One hundred twenty eight years ago;

Our Nation was having its 99th Birthday, trying to recover from the wounds of a divisive war and struggling through the days of reconstruction. In Washington, Ulysses S. Grant was weathering a stormy term as President of the United States of America;

Our beloved young state of Florida was industrially paralyzed, with an empty treasury, and with a worthless currency. But it was out of "times like these" that out forefathers felt keenly their dependence upon God and their need for a church where they could worship God and serve their fellow man.

It would be 24 years before the first telephone would come to the area. Electric service would come 35 years later to the town of Sarasota four miles away, and electric power would only be available from dusk to midnight and never on moon lit nights.

The first railroad would not come into Sarasota for 28 years and the first automobile was 34 years in the future. It would be almost half a century before airplanes from the nearby military base in Arcadia would be seen flying over the area.

Although Fruitville has been in the very same geographical spot throughout the years, is has been part of four different counties. After Florida became a territory of the United States in 1822 and counties were setup. Fruitville was included in Mosquito County which extended from the Gulf to the Atlantic and from south of Fort Myers to north of Tampa. When the county was divided and the name Mosquito dropped, Fruitville found itself in Hillsborough County from 1834 to 1856. Then Hillsborough was divided, and the Fruitville area was included in the newly formed Manatee County. In 1877 the eastern half of the huge county became Desoto County. It was not until 1921 that Sarasota County was formed. Click map for larger view

The first settler to come to the site of Fruitville was Charles L. Reaves. He had come to Florida from Georgia, and after the Civil War, he became a store clerk in Manatee. When the Tatum Family traveled from their home in Tatum Ridge to get their mail and supplies, they took along young Martha.

In 1875 Charlie and Martha were married, first making their home in the Tatum Ridge area. Soon they sold their property there and with the money, built a home on 100 acre tract that Charles had brought in Fruitville. This property was located north of the present Fruitville Road and west of Simmons Avenue.

For several years the community did not have an official name and descriptions of the location simply state "four miles east of Sara Sota". New settlers came and it was decided to give the area a post office all its own.

C. L. Reaves was appointed as postmaster, and it became his responsibility to provide a name. It has been suggested that, in selecting the name Fruitville, perhaps Reaves was comparing the productiveness of the area's rich soil with the poor, sandy soil found nearer the coast just a few miles away. Or was it because of the citrus groves in the area? At any rate the name was aptly chosen for the Fruitville section through the years has been regarded as one of the most agriculturally productive sections of the entire state.

The records of the Post Office Department in the National Archives show that a post office was established at Fruitville, Manatee County, Florida on June 7, 1895. Charles Reave added a room onto his home and this became the location of the post office. A little later he erected a combination store post office building on his property. Click picture for larger view

This map shows the approximate locations of some of the earliest settlers whose families remained in the area for many years. In the 1880's the area was open country, palmetto patches, and a few trails and dirt roads. The streets and roads shown on the map are those in use today. Click map for larger view

Pioneer living was not easy for the new settlers, and there were many hardships. They had to depend on themselves, or their neighbors, for their everyday necessities in the sparsely settled land.

Medical problems had to be care of by their own ingenuity, for the nearest doctor was miles away. A traveling dentist came to town annually, sending word ahead just when he planned to be in the community. From the moment he sent word until he arrived and left young of the neighborhood lived in dread that he might find something wrong with their teeth and they might have to undergo the primitive dental practices of the times.

Mrs. Samantha Molphus, the community's midwife, became a very important person, especially when it was known that a new baby was on the way.

It was difficult to protect homes from the dreaded mosquito. Windows had no screens in them, but smoke from smudge pots help to drive the insects away. Frames covered with mosquito netting were hung over beds in order to keep pesky creatures away from the sleeper. Even so, Malaria, with its accompanying chills and fever, was common.

Housekeeping wasn't easy either. Much of the cooking was done outdoors over an open wood-burning fire with perhaps a grate to set the cook pot on. Sometimes, especially in cold or rainy weather, cooking had to be done inside in the fireplace. The lack of any kind of refrigeration was, of course a very real problem. Meats were cured by salting and smoking and most homesteads had a smokehouse.

Distances and difficulties in travel posed a real problem and it was not an easy matter. Roads were little more than horse trails or narrow lane leading through pine woods. Often times the lowlands were so flooded that at every step the horse or oxen splashed water. Streams and rivers had to be forded since there were no bridges and in times of heavy rainfall, long detours were necessary.

Mail, freight, and passengers coming to the area from the north were brought to Manatee from Cedar Key, the terminal of the railroad line. By 1877 there was a regular line of steamers making scheduled trips twice each week between Cedar Key and Manatee. But Manatee was still a long way from Sarasota and Fruitville. In 1884 the H. B. Plant Railroad was completed as far south as Tampa and in 1902 it was extended to Manatee County. It was a day of great rejoicing when the first railroad bridge was built over the Manatee River making way for the extension of the railroad into Bradenton. Later the railroad was extended to Sarasota.

In 1899 a telephone line was built from Bradenton to Sarasota with lines strung principally on pine trees, the line zigzagging through the woods. Sarasota boosted two telephones, one of them located at the Post Office. C. L. Reaves, ever the civic minded citizen was not content until Fruitville, too, had a phone, and he personally paid the expense of having a line extended form Sarasota to Fruitville. A dairy entry of March, 1901 reads "Telephones for first time". The Wilson's, a pioneer family, paid for the extension of the line into Myakka.

The census figures for 1870 reveal a great deal about the lack of educational facilities in this area and the areas from where the early settlers had come. With a total population in the huge Manatee County of only 1931, less than ten percent had ever attended public school. The parents must have done a good job in teaching the 3 R's at home, or in providing for private teachers, for the same census shows that only 384 above ten years of age could not read.

The settlers of Fruitville were determined that their children should have better educational advantages. When the oldest son in the Reaves family was 10 years old, Mattie and Charlie Reaves realized that they must do something about their children's formal education. Accordingly, they cleared the corn out of the corncrib and set up a little home private school. Neighborhood children were invited to join in, free of charge. Their first teacher was Miss Josie Clower. By 1890 the Friendship Church building housed the community school.

In 1898 a county owned building was erected about one mile west of the church in the area of today's Honore Avenue. The school was called the Live Oak School, and its first teacher was Miss Frances Roberts. The little building was a board box shaped house with homemade benches. There was no way of heating at first and the pupils had to warm themselves outside by a wood fire. Water was obtained from the Craig home about twenty yards from the school.

Fruitville's second school building was erected by the School Board in 1905 east of the present Simmons Avenue and north of the Fruitville Road, on property given to them by C. L. Reaves. The name Live Oak School was changed and the new school became the Fruitville School. Click for more pictures of Fruitville School

On January 1st, 1985, the South Trail Area Fire Control District, Fruitville Area Fire Control District and the Northeast Fire Control District consolidated and became the Metropolitan Sarasota Fire Rescue District,

"The Groves" (Bunyan and Camus Street area) was constructed and platted March 19, 1980 on the former Walker property by William D. McCubbin. John Walker and a little later his son, James Brazilla Walker were deacons serving the Friendship Baptist Church. In October of 1911, the church took the following action: "A committee was appointed to call on delinquent members. The moderator appointed to this committee Brothers, J. A. Hand, W. M. Walker, and E.B. Tucker". The majority of the lots in the Groves stayed vacant. A few homes were built by Richmond Homes (Ryan) and private owners. "Cedar Hollow" (Indian Mount area) was constructed and platted June 14, 1983, by David McNabb. Homes started at 45,000 dollars with easy financing. Over ninety homes were sold the first weekend the sales models were open. The model center was located on Indian Mound Street adjacent to Honore Ave. Once the lots in Cedar Hollow were sold out, McNabb purchased the remaining lots in the Groves and opened a model center on the Bunyan Street cul-de-sac in 1985. "Cedar Hollow Three" followed later on October 23, 1985. Today there is not an empty lot to be found any of the three sections.

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