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
"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.
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:
"MANATEE, FLA., _August 30th, 1880_.
"DR. WALL: Dear Sir--I inclose a letter from Dr. A. A. Russell, of
Cordova, Mexico, the gentleman from whose plantation the
coffee-seed was procured that has been successfully reproduced by
Madam Atzeroth here. As the subject of coffee-raising in this State
is causing considerable inquiry, and as this letter contains much
valuable information on the subject, I submit it to you for
publication, asking the favor of having a copy forwarded to the
doctor from your office as soon as issued. Very respectfully,
"E. S. WARNER."
"CORDOVA, MEXICO, _May 19th, 1880_.
"MRS. E. S. WARNER: Madam--It was quite a pleasure to receive your
very kind letter of April 1st. I congratulate you most heartily,
and am proud to learn that from the _seed I sent was produced the
first coffee in the States_. I think I wrote you that the plant
requires shade. In this climate we prefer to plant in fresh,
timbered land; cutting out at first only the undergrowth, and
taking out a few trees every year after for two or three years,
thus graduating the shade and ventilating as appears to be
required. The palatine (or plantain, or banana, as you probably
call it) makes a good shade, and may be cut out, or under leaves
trimmed off as may seem to be necessary. Coffee requires a rich,
vegetable soil, or manure. The berry is fully ripe when dark red,
but the grain is matured if the berry is picked when it has become
yellow or only turning red; however, the coffee is of better
quality if the berry is fully ripe, that is, of a deep or dark red.
When gathered, it should be spread out at once to dry in the sun.
It may be dried on mats, scaffolds or platforms of planks or
boards. In good or favorable weather it requires about three weeks
to dry. Here it is often dried on the ground. It may be spread from
two to four inches thick, and should be stirred twice or three
times a day; and if it should get wet a few times on the dryer,
before half dry, no harm will be done and the coffee not injured in
the least, if frequently stirred to prevent fermentation. When half
dry it should be protected from rain and dew. If it has been wet a
few times it will be more easily cleaned, but if frequently wet it
will be of a darker color; also much darker, and even black and
spoiled, if allowed to heat and ferment. It may be pulped by some
of the pulping machines now in use, the day it is gathered, then
washed and dried. The pulped coffee will dry in a few days,
occupies less space in drying, and is of a lighter color, which,
with you, I presume, are considerations of little importance at
present.
"You will know the coffee is sufficiently dry when the hull crushes
readily under the foot. The most simple, and, by the way, not a
very bad process for cleaning the coffee, is the primitive mode of
cleaning rice; that is, to beat it out in a deep mortar with a
heavy pestle, and as the chaff accumulates dip out the coffee with
a cup in the left hand, pouring back into the mortar from the
same height, at the same time blowing off the chaff with a fan in
the right hand, repeating the process until clean.
"There are a variety of machines for hulling and cleaning coffee,
which will be a matter of consideration when the production
requires it. Now that you have succeeded in producing the grain,
you will have less difficulty in propagating from the acclimated
seed, which should be thoroughly ripe, squeezed out of the pulp and
dried in the shade. Hope you will continue successfully, and
establish plantations of importance.
Your obedient servant,
"A. A. RUSSELL."
[Illustration: MADAM JULIA ATZEROTH.
The lady who raised the first coffee grown in the United States.
From a photograph by F. PINARD, Manatee and Tampa.]
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
"Trip the light fastastic toe"
as gracefully as a miss of sixteen. May her days in the land be
prolonged beyond fourscore years and ten.