Madam Joe, A True Pioneer

Madam Joe was Palmetto’s first entrepreneur, a cattle rancher, a shopkeeper and a blockade-runner during the Civil War. Her home was destroyed by a hurricane and she would eventually become the first person in the continental U.S. to grow coffee. This week features the second half of her amazing life journey. Death plagued Madam Joe’s small family of four once again. For during the summer of 1846, her brother-in-law voyaged to New Orleans to get supplies for their home, but fell victim to the city’s yellow fever outbreak and never returned. That year, the Hurricane of 1846 destroyed their log cabin on Terra Ceia, the same home Madam Joe and her husband and her deceased brother in law had constructed by hand. Only the hen house survived the storm and the family moved in with the fowls – as it was the only structure left standing. Trouble with their claimed homestead presented itself in 1848 when a government official visited the property. An inaccuracy in their land permits had to be rectified federally so the family decided to relocate to Fort Brook (Tampa) until the problem was corrected. Joe went early so he could build another log cabin for his family to reside in. However, when Mr. Joe tried shipping the logs and shingles down the river, another storm destroyed the raft he had assembled and scattered his materials for miles along the bank. Meanwhile, Madam Joe and her two small girls were forced to take refuge in the home of a friend on Terra Ceia during the same storm...more