Part II: Holed Up at Fort Gatlin

FORT GATLIN MONTH

Part II: Holed up at Fortress Gatlin:

Martha Jernigan Tyler at Fort Gatlin in 1924

In her memoirs, pioneer Martha (Jernigan) Tyler (1839-1926) wrote of an 1849 Fort Gatlin memory, stating that as a young girl, her family “was fortified on the north side of Lake Conway, right against the peninsular, from the Indians.” But why were the Jernigan’s fearing Indians in 1849?

Established in 1838, Fort Gatlin was abandoned in 1842 because General Worth declared the end to the Second Seminole Indian War. Soldiers left the area and settlers returned home to fend for themselves in Florida’s untamed wilderness. So why then, seven years after the War had ended, was Martha Jernigan and 77 other bravest of the brave Central Florida pioneers “fortified” in an abandoned Fort Gatlin?

The answer lies in an 1849 “Wakulla Times” (sic) newspaper article, a story reprinted days later, on 11 August 1849, by The Pensacola Gazette. The article supports Martha Tyler’s recollections as a young girl of ten. Another paper, published in September 1849, also backs up Martha’s memoirs: “The inhabitants of these districts are all forted and have abandoned their crops.”

The Wachula newspaper told of an incident that occurred on 17 July 1849. “Indians,” the story said, “appeared at a store located on Peas Creek that was kept by a Mr. Payne.” George Payne was indeed a storekeeper on Peas Creek, in then Manatee County, and Indians, according to the news account, “fired through the door of the store and killed Messrs. Payne and Whidden and wounded Mr. McCulloch.”

General Store at Payne's Creek Historical State Park

Mrs. Payne, said the article, “escaped out the back with her child, and after firing a shot to deter the Indians, Mr. McCulloch followed her.” Dempsey Whidden (1828-1849) and George Payne both died at the hands of rogue Seminole Indians on 17 July 1849. The location is now part of Hardee County.

Facts traveled at a snail’s pace in 1840s Florida, and so unfortunately, settlers throughout Florida assumed the Indians had once again gone on a rampage. And while facts traveled slow, bad news tended to spread quickly, which is why 75 miles northeast of Payne’s Peas Creek General Store, 26 Orange County adult settlers, together with their 52 children, gathered at the abandoned Fort Gatlin.

The killing of two settlers and wounding of two others brought out the panic in settlers who still had vivid memories of scalping and burning homesteads of a decade prior.

Two months after the incident, Chief Billy Bowlegs sent runners to meet with Captain John C. Casey (Casey’s Key) at “Sara Sota” (Bay). The Chief expressed regret for “the late murders and said he would be able to settle the difficulty to the entire satisfaction” if Captain Casey agreed to meet. In the meeting that followed, Chief Billy Bowlegs blamed the incident on five rogue Seminoles who “lived on the Kissimmee River, one of whom was a criminal”. The Chief told Captain Casey that all five murderers had been “overtaken and captured.”

 MARCH IS SARASOTA MONTH

A Month-long Celebration You Wont Want to Miss!

Today, Peas Creek is Payne’s Creek, and the Payne’s Creek Historical State Park now preserves the memory of one fateful day in July 1849. But it is not so 75 miles northeast of Payne’s Creek, where a busy three-way residential intersection where Fortress Gatlin once stood has but a historical marker for those who care to park and read about the fort’s location, the fortress where settlers hunkered down 174 years ago after hearing of the Payne’s General Store incident.

Fort Gatlin: A Gateway to South Florida

Beyond Gatlin: A History of South Orange County

Available in Paperback and Hardcover

By Richard Lee Cronin

The history of Sarasota and Orlando intersected one fateful July afternoon in 1849, but it was not to be the only such incident shared by these two great Florida municipalities. In fact, 1849 was but the beginning, a topic to be continued in Part III of my Fort Gatlin Month blogs.

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OR, Pick up a signed copy at Cronin Books Booth

Pine Castle Pioneer Days

February 25^th and 26^th 2023

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March 25, 2023