July 7, 1998

John Cross Was Charlotte County's Forgotten Pioneer

John Cross was a prime mover a century ago in what is today's Charlotte County, but his memory has been nearly wiped out by the successes of his enterprises.

From an obituary of Cross' son Harry (age 72) in the "Arcadian" of January l5, 1948, we now know that his father was a coffee plantation owner in Bombay, India, who divorced his wife and came to Florida in 1880. Harry remained with his mother in India until the age of l5. Then he joined his father to obtain advanced education and attend Tulane University where he was graduated in 1907.

John Cross' ambition may have been to capitalize on the rapid expansion of citrus farming occurring in Florida in the 1880s. He selected property at the tide-limit of the Peace River for a new town. He named it Liverpool, after that port in England, and opened a real estate office.

The town was located three miles south of Fort Ogden, then a bustling center for citrus groves. Cross built a warehouse and dock and started a drayage line. He hauled freight from ships at his Liverpool dock to Fort Ogden, bringing back crates of oranges.

A year later he became local agent for Hamilton Disston, a wealthy manufacturer of saws at Philadelphia who had bought four million acres of "swamp and overflowed lands" from the near bankrupt state of Florida for 25 cents an acre. Disston needed to peddle some of the land in order to finance his plan of draining the Everglades for a vast sugar cane plantation.

With rosy prospects, Cross married Margaret J. "Maggie" Harmon on October 21, 1881. She soon bore him a daughter they named Fairy.

The "Florida State Gazetter" of 1886 (containing information as of 1885) recorded that Liverpool had a population of 60 persons. Cross must have been the most important inhabitant because his name in a list of business men was printed in larger type than others. Cross was the postmaster and "proprietor" of a quarterly newspaper called "The Orange Grove" devoted to articles about the citrus business. F. H. Hafer was the editor. Maggie was proprietor of the Orange Grove Hotel.

Other businessmen listed were "George Cross, livery (not believed to be related to John, but probably manager of the drayage line); James D. Bergstrom, jeweler; F. C. Boggess, mail contractor; John De St. Croix, furniture manufacturer; John De St. Croix, Jr., gardener; Miss Lizzie De St. Croix, music teacher; Charles H. Harvey, gardener; George W. Howell, hunter; and James Long, ranchman."

Stage Coach Fares

The "Gazetteer" also noted that "unimproved lands sell for $10 an acre and improved lands (with bearing citrus trees and/or houses) sell for $50 to $500." The town was served by semi-weekly stage coach runs to Fort Myers, fare $1; and Bartow, fare $7. Mail arrived on Mondays and Thursdays.

Cross testified in a January 1894 court case (State of Florida vs. Charlotte Harbor Phosphate Company) that he had resided at Arcadia for the past three years and at Liverpool for the previous 10 years.

At that time, Bill Simmons owned two 40-ton stern-wheel steamers, Emma White and Lilly White, which he operated from Mobile, Ala., bringing supplies and passengers up Peace River to Liverpool. There, cargo was off-loaded into Cross' 13 ox-drawn wagons. Simmons owned a general store at Fort Ogden.

Oxen were the preferred beasts of burden in southwest Florida at that time because there were few roads. Those dignified by that term were just tracks in the sand. In the rain season, the countryside was flooded ankle- deep inasmuch as there were no drainage ditches. Old timers describe the prairies bordering the Peace River during the rains as "oceans with trees."

Sturdy oxen withstood spring swamps and summer heat much better than horses or mules, particularly for heavy work. Overland hauling charges were 75 cents per hundredweight for trips to Fort Ogden and $l to Pine Level (10 miles north west of Arcadia) -- goodly sums then.

Cross arranged the sale of a 30-acre town site (now Punta Gorda) from James M. Lanier to Col. Isaac Trabue of Kentucky in 1884. As agent for the Florida Southern Railway then pushing south from Lakeland, Cross helped persuade the company to extend its line to Trabue's property. Cross continued to broker sales in Trabue (Punta Gorda), bought many lots himself, and served as trustee for an annual chess tournament there endowed by the sale of pineapples. In appreciation, Trabue named a principal street for Cross (now Tamiami Trail, U.S. 41 south.)

Cross took advantage of Hamilton Disston's readiness to sell land cheaply. He bought several hundred acres in 1886 at a beautiful gulf-coast harbor shown on maps simply as "mangrove bay." He renamed it Lemon Bay and platted a town he called Grove City On-The-Gulf. It was the first town on the bay, although William Goff, Charlie Dishong, Capt. James Leach, Steve Chadwick, Charles Johnson and a few other settlers were homesteading there.

Goff bought the first two town lots at Grove City for $3 each -- a bargain Cross offered in order to "get the ball rolling." The advertised price was $20 an acre for "waterfronts," and $8 per acre for "back lots." The purchase terms were "10 percent cash, $5 per month until paid, no interest."

Such concessions were necessary inasmuch as Lemon Bay was nearly inaccessible except by boat. A description of the hardships of overland travel is recounted by R.B. Stroter in the "History of Florida" by Carson Tebeau.

Ox Team Route

"The Stroters had moved to Grove City when young Stroter was about 15. Mr. Stroter sent him with another man to Cleveland (east of Punta Gorda) where a deal was made with John Cross of Liverpool for a wagon and oxen, which were then at Cleveland.

"They started out from Grove City, went north through Englewood, Venice and Sarasota, thence to the Myakka River where it was only 15 feet wide.

"They forded the stream, went east to Nocatee, southeast to Prairie Creek, southwest to Fort Ogden, southeast by Old Man Jim Youman's place to the south crossing of Shell Creek. From there they proceeded about 10 miles to the head of Myrtle Slough and finally to Cleveland. "All this, in an ox cart, took two weeks. Bill Wyatt and young Stroter had the patience of an ox. There were lots of sloughs and (stream) branches but few bridges. That was your choice if you wanted to go."

Despite the remoteness of Grove City, Cross had a good plan for attracting winter-weary prospects from up north. He sold lots for homes in combination with 10-acre groves on the outskirts planted in lemons. The fruit then was in great demand as a cure for influenza. To further enhance his development, Cross built the comfortable 20-room Tarpon Inn, including a post office, in 1893.

Cross rented a booth at the Chicago Exposition in 1893 to advertise Grove City. There, three brothers from Englewood, Ill., were intrigued by the idea of a good living by little effort in the salubrious climate of Florida. Herbert, Howard and Ira Nichols went immediately to inspect Grove City.

So enthusiastic were they, Cross sold then an option he held on 1,091 choice acres of Lemon Bay land (Sec. 25, Township 40, Range 19, now in Sarasota County.) Cross had purchased the option three years earlier from the "Disston Interest Florida Land & Improvement Company" for $2.50 an acre. The resale price was not disclosed, but it undoubtedly was very profitable.

It is interesting to note that the sales agreement of November 1894 referred to Cross as "now of Chicago, late of Liverpool, Florida;" and to Frank Hafer, Cross' former newspaper associate, as "trustee, also of Chicago."

Englewood Founded

The Nichols set out acres of lemon seedlings and returned to Chicago to draw up a plat named for their home town. Unfortunately a severe frost in the winter of 1894 killed all the citrus groves. Both Cross and the Nichols suffered large financial loss.

Nevertheless, the Nichols went ahead with their development which they registered August 6, l896. They also built a resort hotel, the Englewood Inn, in 1898. The rival hotels didn't last long. Both were destroyed by fire -- the Tarpon Inn in 1904, and the Englewood Inn five years later.

Cross stayed in Chicago to promote Grove City. Apparently he felt there was no need to return to Florida. The Florida Southern Railroad, which he represented, had put his drayage line out of business. He could sell lots easier in Chicago than back home.

Maggie, Harry and Fairy stayed in Arcadia for reasons never disclosed. Harry opened a drug store which he operated until his death. Fairy married a man named Sims and moved to Lakeland. Maggie died and is buried at Oak Ridge Cemetery in the Harry Cross plot; but the date of her death is not recorded. The final resting place of John Cross is unknown.

The discovery and mining of phosphate in 1888 sparked a boom at Liverpool; but when the mineral deposit played out in the 1920s, the town died. Liverpool today is marked only by a few moss-covered foundations of phosphate drying bins.

The significant roles of John and Maggie Cross in the development of Charlotte County was overshadowed by the demise of Liverpool and the more aggressive expansion of Englewood. Yet, Punta Gorda, Grove City and Englewood owe them much.

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Photo from "Early Englewood" by Josephine Cortez

The Tarpon Inn at Grove City on Lemon Bay attracted winter visitors before it burned in 1904. In addition to its 20 rooms, the Inn housed the Grove City post office.

By Lindsey Williams, columnist for Sun Coast Media Group newspapers