Uncle Dan Smith Town Leader for Early Blacks

Punta Gorda was unique among Florida communities in the post-Civil War reconstruction period in that it had a large, integrated population of African-Americans with leaders who contributed significantly to its progress.

This fortuitous circumstance was fostered by an influx of northern entrepreneurs who had fought to free the slaves and then chose to seek their fortunes at Charlotte Harbor.

Chief among these benign carpetbaggers was Isaac H. Trabue, a former Union soldier from Kentucky. He bought 30 acres of scrub and tidal marsh in 1885 and proceeded to build a new town.

His allies were some Boston railroad barons who were persuaded by him to extend their Florida Southern Railway to his newly platted town in 1886.

Florida Southern hired a young engineer, Albert W. Gilchrist, to survey and grade its right-of-way. He was a Georgia native, typical of southern gentlemen accustomed to working with black people.

On Gilchrist's survey crew were seven African- Americans he had trained for technical skill -- unusual for that day. They included Daniel C. Smith the leader, Sam Kenedy, Graham, Fuller and Ransom.

The other two, whose names are unknown, probably were among other blacks known to be living at the sparse settlement in 1886 -- Isaac Howard and wife, Columbus and A.G. Reese, S.P. Andrews, Lynn and Rhoda Jackson, and Henry Simmons.

The first religious services for African-Americans at Trabue -- as Punta Gorda was originally named -- were organized by Smith in 1886 shortly after the first train arrived in July.

That first service consisted of a prayer meeting by the Howard, Reese, and Jackson families, and bachelors Smith and Simmons. It was conducted in a palmetto-thatched pavilion built by Smith.

Several whites attended. We do not know their names, but they likely included those pioneers who encouraged the blacks: General Gilchrist, Mr. and Mrs. Trabue, Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Wotitzky, Mr. and Mrs. Ephraim Goldstein.

Gilchrist and county school superintendent M.F. Giddens of Charlotte Harbor were instrumental in building the first school here for Afro-Americans and hiring a competent teacher -- Benjamin Baker. To make up the required quota of pupils, Dan Smith and Alex Stephens enrolled in the first class.

Smith was a trustee of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, now Bethel A.M.E, which built its first sanctuary in 1889 on land donated by Isaac Trabue. The other trustees are not known.

Lumber was procured from Nocatee and donated by Wotitzky who started the first store in Punta Gorda. Smith was one of the volunteer carpenters. A preacher named Thomas was the first pastor.

Smith donated money and labor for other civic projects, according to published reports. For example, he voluntarily dug a drainage ditch along Marion Ave. from King St. (Tamiami Trail north) to Cochran St. -- throwing the dirt to one side to make a sidewalk.

He cut, piled and burned the dense jungle growth between those streets, the bay, and Marion Ave. to get rid of mosquitoes. He contributed $20 and several days of labor to the building of a wharf that for years extended from the foot of Taylor Sstreet out into the bay. He gave $10 and two days of labor on construction of a cattle-shipping wharf where Fishermen's Village is located today.

Smith, a bachelor then, was the second black, after Kenedy, to buy land at Punta Gorda. He bought Lot 8l, Block 5, of the Ridgeland Addition, east of Milus St., from Gilchrist in May 1887.

Five months later Smith also bought Lot 26, block 70 (east side of Dunlop St.), with Isaac Howard. Each paid half the $250 purchase price from the Florida Commercial Company real estate division of Florida Southern Railway.

The late Mrs. Esther McCullough knew Smith and Kenedy during their later years. She described both as gentlemen and patriarchs of the black community.

"They were very intelligent and could do any kind of work. Their children were fine people also. Sam was like one of our own family to us. In the early days here, blacks and whites lived inter-mingled. Their relationships were good."

Smith bought a small tract on Burnt Store Road south of Punta Grove in 1889 from Gilchrist for $62. There, Smith planted a grove of orange trees and built a home for his bride Louisa. Eventually they had five children: Philip, Sarah, Hannah, Sadie, and Daniel, Jr. The latter became a well-known carpenter at Punta Gorda.

Smith sold his half-interest in the Punta Gorda lot to Howard on mortgage the following year.

The Punta Gorda Herald in Sept. 1939 interviewed "Uncle Dan," as he came to be known to blacks and whites:

"There were times in the early days when there was some pretty rough acting here. At first, everything was peaceable; but later all kinds of people came. Some adventurous characters made it kind of like the wild west towns of old you've read about. In '86, '87, and '88 was when things were roughest.

"The saloons and other joints that sprang up were places where rough fellows from boats, or mean cowboys, would get into fights or shoot up things.

“There was a time when a big, white man dressed like, and carried on as, a bad woman and conducted a notorious place south of the railroad. He was called Big Six (see Chapter 76), and had customers who came from way up the road. I'm glad such things are not here now. It was that way only for a few years.

Born In Georgia

"I was born in Georgia on May 14, 1868; but came from Gainesville to Punta Gorda in 1885 with General Gilchrist. He brought a bunch of us -- Sam Kenedy and five others -- Graham, Fuller, and Ransom being three of them -- to grub and clear land for the town.

"We got here a week ahead of the railroad tracks, though the grade had been completed to this point and the track had been laid to Cleveland.

“Mail was being brought to that point; and one of our men, each taking his turn, was sent afoot to Cleveland each day, walking the railroad grade, to bring the mail for those who were here.

"A gang of eight white men, inclusive of their boss, a man named Pittman, were put to work building the long dock two miles below town that was to be the railroad terminal.

“With our gang, it made a population of 15 here then. All camped in front of where Hotel Charlotte Harbor (formerly Hotel Punta Gorda) now stands.”

"After the railroad tracks were finished, we occupied the section houses that were built. Things began to get pretty lively then, with people coming and going on the railroad. Sam Kenedy and I helped unload the first car of bricks for foundations of the big hotel.

"I helped survey every lot in the original town. I was here when DeSoto County was cut off from Manatee County in l887.

"On Dec. 3, 1887, I was one of 2l from here who walked to Pine Level (the county seat 10 miles west of Arcadia) to register and be able to participate in incorporating the town which then was called Trabue.

“On the trip, the party had one ox-drawn cart on which five persons could ride at a time, some of them thus riding in shifts. Others walked all the way there and back. The late Mr. Gilchrist, afterwards governor of the state, headed the white folks; and I was leader of the colored folks."

* * *

Dan Smith accompanied the all-night trek to deliver the ballots authorizing incorporation. However, he had not yet registered to vote and consequently was not one of the 34 men who signed the incorporation petition.

His statement above indicates he registered to vote at the same time the incorporation papers were delivered. Four other blacks, however, did cast favorable ballots for incorporation and signed the petition. They were Sam Kenedy, O.B. Armstrong, E.C. Jackson, and Elihu Justice. Kelly B. Harvey, who organized the incorporation effort, declared in a letter of 1924 that 25 men crossed Charlotte Harbor in row boats that night. They walked 30 miles to Pine Level, signed and swore to the necessary incorporating legal formalities at night, before the county clerk, and hobbled back the next day on weary, blistered feet.

The Herald reporter interviewing Uncle Dan noted that in 1935 – the year of the state's last enumeration -- Punta Gorda and environs had 656 "negroes" and 1,950 "whites." Charlotte County as a whole had 740 blacks and 3,050 whites.

In a patronizing, but well meaning, conclusion to the interview, the writer said:

"As a whole, the colored people here are law-abiding, enterprising, frugal and desirable to have at hand. They live apart from the white people, having their own separate churches, separate school and their societies and lodges.

"They accord the white people high respect, work for them, develop among themselves a community spirit, and take pride in carrying on their social, church and other activities. The are useful people, and they appreciate the friendly attitude of the white people

"With colored citizens like Dan -- who is an exemplary leader of his people -- Charlotte County will continue to have a proper attitude of the races, each towards the other; and Dan's people will continue to carry on as good citizens in their several walks of life."

Author: Lindsey Williams

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cutlines

1- 3 col. – copy dot clipping -- have been waiting for better photo from Blanchard House, but it was damaged by Charley and they don’t know who has key. boor lrlor

Photo courtesy Charlotte Harbor Area Historical Society.

FADED PHOTO: Though this is only pictorial of Uncle Dan Smith, his memory is firmly etched in Punta Gorda history.

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2 – 4 col. Sketch of pavilion

Williams – Uncle Dan Smith

Sunday – feb.20, 2005