Editing Bartow, Florida (section)

==History==
{{Main|History of Bartow, Florida}}
{{See also|History of Florida}}

A Spanish map of the Florida peninsula drawn in 1527 shows a native settlement called Rio de la Paz near present-day Bartow.<ref name="Polk County History">{{cite web
 |url=http://www.polkcountyhistory.org/History.asp
 |title=Polk County History
 |access-date=2010-09-11
 |publisher=Polk County Historical Association
 |url-status=dead
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727182027/http://www.polkcountyhistory.org/History.asp
 |archive-date=July 27, 2011
}}</ref> Little is known about these Native Americans who made their home near present-day Bartow. It is likely that their population suffered high mortality from European diseases, such as smallpox and measles.<ref name="Polk County History" /><ref name="Ancient Native:The Ancient One">{{cite web
 |url=http://www.ancientnative.org/tao.php
 |title=Ancient Native
 |access-date=2010-09-09
 |publisher=HOTOA
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101017085248/http://www.ancientnative.org/tao.php
 |archive-date=October 17, 2010
 |url-status=dead
}}</ref> The remnants of these pre-Columbian peoples probably joined the Creek Indians who migrated from the north to become the [[Seminoles|Seminole Indian tribe]].<ref name="Polk County History" />

The first non-Indian settlement in the area was a colony of [[Black Seminole]], free blacks and escaped slaves who established Minatti south of Lake Hancock in the late 1810s.<ref name="Over the Branch">{{cite web
 |url=http://www.polkcountyhistory.org/pdf/june98.pdf
 |title=Over the Branch
 |access-date=2010-09-28
 |publisher=Polk County Historical Association
 |url-status=dead
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727182905/http://www.polkcountyhistory.org/pdf/june98.pdf
 |archive-date=July 27, 2011
}}</ref> These "[[Maroon (people)|maroons]]", as they were commonly called, were slaves who escaped from [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] and [[the Carolinas]].<ref name="Interaction Between Blacks and Indians">{{cite web
| url = http://www.africanaheritage.com/RiverSlaveryinFLexcerpt.asp
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070308114556/http://www.africanaheritage.com/RiverSlaveryinFLexcerpt.asp
| url-status = dead
| archive-date = 2007-03-08
| author = Rivers, L.
| title = Interaction Between Blacks and Indians
| access-date = 2010-10-19
| publisher = University of South Florida
}}</ref> The Black Seminole of Minatti were allies of the [[Red Stick]] Creek in ''Talakchopko'', a village that preceded present-day [[Fort Meade, Florida|Fort Meade]].<ref name="Interview with Cantor Brown, PhD">{{cite web
| url = http://lookingforangola.org/Interview_Canter_Brown_Jr.asp
| title = Interview with Cantor Brown, PhD
| access-date = 2010-10-19
| publisher = University of South Florida
| url-status = dead
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100902134431/http://lookingforangola.org/Interview_Canter_Brown_Jr.asp
| archive-date = September 2, 2010
}}</ref> The Seminole leader [[Osceola]] had strong ties to Talakchopko. Many of the events leading up to the [[Second Seminole War]] were associated with Osceola and the Minatti war chief Harry.<ref name="Interview with Cantor Brown, PhD" /> By the end of the Second Seminole War in 1842, both Minatti and Talakchopko had been destroyed by US forces.<ref name="Free Blacks, Red Stick Creeks, and International Intrigue in Spanish Southwest Florida">{{cite web
| url = http://www.africanaheritage.com/BrownTalesofAngolaexcerpt.asp
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070309065117/http://www.africanaheritage.com/BrownTalesofAngolaexcerpt.asp
| url-status = dead
| archive-date = 2007-03-09
| author1 = Brown, C
| author2 = Jackson, D.
| name-list-style = amp
| title = Free Blacks, Red Stick Creeks, and International Intrigue in Spanish Southwest Florida
| access-date = 2010-10-19
| publisher = University of South Florida
}}</ref>{{page needed|date=March 2018}}

[[File:Bartow S Res Dist Holland BF01.jpg|thumb|right|alt=a green two story house with shingles|The [[Benjamin Franklin Holland House]] located at 590 East Stanford Avenue]]
The [[Armed Occupation Act]] of 1842 facilitated European-American settlement of the Florida peninsula in the 1840s, although the act prohibited settlement near the Peace River, as this was considered Seminole land.<ref name="Polk County History" /><ref name="Armed Settlement Act Text">{{cite web
| url = http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=005/llsl005.db&recNum=539
| title = Armed Settlement Act Text
| access-date =  2010-10-19
| publisher = Library of Congress
}}</ref> Enforcement of that part of the act was not strictly enforced; however, and settlers eventually moved into the area.<ref name="Polk County History" /> As the settlement grew, the residents began to plant citrus trees and build one-room school houses and churches.<ref name="Polk County History" /> In 1851, Fort Blount was established by Redding Blount. Bartow developed east of this site.<ref name="A look back in time">{{cite web
 |url=http://mainstreetbartow.com/time.asp
 |title=A look back in time
 |access-date=2010-09-11
 |publisher=Mainstreet Bartow
 |url-status=dead
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091226230300/http://mainstreetbartow.com/time.asp
 |archive-date=December 26, 2009
}}</ref> At some point in the 1850s, Fort Blount was renamed as Peace Creek or Peas Creek, which was a translation of the Spanish Rio de la Paz of early maps.<ref name="A look back in time" />

About a month after the secession of Florida in 1861, the state established Polk County from the eastern portion of [[Hillsborough County, Florida|Hillsborough County]].<ref name="Sheriffs of Polk County">{{cite web
 |url=http://www.polksheriff.org/InsidePCSO/Pages/SheriffsofPolkCounty.aspx
 |title=Sheriffs of Polk County
 |access-date=2010-09-13
 |publisher=Polk County Sheriff's Office
 |url-status=dead
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100125082058/http://www.polksheriff.org/InsidePCSO/Pages/SheriffsofPolkCounty.aspx
 |archive-date=January 25, 2010
}}</ref> A few months later, the [[American Civil War]] began with the Battle of Fort Sumter. Because of the turmoil of secession and the war, the county had no official county seat for its first six years.<ref name="Polk County Courthouse">{{cite web
| url = http://www.jud10.org/Courthouses/Polk/polk.html
| title = Polk County Courthouse
| access-date = 2010-10-07
| publisher = Florida 10th Judicial Circuit
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101101130759/http://jud10.org/Courthouses/Polk/polk.html
| archive-date = November 1, 2010
| url-status = dead
}}</ref> The state legislature had directed the voters of Polk County to choose a site for the county seat and mandated that the site be named "Reidsville".<ref name="Polk County Courthouse" /> During the war, the area's major contribution to the [[Confederate States of America|Confederacy]] was supplying food, particularly cattle and beef.<ref name="Cow Hunters and Cattle Barons">{{cite web
| url = http://www.floridamemory.com/photographiccollection/photo_exhibits/ranching/
| title = Cow Hunters and Cattle Barons
| access-date = 2010-10-19
| publisher = State Library and Archive of Florida
| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20101004011804/http://www.floridamemory.com/PhotographicCollection/photo_exhibits/ranching/| archive-date= October 4, 2010 | url-status= live}}</ref> The [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] army and navy had effective control of the west coast of Florida, and many cattlemen retreated inland and formed the [[1st Florida Special Cavalry Battalion|"Cow Cavalry"]] as a defense against Union troops.<ref name="Florida's Role in the Civil War: 'Supplier of the Confederacy'">{{cite web
| url = http://fcit.usf.edu/florida/lessons/cvl_war/cvl_war1.htm
| title = Florida's Role in the Civil War: "Supplier of the Confederacy"
| access-date = 2010-10-19
| publisher = University of South Florida
}}</ref><ref name="Cow Hunters and Cattle Barons" /> One of the wealthiest members of the Cow Cavalry was Jacob Summerlin.<ref name="Cow Hunters and Cattle Barons" /> After Summerlin purchased the Blount property in 1862, he donated a large parcel of land to build a county courthouse, two churches and a school.<ref name="Polk County Courthouse" /> Later that year, the town which had been known as Fort Blount, Peace Creek, Peas Creek, and briefly Reidsville, was permanently renamed Bartow in honor of [[Francis S. Bartow]], the first Confederate brigade commander to die during the war.<ref name="Polk County Courthouse" />
[[File:Bartow Brown LB house01.jpg|thumb|right|alt=a two-story green house with Victorian ornamentation|The L.B. Brown House located at 470 South Second Avenue]]

Bartow recovered slowly from the war.<ref name="Polk County Historical Association Quarterly 6-2003">{{cite web|url=http://www.polkcountyhistory.org/pdf/june03.pdf |title=Polk County Historical Association Quarterly 6-2003 |publisher=Polk County Historical Association |date=June 2003 |access-date=October 19, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120402101638/http://www.polkcountyhistory.org/pdf/june03.pdf |archive-date=April 2, 2012 }}</ref> The first Polk County Courthouse was built in 1867, which firmly established the city as county seat.<ref name="Polk County Courthouse" /> Although Florida formally rejoined the union in 1868, the Reconstruction era did not end in Florida until 1877.<ref name="Timeline of Florida History">{{cite web
| url = http://www.floridamemory.com/Exhibits/timeline/
| title = Timeline of Florida History
| access-date = 2010-10-19
| publisher = State Library and Archives of Florida
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101122182633/http://floridamemory.com/Exhibits/timeline/
| archive-date = November 22, 2010
| url-status = dead
}}</ref>

The 1880s and 1890s were a period of growth for the city of Bartow; from 1880 to 1900, the city would grow from 386 residents to 1,983.<ref name="1900 Census Data">{{cite web
| url = http://www2.census.gov/prod2/decennial/documents/33405927v1ch08.pdf
| title = 1900 Census Data
| access-date = 2010-10-15
| publisher = US Census Bureau
}}</ref><ref name="1880 Census Data">{{cite web
| url = http://www2.census.gov/prod2/decennial/documents/1880a_v1-01.pdf
| title = 1880 Census Data
| access-date = 2010-10-15
| publisher = US Census Bureau
}}</ref> On July 1, 1882, the town was incorporated as a city.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=B5AsAAAAIBAJ&sjid=OPsDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6238%2C352248 | title=Blount family first settled Bartow | work=Lakeland Ledger | date=February 17, 1982 | access-date=June 6, 2015 | author=Sawyer, Martha F. | pages=6C}}</ref> In 1885, the [[Atlantic Coast Line Railroad|Florida Southern Railroad]], a north–south route from [[North Florida]] to [[Southwest Florida]] opened in Bartow.<ref name="Florida Southern’s Narrow Gauge Years 1879-1896">{{cite web
| url = http://www.taplines.net/fs/fs.html
| title = Florida Southern's Narrow Gauge Years 1879–1896
| access-date = 2010-10-19
| publisher = taplines.net
| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20101013183934/http://www.taplines.net/fs/fs.html| archive-date= October 13, 2010 | url-status= live}}</ref> A year later, the Bartow Branch of the [[South Florida Railroad]], connecting Tampa and Orlando, was completed.<ref name="http://taplines.net/southflorida/southflorida2">{{cite web
| url        = http://taplines.net/southflorida/southflorida2
| title        = Florida Southern's Narrow Gauge Years 1879–1896
| access-date        = 2010-10-19
| publisher        = taplines.net
| archive-url        = https://web.archive.org/web/20110525045440/http://taplines.net/southflorida/southflorida2
| archive-date        = May 25, 2011
| url-status        = dead
}}</ref> The railroads were catalysts for growth of the area; during the [[Spanish–American War]], the Bartow rail yards became a crucial part of the supply line directed at US troops in Cuba.<ref name="Polk County Historical Association Quarterly 6-2003" /> In 1887, Summerlin Institute, the first brick schoolhouse south of [[Jacksonville, Florida|Jacksonville]], was built.<ref name="History of Bartow High School">{{cite web
| url = http://www.bartowhighschool.com/Web%20Pages/history.htm
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20091017022634/http://bartowhighschool.com/Web%20Pages/history.htm
| url-status = dead
| archive-date = 2009-10-17
| title = History of Bartow High School
| access-date = 2010-10-07
| publisher = Bartow High School
}}</ref>

By the turn of the century, Bartow had become the most populous city south of Tampa on the Florida peninsula – larger than [[Miami]] or [[West Palm Beach, Florida|West Palm Beach]].<ref name="1900 Census">{{cite web
| url = http://www2.census.gov/prod2/decennial/documents/33405927v1ch08.pdf
| title = Us Census
| access-date = 2010-09-16
| publisher = US Census
}}</ref>

As the city grew, a number of industries moved into the Bartow area. In the first few decades of the 1900s, thousands of acres of land around the city were purchased by the [[phosphate]] industry. Bartow would become the hub of the largest phosphate industry in the United States.<ref name="Polk's Profile">{{cite web
| url = http://www.polk-county.net/subpage.aspx?menu_id=8&nav=gov&id=120
| title = Polk's Profile
| access-date = 2010-09-12
| publisher = Polk County Government
| url-status = dead
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101130051135/http://polk-county.net/subpage.aspx?menu_id=8&nav=gov&id=120
| archive-date = November 30, 2010
}}</ref>

Polk County was the leading citrus county in the United States for much of the 20th century and the city has several large groves. In 1941, the city built an airport northeast of town.<ref name="Airport History">{{cite web
 |url=http://www.bartow-airport.com/airhistory.htm
 |title=Airport History
 |access-date=2010-09-12
 |publisher=Bartow Municipal Airport
 |url-status=dead
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101204060330/http://www.bartow-airport.com/airhistory.htm
 |archive-date=December 4, 2010
}}</ref>  The airport was taken over by the federal government during [[World War II]] and was the training location for many [[United States Army Air Corps|Army Air Corps]] pilots during the war.<ref name="Airport History" /> The airport was returned to the city in 1967 and renamed as Bartow Municipal Airport.<ref name="Airport History" />

For most of the 20th century, Bartow's growth was modest, especially in comparison to the rest of the county and state. While other cities in Polk County aggressively annexed adjacent land and allowed rapid growth, the government of Bartow generally took a more cautious approach.<ref name="18,000-Acre Development Near Bartow Awaits Approval">{{cite news
| url = http://www.theledger.com/article/20070805/NEWS/708050440/1039?p=2&tc=pg
| title = 18,000-Acre Development Near Bartow Awaits Approval
| access-date = 2010-10-21
| newspaper = The Ledger
}}</ref><ref name="Map of Phosphate Mining Areas" /> Bartow's growth was also limited because most of the land surrounding the city was owned by phosphate mining companies, making residential growth impractical.<ref name="18,000-Acre Development Near Bartow Awaits Approval" /><ref name="Map of Phosphate Mining Areas">{{cite web
| url = http://www.dep.state.fl.us/geology/geologictopics/mine_map0802.pdf
| title = Map of Phosphate Mining Areas
| access-date = 2010-10-21
| publisher = Florida Department of State
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101012000935/http://www.dep.state.fl.us/geology/geologictopics/mine_map0802.pdf
| archive-date = October 12, 2010
| url-status = dead
}}</ref> Although Bartow had been the largest city in Polk county in 1900, by the 1910 U.S. Census, Lakeland had surpassed it in population.<ref name="1970 Census Data">{{cite web
| url = http://www2.census.gov/prod2/decennial/documents/1970a_fl1-01.pdf
| pages = 19–21
| title = 1970 Census Data
| access-date = 2010-10-15
| publisher = US Census Bureau
}}</ref> Bartow remained the second largest city in the county until sometime in the 1950s, when Winter Haven superseded it.<ref name="1970 Census Data" />

In the late 1990s phosphate operations in the area moved southward, and much of the former phosphate land became available for sale.<ref name="18,000-Acre Development Near Bartow Awaits Approval" /><ref name="Florida's Phosphate Deposits">{{cite web
| url = http://www1.fipr.state.fl.us/PhosphatePrimer/0/AE4CF5150A93866485256F800079933B
| title = Florida's Phosphate Deposits
| access-date = 2010-10-21
| publisher = Florida Department of State
| url-status = dead
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110725192613/http://www1.fipr.state.fl.us/PhosphatePrimer/0/AE4CF5150A93866485256F800079933B
| archive-date = July 25, 2011
}}</ref> In 1999, Connecticut financier Stanford Phelps purchased the former Clear Springs phosphate lands east and south of city limits; he announced plans for an 18,000-acre development, the largest project in Polk County history.<ref name="18,000-Acre Development Near Bartow Awaits Approval" /><ref name="Clear Springs Construction a step closer">{{cite news
| url = http://www.theledger.com/article/20090725/NEWS/907265017
| title = Clear Springs Construction a step closer
| access-date = 2010-09-10
| newspaper = The Ledger
| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20101004063453/http://www.theledger.com/article/20090725/NEWS/907265017| archive-date= October 4, 2010 | url-status= live}}</ref> After nearly a decade of delays, the plan received final approval in 2009.<ref name="Clear Springs Construction a step closer" /> The Clear Springs Development includes plans for more than 11,000 new homes, {{convert|1,000,000|ft2|m2}} of commercial space, three schools, and a golf course.<ref name="18,000-Acre Development Near Bartow Awaits Approval" /> According to the Central Florida Regional Planning Council, Bartow's population is projected to grow to over 25,000 people by 2015.<ref name="Clear Springs Plan Moving Forward">{{cite web
| url = http://clearspringsco.com/first-phase-of-clear-springs-to-include-10000-homes-town-center-shopping-area/
| title = Clear Springs Plan moving forward
| access-date = 2010-09-10
| publisher = Polk county Democrat
| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20101004152955/http://clearspringsco.com/first-phase-of-clear-springs-to-include-10000-homes-town-center-shopping-area/| archive-date= October 4, 2010 | url-status= live}}</ref><ref name="18,000 Acre Development near Bartow Awaits Approval">{{cite news
| url = http://www.theledger.com/article/20070805/NEWS/708050440?tc=ar
| title = 18,000 Acre Development near Bartow Awaits Approval
| access-date = 2010-09-10
| newspaper = The Ledger
}}</ref> When buildout of the Clear Springs Development is completed by 2030, the population of the city is projected to be over 45,000 residents.<ref name="Clear Springs Plan Moving Forward" /><ref name="18,000 Acre Development near Bartow Awaits Approval" />