Sarasota History and Ties with Scotland
Sarasota History and Ties with Scotland
Sarasota first became a "modern" town in the
1880s when the town was promoted in Scotland by the Florida Mortgage and
Investment Company in 1885. It was a breath of fresh air, promising an abundance
of fertile land, plentiful citrus groves and affordable housing. Scottish
families looking for a new start boarded steamer ships and set sail for
Sarasota. Unfortunately, upon their arrival, the town was little more than a
frontier camp. Needless to say, most of them left. But among the hardy souls who
stayed to complete their dream was John Hamilton Gillespie, a Scottish
aristocrat, lawyer and member of the Queen's Bodyguard for Scotland. It was this
man who is believed to have built America's first golf course, right here in
Sarasota. Quite an entrepreneur, Mr. Gillespie also built the upscale DeSoto
Hotel on Main Street for tourists and prospective investors. For his efforts, he
was later elected as Sarasota's first mayor in 1902.
Scottish influence remains through the many various golf courses and the Riverview High Kiltie band, which dons authentic kilts and features bagpipers and Highland dancers.
History
In 1885 “Great Britain was threatening to swallow the
country (Scotland) up into its vast empire. The average Scot, beset by taxes, the threat of
war, and a staggering depression, made plans to immigrate to a promised land
called Florida, specifically, ‘a wonderful new town called Sarasota, on
Sarasota Bay, in the richest and most beautiful section’ of the state. A man
named John B. Browning was attracted by the claim that in Sarasota ‘a man does
not have to work hard for a living’...merely exist off the land and the sea.
The president of the company advertising the merits of Sarasota was a man named Sir John Gillespie, owner of a large estate near Edinburgh. Browning and his brother-in-law, John Lawrie, sold their holdings, paid a hundred pounds for a forty-acre estate and town lot, and joined some fifty other colonists looking for a break in the promised land as described by the Florida Mortgage and Investment Company.” They called themselves the Ormiston Colony after Gillespie’s home.
“After a rough voyage both on the high seas and overland, the little band of colonists found, to their dismay, that there were no housing accommodations in the new land, only a company store, a shack in the woods housing fish oil plant employees, and a home farther on down on the bay. It was chilly in Florida during that December of 1885, and the new settlers were disheartened by the fact that the so-called model town with its pretty landscaping and platted avenues existed only on paper.”
“It was the ‘native’ families, who had endured untold hardships settling in the Florida wilds...who helped the miserable little band of Scots unload their belongings from the ship, cart them ashore, and make the most of a bad deal. The locals brought fish and game to feed the hungry new settlers, but only the hardiest began clearing land, digging wells and building lean-tos.
Later on, Gillespie sent his son, Colonel John Hamilton Gillespie to Florida to create some kind of order. Portable shelters were hastily erected until permanent ones could be built. Even though the first little colony had ceased to be by May of 1886, other Scots began to migrate here during the succeeding decades. Gillespie’s son introduced golf to the area and became a real estate tycoon. Tough Scottish cattle were imported and bred. It was soon evident that in spite of its unfortunate beginnings, Sarasota was destined to become one of the most desirable locations on the Gulf Coast.”
©
April, 2001 Illinois Saint Andrew Society
All rights reserved.
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In that same year,(1887) John Gillespie arrived, and his company, Florida
Mortgage and Investment Co., Ltd., would make an attempt to revive the
colony. Steamship connections were established with Tampa. Mr. Gillespie
built the De Soto Hotel, and he laid out what was perhaps the first
practice golf course in America. John Hamilton Gillespie laid out two
fairways and one green in Sarasota in 1886 but the first golf course in
the U.S. is credited to Yonkers, N.Y. . Fishing as an industry began to flourish. Channels were dredged in a move to improve water commerce and shipping. The Spanish-American War in 1898 added to the prosperity, as cattleman drove herds to slaughter to supply meat for the hungry soldiers. Sarasota got its first newspaper in 1899. In November of that same year, telephone service arrived. A line from Manatee to Sarasota was installed by the Gulf Coast Telephone Company. A year later the line was extended to Fruitville and then Myakka. The Seaboard Railroad extended its line from Tampa to Sarasota at least five years earlier than IT had planned, motivated by the news that Ralph Caples, a well-known railroad entrepreneur, indicated that he planned to build the line himself following his honeymoon vacation to Sarasota in 1899. Sarasota was incorporated as a town on October 14, 1902, and Mr. Gillespie served as the Town's first Mayor. He was subsequently elected to five additional one year terms. In addition to the railroad connection, the town boasted a yacht club, a new school, and ice plant, a cemetery, theater, municipal water works, electric plant, a second newspaper, and a sanitarium opened by John Halton in 1908. TIMELINE
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Sources: Internet, Tribune -Herald archives, Sarasota History, St Andrews Club of Chicago
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