After the Second Seminole War
When the Second Seminole War ended in 1842, the federal Armed
Occupation Act was passed. It let Seminole War veterans apply for a
160 acre homestead in Florida.
At the same time, a reservation was created for the Seminoles in
southwest Florida. Their ability to trade was limited by the government,
so as to prevent them from obtaining weapons to cause further conflict. To
compensate, white-run trading stores were permitted on the reservation's
outskirts to the north and west, letting the Indians obtain supplies and
luxuries unavailable within the reservation.
Current photograph of the trading store
site.
Many of the trading posts were built by Kennedy and Darling, two
army sutlers from Fort Brooke who had started their own trading company.
One such was constructed in the late 1840s along the
Charlo-popka-hatchee-chee (Little Trout-Eating Creek in Seminole),
west of Peas Creek (later known as the Peace River, near present-day
Bowling Green. The proprietors were Capt. George Payne and Dempsey Whidden.
The massacre
Ignoring the terms of the treaty with the Seminoles, settlers moved
southward, encroaching on the reservation. Though Billy Bowlegs, one of
their leaders, was reconciled to the state of affairs, others of his
people were not so compliant.
Payne's Memorial in the Park is on the
Historic Trail, where you have to cross the creek on the suspension
bridge
On July 17, 1849, Payne and Whidden were killed by a small band of
Seminoles, following which the store and everything in it was burned.
Fort Chokonikla
This caused many of the settlers to flee to the nearest fort, then
ask for military forces to be sent so they could return to their homes in
safety. This led to the establishment of Fort Chokonikla near the site of
the former trading post only three months later, on October 26. The fort's
name is believed to derive from the Seminole Chocka-nickler, for burnt
store. It was also variously spelled at the time as Chokkonickla or
Chokhonikla.
This is the site where the Fort once
stood
Following the fort's completion, the nearby creek became known as
Paynes Creek, which it is still called to this day.
However, due to its location near a swamp, many of those stationed
at the fort contracted and died of malaria. This became such a problem
that the fort's doctor recommended the fort's closure. The army quickly
agreed, and the fort was vacated on July 18, 1850, after less than nine
months of occupancy, and a year and a day after Payne and Whidden's
deaths.
