The Healthiest Spot on Earth - Freedom Magazine Presents The History of Clearwater Part II

A New Beginning for Clearwater

After the war, Clearwater entered a period of growth. The 1870 census showed 164 families on the Pinellas peninsula and a total population of 781. There were 42 Whitehursts, 37 McMullens, 25 Campbells, 16 Taylors, 14 Meares and 13 Youngbloods.

Photograph
The forebears of present-day Pinellas residents attended a late-1890s reunion of the James Parramore McMullen family. The 1850s log house built by “Captain Jim” (1823-1895) stands today in Largo.

In 1873, a New Yorker, the Reverend C.S. Reynolds, started Pinellas’ first newspaper, the Clearwater Times. Reynolds was an old hand in the newspaper business, having started the Tampa Herald in 1854 and worked with several other newspapers in Florida.

An excerpt from the Clearwater Times called “Improvement and Resources for S.W. Florida” catches the flavor of the time:

“Only a few settlers had established themselves on the peninsula found between Clear Water Harbor and the North area of Tampa Bay, known as the Clear Water and Old Tampa settlements. These were engaged almost exclusively in raising and selling stock. The late disastrous war, which made such a total change in the structure of Southern society, caused a large number of persons to seek new homes and engage in new employments.