By Spessard Stone
The pattern of excellence began by award-winning historian Dr. Canter Brown, Jr. in Florida’s Peace River Frontier in 1991 continues with the first volume of his two-volume history of Polk County, Florida, In the Midst of All That Makes Life Worth Living: Polk County, Florida, to 1940.Commencing with an overlay of ancient cultures, we learn of the Paleonindians, the first hunter-gatherers, and thence to the Tocobaga, Mocoso, Timucua, and Caloosa peoples, who confronted the Spanish explorers, who as early as 1527 mapped the Rio de la Paz.
While chronicling the Spanish settlements, special focus is accorded to the later arriving Seminoles, Red Stick Creeks, and Black Seminoles. Following the Patriot War and First Seminole War, the latter, fleeing Andrew Jackson’s army, sought permanent refuge in today’s Polk County at Talakchopco and vicinity. We are introduced to their leaders, Peter McQueen, Oponay, the Buckra Woman and her son Billy Bowlegs, Osceola, Chipco; also Black Seminoles, Harry, Abraham, and John Horse.
The Second Seminole is concisely chronicled, as is the 1849 Indian panic and the Billy Bowlegs War of 1855-58, which left an only a remnant of Seminoles in Florida.
The Armed Occupation Act of 1842 opened Hillsborough County, which includes present-day Polk County, for settlement on a major scale. We are first acquainted with many of the Polk pioneers in their previous homes in Middle Florida pre-1842 and, via many first-person narratives, conveyed a sense of the time and the stark terror and pain of their brutal conflict with the Indians.
Detailed, amid a continuing theme of the political and cultural rivalries between Crackers and the more affluent and/or urban, are the establishment of various villages, towns and cities, with their schools, churches, and civic institutions. The pioneers, white and black, are sketched so animatedly that one feels a personal connection.
As 1860 closed, the cattle trade with Cuba had begun and unprecedented prosperity seemed on the horizon. On February 8, 1861, Polk County, named for President James K. Polk, was created from Hillsborough and Brevard counties. Euphoria, however, soon gave way in April 1861 to the Civil War. While Polk County had some prominent Union men, Brown documents that when the repeal of the exemption for cattleman was enacted in February 1864, only a small number, remained loyal to the Union. The war and Reconstruction are related in a clear and perceptive manner.
Although Polk County was a Democratic Party bastion, economic and social disparity resulted in inter-party factions. Beginning in the 1870s, the agricultural north, led by John Wesley Bryant, vied with the southern cattle country, represented by various stockmen, which continued into the 1890s.
Development, spurred by H. B. Plant’s railroad, is thoroughly detailed. In this context the founding and/or growth of Bartow, Lakeland, and other towns are presented. Also recounted are the financial and political rivalry in Lakeland which developed between Herbert J. Drane, Abraham G. Munn, and John W. Trammell. In January 1913, Park Trammell, the latter’s son, a Progressive, became Florida Governor, while his arch-rival, Herbert J. Drane, became Senate President.
Along with the growth came a substantial population increase and a change in society and politics. From the Midwest came many Union veterans who, united with African American railroad employees and farmers, by 1888 established a significant Republican presence. This was soon, however, checkmated by lynchings and the 1889 state-enacted poll tax, which not only disenfranchised black voters, but also poor whites, so that electoral power was restricted to a mostly affluent conservative elite. A short-lived revolt resulted in the People’s Party.
The various aspects of the county’s economy, including cattle, citrus, vegetable farming, naval stores, timber, the phosphate industry, various businesses, including George Jenkins’ Publix, tourism, including Dick Pope’s Cypress Gardens, and even baseball spring training, are described in detail, as are the various adverse occurrences, including freezes, droughts, hurricanes, epidemics, and economic booms and busts, including the Great Depression.
The impact of the Spanish-American War and Great War (World War 1) on the county is thoroughly covered. The former led to a rapid growth of Lakeland where up to nine thousand men, including Lt. John J. Pershing, encamped. The honored heroes, dead and living, are featured, including Major James A. Van Fleet and Lt. Spessard L. Holland.
In 1932, a new generation of progressive politicians led by J. Hardin Peterson and Spessard L. Holland, respectively as Congressman and State Senator, were elected. Herbert J. Drane, the incumbent Congressman, contested to the Florida Supreme Court his 117-vote loss to Peterson, but, amid demands that the Supreme Court be taken out of politics, his suit was dismissed. The Congress, with Lakeland’s Senator Park Trammell and Congressman Peterson, backed President Roosevelt New Deal initiatives, which benefited Polk County. Holland went on to lead the fight to repeal the poll tax in 1937 and was elected Florida Governor in 1940.
To a young Lawton Chiles, Governor-elect Holland advised, “You are very, very fortunate to have been born in Polk County.”
In the Midst of All That Makes Life Worth Living: Polk County, Florida, to 1940 contains 455 pages, 110 illustrations, bibliography, and index. It can be purchased for $41.73 per copy from the Polk County Historical Association, P. O. Box 2749, Bartow, FL 33831-2749, with check or money order (no credit cards), payable to Polk County Historical Association. Or phone them at 863-680-3001 or fax at 863-680-3006. E-mail at Florida Southern College Bookstore
Note: I received the book on December 11, 2001. This review was posted to Cracker Barrel on December 17, 2001. It was published in
The Herald-Advocate(Wauchula, Fla.) of January 24, 2002 and the Polk County Historical Quarterly, Volume 28, March 2002, Number 4 (received March 15), page seven. (Background music is "Long, Long, Ago," arranged by Lesley Nelson-Burns.)