Soon after landing at Tampa, Mr. Atzeroth commenced prospecting for a desirable place to locate. After looking about for two or three weeks, he concluded to homestead one hundred and sixty acres of land on Terraceia Island, and on the 12th day of April, 1843, accompanied by his wife, little daughter, the German physician and his dog Bonaparte, landed on the east side of the island about midway of Terraceia Bay. The hammock was so dense that the men were compelled to use their axes to clear a space on which to pitch their tent. The underbrush and vines were so thick, and the progress made by the men so slow, that Madam Joe seized an axe and assisted them. This was her first attempt at chopping and grubbing in Florida. Since that time she has become an expert at the business. When the tent was erected and dinner prepared, it was eaten with a keen relish. From that time forward Madam Joe felt new life and strength. Her torpid liver began to perform its normal functions, and she forthwith discharged the physician and destroyed his medicines. The doctor went to Key West, where he died soon afterward.
Having become weary of tent-life, Madam Joe proposed to her husband the erection of a palmetto hut. Mr. Joe, as the madam always called her husband, drove the stakes for the frame and gathered the palmetto fans or branches. The madam mounted the roof and thatched it; but her work was performed so badly that the first shower of rain deluged the interior, and its inmates sought refuge under the table. The hut was subsequently re-thatched, and three of its corners made fast to trees, which prevented the wind from blowing it down. Soon after the completion of the hut, their provisions ran short, and Mr. Joe started in a canoe for Tampa to replenish them. On his return, adverse winds blew his frail craft around Shaw’s Point into Palmasola Bay, and becoming bewildered, he landed at Sarasota instead of Terraceia. After being buffeted about by the wind and waves for more than a week, he finally reached home. During his absence, Madam Joe and her child had no companion save the dog Bonaparte. The panthers, wild hogs and owls made the nights hideous with their screams, growls and hootings. One night a raid was made by an owl on the chickens roosting on the trees overhanging the hut. Madam Joe seized an old musket of the Methodist persuasion, which usually went off at half-cock, with the intention of frightening away the “wild varmints,” but it was unloaded. Never having loaded a musket, she was in a quandary whether to put in first the powder or the shot. Luckily, she put in the powder before the shot, and stepping to the door of the hut, discharged the musket into the tops of the trees. She put in too much powder, and like another gun we read about, it
“Bore wide the mark and kicked its owner over.”
The owl escaped that time in consequence of being at the wrong end of the musket. It was subsequently killed by Mr. Joe, and peace reigned once more among the chickens. Madam Joe subsequently became an expert with both the shot-gun and rifle, and if reports are reliable, her unerring aim has caused more than one red-skin to make a hasty exit to the “happy hunting-grounds.” She can also ride a horse astride or otherwise—seldom otherwise—like a Camanche.
Becoming disgusted with their frail palmetto hut, Madam and Mr. Joe felled the trees and commenced the erection of a log-pen house, consisting of two rooms, with a wide passage running between them. As there were no saw-mills in the country, boards could not be had at any price. The roof of the house was covered with split cedar planks, and the interstices between the logs filled with moss and clay. A chimney was improvised of sticks plastered with mud. Subsequently, glazed sash for the windows were imported from New Orleans. Meanwhile the axe had not been idle. The stately live oaks and graceful palms around the house had been felled and burned, the land grubbed, and a good-sized vegetable garden was in successful cultivation. Fort Brooke, some thirty miles distant, offering a good market for their surplus produce, they hired a man with a boat to transport and sell their vegetables. Although bountiful crops rewarded their labor, they were not entirely happy. Madam Joe was anxious that her only sister, residing in New York, should emigrate with her family to Florida. But how was the matter to be accomplished without money? Where there is a will, there is always a way to accomplish things which at first sight seem to be impossibilities. The matter was laid before Col. W. G. Belknap, the commander of Fort Brooke, who cheerfully advanced the required funds, and Mr. Joe left immediately in a schooner for New York, via Key West. The voyage was long and tedious, but it was accomplished, and in due course of time, Mr. Joe returned safely with his brother-in-law, wife and child.
Another trouble now presented itself. The Armed Occupation Act having expired previous to locating their land on Terraceia, they were compelled to go to the United States Land Office, at Newnansville, one hundred and sixty miles distant, to file the requisite papers. The country being wild and sparsely settled, Mr. Joe and Mr. Nichols, his brother-in-law, were compelled to pack their provisions on their backs, which rendered their journey wearisome and slow. On the third day they reached a cabin, where they remained over night. While at breakfast on the following morning, most of their provisions were stolen by some thieving negroes. The theft not being discovered until they stopped at mid-day to lunch, they were in a sad plight. They pushed on as fast as possible, and late in the evening came to a cabin inhabited by very poor people. A scanty supper was set before them, which they ate and retired for the night. The breakfast-table on the following morning was bountifully supplied with hog, hominy and corn-dodgers. Mr. Nichols having never before seen a corn-dodger, took a large mouthful of one, and then walking deliberately to the door, spat it out. On resuming his seat at the table, he requested Mr. Joe, in German, not to eat those saw-dust cakes. Mr. Joe, knowing the difference between saw-dust and corn-meal, continued to put away the dodgers, to the great disgust of his brother-in-law, who finished his breakfast on hog and hominy. They finally reached Newnansville, transacted their business and returned safely home, after an absence of about two weeks.
Soon after the return of her husband from Newnansville, Mrs. Nichols gave birth to a child. It lived only two hours, and in less than one week from its birth its mother followed the little angel to
“The undiscovered country, from whose bourne
No traveler returns.”
The surviving child, a little girl two years old, was adopted by Madam Joe, who reared and educated her. She is at this time the wife of Mr. William O’Neil, who resides at Palmetto, on the north side of the Manatee Bay.
The money borrowed from Colonel Belknap still remained unpaid, which was a source of great trouble to Madam Joe. She had the inclination, but not the means to cancel the debt. The colonel proposed to send for his family at the North, and install Madam Joe as housekeeper. The proposition was cheerfully acquiesced in; and early in the year 1845, Madam Joe, accompanied by her husband, daughter and niece, went to Tampa and resided in the house of Colonel Belknap, at Fort Brooke. The Terraceia homestead was left in charge of Mr. Nichols and a hired man. The colonel’s family at that time consisted of his wife, two daughters and a son. That son, General W. W. Belknap, at present a resident of Keokuk, Iowa, made an honorable and enviable record during the war of the Rebellion, and was afterward Secretary of War during a part of President Grant’s administration.