Samuel C. Upham

Madam Atzeroth—Birth, Parentage and Marriage—Arrival in New York—Visit to Philadelphia, Easton and New Orleans—Arrival in Florida—Locates on Terraceia Island—Vicissitudes of Pioneer Life—A Friend in Need, a Friend Indeed—Arrival of her Sister and Family—Trip to Newnansville—Corn-Dodgers and Sawdust-Death of Mrs. Nichols—Removal to Fort Brooke, Tampa—Col. W. W. Belknap and Family—Return to Terraceia—Homestead Papers Illegally Executed—Return again to Tampa—Gale of 1846—Remove to Palmetto—Indian War—Scenes during the War of the Rebellion—Sell out at Palmetto and Settle in Fogartyville—First Coffee Grown in the United States—Its History.

MADAM JULIA ATZEROTH, whose maiden name was Hunt, was born in the City of Bradford, near the River Rhine, in Bavaria, on the 25th day of December, 1807. Of a family of four children—two males and two females—she is the only survivor. The death of her mother occurring when she was eleven years of age, she was adopted by an uncle on the maternal side, with whom she resided until she attained her majority. At the age of twenty-four years she married Joseph Atzeroth, also a native of Bavaria. The young couple soon after the birth of their first child, a daughter, left the Fatherland and immigrated to America. They arrived in New York in the month of August, 1841, where they remained only a few months. In consequence of the failing health of Madam Atzeroth, they visited Philadelphia and Easton, Pa.; but deriving no benefit from change of location at the North, her physician advised her to go South. They accordingly went to New Orleans, where they remained about one year. Madam Atzeroth’s health not improving, her attending physician, a German, proposed a trip to Florida. Laying in a supply of provisions and medicines, and accompanied by the physician, they engaged passage on board the schooner Essex, a tender for the United States troops stationed at Fort Brooke, Tampa, where they arrived in the spring of 1843.

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

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 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.

During the eight months Madam Joe resided with the family of Colonel Belknap, she frequently saw the wily chief, Billy Bowlegs, and other noted Seminoles, for whom, to use her own words, she “cooked many a meal.” Close confinement caused a recurrence of her old disease—liver complaint—and she reluctantly left the hospitable house of Colonel Belknap for her homestead on Terraceia, where by constant out-door exercise, she soon regained her usual health. Even at the present day, Madam Joe’s universal panacea is “the grubbing-hoe and elbow-grease.” She practices what she preaches, and unlike the medical profession, takes her own medicine. Soon after the return of Madam Joe and family to Terraceia, Mr. Nichols concluded to go to New Orleans. During that year—1846—the yellow fever nearly depopulated the city, and Mr. Nichols was probably one of its victims, as he has never been heard from by his friends since he left Terraceia.

In the fall of 1846, one of the severest gales that ever visited this section of the country passed over Tampa, Terraceia, Palmetto and Manatee. Madam Joe’s house was blown down and all her furniture destroyed. The hen-house was the only structure that survived the storm. The fowls were dispossessed of their domicile, and the family occupied it until another house was built.

In 1848, a government official visited this part of Florida to examine proofs of claimants to land under the Armed Occupation and Homestead Acts. On examining Madam Joe’s papers, it was discovered that two permits had been issued for the same number. This error could only be rectified at the General Land Office in Washington. It was deemed advisable by Madam Joe and her husband to return to Tampa and remain there until the mistake in relation to their homestead could be rectified. Mr. Joe hired a man to assist him in building a house at Tampa, and they went up the Hillsborough River to cut logs and make shingles for the structure. In the month of September the logs for the house were formed into a raft and the shingles placed on it. Everything being in readiness for a start, a furious gale set in, which destroyed the raft and scattered the logs and shingles for miles along the banks of the river. Having gathered the logs and shingles together and rafted them down to Tampa, Mr. Joe visited his family at Terraceia, where he learned that during the late storm his wife, child and niece had taken refuge in the house of a friend on another part of the island. He returned to Tampa, and his family followed soon after. When Madam Joe arrived, she did not admire the location her husband had selected for the house. The frame was taken down and erected on a lot on the town-side of the river, and was soon occupied by the family. The property is still owned by Madam Joe.

Misfortunes, it is said, never come single-handed. In the early part of 1849, Mr. Joe injured one of his feet, and soon after was attacked with chills and fever, which, despite medical treatment, continued nine months. At this time Madam Joe’s finances were at a fearfully low ebb; but being equal to the emergency, she cast about for something to do whereby she could earn an honest penny. She accordingly started a home-made beer and cake shop, which being liberally patronized by the soldiers, soon placed her in easy financial circumstances. Her husband at the same time kept a sutler’s store at Fort Chiconicla.

About this time a partly-finished house, built by a friend—Mr. Reece—in Palmetto, was sold by the sheriff, and Madam Joe became the purchaser, with the hope that Mr. Reece would be able to redeem the property. Failing to do so, Madam Joe and family left Tampa and located in Palmetto in the year 1851. Here they opened a small store, in which they did a thriving business. They also cultivated their farm on Terraceia Island, and by degrees, as their means permitted, stocked it with cattle, horses and hogs. Additions were also made to their stock of goods, and finally they purchased a colored man, who was an excellent farm hand, and proved of great service to his owners.

In 1855 another Indian war broke out. Volunteer companies, home-guards and boat companies were organized for protection against Indian incursions. Many plantations were abandoned and homes broken up. Mr. Joe belonged to one of the boat companies, and a ten days’ scout being prolonged to twenty days, it was reported that the entire party had been massacred by the Indians. During the scout they visited the Indian camps in the Everglades, from whence Mr. Joe brought away as trophies a silver cup and a spoon belonging to Billy Bowlegs. The cup was subsequently sold to Colonel Jewett, U. S. A. The country was in a state of commotion and fever of excitement until the close of the war, in 1858. During these eventful years, Madam Joe stood guard with her musket or rifle whenever her services were required. She never showed the white feather.

Peace had scarcely been restored, when the civil war of 1861 broke out, and Florida was again in a state of anarchy. Mr. Joe enlisted in the Confederate service, and served in Tennessee and Kentucky. At the close of the war, Madam Joe sold her place at Palmetto, with the intention of returning to Europe, but her physician informed her that she could not survive a change of climate, which induced her to abandon the idea of visiting the Fatherland. The family again took up their residence on Terraceia, where Mr. Joe died on the 29th of October, 1871. Madam Joe sold part of her Terraceia plantation and moved to Fogartyville, her present location, in the year 1873. Her garden at this place comprises only four acres, but nowhere else in Florida can be found so many different varieties of trees, plants, vegetables, vines, shrubs and flowers. Mrs. William Fogarty, the daughter of Madam Joe, with her husband and son, reside with the madam. Here, in the year 1876, was planted a few grains of Mexican coffee, received from a neighbor, Mrs. E. S. Warner. On the 20th of February, 1880, Madam Joe sent to the Commissioner of Agriculture, at Washington, the first pound of coffee grown in the United States, for which she received ten dollars. This spring she has sent to the Agricultural Department, at Washington, four pounds of coffee, the product of two trees. Next year she will have eight coffee trees in bearing, and at least one hundred young trees in her nursery. As quite a diversity of opinion exists in relation to the origin of the seed from which the first coffee was grown in the United States, I append the following communications from Mrs. E. S. Warner, of Manatee, Fla., and Dr. A. A. Russell, of Cordova, Mexico, published in the Tampa Tribune, of September 26th, 1880:

The portrait of Madam Joe is a truthful likeness. Above the medium height of her sex, with features bronzed by a tropical sun and the exposure and hardships of a pioneer life, she is nevertheless a well-preserved matron of seventy-four years, with as noble and generous a heart as ever pulsated within the breast of a human being. She is passionately fond of music and waltzing, and can

as gracefully as a miss of sixteen. May her days in the land be prolonged beyond fourscore years and ten.