If you searched for Pine Level today, you'd find it labeled a Florida ghost town. Once the bustling seat of Manatee County, Pine Level now offers a quiet glimpse into the past with churches, cemeteries, and scattered bricks from an old courthouse standing as echoes of its former glory.
County seats were created so citizens could attend courts, vote, conduct government business, and access essential services without traveling to the state capital.
In 1866, after the conclusion of the Civil War, Pine Level was designated as Manatee County’s seat of government. Until then, the Village of Manatee, present-day east Bradenton, held that position. At the time, Manatee County included a vast expanse of more than 5,000 square miles and included seven different counties that exist today, including DeSoto and Sarasota counties. Pine Level was considered a more central location than the Village of Manatee for residents living in the Eastern county, according to the 2004 Bradenton Herald article “Manatee, Sarasota, and DeSoto were one county.”
It was an era of lawlessness in Florida, with rogue vigilantes emboldened to serve justice in ways that didn’t include a judge and jury. Travel was limited to horsepower or sailing ships, with water travel being the preferred method of transport. Wooded trails often concealed seedy characters with ill intentions and were widely considered too risky for most to embark upon.
Even still, the main populace of the area still resided in the north end of the county. They complained that it was time-consuming and difficult to travel to Pine Level to pay taxes, serve on a jury, or access important documents like deeds. Crossing the Braden and Myakka rivers was particularly difficult, according to former Manatee County Commissioner Kent Chetlain in his report “1887 Division of Manatee County.”
The most practical solution was to divide the county, creating DeSoto from its eastern part. This decision emerged from a tumultuous two-day convention of 120 representatives from all corners of sprawling Manatee County, held at the Pine Level skating rink on March 15-16, 1887.
In the heat of the debate, Maj. A. M. Wilson dramatically led the 14-member Pine Level delegation out in protest. Undeterred, Fort Ogden attorney J.G.T. Crawford introduced a resolution to split Manatee County. The proposed division followed the Washington meridian line between ranges 22 and 23 east of Tallahassee, stretching south from the present Polk-Hillsborough County line to the current Charlotte-Sarasota boundary, and then to the Gulf of Mexico. The resolution passed with a vote of 75-17, according to Chetlain.
Dr. Pelot introduced the bill to divide Manatee County and create the new DeSoto County during the April session of the Legislature. Along with DeSoto, four other new counties—Pasco, Citrus, Lake, and Osceola—were also established, marking the first new counties created under the 1885 constitution.
However, a recording error in the minutes of the contentious Pine Level meeting led to an unintended consequence. Manatee County lost the 36-square-mile area extending from the mouth of the Myakka River by El Jobean up to Murdock. Dr. Pelot, relying on the convention minutes to draft the legal boundaries, inadvertently enshrined this mistake into law. As a result, today's Sarasota County was deprived of this township, which now belongs to Charlotte County.
On May 19, 1887, DeSoto County officially came into existence with the Legislature's final passage and adoption of the bill.
The new county was named DeSoto in honor of the Spanish Conquistador Hernando De Soto, who embarked from Florida on his ill-fated journey to discover the Mississippi River in 1541. DeSoto County was enormous, larger than the combined states of Rhode Island and Delaware, stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the Kissimmee River, and south from the Polk-Hillsborough County lines to Lake Okeechobee and the township line north of the Caloosahatchee River, encompassing 3,755 square miles (covering present-day Charlotte, DeSoto, Glades, Hardee, and Highlands). Despite its size, DeSoto was sparsely populated, with barely one person for every square mile.
Having lost its county seat of Pine Level to the newly formed DeSoto County, Manatee County temporarily relocated its seat to the town of Manatee while awaiting the December referendum. During this period, a yellow fever epidemic ravaged the Manatee, Tampa, Key West, and Jacksonville areas, claiming many lives, including Capt. J. W. Harllee, who had led the Manatee delegation at the convention voted to divide Manatee County.
It seemed Sarasota may become the seat, largely due to its offer to build a courthouse and county jail. However, it fell short of a majority during the referendum. This time, Bradentown was selected as a compromise to keep the county seat along the Manatee River. DeSoto County's seat was moved to Arcadia on November 12, 1888, and Pine Level was abandoned.
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