Sunday Favorites: The History of Terra Ceia Island, Part 2

TERRA CEIA - Last week, we discussed the ancient tribe that lived on Terra Ceia Island, but we never determined what happened to them or who they were. Most likely, they died of disease brought over from the Spanish explorers in the 1500s, including the Hernando Desoto expedition. Over hundreds of years, the shell middens they left behind were inhabited by different tribes and even different cultures from Cuban Ranchero fisherman, to early white settlers.

According to U.S. history books, the native community located on Terra Ceia was Ucita, the village occupied by Desoto shortly after his arrival in Florida in 1539. However, the real explanation is a little more complex. According to Bill Burger in his 1991 lecture with the Manatee County Historical Society titled ”Pre-history and History of Terra Ceia,“ the designation was more political than historically accurate.

In 1939, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt formed a commission to decide the landing place of Hernando Desoto. Through research they determined that the landing spot was somewhere in Manatee County. They placed it near present-day West Bradenton and recognized the location as Desoto National Memorial. Burger said the designation was never meant to indicate the actual landing place of Desoto, but instead serve as a memorial to acknowledge his arrival somewhere in the vicinity.

That means the native village in Terra Ceia might not have been the Ucita described in Desoto’s journal. Burger says the original tribe that lived on Terra Ceia was not Calusa or Timucua, as many people think, but another tribe altogether that he claims were ”their own people.“

This society spoke multiple languages unlike the dialect of the Calusa or Timucua and Burger also stated that there has never been any evidence suggesting that an army of 16^th Century Europeans ever visited Terra Ceia Island. However, during Florida’s land boom in 1920s, many private landowners sold off the massive shell mounds that made up the village to developers for use as road fill at the price of 50 cents per square yard. In fact, Burger says it’s almost impossible to determine where Desoto landed because so much of the shell mounds, which most likely held evidence of the conquistadors’ arrival, eventually became road fill across the state.

Despite the rich native history of the island, Terra Ceia gets its name from the Spanish. Burger thinks it is named after Ranchero de Rosie, one of three Cuban Rancheros located in Manatee County in the late 1700s. The main purpose of these rancheros was to catch, salt and smoke fish and roe to be sold on the Cuban market. Cuban fisherman occupied the area well into the 1800s, living in seasonal homes made of palm fronds and fishing with nets.

Burger says that early Spanish cartographers in the 1700s actually gave the island its name, in Spanish ”Terra Ceia means Land of Rosia.“ (Most likely they associated the island with the Cuban ranchero). In addition to naming Terra Ceia, they also gave the present-day Manatee River its original name – Oyster River. Burger says the Spaniards named it after what looked like large oyster beds blocking off the river’s entrance. The ”oyster beds“ were actually remnants of the ancient shell mounds connecting the large villages that occupied the area. At the time, they had become submerged under the water due to rising sea levels and erosion.

The area remained largely uninhibited until 1853, when the first white settlers Julia and Joseph Atzeroth and their daughter Eliza came to Terra Ceia Island to homestead. The Atzeroths had left Germany due to political strife, traveled to New York, then migrated south to Florida. By the time they arrived in Terra Ceia, Eliza was 3-years-old, according to Cathy Slusser in her 1991 lecture for the Manatee Historical Society called ”Pre-history and History of Terra Ceia Island.“

Slusser says that the Atzeroths had originally planned to settle in Pennsylvania where there was a large population of German immigrants but Julia fell very ill upon their arrival. She and joe took the advice of a doctor and moved south with the hope it would help Julia’s failing health. They first went to New Orleans, but Julia was still very sick. From there they moved farther south to Fort Brooke, modern day Tampa. Julia was so sick, her doctor followed her from Louisiana and essentially lived with the family until she recovered. Joe scouted out their claim of land under the Armed Occupation Act, which gave pioneers who settled the Florida wilds 160 acres if they would live there for five years and serve in the militia.

Upon their arrival on Terra Ceia, a frail Julia was not impressed with the location her husband had chosen. They would have to build their homestead in a swampy, bug-ridden wilderness hours away from civilization.

Next week, we will learn the outcome of their plight. Catch you next Sunday!