January 12, 1997

Chadwick Brothers Built Fishing Empire With Mullet

First of two parts (click here for part two)

Action by the county to deepen Stump Pass at the south end of Manasota Key recalls Steve Chadwick and his brothers who turned a fishing camp there into a major fishing business a century ago.

They also built the first bridge to the mainland, developed the beach into a popular resort and operated several Punta Gorda enterprises.

Their story begins with Charlie Dishong who came to Palm Ridge, as Manasota Key then was called, sometime before 1890 to salt and dry mullet for the northwest Florida market. Transporting the fish was Capt. Anderson of St. Andrews Bay ( Panama City) in his two-masted schooner.

On one of his trips to the Dishong camp, Capt. Anderson carried Charles T. Johnson. The latter was a Michigan merchant who most likely wanted to assess the potential of Grove City platted by John C. Cross four years earlier.

Johnson liked what he saw because he bought a tract from Cross in 1892 and established a general store on Palm Ridge to serve the fisherman at Dishong's camp. Coming here with him was his wife and four children, the youngest of whom was Laura, age 14.

Steve Chadwick was a North Carolina fisherman who moved to Cortez Island north of Sarasota in l894, according to Historian Josephine Cortes.

On a trip to Boca Grande two years later, he and a companion were caught in a violent storm which drove them into Casey Pass ( Venice.) They were marooned there for four days.

The men were unable to build a fire in the rain and lived on raw conch. Chadwick confided to Mrs. Cortes years later that he never again ate a conch.

Chadwick resumed his journey after the weather cleared. He pulled into Dishong's camp for food and glimpsed the beauties of Lemon Bay for the first time. He was so impressed he vowed to return. He did so in l898 with his brothers, Clay and Hubbard, to buy the Dishong fish camp.

Fishing in Lemon Bay was fabulous. The brothers often gathered more fish in their nets than they could process.

Therefore, in l90l they started the Chadwick Fish Company at Punta Gorda which then was the terminus of the Florida Southern Railroad and location of a new ice plant.

Hubbard and Clay managed the Punta Gorda operation while Steve ran the fish camp at Lemon Bay. Before long the Chadwicks employed 100 fishermen and packers full time and another 30 part time.

The brothers had two large schooners, the "J.W. Booth" and the " America," and two smaller sharpies, the "Ray" and the "Iris." The latter two vessels were named after children of Clay and Hubbard Chadwick.

The Punta Gorda packing house was located on the city's railroad dock at the foot of King Street (now Tamiami Trail, U.S. 41 north.) The brothers also owned a boat shed at what is now Laishley Park and a dry goods store on Marion Ave.

Many years later, with advent of the automobile, Steve and Laura Chadwick moved their children to Punta Gorda. There he opened a Texaco "filling station" at the corner of Marion and Nesbit streets and a bulk gasoline tank near the ice plant on King Street.

Steve also bought the old school house (still standing) on Goldstein Street and converted it into apartments known as The Inn.

The year 1901 was a momentous one for Steve Chadwick. He married Laura Johnson, the storekeeper's daughter on March 13. Papa Johnson gave the newlyweds 2 3/4 acres of his land on Palm Ridge, near the fish camp, for a home site.

Steve and Laura built a unique house well suited for Florida climate. The structure, facing Lemon Bay, was laid out in the form of a T, each stem of which was just one room wide. Thus, there were windows in three walls of each room. This provided excellent cross-ventilation prior to electricity and air conditioners.

Local histories confirm Steve's later statement that he and Laura moved into their new home shortly before the birth in December 1901 of their first son, a boy they named Beryl.

Recent research by this writer of Manatee County court records reveals that the deed transferring the land for Chadwicks' home was not signed until May 10, 1903.

Surprisingly the property was deeded only to Laura. Was Papa Johnson not sure his daughter's marriage would last? If so, his fears were groundless for the Chadwicks had a long and happy marriage that produced five children --- Beryl, Charles, Clay, Floyd, Herbert and Maxine.

The Chadwick house, on Gulf Drive, now is owned by Mrs. Diane Basch who has meticulously restored the structure to its original splendor.

It is now clear that the Chadwick house is the oldest on Manasota Key -- superseding the equally historic Hermitage by at least five years, most likely seven.

According to the Hermitage deed, filed in the Manatee County deed record, land on which that structure sits was transferred September 14, 1907, for a confidential price of $l.

The purchaser was Carl G. Johansen, a Swedish immigrant who owned and operated a saw mill at Englewood. The seller was Giles W. Chapman known as the "hermit" of Palm Ridge. This suggests the name of the Johansen cottage.

Chapman was a friendly person who lived alone in a rustic one-room cabin on Palm Ridge and nursed most of the area's sick folks.

It is interesting to note in old Manatee tax records that Chadwick, Johnson, Chapman and Johansen each paid less than $5 per year in county assessments. Apparently the tax appraiser did not consider it cost-effective to make an annual inspection to the wilds of Palm Ridge.

These newly discovered dates clarify statements made in 1960 by Isabelle Johansen Hanlon, daughter of Carl and Anna Johansen.

"Papa heard that the Heacock brothers had a sawmill for sale on Lemon Bay. Papa came over (from Punta Gorda), bought the mill and we moved here in 1902," said Mrs. Hanlon.

"When we first came to Englewood, we lived on the mainland near the mill. Then papa bought land on the beach. He cleared it and built our home with lumber rafted over from the mill across Lemon Bay.

"Farther down the beach was the Johnson family with a fine house and a store. Farther down the beach, Steve Chadwick had built a beautiful home soon after he and Laura Johnson were married in 1901."

The Manatee County records confirm that in 1903 Johansen bought lot 3 in block A, Englewood. It consisted of one acre adjacent to the Heacock sawmill on the waterfront between Harvard and Yale streets.

Apparently, the Heacocks did not own the land on which the mill sat but were renters or squatters welcomed for the valuable lumber needed to build homes.

The Chadwick brothers operated the fish company until they sold it in 1926. Then Steve and Clay returned to Lemon Bay to begin the development of Chadwick Beach.

NEXT WEEK -- Homes built on Indian burials (click to read)

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Photo courtesy of Charlotte Harbor Area Historical Society

The 1901 Chadwick Home, oldest on Manasota Key, as it appears today following meticulous restoration by Mrs. Diane Basch.

By Lindsey Williams, columnist for Sun Coast Media Group newspapers