CH&N Placida Bunkhouse May Live Again

There is rising hope that the old Charlotte Harbor and Northern Railroad bunkhouse, built in 1910, will be saved for posterity.

It is said that the county, the local Rotary club and a developer who acquired the historic structure in a trade of properties -- to accommodate a new Coral Creek bridge -- are working out details.

Placida village south of Rotonda did not become a dot on a map until the CH&N – fondly known as the Cold, Hungry and Naked -- was up and running. Yet the history goes back three thousand years.

Calusa and Timucua Indians occupied Charlotte Harbor before the Spaniards arrived. The Native Americans built large mounds of shells on which they lived, sacrificed each other to the Sun God, and buried their dead.

A complex of mounds at the mouth of Coral Creek was an important Indian center. It was part of a highly developed culture associated with other major archeological sites at Bull Bay and Whidden Creek.

Archaeologists believe the Timucua inhabited the northern shores of Charlotte Harbor. The Calusa lived on Pine Island and everything south.

Which people lived on the Cape Haze mounds in between is a mystery yet to be solved by scientific excavation.

Ponce DeLeon in 1513 and l521, and Hernando DeSoto in 1539, came to Charlotte Harbor but stayed only briefly. Pedro Menendez D'Aviles arrived in 1566 to start a mission-fort, perhaps on Useppa Island, and established relations with Indian fishermen that lasted three centuries.

According to local legend, a Catholic mission ministering Spanish fishermen once was located in the vicinity. It is tempting to speculate that this was the church of Friar Gaspar for whom Gasparilla Island and northern inlet was named on maps of 1760-63.

There were several Cuban-Indian “pescadores ranchos” (fish camps) in the area at that time. It is certain that Gaspar was not a pirate – as romantics like to believe.

John R. Peacon and his two brothers about 1878 set up a commercial fishing camp of about 30 men at a cove now bearing their name on the north end of Gasparilla Island.

They called the mouth of Coral Creek on the mainland, “Kettle Harbor.”

Mullet were netted in great quantities, salted, dried, and shipped to Havana. The Peacons moved to Key West in 1900 as the market for dried mullet gave way to fresh fish. A commercial ice factory at Punta Gorda opened northern markets for “fish in the round” shipped in iced boxcars.

A few fishermen stayed on at Gasparilla Island and Kettle Harbor to sell their catches to fish-icing houses at Punta Gorda. However, the long trips of Punta Gorda used up too much fishing time.

Luther O'Bannion operated a small fish station at the mouth of Coral Creek for the Jones Wholesale Fish Company of Tampa. Schooners transported ice and fish.

O’Bannion also operated a small grocery store there and was appointed postmaster for the place that he named “Placida” – Spanish for “Peaceful Place.”

CH&N Railroad

According the Dana Gibson, a Boca Grande historian, the company elected to cut costs by hauling the ore by rail to a deep-water port at the south end of Gasparilla Island.

The Charlotte Harbor and Northern Railroad was laid down for this purpose in 1905-08. It had to bridge Coral Creek as well as the shoal water to Gasparilla Island. A small bunkhouse for railroad workers was built at Placida.

To get closer to fishermen, the Jones Fish Company in 1909 leased land along the CH&N causeway approaching Gasparilla Island for a two-story icehouse.

Fishermen remaining at Peacon Cove moved up to the icehouse, and new fishing families arrived. Some pitched tents, built thatched houses or made houseboats. Four or five families constructed homes on stilts over the water. In those days no one owned the sea bottom.

Among new fishermen were Gus and Abbie Cole from Venice, Fla. They homesteaded a little island just north of Gasparilla and built a stilt house over water. Since then, Cole Island has been incorporated in the mainland causeway.

Ice was brought at first from Cedar Key north of Tampa. When Arcadia built an ice factory, the ice was shipped by rail to Gasparilla. Charlotte Harbor and Lemon Bay fish houses not associated with CH&N purchased ice from the Punta Gorda plant.

CH&N built another fish house in 1909 and leased it to Oren Vickers. He named it the Charlotte Harbor Oyster and Fish Co.

Post Office

American Agricultural Chemical Company in 1916 built 16 cottages at Gasparilla for rental to fishermen. The settlement took on an air of permanency.
The railroad petitioned for a post office as Gasparilla. Arthur P. Osteen was appointed first postmaster, a job he held for about 10 years. He was succeeded by William McElya.

Vickers became very ill in 1919 and sold the fish business M.T, Herring and he very shortly to brothers Timothy and Fern Dixon. Vickers kept the store, but as his health continued to fail he sold his interest in the general store to Gus Cole in 1922.

Fern Dixon shortly gave up fishing. His place was taken by Tim’s son Alfred. They renamed Vickers’ fish and oyster business to the Gasparilla Fish Co. and sold it Walter Gault in 1938.

A Go Getter

Gus Cole had only finished the second grade, but he was a successful businessman. He and his wife, Abbie, were good managers. They saved money and invested it in the Gasparilla Fish Co. -- eventually buying it and land at Placida from the Dixons.

Cole bought the Charlotte Harbor Oyster and Fish Co. from Vickers' widow and expanded it to include general merchandise -- including gasoline for launches that were rapidly replacing sailboats.

Cole advanced credit to the fishermen, and carried them through times when fishing was poor or the market down. He was particularly sorry for families in times of illness or death for they seldom had any cash reserves.

With customer approval, Cole began collecting an extra penny a gallon for gasoline. He then put the surcharge into an "insurance fund" from which he paid doctor bills, living expenses during illness, and caskets for deceased fishermen or family members.

For his concern and service, Cole was widely regarded as the "mayor" of Gasparilla.

Cole was appointed postmaster of Placida-Gasparilla in 1924 -- after Osteen, McElya, Oren Vickers and Francis Vickers. Cole operated the postal service at his store until the post office was closed in 1940.

Gus and Abbie Cole's daughter, Louise, married Walter Gault in 1928. Ten years later, Gault sold the Gasparilla Fish House to his father-in-law who also bought land owned by the Dixon’s at Placida. He relocated both store and fishery at Placida in 1944 when a good road was built there.

Ferry Service

There was no highway bridge to Gasparilla Island, but W. C. Sprott started a car ferry to Boca Grande in 1927. He sold the service in 1952 to the Florida Bridge Company. It operated the ferry until a private, toll bridge was built six years later. The bridge is one of only three private bridges in the state.

CH&N gave its little Placida bunkhouse for a post office. An upper half-story room became a school for 10 children taught by Maud Yates who had completed eighth grade. The little structure is still standing, but unused and in poor repair.

The railroad sold its Gasparilla Island property to a developer that demolished the fishing village, a prehistoric Indian mound and a cemetery of Gasparilla fisher families.

Cole retired in 1957. After Gault's death, his daughter, Mrs. Eunice Albritton, took over management of the Gasparilla Fishery. She extended it to include a popular, seafood restaurant overlooking the bay. It was sold recently for expansion and development now pending.

Since those early pioneer days, Placida has grown with a large marina, golf course and many modern homes. Yet, the bay continues to yield its treasure of fish -- and a legacy of frontier life for new residents.

Author: Lindsey Williams

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Photo courtesy Charlotte Harbor Area Historical Society

The Charlotte Harbor and Northern Railroad built a bunkhouse at Placida for the section gang building bridges at Placida. The historic structure fell into disrepair when the railroad went bankrupt.

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Sketch courtesy of Patti Middleton