Atzeroth Home Site Historical Marker

The Florida Board of Parks & Historic Memorials: Atzeroth Home Site This is the home site of Joe and Madam Joe Adzeroth, first permanent settlers of Terra Ceia Island. With their daughter Eliza, a physician friend, and dog Bonaparte, they arrived via Tampa April 12, 1843. Living first in a tent, then a palmetto thatched hut, they finally built a two-room log cabin. They grew tobacco and vegetables and sold them to the garrison at Ft. Brooke (Tampa). In 1880, Madam Joe received a $10 award for growing the first pound of coffee in this country. Terra Ceia was a dense jungle when the Atzeroths arrived to homestead 160 acres. Panthers and other wild animals abounded. Their log house was built of split cedar planks and moss and clay filled...