First Settler's Homesite
Inscription
Side 1: Located a few yards from this spot near the banks of the Manatee River is the site of the log home of Josiah Gates. Gates was the first Anglo-American settler in the entire Manatee area which at that time extended southward to the Caloosahatchee River and eastward to the Kissimmee River. After the Second Seminole War, the Armed Occupation Act of August 4, 1842, opened Central Florida to American settlers.
Gates, a native of South Carolina, moved his family here from Fort Brook (Tampa) early in 1843. Side 2: In 1851, Josiah Gates replaced his first dwelling with a twenty room, three story frame home located a few yards further back from the river on this same site. The "Gates House" served newly arrived settlers and visitors as a hotel in the wilderness.
Josiah Gates became a prosperous farmer as well as a successful innkeeper. He was also active in local government after Manatee County was created in 1855. He died in 1871. Neither of the two structures built by Josiah Gates is still standing.
Location
Sources
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