HERE ARE SOME THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW.
Settlers first began to populate the Plant City area in the late 1830s.
In 1839, the Army built Fort Hichipucksassa about 4 miles northeast of present day Plant City. The Indian village at the site was not occupied prior to the fort’s construction.
Plant City’s
original name was
Ichepucksassa.
In the late 1860s, emancipated slaves established Bealsville about five miles southeast of downtown Plant City.
Plant City did not get its name from agriculture. Due to much confusion about the spelling and pronunciation of Ichepucksassa, the postmaster renamed the village Cork, after his home city in Ireland. In 1885, the final name changed to Plant City in honor of Henry Bradley Plant. Plant, a Connecticut Yankee, established rail lines throughout Florida. In 1883 he completed the South Florida Railroad that connected Tampa to Sanford, by way of Plant City. Plant’s railway holdings peaked at over 2,200 miles. He also owned the Plant Steamship Line in Tampa.
The U.S. acquired Florida from Spain in 1823. The State of Florida was chartered in 1869. Plant City incorporated in 1885.
In the late 1870s, the population of East Hillsborough County grew faster than the population of Tampa.
In the 1880s, Plant City’s financial base was citrus and cattle. Cotton, fruit, vegetables, and tobacco also generated income for local residents. In the late 1880s, Plant City first became famous as a center for shipping cotton.
In 1884, “The South Florida Courier” became the first newspaper in town. The owner brought the printing press here from Mississippi.
Lumber came in as the first major industry in Plant City with the founding of the Warnell Lumber and Veneering Company. This was the largest company like it in the south, and people knew of Plant City as a milltown for 15 years.
A 1907 fire razed several blocks of wooden structures in Plant City. Citizens rebuilt with brick.
By 1911 railroad tracks ran in five directions from Plant City, and it became the largest inland shipping point in Florida. Between 50 and 60 trains passed through town per day. Among these was a line that largely sent phosphate from local mines to Boca Grande to be loaded on ships.
In 1911, Plant City’s Board of Trade proposed dividing Hillsborough County into three counties, one of which would turn eastern Hillsborough County into Plant County. A handful of groups in the county organized to oppose the division, and the proposition went nowhere.
In 1913, Plant City’s Roux Composite Brick Company made and sold five million bricks.
By 1920, Plant City was known as the world’s winter strawberry capital.
In 1930, Plant Citians put on the first strawberry festival. Even though this was during the Great Depression, 15,000 people came to the event.
The famous “Miami News” columnist John Keasler grew up in Plant City. After WWII, he wrote 7,000 columns—mostly humor—about South Florida. Keasler died in Plant City in 1995.
Country singer Pam Tillis, daughter of Mel Tillis, was born in Plant City in 1957.
From 1988 to 1997, Plant City served as the spring training home for baseball’s Cincinnati Reds. The team played games at Plant City Stadium.
