History Talks, a program sponsored by The Plant City History & Photo Archives; The Tampa Bay History Center and Preserving Brandon, recently featured a full house discussion about The Founding Families. “This latest installment of our History Talk series focused on the families that helped build Brandon, Tampa and Plant City,” said The Plant City History & Photo Archives’ Director, Libby Hopkins.
Gil Gott is the local historian of Plant City and the former director of the archives. Gott spoke about the James Taylor Evers Family and how they were the founding family of Plant City. “James Taylor Evers always wanted to be involved in the building of a community,” Gott said. “He was enthralled with the many stories of the coming railroad and believed that the railroad will be the nucleus of a new and prosperous community.”
James Taylor Evers chose not to join his father, the Reverend Thomas Evers, and uncle, John Ross Evers, in their move to Alafia, in Hillsborough County, in the late 1860s, and remained on his successful farm in Wellborn, Suwannee County, Florida. “There he had earlier met Martha Frances Rucker Spier, whose family had a plantation in Georgia,” Gott said. “She had married John Robert Spier in 1852; they had five children. John R. Spier served with the Confederate Army and was killed in 1862. Evers and Martha Frances Spier were married in Suwannee County in 1866. He was about 21, she was 34.”
Hearing that the rail route had moved slightly farther south, Evers moved his businesses and family to the new site cropping up alongside the soon-to-be railroad. Evers’ businesses were the first in the growing community. “James Taylor Evers was a very respected man with wit and wisdom,” Gott said. “Many in the new community suggested it be named Eversville, in honor of his leadership. Mr. Evers, thoughtful of the role the railroad played in establishing the long-awaited community, and what it meant to him, rejected that notion in favor of naming it after the man who brought the railroad and a new prosperity to the community, Plant City. By December 1883, the railroad and the post office had already named the town Plant City.”
The next installment of the History Talks program will take place in July. The Tampa Bay History Museum, Plant City History & Photo Archives and Preserving Brandon are currently working together to determine a location and a topic for the next session.
You must be logged in to post a comment.