Sunday Favorites: The History of Fort Hamer

PARRISH - Most recently the site of a new bridge, Fort Hamer has been a integral point in Manatee County history for more than a century. From a crossing point for cattle drives, to a surrender point for Seminole natives and even a hospital the history of Fort Hamer is interesting part of our local history.

In the aftermath of the Second Seminole War, the U.S. government passed the Armed Occupation Act in August of 1842, granting 160-acre parcels to men, age 21 or older, who agreed to travel to Florida and settle the uninhabited land under the stipulation that they would live there for at least five years and protect their stake by enlisting in a local militia, if need be. The venture was an attempt by the U.S. government to further control the Seminoles which were being persecuted under the Indian Removal Act.

In her book The Edge of Wilderness, Janet Snyder further explains the intent of the Armed Occupation Act by quoting Senator Thomas Hart Benton as saying, ”We want people to take possession and keep possession; and the armed cultivator is the man for that. The blockhouse is the first house to be built in Indian country and the stockade is the first fence.“

Most of the first settlers in the Manatee River section claimed land through the Armed Occupation Act. At the time, the majority of the Seminole Tribe was living on a 6,700 square mile reservation in Big Cyprus Swamp in the Florida Everglades, according to the 2017 Bradenton Herald article ”The Crisis of 1849 and the establishment of Fort Hamer, ”by Bridget Donahue-Farrell.

During the summer of 1849, a small group of Seminole men who had been exiled from the reservation by leaders of the Seminole Nation began attacking settlers in small towns across Florida.

Fort Hamer was established on November 28, 1849 in response to those attacks. Maj. Gen. David E. Twiggs was sent to Florida to establish a 200-mile stretch of military forts from the Manatee to Indian rivers, four of which were located in present-day Manatee County, according to Donahue-Farrell.

Named after Gen. Thomas L. Hamer, a brigadier general of the Florida Volunteers the fort consisted of several log buildings including a hospital, commissary, hay barn and accommodations for around 165 soldiers at its inception, according to Donahue-Farrell.

The fort was also used by the military for supplies and reinforcement. In a 2009 Manatee County historical structures survey prepared for the county by Renker Eich Parks Architects Inc., it is theorized that one of the first roads from the area began at Fort Hamer and shipments were brought into the fort on the Manatee River and distributed to other forts via horseback.

By 1850, the number of soldiers stationed at the fort was greatly depleted, only 18 soldiers from various states remained according to the 1850 census. Instead, Twiggs began a new campaign calling for surrender of all remaining Seminoles. Fort Hamer became the submission site for Seminoles who were compensated for their peaceful surrender there. On February 28, 1859, 74 Seminole natives were shipped from Fort Hamer to New Orleans were they began their long journey on the Trail of Tears to a reservation in Oklahoma, according to Donahue-Farrell.

The string of forts was abandoned shortly after they opened. Fort Hamer was used again briefly during the Third Seminole War (1855-1858) but abandoned shortly after. The one at Fort Hamer remained the head of navigation for the river and a trading post for a number of years before shutting down.