Discouraged, the colonists began to leave by the end of January 1886. Many felt they would starve if they stayed. All money invested by them was lost and many had to borrow money to travel north to stay with friends or relatives. By May 1, 1886, only a few families remained. That same year, John W. Gillespie arrived, and his company, Florida Mortgage and Investment Co., Ltd., would make an attempt to revive the colony. Steamship connections were established with Tampa. Mr. Gillespie built the De Soto Hotel, and he laid out what was perhaps the first practice golf course in America.
Fishing as an industry began to flourish. The Spanish-American War in 1898 added to the prosperity, as cattlemen drove herds to slaughter to supply meat for the hungry soldiers. Sarasota got its first newspaper in 1899. In November of that same year, telephone service arrived. The Seaboard Railroad extended its line from Tampa to Sarasota at least five years earlier than it had planned.
Sarasota was incorporated as a town on October 14, 1902, and Mr. Gillespie served as the Town’s first Mayor. He was subsequently elected to five additional one year terms. In addition to the railroad connection, the town boasted a yacht club, a new school, and ice plant, a cemetery, theater, municipal water works, electric plant, a second newspaper, and a sanitarium opened in 1908.
Bertha Palmer and her family visited Sarasota in 1910. They liked the location so much; they decided to purchase some 80,000 acres in the area which was at that time part of south Manatee County. She established her inland cattle ranch called “Meadow Sweet Pastures” along the Myakka River after building her home named “The Oaks” on the old Webb property on Little Sarasota Bay in Osprey.
(Some text on this page is from Sarasota County Historical Resources and Sarasota History Alive)