Florida Historical Markers Programs - Marker Detail

Description: Side 1: S.S. Lamb came here with his family from Mississippi in a covered wagon and barouche and purchased this property on February 3, 1868. Lamb laid out and named Palmetto. The Lamb home, which stood about 100 yards west of here, was built by Juliann (Madam Joe) Atzeroth, who acquired the property in 1850. A log cabin under the six oaks about sixty yards southwest of the house was used as a store by Madam Joe. It later became Palmetto's first public school, and the first religious services were held there. The first post office, established September 15, 1873 stood at 319 Ninth Avenue. Side 2: The first shipping dock was built at the foot of Ninth Avenue by Joel Hendrix several years after he came here in 1871. The narrow-gauge Palmetto Terminal Railroad was built in 1895 to haul produce from farms northwest of town to the dock. When the locomotive broke down, a flat car with canopy was pulled on the track by four horses. The town's first three stores stood just east of Ninth Avenue on Riverside Drive. The city was incorporated in June 1893. P.S. Harllee was the first mayor. Manatee County State Bank, the county's first, was established in 1899 at the northeast corner of this block in Palmetto's first brick building.