Roof Replacement in Fort Myers, FL

Spain originally had colonial influence in Florida, succeeded by Great Britain and lastly the United States.

During the Second Seminole War, between 1835 and 1842, the U.S. Army operated Fort Dulany at Punta Rassa, at the mouth of the Caloosahatchee River. When a hurricane destroyed Fort Dulany in October 1841, army operations were moved up the Caloosahatchee River to a site named Fort Harvie. Fort Harvie was abandoned in 1842, as the Second Seminole War wound down. After a white trader was killed by Seminoles on the Peace River in 1849, the Army returned to the Caloosahatchee River in 1850. Major David E. Twiggs, then stationed at Fort Brooke (present day-Tampa), gave orders for two companies of artillery to “select a suitable place for the establishment of a post and immediately throw up such light works as may secure [their] stores, and remove from the Indians any temptation to which [their] isolated position may give rise.” The new Fort Myers was built on the burned ruins of Fort Harvie. The fort was named for Brevet Colonel Abraham Charles Myers, quartermaster for the Army’s Department of Florida and future son-in-law of Major Twiggs. It covered about 139 acres (56 ha), and soon had 57 buildings, including a two-story blockhouse that was pictured in Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, and a 1,000-foot-long (300 m) wharf at which ships could dock. Irvin Solomon notes that Fort Myers was described “as ‘one of the finest and largest’ forts of the Seminole Wars”. It was abandoned in 1858, at the end of the Third Seminole War.

During the American Civil War, Confederate blockade runners and cattle ranchers were based in Fort Myers. These settlers prospered through trading with the Seminole and Union soldiers.