Sunday Favorites: The History of Terra Ceia Island Part 3

TERRA CEIA - When we left off last week, the first white settlers had just arrived on the island of Terra Ceia – Joe and Julia Atzeroth and their 3-year-old daughter Eliza. Joe Atzeroth scouted out the land while his ill wife, Julia, stayed in Tampa. When she arrived at the homestead, she wasn't very happy about his swampy selection.

Joe had set up a small ”tent“ for the family to live in while he built a cabin. However, upon seeing where she was supposed to reside, Julia picked up a hoe and began tilling the ground because she refused to inhabit the tent any longer than absolutely necessary, according to Cathy Slusser in her 2010 speech to the Manatee County Historical Society titled ”Pre-history and History of Terra Ceia Island.“

Julia became known locally as ”Madam Joe“ because she was constantly calling her husband ”Mister Joe.“ Hard work suited Madam Joe, for as soon as she began doing the physical labor required for building a fitting homestead, the ailment that had plagued her since her arrival in the U.S. seemed to quickly dissipate and she lived to be well into her 90s. You can learn more about the Atzeroth’s plight here.

Slusser said the Atzeroths had the island to themselves for about seven years except for some Cuban fishermen. (Julia’s relative married one such fisherman before passing away during the Yellow Fever Epidemic). However, other families began homesteading on Terra Ceia shortly after. And, by 1897, 127 households were there with most of them growing citrus, vegetables (celery in particular) and flowers. Some of the other families included the Williams, Hallocks, Abels, Armstrongs, Kissicks and Tilletts – As in Tillett’s Bayou.

Legend has it that the namesake of Tillett’s Bayou, Joseph Tillett was actually from Myakka. Upon visiting Terra Ceia on a fishing trip, he went home, disassembled his house, loaded it into a wagon and brought it to Terra Ceia. He put it together plank by plank around 1886 – Joseph Tillett happens to be my great, great, great-grandfather.

Another Terra Ceia resident, Frank Armstrong, was an entrepreneur and a local mover-and-shaker with a multitude of connections. At one time, he owned the most land in the county and had contacts in the steamship industry. Armstrong ran a general store which was located on a wharf off Bayshore Road in order to receive shipments via steamship. New residents would not only buy land from him, but also supplies, seeds and anything else they needed to start a farm. He was instrumental in beginning what is now known as Port Manatee. He also successfully persuaded the railroad to come to Terra Ceia, according to Slusser.

Back in those days Bayshore Road was a commercial area with several docks supporting stores and packing houses jutting out into the bay for commercial purposes. Homes lined the other side of the drive. However, in 1900, Armstrong convinced the railroad to come to Terra Ceia, shifting the hub of the island to Center Road.

My great-grandmother Wealthy Rowell, the granddaughter of Joseph Tillett, married a burgeoning farmer named John Anderson and they built a two-story home on Center Road in 1927, which still stands today. The family frequented dances and festivities at the Village Improvement Association (VIA) which is located just few hundred feet from their former home.

The VIA is the oldest operating civic organization in Florida. It began in 1901 as a women’s club, with the wood-framed building, which still stands on Center Road, constructed in 1907. The women would hold dances on Friday nights and other events where people would come to socialize. The organization began allowing men to join in the 1950s, Slusser states in her speech.

My grandmother, Alice Anderson Sutton, and four brothers and two sisters attended classes at a small school behind the VIA, which had been built in 1912. Sometime during the 1940s, it burned down and was replaced with a little yellow house. The homeowners could not dig out the brick foundation of the school, so they just built the house on top and filled in the sides with dirt to cover it, Slusser said.

The Methodist Church, another historical building currently located on Center Road, was built in 1899. My great, great grandfather, John E. Anderson, an immigrant from Scotland, was one of the founders.

Both the Methodist Church and the VIA are still in operation today. If you travel down Center Road on a Sunday morning when people are coming and going from the VIA, or church, you might be able to picture what it was like over 100 years ago, when it served as Terra Ceia’s hub.