History of Southwest Florida
Wednesday, December 3, 2014
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
The 130th Anniversary of the News-Press
In 130 years, Southwest Florida has grown from a rural,
cattle intensive land that it once was. It has since grown into a mecca for
tourist activity and luxury living. But 130 years ago there was one event that
undeniable changed the history of Fort. Myers: the inauguration of The Fort
Myers Press.
On Nov. 22, 1884, the Fort Myers Press released its first
issue and has since remained a fixture in the Southwest Florida community.
In the summer of 1884, at the age of 62, an ailing publisher
of the Yates County Chronicle of Penn Yan, New York, Stafford Cleveland was
given two options by his doctor: head south in search of a warmer, temperate
climate or die before the end of the coming winter. He heeded his doctors
warning, and after careful research and recommendations, he settled on the
growing town of Fort Ogden, Florida as his final destination (currently located
between Punta Gorda and Arcadia).
That summer he packed his printing gear and his worldly
possessions and boarded a train to Jacksonville, Florida and another train to
Cedar Key. From there he boarded the two-masted schooner, the Lily White, which
was destined up the Peace River to Fort Odgen.
However Lily White captain and Fort Myers native Henry Roan
had different plans for Cleveland after learning of his profession. Roan sailed
down the west coast of Florida, passed the Charlotte Harbor, to the
Caloosahatchee where Fort Myers locals zealously awaited the arrival of Captain
Roan.
Upon arrival, Cleveland was greeted by several of the
rough-necked locals and immediately offered sustaining advertisements as well
as approximately 300 subscribers (almost the entire population of Fort Myers)
should he agree to start his paper in this modest country town. With little
hesitation, he agreed and set up his first office on the corner of First and
Hendry streets.
On Nov. 22, 1884, Cleveland published the first edition of
the Fort Myers Press. Its covered story featured two men how reported a
lackluster alligator hunting season in the Okeechobee, a successful leg
amputation and the relocation of a saloon among many other local news events.
From then on the Press continued to publish weekly. One
notably circumstance in Cleveland’s time as editor-in-chief was a hastily
written, three-line article on a “distinguished electrician” that happened to
mosey through Fort Myers during the summer of 1885. This electrician being
Thomas Edison, who would later buy 13-acres of land along the Caloosahatchee to
construct his winter estate.
Cleveland died on Dec. 3, 1885 at the age of 63, just over a
year after the Press’ first publication. He died as a result of complications
from Bright’s Disease: a chronic kidney disease also associated with diabetes.
Since his death his wife managed the paper until she sold it
to an experience columnist by the name of Frank Stout on Mar. 13, 1886. In 1911
the Press became a full-fledged daily paper and from there, the paper changed
hands several times until the early 1920s when the paper faced fierce
competition from a new rivaling local paper, The Tropical News. The Tropical
News was believed to be a more sensationalist paper where the Fort Myers Press
had a reputation as more fact based source.
With the downfall of the Roaring 20s and the onset of the
depression, funding were running thin, so on June 1, 1931 the Tropical News and
the Fort Myers Press merged into on entity that became known henceforth as The
News-Press.
In its 130 year the News Press has never missed a single
issue. The closest it came to a missed publication was during a hurricane in
1944 that knocked out power to the region. To combat this, Press member
burrowed a Jeep from the Buckingham airbase and used it to provided power to
the pressroom.
“I don’t know what ever happened to Fort Ogden, but I can
say Fort Myers benefited from their loss,” former News-Press staff writer and
historian Glenn Miller said.
Who can say for sure whether or not Fort Myers triumphed
through history from Fort Odgen’s lost. What is sure is that The News-Press is
a staple in the community and is the longest running business in the region’s
history.
Wednesday, November 12, 2014
Wednesday, November 5, 2014
Day at the Museum: A review of the Southwest Florida Museum of History
I recently visited the Southwest Florida Museum of History
in Fort Myers, Florida, and I was surprised by how thorough it was at walking
me through the entirety of the history of Southwest Florida in such a quaintly
modest amount of space.
I was admitted under my student discount, which totaled
$5.30 and included a hand-held audio tour. General admission is $9.50 plus tax.
The museum begins with a prehistoric exhibit of fossilized
mammals that roamed Florida long before man. This depicts a time where Florida
resembled the dry grasslands of Sub-Saharan African. Fossils include the
massive skeletons of the Giant Sloth, the Saber-toothed Cat and the
mammoth.
As you continue your self-guided tour, you will learn about
the early settlement of the Calusa Indians and their reign over the region. On
display is a large collection of primitive tools the Calusa used such as
shell-hammers and hunting bows. In the same exhibit there is a mural
representation of the shell mounts and agricultural development of the Calusa
Indians on Pineland, Pine Island, Florida where the natives were known to have
flourished.
From there you witness the seamless transition of the
landing of the conquistador Juan Ponce de Leon in the early 16th
century, followed by the extinction of the Calusa as a result of the disease
brought by the Spanish.
From there, the exhibits begin making leaps and bounds
through history as we travel into the Seminole Wars of the early 19th
century, which led to the eventual displacement of the Seminole Indian tribe.
We finally reach the development of the fort that served as a stronghold
against the Seminoles. This fort would later be named after the young Florida
quartermaster, Abraham Myers.
We then make another hastily jump into the fort’s
involvement in the Civil War and then into Southwest Florida’s prominent cattle
trade to Cuba in the 1870s. This is followed by the transformation of Fort
Myers with the introduction of notable figures like Harvie Heitman and Capt.
Francis Hendry.
We then witness the boom of the aquacultural industry of
Florida followed by a small pocket in the back of the museum dedicated to the
civil servants of SW Florida.
The far north hall of the museum is the temporary exhibit
gallery. The season, the museum has the work of the Highwaymen on display. The
Highwaymen were a troupe of African-American artists from the 1950s what
painted realist depictions of the untapped, tropical landscape of Florida. The
gallery will be on display until Jan. 3, 2015.
We are then taken into another abrupt transition to the war
gallery. This is a collection of war related relics that includes a hodgepodge
of World War II and Vietnam War items. These antiquities include uniforms, weaponry
and various plane parts such as propellers and hull fragments. Also in this
exhibit are a pair of skis and snowshoes that have little labeling to explain
their relevance in this particular portion of the museum.
This completes your indoor tour of the museum. From here,
you are encouraged to take a look at the outdoor “cracker” house and the
refurbished private train car – both of which are definitely worth a quick
once-over.
All-in-all, I would say that is a pretty insightful yet
general examination of the region. I feel that this experience is a necessity
for all permanent Southwest Florida residents to gain a broad understanding of
the region to develop a sense of understanding and pride for the place they
call home. That being said, I also feel as those there are some pertinent holes
between exhibits such from the Calusa extinction to the Seminole Wars as well
as Roaring ‘20s and Great Depression era Florida.
The museum is open 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday year round. Private and group tours are also available upon request.
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
A Tour of the Historic District of Downtown Fort Myers
Fort Myers entrepreneur Harvie Heitman’s store still stands
at First and Jackson Streets. This was the first brick building in Fort Myers;
it was built in 1898.
The Franklin Arms hotel was originally built in 1889 to
serve a boarding house. It has since been turned into office space and
apartments.
The Arcade Theater hosts many boutiques and a repertoire
theater. It was built in 1915 as the third silent film theater in film.
Built in 1914, the First National Bank is one of the most
iconic building in Downtown Fort Myers because of it neo-classical style. This
was the one of the locations of George A. Romero’s film Day of the Dead.
Here are the dilapidated remnants of the Hall of Fifty
States. The Hall of Fifty States used to be located at the end of the Downtown
Pier, but in 1947, after years of weather damage the ball room was moved to its
current location.
The Leon building on First and Hendry Streets bear the
iconic family crest of Ponce de Leon. Built in 1905, the Leon was the original
home of the First National Bank of Fort Myers.
The Patio de Leon was built as a center piece of Fort Myers
in 1913. The patio used to be home to two live alligators.
The Kress building on first and broadway is one of Lucius
Currian Curtright’s many original building. It served as Fort Myers’s first
Five and Dime store.
The Edison Theater is one of the newer structures in the
Historic District. Built in 1940, it was the most modern theater of its time.
Since then it has become a law office.
The antique store on the corner of Main and Hendry streets
is a local favorite. It was originally the location of the James Hendry’s
general store in 1911.
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
Harvie Heitman: The man who brought Ft. Myers to new heights
Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither was Fort Myers. And
with a population of over 68,000, it is still in the process of growing. But
the Fort Myers that we know and today would not have been without the help of local
entrepreneur Harvie E. Heitman.
Although Fort Myers stood for 38 years before Heitman
arrived, he oversaw the development of the now Historic District. The first
brick building, the first thoroughbred horses and even the first sidewalk in
Fort Myers can all be attributed to his entrepreneurial expertise.
Arriving in Fort Myers at the age of 16, Harvie Heitman of
Lexington, North Carolina went to work in his great uncle’s general store. As a
result of poor business and the panic of 1893, his uncle had to close up shop
and move to a more economically hospitable to environment. Heitman took this
new found freedom as a chance to try his hand in Key West.
About a year later he returned to Fort Myers to start his
own business. He bought a small piece of property on the Northwest corner of
First and Jackson Street – across the street from the Sidney & Berne Davis
Art Center where the Re/Max building currently sits. His business distinctly
tailored to the yachtsmen and fishermen that frequently docked in the
Caloosahatchee River.
With the money he saved he commissioned a 16 stall stable
and bought Fort Myers’ first Kentucky thoroughbred horses that he used for his
taxi service down to Naples, Florida.
His growing business caught the attention of a local oil tycoon
Ambrose McGregor. The quickly became good friends, and in 1897 McGregor
financed the expansion of Heitman’s first building on the corner of First and
Jackson. This would become the first brick building in Fort Myers. In 1900,
Harvie’s younger brother Gilmer Heitman would occupy the second floor of this
building, which he used to house his 50-drop switchboard for the first
telephone line in Southwest Florida.
Heitman would go on to wear many hats including the manager
of hundreds of acres of citrus grove, the president of the bank of Fort Myers
and friend to the original snowbird Thomas Edison.
Harvie Heitman died in 1922 from stomach cancer. Following
his death, his brother took control of his estate.
I had the opportunity to speak with Harvie Heitman’s
great-nephew and grandson to Gilmer Heitman, Rod Heitman. Although Harvie died
almost 20 years before he was even born, he recalls stories that have been
passed down to him from his father and grandfather.
“I’ve always been
told that he had a strong entrepreneurial mind. As a boy we used to go down to see
him at cemetery often and it wasn’t until I was older that I realized just the
prominence and impact that he had.”
Harvie Heitman has one of the largest and ordinate
headstones in the Fort Myers Cemetery. The head itself is white marble and
about six feet in height with a 10’ by 6’ white boarder around the perimeter of
the plot. Shaded by age, the stone represent the magnitude of the man. However
there is nothing buried there. Shortly after Heitman died, his widow Florida
Heitman exhumed his body and relocated it to an unknown location. It is rumored
that she moved somewhere in the Northeast U.S. to be closer to her family, but
there is little record to validate his whereabouts.
“Shortly before he died there was a falling out between
Gilmer and Harvie, so after he died [Gilmer] just lost track of him and [his
wife].”
His brother Gilmer is buried directly behind this with
nothing more than a modest block of marble with an inscription of his name.
Harvie’s stone overshadows Gilmer’s as older brothers tend to do.
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
A discussion with Peter Bergerson on Florida midterm elections
Peter Bergerson, PhD is a political science professor at
Florida Gulf Coast University. He recently spoke at the Southwest Florida
Museum of History on the topic of the Florida’s gubernatorial elections from
1964 to the upcoming election.
I had the chance to sit down with Bergerson to get his ask
him a few questions relating to his lecture.
In your lecture you
focus on the election gubernatorial races from 1964 to present day. What is the
significance of the 1964 gubernatorial race?
The significance of
the changing of the constitution is what 1964 did. And it changed the election
cycle so that the governor of Florida would be in an off-year or
non-presidential year, and the impact of that was that it changed the rules. It
changed the nature of who gonna vote and in essence we’ve seen the outcome of
the elections change in political parties, and what happens is you have such a
significant lower turnout from anywhere as 10, 15, 20 percent, whereas the
highest turn out in an off-year election, like we’ve seen is 40 percent [of
registered voters].
Well, presidential years it’s in the 50s, mid 50s to 60
percent. And usually in the off-years those who vote are usually in the 30
percent range. That’s the effect.
And you have a different electorate. It doesn’t mean you
can’t vote, but different people come out to vote. And who those differences
effect the outcome of the election. And so one of the things is that you have
Democrats who are less like to vote in off years than are Republicans, and so
are other groups such as women, such as Hispanics, such as blacks and again,
those who are less educated and those who have less income. That the
significance of changing the constitution to having an election in a
non-presidential year.
Why are Democrats less
likely to vote in an off-year election?
They are less enthusiastic. There is less money being spent.
Less campaigning. The engagement/the level of commitment by the political
parties is much smaller and much less. The “voter outreach” is not as great.
There are fewer Republicans that vote too, but the
proportion is greater among Democrats.
And, Republicans in comparison to Democrats have a higher
value placed on voting than do Democrats. In other words, there’s this issue of
political socialization. Republicans place a greater intrinsic value ongoing to
the polls. They see that their vote means more than Democratic voters.
Why would younger
voters feel less incline to participate in off-year elections?
First of all, youth voters have the lowest of any age group
than others. The primary reason is that their lives are at a different course.
Voters between 18 and 30 are involved in education, starting jobs, starting a
family, and their primary focuses are on those immediate issues and they’re not
engaged as much in the political system as the older demographics. Those after
30 polls go up, and after 65 it goes back down again. So, each of the voting
demographic groups have a different commitment, and they place a different
value on candidates and issues and how it effects their lives and how it
interacts with their lives and what they’re doing.
Do you see the
upcoming amendment 2 as bring out more youth voters in the upcoming election?
No. I don’t think so. It may bring out more youth voters for
the amendment, but will that increase the percentage of those who are likely to
vote in that demographic age group: I don’t think so, no.
So, other words that in the presidential year, approximately
18 percent of the total vote of a hundred million voters, 18 percent of those
were youth vote.
One of the reasons President Obama won, he got about 65
percent of the youth vote. That number of 18 percent stayed the same. But what
was skewed was that the high percentage of them voted for Obama. Using that as
an example, my guess is that the turnout will still be between 15 and 18
percent. A large percent of them will vote in favor of Amendment 2.
Will it increase the voter turnout: probably not. Will it
increase the support for Amendment 2: probably yes.
Would you agree that
the majority of the youth vote is of the liberal mindset?
In some cases, yes.
In that case, do you
predict the youth vote to swing more so in favor a democratic governor like
Charlie Crist?
Some will, sure. Some will, but normal it’s not going to be
the disparity of a 60/40 you would see in favor of Amendment 2. You still will
see, say a, 55 percent in favor of Charlie Crist versus Governor Scott.
Based on your
knowledge of gubernatorial elections and what you’ve seen in previous election,
where do you see this election going?
Well it’s a flip of a coin at this stage here in the middle
of October. I would say that at a flip of a coin either can win. I think that
you can make a case that either candidate can win. Incumbents tend to win more
often than they lose, so I think you can make a case for Governor Scott.
I also, on the other hand, keep in mind that when Governor
Scott was elected four years ago didn’t get 50 percent of the vote. And so, I
think you can make a strong case based on that, that he’s not a popular
governor, or at least not as popular as other have been. And Charlie Crist,
even though he may have his own baggage is well known. And so the race, I think
is gonna come down to the last week, and perhaps maybe even the last weekend.
In other word, my guess is that 80 percent, maybe perhaps as
much as 90 percent of the voters have made up their mind, but what you have is
somewhere between 10 and 12 percent who haven’t made up their mind, or may
change their mind or may not vote. And that percentage will determine the
outcome.
You also have at this stage the unknown of a third party
candidate. Historically, third party candidates always hurt the incumbent more
than the challenger.
We’ll see what happens.
Can you give me a
breakdown of the demographics that turn out for an off-year election?
Well they are going to be mostly white, mostly female. The
turnout will be determined in the I-4 corridor, and that I-4 corridor is from
Orlando to Tampa, and the Dade and Broward counties. Those will be the key
because that is where the largest bulk of Republican and Democratic voters are.
Another key factor will be the voter turnout out in the
panhandle area where you have people of have a high democratic voter
registration but high republican voting.
Each election is different but because of the dynamics of
this election and the closeness of it, it’s going to be very hard at this stage
who is gonna to win
Men are overwhelmingly, the majority will vote for Governor
Scott. Women are gonna vote more so for Charlie Crist
What is going to determine the outcome of the election is
the swing voters or the undecided voters. And how united are the two parties.
If one party is more united than the other in close parties like this one the
elections are won in small margins of 2-3 percent, so each the candidates has
kind of micro-targeted these different groups in order to peel off some of
their votes: whether it’s Hispanics or blacks, environmentalist or teachers.
What stands out about
this election that differs of previous gubernatorial elections?
I think one of the things that stands out among lots of
thing is the amount of money is far and away. The amount is significant. This
is the most costly campaign in Florida history, one of the most costly in U.S.
history followed perhaps only by New York, Illinois or California. This is
partially because Florida is a large state. It has multiple media markets.
That’s one of the things I think stands out.
People always talk about the negative nature of the
campaign. I don’t think it’s to the point of being offensive to me. One of
advantages of political campaigns, as long as they’re honest, and I have –
maybe there are – not seen blatant lies.
One of the things about negative campaigning is that it
brings out things that are legitimate issues about the character of the
candidates of the other party. There are three things that you want to do in a
campaign on the media side: one, define yourself; two, define your opponent –
obviously negatively; and three, define and own the issues. If they are
successful at those three, they’re gonna win.
From a media perspective, that’s what they’re spending
millions of dollars on.
Is there any benefit
to take the moral high ground when speaking about you opponent?
For the incumbent there is. The incumbent stands more to
lose from negative ads. But often times the negative ads from the incumbent
side tend to be by “Well, I don’t know those people.” They’re pacs or 501(c)(4)
(third party groups not associated legally or formally with the campaign for
office) to groups. So, they (the incumbent) disassociate themselves.
Negative ads, if they’re run and sponsored by the candidate,
and they’re totally uncivil, then yeah, they hurt.
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