Creating Sarasota County
In this intriguing history of the founding of Sarasota County, politics, commercial rivalries, World War I, the Model-T Ford, the women’s suffrage movement, the Great Florida Land Boom of the 1920s, the Tamiami Trail, and even an unsolved murder helped shape the narrative. Between 1913 and 1920, the leaders of the Sarasota district fought for good roads against a Manatee County Commission they saw as incompetent and biased. Only by becoming a county could Sarasota hope to fulfill its economic ambitions. Following independence in 1921, Sarasotans faced daunting challenges as they struggled to complete their road system and set up their own government. This dramatic history sets the stage for the upcoming centennial celebration of Sarasota County, recalling the men and women who led the county independence movement.
OTHER BOOKS BY FRANK A. CASSELL
Josie and Salem: An Indiana Love Story
The letters sat in several boxes, some bound in bundles with ribbons, some in their original envelopes, but more lay about loosely. A few were written in pen on fine stationery…
Merchant Congressman in the Young Republic: Samuel Smith of Maryland 1752-1839
Merchant, Congressman, decorated Revolutionary War Hero, architect of the defense of Baltimore…
Suncoast Empire: Bertha Honoré Palmer, her family, and the rise of Sarasota
In the early twentieth century, Bertha Palmer was one of the best-known and wealthiest women …