Hillsborough County History: Part Six of a Series

Buffalo Soldier in Tampa, 1898
TBHC Collection

In 1898, Tampa was one of three port cities selected as the port of embarkation for troops bound for Cuba and the Spanish - American War.  During the summer months of June, July and August, Tampa's population swelled by over 40,000 temporary residents.  The small city was overwhelmed, but managed.  Although local merchants saw increased profits in the summer of 1898, there was no direct, long term, benefit to Tampa.  There were some indirect bonuses, not the least of which was the Army Corps of Engineers agreeing to dredge a shipping channel from Tampa Bay into Hillsborough Bay to downtown Tampa.

World War I would not have as drastic affect on Tampa, but World War II certainly would.  During the war years of 1939 - 1945, thousands of servicemen and women, and their families, would come to Florida.  Tampa sported three military bases:  MacDill Army Air Base, Drew Field and Henderson Field.  In addition, shipbuilding firms buzzed with activity 24 hours a day.  The two largest, Tampa Shipbuilding and Engineering Company and McCloskey Shipbuilding Company, employed hundreds and produced cargo and navy vessels for the war effort.

Franklin and Twiggs Streets,
downtown Tampa.
TBHC Collection

After the war, many of the servicemen and women would return to Hillsborough County, where they once trained, to live and start families.  The wartime growth continued, but in different areas.  Tampa's port was thriving.  MacDill Army Airfield would evolve to MacDill Air Force Base, home to the United States Central Command, while Drew Field became Tampa International Airport.  Busch Gardens occupies much of the area formerly covered by Henderson Field.

The county's population increased dramatically after World War II, from 207,844 in 1945 to approximately 958,050 in 1999.  Growth occured in all areas, but urban sprawl would dominate some parts of the county, especially those close to the City of Tampa.

Artifact Spotlight: William Stork's 1767 New Map of East Florida

TBHC Collection

Map #48 in TBHC’s map exhibition — the New Map of East Florida — is important for several reasons. First, it’s one of only two pieces in the entire exhibit that is actually part of TBHC’s own collection. But it’s also unique in that there are only three known copies of this map in the world, and the other two reside in the British Library. It was drawn in 1767 by William Stork, one of many British surveyors and cartographers at the time of the British era in Florida (1763-1783), and is likely a copper engraving because the plate marks can be seen.

You might wonder why this map’s title refers to East Florida when the west coast is plainly visible. The reason is that soon after the British took possession of Florida they split the territory into two colonies: East Florida, which encompassed only the peninsula of Florida, with its capital in St. Augustine; and West Florida, which included a Panhandle that extended all the way to the Mississippi River.

            

Printed four years after the transfer of Florida to England, this broad-purpose map would have been an early attempt by the British to conceptualize what they owned in East Florida. The British ultimately wanted colonists to migrate to their new possessions so this map would have served the general purpose of illustrating the new territory. “Although there are some neat notations on the map,” says Rodney Kite-Powell, “there really wasn’t much to highlight at that time. Plus, it wasn’t very accurate. There’s a mountain range in the middle of Florida, Tampa Bay is in the wrong place, and Hillsborough Bay hadn’t been named yet; Stork labeled it ‘Spirito Santo (Holy Spirit) Bay.’ But the east coast is well done. Stork did the best he could, and actually…it’s an attractive map and phenomenal that he got as much right as he did”

Like most events in history, it’s the anecdotes that pique the greatest interest. As was mentioned, cartographer William Stork drew the map and he dedicated it to The Right Honourable the Earl of Hillsborough —the first Lord Hillsborough — for whom the Hillsborough River and Bay were later named. “But here’s the thing,” notes Rodney,” Lord Hillsborough was never given any land in Florida, nor did he ever come to Florida, or to any of the colonies.” Why, then, was this map dedicated to the earl, and why were places named after him? Because at that time the Earl Lord Hillsborough, who lived in Ireland, was Secretary of State for the British colonies and mapmakers in England were always on the lookout for ways to curry favor with their higher-ups. (Another example is Egmont Key, named for the Earl of Egmont.)

           

And indeed, Lord Hillsborough was such an important man in his day that many locations in the U.S. were named after him (i.e. Hillsborough, N.C., Hillsborough, N.H., Hillsboro Inlet, an abbreviated version). “There are all kinds of Hillsboroughs!” declares Rodney, “but remember, there was no Hillsborough County until 1834, which was named years later after the river and the bay.”

            

Another interesting story about Lord Hillsborough involves Benjamin Franklin who, before the revolution in about 1762, was sent to Ireland to meet with the British Secretary of State/earl. At that time, Franklin was on the fence about whether or not the colonies should rise up against the British. However, after spending just a short time with the earl, Franklin realized that if this guy was the one in charge, there was no choice but to revolt! And that’s the message he brought back when he returned home.

            
Now the Hillsborough story takes a more modern turn. In the 1950s, the Sixth (or Seventh) Earl of Hillsborough and his wife visited Tampa during Gasparilla and it was then that they presented the New Map of East Florida to Hillsborough County, in appreciation of the county being named for their family. Then some 50 years later, in about 2000, the then-current Earl of Hillsborough, a 45-year-old man named Nick Downshire, was planning a trip to Florida with his family and wanted to pay a visit to Hillsborough County. “He got in touch with us,” recounts Rodney, “and we planned to show him the map, which he had never seen. But before he got here, his uncle the Marquis of Downshire had died, and that title was then conferred upon Nick. And so, Nick’s 8-year-old son became the new Earl of Hillsborough, and when the family arrived in Florida, I got to meet the new lord …a little kid! I wonder if he even remembers his visit to Hillsborough County.” -- Sara Baker, TBHC Volunteer

This article originally appeared in print in TBHC's Volunteer Voice newsletter, Issue 13, fall 2013.

Hillsborough County History: Part Four of a Series

Two years after Jackson's map was complete, Tampa received a city charter from the State of Florida.  Prosperity seemed certain, but national politics held different plans for Tampa and Hillsborough County. On January 10, 1861, Florida became the third state to secede from the Union.

The Confederate Army held Fort Brooke throughout most of the Civil War.  It was shelled by Union warships on several occasions and was captured in May 1864.  After scouting the area for a day, the victors found nothing of use and abandoned the area.  They returned until after the war as occupation troops.

Alfred Beal

Floridians, during Reconstruction, struggled with a wide variety of issues.  Most Black Floridians were experiencing freedom for the first time.  Freedman from the Hillsborough County settlements of Hopewell, Knights and Springhead founded Bealsville, a community south of Plant City.  While the Homestead Act granted the land, it did not guarantee the claimants would become landowners.  To retain title, applicants had to construct homes, clear land and procure farming implements.  Despite the overwhelming odds, the community succeeded, and still exists to this day.

Freedom, too, held no guarantee. It was tainted with the continued indignities heaped upon by whites, both southern and the new northern "carpetbaggers" who came to Florida to turn a quick profit at the expense of southerners, both white and black.  Depression, both emotional and economic, hung over Hillsborough County.

A Short History of Hillsborough County: Part 2 of a Series

1710 Map of Florida, TBHC Collection

Few, if any, of Florida's indigenous people survived beyond the 1700s.  Once numbering in the hundreds of thousands, the native population was decimated by European-introduced diseases, slave raids and warfare with both explorers and the Creek and Yamassee Indians from present-day Georgia and Alabama.  Handfuls of survivors were probably taken to Cuba by the Spanish when Florida came under English control in 1763.  Archaeological evidence discovered at the southern end of the Courtney Campbell Causeway dates from this time and suggests Cuban fishermen and their Tocobaga workers left for Cuba when the Spanish government withdrew from Florida.

In the mid-1700s, Native Americans from the areas north of Florida began entering the Tampa Bay area.  These new residents had customs and traditions similar to their extinct southern neighbors, but there were also differences.  The newcomers, later dubbed Seminoles, were a composite of a number of groups, including Creek, Yamassee and Apalachee, plus Africans, both freedmen and runaway slaves from colonial (later American) plantations.

Lord Hillsborough

Despite Florida being the first site of European colonization, Americans paid it little attention.  When control of the territory transferred from Spain to England in 1763, Florida was divided into East and West Florida, becoming the 14th and 15th British Colonies.  It was during this era that Hillsborough Bay and the Hillsborough River were named in honor of Lord Hillsborough, Secretary of State of the British Colonies under King George III.  These southernmost colonies remained loyal to the crown during the American Revolution and at the end of the conflict (1783) Spain resumed ownership.

The Second Spanish Period (1783 - 1921) was marked by the growing conflict between the Seminoles and U. S. citizens living on either side of Florida's northern border.  Spain was powerless to stop the agressors on either side.