5

(First entry, p. 25)

1. HISTORICAL SKETCH OF COLLIER COUNTY

Collier county was created from Lee county May 8, 1923, by an act of the Legislature of the State of Florida, and named in honor of Barron Gist Collier, its largest landowner and a nationally known advertising magnate and banker. The town of Everglades was chosen as the county seat and has remained the county seat to date. The territory comprising Collier county was originally in Spanish East Florida, and was incorporated in St. Johns county in 1821, in Monroe county in 1823, and in Lee county in 1887.

Within the present boundaries of Collier county lies Big Cypress Swamp, to which the Seminole Indians withdrew after the Billy Bowlegs Wars in 1856-57. Billy Bowlegs was the last chief of the Florida Indians and, together with 160 of his tribe, was captured in Big Cypress Swamp in 1857. On May 4, 1858, he and his followers were placed on board ship to be sent to Indian reservations in the West. Rather than be exiled from the home of his fathers, he ended his colorful career by swallowing ground glass.

Little is known of the few settlers who drifted within the present boundaries of the county before 1887. Although the county is attractively located and has a coastline, protected by the Ten Thousand Islands, where fishing is unsurpassed, it is generally accepted that most of the early settlers were fishermen and alligator hunters who were more or less migratory. When Lee county was created in 1887, it is alleged to have had only 62 inhabitants. During the same year a forty-five room hotel and many cottages for winter residents were erected in Naples, a town on the coast of Collier county. In 1900, Rose Elizabeth Cleveland, sister of Grover Cleveland, purchased a 10-acre tract of land near Naples and built a home there.  Other early settlers of Naples were J. M. Carroll, Andrew Weeks, Thomas Weeks, and C. W. Stewart. Among the earliest settlers of the town of Everglades was the father of Captain George W. Storter. Captain Storter and his wife owned and operated a trading post and lodge where many sportsmen came for hunting and fishing. From this family, in 1921, Mr. Collier, developer of Everglades, bought land which is now a part of Everglades. Excellent hunting and fishing attracted many tourists to other accessible points in the county, but further development was hindered by lack of transportation facilities across long stretches of swamp lands through which few people believed satisfactory roads could be built.

Shortly before the World War, the work of constructing a highway from Tampa to Miami was begun. The work, insufficiently financed, proceeded in a desultory manner until April 4, 1923, when a motorcade of 10 cars, bearing 23 white men and two Seminole guides, started from Fort Myers to blaze the trail. Three weeks later, after a tedious and dangerous journey, seven of the cars arrived in Miami, having traversed the route of what is now the Tamiami Trail. This served to create new interest in the difficult task, and the work was taken over and finished by the Florida state road department. Completion of this well known highway has been an important, if not the greatest, factor in the development of Collier county.

6

Historical Sketch of Collier County    

(First entry, pg. 25)

The organization of the government of Collier county was provided for by the same act which created the county. The board of county commissioners was directed to hold its first meeting on the day the act took effect and at that time approve the bonds of the county officers, and to hold its next meeting on the first Monday after the act took effect. At the latter meeting it was to make arrangement for temporarily carrying on the county government and to perform such duties as might be required of it by law. The board held its first meeting July 7, 1923, in the annex to the Rod and Gun Club in Everglades. The first county officials were appointed by Governor Cary A. Hardee as follows: board of county commissioners, George W. Storter (temporary chairman), Jack T. Taylor, W. D. Collier, J. M. Barfield, and Adolphus Carson; clerk of the circuit court, W. B. Lanier; county judge, Frank B. Hunter, Jr.; assessor, D. W. McLeod; supervisor of registration, Nellie Storter; sheriff, W. R. Maynard; and superintendent of public instruction, Mrs. Tommie C. Barfield.

The annex to the Rod and Gun Club was selected by the county commissioners as the first courthouse. On December 1, 1923, space in the Everglades Inn Building on the corner of Broadway and Riverside Drive was rented to house the county officials temporarily. On July 8, 1926, the former Bank of Everglades, across the street, was rented and served as a courthouse until the present building was erected. In 1928, plans for erecting a courthouse were discussed and approved. The contract was awarded to Sparklin Gift Corporation, and the present Collier county courthouse was completed and opened for service in July 1928. It is a well constructed two-story building, built of concrete blocks and stucco on a foundation sunk well below the ground. It contains an excellent vault which would have cost the county about three thousand [dollars] if free labor had been used, but which was built by convict labor at an approximate cost of fifteen hundred dollars.

The boundaries of Collier county have not been changed since the creation of the county in 1923. They are described as follows: “Beginning where the north line to township forty-eight, south, extended west intersects the western boundary of the State of Florida in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and run thence east on said township line to the northwest corner of section four of township forty-eight, south of range twenty-five, east; run thence south to the northwest corner of section nine of said township and range; run thence east to the eastern boundary line of range twenty-six, east; run thence north along said range line to the northwest corner of township forty-seven, south of range twenty-seven, east; run thence east along the north line of township forty-seven, south, to the east line of range twenty-seven, east; run thence north along said range line to the north line of township forty-six, south; run thence east along the north line of township forty-six, south, to the east line of range thirty, east; run thence south along said range line to the north line of township forty-nine south; run thence east along the north line of said township forty-nine south, to the west line of Broward county; run thence south along the west line of Broward county and of Dade county to the point of inter-

7

Governmental Organization and Records System

(First entry, p. 25)

section with the south line of township fifty-three, south; run thence west along the south line of said township fifty-three, south to where that line extended intersects the western boundary of the state of Florida in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, run thence northwesterly and along the waters of said Gulf of Mexico to the point of beginning” (sec. 74, C. G. L., Fla., 1927).

In area, Collier county is larger than the State of Rhode Island and has the longest continuous coastline of any Gulf Coast county in Florida. The population of the county in 1925 was 1,258. The 1930 census lists 2,883 inhabitants, more than double the population in 1925. The 1935 census shows a population of 4,790.

Bibliography

Cutler, H. C. History of Florida. 613 pp. Chicago and New York. 1923. The Lewis Publishing Company.

“Everglades, Collier County, Florida.” Everglades, Fla. Everglades Hotel.

“South Florida.” 81 pp. Tallahassee, Fla. Department of Agriculture.

Acts of the General Assembly. 1887.

Acts of the Legislative Council. 1822, 1823.

Compiled General Laws of Florida. 1927.

Wells, Helen S. “Political History of Collier County.” 8 pp.

Liddle, Carl. “Historical Facts, Fort Myers and Lee County.”

2. GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION AND RECORDS SYSTEM

The first counties in Florida were created on July 21, 1821, at which time Andrew Jackson, as governor of East and West Florida, established Escambia and St. Johns counties by executive ordinance (“Historical (Preface)” to C.G.L., Fla., 1927, p. 4). Florida became a territory on March 30, 1822, and on August 12, 1822, the Legislative Council divided the territory into four counties, two in West Florida, called Escambia and Jackson, and two in East Florida, called Duval and St. Johns (id., p. 28). Florida was admitted to the union on March 3, 1845, at which time there were 25 counties in existence (id., pp. 12,