Trabue, Isaac

 

Isaac Trabue, the founder of the town which became the present Punta Gorda, FL was a lawyer, coal mine operator, Union soldier during the US Civil War, and land developer.  He was born, raised, and died in Kentucky but the 22 years he lived in Florida saw his greatest achievement and his greatest disappointment, both of which were embodied in the town he founded.

Isaac Trabue was born on March 25, 1829 to Chastain and Elizabeth Trabue of Huguenot descent. His grandfather, General John James Trabue served as a patriot during the Revolutionary War.    His siblings included eight children four boys and four girls.  Chastain Trabue operated coal properties in Hawseville, KY, an Ohio River town located near the border with Indiana.  Details of Isaac's early education are lacking but he appears to have attended a military school in Georgetown, KY.  As a young man he apparently showed an aptitude for business as his father entrusted him with the management of at least some of his coal properties.

In the decades leading up to the Civil War Kentucky was a border state with divided loyalties.  Some 35,000 Kentuckians served in the Confederate army, but over 125,000 fought for the Union.  Among these was Isaac Trabue whose primary contribution to the federal war effort was logistical; he helped supply coal to Union transport steamships operating on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.  It is also noteworthy that prior to the war Isaac was a slaveholder but during the war he put his male slaves into the service of the Union commissary (supply) department, while his female slaves worked in Union military hospitals. 

After the war ended Isaac Trabue married Virginia Scarborough Taylor of Savannah, GA and the couple moved to Kentucky where Isaac had inherited his father's coal mines.  Isaac began a successful law career in Kentucky and actively participated in Republican politics.  He ran unsuccessfully for Congress, for state treasurer and for state attorney general and was a presidential elector for the state.  His successful law practice provided the funds for his next business venture:  land development.  He became interested in land investments as his coal mines began  to be less productive. 

In the 1880's Southwest Florida was still sparsely settled.  Transportation was primarily by coastal ships with railroad service limited to the northern part of the state.  The site of the future town of Punta Gorda was still primarily covered with palmettos, saw grass, and bush.    However, the climate (as today) made the region  attractive to settlers looking for cheap land and therefore to developers hoping to profit from expected growth.  Isaac Trabue's participation in this "boom" began with his purchase of a total of 380 acres along the Peace River  in 1883.  

This land was surveyed in 1884 and registered in 1885 in Manatee County as the site of the town of "Trabue", but its owner and namesake did not come to Florida until the next year, January 1886.   Mr. and Mrs. Trabue reportedly traveled from Jacksonville by train to Cedar Key (north of Tampa) then by coastal ship to the town site.  Their first residence was a cabin which they purchased from James and Sarah Lanier, the original settlers along with the land. The cabin was a typical backwoods home and differed significantly from the Trabues' living conditions in Kentucky, but they stuck it out. 

The next 22 years were marked by frequent conflicts, controversies, and disappointments for Isaac Trabue.  These often involved litigation, which he appears to have enjoyed.  The quarrels included disagreements with the broker who sold the land, the surveyor who laid out the town, and a relative who was Trabue's local representative until he moved to Florida.  As with many people of strong personality he appears at times to have been his own worst enemy, exacerbating quarrels rather than seeking to calm them.  His refusal to pay the surveyor's (Kelly B. Harvey) fee, for example, would lead to Trabue's greatest personal disappointment. 

The plan for the development of the town of Trabue of course depended on the sale of commercial and residential lots.  In the late 1800's the viability of a town very often depended on its access to railroad service.  Until  Isaac Trabue moved to Florida the sale of lots in the town had been slow, due primarily to the lack of railroad access.  In 1885, Trabue concluded an agreement with the Boston-based Florida Southern Railway to build a line to the town and at its terminus construct an upper-end hotel and depot for commercial and personal travelers.  The town's development began to accelerate following the completion of the track in late 1886. The town's growth included extensive dock facilities which followed completion of the railroad. 

Unfortunately for Isaac Trabue his refusal to pay the fee of Kelly B. Harvey, the town's original surveyor, now came back to haunt him.  As the town grew its population, not untypically for a "frontier" center, included a rough element and experienced a high (for the time) level of violent crime.  The unincorporated town had no taxing authority and as a result the public infrastructure was primitive at best, with one description reporting no streets or sidewalks and much of the area still covered in sawgrass and palmettos.  A group of citizens began to support the idea of incorporating the town as the basis for solving the law and order and infrastructure problems.   A prime mover in this group was Kelly B. Harvey, who was an active and well-liked member of the community with several businesses. 

In December 1887 a meeting was held in the second floor pool hall in a commercial building owned by Thomas Hector, another of the key members of the group supporting incorporation. 

A total of 34 qualified voters attended the meeting.  Incorporation of the town was approved but with the additional step of changing its name from "Trabue" to Punta Gorda, the original Spanish name for the area which appeared on early maps.  The support for the change was almost unanimous among the voters.  The reason appeared to include a personal dislike for Trabue (certainly on the part of Harvey),  perhaps compounded by his history as a Union supporter in an area which considered itself part of the Deep South.  Florida was one of the original seceding states and its population had contributed strongly to the South's war effort. 

In any case the name change affected Isaac Trabue deeply.  He and his wife had no children, and in a day when continuation of the family name was emotionally important he had seen the town as his legacy. Insult was added to injury for Trabue when in 1888 he was charged and convicted with obstructing a public park by enclosing his home's plot with a fence (since the home was located on park land).   In 1889 he sued to have the town dissolved on the basis of legal irregularities but his suit was ultimately rejected by the Florida Supreme Court. 

Isaac Trabue also struck back at the town when, in 1890, he was instrumental in having a black man, Robert Meacham, appointed a postmaster in Punta Gorda.  The sentiment of the times was against such a step, and perhaps for that reason Trabue enjoyed it all the more.  Meacham was only in office for two and a half years and was succeeded by Kelly B. Harvey, who in turn only occupied the post for a year. 

After his "victory" in the Meacham appointment Trabue remained in the town which once bore his name until a month before his death in 1907.  He devoted himself to his business interests and to the promotion of chess, his passion, as a pastime in the area.  He died in Dawson Springs, Kentucky and is buried in Frankfort, the state's capital.  He was survived by his wife for 17 years and left a considerable estate involving properties and other assets in Florida.  Perhaps not surprisingly his will was the subject of litigation for many years.

Isaac Trabue, the founder of Punta Gorda, was what at one time was called "a man of parts".  Service to his country, success in business, failure in politics, and a difficult (to his opponents) personality which ultimately became self-defeating all were part of the man whose vision led to the formation of the town of Punta Gorda.  (M. Surruco)