCTOBER 2, 1858.
hiding in the Everglades. He was met by federal
troops in 1858 at what is now known as Billy’s
Creek at the gates of Fort Myers. He and his men
walked into the stockade with dignity and pride.
He boarded the steamer Grey Cloud along with
124 of his followers on their way to an Indian
reservation in the West. Those that remained saw
no further hostilities from the American settlers
and, in fact, would become an essential resource
for the newcomers to the harsh frontier of
Southwest Florida.
The Seminole Tribe today has numerous
reservations in Florida, the nearest to Lee
County is located to the east in Immokalee.
The Indian population as a whole were
treated very poorly by the “white man” who
came and confiscated their land and
butchered their people. Yet today we see in
the Seminole tribe their resourcefulness and
resilience in their successes, for example, the
Seminole Gaming Casino of Immokalee and
the worldwide ownership of The Hard Rock
Cafe and Casinos. The Seminole Tribe of
Florida entered into an agreement with the
U.S. Government in 1957 confirming their
sovereignty over tribal lands and agreeing to
compensation for seized territory.
HISTORIC LEE
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CHAPTER II
T HE B EGINNING O F L EE C OUNTY
The story of Lee County begins with Punta Rassa, a point of land at the mouth of the
Caloosahatchee. Punta Rassa, which translates “flat point” from Spanish, was used as a deepwater
harbor at the southern edge of the Caloosahatchee River by the Calusa Indians, the Spaniards, the
cowboys, and the U.S. military. The first U.S. military post at Punta Rassa was Fort Dulaney, established
in 1837 during the Second Seminole War. In the summer of 1841, Fort Dulaney was expanded
to include barracks, large warehouses, and a hospital, only to be destroyed by a hurricane in
October of that same year. The encampment was forced to move upriver to a less vulnerable site.
The new site, nine miles from the mouth of the river, on a spot of land described as “incredibly free
of mosquitoes” would become Fort Harvie, but it was only used for a short period. The War
Department, believing the long Seminole war was winding down, ordered troops out, and, on March
21, 1842, Fort Harvie was abandoned. Over the next decade, greed played a major role in the propaganda
which led to the third Seminole war. Slave’s owners envisioned a goldmine in the rich mucklands
of the Glades, but first it would have to be drained, and they required wide public support for
such a drastic project. It had to look as if the general public would benefit, not just the slave owners.
They also made sure the public outcry was against giving the Seminole Indians even one foot of
the precious land and to take back what the U.S. Government had already given them.
The propagandists exaggerated whatever misdemeanors and crimes the Seminole committed,
causing more tension and applying more pressure on Congress to either kill every Indian or deport
them from the area.
The final straw was on July 17, 1849, when a white trader was killed by five Indians at his trading
post on the Peace River. Of course, there was no inquiry as to the motive behind the killing
and no mention of Billy Bowlegs punishing the guilty Indians himself.
This is when the War Department ordered General Twiggs to take action. One of the first things
he did was to re-establish the fort on the Caloosahatchee. Major Ridgely, following orders from
General Twiggs, arrived at the site of Fort Harvie on the Caloosahatchee River in February 1850, only
✧
The former commander’s quarters of Fort
Myers, built in 1850. It later became home
to Manuel Gonzales and was the final
remaining fort structure standing until 1937.
CHAPTER II
9

✧
Top, left: Manuel Gonzalez, Fort Myers’
first resident.
Top, right: Francis Asbury Hendry.
Below: A map of the military post of Fort
Myers, established in 1850. It was created
as part of the 1856 U.S. Government
review of spending at Fort Myers.
to find the buildings almost completely
destroyed by fire, supposedly by vengeful
Indians. The site was used to build Fort Myers,
named in honor of Colonel Abraham C. Myers,
General Twiggs future son-in-law. By the late
twentieth century, the footprint of the old fort
became the foundation for downtown Fort
Myers. During the Civil War, the harbors at
Fort Dulaney and Fort Myers were reactivated
by the Union Army as a means to steal and ship
cattle for confederate Florida to Key West and
Cuba. The Union effort to disrupt the Florida
cattle industry was so detrimental to the
Confederate war effort that it could not go
unchallenged. In February 1865, a group of
empowered Cattlemen called the Cattle
Battalion, attacked Fort Myers. The battle was
short, and the fort held. After the war was over,
Fort Myers and Punta Rassa were once again
abandoned, but not for long. Jacob Summerlin,
a former Confederate blockade runner during
the Civil War, moved in. As a young man he
inherited 20 slaves with a value of over $1,000
each. Summerlin, being a cattleman and having
no interest in plantation life, traded the slaves
for six thousand head of cattle. He became one
of the largest cattle owners in the state and
turned the old barracks at Punta Rassa into his
own cattle shipping empire. In the beginning,
he shipped his own cattle to Cuba, but being
an enterprising fellow, he became the middleman,
charging 25 to 50 cents a head for others
to use his cattle pens and wharf.
It was possibly during this time the Florida
nickname, “cracker,” came about. The term
was associated with the cattle herders or cowboys
who would use whips to herd their livestock.
The sound of cracking whips could be
heard for great distances while the cowboys
attempted to keep their herds in line. For several
years, Jacob and his son, Samuel, dominated
the Punta Rassa cattle business, and
even built a “hotel” of their own to provide
lodging for the cattlemen, the Summerlin
House, which stood until 1960. A model of
HISTORIC LEE
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the “hotel” which was constructed from the
original timbers can be seen at the Southwest
Florida Museum of History. In 1867, the
International Ocean and Telegraph Company
came to the area and seized the land and barracks
under the provisions of a Congressional
Act of July 24, 1866, which allowed any telegraph
company “to take and use public land
necessary for the stringing of lines or the
establishment of stations.” Of course, Jacob
Summerlin did not let that setback stop him.
He simply built a much longer, better wharf a
little farther up river using the finest quality
yellow pine (known for it’s durability in such
a harsh environment).
Mr. Summerlin continued building his
empire, incorporating Captain F. A. Hendry’s
cowpens and wharf at Punta Rassa with his own
in 1878 for the purchase price of $10,000.
During the 1880s, George Renton Schultz, a
telegrapher from Newark, New Jersey, in charge
of the telegraph station at Punta Rassa, converted
the unused portion of the barracks into an
inn. The cattle industry was slowing down, and
a new interest entered the picture. Sportsmen
came to fish the waters for Spanish mackerel,
kingfish, channel bass, sea trout, and, of course,
the elusive tarpon. Tarpon fishing became so
popular among his visitors that Schultz’s inn
became known as the Tarpon House.
His winter visitors were to include Charles
B. Hogg of the Standard Oil Company, Hugh
O’Neill, John Jacob Astor, Thomas Edison,
Lieutenant Henn, and W. H. Haldeman, one
of the developers of the city of Naples. The
Hendrys, one of the first families in Lee
County, settled here during the winter of
1872-1873, when Charles, along with his
cousins, Captain F. A. and William M. Hendry,
drove their herds of cattle just south of the
Caloosahatchee. Charles housed his family in
a small cabin near what is now Immokolee
✧
Top, left: Colonel Abraham C. Myers,
c. 1883.
Top, right: Captain Fred Menge, c. 1940.
Below: Captain. F.A. Hendry with Seminole
Indians, c. the 1880s.
CHAPTER II
11

✧
Above: Colonel Abraham Myers, namesake
of Fort Myers.
Below: Jacob Summerlin “King of the
Crackers,” the largest cattle owner in
Southwest Florida.
and would later be Glades County. This is
where tragedy struck the Hendry family. Their
eldest child, six-year-old Esther Ann, fell ill
while Charles was out on the range. He made
it home in time to see his daughter before she
died on May 17, 1873, but the tragedy made
it painfully aware to Charles that living in the
wilderness was taking its toll on his wife.
Residing so far inland just before the turn of
the century, neighbors were located as much
as thirty miles away. Jane Hendry insisted on
relocating to Fort Myers, where she would
have others close by in time of need. Four
days after burying their daughter, the
Hendrys arrived in Fort Myers. This founding
family of Fort Myers in reality were squatters,
taking possession of a small log cabin located
at the edge of Billy’s Creek. The cabin they
moved into, which had been a shelter for
troops during the Seminole War, was small,
only two rooms, but served its purpose as a
temporary shelter. After the hurricane of
October 1873, the Hendrys purchased the
squatter’s right to the area east of what is now
Monroe Street. The relocation of Charles and
his family to the area was the beginning of the
city of Fort Myers, for along with Charles and
Jane Hendry, and their surviving children,
James, Alice and Roean, many more of the
Hendry clan followed; Captain F. A. Hendry
and family, William M. Hendry and family,
Jehu J. Blount, whose wife, Mary Jane, was a
sister of F. A. and William, and Francis J. and
Augustus J. Wilson, nephews of the Hendrys.
In 1873, William M. Hendry, cousin to
Charles, relocated to Fort Myers, rebuilding
an old building on the bank of the
Caloosahatchee River just east of Hendry
Street, and in 1875 erected a larger house on
the same site. During that same year, he
opened a general store with Major Aaron
Frierson, a native of South Carolina who
served in the War Between the States, at the
corner of First and Hendry Streets under the
name of Frierson & Hendry. He became the
first postmaster of “Myers” in 1876, the name
given to Fort Myers by the Post Office
Department. The U.S. Government stated
there was already a town by the name of Fort
Myer in Virginia, and one was enough.
During his lifetime in Fort Myers, William
served three years as postmaster and eighteen
years as clerk of the circuit court, being succeeded
by his son, Henry A. Captain Francis A.
Hendry, cousin to Charles, first visited Fort
Myers as a dispatch bearer in 1854, and came a
year later as a guide for a cavalry company. He
moved his family to Fort Myers in 1873 into
one of the officers’ quarters just east of where
the Royal Palm Hotel was built. F. A. Hendry
became widely known as the cattle king of
South Florida. Before settling in the area,
HISTORIC LEE
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Captain Hendry drove his cattle to the grazing
grounds south of the Caloosahatchee in the Fort
Thompson area in 1870, began shipping steers
to Cuba from Jacob Summerlin’s wharf at Punta
Rassa and a year later. Within one year he had
shipped 12,896 head of cattle. He was also very
well-liked and respected by the Seminole
Indians. When the Seminoles heard Captain
Hendry was dying in 1917, Chief Billy
Conapachee and his brother, Billy Fuel, walked
sixty miles from deep within the Glades to see
him before he died. Captain F. A. Hendry had a
long and active political career and a leading
part in the incorporation of Fort Myers in 1885,
and, along with other big cattlemen of Fort
Myers, was very influential in the formation of
Lee County in 1887. He became known as “The
Father of Fort Myers.” He was elected to serve
on the first town council, and, two years later,
with the creation of Lee County, he was elected
as one of the first county commissioners. He
also served six terms as representative in the
state legislature, representing Lee County from
1893 to 1904. He and his wife had eight children,
and all of their sons followed in their
father’s footsteps serving in public office. James
E. served a term as city treasurer, Louis served
six terms as mayor of Fort Myers, and George
was a state senator. Another of the Hendry clan
was Jehu J. Blount’s wife, Mary Jane Hendry, sister
of Captain F. A. and William Hendry. She
and her husband also moved to Fort Myers in
the fall of 1873, and, shortly after arriving, Jehu
opened a general store across the street from
William Hendry’s store. He went into partnership
with Howell A. Parker, forming the Parker-
Blount firm.
Jehu had been serving for a year or so unofficially
as the postmaster of Fort Myers without
being paid, so, when his brother-in-law,
William, was appointed the first postmaster of
✧
Above: Jehu J. Blount, Fort Myers’ first
(unofficial) postmaster.
Below: A plat of Fort Myers submitted by
James Evan in 1876.
CHAPTER II
13

✧
Above: J. J. Blount’s General Store, on the
northwest corner First and Hendry Streets.
Below: The former officerss quarters at Fort
Myers, occupied by F. A. Hendry in 1870.
Fort Myers, he was angry to say the least. He
and William’s stores were directly across from
each other, and they had always been strong
competitors, so watching potential customers
walking into his rival’s store to pick up their
mail and do their shopping was more than he
could take. With all the political influence
he could muster, he succeeded in having his
own business partner, Howell
A. Parker, appointed as postmaster
when Hendry’s term expired in 1879.
He, then, would reap the benefits of
having the Post Office in his general
store. Mr. Blount was successful in
various business ventures. In company
with Captain Hendry and Frank J.
Wilson, he promoted and built the
first drainage ditch in South Florida,
doing the original work on what later
became known as the Three Mile
Canal between Fort Thompson and
Lake Okeechobee. Jehu Blount was
also one of the founders of the First
Methodist Church, serving many
years as one of its stewards.
Nearing the end of 1873, the residents
of Fort Myers were taken aback
when a newcomer showed up on the
scene announcing he owned all the
land they occupied. His homestead
application for the land was granted
by the government in Gainesville on
December 7. This newcomer was a surveyor
from Suffolk, Virginia, one Major James Evans.
Evans may have been new to the current
residents, but certainly not new to the area. He
had journeyed through this area many times
with surveying crews and knew the surrounding
territory better than anyone with the exception
of the Indians and the Hendrys. Late in
November 1859, Evans, not yet a “major,” was
assigned to a team ordered to survey the
Caloosahatchee region. The team arrived in
December to begin work. During the winter,
their work was interrupted by rumors of
approaching war. His colleagues left for their
home states, but Evans decided to stay to pursue
a lifelong desire to grow tropical fruits and
plants in a balmy, fertile area such as Fort
Myers. Evans realized that once the survey was
completed, the land could then be purchased
from the government, first, by those who had
already settled here. He brought slaves from his
Virginia plantation and planted hundreds of
coconuts, an acre of tropical plants and shrubs,
coffee, and pineapple.
His time in Fort Myers was shortened by his
devotion to his home state of Virginia. Fort
Sumter had been attacked, and war was emi-
HISTORIC LEE
14
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nent. Evans returned to Virginia, where he
defended his home in the Confederate Army
attaining the rank of major. During his
absence, he did not forget about his land on the
Caloosahatchee. He waited for the survey of
the area to be completed, and, on September
30, 1873, applied for homestead, and within
two months had his application approved.
Evans was a beloved man in Fort Myers. Even
though he had every right to force out the squatters
in the area, he never went to court to force
the issue. In one account of this period in Fort
Myers history, it referred to Evans as a “kindly
disposed man” in reference to a compromise
reached by him and the settlers. Captain Hendry
wrote: “The coming of Major Evans was to the
squatters the realization of that which they mostly
feared. Being a stranger in their midst, the confiscating
of their property was to their minds the
thing mostly to be expected. But the major soon
ingratiated himself with them by the kindly
assurance that they would be taken care of. The
heartfelt gratitude of these people caused them to
hold in highest esteem the man who allowed
them to retain their homes.”
Of course, Evans may have had other
motives in mind, according to one old-timer. He
asked him why he didn’t force their removal, to
which Evans replied “Oh, I didn’t want to take
too many chances. I had the law on my side—
but they had Winchesters!” According to courthouse
records, Evans took title to the land,
139.45 acres, on October 12, 1876. He immediately
had the town site platted and recorded in
December 1876, in Key West, the county seat at
the time. The town plat was drawn according to
the settlers’ claims for land, thus explaining the
haphazard layout of the Fort Myers streets.
During the next year and a half, he deeded a
major portion of the best land away for next to
nothing. The Hendry clan received most of the
waterfront, with Captain Hendry acquiring the
choicest property. He paid a $1 for the land
between Jackson and Lee Streets and another $1
for the entire waterfront between Royal Palm
Avenue and Hough Street, roughly 800 feet of
water frontage. He also received in the deal large
tracts south of First Street, totaling approximately
twelve acres.
Mrs. Jane Hendry, spouse of Charles W.,
received most of the waterfront between Monroe
and Hendry Streets and all of the block of First,
Hendry, Second and Monroe Streets, also for $1.
For $1, Charles W.’s brother, W. Marion Hendry,
obtained most of the waterfront between
Hendry and Jackson Streets along with choice
parcels south of First Street. Jehu J. Blount,
brother-in-law to the Hendrys, received, for $1,
the entire waterfront between Hough and
Washington, along with a few other tracts. It has
been speculated Major Evans motive may have
been something other than generosity in his
benevolent disposing of his property.
On June 4, 1872, Congress passed an act in
favor of the International Ocean Telegraph
Company, giving it the right to seize acreage at
Punta Rassa, Fort Myers, Branch River, Bartow,
and Tuckerstown, where it had already established
or intended to establish stations. Evans,
already laying claim to part of this designated
land, ended up in a court battle with the telegraph
company. The battle continued for two
years until the secretary of the interior made a
special ruling in Evans’ favor. During the suit,
members of the Hendry clan may have
advanced him monies towards the cost of contesting
the company’s court action against him,
resulting in a ruling in Major Evans’ favor. The
Hendrys may have paid all the expenses and, in
turn, received the gist of the newly platted town.
Of course, as mentioned previously, this is only
✧
Jacob Summerlin Home, Punta Rassa,
built 1874.
CHAPTER II
15

✧
Above: A map of Lee County boundaries
after its creation in 1887 with a photo of
county’s namesake, General Robert E. Lee.
Below: The Hendry Whitering
General Store.
speculation. Evans did not wait the five years to
get title to his land under the Homestead Act of
1862. He instead purchased it outright under
provisions of the Land Act of 1820, paying the
going rate of $1.25 per acre, thus acquiring the
entire town site of 139.45 acres on October 12,
1876, for a mere $174.32, which today would
calculate well into the millions of dollars.
The International Ocean Telegraph Company
did establish a station in Fort Myers and brought
in a telegrapher by the name of C. W. (Waddy)
Thompson to operate it. Not long after his
arrival, he met and fell in love with Laura
Hendry, the daughter of Captain F. A. Hendry.
Their marriage and wedding ceremony was presumably
the first in Fort Myers. Major James
Evans was well liked by the people of Fort
Myers, earning him many elections to public
office. He served seven years on the town council
and eight as county tax assessor. In October,
1878, Major Evans donated an acre of ground
located on the southwest corner of Second
and Jackson Streets to the Board of Public
Instruction of Monroe County. On this land the
first schoolhouse was built, paid for by the
county. The schoolhouse later burned. Because
HISTORIC LEE
16
COUNTY

of extenuating circumstances, the loss of the
schoolhouse leads to the formation of Lee
County. Major Evans also donated four lots at
Anderson and Evans on October 5, 1885, to the
Protestant Episcopal Church. Major James
Evans, the founder of the town of Fort Myers,
died on January 12, 1901, and was taken to
Virginia for burial in Cedar Hill Cemetery in
Suffolk. While Fort Myers was coming to life in
the 1800s, there were only three counties from
the Tampa Bay area south; Hillsborough,
Manatee, and Monroe.
The area Lee County occupies now was originally
part of Monroe County. The county seat
was located in Key West, quite a journey from
Fort Myers. Fort Myers incorporated in August
1885, with a bulging population of 349, the second
largest town on Florida’s Gulf Coast south
of Cedar Key.
The residents of Fort Myers had been dissatisfied
for years being part of a county
whose county seat was so far away that it was
almost impossible to reach. To attend court or
transact business with county officials, or
appeal adjustments to one’s taxes would be
more costly than it would be worth. They felt
they were getting little in return for the taxes
they sent to Key West—no roads, no bridges,
no public improvements of any kind. Even
though the county made a small effort to
improve the roads near the end, it was too little
too late. And what was about to happen
was to be the last straw.
Lee County finally had enough in 1886, so
it has been told, when a mouse chewed on a
match in the town’s only schoolhouse, sparking
a fire that could not be contained. The
building was destroyed. The school officials
traveled to Key West to request funds to build
a new schoolhouse only to be told there
would be no additional funds because they
should have take better care of county property.
This outraged the citizens of Fort Myers
who held a town meeting and voted to petition
Tallahassee that a new county be formed
from the northern section of Monroe County.
Captain F. A. Hendry, along with other major
cattlemen of Fort Myers, had many strong
friends among Tallahassee politicians and quickly
got action in the state legislature. The bill was
passed by both the Senate and the House within
a week and signed immediately by the governor.
Captain Hendry named Lee County after
General Robert E. Lee, an admired Confederate
officer during the Civil War.
On May 9, 1887, a telegram came from
Tallahassee, saying: “Your county bill has just
passed the House of Representatives. You now
live in the county of Lee.” Fort Myers was
named the county seat.
✧
(From left to right) G. W. Hendry, Jehu J.
Blount, W. M. Hendry, Jr., J. A. Hendry, Sr.,
and Captain F. A. Hendry, c. 1912.
CHAPTER II
17

CHAPTER III
G ROWTH OF F ORT M YERS
HISTORICAL
HOMES
✧
The Murphy-Burroughs home.
Fort Myers experienced tremendous growth during the building boom between 1898 and the 1920s
as waves of winter visitors streamed into Florida hoping to find their fortunes in land investments. The
“housing boom” began with the construction of what is now referred to as the Murphy-Burroughs home.
John T. Murphy, a millionaire from Montana, was so enchanted with the charm of the little cow
town that he and his business partner and friend decided to build winter homes here. Mr. Murphy’s
home was without question the largest and most ornate residence in Fort Myers at the time. The size
itself was impressive, but even more exciting were the unusual features included in the home, such
as electricity, indoor plumbing, and a primitive intercom in the kitchen to summon the servants.
Located at the corner of First and Fowler Streets, the two-and-a-half story Victorian frame structure,
built in 1901, included an elaborately decorated veranda wrapping around three sides of the
building with a balcony above, ten dormers, a widow’s walk, and two fireplaces. A latticework
gazebo and stone waterfall were added along the way, together with Fort Myers’ first tennis court.
The home had numerous owners before being purchased by Nelson and Adeline Burroughs in
1918, thus the adoption of the common name, Murphy-Burroughs. In May 1922, the Burroughs
transferred title of the property to their two daughters, Jettie and Mona, who nearly lived here year
round. After Jettie’s death in 1971, Mona became the sole owner of the home. When Mona
Burroughs died in 1978, she bequeathed her beautiful home to the City of Fort Myers with two
conditions. The first, her husband Franz Fischer, would be permitted to live in the house until he
died with financial provision for his care. The second condition required the city to use the property
only as a garden, park, or museum, and should be kept as close to the original condition as
possible. Both conditions have been adhered to by the city.
HISTORIC LEE
18
COUNTY

Today the Murphy-Burroughs home is
open to the public, and is available for weddings
and receptions, and private parties. One
has only to stroll upon the wrap-around
porch and walk through the well preserved
dining room and parlor to step back in time,
a grand time of entertaining guests such as the
Edisons and the Fords.
Another historic beauty, known as the
Langford-Kingston home, was built on First
Street in 1919 by Walter G. Langford. The
Chicago Bungalow Style home, a 2.5-story
structure, was modeled after a home Langford
was fond of in Jacksonville. The red brick
exterior with intricate and unusual designs in
the white masonry trim is well known to the
residents of Fort Myers. It has been the topic
of historic restoration in the past few years,
receiving a Special Category Grant for
restoration, stabilization, and relocation. The
5,232-square-foot building was moved in
May 2003 one block to the east across the
street from the Murphy-Burroughs home.
Langford’s home, is a rare form of
architecture in Southwest Florida, with its
large front porch with massive supports, front
stoop, and grand staircase, sadly enough, was
enjoyed by Langford for only a short period of
time. He passed away within the year. The
house was then sold in 1925 to the inventor
of the Kingston carburetor, George Kingston.
It remained with the Kingston family until it
was sold to the First United Methodist
Church in 1953. The church stopped using
it for services in 1991 but continued to
operate a day care there until 1996. In 2001
the church donated the home to the city of
Fort Myers.
One of the most well-known homesteads in
the area is the Thomas Edison Winter Estate
drawing thousands of visitors every year. Edison
made the decision to purchase the land to
develop his “Garden of Eden” after visiting the
quaint little river town for the first time
in late 1884. He acquired a thirteen-acre
tract for the building of his estate from Jacob
Summerlin’s son, Samuel, for $2,750, an
exorbitant price during that time. He envisioned
a winter haven from the bustle of New York City
with his own botanical gardens. His original
plans included two houses and a laboratory to
be built upon the banks of the Caloosahatchee
River. Edison’s home was to be one of the first
prefabricated homes in the country.
Early in 1887, Edison returning from the
North, immediately went to work putting an
electric light plant into operation. The lights
at Seminole Lodge, as Edison called his estate,
were turned on for the first time on Saturday
night, March 27, 1887, a history-making
event for Fort Myers. Almost everyone in
town strolled out to Edison’s home that
evening to observe the miracle of invention.
(Contrary to some accounts, Edison did not
light the rest of Fort Myers.)
Edison regarded nature as an endless
source of discovery, and through his undaunted
efforts, Riverside Avenue (now McGregor
Boulevard) became the majestic scenic boulevard
we see today, lined with royal palms, and
the reason for the “City of Palms” nickname.
Today, visitors not only see Edison’s elaborate
winter estate during their visit to Fort Myers,
but also his contribution of a rich history to
this ever expanding urban area.
✧
Top, left: (From left to right) Jeita
(daughter), Mona (wife), Nelson, and Mona
(daughter) Burroughs.
Top, right: John Murphy.
Bottom: Langford-Kingston Home.
CHAPTER III
19

parade of lights in mid to late February
through downtown Fort Myers. Main events
include opening ceremonies, a gala ball,
fashion show and the Edison Festival 5K Race.
DOWNTOWN BUSINESS
DEVELOPMENT
✧
Above: The Henry Ford Estate, Fort
Myers, Florida.
Below: Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and
Harvey Firestone.
Edison’s legacy will forever live on. Besides
the obvious contributions of his inventions,
today we see evidence of his legacy in Edison
Park, one of Fort Myer’s oldest and most
prestigious subdivisions, Edison Park Creative
Expressive Arts Elementary School, Edison
Bridge (built in 1931), Edison Avenue, and
one that continues to grow larger every year,
the Edison Festival of Light. Held in February,
this is one of the area’s largest and most
celebrated annual events, commemorating the
birthday of Thomas Edison. It features three
weeks of events, including a spectacular
During the downtown building boom, as
in any town, Fort Myers had it’s business
rivalries and competitions. According to Karl
H. Grismer in The Story of Fort Myers, one
notable squabble was between Walter G.
Langford and Harvie E. Heitman. The feud
began in 1897 over building the first Lee
County courthouse. Langford, being more of
a progressive fellow, wanted to use bonds to
finance the construction and have a building
to be proud of. Heitman, the frugal,
conservative one, wanted something modest.
The county had trouble raising the funds and
had to settle for a frame courthouse, not the
stately structure they had hoped for.
The organization of Fort Myers first
locally owned bank, the Bank of Fort Myers,
brought about the formation of “teams,” if you
will, in the business world, bringing out a
serious spirit of competition. The directors
included: Harvie E. Heitman, James E.
Hendry, Sr., Walter G. Langford, E. M.
Hendry, George R. Shultz, R. A. Henderson,
Sr., and James E. Foxworthy. Each of these
men was a successful businessman in their
own right.
Other very prominent citizens were not
included on the new institution’s board of
directors, causing deep resentments. The
resentments may have come to naught except
for the rift between three members of the
newly formed board.
Dr. Thomas E. Langford had been a close
friend and long-time business associate of
James E. Hendry, Sr., one of the newly
appointed board members. Hendry and Dr.
Langford’s son, Walter, also on the board of
directors, never agreed on anything and after
Dr. Langford’s death became obvious enemies.
Another member of the board, whom Walter
did not see eye to eye with, was Harvie Heitman.
Making matters worse, Heitman was chosen to
serve as head of the new financial institution.
HISTORIC LEE
20
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Walter was so perturbed; he promptly severed
his relationship with the bank.
Langford gathered others who had been
insulted by their exclusion from the board
and organized the Lee County Bank. In 1908,
after receiving their national charter, they
changed the name to the First National Bank
of Fort Myers.
Those associated with Langford in this second
bank were William H. Towles, George F.
Ireland, Dr. B. P. Matheson, W. S. Garvey, John T.
Murphy, Edward Parkinson, C. C. Pursley, L.O.
Benton, a Georgia capitalist, and John M. Roach,
president of the Chicago Transit Company.
Langford, of course, was appointed president.
The Bank of Fort Myers had it’s headquarters
in Fort Myers’ first brick building, built
by Heitman, close to the northwest corner of
First and Jackson Streets.
For over a decade, the two banks were at
odds. There were differing opinions whether
the factious actions of the two institutions
were harmful or beneficial to the progress of
Fort Myers. On one hand, the competition
lead to the issuing of many loans that normally
would not have been considered in conformity
with sound banking practice, thus
encouraging development. On the other
hand, the dissension seemed to seriously
retard progress. When one institution favored
a public project, the other would oppose it,
and consequently the proposed project was
killed or at the very least delayed.
The one undebatable fact during this feud:
Heitman and Langford were both forces to be
reckoned with who left a lasting impression
on the city of Fort Myers.
Langford played a major role in persuading
officials of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad to
extend their tracks into Lee County opening
up new avenues of industry. He was also credited
with bringing more outside money into
this area than any other man in Fort Myers
encouraging wealthy northerners to invest in
properties in South Florida.
In 1888, Harvie Heitman began his career
in business as a teenager clerking for his
great-uncle, Howell A. Parker (Fort Myers’
first mayor), in the city’s largest general store
at the time, located on the corner of First and
Hendry Streets, where Fort Myers first brick
building was later to be built. By 1894 he was
in business for himself.
Harvie built the first brick building in Lee
County in 1897, financed by Ambrose
McGregor, and with the financial backing of
Tootie McGregor in 1905, built the town’s second
brick building, the Bradford Hotel, named
in honor of Mrs. McGregor’s deceased son.
Another landmark accredited to Heitman
is the two-story, 193-foot-long Earnhardt
Building built in 1915 on First Street housing
the McCrory’s Five and Dime Store for more
than three-quarters of a century with the only
public bathroom complete with hot and cold
running water.
Heitman became the owner of a large part
of the business section of Fort Myers and
✧
Above: The Thomas A. Edison estate with
newly planted Royal Palms.
Below: The Thomas A. Edison Estate with
mature Royal Palms.
CHAPTER III
21

✧
Above: The Lee County Courthouse, c.
1925. The courthouse was built in 1915.
Below: The Earnhardt Building, First Street.
several large citrus grove properties in the
county. Along with his position as president of
the Bank of Fort Myers, he also lead H. E.
Heitman Company, Lee County Packing
Company, Mutual Realty Company, Bonita
Land Company, Fort Myers Southern Railway
Company, Heitman-Evans Company, Lee
County Fair Association, vice-president of the
Fort Myers Golf and Country Club, and
founder-member of the Board of Trade.
Somehow, Heitman found the time to
court, and marry Florida Shultz, the only
daughter of George A. Shultz, telegrapher in
charge of the Punta Rassa cable station of the
International Ocean Telegraph Company, on
October 6, 1897.
Both Harvie Heitman and Walter G.
Langford were successful visionaries with
major contributions to the development of
downtown Fort Myers, but both left this earth
at a relatively young age, Heitman was 50
when he passed and Langford was only 47.
One wonders how much more the two would
have accomplished if they would have been
given another thirty years to glean from the
wisdom only age brings forth.
FORT MYERS NICKNAME
Hugh O’Neill, a New York Department store
magnate, came to Florida on business in 1892
and ended up fishing for tarpon at Punta Rassa.
He fell in love with Fort Myers and built the
fifty-room Fort Myers Hotel. He planted large
Royal Palm trees around the hotel which
became such an attraction; he renamed his
hotel the Royal Palm Hotel. Edison took notice
of the majestic beauty of the palms and planted
the royals down Riverside Drive (now known as
McGregor Boulevard) from Monroe Street to
Manuel’s Branch. They made such an
impression on residents and visitors alike, Fort
Myers became known as the “City of Palms.”
HISTORIC LEE
22
COUNTY

CHAPTER IV
T RANSPORTATION H ISTORY OF S OUTHWEST F LORIDA
When speaking of the history of transportation in the area, the name Hamilton Disston most
assuredly comes to mind. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on August 23, 1844, to a wealthy
business owner, the charismatic, energetic fellow envisioned an ambitious project to reclaim
swampland in Southern Florida known in part as the Everglades, to facilitate agricultural and possible
residential development.
In June 1881, Hamilton Disston purchased four million acres of land from the State of Florida
for $1 million, promptly bailing the state out of its debt and becoming the largest single land owner
in the United States at the time.
Hamilton organized the Atlantic and Gulf Coast Canal and Okeechobee Land Company to take
care of legalities and, to supervise operations, he hired a young fellow, then only twenty-three years
old, from New Orleans who had much experience in drainage work. That young man was Captain
J. Fred Menge, who was destined to play an important role in the growth of Fort Myers.
After hearing of the sale of land to Disston, the Fort Myers residents were ecstatic pondering
what great development such a huge drainage project would bring. Pioneers would flock to the
area from all over to settle along the Caloosahatchee River. Fort Myers would become the gateway
to a vast new empire and would eventually be the largest city in the state.
Mr. Disston dredged and deepened the Caloosahatchee above Fort Myers, connecting two small
lakes and creating a navigable link to Lake Okeechobee and on to Kissimmee. The first trip to
Kissimmee from Fort Myers was planned for September 20, 1883. The maiden journey was to be
undertaken on the Bertha Lee, a two-decked, wood-burning sternwheeler. Disston expected the trip
to take three days, but he was sorely disappointed. The steamer was 130 feet long, drew three feet
of water, and was entirely too large to navigate the narrow, shallow canals dredged by Captain
Menge. Two dams had to be constructed along the way just to keep her afloat. A week passed just
getting to Lake Okeechobee.
The Kissimmee River proved to be even more of a challenge, at times requiring a whole day to round
one torturous bend. The entire trip ended up taking forty-three days, not three, as Disston predicted.
✧
One of many dredges used to “tame”
the Everglades.
CHAPTER IV
23

✧
Captain Fred Menge, c. 1940.
Draining and dredging the area proved to
be more difficult than Mr. Disston had anticipated.
His reclamation project ended in 1889,
but not before beginning the Three Mile
Canal, Nine Mile Canal and the 13 Mile Canal
(now known as the Miami Canal). Perhaps
Mother Nature had a hand in the failure of
Disston’s project, as she objected to the devastating
effect draining the Everglades would
have on the delicate balance of life not taken
into consideration during that period in time.
Since the railway was not to extend to Fort
Myers until after the turn of the century,
steamboats and schooners were utilized for
shipping marketable items and passenger travel.
One such schooner, the Lily White, captained
by Henry L. Roan, a resident of Fort
Myers, made trips up and down the West
Coast stopping at almost all ports along the
way. One such port was Cedar Key. While
docked there, Stafford C. Cleveland, a former
publisher from New York, loaded his equipment
on his way to Fort Ogden to start a newspaper.
Roan, knowing Fort Myers needed a
newspaper, discovered he had a genuine newspaper
editor on board. Instead of going into
Charlotte Harbor and stopping at Fort Ogden
as usual, he headed straight to Fort Myers.
When the Lily White arrived in Fort Myers,
a group of influential residents talked
Cleveland into staying in Fort Myers, guaranteeing
him 300 subscribers for a year and $600
to help with initial expenses. Overwhelmed by
their offers, Cleveland agreed to stay, and on
November 22, 1884, the first issue of the Fort
Myers Press was distributed.
J. Fred Menge left the employ of Hamilton
Disston in 1888 and started a steamboat line
with two boats purchased from Disston, the
Gopher and the Mamie. The boats were small
but large enough to carry all the items of the
up-river settlers. One of his skippers was
Captain M. A. Gonzalez, the first settler in
Fort Myers.
His pride and joy was his two-decked,
stern-wheeler, the Edison, named in honor of
his good friend, Thomas A. Edison. It was
built by Sam J. Johnson in Apalachicola for
river travel and drew less than2.5 feet of water
with a capacity for 1,200 boxes of fruit.
In 1890 Menge purchased the City of
Athens, a stern-wheel steamboat which had
been built for Kissimmee-Fort Myers runs.
The steamer had to be rebuilt after being partially
destroyed by fire, but Menge got it back
into service running trips three times a week
between Fort Myers and Fort Thompson. He
soon formed the Menge Bros. Steamboat Line
with his brother Conrad and continued service
with numerous steamers until suspending
operations just before World War I.
While in Disston’s employ, Fred married
Virginia Lee Hendry, a daughter of Captain
Francis Hendry, one of Fort Myers first families.
Another steamboat line in operation was
owned by brothers, George and Andrew
Kinzie. At the turn of the century George was
chief engineer of the St. Lucie, a doubledecked,
120-foot stern-wheeler owned by the
Plant System, with Andrew as the purser on
the ship. The Kinzie Brothers Steamer Line
had its real beginning with the award of the
mail contract from the government running
daily service to Sanibel, Captiva, St. James,
Useppa, Pineland, and Bokeelia, carrying passengers
and freight as well. The Kinzies most
popular vessel with the winter visitors was the
Dixie with excursions from Fort Myers down
the Caloosahatchee to the barrier islands.
The days of the river steamers were
numbered as they gave way to progress. With
the extension of the railway from Punta Gorda
and the development of highways and
HISTORIC LEE
24
COUNTY

automobiles, the steamers were relegated to
recreational use.
The advancement of the railroad to Fort
Myers was hampered by Henry B. Plant, the
Florida railroad magnate. Possibly due to
business conflicts in the area, Mr. Plant
refused to listen to pleas from prominent leaders
in Fort Myers for an extension of his railway
to Lee County instead of Punta Gorda
just north of the Caloosahatchee River. A vice
president of the Plant System hinted in
January, 1896 that if Lee County would
donate $40,000 to the system, the railroad
might be provided. At the time, Lee County
was in no shape financially to take advantage
of the wealthy Plant System offer even though
it was in dire need of its services.
When Henry Plant suddenly died in June
1899, there was no mourning in Lee County
for his passing. With his reluctance to even
entertain the idea of extending the tracks
south, he had made no friends in Fort Myers.
After his passing, the Plant System was still
controlled by Plant’s handpicked subordinates.
Nevertheless, fate smiled on Lee
County when the $25-million holdings of
Plant’s were sold to the Atlantic Coast Line
Railroad in April 1902.
Shortly after the purchase, Walter G.
Langford, an influential and successful businessman
representing a group of Fort Myers
leaders, began soliciting the Coast Line officials
for the much desired railway extension
and in the summer of 1902, P. F. Jenkins, construction
engineer for Coast Line, visited the
city. Due to his favorable report submitted to
the Coast Line directors, it was decided the
tracks would extend to Fort Myers and a
depot site would also be furnished.
Construction began on the twenty-eightmile
long extension the following winter. The
last tracks were laid on Saturday, February 20,
1904, amid much celebration from the Fort
Myers residents. The original train station was
built at the corner of Main and Monroe Streets
with passenger train service starting on May
10, 1904, including two daily runs. One
almost dead industry brought to life in the area
by the new train service was the growing of
fresh vegetables for outside markets. The population
and building boom that also followed
were so tremendous, one wonders how much
growth would have taken place if Mr. Plant had
extended the train service when the first
requests came from the citizens of Fort Myers.
Feeling the city needed an attractive railroad
station to welcome incoming visitors, a new facility
was built in 1923 on Peck Street with a red
barrel tiled roof and parapets, two waiting areas
with fireplaces, four restrooms, baggage rooms, a
ticket office, and a telegraph office upstairs. The
blueprints included two separate waiting areas
and restrooms to accommodate the then still segregated
population, one labeled “Whites” and the
other “Colored.” After passenger service ended in
1971, the station was closed, but in 1982 it was
renovated and has been home to the Fort Myers
Historical Museum ever since. An authentic
replica of a pioneer “cracker” house, a 1926 La
✧
Above: The steamer Dixie.
Below: The steamer City of Athens,
c. 1914.
CHAPTER IV
25

✧
Above: Menge Bros. Marine Steam Railway,
six miles from Fort Myers.
Below: Tamiami Trailblazers.
France fire pumper, and a 1929 private Pullman
rail car are among the exhibits you will find during
the museum’s tour.
In 1926, another railroad chugged into
Fort Myers bringing competition for the
already established Coast Line. Seaboard Air
Line Railway, eager to acquire part of the
region’s traffic, extended their service from
Hull through Fort Ogden and on to Fort
Myers, a sixty-nine-mile extension. By 1928,
the last major rail project in Southwest
Florida was finished, terminating in
Everglades City, the southernmost point of the
entire Atlantic Coast Line Railroad System.
For decades, Southwest Florida was served
by both the Coast Line and Seaboard railroads.
The area did not warrant two major rail
carriers and in 1967 the two merged, forming
the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad.
In November 1980, the Seaboard Coast
Line merged with the Chessie System to form
CSX and became the second largest railroad in
the U.S. (at that time). Ownership and operations
of 118 miles of CSX tracks was taken
over by Seminole Gulf Railway, Southwest
Florida’s regional railroad. Today a popular
attraction in the area is their mystery dinner
train making weekly runs.
One of the hardiest groups of men in Fort
Myers were the “Explorers,” the Tamiami
Trailblazers. Their goal was to conquer the
Everglades and blaze a trail by automobile from
Fort Myers to Miami, what they considered
“the last frontier.” Many doubted their ability to
tame the Everglades, but, on April 4, 1923, 26
men and 10cars left town on the approximate
route. They encountered numerous setbacks
and dangerous obstacles along the way,
attracting the attention of the national press.
With much perseverance they arrived in Miami
on April 25, twenty-one days later. The trail
was officially opened to Miami in April 1928
with thanks in part to Barron Collier, a wealthy
advertising tycoon responsible for the
formation of Collier County on Lee County’s
southern border. He assisted in funding the
trail construction through his county. The state
took over the legendary road in 1926, thus
facilitating its completion in 1928. For the first
time, motorists could drive from Tampa to
Miami, having to travel through Fort Myers on
their trek, thus opening Fort Myers to the
outside world.
Each steppingstone of advancement in
transportation brought with it its own level of
progress, growth, and new opportunities for
what was once labeled “the little cow town” in
Southwest Florida.
HISTORIC LEE
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CHAPTER V
T HE O THER S IDE OF THE R IVER
Prior to the development of Cape Coral, the area was known as “the other side of the river” by
homesteaders, loggers, cattlemen, professional fishermen, and sportsmen. The vast open cattle range
and hunting ground held fond memories of camping and fishing for many. Nicknamed “Redfish
Point,” it was the best place in Lee County to catch redfish. But for some the memories were painful.
On July 23, 1839, during the Second Seminole War, what is today the intersection of Del Prado
Boulevard and Cape Coral Parkway was the location of the infamous “Harney Point Massacre.” At 4
a.m. on that date, a group of 150 Seminoles attacked the unsuspecting soldiers posted there, leaving
13 soldiers and civilians dead. Lieutenant Colonel W. S. Harney and thirteen others escaped by
way of the Caloosahatchee, some reportedly in their skivvies. The fallout from the “massacre” resulted
in the end of a short pause in fighting during the Second Seminole War.
One of the resilient residents on “the other side of the river” was Jacob David Moulter, Sr. He
was so susceptible to bronchial pneumonia that his physician strongly suggested he head to a
warmer climate. He came to Lee County in the 1920s and was employed by the Caloosahatchee
Bridge Company, which was building a narrow wooden span at the time connecting the Tamiami
Trail with Fort Myers east of Billy’s Creek at Freemont Street. It was then that Molter discovered
there was homestead property available. He filed for and received 160 acres under the homesteader’s
obligation of clearing a portion of the land, building a home and living on the property
for five years in order to obtain the deed. This was no easy task, considering he had to bring all
the lumber from Fort Myers, rowing it across the river in a skiff, tying it to his car and driving
through the woods on a sandy trail just wide enough for one vehicle. It was a challenge, to say the
least, and just one example of the determination of earlier settlers in the area.
Moulter built a two-story frame house in 1928 for his daughter, Agnes, and her husband, Gerald
Sushil, on the south side of Pine Island Road. Agnes and Gerald lived in the home for a short period
of time before settling in Captiva. Gerald worked for Clarence Chadwick as a horticulturist
whose Key lime groves on Captiva Island sat where the South Seas Plantation is located today.
✧
The Waltzing Waters attraction in
Cape Coral.
CHAPTER V
27

✧
Above: Connie Mack, Jr.
Below: An aerial photo of Cape Coral.
Ida Mae Moulter, Jacob Jr.’s wife, worked
for the Forestry Service for eighteen years,
manning the fire tower at the corner of Pine
Island Road and Chiquita Boulevard, previously
known as Moulter Grade Road. She
sadly watched as the land was bulldozed to
make way for progress. She believed, as many
others, there was no reason for the developers
to scalp the land.
Most of the development on the other side
of the river was concentrated along U.S. 41
and near the railways. The development of the
southern tip of what is now Cape Coral started
in 1957, when Leonard and Jack Rosen
purchased the 103-square-mile tract previously
mentioned as “Redfish Point” for
$678,000. Their dream was to build a
“Waterfront Wonderland.” Of course, there
was a limited amount of coastal property
available, so to multiply their dividends from
the sale of “waterfront” property, they dredged
four hundred miles of “navigable” canals,
more, they boasted, than the famous Venice,
Italy. The Gulf American Corporation was
formed to develop this magical waterfront
community, and, on November 4, 1957,
ground was officially broken as Cape Coral.
This Florida development was marketed
like no other, through a mail order program
with ads on radio, television, and in print. Fort
Myers and Lee County were inundated with
strangers toting advertisements and asking
how to get to the “waterfront wonderland.”
The company saw to it that no one visiting
the area escaped without a sales pitch. The
sales office was located in a fourplex at the
corner of Cape Coral Parkway and Coronado
Parkway, the end of developed roads at the
time. Anyone traveling that far south would
notice the office and signs of life, and stop, or
if they failed to stop, the guard manning the
booth at the intersection would stop them
and send them back to the office. At times it
was necessary to stop the ground traffic at the
intersection so the company’s plane could use
the road as a landing strip. After the sales
pitch, the prospect was taken up in the company’s
rented plane for a bird’s-eye view of the
area. Ed Wilson, the company’s first pilot, was
a Florida cracker who was able to point out
landmarks on the ground and keep a running
narrative with a local flair projecting a picture
of Cape Coral in the future. Kenny Schwartz,
one of Gulf American’s super salesmen and
Cape Coral’s first permanent resident, sold the
first lot to Hank Snodgrass. Snodgrass was
willing to buy sight unseen, but Kenny insisted
he see the property. Quoting Kenny, “It was
my debut and I wanted him to see where the
country club and the shopping center and the
bank would be.” Cape Coral’s first four homes
HISTORIC LEE
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were completed in May 1958 on Riverside
and Flamingo Drives
By 1959, water view home sites sold for
$990, waterfront sold for $1,900, and riverfront
would set you back $3,390. Today,
waterfront lots on a canal with sailboat gulf
access run in excess of $500,000. Property
sales for Gulf American reached over $9 million
after their first year. This, being quite
unexpected so early in the game, presented
the company with a problem, a good problem,
yet a problem. They needed to acquire
more land. Thus Bob Henshaw was hired. He
had been in real estate in Florida for almost a
decade with a specialty in large, raw, undeveloped
parcels. He first learned what land was
on the market and negotiated with the broker.
After exhausting all those possibilities, he
researched land ownership records at the
courthouse. Armed with that information, he
approached individual owners and acquired
massive pieces of property for as little as $165
an acre and smaller holdings for as much as
$2,000 an acre.
Those who contributed to the credibility of
the Gulf American Land Corporation at the
time were Connie Mack, Jr., whose father was
the popular manager of the Philadelphia
Athletics baseball team who called Fort Myers
their winter home in the 1920s, Bill Stern, a
notable sportscaster, and Dave Garroway, a
friendly morning television show host who
praised the development while on the air with
millions of viewers.
One of the most difficult times for Cape
Coral was during Hurricane Donna in 1960.
Even though Leonard Rosen’s business practices
at times were questionable and even
written about in the New York Times, he went
above and beyond the call of duty during the
aftermath of this powerful storm. There were
stories of families whose homes had been
damaged by Donna who Mr. Rosen put up in
other places rent-free. The day after the
storm, he went out and purchased all the
roofing paper he could find in Lee, Charlotte,
and Collier counties and sent a crew out to
“weather in” peoples homes. The electricity
was out for a period, and, during that time,
Mr. Rosen saw to it free meals were provided
until people could get back on their feet.
The southern part of the Cape was a long
way from any conveniences. One had to travel
almost twenty miles just for a loaf of bread. So,
a major improvement for Cape Coral came
with the building of the Cape Coral Bridge in
1964, connecting the city of Cape Coral and
Fort Myers. Prior to this gateway to Fort Myers,
one had to travel up Del Prado Boulevard and
east to the Edison Bridge. Interestingly enough,
as far back as 1959, when the best location for
a bridge was being considered, engineers
picked a location connecting Everest Parkway
✧
Above: Kenny and Barbara Schwartz.
Below: An aerial of Cape Coral taken
in 1968.
CHAPTER V
29

✧
Early Cape Coral.
with Colonial Boulevard, now the location of
the Midpoint Memorial Bridge. However, due
to construction costs and proximity to the area
of initial development, the Cape Coral Parkway
to Braden-Sutphin Road (now College
Parkway) route was chosen. The Midpoint
Memorial Bridge was finished in 1997, connecting
Fort Myers with Veterans Parkway, now
extending all the way to Burnt Store and Pine
Island Roads.
Since its inception, Cape Coral had been
known as a “sleepy” community with its large
retirement population. This all changed with
the population boom of the 1990s that
brought with it young working class families.
There is still a larger than normal retirement
population; however, the perception that the
city is an “old” city no longer applies.
Cape Coral is bordered by the
Caloosahatchee River on the east and Matlacha
Pass on the west. It runs north to the Charlotte
County line. Today Cape Coral is one of the
fastest growing areas in Florida, boasting more
than 160,000 residents. At build-out it is estimated
Cape Coral will have a population of
approximately 400,000. It is the third-largest
city geographically in the state of Florida and
is the eleventh largest city in population.
HISTORIC LEE
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CHAPTER VI
L EE C OUNTY’ S B ARRIER I SLANDS
The barrier islands of Lee County include Sanibel, Captiva, Fort Myers Beach (consisting of
Estero Island and San Carlos Island), Pine Island, and Useppa Island. In addition, hundreds of
smaller named and unnamed bits of land are scatted around the waters of Southwest Florida. They
all have somewhat similar beginnings, each having Calusa, Spanish, and Seminole histories, but
through the years they have each taken on their own defining characteristics.
Pine Island, along with all the barrier islands on the Lee County coast, had its Indians, Spanish
fisheries and tales of pirates, but after the disappearance of the Calusa it basically remained uninhabited
until 1873. That year the island’s first permanent resident arrived. Captain John Smith, a
Finnish sailor who years earlier had been shipwrecked near Key West during a violent storm,
brought his young family to the southern most tip of Pine Island, which was to become St. James
City. Descendants of Captain Smith still reside on the island, over one hundred years later.
In January 1886, a group of investors from Maine and Canada founded St. James City. They
formed the On-The-Gulf Company and planted thousands of coconut palms for their envisioned
coconut groves. They built the fifty room San Carlos Hotel, but, when their coconut venture failed
due to poor preparation, the company failed, and St. James reverted to the wilds. Only a few fishermen
remained. The hotel was destroyed by fire on July 27, 1905.
Today, the development of Pine Island has differed greatly from that of its neighbors. It has kept
its small town feel, resisting the over-commercialized, over-developed mentality of its neighbor,
Cape Coral. There has been talk of annexing Pine Island into Cape Coral, but Pine Islanders will
not go down without a fight. The residents enjoy their laid back, rural, sparsely populated community.
Surrounded by mangroves, three aquatic preserves, and mostly agricultural zoning, it has
escaped the cement and development of other Florida islands. Zoning limits now in place will
allow future growth, but preserve its unique atmosphere for years to come.
✧
President Teddy Roosevelt.
CHAPTER VI
31

✧
Casa Yble—Sanibel Island.
Sanibel and Captiva Islands also saw their
share of Indians, Spanish fishermen, and legends
of pirates in their infancy. Ponce de Leon
is believed to have discovered Sanibel Island
in 1513 while searching for the “Fountain of
Youth.” It is said he named the island “Santa
Isybella” after Queen Isabella, thus the digression
to the name “Sanibel.”
An interesting part of the folklore of
Captiva Island is the legend of Jose Gaspar. It
was rumored he buried his stolen treasure on
Sanibel and built a prison on “Isle de los
Captivas” or Captiva Island, where he kept his
female prisoners “captive” for ransom.
Pioneer settlement on Sanibel centered on
Point Ybel, which is now considered “Old
Town Sanibel” This area was near the
Sanibel Lighthouse, designated by the U.S.
Government in 1870 as a lighthouse reservation
with the lighthouse first being lit on
August 20, 1884. It remains a working lighthouse
to this day.
By 1889 there were 21 houses and 40 families
living on Sanibel. Its reputation of gracious
hospitality began with the wealthy
industrialist visitors looking for uninterrupted
rest and relaxation. The beautiful Casa Ybel
Resort, originally known as “The Sisters”
opened in the late 1880s. Famous Americans
seeking a tranquil retreat, such as Charles
Lindbergh and his wife, Anne Morrow
Lindbergh, frequently visited. President
Teddy Roosevelt and poet Edna St. Vincent
Millay also enjoyed the island’s hospitality.
A Sanibel pioneer, Frank P. Bailey, arrived
on Sanibel with his mother and two brothers
in 1894. They began farming while working
on obtaining their own land. The family eventually
bought a plantation store that combined
packing and shipping of their own produce
as well as that of other farmers. When
the Sanibel Packing Company, the name of
the Bailey family enterprises, was destroyed
by the hurricane of 1926, he rebuilt a larger
store in a more secure location.
Bailey co-founded the Sanibel Community
Church in 1917 and, later, in 1926, helped
to establish the Sanibel Community House,
a facility that still serves as a center of
island activity.
In the 1940s he served as justice of the
peace and operated the family’s general store
until his death in 1952.
One of the island’s most influential visitors
was Jay Norwood “Ding” Darling. He discovered
Sanibel on a trip in 1935. A Pulitzer
Prize-winning political cartoonist and noted
conservationist, “Ding” Darling actively campaigned
for federal protection of the island’s
fragile ecosystem. In 1945, more than 6,300
acres of mangrove, bay, and estuary became the
J. N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge
and today is home to more than 300 species of
birds, 50 species of reptiles and amphibians,
and more than 30 types of mammals.
Sanibel and Captiva’s reputations as sanctuary
islands have attracted many visitors also
drawn to the famous beaches, shelling, fishing,
and wildlife. Many were afraid the island
would succumb to over-development and lose
its charm and national heritage. So, by 1974,
Sanibel had formed its own city government,
allowing the residents to control their own
destiny. Land use restrictions were enacted
and continue to guide growth and development
today.
Useppa Island is an upscale privately
owned island and has been known since the
late nineteenth century for its luxury resort. As
on of the only Island in Southwest Florida
with a source of freshwater, Useppa has
attracted human habitation for thousands of
years. First inhabited by Paleo-Indians around
8000 B.C. and later the Calusa, the island
boasts one of the most ancient history’s in
HISTORIC LEE
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Florida. In 1989, within a burial mound, the
body of a Calusa male was found, named
“Useppa Man,” who had died around 600 A.D.
Fort Casey was built in 1850 by the United
States during the skirmishes with the Seminole
Indians, but was soon abandoned. During the
War Between the States, Useppa was an outpost
for Union sympathizers, who launched
guerrilla strikes on Confederate ships. Because
of the popularity of tarpon fishing in the
1880s, Chicago businessman John Roach
established a resort on Useppa which was
damaged by the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935
and torn down after World War II.
Useppa has seen numerous owners
through the years. Barron Collier, developer
of Collier County, purchased the island in
1911, William Snow in 1962, and James B.
“Jimmy” Turner, a Tampa dairyman, bought
the island in 1968. A little known fact about
Useppa Island: it was utilized by the CIA during
the 1960s as a training base for the “Bay of
Pigs” invaders.
Today the upscale homes and cottages are
privately owned and can be purchased by
“members only.” Garfield Beckstead is the sole
owner of the Useppa Island Club, which serves
Useppa property owners and non-resident
Club members. The island boasts of its exclusivity
with no bridges, no cars and no crowds.
Fort Myers Beach is an entity all to itself
and has chosen, for the most part, a much
more commercialized way of life. Zoning
restrictions are more liberal along the shores
of Fort Myers Beach, allowing high-rise
hotels, restaurants and tourist attractions to
block the natural beauty of the island.
It also has its history of Spanish explorers
and pirates. Legend has it in the early 1700s
the beach was host to two famous pirates honeymooning
on its shores—Anne Bonney and
Captain “Calico Jack” Rackham.
Homesteaders headed for the islands in the
late 1800s. The first to file for his homestead
✧
Above: Captiva Hotel.
Below: Useppa Island.
CHAPTER VI
33

✧
Above: Sunbathers on Fort Myers Beach.
Below: Fort Myers Beach entrance arches
on San Carlos Boulevard, c. 1924.
rights of 172 acres on Estero Island (today
known as Fort Myers Beach) was Robert B.
Gilbert in 1898. There were others who filed,
but most did not follow through for one reason
or another. It was not the paradise we see
today. The residents were isolated without a
bridge to the mainland until 1921, when a
wooden swing bridge was opened complete
with a 50-cent toll for up to five people and
10 cents for each additional person. Island life
was not easy prior to the advancements development
brought. Swarms of mosquitoes and
no-see-ums (tiny flying biting insects) were an
ever-present nuisance. The first telephones
and mail service did not come until the early
1920s. It was stubborn bunch that stayed and
“proved up” on their homestead rights.
An enterprising couple, Dr. and Mrs.
William Winkler, built the first hotel on the
beach, the “Winkler Hotel,” in 1912.
Once the road was open to Fort Myers
Beach in 1921, the building boom that was
taking place on the mainland spread to the
island. Developers such as Captain Jack
DeLysle and Thomas Phillips capitalized on
such an area so ripe for development. Phillips,
with partner Harry Fieldler, built the first bathhouse
and casino on Estero Island. DeLysle
purchased a large tract of land on the island
and started the development of a subdivision
called “Seminole Sands.” He also constructed a
bathhouse and a casino, a café, and restaurant.
Land speculators gathered groups of prospective
buyers and brought them to the beach to
give them a glimpse of what living in paradise
could be. Observing the development today,
one can see many have shared in their vision.
HISTORIC LEE
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CHAPTER VII
O THER C OMMUNITIES IN L EE C OUNTY
Through the years of development of Southwest Florida, many small communities have
emerged. Some have come and gone, yet some still remain.
One such community that today is but a road on the map of North Fort Myers was the logging
community of Slater. During the 1920s and ’30s the J. W. McWilliams Lumber Company headquarters
was located on that site. It was a bustling community of several hundred people, mainly
the employees of McWilliams. They lived in small shanties in the woods or boxcars provided by
the company. Since McWilliams built portable or “coffee mill” lumber operations, once the area
they inhabited had been “forested out,” they packed up and moved on. Slater was no exception.
The legacy of the Slater community, though, can still be seen today. Traveling through Cape Coral,
it does not take long to notice the apparent absence of mature, indigenous trees. The common
belief is the trees suffered the wrath of rapid development by the Rosen brothers. While it is true
the Rosens made drastic changes to the landscape of the area in question while developing their
“Winter Wonderland,” the fact is Slater Mill had stripped most of the once, lush pine hammock
long before the Rosens’ arrival.
Other small communities, Samville, New Prospect, Nateby, and Halgrim faded, while others
remained and grew. Alva, Olga, Tice, and Buckingham communities hung on and still thrive today.
Bonita Springs, originally referred to as Survey, was founded by Braxton Bragg Comer, a wealthy
Alabama farmer, and his business partner and friend, Archibald McLeod, who developed the area
seeking to grow pineapple and bananas in the 1880s. It has grown by leaps and bounds since its
✧
Car 103 out of Slater Lumber Mill.
CHAPTER VII
35

✧
Above: Koreshan Unity Store on Estero River.
Below: Survey School, Bonita Springs,
c. 1910.
inception, slowly at first, but today is one of
the major growth areas in Lee County.
One of the more interesting communities
formed in the later 1800s was that of the settlement
along the Estero River in southern Lee
County which came to be known as the “New
Jerusalem.” It was first established in 1882 by
Gustave Damkohler, a settler from Missouri,
who was joined in 1895 by Dr. Cyrus Teed,
originally from Chicago.
Dr. Teed was the leader of the Koreshan
Unity, a communal religious group located in
Chicago, Illinois. After arriving in Southwest
Florida, Dr. Teed announced to his followers
his plan to build a “New Jerusalem” on the
site. Dr. Teed said “it will contain ten million
people, white and black, and will become the
greatest city in the world.”
By 1904, the Koreshan headquarters had
moved from Chicago to Lee County, with their
numbers totaling approximately two hundred.
The Koreshans were overall self-sufficient.
They set up a general store which served
riverboat traffic, a bakery, electric utilities, a
concrete works, a sculpting department, a
laundry, saw mills, and boat works. The
Guiding Star, their publishing house, had been
brought to Southwest Florida with its typesetting
department, photo engraving department,
press room, bindery, and dark room. Remains
of many of these operations can still be seen
today at the Koreshan State Park, including
the part referred to as Mound Key.
With their love for the fine arts, they provided
entertainment of varying types for both themselves
and surrounding communities. They produced
oil paintings and often wrote and staged
their own plays in an amphitheater built along
the Estero River called the Bamboo Landing.
HISTORIC LEE
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Their beliefs more than anything brought
them under suspicion by the residents of Fort
Myers. Dr. Teed, following a divine revelation
received in 1870, believed the Earth was a hollow
cell or sphere and was concave, not convex,
and contained the sun, moon, and stars inside.
Man lived on an inner crust. This has been
referred to as the “inside-out universe” idea.
Despite their beliefs, their master plan for their
“New Jerusalem” contained amazing concepts of
city planning, waste disposal, and underground
utilities that were beyond their time.
The last living member of the Koreshan
Unity died in 1982, but before doing so, she
made sure the settlement became a state park;
thus the buildings and artifacts would be preserved
and restored.
Today, Estero, Spanish for “estuary,” has all
the characteristics of a regular town—a growing
population with the housing market to
match and a burgeoning commercial development
spreading out to the north towards Fort
Myers and south towards Naples.
Lehigh Acres, a community in the eastern
part of Lee County, got its start in the mid-
1950s when Chicago businessman Lee Ratner
needed a tax shelter. He had sold his pest
control business, and he faced the possibility
of losing most of his earnings to the high capital
gains tax of that era. Ratner heard that cattle
was a good investment for people in his
predicament, and he bought eighteen thousand
acres of land in eastern Lee County and
named it the Lucky Lee Ranch. After ranching
for a while, and despite having no prior development
experience, Ratner joined with Gerald
H. Gould, a Florida advertising executive,
Manuel Riskin, a Chicago CPA, and Edward
Shapiro, a former Chicagoan who was in the
real estate business in California, and began
land sales at Lehigh Acres.
Gerald Gould was the president of the corporation
that developed Lehigh Acres, which
began in 1954. He remained as president
until the company was sold in 1972.
Since the days of Lucky Lee, the boundaries
of Lehigh Acres have stretched to cover sixtyone
thousand acres. The pasture land where
Ratner’s cattle roamed has been divided into
some 152,000 quarter-acre and half-acre lots
for housing, including over a thousand miles
of roads. Strips of land along major thoroughfares,
such as Homestead Road and Lee
Boulevard, were set aside for commercial use.
✧
Avove: Dr. Cyrus Teed, founder
of Koreshan Unity.
Below: Estero River.
CHAPTER VII
37

CHAPTER VIII
S PORTS H ISTORY OF L EE C OUNTY
SPORT
FISHING
✧
Above: Ty Cobb, Thomas Edison and Connie
Mack at Terry Park, Fort Myers.
Opposite, top: Florida Shultz Heitman,
daughter of George Shultz and wife of
Harvie Heitman.
Opposite, bottom: Shultz Hotel (Tarpon
House), Punta Rassa.
The history of fishing in the Lee County area started as a means of survival for the early settlers
and became one of the initial reasons for the growth of Fort Myers. Exploring the coast from Boca
Grande to San Carlos Bay and the Caloosahatchee River during the 1600 and 1700s, one would
find “ranchos,” or fishing camps, established by fishermen from Cuba and Spanish settlers. Spanish
fishing camps existed on Pine Island as early as 1765, but Spanish Indians were fishing
commercially on the island in the mid-1600s.
The Spanish Indian’s stronghold on the southwest Florida fishing industry was dealt an
economic blow in 1680 when Havana prohibited them from selling their fish to Cuba because of
their resistance to religious conversion. This embargo lasted until 1698, when the Indians accepted
fourteen Franciscan missionaries into their villages in exchange for the right to trade again.
The Spanish Indians’ conversion to Catholicism would backfire when Spain ceded Florida to
Great Britain in exchange for Cuba in 1763. During this period many of the Spanish-Catholic
Indians and Spanish fishing families left the area rather than remain under Protestant rule.
In 1831, the United States, now controlling Florida, passed a harsh new law designed to push
out the Spanish-Indian fishermen and make room for homesteaders. Under this new law’s
provisions, foreigners supplying other than area markets with their fish were required to pay an
annual license fee of $500 along with posting a $2,000 bond. Heavy fines were imposed on those
fishing without a license and/or trading with the Indians. Any ship’s captain doing this would lose
his vessel and be fined $500.
More likely than not, reports that Spanish fisheries in the area were depriving American citizens
of their rights by remaining there, brought about the Preemption Act of 1841. This act permitted
settlers to locate a claim of 160 acres and after only 6 months of residency, and purchase it for as little
as $1 to $1.25 an acre. Since most Spanish or Indian fishermen had no legal title to the land they had
established their fishing camps on, they were forced to leave if a settler’s 160 acres happened to
HISTORIC LEE
38
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include their camp. They were forced to find
less inhabited areas to work from.
In 1867, George Renton Schultz was sent
to Punta Rassa by the International Ocean
Cable Company to take charge of its relay
station. He became known though for his
famed Tarpon House. The cable company had
taken over the old, run-down army barracks
of Fort Dulaney, as their Punta Rassa station.
Here Mr. and Mrs. Schultz began providing
shelter for the cattlemen who came to ship
cattle to Key West and Cuba. It had not been
their intention to do so, but the cowboys
persuaded the Schultz’s to allow them to sleep
on the barracks floor or hang their hammocks
between the rafters, seeing it was impossible
to sleep outdoors in the mosquito-infested
area. They also provided lodging and meals to
travelers coming and going from Fort Myers
while waiting for connections on river sloops
and ships traveling up and down the coast.
It was during the 1880s when visitors of a
different sort began frequenting the inn—the
sportsmen who had discovered the bounty in
the nearby waters. It was a sport fisherman’s
paradise. They came to catch Spanish
mackerel, kingfish, channel bass, sea trout,
and the most challenging of all, the “Silver
King,” the tarpon.
One of the first anglers to come and stay
was Walt McDougald, a famous writer and
cartoonist at the time. He and a group of
friends were cruising the coast on a fishing
trip in March 1881 when a storm blew in.
Seeking shelter, they came upon the Schultz’s
wharf, where they were invited to stay the
night, and George and his wife furnished
them meals. McDougald found their inn to be
so unique that when he returned to his
northern home, he told all his friends about his
experience. The following winter, many were so
intrigued by McDougald’s tale of such a lodging
place that they decided to see for themselves if
it indeed existed.
The word spread, and many made Punta
Rassa the winter rendezvous for businessmen,
bankers, industrialists, politicians, and merchants.
They found the crude decor, bare
floors, and tin washbowls, so unlike anything
they were accustomed to that the inn took on
a quaint, yet strangely odd attractiveness.
CHAPTER VIII
39

✧
Tarpon House, Punta Rassa.
Many of the guests were wealthy, and the telegraph
office operated by Schultz enabled them to
keep in touch with the stock market and their brokers
while thoroughly enjoying an angler’s vacation
getaway. Preferred guests stayed in rooms
which opened out onto a gallery built on the side
of the building known as “Murderers’ Row.”
Prior to any tarpon being caught by rod
and reel, the elusive fish, when caught at all,
was caught with a shark’s hook and chain line
or by harpooning. It was believed to be
impossible to catch one with a rod and reel,
so, on March 12, 1885, when W. H. Wood, a
sportsman from New York, did so, it captured
the attention of the sporting world. He landed
his tarpon in 26.5 minutes after it jumped 6
times and ran the line out half a mile. It was 5
feet, 9 inches and weighed 93 pounds.
With this revelation came an influx of
anglers to the West Coast each season to test
their skill, many staying at Schultz’s hotel,
prompting the name change to Tarpon House.
Wood’s momentous accomplishment brought
scores of visitors not only to Tarpon House,
but also to Fort Myers, as many ventured
upriver to see what the town may be like.
Some decided they liked it so much, they
made Fort Myers their home.
The tarpon frenzy has lasted through the
years, becoming one of the main attractions on
Boca Grande, a small, quaint island located
partly in northern Lee County and southern
Charlotte County. The Boca Grande Fishing
Guides Association holds a tarpon tournament
every year in Boca Grande Pass. It has become
one of the most famous tarpon tournaments in
HISTORIC LEE
40
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the world, with a very large purse for the winners.
Tarpon fishing is one of the most challenging
of all fishing sports. The tarpon can be
one of the most exhilarating fish to hook,
watching the silver king jump numerous times
out of the water while fighting to land him,
and one of the most frustrating, fighting him
for over an hour and watching him spit out the
hook and swim away.
Lee County offers many types of fishing,
from inshore fishing for snook, redfish, trout,
sheepshead, and mangrove snapper, to offshore
fishing for shark, grouper, barracuda,
cobia, Spanish mackerel, and kingfish. Sport
fishing has always been a favorite activity in
the area and a large contributor to the growth
of Lee County.
BASEBALL
The history of baseball in Fort Myers is
almost as old as the town itself. The first
recorded game was between two local teams
in 1896 as part of the town’s Independence
Day celebration. Baseball was officially on the
map in Lee County after Dr. Marshall Terry
and his wife, a well-known name in the area,
Mrs. Tootie McGregor Terry, donated approximately
twenty-five acres of cow pasture to
the county. On this site, located about a mile
east of downtown Fort Myers and then considered
“out in the boondocks,” a small wooden
grandstand, seating no more than six hundred
fans, was erected. Terry Park, as it was
named, began a priceless lifetime of Lee
County baseball lure. A local pharmacist and
leading booster at the time, Richard Quintas
Richards, persuaded Connie Mack, manager
of the Philadelphia Athletics, to bring his
team to Fort Myers, arriving in February
1925, for their first spring season.
Starting with Connie Mack’s team in 1925,
and ending with George Brett’s Kansas City
Royals in 1987, Terry Park has hosted some of
the game’s greatest teams and players. Hall of
Famers Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Roberto
Clemente, Jimmy Foxx, and Bob Feller are
just a few of the great players who have graced
Terry Park. The Philadelphia Athletics were
the first major league team to play at Terry
Park in 1925, followed by the Cleveland
Indians (1940), Pittsburgh Pirates (1955) and
the Kansas City Royals (1969). All these went
on to become World Series champs in the
years they trained in Fort Myers.
Built originally with wooden grandstands,
the park was remodeled with steel beam and
truss material for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
During the Kansas City Royals years, the main
field featured artificial turf, just as Royals
Stadium did back home, but several years
later, when the Royals left for Baseball City in
Lakeland, the turf left as well.
Terry Park has been host to over 160
college teams from around the country in the
month of March as they begin their college
season. It was the home park for the now
defunct Fort Myers Sun Sox, one of the
original franchises that began play in the
Senior Professional Baseball Association.
Less than halfway through their second
season, ownership quarrels in Fort Myers
caused the Sun Sox to fold and the league to
cease operations.
The Lee County Sports Complex
completed in 1991 at a cost of $14 million in
south Fort Myers, serves as spring training
✧
Above: Connie Mack, owner of the
Philadelphia Athletics.
Below: Connie Mack with A’s players Len
Krausse, Joe Bowman, and Roy Mahaffey.
CHAPTER VIII
41

✧
The new Lee County Stadium—home of
former Miracle and Minnesota Twins.
headquarters for the Minnesota Twins and
summer home for the Fort Myers Miracle, the
Class A team affiliated with the Twins. Spring
training generally starts the middle of
February, when the Twins report to camp at
Bill Hammond Stadium, part of the Lee
County Complex named after the County
Commissioner who was instrumental in
getting the state-of-the-art complex built for
the Minnesota Twins. A beautiful facility
designed for the entire Minnesota Twins
organization includes complete home and
visiting clubhouses in the stadium proper and
complete facilities for the minor league teams
in a building adjacent to their fields. There are
only two levels of seating for spring training
games, box and reserved bleachers, so there is
a good chance for fans to get close to their
favorite players.
The Class A team, the Fort Myers Miracle,
actually has a much longer history than most
fans realize. Their humble beginnings can be
traced back to 1926, when the club took the
field for the first time as the Fort Myers Royal
Palms. In their first year, the Royal Palms, came
in third place, five games behind the second
place team the Tampa Smokers, and 8 ½ games
behind the champs, the Celeryfeds. After their
debut in Terry Park, the Palms moved to Miami
Field in what is now the southwest corner of
the Orange Bowl stadium parking lot.
In 1989, the team was sold to a group of
investors including actor Bill Murray and
singer Jimmy Buffet. After six name changes,
numerous franchises, and a 66-year absence,
the Miracle team returned to Fort Myers as
the home team in 1992. In their years as the
Twins’ top Class A affiliate, the Miracles have
sent several dozen players to the majors, and
more are likely to follow.
Fort Myers can also boast of another major
league team which makes this area their
spring training home. The Boston Red Sox
moved to Fort Myers from Winter Haven in
1993. A beautiful facility was constructed in
1992 in anticipation of their arrival. The
architectural style is reminiscent of traditional
stadiums like Wrigley Field and Fenway Park,
with a 6,990-seat stadium that allows a
closeness and access to the players that only
occurs at spring training camps. The facilities
include a practice field, five minor league
fields, twelve indoor hitting tunnels,
expansive clubhouses, and dugouts, as well as
conditioning, hydrotherapy, training, and
locker rooms. It is very aptly named City of
Palms Park with its swaying palm trees
surrounding the stadium.
HISTORIC LEE
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CHAPTER IX
A VIATION IN L EE C OUNTY
The recorded history of Lee County aviation began in 1918 when a landing strip was built at
Fort Myers Beach. Army Air Corps pilots who were training at the time in Arcadia at Carlstrom
Field would fly to the landing strip at Fort Myers Beach for recreation on their days off to swim
and indulge in a little girl watching.
Just two years later on March 2, 1920, aviation was dealt a severe blow when an event described
by the Fort Myers Press in a headline read, “MOST APPALLING TRAGEDY EVER KNOWN IN LEE
COUNTY OCCURS NEAR EVERGLADES.” The article reported that Captain Richard Channing
Moore Page, piloting a Curtiss Sea-Gull, was transporting G. Hunter Bryant, tax assessor, on county
business along with Thomas H. Colcord, his “mechanician.” An interview with eyewitness George
Storter written by Nell Colcord Weidenbach said, “After completing the tax assessments at Naples
and Marco, they headed for Everglade, where they could land on the nearby Barron River. The
hydroplane was maneuvering in a circle in order to land on the river…the plane hit a dreaded air
pocket and suddenly swerved. It side slipped and fell to the earth from a height of some 50 feet.”
All three men were killed.
✧
Fort Myers Field, Tommy Morse,
scout in 1918.
CHAPTER IX
43

✧
Above: Channing Page.
Below: “Sea Gull” plane in which
Channing Page died.
Opposite, top: Charles Lindberg
and Clarence Chamberlain.
Opposite: Fort Myers Field, 1918.
Captain Page, the pilot in the plane crash, was
a World War I hero well liked and highly respected
in the community. When the war began, he
walked ten miles to Fort Myers to enlist, but was
rejected. After trying to enlist in Memphis,
Tennessee, and once again being rejected
because he was underweight, he traveled to
Washington, D.C., where he solicited the help of
Florida Senators Fletcher and Drane. It was then
he became the first Floridian to join the Army
Aviation Corps. He was credited with bringing
down three German planes on the western front
during World War I and, according to the Press,
was “known to have two other boche (German
airplanes) machines to his credit”.
In November 1924, the City of Fort Myers
obtained a quarter of a section of land south
of Fort Myers for $18,000 from Charles A.
Stadler, president of Stadler Realty Company.
The City had plans for a municipal golf course
on the land which never came to fruition. A
portion of the land, now known as Page Field,
after Captain Page, decades later, was used as
Lee County’s first airport.
By 1926, the airport consisted of two runways,
300 feet wide which formed an “L”
along two sides of the city-owned quarter section
off Tamiami Trail. The push for daily air
service to Fort Myers by the chamber of commerce
brought Reid M. Chambers to a dinner
meeting on February 15 at the Royal Palm
Hotel. At the meeting Chambers explained the
problems with his planes flying into and out of
Fort Myers. Mainly, the ground was uneven
and full of snags, palmetto roots, and ruts. He
said no more Florida Airways planes would
land here until these problems were corrected.
After much planning and improvements,
and great fanfare, daily air mail service was
introduced into the Fort Myers area on April
1, 1926. Postmaster J. F. Brecht announced
that a specially designed cancellation stamp
would be used for all air mail dispatched from
the city that day. The stamp imprint read
“First Flight Inaugurating Contract Air Mail”
with the words “Fort Myers, Fla. 8:45 A.M.
(or 12:30 P.M.), April 1, 1926.”
The president of the Fort Myers Chamber
of Commerce, S. O. Goodman, raved about
the new service, saying, “The inauguration of
the cross-state air route is without a doubt
one of the greatest accomplishments this state
has experienced, while the beginning of air
mail service today has a value which cannot
be estimated in dollars and cents”.
Postmaster Brecht and Mayor O. M.
Davison climbed aboard the Miss Miami, a
Ford all-metal plane belonging to Florida
Airways Corporation and traveled as far as
Tampa, the plane’s next stop, along with four
thousand pieces of mail from local citizens
destined for the north.
Air service to Fort Myers was short lived
with problems surfacing within weeks.
According to the minutes of the Fort Myers City
Council dated April 16, 1926, Stanley Colquitt
appeared to report he had been told by “one of
the men operating the air mail planes that on
account of the inadequacy of the field, they
could carry only half the passenger capacity
they could under favorable conditions.”
HISTORIC LEE
44
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FAMOUS AVIATOR VISITS
In 1927, Fort Myers was visited by
Clarence Duncan Chamberlin, one of the
nation’s most famous aviators. The Fort Myers
Press reported on July 16 that Chamberlin was
“on an inspection tour of a new airline that
will connect both coasts of Florida with New
York.” Only six weeks earlier, Chamberlin had
made history when he flew across the Atlantic
and broke Lindbergh’s record for the longest
distance and time in the air—3,911 miles in
42 hours, 31 minutes.
Clarence Chamberlain later returned to
retire and live with his wife, Louise, on Fort
Myers Beach until his death in 1976.
By August 30, 1927, Florida Air Ways was
no longer operating out of Fort Myers. Local
aviators Roy E. Larson and Philip A. Roll
appeared before the City Commission to
request “use of the 160 acre tract which the
City had prepared for the Air Mail Service, but
which later proved inadequate.” They wanted
to establish a flying school and later a
municipal airport.
Petitions were signed and numerous
aviation figures appeared before the City
Commission, but the effort was in vain. In
February of 1928, City Manager Staley “stated
he realized the advantages of having an airport,
but did not at this time favor an expenditure
such as it would to take to put this field in
Class B condition.” His reason was simple. If
the airport were to be improved, important
street work would have to be abandoned.
Air mail service continued. It was unreliable,
since planes would have to fly over and
not stop in rainy weather when the runways
were muddy. It would not be until July 1937,
when the need to provide air passenger service
to Lee County would again become a high
priority for the airlines.
by National Airlines, “George T. Baker had a
dream in 1934 amid the dark clouds of
America’s greatest economic depression. The
NATIONAL SAVES THE DAY
In 1937, National Airlines, a newly developed
airline established in 1934, expressed an
interest in bringing passenger service, air
mail, and air express to the Fort Myers area.
According to the October 1969 issue of The
National Reporter, a trade magazine published
CHAPTER IX
45

✧
Above: A B-24 at Buckingham Army
Air Field.
Below: Soldiers at Buckingham Army Air Field.
National Airlines System, as it was called then,
operated two secondhand Ryan monoplanes
on a mail route between St. Petersburg, the
airline’s base, and Daytona Beach.” Each of the
“Ryans” could carry four passengers.
Now Baker was ready to expand. At a meeting
of the Fort Myers City Council, Baker
explained that the present airport and hangar
accommodations would be adequate for the
Stinson trimotor planes which would be serving
this area. However, by November 1,
National would be using the new Lockheed
Vega Highspeed passenger planes. By that time,
the runways would have to be much longer.
Baker was accompanied by H. C. Whitney,
Director of the Aviation Division of the State
Road Department. Whitney recommended
construction of a four-thousand-foot runway
made of shell covered with asphalt.
On July 16, less than two weeks later,
although the runways were not completely
hard-surfaced, they were sufficient for an
intermediate stop on the initial flight of
National Airlines between Tampa and Miami.
Mayor Dave Shapard, joined by Postmaster
Walter Walters, greeted the planes.
The first airmail and passenger plane
arrived at the Fort Myers Airport at 8:25 a.m.
and left carrying more than twenty-five thousand
letters to be returned to stamp collectors
all over the country, along with two passengers,
Shapard and Walters, for the flight over
the Everglades.
On July 17,1937, the Fort Myers News
Press reported, “Mayor Shapard returned
enthusiastic over the airmail and passenger
HISTORIC LEE
46
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service and said a project had been worked
up to make the Fort Myers Airport thoroughly
modern. This would mean the construction
of two black-surfaced runways 4,000
feet long to accommodate fast airships.” In
the same article, the fares were listed. Oneway
to Miami was $7.50; round trip was
$13.50. The fare to Tampa one-way was
$7.95 and round trip was $12.95.
As stated in Karl Grismer’s The Story of Fort
Myers, “National began making regular stops
at the Fort Myers Airport on August 4, 1937.
Later the airline was forced to cancel many
flights because of wet grounds, and late in the
year officials threatened to discontinue service
until concrete runways were provided.”
The desire to comply with National’s
requirements was there, the money was not. In
order to qualify for Federal monies from the
Works Projects Administration (WPA), the City
of Fort Myers, in 1939, deeded the airport to
Lee County allowing voters to approve a
$75,000-bond issue to pay the local share of
improvements. Improvements were started by
the WPA on January 1, 1940, and were soon
taken over by the Civil Aeronautics Authority
(CAA) and finally by the U.S. Army. The
expansion plans included two hangars, an
administration building, including quarters for
the CAA and the weather bureau, and three
4000-foot runways. This $250,000 project
had a January 1, 1941 completion date, which
was met.
PEARL
HARBOR
The attack on Pearl Harbor on Sunday,
December 7, 1941, stunned the nation. Our
reluctance to enter World War II was gone.
Locally, Lee County officially became part of
the war effort on February 19, 1942, when the
618-acre field was leased from Lee County for
use as a base, quickly gaining the nickname
“Palmetto Field” for then obvious reasons.
The first Army Air Force unit to occupy
Page Field was the 98th Bombardment Group,
which was equipped with B-24s. They arrived
March 31, 1942, traveling from Barksdale
Field, Louisiana, in 18 rail cars which carried
400 men and supplies. The unit was known
as Colonel H. A. Halverson’s “Halpro.” They
were met at the station by Mayor Sam
Persimmons, County Commissioner Harry W.
Stringfellow and Dave Shapard, now representing
the Chamber of Commerce.
According to The History of Page Field, 75
of Fort Myers’ “local belles” entertained 400
soldiers from this field at a dance held at
the former municipal pier on April 3. “Early
in the morning of April 4, 1942, the citizens
of Fort Myers were awakened by the mighty
throbs of B-24s on their first flying mission.”
On May 21, 1942, the Lee County
Commission adopted a resolution changing the
name from Lee County Airport to Channing
Page Field after the late Captain Channing
Page, the first Floridian to receive a commission
as an officer in the Army Aviation Corps.
Although the community, according to the military
history, “had changed the name of the
field to Page Field, this was not acceptable to
the Army, which continued to operate under
the name of the Fort Myers Army Air Base.”
Meanwhile, National Airlines had once
again appeared on the scene. Once the runways
were improved, National reinstated regular
flights to Fort Myers. While National’s
service was commercial, W. H. Marcum,
retired manager of Page Field, remembers that
National also carried supplies needed for the
military, so its planes were allowed to land on
runways there. Civilian travel took a “back
seat” to military priorities, causing passengers
to often be bumped from the flights.
✧
A B-24 Liberator over southwest Florida.
CHAPTER IX
47

✧
A P-39 at Page Field in 1943.
The thrust of the training program at Page
Field was changed on February 12, 1943, when
P-39-1s arrived, transforming the base into a
training ground for “high tech” pursuit fighter
planes. Hundreds of P-39s were sold to the
Russians and many Russian flight instructors
came to Fort Myers to receive their training.
A boost to the morale came in late January of
1944 in the form of a visit by the famous boxer
Max Baer, who was now a sergeant in the Army.
He arrived to referee local boxing matches and
to look over the physical training program at
the base. On January 29, baseball great, Leo
Durocher, and movie comedian, Danny Kaye,
“motored over from Miami,” where they’d been
appearing at the Homestead base.
BUCKINGHAM
GUNNERY SCHOOL
In addition to the development of the Army
base at Page Field, headquarters were being set
up for the Army Air Force’s Flexible Gunnery
School in a wasteland area of dead pine trees
and palmettos, ten miles east of Fort Myers. The
site, today known as Buckingham and Lehigh
Acres, was sixty-five hundred acres needed to
establish a flexible gunnery school. Fort Myers
and Lee County officials purchased the site leasing
it to the U.S. Government for $1 per year
for the duration of the war with the stipulation
that the Government would return the land and
the improvements.
According to the U.S. Army Air Force history
of Buckingham Gunnery School, “On May 5,
1942, Major Richard W. Duggan, then a captain,
arrived in Fort Myers and set up his offices
in the Collier Arcade…. Furniture for the office
was borrowed from local businessmen. Edward
Allen, accountant, lent a typewriter and desk
and Harry McWhorter and Harry Wood, real
estate men, both gave a desk. Police Chief
Charles Moore arranged parking space for the
office, and the city and county officials gave
numerous mops and other office equipment to
help the new gunnery school.”
Work on the field began May 25, 1942. The
buildings were divided into two types, tar
paper buildings, built in 75 days, or the more
permanent buildings built in 110 days. At the
peak of the work, 3,000 to 3,500 men were
employed on the post, and a majority of the
buildings were in serviceable condition when
troops began to arrive. Accommodations were
less than desirable, with outdoor toilets, little
drinking water, and a tar paper-covered lunch
stand. The post was formally activated on July
5, with the first cadre of men arriving three
weeks later from Tyndall Field.
The runways were completed and training
began September 5. Within seven months,
Buckingham airfield was turning out gunners
who were able to fire on enemy targets from
the domed turrets and small windows of the
giant bombers. Veterans who had fought off
Zeroes and Messerschmitts were sent to
Buckingham Field to train others in the ways
of enemy warfare. With six runways, each a
mile-long, paved, and suitable for all types of
weather, the skies over Southwest Florida
were filled with B-17 and B-24 bombers.
In December 1942, the Central Instructors
School was established, and all the instructors
in the nation’s six aerial gunnery schools were
HISTORIC LEE
48
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equired to go through the training
course at Buckingham.
At its peak, the 6,500-acre base
housed 16,000 men. By the time
Buckingham was shut down in
September 1945, fifty thousand soldiers
had been trained there as air crew gunners.
Many of those men, in spite of irritating
mosquitoes and scorching hot
summers, found something here of value
for they returned after the War making
their homes here.
POST-WAR AVIATION
A hush fell over Lee County after the
war, the population was cut in half and
the skies were quiet. No more B-17 or
B-24 bombers training overhead, but
National continued its regular passenger
service, the only major airline here at
the time. In 1955 a new $25,000 terminal
was opened at Page Field. The
founder of Fort Myers Airways at Page Field
in 1953, Ed Wilson, recalled in 1960 that Lee
County doubled the size of the terminal, and,
just five years later in 1965, doubled it again.
On December 15, 1965, Fort Myers joined
the jet age with the introduction of jet air
transportation to the city of Fort Myers with
the inauguration of daily Boeing 727 flights to
and from New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport;
the jet also had service to Boston. This was a
momentous occasion, with National President
L. B. Maytag, Jr., presenting a plaque praising
Fort Myers for its “community endeavor to
promote progress through aviation”.
During the same year, a community service
club called The Sundowners was started by a
group of local pilots and boaters including
Simon Martin, Bob Hampton, John Langan,
Dale Regnier, Lewis Staerker Don Anderson,
Walter Horn, George Cartwright, and Lou
Beasley. All were from the Civil Air Patrol and,
in the beginning, used the CAP plane to make
search-and-rescue flights along coastal areas
in Lee County.
Still active today, volunteer pilots fly
from Page Field about ninety minutes
before sundown searching for stranded
boaters who they report to the Coast Guard.
The route encompasses a 125-mile route that
traces a path from the mouth of the
Caloosahatchee River along Matlacha Pass,
around the tip of Bokeelia, around the Coast
of Pine Island, Sanibel and Captiva and down
to Bonita Beach.
Ed Wilson, owner and operator of Fort
Myers Airways, never lost his love for
teaching and training. Under his guidance,
hundreds of students, young and middleaged,
became pilots. Wilson recalled, “The
heyday (of general or private aviation) around
here was in the mid-1970s. People were
learning to fly on the GI Bill, and we were
selling airplanes”.
PLANS FOR SOUTHWEST
REGIONAL AIRPORT
It was not long before the Page Field
facility was found to be inadequate. By
1973, the population explosion taking
place in Southwest Florida begged for a much
larger terminal. The runways were too short
for the modern jets. Something had to be
done immediately. Originally plans were
made to enlarge Page Field, but projecting
realistically, officials realized this would only
✧
National Airlines flight over
ssouthwest Florida.
CHAPTER IX
49

✧
Above: Aerial of Buckingham field.
Below: Page Field, c. 1960.
be a short-term fix. It was time for a
move, but changes were subject to the
approval of the Civil Aeronautics Board
(CAB), and they had declared a moratorium
on new routes in 1969.
Because of the efforts of a group of local
citizens, most notably Malcolm Schroeder, the
need was established for more airline services
to the rapidly growing metropolitan area.
Delta, Eastern, Southern, and United Airlines
filed to serve Fort Myers. A hearing held in
1975 awarded Eastern the route. They started
service on December 10 that same year.
Now the stage was set for a new, much larger
facility. A location was chosen near Daniels Road
and I-75. Construction of the new regional airport
was a complicated project requiring major
construction plans, soil tests, filing for Federal
grants, and meeting requirements for airport
firefighting and rescue services. On Friday, April
11, 1980, after years of work and planning and
delay, groundbreaking ceremonies were held.
After three more years of setbacks including
sinkholes and the original cost tripling to over
$93 million a cocktail party was held on May
12, 1983, celebrating the new airport’s grand
opening. More than 5,000 guests attended the
semi-formal gala and toured the 300,000-
square foot, two-level terminal. And, on
Saturday, May 14, 1983 at 1:40 a.m. Delta
Flight 1677 became the first commercial flight
to land at Southwest Regional Airport.
The airport was renamed Southwest
Florida International Airport in 1993, exactly
ten years after its inaugural flight, although it
had hosted international flights since 1984
and U.S. Customs since 1987, primarily for
services to Germany and other European destinations.
The runway was lengthened to
twelve thousand feet to accommodate
increased international traffic, including use
by the Concorde.
In 1988, the airport exceeded its annual
capacity of three million passengers; by 2004
the airport was serving nearly seven million passengers
annually. With the airport operating at
more than double its intended capacity, construction
of a new terminal dubbed the Midfield
Terminal Complex began in 2002. After a five
month delay, the $438 million terminal opened
on September 9, 2005.
The pioneers of early aviation in
Lee County, Channing Page, Clarence
Chamberlain, and the servicemen who trained
at Page and Buckingham Fields, would surely
be amazed at the progress of aviation today.
They can be proud they were part of the legacy
of what is now international aviation.
HISTORIC LEE
50
COUNTY

EPILOGUE
By Matt Johnson
Lee County has a strong future build upon the foundation of its history. With a culture formed
by so many individuals from many different backgrounds it is fitting that Lee County’s future will
continue to rely on its diversity in moving to the future. The area has seen, over the past few
decades, growth of tremendous proportions and, like many communities, has struggled to keep up
with the demands of that growth. The battles faced today do not involve muskets and cannons but
are debates of preservation versus progress, development versus sustainability and heritage versus
changing populations.
Today’s Fort Myers claims one of the state’s most historic downtowns. Current redevelopment
projects promise to bring the “River District” into the twenty-first century while preserving the
foundations that moved it forward for so long. This progress has not been without its sacrifices.
Historic buildings and homes have made way for high-rise condos and expanding government
offices. During this process though, through efforts of citizens and representatives, much has been
retained. The homes of the Edisons, Fords, Burroughs, and Langfords have been protected.
Historic Preservation codes have preserved historic neighborhoods like Dean Park and Edison Park
and most importantly the downtown core that, ironically, was made possible by the demolition of
the last remnants of the fort.
One question that will continue to challenge Lee County is how much growth can this environment
sustain? This debate can be traced back to Thomas Edison’s famous quote “There is only
one Fort Myers, and 90 million people are going to find out.” As the population continues to grow,
so does the importance of this debate. Current residents face overcrowded roads, severe water
shortages, and development continues to destroy more and more of the natural beauty that has
encouraged Edison’s ninety million to seek out Southwest Florida. There are many current programs
that show progress toward correcting the mistakes of the past. Hamilton Diston’s efforts to
“tame” the wild are slowly being reversed by State and Federal Everglades restoration programs.
Water conservation efforts have shown progress, and the nation movement toward a “green”
lifestyle continues to bring new innovations to allow more from less.
Lee County boasts one of the fastest growing Hispanic populations in the Country and struggles
with issues of illegal immigration, migrant workers and language barriers that challenge the
schools and hinder acceptance and assimilation. A brief look at an area map shows that Spanish
speakers have played important roles in the history of this area. The names Florida, Punta Rassa,
Sanibel, Estero and Captiva all date back to early Spanish settlement. The areas earliest settlers are
of Spanish ancestry and have help to shape the heritage of Lee County. Cattle, citrus and sugar cane
all come from the earliest Spanish settlers
Southwest Florida’s history has been shaped by natives, transplants, foreigners and visitors since
the first humans arrive nearly ten thousand years ago. Like those who arrive today whether from
Ohio or Mexico, everyone has come in search of their piece of paradise.
✧
Thomas Edison at the dedication of the
Edison Bridge in 1931.
EPILOGUE
51

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Barnes, Alberta Colcord and Nell Colcord Weidenbach. Early Fort Myers: Tales of Two Sisters. Punta Gorda FL: Chris the Printer, Inc., 1993.
Board, Prudy Taylor and Esther B. Colcord. Historic Fort Myers. Virginia Beach VA: The Donning Company Publishers, 1992.
Board, Prudy Taylor and Esther B. Colcord. Pages From The Past: A Pictorial Retrospective of Lee County, Florida. Virginia Beach VA: The
Donning Company Publishers, 1990.
Board, Prudy Taylor and Patricia Pope Bartlett. Lee County: A Pictorial History. Virginia Beach VA: The Donning Company Publishers, 1985.
Brooks, Priscilla and Caroline Crabtree. St. James City Florida: The Early Years. Detroit MI: Harlo Press, 1982.
Brown, Barrett and Adelaide. A Short History of Fort Myers Beach. Fort Myers Beach FL: Estero Island Publishers, 1965.
Damkohler, Captain E. E.. Estero, Fla. 1882: Memoirs of the first settler. Fort Myers Beach FL: Island Press, 1967.
Firestone, Linda and Whit Morse. The Firestone/Morse Guide to Florida’s Enchanting Islands Sanibel & Captiva. Richmond VA: Good Life
Publishers, 1980.
Godown, Marian and Alberta Rawchuck. Yesterday’s Fort Myers. Miami FL: E. A. Seemann Publishing, Inc., 1975.
Grismer, Karl H.. The Story of Fort Myers. Fort Myers Beach FL: The Island Press Publishers, 1949.
Hammond, E. A.. Spanish Fisheries of Charlotte Harbor. DeLeon Springs FL: E. O. Painter Printing Co., 1973.
Jordan, Elaine Blohm. Pine Island, The Forgotten Island. Chelsea MI: BookCrafters, Inc., 1982.
Turner, Gregg. A Short History of Florida Railroads. Charleston SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2003.
Turner, Gregg and Stan Mulford. Images of America: Fort Myers. Charleston SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2000.
Voegelin, Byron D. South Florida’s Vanished People: Travels in the Homeland of the Ancient Calusa. Island Press, 1977.
Zeiss, Betty. The Other Side of the River, Historical Cape Coral. Cape Coral FL: 1986.
HISTORIC LEE
52
COUNTY

SHARING THE HERITAGE
Historic profiles of businesses,
SPECIAL
THANKS TO
organizations, and families that have
contributed to the development and
economic base of Lee County and Fort Myers
AEGIS Factors, Inc.
Strayhorn & Strayhorn..................................................................54
Schehr Construction Company ........................................................56
Sanibel Packing Company dba
Bailey’s General Store..............................................................58
Compass Rose Foundation ..............................................................60
Saminco Inc.................................................................................62
Bradley’s Fine Jewelers..................................................................64
First Baptist Church of Fort Myers..................................................66
Manheim Fort Myers .....................................................................68
Southwest Florida Oral and Facial Surgery.......................................70
BSSW Architects, Inc.....................................................................72
Island Inn ...................................................................................73
Hodges University ........................................................................74
Edison College .............................................................................75
The Islands of Sanibel Captiva Chamber of Commerce ........................76
Greater Fort Myers Chamber of Commerce .......................................77
Chamber of Commerce of Cape Coral ...............................................78
DirectBuy of Southwest Florida.......................................................79
Rels Title ....................................................................................80
M E L - R E Construction Development Management ..........................81
Industrial & Marine Hardware .......................................................82
Flint & Doyle, Inc. .......................................................................83
Harvey-Engelhardt-Metz Funeral Home & Crematory .........................84
Ambassador Riverfront Hotel
BTS Development Corporation/
BTS Monterrey Holdings, LLC
S&S Structural Systems, Inc.
William A. Taylor Associates
SHARING THE HERITAGE
53

STRAYHORN &
STRAYHORN
✧
Above: The year was 1905 and the place
was the cowpens of Guy M. Strayhorn in
Citrus Center, near Moore Haven, with this
group of cowmen working cattle. Shown in
the photograph is Guy M. Strayhorn
holding the branding iron.
COURTESY OF E. BRUCE STRAYHORN OF FORT MYERS.
The oldest law firm in Fort Myers is
Strayhorn & Strayhorn (formerly Redwine &
Strayhorn), established in the city in 1915.
The firm was founded by Guy M. Strayhorn
and Leonidas Redwine, the grandfather and
great uncle, respectively, of two of the
firm’s current principals. The practice focuses
on the fields of administrative and public
law, eminent domain, and associated land
use issues.
Guy Moreau Strayhorn was born on a cotton
farm in London, Arkansas in 1889. With
degrees from Hendrix College and Fort Smith
Business College, he journeyed south in 1908
to help his brother, Felix, survey land in Citrus
Center, a Florida boomtown. That year he
married Stella Redwine, who had traveled to
Florida with her father, County Judge Mathew
M. Redwine of Sandy Hook, Kentucky. Guy and
Stella returned to Sandy Hook where he studied
in the law office of Stella’s brother, Leonidas,
who later relocated to Fort Myers and served as
a Lee County judge in the early 1900s.
After Guy was admitted to the bar in
Kentucky, the couple returned to Citrus
Center where their son, Norwood, was born
in North LaBelle. A second son, Orville
Tennyson Strayhorn, would follow.
Guy was Lee County prosecutor from 1920
to 1924; a period that he said kept him busy
prosecuting “bootleggers, moonshiners and
rum runners.” The pay was $50 a month and
$5 for every conviction. He went on to serve
as state attorney for the Twelfth Judicial
Circuit from 1926 to 1935. He was elected
state representative for Lee County in 1938,
and served in the Florida legislature until
1941. Guy was a founding member of the Lee
County Cattlemen’s Association and, during
World War II, he chaired the county’s draft
board. In 1967, Guy served on the Lee
County Bi-Racial Committee and was a
member of the Lee County Charter
Commission in 1969-70.
“Mr. Guy” was just short of his ninety-third
birthday when he died in 1981. He still lived in
a brick house constructed in 1957 in Fort
Myers on the site of one he had first built there
in 1914. Norwood followed his father’s
example, serving in the Florida legislature from
1949 to 1954 as the State Representative for
Lee County. Norwood began practicing law in
Fort Myers in 1934, and was city attorney for
Fort Myers from 1947 until 1952. He was
president of the Lee County Bar Association in
1953 and was the governor’s representative to
the Central and South Florida Water
Management District in 1962, and served as
the governor’s representative on the Central
and Southern Flood Control District. Norwood
outlived his father by less than two years; he
died in 1982 at the age of seventy-one.
Today the firm consists of brothers and
Fort Myers natives, Guy R. and Bruce
Strayhorn, and Guy’s son-in-law Richard
Pringle, who was born in Deland, Florida.
Guy R. graduated from the University of
Florida and received his J.D. from University
of Florida Law School. He was admitted to the
Florida Bar in 1963, and served as Assistant
State Attorney for the Twelfth Judicial Circuit.
Pringle holds a BBA from Stetson University
and a juris doctorate degree from Stetson
School of Law. He was admitted to the Florida
Bar in 1987. Pringle is active in the Lee County
Bar Association, the Florida Bar, Leadership
Lee County, and the Florida Commission on
Marriage and Family Support Initiatives. He is
the county attorney for Glades County and
general counsel for several independent special
districts in Southwest Florida. His areas of
practice include zoning and land use planning,
HISTORIC LEE
54
COUNTY

annexation, agricultural law, government (or
public) contract law, municipal law, and
eminent domain.
Bruce was admitted to the Florida Bar in
1977, and to the U.S. District Court, both
Southern and Middle Court. He graduated
Stetson University, and Stetson School of Law.
He served as a special assistant to the state
attorney for the Sixth Judicial Circuit and as
assistant state attorney for the Twentieth
Judicial Circuit. Bruce has been active with
several Lee County entities including the
Planning Advisory Committee, Industrial
Development Authority, and the Public
Schools Foundation. For twenty years, he has
been a commissioner for the Housing
Authority of the City of Fort Myers, and has
been active with the U.S. Senate Advisory
Committee for right-of-way acquisition and
the City of Fort Myers Centennial Advisory
Committee. His practice is predominantly in
the fields of administrative law and land use.
Bruce was a founding organizer and director
of The National Bank of Lee County and its
holding company, Gulf and Southern Financial
Corporation. When the bank was acquired by
SouthTrust Bank, he continued as a director of
SouthTrust Bank of Southwest Florida, N.A.
until its acquisition by Wachovia. In 2005, he
was a founding organizer and director of
Commerce Bank of Southwest Florida, and
continues as a director.
✧
Above: The Florida Everglades,1929. Front
row (from left to right): State Senator
Ethridge, Sebring; Wallace Alderman; Cyril
Baldwin, tax collector for Highlands County;
and Circuit (later U.S. District) Judge W. J.
Barker. Second row: Guy M. Strayhorn,
state attorney; Ray Barnes, game warden.
Standing: Circuit (later U.S. District) Judge
George W. Whitehurst; Tommy Billie,
Seminole Indian guide; and Concho Billie,
Seminole Indian guide. This picture was
taken by Dr. L. H. Kennedy, executive
director of Game and Fresh Water
Fish Commission.
Below: Guy M. Strayhorn (standing, left);
Orville Tenneyson Strayhorn (seated, left),
Irving Brown (seated, right); and Norwood
Redwine Strayhorn (standing, right).
SHARING THE HERITAGE
55

SCHEHR
CONSTRUCTION
COMPANY
✧
Above: Brad Schehr, one of Schehr
Construction Company’s employees and
Dennis Schehr’s son.
Below: Jennifer, daughter of Dennis Schehr,
and Stephanie Schehr, employees at Schehr
Construction Company.
Schehr Construction Company
started as a concrete company,
back in Lockport, Illinois, in
1978. In 1980 and 1981, interest
rates reached twenty-one percent
and there was no construction
going on. Fort Myers was the
number one growth city in the
United States that year in growth.
So, Dennis Schehr, founder and
president of the company, packed
up and moved in April 1981.
Dennis found it amazing that
the south was about ten years
behind the north in modern
equipment and tools. But things changed over
the years and by 2000, Florida was a leader in
this nation, among many, with its construction.
Schehr Construction Company is a general
contracting business, specializing in the
wireless communication industry. Its goal is to
perform top quality workmanship and help in
the growth of communications nationwide.
Customers include companies such as
Verizon, Alltel, AT&T, and Sprint.
The wireless industry is so vast, comments
Dennis that every year new changes are being
made, requiring the company to stay on top of
all this growth with new training. In addition
to normal cell phone features, the hard core
work is with the Federal Government, with all
the newest and tight security upgrades. The
military grants huge communication contracts
to companies like General Dynamics, who
then subcontract to companies such as
Schehr Construction.
In the late 1990s, Dennis’ sons, Joe
and Brad Schehr, entered the business and
his daughter, Jennifer, started with them in
2004. Joe and Brad plan on keeping the
business going after Dennis retires. The
HISTORIC LEE
56
COUNTY

company presently has ten employees with
four million gross. By the year 2012, it is
expected that Schehr Construction will show
growth to $10 million, with Homeland
Security being the number one agency.
Budgets communications will also be a major
focus and Schehr Construction’s goal is to
grow with it.
“Florida no longer sits behind any state,
with respect to growth, quality, and work,”
commented Dennis. “I am so glad that we got
established in 1981 and that our company,
with our reputation for quality and service, is
here to stay.”
Schehr Construction Company is located
at 17430 Alico Center Road in Fort Myers.
✧
Above: Schehr Construction Company
Founder and President Dennis Schehr.
Below: Joe Schehr, an employee at
Schehr Construction Company, and
Dennis Schehr’s son.
SHARING THE HERITAGE
57

SANIBEL
PACKING
COMPANY DBA
BAILEY’S
GENERAL
STORE
✧
Above: The home of Bailey’s General Store,
1927-1966.
Below:Bailey’s first store, 1899-1926.
When Frank P. Bailey
founded Bailey’s General Store
in 1899, it was the epitome of
an American general store.
Today, Francis P. Bailey, Jr., and
his brother Sam preserve the
authenticity that makes it a
center of social and business
life on Sanibel. Celebrated
writer and island resident
Randy Wayne White mentions
the beloved business in
his latest cookbook, writing,
“Shopping at Bailey’s is a little like coming
home, even your first time.”
Bailey’s General Store is the Island’s longestoperating,
most complete supermarket,
hardware and gift store. Its butcher shop is
considered the best in Lee County, the deli
serves three hot meals daily, and the bakery is
famous for homemade goodies. Fresh
vegetables, including organic varieties, appear
in profusion, and organic and natural products
are found in every aisle. Bailey’s sells gifts for
every occasion, and a full line of hardware and
small appliances. The service department cuts
keys and glass panes, fills propane tanks, and
can replace any battery, watches included.
Around the corner, The Shell Net stocks gifts,
books, jewelry, and decorative items crafted by
local artists.
Frank Bailey came to Sanibel Island from
Kentucky with brothers Ernest and Harry. They
left the tobacco business to found Sanibel
Packing Company in a structure at the end of
Mathews Wharf. They crated Sanibel’s bounty of
fruit and vegetables, sending it by boat to New
Orleans, Havana, Baltimore, and Key West. As
more families and farmers settled on the island,
the demand for necessities grew. The Baileys
brought in everything the fledgling community
needed, from plows and crates to food and
clothing. In the days before bridges, ferry
service, electricity, or telephone service, Bailey’s
General Store was the center of the island’s
commerce. In 1910, Western Union wire service
came to Bailey’s, and it is still there today.
Mathews Wharf washed away in the 1926
hurricane and, with it, the original Sanibel
Packing Company building. Frank and Ernest
then built the company’s first land-based
building on San Carlos Bay. This structure is
now part of Sanibel’s Historic Village on Dunlop
Road. In 1927, Kinzie Brothers began a daily
scheduled ferry service from the landing at
Bailey’s General Store, insuring a steady stream
of customers on their doorstep. Sanibel’s first
gas station (now a BP) opened on Periwinkle
near Causeway Road in 1956, and Frank’s sons
Francis and Sam, the current proprietors of
Bailey’s, built it.
The ferry made its final trip to Sanibel in
1963 when the causeway connecting the
island with the mainland was completed.
Bailey’s bayfront location was no longer an
advantage once the daily mail boat quit
docking there, so the brothers sought a new
location. In 1966, Bailey’s General Store
moved to its current site at the corner of
Periwinkle Way and Tarpon Bay Road.
The new six-thousand-square-foot facility
put groceries, clothing, and hardware
HISTORIC LEE
58
COUNTY

operations under one roof. The building was
expanded in 1972, and Bailey’s moved its
clothing department to Bailey’s Center in
1974. By 1982, Bailey’s General Store had
reached its present size.
When Hurricane Charlie hit Sanibel and
Captiva Islands in 2004, Bailey’s was again the
island’s hub, opening to feed emergency
crews, civil authorities, and any who had
ignored orders to evacuate. Once telephone
service was restored, Bailey’s operated as a
communications center, relaying information
and messages to people around the country.
As recovery began, it was a strategic location
for facilities and supplies.
After a successful career as a professional
athlete, head coach, and athletic director at
the University of Tampa, Sam Bailey returned
home to the family business in 1979. The
Coach has always taken an interest in the
people who work for Bailey’s, and gives them
a big share of the credit for its success. Today
he continues to take a personal interest in
everyone there.
Bailey’s began the process of transitioning
the business to a third generation of the
family in 2005, when Bailey’s General Store
was honored by the State of Florida as a
Centennial Business. That year Francis’
daughter, M. Mead Johnson and her husband
Richard, agreed they would undertake to keep
Bailey’s in the family as it continues its
evolution over the next hundred years.
Legend has it that residents of Pine Island,
across San Carlos Bay, ate very well for weeks
after the hurricane of 1926 washed Bailey’s first
store and its contents off the end of Mathews
Wharf. They never knew what they would be
having for dinner, though, because the floating
cans had lost their labels in the storm.
“I guess you could say that this is an early
example of how Bailey’s gives back to the
community,” said Francis P. Bailey, Jr., who
took over as proprietor of Sanibel Packing
Company (the firm’s original name) following
the death of his father in 1952. Bailey’s
remains a dedicated supporter of the entire
island and all of its organizations. The energy
its owners and staff bring to the annual
Baileyfest and Island Night demonstrate the
key role this family business plays the island’s
life. For additional information, please visit
www.baileys-sanibel.com.
✧
Bailey’s General Store today (above) and
yesteryear (below).
SHARING THE HERITAGE
59

COMPASS ROSE
FOUNDATION
✧
The main branch of Southwest Florida
College is located in Fort Myers.
The Compass Rose Foundation has provided
continuously to thousands of graduates for
four generations with a central belief and commitment
that a strong history assures a better
future. Its campuses train students for high
demand careers, thus contributing to the
state’s infrastructure, as most of the graduates
stay within the state of Florida and participate
in their communities. The Foundation is a
Florida nonprofit, tax-exempt corporation and
maintains its principal place of business at
Southwest Florida College in Fort Myers. It
owns and operates two institutions of higher
education in Florida: Southwest Florida
College and Sunstate Academy. The main campus
of Southwest Florida College is located in
Fort Myers and a branch campus is in Tampa.
Sunstate Academy has two locations, one in
Fort Myers and the other in Clearwater.
The educational roots of the Jones Family,
the founders and operators of the Compass
Rose Foundation, began in 1918. In that year,
Annie Harper Jones started the “Mrs. Jones
School,” a one-room schoolhouse in
Jacksonville, Florida. Through this nonprofit
endeavor, the Jones Family has operated several
schools and colleges throughout Florida
for many, many years.
The Compass Rose Foundation began as the
Broward College and School in 1941 and did
not officially change to its current name until
January 3, 2002. The not yet acquired
Southwest Florida College was founded in
1974 as the Lehigh School of Business. Eight
years later, in 1982, the Lehigh School of
Business underwent a name change and
became the Fort Myers Business Academy. In
keeping with the vision of its founders, Donald
and Sharon Jones, the Foundation acquired the
school on June 29, 1995.
When the Compass Rose Foundation began
operating Southwest Florida College, a group of
team leaders comprising of Gregory Jones,
Richard Ashley, Douglas Devaux, Nancy Ashley,
and Carmen King worked together to expand
the organization from one campus with 187 students
to four campuses comprising of 2,000 students.
All of which are still with the Foundation
today in some capacity. Specifically, Jones is currently
the president of the organization and
Devaux is serving as Chairman of the Board.
On April 25, 1997, the Accrediting
Council for Independent Colleges and
Schools (ACICS) granted Southwest Florida
College a Junior College accreditation. In the
spring of 2000, the college received approval
HISTORIC LEE
60
COUNTY

to open a branch campus in Tampa. As
Southwest Florida College continued to
expand its services, it sought Senior College
status, which was granted in December 2005.
Shortly thereafter, the college began offering
bachelor’s degrees.
The mission of Southwest Florida College
is to provide an education to men and women
that will enable them to pursue successful
careers and lead enriched lives. The College
recognizes the ever-increasing need for postsecondary
education and strives to provide
opportunities for individuals to pursue their
educational goals through career-focused
training. It is committed to providing an equal
educational opportunity environment conducive
to lifelong learning where individuals
can acquire knowledge, build skills, and
develop attitudes that will help prepare them
for rewarding careers in fields with high
growth potential. The most recent endeavor
in which the Foundation is giving back to the
community it serves is the Smart Choices
Scholarship. The Foundation realizes the spiraling
cost of higher education and witness
around us many interruptions that preclude a
student from achieving graduation. This
scholarship is rooted in opportunity, and is
being offered to any high school senior
who attends a Lee County or Hillsborough
County high school. The only criteria are that
these graduates must have a ‘normal’ high
school diploma.
Southwest Florida College offers certificates,
diplomas, associate of science degrees and
bachelor of science degrees in accounting technology,
computer-aided drafting and design,
computer programming and database management,
criminal justice, early childhood education,
elementary education, graphic design,
interior design and decorating, management
and marketing, massage therapy, medical
administration, medical assisting, network
engineering and administration, surgical technology,
and Web design and development. For
further details, please visit www.swfc.edu.
Compass Rose Foundation’s Sunstate
Academy began with the 1975 purchase of a
barber school in Largo, Florida, and in 1982,
expanded to Sarasota. In 1983 the Academy
opened another barber styling school in
Fort Myers, which relocated to Port Charlotte
in 1991. A cosmetology school was established
in Fort Myers in 1988, and in 1992,
Sunstate purchased a barber and cosmetology
school in Clearwater. Presently, there are two
Sunstate locations: Fort Myers and
Clearwater, which were purchased by
Compass Rose Foundation on July 25, 2003.
The philosophy of Sunstate Academy is to
instill in all students, through quality education
and motivation, belief in themselves and their
ability to succeed. Programs of study include
cosmetology, nail technician, and massage
Therapy. Additional information is available
at www.sunstate.edu.
✧
A branch campus of Southwest Florida
College is located in Tampa.
SHARING THE HERITAGE
61

SAMINCO INC.
✧
Above: Corporate headquarters of Saminco
Inc. is located at 10030 Amberwood Road,
Fort Myers, Florida 33913.
Below: The Ohio State University Buckeye
Bullet, the fastest electric car on Earth at
321.834 MPH, powered by Saminco M500
AC Traction System.
As the need for clean, fuel-efficient
transportation solutions becomes urgent,
Saminco Inc. of Fort Myers is developing
reliable solutions. Eighty percent of its business
is related to underground mining, ten percent
is in industrial controls, and ten percent relates
to producing transportation-related products
including hybrid vehicle control systems.
Revenues increased from under $1 million
in 1992 to more than $15 million in 2006. It
has international reach, with clients in
Australia, South Africa, United Kingdom,
Germany, Canada and the U.S. The staff is
equally diverse, with employees from the U.S,
England, France, Poland, Germany, Laos and
various Latin American countries.
The motor control products produced by
this privately-held, U.S.-owned corporation
figure in the electric propulsion components
for some of the world’s longest running
hydrogen fuel cell-powered transit programs.
Saminco’s products are used for locomotives
on long distance freight trains, and they run
in the world’s fastest electric vehicle, the
Buckeye Bullet, capable of reaching speeds up
to 321 miles per hour.
Fort Myers resident Bonne Posma,
Saminco’s CEO and founder, has had a
distinguished career in the fields of electronics
and motor control technologies. With degrees
in mathematics and engineering from the
University of Western Ontario, he first worked
as a research officer for the Council of Scientific
and Industrial Research in South Africa. There
he was involved in the design of an anti-shark
device that used giant pulse generators to keep
sharks away from South Africa’s beaches.
This initial research led him to found
Saftronics SA in South Africa in 1969. It
became South Africa’s leading supplier of
variable frequency drives, and is still thriving.
In 1976, he started Saftronics (now known as
Saft Drive Systems) in Canada. In 1985,
Posma left the Canadian company to establish
Fort Myers-based Saftronics, a leading
supplier of AC and DC drive systems. Seven
years later, in 1992, he founded Saminco.
While Saminco cultivated its core
business—propulsion control systems for
underground coal mining—it also got
involved in early research and development of
hydrogen fuel cells for cars and public
transportation vehicles. Projects included
electric pick-up trucks for Florida Power and
Light and the U.S. Air Force, and research for
General Motors EV-1 battery car.
Hydrogen fuel cells produce power by a
chemical reaction of hydrogen and oxygen,
resulting in heat, water vapor and electricity;
the process creates no pollutants. Saminco
designs and builds products that convert
electricity from the fuel cell to power the wheels
of vehicles from industrial machinery for
underground coal mining to passenger buses.
Between 1995 and 1999, Saminco moved
to a new fifteen-thousand-square-foot
manufacturing facility in South Fort Myers.
The firm designed and manufactured a digital
overhead crane control system for EATON
Corp., and an electric propulsion system for
HISTORIC LEE
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General Motors that put over fifty dieselelectric
hybrid buses on the road.
In 2000-2002, it opened a facility in West
Virginia to maintain its mining control
equipment, in addition to working with
Lockheed-Martin on a thermal battery system to
steer solid booster rockets for the Space Shuttle.
It passed all ground flight-testing requirements
at the NASA facility, but the technology has yet
to be adapted. During this period, Saminco
delivered street car propulsion systems to New
Orleans for the Canal Street Car line; twentythree
cars were operating before Hurricane
Katrina damaged them. Saminco worked on fuel
cell automotive programs with Ford and
Daimler-Chrysler, and supplied Ballard with the
control system for fuel cell buses that are now
operating in ten European cities.
In 2003, work began on the Ohio State
University Buckeye Bullet race car. In 2004
this battery-powered streamliner set U.S. and
world land speed records for an electric
vehicle, clocking over 321 mph at the
Bonneville Salt Flats.
The year 2006 marked the company’s
largest growth period with sales revenue
tripling over the three-year period starting in
2003. Sales advances were made in Australia,
South Africa, China, and Europe. It also
expanded in the Fort Myers area, purchasing
the building housing its current headquarters
on Amberwood Road.
Recent accomplishments include an
innovative AC motor propulsion system for
mining vehicles and expansion to a second
West Virginia facility. Its Co-Gen freight
locomotive system, which began operating on
North America rail lines in summer 2007, will
improve the efficiency and reliability of the
country’s rail transportation system.
“We are currently testing a high performance,
efficient system for short line and regional freight
rail lines and are in the process of introducing
many new industrial products for coal
preparation and production. We are involved in
coal-to-liquid research, with the goal of
producing high-grade fuels for automotive use
from our country’s vast coal reserve,” said Larry
Machak, sales and marketing director.
Saminco and its employees are active
supporters of the United Way, the Special
Olympics, Veterans of Foreign Wars,
Make-a-Wish Foundation, and Boy Scouts.
They support the Immokalee BETA club for
honor students and other public school
programs, and provide engineering support
and guidance to automotive research
departments at the Ohio State University,
West Virginia University, and the University of
Florida. For more information on Saminco,
please visit www.samincoinc.com.
✧
Above: Saminco VF1-75 DC to AC Coal
Transport Vehicle control panel.
Below: A New Orleans Canal Street Car
powered by Saminco A300 traction
control system.
SHARING THE HERITAGE
63

✧
Above: The inside of Bradley’s Fine Jewelers.
In 2007 it relocated and expanded to the
Park Shops at Andrea Lane at 14261 South
Tamiami Trail, #3 Fort Myers, FL 33912 or
call 239-337-2723.
Below: (From left to right) Colbi Congress’
parents Marvin and Caron Leff, Colbi
Congress, and Brad Congress.
BRADLEY’S FINE JEWELERS
To understand this charming little store and
the couple that owns it is to appreciate their
logo statement, “The way things used to be.”
That sentiment is evident from the moment
you walk through the doors. Bradley’s Fine
Jewelers has combined old Florida style with a
contemporary flair, featuring brightly colored
progressive art and a mix of woods,
establishing a fresh and cheerful atmosphere
for a better shopping experience!
Owners Brad and Colbi Congress are
dedicated to giving everything that personal
touch. “Our hope is to make everyone’s
purchase a memorable one, reminiscent of
days gone by when spending time with your
jeweler was a special occasion. We’ve
provided an ambiance that is inviting,
delightful and engaging. Our goal is to offer a
timeless selection of beautiful, wearable
jewelry at fair prices. We offer our clients the
best of ourselves and our expertise with
personalized service in an atmosphere where
dreams are realized. These principles and our
commitment to the customer’s satisfaction
set us apart, in a time where true quality
and personal service are not easily found.”
Bradley’s Fine Jewelers opened in 2003
just off Sanibel Island. In 2007, Bradley’s
relocated and expanded to the Park Shops
at Andrea Lane in Fort Myers. It is family
owned and operated, offering custom design,
fine diamond and gemstone jewelry, bridal
jewelry, and ancient coins (Greek, Roman,
and Spanish), also featuring an on-site gem
lab for insurance appraisals and gemstone
detection services along with on-site fine
jewelry repair. They also offer off-site Rolex
and fine watch repair. The gallery also
features dynamic displays of hand-blown
glass, as well as internationally renowned
contemporary fine paintings.
Brad, co-founder and third-generation
jeweler, began his career in 1984 with his
parents, Larry and Dee Congress, in their
jewelry store on Sanibel. Brad excelled in
gemology and became a (GIA) Graduate
Gemologist in 1991. He furthered his studies
becoming a Certified Gemologist (AGS) and
a member of the Numismatic Association.
Brad is considered to be a foremost authority
in his field and is often the “go-to” person
for challenging jewelry consultations, like
identification of natural and synthetic
diamonds. He is a strong proponent of selfeducation
and his patrons are the benefactors.
His expertise is often requested for area
speaking engagements as well.
Colbi, Brad’s wife and business partner,
was a television news producer when the
couple met on a blind date in 1996. Born,
raised and educated in Miami, she earned her
bachelor of science in communications at the
University of Miami in 1990. Colbi received
her practical business education thanks to
HISTORIC LEE
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parents Marvin and Caron Leff who were also
entrepreneurs. They are a constant source of
inspiration, encouragement and counsel for
Brad and Colbi. The combination of their
collective personalities, experiences, and
talents gives this store its own brand of
warmth and innovative panache!
“We take our time with clients. What’s fun
about this business is seeing customers’ eyes
light up when we take heirlooms and recreate
them into something modern and fantastic!
I hand sketch everything while getting
customers’ feedback. By allowing them to be
part of the creative process we always achieve
magnificent results!” says Brad.
“Our showroom is a place where you can
find anything from the affordable and tasteful
to the exotic and extravagant! We offer jewelry
price ranges respectable for all budgets and
because we are owner operated, we are able to
hand select our merchandise. Each fine piece
is carefully chosen for its individuality, beauty
and durability,” Colbi offers.
Soon after the store’s opening, the
Congresses introduced the Sea Reel Life by
Bradley’s ® , their signature jewelry collection.
The collection is an island-themed cast of
lovable cartoon characters, with distinct
personalities, that stand up for the
environment. Each handmade character is
cast in fourteen-karat yellow and white gold
with platinum hand-finished techniques and
gemstones. Coloring books have even been
created, teaching kids of all ages lessons about
preserving wildlife and ecology. Each
character comes with its own story.
Information about each of the characters and
examples of the fine jewelry offered may be
found on the Internet at www.seareellife.com.
Brad says of the collection, “The Sea Reel
Life is a complete departure from the basic
replica of shells and sea life people have seen
in the past. In our new collection we’ve
actually poured imagination and love into
the equation, creating thirty individual
characters, each with its own attributes,
eccentricities and quirks. You can really see
my wife’s influence as we combine superb
craftsmanship with personality and whimsy!”
A portion of each purchase is donated
toward local and international wildlife
organizations. Although ecology is the main
focus, this philanthropic couple is often found
participating in many area auctions and benefits.
Shortly after they launched their
collection, they had an opportunity to meet
with renowned wildlife conservationist Jack
Hanna. He said of the eco-friendly collection,
“I think Brad and Colbi Congress are seriously
devoted to using their jewelry line in a way
that will promote conservation, our natural
resources and wildlife. They are showing
the business community that they can be
successful and have a positive impact on the
environment at the same time. They have
great ideas and a true innovative spirit.”
✧
Above: The Sea Reel Life, Bradley’s
signature jewelry collection, is an islandthemed
cast of thirty characters, that stands
up for the environment.
Below: Colbi Congress, wildlife
conservationist Jack Hanna, and Brad
Congress in 2006.
SHARING THE HERITAGE
65

FIRST BAPTIST
CHURCH OF
FORT MYERS
✧
Above: The current sanctuary of the First
Baptist Church of Fort Myers, located at
Second and Jackson Streets, was dedicated
on November 29, 1959.
Below: The second sanctuary to be built on
the corner of Second and Jackson Streets
was completed in 1929.
The First Baptist Church of Fort Myers was
founded by nine pioneers in 1889. Mary
Frierson donated the land for the first
building and also placed flowers every
Sunday in the sanctuary. Dr. Robert B. Leak, a
pioneer schoolmaster and church member,
donated $50 annually to pay the first pastor,
Reverend William W. Bostick.
From its earliest times, the First Baptist
Church has been located in downtown Fort
Myers and has played an important role in the
community. The church’s bell summoned the
volunteer fire company, when, in December
1902, a terrible fire destroyed many of the
wooden buildings in downtown Fort Myers.
Along with many of the townsfolk, the
church’s employees worked hard to keep the
fire under control.
The Baptist Church moved to its present
location on Second and Jackson Streets
around 1905. A new sanctuary and pastorium
were built with the help of the Baptist State
and Home Mission Boards. Because of
continued growth, the old church building
was moved to the back of the lot in 1929 to
make room for a new church sanctuary.
During World War II, the church helped
meet the spiritual needs of thousands of
soldiers, who were stationed at one of two
training facilities, Buckingham Gunnery School
and Page Field, in Fort Myers. In the late 1950s,
First Baptist Church built a new sanctuary,
dedicated in 1959, on the present site.
Throughout its history, the congregation
has been the catalyst in the establishment of
new churches, which over time, became
flourishing congregations. These include:
Riverside Church, First Baptist Church of
Cape Coral, First Baptist Church of Lehigh
Acres, and McGregor Baptist Church (now the
largest church in Fort Myers). During the
1950s and 1960s, several new missions were
established by the church in Collier County,
including Copeland, Everglades City, and
Goodland. Reverend A. P. Minshew was the
trusted and admired pastor at that time.
The 1970s and ’80s were a time of
stability in leadership and programs. It was
during this time that Reverend Bryan
Robinson concluded eighteen years of
service as pastor (the longest in the history of
the church).
In the early 1990s, after more than a
century of service, the church again reached
out to the community with live telecasts of the
Sunday morning worship services, along with
regular television advertising, a strong
community visitation program, and a
“Launching Our Second Century” campaign
to build a new state-of-the-art Family Life
Center, which opened in June 1995.
The late 1990s brought many challenges as
downtown Fort Myers deteriorated and the
community changed and aged. The church
membership declined significantly and those
HISTORIC LEE
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emaining were primarily retirees. There
was a corresponding decline in finances.
However, during that time, several ministries
to the community were begun, including
sharing facilities with the Haitian Baptist
Church and the formation of a contemporary
worship service.
In the summer of 2004, First Baptist
Church made a three-year commitment to a
“Congregational Renewal Process.” Dr.
Winford L. Hendrix (who had served as
senior pastor, 1986-1994) was then called to
be the transition pastor and to lead the church
to become revitalized and relevant for the
twenty-first century. Among the innovations
being implemented are the formation of
ministry teams (replacing the previous
committee system) that minister to the needs
of the congregation and the community.
During this exciting period of renewal,
three historic downtown churches: First
Presbyterian, First United Methodist, and First
Baptist have formed the “Downtown Alliance
of Churches” (DAC) and have quickly begun
to make a more positive impact on downtown
Fort Myers. For example, the DAC has
developed the “Trinity Village Concept,”
which might become a model for other cities
to follow. “Trinity Village” would be a campus
of three churches of different denominations,
focusing upon cooperation instead of
competition, seeking ways to eliminate
duplication in terms of programs, ministries,
properties, and buildings—reducing costs,
increasing effectiveness, and creating a critical
mass in all age groups, as well as providing a
pool of more leaders—resulting in more
enthusiasm, energy, financial resources, and a
greater impact for Christ upon the city. Each of
the three churches would continue to have
their own worship centers.
It is believed that “Trinity Village” would
become a central city destination, drawing
creative, young, dynamic people to the
downtown area and to the downtown churches,
leading to the renewal and revitalization
desired. Instead of three struggling
congregations with aging memberships, they
would have one concentrated, cooperative,
creative effort. “Trinity Village” would be a
beautiful new center of activity and energy in
downtown Fort Myers.
The timing for these plans coincides with
the City of Fort Myers’ commitment to
shaping up its appearance with new
streetscapes, including bricked streets and
sidewalks with beautiful new palm trees and
turn-of-the-century street lights. New stores,
restaurants, and hotels are being built in the
downtown, and developers are constructing
upscale high-rise condominiums along the
Caloosahatchee River, many of which will be
within walking distance of the churches.
Indeed, the future for First Baptist—and the
other downtown churches—may have greater
potential than ever before!
For more information on First Baptist
Church, please visit www.fbcfortmyers.org.
✧
The First Baptist Church Activities Center
was completed in 1995.
SHARING THE HERITAGE
67

MANHEIM
FORT MYERS
Manhiem Fort Myers is proud to serve the
needs of more than 1200 auto dealers each year.
The facility, formerly known as Southwest
Florida Auto Auction, opened for business in
1985 and was acquired by Manheim on May
1, 2006. It hosts wholesale auctions for used
car dealers each Wednesday afternoon.
Manheim, headquartered in Atlanta, is the
world’s leading provider of used vehicle
services and is a wholesale marketplace for
the millions of cars that change hands every
year both in the auction lands and online.
Manheim helps sellers achieve the maximum
value for their vehicles and provides buyers
a reliable and safe market in which to
purchase inventory.
“Florida is growing at an amazing rate and
his auction location serves a critically
important market in our industry,” said Tom
Hammer, general manager of Manheim–Fort
Myers. “This auction’s potential is huge and
we have had a tremendously positive
experience working with dealers here in the
southwest corner of Florida.”
Manheim–Fort Myers, which sits on
nineteen acres at 2100 Rockfill Road, is one of
eleven Manheim operating locations in the
state of Florida.
“Manheim–Fort Myers has been an
incredible addition to the automotive
business in Southwest Florida,” said Sean
McCormick of O’Brien Imports. “The staff is
knowledgeable and always willing to go the
extra mile. The Manheim brand and way of
operation has expanded the selection of
vehicles offered and number of buyers
attending.”
Manheim–Fort Myers, like all Manheim
operating locations serve as a “stock
exchange” of the automotive remarketing
industry. It provides a real-time, real-world
marketplace where customers can buy and
sell used vehicles with the confidence that
comes from knowing that an objective third
party is there to assure the fairness and
transparency of each transaction.
Manheim–Fort Myers provides the full
array of products that customers need to
succeed in this challenging industry: vehicle
transportation, secure vehicle storage,
inspections, reconditioning, marketing,
certification, multiple sales channels
(including Manheim Simulcast, which allows
dealers to participate remotely online), floor
plan financing arbitration and consulting
service and more.
This location prides itself in community
involvement. Manheim–Fort Myers is a member
of the Chamber of Commerce and the Florida
Independent Auto Dealers Association.
Manheim–Fort Myers involvement with Voices
for Kids of Southwest Florida during the holiday
season resulted in over $5000 in donations,
providing holiday gifts to over 100 children in
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Lee County. Other involvements include but are
not limited to donations, sponsorship of many
area schools and sports teams, 4H, the Sheriff’s
Office, Habitat for Humanity, American Cancer
Society, and many more.
The history of the auto auction business in
the U.S. is an interesting one, dating back
more than sixty years. During World War II,
auto manufacturers were so involved with the
war effort that used cars became the major
source of transportation. After the war ended
in 1945, the original Manheim Auto Auction
was established in Manheim, Pennsylvania.
When the auto auction opened its doors,
there were three vehicles in the sale; by 1959,
it had become the largest auto auction in the
world. Today, Manheim has 34,000
employees and 145 operating locations
around the world, and registers ten million
vehicles annually.
Additional information is available on the
Internet at www.manheim.com.
SHARING THE HERITAGE
69

SOUTHWEST
FLORIDA ORAL
AND FACIAL
SURGERY
✧
Above: Dr. Gerald LaBoda and
Dr. Frank DiPlacido.
Below: Dr. Gerald LaBoda.
Southwest Florida Oral and Facial Surgery
offers a full scope of oral and maxillofacial
surgery with expertise ranging from
cosmetic facial surgery to corrective jaw
surgery, cleft lip and palate surgery and
wisdom tooth removal. They can also
diagnose and treat facial pain, facial
injuries and temporomandibular joint (TMJ)
disorders, and perform a full range of dental
implant procedures. There are four office
locations in Lee County: Fort Myers, Cape
Coral, Lehigh Acres and Bonita Springs.
Dr. Gerald Laboda established the first
practice in oral and maxillofacial surgery in
Fort Myers in 1965. The services that he
provided for the treatment of maxillofacial
pathology and trauma were in great demand
and he rapidly found himself with a thriving
hospital and outpatient practice.
In 1968, Dr. Laboda’s good friend and
fellow oral surgeon, Dr. DiPlacido came to
join him in the practice and they established
Drs. Laboda and DiPlacido, P.A. The practice
thrived with an overabundance of oral
pathology, particularly in facial soft tissue and
hard tissue trauma. They did all of the soft
tissue pathology above the clavicle due to the
fact that there were no plastic surgeons in
Southwest Florida until 1971.
In 1972 the practice moved into a
newly constructed ambulatory surgical facility
on Broadway in Fort Myers. This was a
state-of-the-art facility and the practice
remained there for the next fourteen years.
Satellite offices were established in Charlotte
County and in South Fort Myers. Drs. Laboda
and DiPlacido were joined for a short period
of time by Dr. Harold Odle, who subsequently
left to practice in Central Florida.
Drs. Laboda and DiPlacido pioneered
reconstructive maxillofacial surgery, working
closely in conjunction with Dr. Van Speas, the
first diplomat of the American Board of
Orthodontics to establish a practice in
Southwest Florida. Together, they obtained
training throughout the world in this new
area of orthognathic surgery.
In 1974, Dr. Laboda took a leading position
with a group of physicians to build what was
originally Fort Myers Community Hospital. It
expanded and eventually became Southwest
Florida Regional Medical Center. Drs. Laboda
and Dr. DiPlacido were quite active in the
early days of the medical staff and Dr. Laboda
subsequently became chairman of the board of
trustees of the hospital.
By the mid 1980s it was apparent that the
practice needed to expand in order to meet
the growing needs of the expanding
population of Southwest Florida. A 6500-
square foot new state-of-the-art Ambulatory
Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Facility was
built in 1986 on Summerlin Road. The
satellite office in Charlotte County was
HISTORIC LEE
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eventually sold and the other in South Fort
Myers closed.
Dr. Timothy Hogan was brought into the
practice at this time. His extensive
background in the management of
maxillofacial deformities and traumatic
injuries added great depth of knowledge.
Within the next four years, Dr. Mark Streater,
who was well known to the practice, also
joined Drs. Laboda and DiPlacido, and helped
to broaden the technical expertise of the staff.
In 1992 a 2500-square foot state-of-the-art
facility was built just north of Cape Coral
Hospital on Del Prado Boulevard. The
practice, now known as Southwest Florida
Oral Surgery Associates, established this
facility for the practice of ambulatory oral and
maxillofacial surgery.
Dr. Harvey Satz joined the practice in 1998
with expertise in the management of
temporomandibular joint disorders and
specialization in the nonsurgical treatment of
craniofacial pain. Dr. T.J. Tejera joined the
practice in 2003 and brought a whole new
dimension to Southwest Florida Oral and
Maxillofacial Surgery by creating an entire
division of facial cosmetic and reconstructive
surgery with medical skin care. His scope of
practice also includes the surgical treatment
of obstructive sleep apnea.
In 2004 a facility was opened in
Bonita Springs and Dr. DiPlacido retired
from active practice. In 2006 Dr. Laboda
retired and this would end the era of the
founding fathers. The practice now known as
Southwest Florida Oral and Facial Surgery
continues to thrive and grow and broaden its
scope. The extensive background and
experience of the staff has caused the
treatment of maxillofacial deformities to be
equal to any practice in the Southeast. The
management of facial traumatic injuries and
participation at the trauma center at Lee
Memorial Hospital also continue to be an
important focus. The future looks promising
with a younger staff taking over the
administration and continuing to deliver a
superior level of care to the people of
Southwest Florida.
Southwest Florida Oral and Facial
Surgery is active in community service in the
Fort Myers area with participation in many
causes including the American Cancer
Society’s Cattle Baron’s Ball, Kid Rock
Program, Cleft Lip and Palate Team, Project
Dental Care Team, Children’s Hospital of
Southwest Florida at Lee Memorial Hospital,
the Alliance of the Arts, United Way, the
Foundation of Lee County Golden Apple,
Voices for Kids, the Florida Gulf Coast
University Booster Club, Chico’s Charities,
Lee County Project Graduation, Fort Myers
High School, St. Cecilia Catholic Church,
Father Anglium Academy, St. Frances Xavier
School, St. Michaels Lutheran School, and
Bishop Verot High School.
Additional information is available on the
Internet at www.swfofs.com.
✧
Above: Dr. Frank DiPlacido.
Below: Standing from left to right;
Dr. Harvey Satz, Dr. Tinerfe I. Tejera, and
Dr. Mark Streater. Sitting; Dr. Timothy
Hogan and Dr. Gerald LaBoda.
SHARING THE HERITAGE
71

BSSW
ARCHITECTS,
INC.
✧
Above: The Old Lee County Courthouse is
one of a number of historic projects that
BSSW Architects has preserved.
Below: BSSW Architects has planned and
designed many buildings throughout Lee
County, including the BSSW Office Building,
pictured here.
BSSW Architects, Inc. was
founded in 1980, as the Architectural
Resources Corporation. At that time,
Joe Barany, Ron Weaver and Tim
Stone purchased Fenton-White
Associates from Mariner Properties,
Inc. to become independent from the
developer and expand the client base
of the firm. The newly reorganized
firm continued to plan and design the
development at South Seas Plantation
on Captiva Island and other new resort
projects of Mariner Properties throughout
Lee County.
In the early 1980s the firm was retained by
Bonita Bay Properties to design their new
community, Bonita Bay. That working
relationship has continued to the present day
with “The Brooks,” “Verandah” and soon to
start “Murphy’s Landing” developments.
In 1990 the firm joined Schmitt Design
Associates with Chuck Schmitt and formed
the new company Barany Schmitt Weaver and
Partners, Inc. This new firm combined the
“private” sector experience of Architectural
Resources with the “public” sector experience
of Schmitt Design Associates
The three principals—Joe Barany, Chuck
Schmitt, and Ron Weaver—along with Ken
Lamers, continued to run the firm until 1998
when Dan Summers joined the team. The
name subsequently changed to Barany
Schmitt Summers Weaver and Partners, Inc.
The year 2002 brought the addition of
another new partner, Kevin M. Williams, to
the firm, and the company became BSSW
Architects, Inc.
In the early 1990s, the firm completed two
school projects that continued to preserve Lee
County history. The Edison Park Elementary
School with the Edison Auditorium and
the 1948 Fort Myers High School were
both renovated and expanded with additions
that complemented the original historic
architectural character.
BSSW Architects preserved other historic
projects including the Old Lee County
Courthouse, the Murphy Burroughs Home,
and its headquarters, the Bank of Fort Myers
Building, all in downtown Fort Myers. The
firm has won awards for outstanding
architectural design from the Florida Trust
for Historic Preservation, the American
Institute of Architects, the Naples Area
Chamber of Commerce, the Urban Land
Institute, and others.
Today, the firm, with offices in Fort Myers
and Naples, is planning its next expansion in
Charlotte County. BSSW Architects continues
to establish itself as the largest architectural
firm headquartered in Lee County. It continues
its work on high profile projects, such as the
planning and design of the ten-year expansion
of the Lee County Justice Complex, and also
provides services to established private sector
corporations and individuals.
The firm is active in the community with
such organizations as the Fort Myers
Development Agency, City of Fort Myers
Historic Preservation Commission, and Lee
County Historic Board. For details, please
visit www.bsswarchitects.com.
HISTORIC LEE
72
COUNTY

ISLAND INN
Harriett and Will Matthews, who came from
Kentucky in 1895 with their children Anne,
Eleanor, Charlotta, and Thomas, founded
Sanibel’s Island Inn. A Confederate War widow
who leased a beachfront cottage to the family
willed Harriett $500 in 1900. With it, Harriet
bought the widow’s house and property.
Today’s Island Inn, encompassing 10 acres
and 550 feet of unobstructed beachfront,
operates on the original acreage settled by the
Matthews family.
A hundred years ago, the gulffront resort
known simply as “The Matthews” was already
famous for its hospitality and fine dining.
When a fire destroyed the two-story
guesthouse in 1914, Bailey Buck and Ben
Hartman lent Harriett funds for a new
building, and Buck took back his share of the
loan in room and board. The Matthews family
built a new home, Matthews Cottage, now the
Inn’s oldest building. Sanibel’s first shell fair
was held in 1916, when guests displayed their
finest shells on tables in the Inn’s lobby.
The 1919 marriage of Anne Matthews and
Frank Bailey united two prominent families,
both longtime contributors to Sanibel’s
development. After Will died in 1928,
Harriett leased the hotel to the Terrill family,
who ran the Inn until 1938. Charlotta
managed it while her sister, Eleanor Matthews
Clapp, cared for their now-elderly mother. It
was around this time the name Island Inn
was adopted.
Jack Foote and Bill Grantz from St. Paul,
Minnesota, assembled investors to buy the
Inn in 1957. They incorporated The Island
Inn Company to ensure that families like
theirs, who had vacationed at the Inn for
generations, could continue their annual
visits. Charlotta turned over the Inn for
$120,000 plus the use of Matthews Cottage
and dining room privileges for life.
Tourism increased when the causeway
linking Sanibel to the mainland opened. In May
1963 construction began on Matthews Lodge,
and the outdoor pool was added in 1965. Two
years later, Charlotta’s nephew, Sam Bailey,
moved one of the original cottages to a
beachfront lot near Bailey’s General Store, which
was founded by Sam’s father and still operating
today. A new structure with ten kitchenequipped
rooms was built on the empty site.
Pegge Ford, who took over as general
manager in 1994, continues the Island Inn
Company’s mission to operate and maintain
a resort reminiscent of early Sanibel
hospitality, and to preserve the natural beauty
and ambiance the unique island setting
provides. This historic resort rents guestrooms,
efficiencies and cottages, and the Traditions
dining room offers fine meals in an “Old
Florida” atmosphere.
Please visit www.islandinnsanibel.com for
information on rates, reservations, or more of
what Island Inn has to offer to you.
✧
Above: A Horse and buggy, c. 1910.
Below: A devil fish, c. 1914.
SHARING THE HERITAGE
73

✧
Above: The Naples Campus.
PHOTO BY JIM HARDESTY.
Below: The Fort Myers Campus.
PHOTO BY JIM HARDESTY.
HODGES
UNIVERSITY
Hodges University is an
independent, nonprofit, coeducational
institution with campuses in Naples
and Fort Myers, Florida, and learning
sites on the campuses of Edison
College, Pasco-Hernando Community
College and Manatee Technical
Institute. Hodges University is
accredited by the Commission on
Colleges of the Southern Association
of Colleges and Schools to award
associate, bachelor’s, and master’s
degrees. The University offers twelve
associate degrees, eleven baccalaureate
degrees, and seven master’s degrees in
the schools of allied health, business,
professional studies, and technology.
In order to appreciate the
enormous strides Hodges University
has made in becoming a progressive
institution of higher learning, it is
important to understand its history.
Founded in 1990, the institution then
known as International College began classes
in a rental facility in Naples with only eightyfive
students. In 1992, International College
opened a branch campus, again in rental
facilities, in the City of Fort Myers and
expanded its academic programs to include
English as a Second Language program. The
population of the institution at this time was
491 students.
In 1993, International College began its
quest for regional accreditation with the
Commission on Colleges of the Southern
Association of Colleges and Schools and was
granted Candidacy in 1996; membership as a
Level II institution (bachelor’s level) in 1998;
and in 1999 received approval to offer master’s
degree programs. In 1993, accreditation was
reaffirmed by the Commission for ten years.
On May 15, 2007, International College
announced that it had received a generous
gift from long-time Naples residents Earl
and Thelma Hodges. In conjunction with the
gift, the institution changed its name to
Hodges University.
The University has moved out of both of its
original rental facilities and built new
campuses in Naples and Fort Myers. The
Naples Campus is located at 2655
Northbrooke Drive and the Fort Myers
Campus is located at 4501 Colonial
Boulevard. The University currently serves an
adult student population of approximately
1,800 students, with an average age of 33.
Many of these students work full time and
have family obligations as well. The mission
of the University embraces this population by
providing a learning environment conducive
to the adult student.
The programs of study offered at the
University, as well as the faculty who teach
within these programs, prepare students to
meet the challenges of today’s society and
beyond. Hodges University is positioned to be
a long-time player in Southwest Florida by
educating a workforce that lives and will
continue to live and contribute to this region.
HISTORIC LEE
74
COUNTY

Edison College, a Florida community
college with programs ranging from
continuing education to the baccalaureate
degree, was founded in 1962. The college
opened in the Andrew Gwynne Institute in
downtown Fort Myers, but high demand had
the college soon using local businesses,
churches, and community centers.
Today, Edison College has four campus
locations: Fort Myers, Naples, Punta Gorda,
and a smaller center in LaBelle.
Edison’s first president was Dr. Charles E.
Rollins. The 1963 yearbook includes pictures
of the college’s first group of 124 students and
lists six administrators. According to the
catalog, student fees that first year were $70
per semester for a full load of courses.
The college’s first dean, Dr. David G.
Robinson, succeeded Rollins in 1965 to
become Edison’s second president, a role he
would fill for twenty-six years. Under his
leadership, Edison—which had been part of
the local school district—established its own
governance, and Dr. Robinson engaged
faculty, staff, students, and the community in
developing a vision for the future of Edison.
During this period, Edison also became an
accredited institution, began holding classes
in Charlotte and Collier Counties, and
opened the Barbara Mann Performing Arts
Hall. Because of his contributions to the
success of the institution, Robinson was
named president emeritus of Edison College.
When Dr. Robinson retired in 1992, the
Board of Trustees chose Dr. Kenneth P. Walker
as the new president. Dr. Walker’s focus on
collaborative partnerships resulted in
tremendous advancements for the college. His
vision for community colleges to offer
bachelor’s degrees became reality in 2007,
with more degree programs on the horizon.
During Dr. Walker’s tenure, Edison
expanded to four locations, including
permanent campuses in Collier and Charlotte
Counties and a center for Hendry and Glades
Counties. Enrollment grew to 16,000
students and more than 20 new programs
of study were added. Dr. Walker created
the University Center, which allowed
students to complete bachelor’s degrees from
numerous colleges and universities without
leaving the Edison campus. Dr. Walker also
began Project HOPE, which promised
scholarships and a college education for atrisk
students who stay in school and stay out
of trouble.
The vision continues with development
and implementation of the “Decade of
Promise: 2010” strategic plan. Edison College
has a rich tradition of innovation, growth, and
change. At the heart of this innovation is the
commitment of faculty and staff to provide
the best possible service to students.
Additional information on Edison College
may be found at www.edison.edu.
EDISON COLLEGE
✧
Above: An aerial view, taken in 2006, of
Edison College’s Fort Myers campus.
Below: Edison College opened in 1962 in the
Andrew Gwynne Institute, pictured here, in
downtown Fort Myers.
SHARING THE HERITAGE
75

THE ISLANDS
OF SANIBEL
CAPTIVA
CHAMBER OF
COMMERCE
✧
The Islands of Sanibel Captiva Chamber of
Commerce welcomes up to fifteen hundred
visitors and walk-in traffic a day.
One afternoon in 1962, on the east end of
the Islands of Sanibel and Captiva, Francis P.
Bailey, Jr. (Bailey’s General Store), Paul E.
Stahlin, Thomas Billheimer, John T. Wakefield
(Wakefield Construction), Thomas W. Mason
(South Seas Plantation), Dean Mitchell (The
Castaways), and H. K. Jeremiassen (fishing
guide) all got together on a pile of logs on
Ferry Road. That was the first “Chamber
Board Meeting.” The top priority of Bailey and
these other “young kids” was to “take care of
the people and our environment.”
The Chamber, first known as The Sanibel-
Captiva Islands Business Association, became
the Sanibel-Captiva Islands Chamber of
Commerce, a not-for-profit organization, on
February 20, 1962. A few of the first businesses
on the Island to join the new Chamber were
Bailey’s General Store, Bailey’s Service Station,
Tween Waters, South Seas Plantation, High Tide
Motel, Coconut Grove Restaurant, The
Seahorse Shop and Heirs Cottages and Kinzie
Brothers. Stahlin became the president of the
organization; Billheimer, vice president; Bailey,
secretary; Wakefield, treasurer, and Mason,
Mitchell and Jeremiassen, directors.
A building for the Chamber was
constructed just over the Sanibel Causeway.
Martin Hiers, the builder, painted the facility
purple. The community of the Islands cried
out and it did not last long before being
repainted. The present Chamber still resides
in the same building today.
On May 23, 1963, the Sanibel Causeway
replaced the ferry. “It was a Sunday,” recalls
Bailey, “and it was free admission to the island
for that day. I remember sitting on my front
porch, watching the stream of cars coming
onto the Island. A few nights later, coming
back from a dinner party in Fort Myers, it
amazed me how one minute I could be
driving past Punta Rassa and then a few
minutes later, be here on the Island looking at
our native vegetation.”
“The population started to boom in
1970…that’s when the changes came in. It has
always amazed me the amount of people that
knew about this Island without advertising
throughout the United States and Europe,”
Bailey said. The residents fought against
overdevelopment by incorporating the island
as a city in 1974.
In 2007, Sanibel completed its new
causeway, replacing the worn out 1963
bridge spans. The new bridge features a
“flyover” span tall enough for sailboats to pass
under. Today, approximately 30 volunteers
and 15 employees welcome up to 1500
visitors and walk-in traffic a day at the
Chamber’s Visitor’s Center. For details, please
visit www.sanibel-captiva.org.
HISTORIC LEE
76
COUNTY

GREATER
FORT MYERS
CHAMBER OF
COMMERCE,
INC.
The Greater Fort Myers Chamber of
Commerce, Inc. is a voluntary organization of
business and professional men and women
who have joined together to promote Lee
County’s civic and commercial progress, with
an emphasis on Fort Myers. This 1,350-
member Chamber of Commerce was
incorporated in 1989, following the merger of
the original Fort Myers Chamber with the
Cape Coral Chamber.
Over four hundred business people
attended the installation ceremony for the first
officers and directors, with then-Governor Bob
Martinez as keynote speaker. The organization
has grown from a single employee to seven
full-time and two part-time staff. From its first
10-by-10-foot office, donated by Wilbur (Bill)
Smith, Jr., the Chamber has progressed to its
current beautiful location at 2310 Edwards
Drive facing the Caloosahatchee River and the
city’s yacht basin.
Among the charter board members are
Wilbur (Bill) Smith, Jr., Richard C. Ackert, T.
Hart, Gay Rebel Thompson, Burnett
Bloodworth, Bruce Strayhorn, and thirty-five
other local business people. To insure
continuity, the initial board members were
selected as three sets of six individuals, each
serving three years. This has been an
important factor in the growth and progress of
the Chamber, and most of the original board
members are still involved. These individuals
continue to be major influences on the
Chamber’s direction, helping to keep the
Chamber’s original mission alive and its
membership growing. The guiding
philosophy has been to ask the member
businesses what services they want and need,
and to provide those services.
One of the Chamber’s key goals has been to
make a difference in local education. By
allocating ten percent of all membership dues
to its Foundation, the Chamber has set aside
and distributed more than $400,000 to
schools, other education organizations,
teachers, and students throughout Lee County.
“Education will always be a prime concern,
and the Chamber is committed to increasing
the funds the Foundation donates as grants
and scholarships,” said Executive Director of
the Chamber Marietta Mudgett.
In addition to creating a vibrant businessto-business
atmosphere, the Chamber also
welcomes not-for-profit groups as members.
The executive director and members of the
staff are personally involved in many
charitable organizations. Visit the website at
www.fortmyers.org for full information on
programs and services provided by the
Greater Fort Myers Chamber of Commerce.
✧
Executive Director Marietta Mudgett.
SHARING THE HERITAGE
77

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF CAPE CORAL
✧
Above: In 2004 the dynamic Chamber of
Commerce of Cape Fear began an initiative
to build a new visitor center and
administrative offices on its current site at
the foot of the Cape Coral Bridge.
Groundbreaking is set to occur in 2007.
Below: In 2007, the Chamber grew to 1000
plus members and increased its staff to eight
full-time and three part-time employees.
The nonprofit 501 (c) (6) organization uses
the membership’s investments to operate
three Welcome Centers throughout Cape
Coral and implement programs related to
business advocacy, growth, recruitment, and
community promotion.
Fewer than seventy-five businesses existed
in Cape Coral when Edward B. Quirk
founded the Merchants Association in his
small storefront in 1965. The organization
was renamed the Cape Coral Chamber of
Commerce in 1967 and Charles Blackburn,
president of the town’s only bank, was the
new Chamber’s first president. Richard
Crawford, owner of the local newspaper, the
Cape Coral Daily Breeze, succeeded him
in 1968.
Well-known leaders started public life at
the Chamber of Commerce of Cape Coral.
Senator Connie Mack III, Chamber president
in 1974, was elected to the U.S. House of
Representatives for two terms, and also served
in the U.S. Senate. State Senator Fred Dudley,
the 1975 president, served in the Florida
House of Representatives and state
Senate. In 1984, the Chamber elected its
first woman president, Gail Markham,
owner of a Cape Coral CPA firm.
In 1976, the Cape Coral Construction
Industry Association and Cape Coral
Chamber of Commerce collaborated to
build its Cape Coral Parkway location on
land leased from Lee County. In 1987,
the Cape Coral Chamber and Fort Myers
Chamber merged to form the Chamber
of Commerce of Southwest Florida, and
the Welcome Center transferred to the
new organization.
After two years, the community decided to
form the Chamber of Commerce of Cape
Coral. It operated out of a small building on
the corner of Del Prado and Cape Coral
Parkway. In 1994, the Chamber of Commerce
of Cape Coral agreed to rent space from
the Chamber of Southwest Florida and
moved back to the Cape Coral Parkway
Welcome Center. In 1998, they bought the
building outright.
In 2004 the Chamber began an initiative
to build a new visitor center and
administrative offices at its current location.
Groundbreaking is set for 2007. “It is our
hope that we provide the best possible
gateway into our little corner of paradise,”
said Chamber President Mike Quaintance.
The mission of the Chamber of Commerce
of Cape Coral, “To Promote and Serve
Business and Community,” has made the
organization the first choice for business
people who want to partner to succeed.
The Chamber understands that to
have successful members, the community
itself must prosper. To promote networking
among its members and keep them
informed of issues affecting the business
community, the Chamber holds monthly
membership meetings, business-after-hours
and other monthly networking events.
Annual Chamber activities include three
major community events: Celebrate Cape
Coral, Holiday Festival of Lights, and Red
White and Boom. It hosts the Chamber Cup
Golf Tournament, as well as Candidates
Forums, and Hobnobs. For additional
information, visit www.capecoralchamber.com.
HISTORIC LEE
78
COUNTY

DIRECTBUY OF
SOUTHWEST
FLORIDA
DirectBuy of Southwest Florida is a private
membership club and one of over 130
showrooms across the United States and
Canada where members have the ability to
purchase products directly from over 800
name-brand manufacturers. The key to
DirectBuy’s tremendous growth revolves
around its groundbreaking but simple concept
of eliminating high-retail markups that cost
consumers millions of dollars each year.
DirectBuy offers an astounding 1.6 million
products with savings of 50 percent or more off
store prices. The unparalleled selection of
merchandise includes top name-brands of
furniture, cabinetry, flooring, windows,
plumbing and lighting fixtures, electronics,
appliances, and custom window treatments. It
is a perfect fit for any family that is looking to
build, remodel, furnish, or redecorate a home.
As membership and products have
significantly grown over the years, so have the
available services to DirectBuy members.
Over the past few years, DirectBuy has
developed a design, delivery, and installation
model which rivals some of the value-added
retailers in the area. Through the use of its
merchant member program, members have
access to approved local contractors who
provide their services to DirectBuy members
at a discounted pricing structure.
DirectBuy of Southwest Florida became a
reality on December 27, 2004. Prior to retiring
after thirty years in the banking industry, Marge
Harkins was a member of DirectBuy in
Pittsburgh. She was working with the local
showroom on a kitchen remodel and was asked
how she was enjoying her retirement. After
stating that she was bored, Harkins learned that
the franchise territory was available in the Fort
Myers area. Needing a business partner,
Harkins flew with Paul Schuster, who was a vice
president for the seventh largest public relations
firm in the world, to Merrillville, Indiana,
where the corporate headquarters is located.
They now own and operate their sixteenthousand-square-foot
design showroom,
located on Brantley Road in Fort Myers.
DirectBuy’s vision is to be the recognized
leader as the best alternative to conventional
retail buying. DirectBuy’s unified commitment
to delivering exceptional customer service is a
priority and is essential to its continued growth
and success. DirectBuy of Southwest Florida
has been recently recognized as one of the
organization’s top franchises for providing its
members with excellent customer service and
is one of the leading franchises in the chain in
regards to overall merchandise volume.
DirectBuy is a member of The Better
Business Bureau and The Greater Fort Myers
Chamber of Commerce, and Paul Schuster is
a Rotarian. The company supports several
charitable organizations and looks forward to
making a positive impact on the community
for a long time to come.
✧
Above: DirectBuy of Southwest Florida’s
16,000-square-foot design showroom where
members can purchase products directly
from over 800 name-brand manufacturers.
Below: This kitchen design is one of the
many products that members can buy
at the showroom of DirectBuy of
Southwest Florida.
SHARING THE HERITAGE
79

Rels Title
✧
State Operations Manager Sue Pucin, (in
black-and-white) and Director of Sales and
Marketing Sue King, in purple.
Rels Title opened in Fort Myers in 1996,
and soon expanded its Florida operations with
offices in Pensacola, Santa Rosa Beach,
Jacksonville, and Cape Coral. Minnesotabased
Rels Companies is the nation’s premier
provider of credit, appraisal, title and
settlement products and services for the
lending industry. In Florida, it facilitates and
closes real estate transactions including escrow
and settlements, foreclosures, and refinancing.
“Our volume in Florida has increased from
a few hundred to several thousand
transactions a year,” said Sue Pucin, who is
based in the Fort Myers Rels office. She
sees extraordinary personal service as the
key to the company’s success. “We go the
extra mile, assisting people after hours,
nights, and on weekends. We work around
the client’s schedule to get a transaction
closed,” Pucin said.
“Each member of our staff is held to high
standards of integrity, performance and team
work,” said Sue King, director of sales and
marketing, who joined Rels in 2001. King’s
three decades of experience in sales and
marketing are a benefit to those with whom
she works. Pucin, who has been active in the
real estate and title industries since 1978,
points out that the staff’s experience allows
them to anticipate—and head off—most
closing-related problems before they arise.
“There are many other title companies in the
area, but our difference is national backing.
Rels will be here for the long term.”
Rels is not affiliated with any real estate
brokerage firm, yet its staff members are
dedicated to assisting their colleagues in the
real estate industry. They do this by offering
educational programs that help Realtors and
mortgage brokers sharpen their own
marketing skills and increase their business.
Active in multiple chambers of commerce
as far up the coast as North Port, the Fort
Myers Rels office supports the American
Cancer Society with a table at the annual
Cattle Barons Ball, and participates in golf
tournaments sponsored by Easter Seals,
Realtor associations, and organizations
dedicated to helping young people overcome
substance abuse. They take part in Muscular
Dystrophy Association’s fundraisers, and
supports ACT, a shelter and counseling
service for abused women.
HISTORIC LEE
80
COUNTY

MEL-RE Group has been an important
influence in the growth of Southwest Florida
since it was founded in 1983. Founder and
Chief Executive Officer Edward D. Adkins, is
an innovator who led the way for designbuild
techniques and was one of the first
entrepreneurs to offer a “total service”
development process. Able to see projects
from the point of view of the investor,
developer and contractor, Adkins and his
team continue to work in ways that control
costs, remain on schedule, and result in
properties that function well and hold their
value as assets.
The son of an independent Florida
building contractor, Adkins learned construction
in the field, then added a college
business education before working with
industrial building contractors in California
and Southwest Florida.
With MEL-RE Construction, Inc., he
helped to establish the design-build approach
as the preferred method for commercial construction
throughout Southwest Florida.
Within the region’s highly competitive
building industry, MEL-RE developed a
reputation for quality and reliability. The firm’s
strategy of acquiring or collaborating with
neighboring projects has enabled MEL-RE to
define many of Southwest Florida’s business
districts and mixed-use neighborhoods.
Adkins expanded into land development,
becoming a partner in industrial parks in Fort
Myers and Sarasota, and several smaller office
and mixed-use projects. Envisioning a “total
service” development process to create real
estate facilities and investments that
performed to prescribed financial models, in
1996 he established MEL-RE Group, a closely
controlled affiliation of firms that handle
commercial real estate brokerage and property
management, construction, project funding
and asset management. Experienced
professionals in each specialization ensure the
long-term success of each project MEL-RE
Group undertakes.
Early influences on the business include
Ernie Finger, Erwin Geiss and Bill West, local
and national industrial developers who
became partners in many projects. Others
were Randal Mercer, a marketing agent and
partner in several projects, and marketing
consultant Bill Burdette.
The new focus of the MEL-RE Group is to
begin providing full service development
services and outsource the need for general
contractors and real estate services. We are
evolving to the next level in order to stay in
tune with the changes to the Southwest
Florida Economy and Real Estate Market.
Active in matters related to Lee County
government, Adkins is a member and
past governor of the Real Estate Investment
Society. He is a member of the Chamber
of Commerce of Southwest Florida, the Lee
Building Industry Association, and the
Executive Regulatory Ordinance Committee.
For more information about MEL-RE, please
visit www.mel-re.com.
MEL-RE
DEVELOPMENT
CONSTRUCTION
MANAGEMENT
✧
Above: MEL-RE developed and manages
this project. The A.G. Edwards is located at
5246 Red Cedar Drive and built in 1997.
Below: MEL-RE developed and manages
this project and are based in the the Regions
building, which is located at 15051 South
Tamiami Trail and built in 1998.
SHARING THE HERITAGE
81

INDUSTRIAL &
MARINE
HARDWARE
✧
Above: Industrial & Marine Hardware
is located at 2947 Hanson Street in
Fort Myers.
Below: (From left to right) Hubert Toney,
Sr., an employee for more than 35 years;
Store Manager Al Lager, who has 25-plus
years experience in hardware; owner Mary
Jane Morris; and Julius T. Morris.
In 2007, Industrial and
Marine Hardware in Fort Myers
marked 120 years of continuous
operation. “Older customers
comment that our store reminds
them of a real, old-fashioned
hardware store,” said President
Mary Jane Morris. “Do-ityourselfers
are welcome, but
our major customers are
contractors in the building
trades, landscapers, and
facilities maintenance firms. If
someone comes in asking how
to resolve a problem, our staff is
usually able to offer a solution,” Morris said.
She got to know the business as the wife of
Gary R. Hermann, who bought it in 1965, and
operated it until his death in 1998. She
acquired ownership and continues to operate
the business today, now married to Julius T.
Morris, who had represented one of the store’s
major suppliers. His fifty-plus years of
experience and product knowledge remain an
asset to the business.
Industrial & Marine Hardware is just
what the names says—a hardware store that
sells hardware. Founded in 1887 by R. A.
Henderson shortly after Fort Myers was
incorporated, the Henderson family ran it as
Henderson Hardware until Mel Porter bought
it around 1953. Porter later changed the name
to Industrial & Marine Hardware to better
reflect the store’s specialties. It stocks
everything a plumber, carpenter, electrician,
janitor, or landscaper might need; every kind
of rope, chain, and cable; and equipment for
boats, docks, and mobile home set ups. If
they don’t have something a customer needs,
they will cheerfully order it.
When the shrimping industry was strong,
boat operators came to the store for fittings
and gear. Those customers have been replaced
by an influx of residents with recreational
boats and yachts. “We carry an extensive
inventory of fasteners in a variety of sizes,
grades and materials including stainless
steel, which is very important in Florida,”
Morris noted.
When people ask how Industrial & Marine
Hardware can compete with big-box stores,
Morris points out that Home Depot and
Lowe’s regularly send them customers who
need hard-to-find items the giants do not
stock. Until the late 1960s, Industrial &
Marine even had wagon wheels in its
warehouse, although the demand for them
had pretty much dried up!
The business initially was located at
First Street and Jackson Street in downtown
Fort Myers, when Fort Myers had about
four hundred residents. It moved to Anderson
Avenue (now Martin Luther King Boulevard)
in the 1960s, and has occupied its
present location at 2947 Hanson Street
since 1972. For more information, please
visit www.industrialmarine.com.
HISTORIC LEE
82
COUNTY

Flint & Doyle Inc., Florida’s largest and
most successful structural moving company,
is a multimillion dollar business that does
both heavy hauling—including transporting
heavy equipment and construction
materials—and moving buildings and other
structures. Today it boasts being in business
for fifty-eight years.
In his autobiography Barefoot to Boots,
Charles Flint chronicled the beginnings and
growth of the company. He recounted his life
from barefoot boy to that of a widely
respected and shrewd businessman,
cattleman and landholder.
In 1946, Flint started his first business, a
general store. Despite not having electricity,
he added a gas pump, repaired automobiles,
and with his wife’s assistance, sold milk,
sandwiches, and other merchandise.
A frequent visitor to the store was
Tommy Doyle, who was ferrying planes
from Buckingham Army Air Base in
Fort Myers to Altus, Oklahoma. As time
permitted, Flint and Doyle began working on
jobs together.
When Doyle completed his military
service, he and Flint began a personal and
professional relationship. Notice of an auction
of surplus equipment and supplies at the Air
Base caught their attention. They entered a
bid of $35 and it was accepted. With the
profit of the sale of the equipment, they began
buying buildings, which they dismantled and
sold as lumber.
Flint & Doyle’s first moving job was a small
tarpaper house measuring only 14 by 18 feet.
They jacked the building up on drums using
long pry poles. Unable to get their truck
under the building, they dug a hole and
backed the truck under it. As business grew,
they added a trailer, truck, jeep, jacks, timber,
and a truck crane.
Increasing business forced Flint & Doyle to
find a larger headquarters and the company
purchased six acres on Anderson Avenue, now
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. One of
the company’s earliest jobs was elevating
Thomas Edison’s laboratory at his winter
residence in Fort Myers. It also moved a large
two-story house, the Flossie Hill house, which
became the home of Doyle and his family.
Because of rapid growth in Southwest
Florida, Flint & Doyle began moving heavy
equipment such as bulldozers, draglines,
tractors and construction materials. Flint
handled the house moving duties while Doyle
headed up the heavy hauling division. While
running a growing business took most of their
time, it did not prevent Flint from hunting
and fishing, and Doyle from his favorite
pastime of piloting airplanes. After forty years
in the moving business, Flint & Doyle turned
the business over to their sons, Manny Flint
and Tommy Doyle III.
FLINT &
DOYLE INC.
✧
Above: The Lighthouse Motel on Fort Myers
Beach was elevated twenty-five feet to gain
two-story living space and a garage under
the building.
Below: The Kingston Lanford mansion,
relocated in Fort Myers by Flint & Doyle Inc.
SHARING THE HERITAGE
83

HARVEY-
ENGELHARDT-
METZ
FUNERAL
HOME &
CREMATORY
The Harvey-Engelhardt-Metz Funeral
Home & Crematory is the largest single
funeral home operation in Lee County and the
only funeral home with its own Crematory
that operates on the premises. The company,
under the direction of Managing Partner
Robert Sheehan, CFSP is a combination of the
three oldest funeral homes serving Lee
County for over 100 years.
The present facility, with over twenty
employees and annual revenues of
approximately two million dollars, was built
in the early 1960s by Jim Harvey when he
moved from his old location downtown. In
1974, Cy Case purchased the Harvey Funeral
Home, and in 1986, he purchased the Leo
Engelhardt Funeral Home in downtown Fort
Myers, and combined all the previous
businesses at the present location at 1600
Colonial Boulevard.
In 1996 the Carriage Funeral Service
(NYSE) purchased the Harvey-Engelhardt
Funeral Home & Crematory and the Metz
Funeral Chapel in Cape Coral and established
the Harvey-Engelhardt-Metz Funeral Home &
Crematory. The Metz Funeral Chapel still
operates today in Cape Coral at 1306
Lafayette Street, under the direction of
Manager Tim Hauck.
The Fort Myers funeral business started
around the 1890s when Carl F. Roberts
established the first funeral home, at Hendry
and Oak (now Main Street), which he
operated in conjunction with his lumber
business. In 1903 the funeral establishment
was destroyed by fire and he then opened a
lumber shed on the Hendry Street dock.
Vernon G. Widerquist moved to Fort Myers
and as a young man became associated
with Roberts in the lumber business and
other undertakings. Following the death
of Roberts, he became president of the
Seminole Lumber Company and continued to
manufacture caskets.
In 1919, Louis W. Engelhardt came to Fort
Myers and established a funeral home on
Hendry Street, which was moved in 1933 to
McGregor Boulevard. Engelhardt operated his
funeral business with James C. Spooner, who
became a partner in 1933 when Louis’ son,
Leo, joined the business.
Lawrence Powell arrived in Fort Myers
in 1920, and established the undertaking firm
of Lawrence A. Powell, Inc., which he
operated until 1948. At that time, Powell sold
the business to Howard McQueen. The
business was eventually purchased by Harvey,
who operated the Harvey Funeral Home until
his retirement.
The firm is active in the community with
several church and parish councils, Hope
Hospice, the Rotary Clubs, the Kiwanis Clubs,
the Chamber of Commerce, the Lee County
Republican Executive Committee, CROW, the
VFW, the American Legion, the Salvation
Army, and numerous other volunteer efforts.
HISTORIC LEE
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SPONSORS
AEGIS Factors, Inc..............................................................................................................................................................................53
Ambassador Riverfront Hotel ..............................................................................................................................................................53
Bradley’s Fine Jewelers ........................................................................................................................................................................64
BSSW Architects, Inc...........................................................................................................................................................................72
BTS Development Corporation/BTS Monterrey Holdings, LLC ............................................................................................................53
Chamber of Commerce of Cape Coral .................................................................................................................................................78
Compass Rose Foundation ..................................................................................................................................................................60
DirectBuy of Southwest Florida...........................................................................................................................................................79
Edison College ....................................................................................................................................................................................75
First Baptist Church of Fort Myers ......................................................................................................................................................66
Flint & Doyle, Inc...............................................................................................................................................................................83
Greater Fort Myers Chamber of Commerce .........................................................................................................................................77
Harvey-Engelhardt-Metz Funeral Home & Crematory.........................................................................................................................84
Hodges University...............................................................................................................................................................................74
Industrial & Marine Hardware ............................................................................................................................................................82
Island Inn ...........................................................................................................................................................................................73
The Islands of Sanibel Captiva Chamber of Commerce........................................................................................................................76
Manheim Fort Myers...........................................................................................................................................................................68
M E L - R E Construction Development Management..........................................................................................................................81
Rels Title.............................................................................................................................................................................................80
S&S Structural Systems, Inc................................................................................................................................................................53
Saminco Inc. .......................................................................................................................................................................................62
Sanibel Packing Company dba Bailey’s General Store...........................................................................................................................58
Schehr Construction Company ...........................................................................................................................................................56
Southwest Florida Oral and Facial Surgery..........................................................................................................................................70
Strayhorn & Strayhorn........................................................................................................................................................................54
William A. Taylor Associates ...............................................................................................................................................................53
SPONSORS
85

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
P AMELA
S USTAR
Pamela R. Sustar is a graduate of Edison University, with a degree in journalism. She became a resident of Southwest Florida over
twenty-five years ago, and has been actively involved with several church organizations, as well as, successfully pursued a career, and
raised a family here in Lee County. Although her primary job has been in the banking industry, her love of the history of South Florida
has compelled her to study both the written history of South Florida, as well as visit the many existing historic sites in the region. Pam
has stayed involved in the study of Florida history by authoring guest columns in many local publications.
Working closely with Matt Johnson on this HISTORIC LEE COUNTY book was a culmination of these many years studying
and examining “real” South Florida history. Visit her website, www.pamelasustar.com, for valuable information on writing and the writing
community.
ABOUT THE EDITOR
M ATT
J OHNSON
General manager of the Southwest Florida Museum of History/Imaginarium/Burroughs Home, Matt Johnson received his degree in
history from Florida Gulf Coast University. He has given presentations on many aspects of regional history.
HISTORIC LEE
86
COUNTY

ABOUT THE COVER
M ARCUS A NTONIUS J ANSEN
Marcus Antonius Jansen had his first exhibition in 1974 at New York City’s Park Avenue Lever House at the age of six during a student
art competition. Born in Manhattan, New York City, Jansen began his artistic career as a commercial painter in Germany and later
transformed his life from a soldier at war to a leading artist on the international contemporary art scene.
Over the last decade, Jansen’s works have been included in international biennials and can be found in museum collections such as the
Moscow Museum of Modern Art, the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Art, and the Smithsonian Institution. He has been awarded his
place in Who’s Who in American Art, Who’s Who in Visual Art, and Who’s Who in International Art alongside some of the most noteworthy
men and women in today’s art world.
ABOUT THE COVER
87

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.
Black Gold: The Story of Texas Oil & Gas
Historic Abilene: 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 Charlotte:
An Illustrated History of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County
Historic Cheyenne: A History of the Magic City
Historic Comal County: An Illustrated History
Historic Corpus Christi: An Illustrated History
Historic Denton County: An Illustrated History
Historic Edmond: An Illustrated History
Historic El Paso: An Illustrated History
Historic Erie County: An Illustrated History
Historic Fairbanks: An Illustrated History
Historic Gainesville & Hall County: An Illustrated History
Historic Gregg County: An Illustrated History
Historic Hampton Roads: Where America Began
Historic Hancock County: An Illustrated History
Historic Henry County: An Illustrated History
Historic Houston: An Illustrated History
Historic Illinois: An Illustrated History
Historic Kern County:
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 Louisiana: An Illustrated History
Historic Lubbock County: An Illustrated History
Historic Midland: An Illustrated History
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 Ouachita Parish: An Illustrated History
Historic Paris and Lamar County: An Illustrated History
Historic Pasadena: An Illustrated History
Historic Passaic County: An Illustrated History
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 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 Texas: An Illustrated History
Historic Victoria: An Illustrated History
Historic Tulsa: An Illustrated History
Historic Williamson County: An Illustrated History
Historic Wilmington & The Lower Cape Fear:
An Illustrated History
Iron, Wood & Water: An Illustrated History of Lake Oswego
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
The San Gabriel Valley: A 21st Century Portrait
The Spirit of Collin County
Water, Rails & Oil:
Historic Mid & South Jefferson County
HISTORIC LEE
88
COUNTY

ISBN: 9781893619876