FLGenWeb
Welcome to Collier County FLGenWeb
Collier County is Florida's 62nd county, established on May 8, 1923, from a segment of Lee County. It gains its name from Barron G. Collier, an advertising tycoon who developed much of the land in the southern part of the state. Naples, named after a city in Italy with the same name, is the county seat.This county is available for adoption. If you are interested in adopting this county or another one please contact our State Coordinator- Denise Wells. I hope you enjoy your visit. Please email me if you have any suggestions or contributions you would like to make.
Collier County was created from the southern portion of Lee County
by an act of the Florida Legislature on May 8, 1923. The decision was
signed into law by Governor Cary A. Hardee, Florida's 28th governor. It
is Florida's 62nd county and the third largest in total land area -
2,305 square miles.
February 26, 1521: Spanish explorer Juan
Ponce de Leon set sail from Puerto Rico with 200 colonists to explore
and settle Southwest Florida's lower Gulf coast. Calusa Indians
immediately pounced on the uninvited newcomers, driving off the
Spaniards and mortally wounding Ponce.
March 24, 1837: Old Fort Foster, the earliest military post in
present-day Collier County, was activated by the U.S. Army during the
Second Seminole War.
March 23, 1873: Barron Gift Collier, the founder of Collier
County, was born in Memphis, Tennessee.
November 6, 1886: The Naples Town Improvement Company was
organized in Tallahassee, Florida.
June 25, 1888: Work began on building the first Naples Pier.
May 8, 1923: Florida's State Legislature partitioned Lee County
to create Collier County.
July 7, 1923: Collier County's new Board of County
Commissioners held their first meeting at the Rod & Gun Club in
Everglades.
July 25, 1923: The County's first newspaper, The Collier County
News, began publication.
April 13, 1925: First meeting of the Naples Town Council.
January 7, 1927: The Seaboard Air Line Railway's flagship
locomotive, the Orange Blossom Special, became the first passenger
train to arrive in Naples.
April 26, 1928: The Tamiami Trail was officially opened to
traffic in Everglades, completing the first paved highway from Tampa
to Miami.
August 1, 1933: Episcopal missionary Deaconess Harriet Bedell
opened the Glade CrossMission in Everglades to begin her work with the
Seminole Indians of Collier County.
April 24, 1938: The ferry boat to Marco Island was replaced by
a new bridge and highway across Marco Pass.
March 13, 1939: Collier County's founder, Barron Gift Collier,
died in New York City, ten days before his 66th birthday.
September 26, 1943: Florida's first commercial oil well was
drilled near Sunniland, in eastern Collier County.
December 23, 1943: The U.S. Army activated a military base at
Naples Army Air Field to train combat pilots during World War II.
December 6, 1947: President Harry S. Truman dedicated
Everglades National Park in Everglades City.
May 25, 1949: The Florida State Legislature approved a new
charter for Naples, changing it from a town to a city.
November 28, 1951: The State Farmer's Market was opened in
Immokalee.
July 4, 1953: Naples Airport was dedicated as the Naples
America Airport.
October 14, 1954: Collier County's first commercial
broadcasting station, WNOG, went on the air.
September 10, 1960: Hurricane Donna scored a direct hit on
Naples and Collier County.
April 7, 1962: The Naples Hotel, one of the city's oldest
landmarks, was closed after 73 seasons.
September 30, 1962: Collier County's seat of government was
officially moved from Everglades City to East Naples.
February 11, 1968: Alligator Alley was opened to traffic.
February 15, 1978: The Collier County Museum was opened at the
County Government Center.
August 29, 1997: Marco Island incorporated to become Florida's
398th city.
Source: Collier County Museum
I hope you find my efforts helpful in your research of Collier County Florida roots. I am unable to do additional research on your family as I live in Colorado and do not have direct access to records. I post everything I have for all to use.
Make sure you check the "Research Resources" section! There are books on line: History of Collier County Florida, helpful links, look up volunteers and local researchers to help you out.
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We are the chosen. In each family there is one who seems called to find the ancestors. To put flesh on their bones and make them live again. To tell the family story and to feel that somehow they know and approve. Doing genealogy is not a cold gathering of facts but, instead, breathing life into all who have gone before. We are the story tellers of the tribe. All tribes have one. We have been called, as it were, by our genes. Those who have gone before cry out to us: Tell our story. So, we do. In finding them, we somehow find ourselves. How many graves have I stood before now and cried? I have lost count. How many times have I told the ancestors, "You have a wonderful family; you would be proud of us.". How many times have I walked up to a grave and felt somehow there was love there for me? I cannot say. It goes beyond just documenting facts. It goes to who I am, and why I do the things I do. It goes to seeing a cemetery about to be lost forever to weeds and indifference and saying - I can't let this happen. The bones here are bones of my bone and flesh of my flesh. It goes to doing something about it. It goes to pride in what our ancestors were able to accomplish. How they contributed to what we are today. It goes to respecting their hardships and losses, their never giving in or giving up, their resoluteness to go on and build a life for their family. It goes to deep pride that the fathers fought and some died to make and keep us a nation. It goes to a deep and immense understanding that they were doing it for us. It is of equal pride and love that our mothers struggled to give us birth, without them we could not exist, and so we love each one, as far back as we can reach. That we might be born who we are. That we might remember them. So we do. With love and caring and scribing each fact of their existence, because we are they and they are the sum of who we are. So, as a scribe called, I tell the story of my family. It is up to that one called in the next generation to answer the call and take my place in the long line of family storytellers. That is why I do my family genealogy, and that is what calls those young and old to step up and restore the memory or greet those who we had never known before."
by Della M. Cummings Wright; Rewritten by her granddaughter Dell Jo Ann McGinnis Johnson; Edited and Reworded by Tom Dunn, 1943."
Mr.Cale Jones
Speed Menefee
Flamingo Florida
Old Naples Jail
If you are interested in sponsoring a county in The FLGenWeb Project at USGenWeb, please read all about it and follow the instructions for adoption.
If you have questions, contributions, or problems with this site, email:
Coordinator - AVAILABLE
State Coordinator: Denise Wells
Asst. State Coordinators: Jeff Kemp
If you have questions or problems with this site, email the County Coordinator. Please to not ask for specfic research on your family. I am unable to do your personal research. I do not live in Indiana and do not have access to additional records.
