MANATEE COUNTY - In the 19th Century, cattle roamed freely around the Florida prairie, prime for corralling by wily cowhunters (the Florida equivalent of a Western cowboy) that rounded up the wild livestock with impressive lasso skills and strategic whip cracks. But one man's stock exceeded the norm, surging past 50,000 head of cattle. His name was Ziba King and he was known as the king of the Florida.
Born in 1838, King was a confederate soldier during the Civil War who fled the war-torn state of Georgia during the reconstruction period. He began his journey south on foot with only $5 in his pocket, according to Mike Miller in his article ”Fort Ogden, Arcadia and Ziba King the Florida Cattle Barron.“
By 1868, he’d saved up enough money to open a dry goods store in Tampa. He eventually settled on 160 acres in Fort Ogden, located southwest of Arcadia, Fla.
While King’s principal interest was raising cattle, he also invested in banking, farming and real estate. At that time, it wasn’t uncommon for residents to dabble in a variety of different careers: King served as a judge, a school board elective, bank president and even a state Senator at one point.
By the time of his death in 1901, King had amassed a small fortune, owning 10 percent of all the cows in Florida, worth more than $500,000 (equivalent to $9 million in today’s economy).
King’s appearance and demeanor are legendary. At over 6.5-feet tall and 225 pounds, he is described in texts as strong, handsome, short-tempered and big hearted. He once killed a steer in a fit of rage by punching it near the heart, but some accounts claim the animal was charging him at the time.
In 1880, he was taken to court for ”enticement of prostitution,“ according to ”Cattle Barron Ziba King Filled Court Dockets,“ a 2002 Herald Tribune article written by Dean Dixon.
Apparently the plaintive found it inconceivable that an ”otherwise virtuous“ young woman would ”prance off to the cane patch“ with King and lay ”so close to appear as one for an hour,“ without doing so against her will.
C.P. Weeks, an obvious admirer of the young woman, took King to court after King threatened to kill him for creepily following the two lovers into the cane patch in the first place. Weeks also testified in court that he overheard the girl tell her mother she ”rebuffed King’s advances until he offered her $6,000.“ One can imagine how salacious the case was in 1880. Of course, King may have been able to keep it under wraps since he also owned the local newspaper.
King’s poker skills were arguably more impressive than his strength and physique. He was known to travel to other states for the sake of a good game and reportedly never lost. In his book ”Punta Gorda in the Beginning, 1865-1900.“ historian Vernon Peeples described King’s poker games as ”reckless and successful,“ often including high stakes.
King was constantly dealing with his jaded poker opponents who’d lost everything during a high-stakes game. But he wasn’t cold-hearted; he’d often work with them to pay off their debt in return for their cherished property.
Warburton and Helen Warner were prominent west Bradenton residents that owned and operated the Palma Sola Hotel along with a local general store. When Helen found out Warburton lost their waterfront property to King during a poker game – she was furious. At that time, women couldn’t deal in property without being declared a free-agent by the court. Helen, a prim and proper hostess, became free agent and sought out King to get the property back. King agreed to return the land in exchange for the entire inventory of the Warburton general store, which she delivered by ship to Fort Oldgen, up the Peace River, according to ”The Singing River“ by Joe Warner.
His charity didn’t stop there. When hard times fell on the people of Manatee County, King came to the rescue when he adopted every resident’s county and school tax debt for one year in order to stimulate the economy, according to Peeples.
King was also known to flash his wealth from time to time. He once payed a clerk at the Tampa Hotel in a sheet of bank notes so fresh of the press the ink was still drying, according to Peeples.
But the cattle baron was also humbled by a barefoot mailman. Acrefoot Johnson went barefoot because most shoemakers couldn’t accommodate his size 14 feet. Standing at 6-feet 7-inches, Johnson’s long stride and fast pace when walking was said to compare to that of a horse. After just purchasing a fancy horse and buggy, King ran into Johnson along his delivery route. King offered the mail carrier a ride in the impressive buggy and boasted that it was the ”fastest in the land.“
Johnson complimented the rig, but politely declined the invitation saying, ”I’ll have to take a rain check, Judge, I’m kind of in a hurry today,“ according to the book ”Uncle Monday and Other Florida Tales.“
There are too many stories about Ziba King to explain in one column. He was a complex man and respected character who is mentioned in hundreds of texts. His legend lives on through the decedents of his 14 children, and the people who passed down their experiences about him over the years. My dear friend Vernon Peeples said it best, ”Ziba King flourished in an era when only the strong survivedÉ.he was a large man who cast a large shadow in every area in which he was involved. He, like all men, was not perfect, but some of his traits are worthy of our admiration. ” cowboys.
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