Odet Philippe, was the very first settler on the Pinellas peninsula. Over the years many stories have been sown as to his origins—some of them by himself. It is said that he is of noble birth, a count, that he consorted with pirates, was Napoleon's personal physician. He has even been called a "quack". Tres bien.
Like myself Monsieur Philippe was born in France...in 1778 at Lyon ...although some have suggested that because of his dark complexion, he may have been an affanchis from St. Dominique. The affanchis were the very rich and powerful class of free mulattos who were educated in Europe.
Monsieur claimed that he had been the head surgeon in Napoleon Bonaparte's army. Considering the circumstances of war, he may well have been called upon to assist his dying comrades. And as for his being a quack... he sometimes attended to the ailments of the settlers on the frontier. If the patient survived...he was a good doctor. If the patient did not... Eh? What doctor can claim 100% success? I became acquainted with Monsieur Philippe in Charleston, South Carolina, where he had a cigar-making business. But poor Odet fell on some very hard times... what with all dose girls to support from his first marriage to my best friend, Dorothée Desmotte. His eldest was Louise Poleanna, then Mary Elizabeth Octavia, Charlotte Septima Marie, my goddaughter, and finally...little Melanie...born in 1825. Much later we adopted, the apple of our eye, le petite Henrietta Florance. She was born in Georgia in 1841.
In 1828, Odet Philippe decided to leave Charleston once and for all. The continuous harangue of his creditors was too much for him to bear any longer. He left his property and slaves in trust to me, while he traveled to Key West in the new territory of Florida. There a world of opportunities greeted the businessman ready for de challenge.
Odet homesteaded in New River (North Miami). There he operated a salt works to supply the Cuban fishing ranchos that dotted the coast of South Florida up to Tampa Bay. His neighbor, Monsieur Cooley, kept a coontie plantation. Coontie root is very interesting for it is very poisonous. But with a few washings with clean water it can be made into the finest of all flours. Like many people who settled along the coast, the Cooley's kept a turtle crawl at the mouth of the river.
At Key West, Monsieur Philippe established a salon de café and a billiard hall with a bar. He continued to ply the tobacconist trade which afforded us many delightful voyages to Havana for supplies. Ah, the Cuban people are much like the French. They have le joie de vive! I enjoyed staying there for nice long visits away from the roughness of frontier living.
Odet had business dealings with pirates and wreckers. A man had to do what he could to survive. Wreckers were the same men who were to guard the ships from coming to close to de coast. But instead they would place lights where the ships were sure to go aground. Then they would pretend to rescue a ship and salvage all that was aboard. Life in Key West society was colorful, to say the least.
Then tragedy stuck. The Seminoles began to rampage along the coast. On January 6, 1836, our dear friends and neighbors at New River, the Cooley's, were massacred! Madame Cooley and her baby were felled with one bullet. Monsieur Cooley was away on business at the time and he luckily escaped being scalped by the Indians. He bravely continued on after the death of his little family, acting as a scout for the army because of his intimate knowledge of the Everglades.
In fear for our lives, we abandoned our homestead at New River. Odet turned his attention to business opportunities at the garrison at Fort Brooke on Tampa Bay.
But before I continue our story... a little history of FORT BROOKE.
Fort Brooke had been struggling as a wilderness outpost for a few years. Odet's solicitor, William Hackley, was one of many who encouraged my husband to expand his business ventures to Tampa Bay.
His brother, Richard Hackley, claimed that the land at the mouth of the Hillsborough River, had been granted to him while he was serving as the United States consul at Cadiz, in 1818. The year before Florida would become a territory of the United States, Hackley capitalized on the negotiations that would give Florida away. He convinced his friend, the Duke of Alagon, to petition the King of Spain to grant him 20,000 square miles of La Florida. Of course, the king agreed.
The deal did not progress as quickly as Hackley would have like and it was canceled the following year by de signing of the treaty. Hackley was outraged when the United States military "stole" his land to build a fort, calling his claim null-and-void because it had been completed after to de signing of the treaty. Never-the-less, Hackley pursued his claim to the Florida lands. As a friend of President Munroe, he became the Surveyor and the Inspector of Revenue at St. Augustine. Bien, that amounted to letting the fox into the chicken coop.
First thing you knew, Hackley had the Tampa Bay area surveyed. Then he quickly dispatched his son to set up a homestead. He built a house and had livestock delivered up the bay by ship. Then his men began to cut timber to make some quick money.
The story does not end here. Colonel James Gadsen, the Indian Commissioner appointed by the provisional governor of Florida, Andrew Jackson, also had designs on this beautiful site at Tampa Bay. He quickly dispatched Colonel George Merser Brooke to expel the Hackley's and to establish a fort there in order to keep an eye on the Red-Stick Creeks and free African-Americans that had settled in the area.
I in those early years between 1824 and 1832, Colonel Brooke did his best to keep civilian settlers out of Fort Brooke. Still, squatters moved nearby to sell what government traders were prohibited from selling... rum and whiskey... and cutting of the wood. Then during Col. Brooke's leave of absence, William Saunders convinced Col. Clinch, the temporary commander at the fort, to allow him to open a store on the bank of the Hillsborough River. Upon Brooke's returned, he is said to have thrown up his hands in disgust. He said , "It is out of my power to prevent it."
During those early years, the fort received some interesting guests. Why Indians would be invited to join the officers and the men at dinner to endure long speeches. They drank many toasts and enjoyed the fine dinners. African-American and Indian children were allowed to play at the fort in those days, including thee likes of Billy Powell and John Cavallo. Before he threw off his mask of friendship, Powell was considered an excellent drill officer, and often acted as such for troops. Later, he would lead his highly disciplined men into battle as... Osceola.
Then , there was a long-legged fourteen year old kid, who sold the same gopher tortoises to Colonel Brooke every day for ten days. After he was discovered, he was called Gopher John. He too had learned the lessons of the military. He became a leader of the free black men... along side Osceola. When he was finally transported him to the West, he became known as the valiant John Horse, who continued to lead Florida Black Seminoles in the struggle for survival in Oklahoma, Texas and Mexico.
Col. Brooke's was visited with tragedy. While in Virginia visiting family, his daughter and eldest son died of a violent bilious fever. His wife fought for her life, giving birth to a dead son. Col. Brooke's old friend, the newly elected President Andrew Jackson, helped him to obtain promotion to de brevet brigadier general and transferred him to where he could be near his wife.
Before leaving, Col. Brooke did what he could to make the military quarters at the fort comfortable. He designed the buildings to maximize the natural beauty of the area around them. As his parting gesture, he had the log houses covered in cypress shingles and white washed. One of the officers said that this was his idea of thee Garden of Eden.
Augustus Steele arrived on de scene in 1830. Like Odet, he too was sued for his debts, and moved to Tampa Bay to hide out from his creditors. Political friends arranged for him to be appointed the post sutler and deputy collector and inspector of customs. The new fort commander allowed him to build a house and store at the river. In June, Steele began publishing the very first newspaper in Tampa. He called it "The Gouger"... and its motto was—
"I gouge...Thou gougest...He gouges!"
By the end of the year Steele had assumed de job as de postmaster as well. This was a lucrative position as it was thee only place for hundreds of miles where letters could be received or sent.
The army deserted the fort in 1832, with the signing of the Treaty of Payne's Landing. This was President Jackson's final solution for the "Indian problem". They would all be removed to the West. Comfortable that the territory was under control, Fort Brooke was left in the hands of a couple of caretakers.
At last, there was no military brass to disturb their schemes and so the businessmen, who had longed to lay claim to this lovely land on the bay, were free to pounce. Hackley made a small fortune. He and his friends organized de Florida Peninsular Land Company and de Hackley's began to sell de land at Tampa Bay. He was the most prominent slave and land auctioneer in Tallahassee.
Steele begged his friends and political supporters in Tallahassee to create de new county. In January 1834, the council granted his request and Hillsborough County came into being. Despite the fact that most of the population consisted of Cuban fishermen, Indians and free blacks, Steele was determined to create a county seat. He pulled together the few white male settlers to provide basic law enforcement. Steele was promptly made county judge and with that Tampa became the county seat.
Other events intervened to prevent the development of Tampa. The Indians and free blacks resisted removal to the West. The Red-Stick Creeks under Osceola began to attack the settlers around Fort Brooke.
Colonel Clinch returned to Fort Brooke. Then came the horrible news of the massacre, just after Christmas in 1835. Virtually all 100 men, with only one exception, under the command of Mjr. Francis Dade, perished on that dreary day on the road to Fort King. Badly injured, Corporal Ramsey Clark, crawled all the way back to Ft. Brooke to warn of the attack.
In Key West we heard that the settlers and soldiers living around Tampa Bay were ordered out of their homes and into the fort. Homes, stores and even Augustus Steele's court house were pulled down and burned to keep the Indians from making batteries of them. Colonel Brooke's beautiful post on the Hillsborough River lay in ruins.
The garrison and settlers withdrew to the fort's southern most end. They tried to conceal their defenseless position by erecting a small fortification of bushes. Then the men moved quickly to build a stockade fence. There they waited. The Second Seminole War had begun.
Soon volunteer groups from around Florida, Louisiana, Georgia and Alabama poured into Fort Brooke to pitch their tents north of the stockade. Once again, a shanty-town began to take shape. By 1838 it had grown to include sutler's,, carpenters, quartermaster's office, jail, officer quarters, barracks, commissary, warehouses and many other buildings. There was a hospital and good stables for more than 300 horses. It was the best that the U.S. government could provide. This was the Tampa where my husband would expand his enterprises.
On December 7, 1838, Augusta Steele finally filed a plat that would revive the town of Tampa. He encouraged my husband to purchase Lot 4. As time went by, Odet added more property. He opened another billiard hall, a ten-pin alley and an oyster shop. His oysters were in demand as far away as St. Augustine. He also operated Tampa's very first cigar-making establishment. All this, while continuing his businesses at Key West.
Despite the fine quarters at de post, there were many problems. Supplies were hard to come by. Water, it was so foul, it caused de diarrhea. To make the water taste better we added de molasses. Of course the menfolk preferred to drink whiskey and rum sold to them by the sutlers.
In 1839, de yellow fever struck like a mad dog killing at least two dozen of de soldiers and many children. Added to this were fleas, ants, chiggers, mosquitoes, cockroaches and worst of all - those almost invisible tiny flies that bite... no see 'ems.
But there was money to be made... and other people move to the Bay. Fishermen found the waters of Tampa Bay teaming with schools of fish so thick that it would impede the progress of ships. Game and fowl were plentiful. Everyone had hunting dogs. Speaking of dogs—they were everywhere. The Indians being sent to the West had to leave their dogs behind. It was a mournful sight to see those abandoned dogs lined up on the shore, howling for their masters when the ships put out to sea. The dogs were left to fend for themselves. Many were killed.
Sarah C. Kilgore and her husband, Rufus, opened the Tampa Hotel on January 8, 1839. It was to become a landmark for the next few years... a place for weary travelers to rest. Other businesses included a cobbler, a harness maker, de laundress, de blacksmith and de boat repair shop. There was a brickmaker from Quebec and a wagonmaster from Austria. And of course there were slavers...free black men captured by the army and sold into slavery. Gamblers and drifters followed to relieve de soldiers of their hard earn wages. Ladies fallen virtue set up shop in their shacks along the waterfront.
A theater attracted a hodgepodge of Tampa's finest—soldiers, sailors, dogs, Indians, free blacks, and of course, women. Whiskey sold for 50¢ a gill. Viva le guerre!
ARMED OCCUPATIONA ACT OF1842
By 1842 the war was bogging down in the swamplands to the south. Northern states found that protracting it was digging too deeply into their pockets. With the enactment of the Armed Occupation Act, designed to bring about the end of hostilities, Odet filed a claim for 160 acres on the northwest side of Tampa Bay at Worth's Harbor. Soon our family was settled on our plantation at St. Helena at head of Tampa Bay.
Here Odet began to cultivate his dream. At St. Helena, he was the first settler to introduced limes, oranges, and even grapefruit to the area, planting the trees around the slopes of an old Indian mound. He witnessed the marriages of his daughters and watched as they too established themselves as leaders in this new community. His tombstone at Philippe Park in Safety Harbor stands as a silent sentinel to his pioneering spirit.
