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That Pioneering Spirit

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By JOYCE McKENZIE, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 20, 2008

THONOTOSASSA - For several years, 10-year-old Sarah Abel has immersed herself in books about history.

The Indian Rocks Christian School student is fascinated by America's pioneers, especially those in Florida.

Her forte is history of the early 1800s, so Sarah has studied the lives and times of the people at Fort Foster during the mid-1830s. It was the site where, in 1837, Seminole Indians battled the Army and militia volunteers during the Second Seminole War.

She knows it is the place where the Seminoles attacked and severely damaged the garrison and set fire to an adjacent bridge on the Hillsborough River, destroying their enemy's supply route from Fort Brooke in Tampa to Fort King in Ocala. Volunteers rebuilt the fort in the 1960s.

Sarah also is familiar with how the pioneers harvested and prepared their food, skills that included churning butter and grinding wheat for bread. She's well-acquainted with the methods in which women made clothing by whirling yarn on spinning wheels and how shoulder bags, belts and boots were constructed from animal hides. She also has read that most all their wares were made by hand.

But Sarah never dreamed she would experience firsthand what life at the fort was like 170 years ago - until Thursday, when she attended the 12th annual Fort Foster Rendezvous at Hillsborough River State Park with a busload of other students from her school.

Park manager Kim Tennille estimated she was among about 400 other children from throughout the Tampa Bay area who participated in the first day of the four-day event, the first two days of which were earmarked specifically for visits by students.

"This is a great opportunity to show these folks what life was like when the Seminole Indians occupied this land," Tennille said. "It's a great hands-on experience."

For Sarah, the occasion reinforced her mind's-eye image of where and how the war was fought and how primitive the living conditions were at the time.

She witnessed a gentleman carving bowls and serving platters out of wood, a woman churning butter, a man cooking oxtail stew on an open fire and traders selling their handmade knives, horns, bows and arrows, jewelry and blankets.

She covered her ears as re-enactor Tom McGucken of Riverview, dressed as a Seminole Indian, pointed his rifle toward the clear blue sky and fired a blank.

Sarah also visited the home of the fort's quartermaster, portrayed by Steve Saunders of Brandon, a history buff in a wool Army uniform and charged with ordering supplies and food for his troops. Posted on a board above the entrance was the per-man menu for the day: three-fourths pound of pork, 8 ounces of hard bread, 1 pound of beans and 6 ounces of vinegar.

"This is my house," Saunders told his guests. "If I came to your house, I would not touch anything. Please do me the same courtesy."

Reporter Joyce McKenzie can be reached at (813) 865-4849 or jmckenzie@tampatrib.com.

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