elcome to Bartow, Florida, a friendly, Southern community which has preserved much of its rich history and heritage. It has been suggested that few cities since Jamestown have produced as many prominent leaders per capita as Bartow.     Among them are Spessard L. Holland, who served as Governor of Florida and a United States Senator, and who authored and secured passage of the 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which outlawed the poll tax.     One of his childhood classmates was James A. Van Fleet, who would become a four-star general, commander of United Nations forces during the Korean War. At the time of his death at the age of 100, General Van Fleet was the nation's senior general officer.     Bartow was the site of the first brick school house south of Jacksonville. Named Summerlin Institute in honor of its benefactor, Jacob Summerlin, it was opened in 1887. Summerlin, a cattle baron known as the King of the Crackers, gave 40 acres to be used for an institution of learning, 40 acres for the establishment of a county seat, and 20 acres for each of the town's first two churches; the Methodist Church and the Baptist Church. The acreage given for county purposes was to insure that Bartow would be the county seat.

Chesterfield H. Smith, one of the state's most prominent lawyers, lived in Bartow for most of his adult life. He was chairman of the Constitutional Revision Commission which wrote Florida's present State Constitution, and was the moving force in what is now the Holland and Knight law firm. He also served as president of the American Bar Association. One of his law partners, Stephen H. Grimes, became Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court. Grimes also lived much of his adult life in Bartow.     Bartow was also the home, for much of his life, of Major General Evander McIvor Law, a military leader in the Confederate Army who later established the South Florida Military Institute in Bartow. The institute later became a part of what is now the University of Florida.     At the time of his death in Bartow in 1979, Charlie Smith was generally acknowledged to be the oldest living American. Brought to the United States as a young slave boy before the Civil War, he was believed to be 137 years old when he died.     Bartow was founded in October, 1851, by Readding Blount and his family, who established Fort Blount at a site about a quarter-mile west of the present location of the historic old Polk County Courthouse.

The town later was known as either Peace Creek or Peas Creek (historians cannot agree on that point), and later was renamed Bartow to honor Francis S. Bartow, generally believed to be the first Confederate general to fall in battle.     Much of the community's history is attested to by the graves in the old Oak Hill Cemetary. Many of the graves have Confederate markers, reminders of this nation's Civil War. Gravesites include those of Readding Blount and Jacob Summerlin.     As you tour the tree-shaded streets of historic Bartow, admire the architecture of its homes and buildings, evidence of a community's pride in its history and heritage.

	Greater Bartow Chamber of Commerce 510 North Broadway Avenue Bartow, Florida 33830-3918 phone: 863-533-7125 fax: 863-533-3793 email: discoverbartow@bartowchamber.com	Area Websites ... Chamber News Community Calendar ... Community Profile Contact and Directors ... Historic Bartow Chamber Home ... Map and Directions Membership Directory ... Membership Information
© 1998-2008 Greater Bartow Chamber of Commerce