The Life & Times of John T. Lesley

______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________

THE

LIFE AND TIMES

OF

JOHN THOMAS LESLEY

(1835 – 1913 CE)

A CHRONOLOGICAL BIOGRAPHY by Donald J. Ivey _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter Title Page I. The Early Years

(1835-1855 CE) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 II. The Third Seminole War

(1856-1858) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 III. Before the Storm

(1858-1861) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 IV. Civil War and the Cow Cavalry

(1861-1865) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 V. Reconstruction

(1865-1877) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 VI. The Golden Years

(1877-1899) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 VII. “A Life of Honor Ended”

(1900-1913) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 ENDNOTES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 APPENDIX 1: BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 APPENDIX 2: GENEALOGICAL TABLES Table A: The Ancestors of John Thomas Lesley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Table B: The Children of John Thomas Lesley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Table C: The Family of Indiana Chiles Livingston Lesley . . . . . . . . 79 Table D: The Family of Margaret Adeline Brown Tucker Lesley . . . 80

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PREFACE

Life on the early Florida frontier forced a person to be versatile. In the mid-to-late 1800’s specialization had not yet consumed American society, and if an individual was to succeed, he would have to become a jack-of-all-trades--a Renaissance man. This is the story of one of those men. Anyone with even a passing interest in early Tampa history will recognize the name John T. Lesley. Indeed, there were few aspects in the life of the young community--be it economic, political, military or social--that he did not touch in some significant way. His career was so inextricably bound with this area that at times it is difficult to separate the two. In a life that spanned 78 years, he saw Tampa grow from an outpost on the edge of the frontier to a bustling community on the verge of becoming a major city. Yet surprisingly, there has never been a serious attempt to compile a comprehensive biography of the man. This paper will offer a look at the life of John Lesley, his accomplishments, and his contributions to our area. This biography is presented in the form of an historical “timeline” chronology. By tracing the major developments of Lesley’s life through time, I hope to present both a concise and highly readable study based entirely on the facts as we know them. A biographical record on Lesley and genealogical charts on his family are also provided as appendices. As a rule, however, historical chronologies are generally difficult to put together, as they can neglect important information while over-emphasizing others, which in turn can lead to a misrepresentation of the facts as a whole. With this very much in mind, I have tried to avoid these pitfalls at all costs and have endeavored to present you, the reader, with a fair, balanced and accurate account of the life of this extraordinary man. In preparing this paper, I have many people to thank. First and foremost, I would like to express my thanks to the Lesley family, particularly Mr. John T. Lesley, Sr. grandson of John Thomas Lesley, and his son, John T. Lesley, Jr., who generously gave of their time and lent me many photographs and other materials for this paper. Their efforts to preserve and share their family’s history proved to be absolutely invaluable to me in writing this paper. My sincere thanks also to Kyle Van Landingham, past president of the Tampa Historical Society and editor of the Sunland Tribune, who encouraged me to complete this study; Paul Camp of the University of South Florida, for allowing me access to the Theodore Lesley Collection; Jim Johnson; Zack Waters; Claudette Dean; Julius J. Gordon; Dr. Joe Knetsch; Heritage Village volunteers Ruth Pesich and Virginia Dale Cassidy; and the staffs of the Tampa Bay History Center and the Hillsborough County Historical Commission Library for their untiring efforts to help me, which were all sincerely appreciated. And last, but certainly never least, I would like to thank my lovely wife, Mylene, for her undying support, patience and love, and my son John, who always inspires me to do my best. Donald J. Ivey July 13, 1998

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THE

LIFE AND TIMES

OF

JOHN THOMAS LESLEY

(1835-1913 CE) A CHRONOLOGICAL BIOGRAPHY

Chapter I: The Early Years

(1835-1855)

1835

May 12 John Thomas Lesley was born on the Lesley family plantation eight miles outside of the Town of Madison in Madison County, Florida Territory, the eldest of the three children of Leroy Gilliland Lesley and his wife Indiana Chiles (Livingston) Lesley. The Lesleys (at times variously spelled “Lesly” or “Leslie”) were an old and distinguished family of English ancestry from Abbeville District, South Carolina. John’s great-grandfather William Lesley served in the Revolutionary War and later settled on a 1,000 acre plantation there. His wife, Ann Caldwell, was the aunt of John C. Calhoun, who served as a U.S. Senator and Vice President and was famous for championing the cause of Southern rights. John’s father, Leroy Lesley, moved to Florida in 1829 and was among the earliest settlers in Madison County. His mother Indiana was also a native of Abbeville and came to the county with her three brothers, who soon became some of the largest land and slave holders in the area. John T. Lesley was probably named after his paternal grandfather John Harris Lesley (1784-1855), who was a planter in Abbeville, and later removed to a farm in Indiana. (1)

c. 1841-1848

During this period, John underwent his early education. Education in rural areas of the South during the Nineteenth Century was a far more informal affair than it is today, with the children receiving their initial instruction at home. Then, at about the age of age 6 the children were sent to school, which usually consisted of classes composed of children of all ages from the surrounding area. Classes were held in a small one or two room schoolhouse, or if the family was a bit better off, schooling would often continue at home under the tutelage of a private teacher. Helping on the family farm was also a major part of a child’s upbringing, and John no doubt spent a considerable amount of his time doing chores along with his brother (Emory Livingston Lesley, born in 1837), and sister (Mary Camillus Lesley, born in 1845) while learning to hunt, fish, ride a horse and tend crops and livestock as well. Little is known of John T. Lesley’s early education, but his grandson and Lesley family historian Theodore Lesley (who also served as Hillsborough County’s second county historian) noted that his grandfather

“received a limited education. Florida then had no institutions of higher learning and the small private schools were few and far between. However, he did in his early

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years attend the Academy for Boys in Madison.” He must have also acquired at an early age a love for working with horses, for Tampa historian, D.B. McKay (who knew Lesley personally) recalled that in his later years Lesley

“loved fine horses--he usually had five or six saddle horses in his home stable, some of them racers. He never missed a race meeting, and sometimes rode his horses-- particularly if they were fractious.” (2)

1845 March 3 By an act of Congress, Florida became the twenty-seventh state to be admitted to the Union, with a constitution permitting slavery. The capitol of the new state was established at Tallahassee in Leon County. (3)

1846 At the age of 36, Leroy Lesley entered the ministry, and was ordained a minister of the Gospel in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South at a church convention in Quincy, Florida. He was initially assigned a large area of North Florida and South Georgia to minister, and later preached in Madison and St. Marks, in Wakulla County. (4)

1848 Reverend Lesley was assigned to the Church’s Hillsborough mission, headquartered in Tampa. By the fall of that year, he had moved with his family (and their fifteen slaves) to the new community, where they settled on a thirty-acre tract near Lafayette (now John F. Kennedy Boulevard) and East Streets. When the Lesleys first arrived in Tampa, the area was little more than a makeshift settlement built around the U.S. Army’s outpost at Fort Brooke. As one source states: “When Captain [John] Lesley first came to Tampa there were only two stores in the place, and not more than 200 inhabitants.” It was very much a “backwoods” area, with no railroad link to the rest of the state and only a few sandy trails to serve as roads. (5)

September 11 John T. Lesley, age 13, began classes in Tampa’s first community school, held in the courtroom of the Hillsborough County courthouse. W.P. Wilson of England was the teacher and was paid by the parents through tuition fees. The classes lasted only a few weeks however, being interrupted by “The Great Gale of ‘48,” a hurricane which did extensive damage along Florida’s west coast, including the Tampa Bay area. Among John’s classmates in this school was William B. Henderson, then 8 years old, with whom he would form a firm and lasting friendship. Later, Lesley was also said have “studied engineering, both field and construction.” (6)

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1849 After establishing the mission’s first church in the area at Manatee, Reverend Lesley retired from active service in the ministry, though he remained a minister in good standing and, according to Theodore Lesley, “filled at one time or another every pulpit in South Florida” as a local and supply preacher. Also of note this year, John T. Lesley played a small, but significant role in an affair involving the native Seminole Indians, whose proximity to local settlers in the state had ignited two fierce and bitter wars previously (in 1817-1818 and 1835-1842). As John T. Lesley himself later recalled:

“During that year (1849) the Indians began to show signs of discontent and threatened trouble. It was but a little while after this news came that the Indians had killed a boy near Mellonville. The settlers were urged to fort up at convenient points or move into town. They hurriedly got together and built a stockade at Capt. John Parker’s place about 15 miles east of Tampa. Capt. Parker organized and the people for miles around moved into his fort. My father (L.G. Lesley) had the contract of hauling provisions out to the fort. I was the teamster though only 14 years of age.” (7)

1850 October 18 United States census records for Hillsborough County listed John T. Lesley, 15, as residing in the 19th Division (near Fort Brooke, on Tampa Bay) with his parents L.G., 43; I.C., 41; brother Emory L., 13; and sister Mary C., 4 [actually, she was 5]. His father’s occupation was given as “Meth. Epis. Minister,” and the total value of his father’s real estate was listed at $200.00. Slave schedules for this year also showed the family owning seven slaves. (8)

1851-1852 Winter By his early teens, John had exhibited a talent for working with his hands and soon took up the first of his many careers--that of carpentry. During this winter, the 16-year-old Lesley helped his father to build the first permanent church in Tampa at the corner of Lafayette and Morgan Streets. The First Methodist, or “the little white church” as it came to be known, stood on that site until it was destroyed by fire in 1894. (9)

1855 December 9-20 An expedition of ten men under Lt. George L. Hartsuff left Fort Myers in South Florida, with orders to examine the country southeast of Lake Okeechobee and near the Big Cypress Swamp. Prior to this, the native Seminole Indians had been relatively quiet, but lately there had been some indications of growing discontent. Marching through the country, the expedition discovered that Forts Simon Drum and Shackelford had been burned, although no signs of hostilities were discovered. Then, as they ventured further

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into Indian country, they found their villages empty, with the surrounding paths overgrown. Finally, as the party prepared to return to Fort Myers at daybreak on the 20th, they were attacked by a band of approximately thirty Seminole warriors, who fired from a range of only fifteen to twenty yards away, concealed behind trees. Four soldiers were killed in the attack, and four were wounded, including Lieutenant Hartsuff. With this attack, the Third Seminole War was underway. (10)

December 24 With news of the attack racing across the frontier, a meeting of settlers was held in Tampa to discuss plans for protecting the area from Indian attack. Capt. William B. Hooker, a leading local cattleman and businessman, was elected to command the regional militia. Reverend Lesley was also designated to organize a cavalry company, due to his past experience in the Army as a soldier during the Second Seminole War (1835-1842). Within a week’s time, he had organized a company of men (known as the “Cowboys” or the “Florida Crackers”) and received a captain’s commission from Florida Gov. James E. Broome. Four days later, on the 28th, Hooker advanced with forty men to the Peace River, where more citizens had been recruited. There, he began placing troops at each outpost along the frontier line: Fort Meade was garrisoned with twenty men; Fort Hartsuff, twenty-five; Fort Green, sixteen; and Fort Hooker, twenty-four. (11)

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Chapter II: The Third Seminole War (1856-1858)

1856 January 3 In response to the growing crisis, John T. Lesley, 20, enlisted for one six-month period of service as a corporal in his father’s Independent Company of Florida Mounted Volunteers at Fort Blount in Hillsborough County. By January 12, the company (along with six others) was mustered into the United States Army and ordered to protect the Florida frontier against the Seminoles. (12)

August 20 After seven months of active service, Lesley was mustered out of service at Fort Meade. That same day, he re-enlisted for another six-month term of service in his father’s company, this time as a private. Also joining the company for the first time was John’s younger brother Emory, 19, who served as the unit’s bugler. (13)

1856-1857 Winter During the course of the war, Captain Lesley proved himself to be an active and aggressive commander. Frequently, he would take his men on patrols deep into unsettled Indian country. It was hard campaigning, with troops continually engaged in tracking down enemy war parties, and searching out and destroying their dwellings and food supplies. One reported incident alleged that during one of these patrols during this winter, the famed Seminole warrior Billy Bowlegs himself had laid an ambush for Lesley’s men. As Bowlegs supposedly later told Lesley, he had drawn a bead at close range on the captain, who was at the head of his men. He was about to pull the trigger, when he noticed another detachment of soldiers to his rear and seeing them, called off the attack. Whether or not this incident actually ever happened is debatable, but it does serve to illustrate the close-quarter, hit-and-run nature of the fighting. (14)

1857 February 21 At Fort Brooke, John T. Lesley was mustered out of the Army as a private after the expiration of his second term of enlistment. Then on March 2, after a brief hiatus, he re-enlisted at Fort Brooke for another six-month tour of duty in his father’s company as a private. (15)

June 1 John’s only brother, Emory Livingston Lesley, 20, was killed in a freak accident involving the accidental discharge of a gun. According to Tampa’s Florida Peninsular newspaper, the accident occurred while Emory was aboard the steamer Wood Duck on an excursion up the Hillsborough River. There, “he had, by some inexplicable means, pulled the trigger of the rifle barrel, the contents of which entered the right side of his head, just below the ear, and, passing through the brain, broke the skull on top, but he did not pass out.” Emory died about two hours later, and was buried at Oaklawn Cemetery in Tampa. (16)

August 23 His third tour of duty completed, John Lesley was mustered out of army service at Fort

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Brooke. The next day, he re-enlisted for yet another six-month term of service in his father’s company at Fort Brooke. (17)

September-November John T. Lesley served on detached service near Fort Brooke, as part of a contingent under the command of Sgt. J. H. Young. Records further indicated that from October 1-15, he was on detached service “near Tampa.” (18)

1858 February 23 His fourth term of enlistment completed, Lesley was mustered out of service as a private at Fort Brooke. However, that same day he re-enlisted in his father’s company for one final six-month term with the rank of first lieutenant, or second-in-command to his father. (By the beginning of 1858, increasing Federal incursions into Seminole territory had achieved several important victories. By early May, most of the Seminoles had been removed west to Oklahoma and on May 8, 1858, the Third Seminole War was officially declared to be at an end.) (19)

May 17 After five terms of enlistment totaling thirty two months of active service, John T. Lesley, 22, was mustered out of U.S. Army service as first lieutenant of Capt. L.G. Lesley’s Independent Company of Florida Mounted Volunteers at Fort Brooke. The value of his horse was given as $125.00, and his horse's equipment was valued at $25.00--a fairly expensive outfitting for the time and place. (20)

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Chapter III: Before the Storm (1858-1861)

1858 c. Summer After John was mustered out of the Army, he returned to Tampa and began a second, and far more profitable career than that of carpentry--stock-raising. At that time, Hillsborough County was a prime producer of cattle in the state, and by 1858 a new market had been opened up for the trade in Cuba by Scottish-born Tampa merchant James McKay. Lesley was right on McKay’s heels for a share of this market, and according to Theodore Lesley, he soon “accumulated thereby a handsome fortune. This was the principal vocation for the remainder of his life, one in which, as he became heavier [sic] and heavier envolved [sic], demanded all his time.” (21)

August 26 John T. Lesley married Mrs. Margaret Adeline (Brown) Tucker, 19, the daughter of William T. and Elizabeth (Townsend) Brown of Tampa, and the widow of William Tucker. The marriage ceremony was conducted in Tampa, with the Reverend Lesley officiating. Born in Alachua County, Florida, Margaret had moved to Tampa with her family in the 1850’s. She had first been married at the age of 14 to William W. Tucker, a local merchant who was said to have been “a man of wealth with children her age.” After his death three years later, the young widow met Lesley, probably through her father, who, as described by Theodore Lesley, “was a well known citizen, serving in the Indian Wars and was councilman for the city during several administrations.” (22)

September 20 John T. Lesley was elected to serve as city marshal of Tampa, to fill a vacancy caused by resignation--the first of many public offices which he would come to hold during his career. (23)

1859 January 5 After U.S. Sen. David Levy Yulee, head of the Florida Railroad Company, decided to make Cedar Key the western terminal of the proposed railroad instead of Tampa (reneging on an earlier promise to do so), the citizens of Tampa reacted in angry protest. James McKay presided as chairman at “a meeting of the citizens of Tampa for the purpose of expressing their views with respect to . . . the course of the Florida Railroad,” with John T. Lesley acting as secretary. In a series of resolutions, the people of the city declared that “we, as citizens of Hillsboro county, and of South Florida, are justly indignant at the . . . double dealing of the Florida Railroad Company--that by holding out false lights and making unfounded promises to us . . . they have done violence to the law and to the provisions of nature . . .the doings of the Florida Railroad Company . . .deserves the reprobation of all honest men.” The group also declared that “it is our deliberate conviction that a road connecting the Atlantic with the Gulf of Mexico, through the waters of Tampa Bay, would prove a profitable investment to capitalists, an incalculable advantage to the State and a work of vast importance to the great interests of commerce and inter communication generally.” Then, on the

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grounds of the county courthouse, Yulee’s image was burned in effigy. (24)

July 15 Tampa’s first volunteer fire company, the “Independent Volunteer & Fire Company” was formed under the command of Capt. H.V. Snell, former president of the Florida State Senate and speaker of the State House of Representatives. Also elected as an officer of the new company was John T. Lesley, who served as first sergeant. (25)

1860 April 30 John’s mother, Indiana Chiles (Livingston) Lesley, died in Tampa at the age of 50 from consumption, which according to one contemporary account, “had attenuated her life to a point.” According to her obituary in the Florida Peninsular, she “was noted in life for her probity and strictly Christian walk”; little else is known about her otherwise. She was buried in the Lesley family plot in Oaklawn Cemetery. (26)

July 6 U. S. census records for Hillsborough County recorded John T. Lesley, 24 [actually, he was 25], as residing with his wife Margaret, 22 [21] in Tampa. They were living next door to John’s father, the Rev. L.G. Lesley. John’s occupation was listed as “Cattle Drover.” The value of his real estate totaled $2,550.00, and his personal estate was valued at $3,980.00, which included three slaves--figures which all point to the relative success of his venture into the Cuban cattle market. (27)

November 6 Abraham Lincoln of Illinois, a Republican, was elected as the sixteenth President of the United States. Considered a radical by most slave holders, Lincoln carried all of the free states but none of the slave states. In Florida, John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky carried the state on a Southern Democratic ticket, while not a single vote was cast for Lincoln. With Lincoln’s election, many in the South saw secession from the Union as the only alternative to what John T. Lesley would later term was the tyranny of “Black Republican Parties.” (28)

November 24 At the Alafia, citizens of Hillsborough “irrespective of party” met in convention to consider recent national developments. Those present at the meeting drafted a petition which stated that Lincoln’s election “determines the fact the powers of the government have passed into the hands of a section only of this Union, and of a section implicitly hostile to our interests and institutions.” In response the group urged the Florida General Assembly to “promptly call a convention to sever our connection with the present government.” Signing the petition were seventy-six men and twenty- six women, among whom was John T. Lesley. (29)

November 26 In his last annual message to the Florida General Assembly in Tallahassee, Gov. Madison S. Perry declared that:

“The crisis, long expected by men of observation and reflection, has at length come . . . The only hope the Southern States have for domestic peace and safety, or for future respectability and prosperity, is dependent on their action now; and that the

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proper action is- Secession from our faithless, perjured confederates . . . I most honestly recommend a call of a Convention of the people of the State, at an early day, to take such action as in their judgment is necessary to protect and preserve the rights, honor and safety of the people of Florida.” (30)

December 20 In reaction to Lincoln’s victory, South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union, declaring by a vote of 169 to 0 that “the union now subsisting between South Carolina and other states, under the name of ‘the United States of America’ is hereby dissolved.” (31)

1861 January 3 The “Convention of the People of Florida,” better known as the Florida Secession Convention, assembled in Tallahassee. An overwhelming majority of the sixty-nine delegates to the convention were strongly pro-secession. (32)

January 6-7 Meanwhile, events continued to move quickly throughout the state. Florida State Militia troops, facing no opposition, occupied the Federal arsenals at Apalachicola and Chattahoochee and captured Fort Marion in St. Augustine. (33)

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Chapter IV: Civil War and The Cow Cavalry (1861-1865)

1861 January 10 The Florida State Convention adopted an Ordinance of Secession withdrawing Florida from the Union by a vote of 62 to 7. Florida thus became the third state to secede, after South Carolina and Mississippi. When news of the state’s secession reached Tampa, it was generally well received. Most residents of the Bay area were from other areas of the South and were ardent secessionists, and with their roots in South Carolina, the Lesleys were no exception. According to Mrs. M.F. McKay (as quoted by Theodore Lesley in 1939):

“There existed in Tampa prior to the War Between the States one or more local militia companies. After Florida seceded from the Union these men were at drill one night the recruiting officer was here. He appeared before them and asked all those who wished to volunteer to serve in defense of their state to step two paces forward. Thomas W. Givens and John T. Lesley were the first to answer the call, both stepping forth at the same time.” (34)

February 4 Florida joined with five other seceded southern states to form the Confederate States of America. On April 22, Florida’s Secession Convention ratified the Constitution of the new nation, and on that day the Confederate flag was raised over the Capitol in Tallahassee. (35)

April 12 Confederate artillery batteries under the command of Confederate Gen. Pierre G. T. Beauregard fired on Federal troops in Fort Sumter, off Charleston harbor in South Carolina. The next day the fort surrendered. The attack was the result of continuing demands by Confederate and state officials for all Federal facilities to be turned over the Confederacy, and signaled the beginning of the American Civil War. (36)

April 15 President Lincoln issued a proclamation declaring that a “state of insurrection” existed, and called for 75,000 militia volunteers to serve for a period of three months. Later, on April 19, the President declared a naval blockade of all southern ports. The effect of the blockade had a major impact on the South (including the Tampa Bay area) and deprived the Confederacy of many essential supplies. (37)

June 6 John T. Lesley was elected captain of a volunteer company of infantry, the “Sunny South Guards,” now in the service of the Florida State Militia. According to Theodore Lesley, this unit was originally organized in Tampa in 1860 as an independent volunteer company for policing the Bay area. The Guards were said to have been “from the best families of the town and vicinity.” Lesley’s first lieutenant, for example, was Henry L. Mitchell, a young Tampa attorney who later became governor of Florida. During this period, the Guards could often be seen parading nightly

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“by torch light through Tampa streets.” (38)

June 26 On this day, James McKay, who was known to oppose Florida’s secession from the Union and who continued to ship cattle to Cuba, arrived in Tampa aboard a fishing smack after a trip to Havana. Soon after arriving, Lesley’s men seized the smack, “stating that she belonged to Unionists.” (39)

June 27 In response to the seizing of his boat, McKay (who called the Guards “a pretended organized company of troops”) appealed to Governor Perry. In a letter to the governor, McKay, together with Tampa citizens John Darling and A. DeLaunay wrote that:

“a Conflict of Authority has arisen between Col. W.I. Turner [of the 20th Florida Militia, who then commanded Fort Brooke] and Capt. J.T. Lesley as to jurisdiction or right of command in which Lesley denies the authority of Col. Turner and refuses to obey him as commanding officer contrary to and without his orders--In [relation] to this matter the Subscribers state that they believe Col. Turner has acted and is in strict conformity to his instructions from the Commander in chief [Perry]: and that he is competent and well devoted to the public interests of his command and ought to be sustained both by the state and confederate authority.”

Perry subsequently intervened in the matter of McKay’s smack, but the Guards burned the boat before McKay could ever recover it. (40)

July 2 Birth of John and Margaret Lesley’s eldest child, a daughter, Indiana Elizabeth “India” Lesley, in Tampa. She was named for her paternal grandmother, Indiana (Livingston) Lesley. India Lesley never married, but according to Theodore Lesley, she “lived her long life in devoted service, first to her father's family and then to the families of her brothers.” Throughout her life, she took an active part in the First Methodist Church and was a life associate of the Woman’s Auxiliary. She also was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and helped to organize the Tampa Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. In addition, she was involved in children’s welfare issues, and for years was secretary and a member of the Executive Board of the Children’s Home in Tampa. She died in Tampa on July 18, 1939, at the age of 78. (41)

August 21 Captain Lesley assumed command of Fort Brooke, taking over from Colonel Turner. His command of the post lasted less than two weeks and was, as Civil War historian Zack Waters wrote, “Tampa’s last tranquil period during the war.” (42)

September After being relieved at Fort Brooke, Lesley and the Guards were then ordered to Shaw’s Point near the mouth of the Manatee River. Before leaving (the Guards were the first company to leave Tampa for the war), the company was presented with a beautiful hand-sewn flag by the ladies of the town, and in his speech of thanks to them, Captain Lesley neatly summarized his own feelings on the coming conflict:

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“That constitution which our forefathers forged from blood and suffering for six years, has by the darkened hands of Abolitionists and Republicans been broken asunder--and the High Tribunal of the land defied in its decree defining rights of personal property [a reference to the 1857 Dred Scott decision, which defined slaves as property] . . . [they] have entirely devoured the last vestige of personal guarantees of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness defined by the Constitution . . . if fate decrees, but God forbid, Anglo-Saxon brother will be warred with brother for right and country . . . we of the South vow anew that we stand united in a glorious cause: and we its defenders beseech of a Divine Providence guidance for a triumphal victory.”

At Fort Brooke, Lesley was succeeded as commander of that post by Maj. W.L.L. Bowen of the 4th Florida Volunteer Infantry Regiment, with Companies “D” and “E” of the regiment to serve as its garrison. (43)

October 24 Lesley’s company was mustered into the Army of the Confederate States as Company “K” of the 4th Florida Regiment at Shaw’s Point, to serve for a period of twelve months. Lesley’s commission as a captain in the Confederate Army was also approved, to take rank as of that day. (44)

November 20 At Shaw’s Point, Lesley and his men endured a solitary and isolated existence. It was lonely and boring duty, far away from the scene of any action. A letter written on this date by Major Bowen to Col. Edward A. Hopkins, commander of the 4th Florida at Apalachicola, gives a sense of their isolation:

“The Point where the Company is stationed is considerably up the River in an unpopulated and Hammock Country . . . the few Citizens that did live anywhere near have most of them moved away and the others taken their property away so that they can leave at Short notice. The Company will have to build Quarters and a Hospital and the Lumber forty miles distant from their Station--while they have no facilities for defending the Country and few for protecting themselves . . . there are other points on the Bay that are of more importance to us and more desirable to the enemy and at the same time accessible to this Post [Fort Brooke] in case of an attack, and I hope that you will instruct me forthwith to remove them to some other Point at which it will be less expense and inconvenience to subsist them and where they will be enabled to render effective Service to the Government.” (45)

December Along with Major Bowen and the other two companies of the 4th Florida in Tampa, the Sunny South Guards were ordered to Fernandina in Northeastern Florida to join up with the rest of the regiment to help meet an expected Federal invasion there. At Fernandina, Lesley and his men received their baptism of fire, as the 4th was then involved in sporadic clashes with Federals for control of the area. (46)

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1862 February Regimental returns for the company listed Lesley as “sick” with an undisclosed illness at Fernandina. Owing to the poor sanitary conditions of camp life during this period, he may have been suffering from an illness due to unclean food or water. (47)

March Confederate forces evacuated Fernandina, and Lesley and his company, along with the rest of the 4th Regiment, were sent to Camp Langford, near Jacksonville (Lesley’s health apparently having improved by this time). (48)

May 12 During a reorganization of the regiment (probably at Camp Hunt in Florida, where they were then stationed), John T. Lesley was re-elected captain of the Sunny South Guards. (49)

c. May 30 The 4th Florida was ordered west to Corinth, Mississippi, but en route the order was countermanded, and the regiment was sent instead to Mobile, Alabama, where they arrived about June 18 and served on routine duty as provost guards. (50)

July The 4th was next ordered to return to Florida to check a Federal raid coming from Pensacola. Later that month, the regiment moved on to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where they joined Gen. Braxton Bragg’s Confederate Army of the Tennessee, which was then locked in a bitter struggle with the Federal Army of the Cumberland under Gen. William S. Rosecrans for control of the region. (51)

September 5 Captain Lesley was promoted to the rank of major in the 4th Florida, to fill a vacancy caused by the promotion of Major Bowen to colonel commanding the regiment. (52)

December 31 At Murfreesboro in Central Tennessee, the two armies of the Tennessee and the Cumberland finally met in battle. There, after a series of violent assaults and counter-assaults by both sides, the Federals were forced back to a defensive line along nearby Stone’s River. The 4th Florida was engaged in heavy fighting in this battle and as part of Brig. Gen. William Preston’s Brigade under Maj. Gen. John C. Breckinridge, they made the final assault on the Federal center on the east side of the river. Although this assault was unsuccessful, the regiment captured “250 stand of Enfield rifles” from the enemy and was one of the last units to transfer to the west side of the river at battle’s end, sustaining losses totaling fifty-five killed and wounded. (53)

1863 January 2 Full-scale fighting resumed two days later, with most of the action centered on the northeast side of Stone’s River, where Breckinridge’s Confederates succeeded in taking a small hill, only to be driven off with great loss by Federal guns and a countercharge. The 4th, once again with Breckinridge as part of Preston’s Brigade, was the last Confederate regiment to retire from the field of battle “and made a gallant fight to save the brigade battery, recovering two of the Brigade’s artillery pieces.” The 4th also took about 200 prisoners, although losses to the regiment during this day of fighting were staggering: entering the battle with a total strength of 458 men, they lost 163

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killed and wounded, with thirty-one missing. In both of these actions, Lesley’s Seminole War experience must have been of value, for he proved to be a fine officer. After the engagements, he was commended for his courage in action by Colonel Bowen, who wrote: “Much is due to . . . Major Lesley for [his] active efficiency in both actions.” (54)

February 28 By 1863, as the war dragged on in the West and news of events in Florida began to trickle back to the troops there, Lesley wanted to return home. The tightening of the Federal blockade on the South, combined with increasing lawlessness in the Tampa Bay area, had brought severe hardships on Tampans, including Lesley’s family. Reports coming out of the town as early as 1862 painted a bleak picture:

“The state of things [at] Tampa is fearful. They are literally starving. They have no coffee, no tea, no flour, no cloth of any kind, except their common homespun, for which they pay $1.25 per yard. They all say they cannot hold out much longer.”

Fearing for his homeland, Lesley submitted his resignation as major of the 4th, and in his resignation letter, gave us a look at the state of his own affairs at home:

“I have several Negroes now uncontrolled and a large stock of Cattle roaming at large which will necessarily go to destruction [sic] unless some attention is given to them. [B]esides My effects are in that portion of the State of Florida where it is almost impossible to obtain provision at any price. Corn now bringing from $500 to $800 dollars per bushel . . . my private affairs have been neglected and are fast going to ruin.”

His resignation from the service was subsequently accepted by the Confederate War Department on March 16, 1863. (55)

c. Summer-Fall After his resignation was accepted, Lesley returned home, only to begin a new phase of his military career. Florida was at that time supplying large amounts of beef to the Confederacy, but increasing Federal incursions into the state greatly hindered those efforts, and little of the precious contraband was getting through. Other groups were also making Confederate operations in the Tampa Bay area difficult. Historian Ernest L. Robinson calls these groups “marauding parties who were making war on the thinly settled villages from Cedar Keys southward. These marauders were looked upon as little better than pirates, they robbed all ages and sexes.” With the Confederate armies to the north slowly starving, a decision was made by authorities in Florida to combat this situation. Special units of cowmen were formed on the Florida frontier to help fight off the Federals and the large numbers of Confederate deserters who aided them. Known as the “Cow Cavalry,” they protected cattle from Federal raiders and rustlers, and oversaw cattle drives to supply the Confederate army, going as far north as Savannah and Charleston. John T. Lesley was probably the first man in the Bay area to raise a company for the Cow Cavalry.

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Returning to his previous rank of captain (a title he would ever after be addressed by the citizens of Tampa), Lesley formed Company “B” of the 1st Battalion, Florida Special Cavalry, a unit of 135 men which became known as the “Sandpipers.” They were stationed at Cork (now Plant City, in Hillsborough County) and patrolled an area ranging as far inland as the shores of Lake Okeechobee, and as far north as Bay Port, in Hernando County. Soon after his company was formed, Lesley was also joined in service by his father. Reverend Lesley, now 57, raised a company of his own for service with the Cow Cavalry, which was subsequently based at Brooksville in Hernando County. (Reverend Lesley had moved to this area on the outbreak of the war, and had established a plantation there.) (56)

1864 January 31 Birth of John and Margaret’s second child and their eldest son, Emory Leroy “Sonnie” Lesley at Cork. Named for both his paternal uncle and grandfather, Emory attended the Bingham Military Academy in Mebansville, North Carolina and at an early age became involved in his father’s cattle business. In the 1890’s, he moved to Kissimmee and went into the cattle business there. He also served as clerk of the Circuit Court of Osceola County and as a member of the Osceola County Board of County Commissioners. In 1896, he was married to Miss Virginia Knight “Jennie” Morgan, daughter of Colonel Eli O. Knight, a prominent Florida cattleman, and the couple had six children. He died on July 2, 1931 at the age of 77 in Haines City, Florida, where at the time of his death he was serving as mayor of that city. (57)

April At Bowlegs Creek in Polk County, Captain Lesley led his company in their first engagement against Federal forces in the area. The brief action cost the Sandpipers their first casualties--Pvt. James Lanier was killed, and another private, Henry Prine, was wounded. In a later incident, he led his men in another skirmish against the Federals, this time at Twelve Mile Creek. Having only nineteen of his men on hand at the time, Lesley reportedly attacked a force of 109 marauders and in a brief but bitter skirmish routed them. (58)

July 10 A third incident took place at Bay Port on the night of July 10. There, by Lesley’s own account, he attacked a Federal force of “800 of the enemy who were burning and destroying property in their march, which I succeeded in doing.” But the full story of that incident provides details which Lesley probably would have preferred to have forgotten. An account of the battle by William McCullough, a Federal soldier who fought against the Cow Cavalry on several occasions, paints a very different picture:

“After arriving upon the side of the [Bayport] swamp, the main command lay flat upon their arms, while we had out skirmish pickets in front, and fifty men lying in wait on a road . . . It was now about 10 at night, and everything fixed for a fight if the enemy showed themselves. The party on the road proved to be the old Capt. [Rev. L.G.] Lesley . . . Young Lesley [John T.], the Captain’s son came up, and his father taken him for one of the Yankees, fired into him, wounding his own son, and killed my wife’s nephew [Emory Campbell, of John T. Lesley’s company] who had

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been conscripted into their lines . . . The next morning we searched their ground . . . and picked up their muskets and a cloth hat which was supposed to belong to the dead man killed by themselves. After the rebs had the fight among themselves, they returned to the town of Brooksville about 10 miles in the interior and left the yankees masters of their encampment and the battlefield.”

John T. Lesley’s grandson Theodore Lesley also provides another, more detailed description of his grandfather’s part in the engagement and its aftermath:

“In the year 1864 the Yankees made a landing at Bayport. The few Confederates were instrumental in keeping them from reaching Brooksville, but they nevertheless did much damage in burning homes . . . After they had turned, and were making back to their boats, the Southerners decided to lay a trap for them. They split up into two commands, and met farther down the road one on opposite sides, and awaited [sic] for the Federals. Capt. Hope [actually Lt. David Hope, of Reverend Lesley’s company] and his men were first to arrive and station themselves. Shortly afterwards they heard and saw movements across the way, and opened fire. This was Capt. J.T. Lesley and his troops taking their places. Their first volley killed Emory Campbell, and wounded Capt. Lesley in his left arm. The ball smashed through Grandfather’s elbow, and plowed up the bone coming out at his shoulder. He was taken to Camp where the doctors told him it would have to be removed. Thereupon, Grandfather commanded Ed. Wilder and one of the Collins [Hardy, John, William, D.J. and Enoch, all of whom served in John T. Lesley’s company], and told them to stand guard over him and if he lost consciousness to see to it that the doctors did not remove his arm unless it started turning blue. True to their trust these faithful men remained guard throughout the night while their Captain tossed in pain & delirium. The doctors in cleaning the wound had to probe deep for pieces of bone, & the cloathing [sic] that had been driven deep within the wound by the bullet. The arm was set at right angles and never could be straighten[ed], although in after years Capt. Lesley did manage, by perseverance, to raise it to his mouth.” (59)

1865 February The Sandpipers also took part in the Cow Cavalry’s last major operation, an abortive raid on Fort Myers, which at that time was being used as a base of operations for Federal units operating in South Florida. Lesley’s men, together with two other area companies of the Cow Cavalry (about 200 men), all under the command of Maj. William Footman, set out from Tampa during the second week of February and slogged through rainy weather to reach the fort on February 20. After an inconclusive artillery duel between the two sides, the Confederates withdrew from the area, hungry and demoralized. One of Lesley’s own men who served in the expedition, E.G. (Ed) Wilder, later recalled that “. . . late at night we started our long, weary arch back to our former quarters, a distance of 175 miles, with but a scant supply of horse feed or rations. Some of our boys ate palmetto buds on that memorable trip.”

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Lt. Francis C.M. Boggess, who also served with the Cow Cavalry during the attack, summed up the whole affair when he later wrote that “the whole thing had been a failure and with no bread or anything to eat but beef and parched corn. The whole command was demoralized.” (60)

April 9 Confederate Gen. in Chief Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to U.S. Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia. Lee’s surrender was followed on April 26 by the surrender of the Confederate Army of the Tennessee at Durham Station, North Carolina and the surrender of the Trans-Mississippi Department Army on June 2 at Galveston, Texas. With the surrender of these armies--except for some minor skirmishing and guerrilla activity in the West--the bloodiest war in American history drew to a close. (61)

May Before the final collapse of the Confederacy, one last adventure awaited the Lesleys. Theodore Lesley recalled the incident in a brief sketch he wrote on his family’s history:

“In May of 1865, a bearded man answering to the name of Charles Howard appeared in Brooksville inquiring for the home of Captain [Rev. L.G.] Lesly. Upon being directed and arriving at the plantation, some six miles south of the town, he revealed his idenity [sic] as Judah P. Benjamin, Secretary of State for the late Confederacy. He explained he had been directed to him by his relatives in Abbeville, S.C., where he had attended the last Cabinet meeting with President Davis, and was asking his aid in making good his escape from the country. Captain Lesly pledged his cooperation, and the Secretary was made comfortable in the Lesly home while Capt. Lesly’s son, Major John T. Lesley, of Tampa, was sent for. Together the father and son made the necessary arrangements. Benjamin was carried by them to Ellington [Ellenton, in Manatee County, where Benjamin was hidden in the Gamble Mansion], where he stayed until a Sea worthy boat was obtained. Boarding it at Sarasota, he and there began his romantic and perilous voyage that finally landed him at the Bahamas, the first stop to his ultimate destination, England. He later sent a letter to Captain Lesly thanking him for his aid and, to Mrs. Lesly [the Reverend Lesley’s second wife, Lucy Jane (Sandwich) Lesly] a number of yards of beautiful silk for a dress, together with buttons, needles and thread.” (62)

May 10 In Florida, Federal troops finally entered Tallahassee, which, thus far, had been the only Confederate state capitol east of the Mississippi to escape occupation. Shortly thereafter, most Confederate units in the state began surrendering to U.S. forces in the area. (63)

May 20 After receiving the surrender of most of the Confederate forces in Florida, U.S. Brig. Gen. E. M. McCook took formal possession of Tallahassee and the United States flag once again flew over Florida’s State Capitol, after an absence of more than four years. (64)

May 27 Tampa was occupied by Federal forces, and shortly thereafter Federal commissioners were sent out to accept the surrender of all Confederate units still operating in the area. (65)

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Chapter V: Reconstruction

(1865-1877)

1865 June 5 At Bay Port, Munnerlyn’s Cow Cavalry surrendered to representatives of the Federal 2nd Florida Cavalry. Lesley may have been present at the surrender, and was paroled by U.S. forces either then, or perhaps sometime earlier. After Lesley was paroled, he returned home to an area economically devastated by war. Federal troops would occupy Fort Brooke until 1869 and Lesley’s cattle business was no doubt severely damaged by the effects of the war. James McKay later wrote that:

“After the close of the war, we returned to our homes which we found, in most instances, in a dilapidated condition. Tampa was a hard looking place. Houses were in bad order. Streets and lots were grown up mostly with weeds and the outlook was not very encouraging.” (66)

October 25 A constitutional convention to draw up a new constitution for the state convened in Tallahassee. The Ordinance of Secession was annulled and slavery was decreed to no longer exist. The right to vote however, was still restricted to “free white male persons of 21 years or more, and none others.” Although the document was rejected by Congress and never took effect, the controversy surrounding its provisions signaled the beginning of the Reconstruction Era in Florida, in which the states of the former Confederacy were controlled by the Federal government. (67)

November 29 With the local civil administration now in chaos, Lesley was elected to serve as sheriff and tax assessor and collector ex officio for Hillsborough County.

TABLE 1 OFFICIAL ELECTION RESULTS

SHERIFF AND TAX ASSESSOR & COLLECTOR Ex Officio- HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY 1865 GENERAL ELECTION

Total Votes Percentage of Candidates Cast Total Votes Cast

John T. Lesley 86 54.4 William S. Spencer 72 45.6

Sheriff Lesley took office immediately, as the term of office on his official commission was apparently backdated to October 2, 1865. He served a two-year term as sheriff, retiring from office on October 2, 1867. (68)

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1866 May 5 Lesley was admitted as a member of Hillsborough Lodge No. 25, Free & Accepted Masons in Tampa. Throughout his adult life, Lesley was an active and enthusiastic member of the local Masonic order. In 1869, he served as lodge treasurer and was a member of Hillsborough Lodge No. 25 until he dimitted on February 7, 1880. Then, on January 18, 1897, he became a founding member of the John Darling Lodge No. 154 in Tampa, which was chartered on that date. According to the Tampa Morning Tribune, “He [Lesley] it was who suggested the name of the lodge in honor of Judge Darling,” one of Tampa’s earliest pioneers and an active member of the Masons in his own rite. Lesley went on to serve as a member of this lodge until his death, and also served as lodge senior warden in 1897, marshal in 1898 and chaplain in 1901. (69)

1867 During this year, in order to recover from the economic devastation caused by the war, Lesley built a sawmill on his property and supplied the area, now struggling to rebuild, with building lumber. This, together with his cattle trade, helped him to slowly recoup his wartime losses. (70)

1868 May 4 A new state constitution, the fourth in the state’s history, was approved by Florida voters. Written under military supervision, this document, known as the “Reconstruction” or “Carpetbag” Constitution, granted equal suffrage to blacks and whites. By now, the state was completely under the control of Northern politicians (known as “carpetbaggers” for their traveling bags, which were often made from carpet fabric). According to many historians of the era, corruption in the State Capitol reached epidemic proportions, while “murders, whippings, and other acts of terrorism” were commonplace throughout the rest of the state. (71)

July 26 Also during this year, as the state Democratic Party slowly began to recover from the effects of the war and Reconstruction, Lesley began to emerge as one of its leading lights in South Florida. On this date, a Democratic Convention for Hillsborough County met at the Courthouse in Tampa, and elected Lesley president of the County Executive Committee. He soon won notice as “a leading orator in political campaigning, his style of speaking being direct, logical, and broad in its treatment of subjects.” During this period, according to Theodore Lesley, he was “successful in throwing off the Radical rule” then plaguing local government in the area. The Tampa Times later said of him that “. . . no man in Florida displayed more bravery and fidelity in the long and trying fight to relieve the state from ‘carpetbag’ rule and Negro domination.” (72)

September 16 John and Margaret’s third child and their second son, John James “Johnnie” Lesley was born in Tampa. He lived for a time in Kissimmee, and later died an invalid in Gadsden County, Florida on January 19, 1941 at the age of 72. (73)

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1869 March 11 As candidate for mayor of Tampa, Lesley headed a ticket which, as Theodore Lesley later wrote, “pledged to dissolve the city government.” Historians have offered various reasons why the dissolution of the city was proposed at this time. Gary R. Mormino and Anthony P. Pizzo suggest that it was dictated by economics, as citizens were no longer able to afford municipal property taxes, while James W. Covington cites the fact that citizens were “incensed over military intervention in civil affairs.” But according to Theodore Lesley, one major reason for the move for dissolution was to keep Tampa’s municipal government “from falling into the hands of . . . corrupt adventurers,” whom Theodore described as “the former slaves of the South, abetted by northern guns and Southern renegades, [who] filled every public office with controlled henchmen.” Lesley’s ticket won, and went on to fulfill their campaign pledge. No city council meetings were held and on October 4, 1869, the county declared the City of Tampa to have “forfeited its charter,” ordering that “all property of the city shall be taken over by the county clerk.” (74)

May 12 The Florida Peninsular announced that:

“Messrs. Lesley & Henderson [William B. Henderson, Lesley’s old friend and now a successful Tampa merchant] are now making Salt, on the East side of the Bay near the mouth of the Alafia, which is equal to the best Liverpool salt, and in a short time they will be able to make at least 100 bushels per day. The salt at these works is made as at the other works on the bay, by sinking wells in the vast sandy flats, whence the water is drawn out and boiled in the common sugar kettles. The best quality of salt may be had at these works, for one dollar per bushel.” (75)

Also by this year, Lesley had formed a partnership with Henderson to engage once more in the Cuban cattle trade. This enterprise would be the engine that fueled Lesley’s future prosperity, and together, Lesley and Henderson began buying cattle from cowmen all across the state. (76)

1870 June 30 Birth of John and Margaret’s fourth child and their third son, William Taliaferro “Tolley” Lesley, in Tampa. After working as a mail clerk in the Tampa post office and as a freight clerk for the Seaboard Air Line Railroad, in 1897 he was elected clerk of the Criminal Court of Record for Hillsborough County. He served two terms in this office and was then elected sheriff of Hillsborough County in 1900. Defeated for re-election in the second Democratic primary of 1904, he had only three weeks remaining in his term when he died. In 1898, he married Sarah Yancey, whose father, Dalton H. Yancey, was an early settler of Lake County. The couple had two children. William T. Lesley died at the age of 34 in Tucson, Arizona on December 7, 1904, while recuperating from “a severe case of tuberculosis.” (77)

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July 11 U. S. census records for Hillsborough County listed John T. Lesley, 35, as residing with his wife Margaret, 29 [actually, she was 31], who was “Keeping house” and their children Indiana, 9, “attending school”; Emory L., 7 [6]; John J., 3 [1]; and “James,” who was listed as being age 1 month, but was actually only less than 2 weeks old. [This was no doubt William Taliaferro Lesley; James may have been his parents’ original name for him, which they apparently changed later]. Lesley’s occupation was still listed as “Stock raiser.” Values on his real estate were given as $1,800.00 and his personal estate was valued at $5,000.00--evidence of his return to a relative degree of prosperity since the war’s end. (78)

1872 During this year, Lesley sold his sawmill and returned to stock-raising on a full-time basis. By 1878-1881, he had become one of the wealthiest cattlemen in Florida, and was shipping 12,000 head annually out of the area. Noted Florida historian Joe Akerman, author of Florida Cowman, recounts an interesting story relating to the extent of Lesley’s prosperity during these years:

“Revele Anderson, a black cowman who worked for Lesley, remembers seeing a wash tub full of gold coins in the bedroom of John T. Lesley. This was before Miller and Henderson [Capt. John Miller and Lesley’s partner William B. Henderson, who served as bankers for area cattlemen] started handling his banking for him.” (79)

1873 August 11 With conditions now much improved in the area, a public meeting was held which approved the re-incorporation of Tampa, this time as a town instead of a city. Municipal elections were again held, and as a result Lesley was elected to serve a three-year term as a member of the town’s Board of Aldermen.

TABLE 2

OFFICIAL ELECTION RESULTS BOARD OF ALDERMEN - TOWN OF TAMPA

1873 MUNICIPAL ELECTION (Top 4 candidates were elected)

Total Votes Percentage of Candidates Cast Total Votes Cast E. A. Clark 48 100.0 H. L. Crane 48 100.0 W. T. Haskins 48 100.0 John T. Lesley 48 100.0 Josiah Ferris 47 97.9

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Alderman Lesley’s term of office officially ended in August of 1876. (80)

September 4 Birth of the Lesley’s fifth child and their third son, Theodore Lesley (Sr.), in Tampa. At an early age, he became involved in his father’s cattle business and later formed a partnership with his cousin W. Lesley Brown in the livery, sales and feed stable business. According to D.B. McKay, he “was also connected with the well-known business houses of E.E. Cone and Whitenberg and Lesley.” In 1893, he was elected tax collector of Fort Brooke and served in that office for thirteen years. In 1894, he was also appointed an inspector of Customs and later a special deputy collector of customs of the Port of Tampa under his father, serving in that capacity until 1897. Then in 1913, he was appointed Hillsborough County tax collector by Gov. Park Trammell to fill a vacancy, and served until his retirement from business and politics in 1915. In 1906, he married Carrie May Yancey, sister of his brother William’s wife Sarah. The couple had one daughter and one son. The son, Theodore Lesley, Jr. (1911-1978) became the Lesley family historian, and in 1966 was appointed as Hillsborough County’s second county historian. Theodore Lesley (Sr.) died in Tampa on October 16, 1942 at the age of 69. (81)

1876 November 7 John T. Lesley was elected as a Democrat to serve a two-year term as Hillsborough County’s lone representative in the Assembly, or lower house, of the Florida Legislature.

TABLE 3

OFFICIAL ELECTION RESULTS FLORIDA ASSEMBLY - HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY 1876 GENERAL ELECTION

Total Votes Percentage of Candidates Cast Total Votes Cast John T. Lesley 613 76.7 Wilbur E. Burts 185 23.1 Jonas Yates 1 .1

J. C. Green 1 .1

Also elected to public office on this day was the Rev. Leroy G. Lesley, who won the race for Hillsborough County tax assessor. (He would subsequently win re-election in 1878, and retired from the office in 1880.) (82)

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Chapter VI: The Golden Years (1877-1899)

1877 January 2 George F. Drew was inaugurated as the twelfth governor of Florida in Tallahassee -- the first Democrat to take office since the end of the Civil War. The Democrats were also successful in capturing both houses of the State Legislature, marking the final end of Reconstruction in Florida. In part, the Democrats won because of a pledge made during the campaign to restrict the rise of state tax rates, which had grown under Republican Carpetbag rule. That same day, the ninth session of the Florida Legislature convened at the State Capitol in Tallahassee and on that day Lesley took his seat as a member of the Assembly from Hillsborough County. He was sworn in by Judge P. W. White of the Second Judicial Circuit of Florida in a ceremony held in the State Capitol. In the subsequent assignment of committees for this session, Lesley was appointed to three of the eighteen Standing Committees of the Assembly: to the Committee on State Institutions (which he chaired); Education; and Legislative Expenses. (83)

March 2 The Assembly adjourned sine die (without a day, or indefinitely). During this session, the Democrat’s campaign pledge was apparently abandoned by many, and a push to raise state tax rates was begun. According to Theodore Lesley, however, John T. Lesley led the movement in the Assembly to restrict the raise and hold the Democrats to their pledge, and successfully “defied the governor and a majority of the senate and held the lower house from approving a higher millage for state tax than had been promised the people . . . From that date forward, Major Lesley won a permanent place in the hearts of his constituents as a man whose promise was law and for this devotion his power as a political force in South Florida never diminished until the hour of his death.” (84)

March 10 For his stand on this issue, Lesley received statewide attention, and in an editorial in today’s edition of the Sunland Tribune he was praised as “. . . a legislator who has labored for the good of the people with such a singleness of purpose . . . His record may be found in the proceedings of the Assembly, and it is that of a man, who, in spite of all the pressures that could be brought upon him, has pushed ahead fearlessly and with unflinching integrity to the performance of the duties with which he felt himself charged.” (85)

May 5 In contrast to the support he had received from much of the press and public after the close of the legislative session, Lesley was also harshly criticized by some of his colleagues in the Assembly. Led by Rep. P.P. Bishop of Putnam County, Lesley was placed in the curious position of having to defend himself from charges of having not raised taxes. In an editorial in this day’s issue of the Sunland Tribune, Lesley responded with angry scorn to his critics (particularly Bishop), charging that:

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“What they found themselves able to do and say did not excite a fig’s worth of solicitude in my mind . . . How adroitly the Gentleman from Putnam avoids [the] facts for facts they are, and I challenge their denial. We submitted figures to prove our position; they could not refute them. We asked this same writer up on the floor of the House to come up and redeem the pledge he had made to the people in the late campaign. His modest reply was that campaign speeches were one thing, and business another, and that this was business. As for myself, I made no pledge in the late campaign that I did not intend to carry out and still intend to labor for.” (86)

August 1 Birth of John and Margaret’s sixth and last child, their fifth son, Livingston Grillon “Babe” Lesley, born in Tampa. Livingston attended Eastman Business College in Tampa and at the age of 18 entered the Customs Service under his father. He later served in the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office under his brother, William when he was sheriff, and later served as chief deputy under four other sheriffs. In 1898, Livingston married Georgia Florence Yancey and the couple had three children. He died in Tampa on September 16, 1943, at the age of 66. (87)

1878 September 18 At the Hillsborough County Democratic convention held in Tampa, Lesley was unanimously nominated as the party’s candidate for the Florida State Senate, representing the Thirtieth District (Hillsborough County). At the time, he was in Cuba on business, but returned to accept the nomination, confidently noting that the party’s “course in that convention is a guarantee of their endorsement of my action in the past, a willingness to trust me in the future, and leaves but one course for any true lover of the rights and liberty of his people to pursue . . . looking over your achievements in the past, the grand strides made in interest of reform against Radical misrule and oppression, I congratulate you that the end is near; that peace for which the Southern heart has long yearned, reached out in vain to gain, will be obtained, and in thunder tones to an amazed and astonished world proclaimed.” (88)

November 5 Lesley was elected to a four-year term as state senator, easily defeating his controversial Republican opponent, James T. Magbee, local editor of the Tampa Guardian newspaper. (89)

TABLE 4

OFFICIAL ELECTION RESULTS FLORIDA STATE SENATE -

THIRTIETH DISTRICT (HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY) 1878 GENERAL ELECTION

Total Votes Percentage of Candidates Cast Total Votes Cast John T. Lesley 589 80.5 James T. Magbee 143 19.5

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1879

January 7 In Tallahassee, the tenth session of the Florida Legislature under the Constitution of 1868 convened at the Capitol. Later that day, Lesley presented his certificate of election and took his seat as state senator from the Thirtieth District, having been sworn in by Judge P. W. White of the Second Judicial Circuit. In the subsequent assignment of committees for this session, Lesley was appointed to five of the twenty-two Standing Committees of the Senate: to the Committee on Claims; Finance and Taxation; State Affairs (as chairman); Corporations; and Indian Affairs. (Later, on January 22, he would also be appointed to an additional committee, the newly-created Committee on Post Routes.) (90)

January 13 On the floor of the Senate, Senator Lesley offered a resolution “That our Senators and Members of Congress representing the State of Florida in the Congress of the United States, are hereby requested to introduce a bill, and to use their exertions for the passage of the same, granting to the Tampa Peace Creek and St. Johns River Railway Company the right of way through the government lands on the line of road leading from Tampa, Florida, to the St. Johns river for the distance of one hundred feet of said line of railway.” The resolution was subsequently adopted, and that same day, Lesley also introduced his first bill in the Senate, Senate Bill No. 15, “an act to amend an act entitled an act to Prevent Excessive Rates of Pilotage.” (This bill subsequently was passed by the Senate Committee on Commerce and Navigation on February 13 and passed the Senate by a vote of 22 to 0 on February 15, but apparently failed to pass in the House.) (91)

January 14 The following day, Senator Lesley introduced Senate Bill No. 18, “an act to grant certain swamp and overflowed lands to the Tampa Peace Creek and St. John’s River Railway Company.” Getting this legislation passed--testimony to Lesley’s strong pro-railroad sentiments-- would become a key goal of his during this session. The bill passed the Senate on February 6 by a vote of 17 to 4 and passed the House on February 18, but was vetoed by Governor Drew on February 25. In his veto message, Drew outlined his objections, saying in part:

“. . . An early development of our State is the desire of every good citizen, and should be the aim of all persons of individual or official influence. Nothing will secure this result sooner than the construction and operation of railroads, managed by persons feeling an interest in the country and controlling their business upon those healthy principles of reciprocal support, which always exist between the proprietary carrier, on the one hand, and the producer and consumer on the other. I yield to no one in earnest wishes to see such an end attained; and the character of the corporators, in the above named companies, satisfies me that if the roads proposed should be constructed, that their completion would soon be followed by a new era of prosperity and happiness to our people, and it is only in obedience to a pressing sense of official duty that I consent to withhold my approval of the [bill] named. The reasons for so

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doing I will now submit.

“. . . It would be a blessed consummation if this Legislature would start a well-digested scheme looking to the completion of the roads to Tampa . . . with such aid as the Internal Improvement act permits to the other lines contemplated by these bills. Such a scheme, embodying in it the settlement of the present indebtedness of the fund [the state’s Internal Improvement Fund], would be productive of great good. The grant of alternate sections within the six-mile limit, attended by a construction of the roads upon the terms of the Internal Improvement law, will render the residue of the sections in the same locality more valuable than both were before.

“It must be plain to every one that until the fund shall be placed in a more healthy condition as to meeting its past obligations, such legislation as that now proposed can be of no value to the State nor of any benefit to the grantors thereunder, at least beyond the grant within the six-mile limit. Besides this, we all know how necessary and wise it is for private and public bodies, looking to a future involving a necessity for financial credit, to adhere strictly to contracts that have been made; particularly in this time, when they have been adjudicated and explained by the courts.

“The sixteenth article of our Bill of Rights declares that no law impairing the obligation of contracts shall ever be passed; and believing as I do that these bills are in violation of this provision, I am compelled, for the reasons stated, to withhold my signature.”

(On February 28, Lesley promptly introduced a revision of his bill--now Senate Bill No. 173, “an act to grant certain lands to the Tampa, Peace Creek and St. Johns River Railroad Company,” which quickly passed the Legislature and was signed by the governor on March 4.) (92)

January 21 In balloting to elect Florida’s United States Senator, Lesley sided with the majority who elected Democrat Wilkinson Call to the office. Call, a nephew of former Florida Territorial Gov. Richard Keith Call, was originally elected to the U.S. Senate in 1865, but was refused his seat. (He subsequently was seated in 1879 and served until 1897, when he retired.) (93)

January 28 Senator Lesley introduced Senate Bill No. 51, “an act to establish a ferry across the Hillsborough river.” This bill was rejected by the Senate Committee on City and County Organizations on February 7, “as there is a law already provided . . . in the acts of 1872” for such a ferry. That same day, the bill was “indefinitely postponed” on second reading. (94)

January 29 Lesley introduced two more bills: Senate Bill No. 64, “an act to amend an act for the registration of electors and the holding of elections, approved February 27, 1877” and Senate Bill No. 66, “an act to enlarge the jurisdiction of mayors of cities and towns in this State,” both of which failed to become law. The first bill died in the Senate Judiciary Committee, while the second was rejected by the same Committee on February 8 “for the reason that the bill proposes to extend the authority of the mayors of cities and towns beyond their corporate limits, for the arrest of persons

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under warrants issued by such mayors, which would be a dangerous power, and also of doubtful constitutionality.” (The bill was “indefinitely postponed” on February 11.) (95)

February 5 Senator Lesley introduced another bill, Senate Bill No. 88, “to authorize the erection of a dam across the Hillsborough River in the county of Hillsborough.” The bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Corporations, which recommended its passage on February 7, and was passed by the Senate by a vote of 17 to 1 on February 11, but apparently failed to pass in the House. (96)

February 7 As chairman of the Senate Committee on State Affairs, Senator Lesley submitted a unanimous report of the committee to the Senate recommending rejection of a petition to conduct a geological survey of the State as “the State is not in a condition financially to make such a geological survey.” (97)

February 13 Senator Lesley introduced Senate Bill No. 119, “an act to make it a misdemeanor for any Judge of the Supreme Court or of the Circuit Courts of the State of Florida to practice law in certain courts of this State.” The bill was recommended for passage by the Senate Judiciary Committee on February 24 and later passed the Senate by a vote of 18 to 2, but apparently never passed the House. (98)

February 17 Senator Lesley introduced Senate Bill No. 138 “to protect settlers on public lands of this State.” Though “laid over subject to call” on February 20, the bill passed the Senate by a vote of 21 to 2 on February 28, but apparently was not acted upon by the House. (99)

March 7 The Senate adjourned sine die. During this session, Lesley once again established himself as a firm supporter of internal improvements throughout the state, especially the railroads, although curiously, he voted against an act to establish a state Bureau of Immigration. He also supported an unsuccessful bill to convene a constitutional convention to revise the state’s Constitution and supported efforts to allow localities “to determine by vote whether intoxicating liquors may be sold therein.” Also during this session, Lesley once again found himself embroiled in controversy. The issue this time concerned his position on a law which was passed allowing local grand juries to propose a raise in county property taxes. Lesley supported the measure, and was again assailed by his critics. In response, he promptly resigned from the Senate, noting that “. . . if I have erred, it is of the head, not of the heart, for I had no other interest than the interest of my people at heart . . . [I] am done with politics only wishing to be known as an [sic] humble worker in the ranks of Democracy.” But, in fact, he was not yet through with politics--far from it, as later events would prove. (100)

1880 June 7 In Tampa, Lesley was involved in a tragic incident which sent shock waves throughout South Florida. At the time, he was involved in a feud with a certain Dr. J. S. Hackney of the Alafia

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region. The exact details of the dispute are not known, but the bad blood between the two men seemed to stem from Lesley’s cattle trading business. The feud grew to such proportions that, as D. B. McKay relates:

“Dr. Hackney came to town one day and told several people that he intended to kill Lesley. Someone who heard his threat informed Lesley, so the latter was armed with a pistol when he came downtown [to Tampa]. Hackney learned that Lesley was in Philip Dzialynski’s store and went there in search of him. Lesley backed away but warned Hackney that if attacked he would shoot to protect himself. Hackney continued to advance and Lesley to retreat until he was cornered and could go no further. Then he drew his pistol and killed Hackney with the first shot.” (101)

June 9 U.S. census returns for Hillsborough County, Florida listed John T. Lesley, 45, as residing in the Town of Tampa with his wife, Margaret, 40 [actually, she was 41] who was “Keeping house,” and their six children--India, 19 [18]; Emory Leroy, 15 [16]; John J., 12 [11]; W.T., 9; Theodore, 6; and Grillon [Livingston], 3 [2]. India, Emory Leroy, John J., and W.T. were all listed as being “At school”; the other children (Theodore and Livingston) were not yet old enough to attend. Lesley’s occupation was recorded as “Cattle Trader.” No values were given on his real or personal estates. (102)

July 8 Lesley published an advertisement in today’s Sunland Tribune announcing the opening of his new drug store in town on the corner of Franklin and Whiting Streets. As “Proprietors & Dealers in Patent & Pharmaceutical Preparations,” the store offered “Toilet and Fancy Articles, such as soaps, perfumeries, brushes, combs, vases, toilet sets, [and] jewelry of all descriptions.” (103)

October 16 A Grand Jury for the Circuit Court of the Sixth Judicial Circuit of Florida issued a report of its investigation into the Hackney killing, and stated that “we have found no testimony that could in the least incriminate Captain Lesley and we deem it but common justice to him to say that it is the unanimous opinion of the Grand Jury, that the deed was unavoidable and purely in self- defense.” But that did not quite end the matter. Shortly thereafter, Lesley was again almost killed in another incident. According to Theodore Lesley: “Mr. Simeon E. Sparkman, shot at grandfather following Dr.

Hackney’s death . . . Sparkman, his [Hackney’s] son-in-law hid out behind a small store, that was then on [the] corner of Lafayette and East Streets, and shot at grandfather while the family was at supper. Due to old fashion [ed] glass, with the waves in it, he missed his target. No one saw him, but grandfather said he knew it was he, and sent him word to that effect, but nothing more ever happened.” (104)

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1881 During this year, Lesley constructed a mercantile building in Tampa on the southeast corner of Washington and Franklin Streets. It subsequently became known as the “John T. Lesley Mercantile Building” and for a time it housed Tampa’s Town Hall on the second floor. (105)

1882 April 6 In a letter which appeared in today’s Sunland Tribune, Lesley declined suggestions that he be nominated by the Democrats for a seat in Congress, writing: “In your last issue some kind correspondent brings my name forward in very

flattering terms; I am also in receipt of letters from various portions of the State urging me to allow my name used in the coming nomination convention. Many others have urged me in person to allow my name used--all of which I appreciate and send to them greetings of heartfelt thanks--but to allow my name used in connection with the nomination for any office within the gift of the great and good people of the State, District or County I positively decline; but in doing so it is in no spirit of ingratitude, but with all due respect and the highest regard for those who in the past honored me with their unreserved support. I have no desire to erect a light tower emitting flashes of genius to guide or warn political mariners; nor do I intend to build a literary or political monument to give praise in the evening of life, which honestly belonged to others. For hundreds now stand ready of that gallant corps to answer the mystic call, and hundreds more to brave all dangers of final results even of being numbered among the ninety and nine who on the final day shall fold their tents, cross the dark river of political disappointment, there join a host of comrades gone before, looking like bronzed castings for some warlike temple.” (106)

September 21 At Hillsborough County’s Democratic Convention in Tampa, Lesley was “unanimously nominated by acclamation” for re-election as state senator from the Thirtieth District and “in a few graceful and pertinent remarks declared that though the nomination was entirely unsought by him and conflicted with his wishes and private interests, yet if the county demanded his services he could not refuse them.” (107)

October 31 John’s father, the Rev. L.G. Lesley died in Tampa while on a visit to his son at his home there. He was 75 years old at the time of his death, and was lavishly praised in newspaper obituaries throughout Florida, one of which noted that: “When the war whoop of the savage Indians could be heard and the curling smoke seen ascending from his wigwam forty years ago . . . everyone felt more secure when it was known that Captain L. G. Lesley was on the alert.” He was buried in the Lesley family section of Oaklawn Cemetery. (108)

November 7 Lesley was easily re-elected to another four-year term in the Florida State Senate.

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Running without any serious organized opposition, according to Theodore Lesley, “his district returned him to the subsequent sessions [of the State Senate] with the greatest vote ever polled, up to that time, for a candidate for the office of state senator.” (109) TABLE 5 OFFICIAL ELECTION RESULTS FLORIDA STATE SENATE- THIRTIETH DISTRICT (HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY) 1882 GENERAL ELECTION Total Votes Percentage of

Candidates Cast Total Votes Cast

John T. Lesley 589 98.5 James McKay 4 .7 Samuel E. Hope 3 .5 Isaac Howard 2 .3

1883 January 2 The twelfth session of the Florida Legislature convened at the State Capitol in Tallahassee. The next day, Lesley was sworn in for a second term as senator from the Thirtieth District in a ceremony in the Senate Chamber. The oath was administered by L. B. Wombwell, Notary Public. In the subsequent assignment of committees for this session, Lesley was appointed to four of the twenty-three Standing Committees of the Senate: to the Committee on Claims; Railroads and Telegraph; Appropriations (which he chaired); and Commerce and Navigation. On January 4, he was also added to a fifth Standing Committee, on Constitutional Amendments, and was later assigned to two more committees--a Joint House-Senate Committee “to investigate the status of the several Railroad Incorporations in this State” and the “Committee to Examine the Records of the Senate.” The number of assignments and the prestige of the committees Lesley was assigned to suggest that he had a good deal of clout with his fellow legislators. (110)

January 22 Senator Lesley introduced two bills on the floor of the Senate: Senate Bill No. 104, “an act to protect growing sponge in this State” and Senate Bill No. 105, “an act to prohibit the wanton destruction of food fishes in this State.” The sponge bill became law without Gov. William D. Bloxham’s signature, while the bill to protect food fishes apparently did not pass, although a similar measure was enacted in the next legislative session. (111)

February 10 Senator Lesley was one of four members of the Senate Committee on Railroads and Telegraph who submitted a majority report to the Senate recommending rejection of proposed Senate legislation “to create a commission to provide for the regulation of freight and passenger tariffs on railroads and steamboats in this State.” In their report on the legislation, the majority stated that in their view, the bill was unnecessary, commenting that:

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“we need no physician while in health, and Florida does not need a remedy for ills that do not exist . . . Any legislation, therefore, that would retard or suppress her developing railroad interests, would be a public calamity . . . Without railroads, quick transit and immigration are impossibilities; with railroads, they are certainties. We should, therefore, foster and not frighten them”

-- a view which well reflected Lesley’s conservative, pro-business philosophy. (112)

February 12 Senator Lesley introduced a third bill on the floor of the Senate, Senate Bill No. 208, “an act to appropriate funds for the benefit of the blind, deaf and dumb mutes in this State.” This bill was apparently incorporated in the act approved March 5, 1883 which authorized the establishment of “an Institute for the Blind and Deaf and Dumb” in Florida “to be located at some healthy, convenient and accessible point in the State.” In 1885, this Institute was established as the “Florida School for the Deaf and Blind” in St. Augustine. (113)

March 2 The Senate adjourned sine die. During this legislative session, Lesley played an important role in helping to defeat legislation designed to regulate tariffs on railroads and steamboats in Florida. This, of course, was not surprising considering his pro-business philosophy and his growing ties to railroad interests in the state, and reflected many conservative Democrat’s fears at the time that government regulation of these industries would restrict badly needed immigration into Florida. Significantly also, he voted against a measure proposed during this session which called for the convening of a constitutional convention to replace the state’s 1868 “Carpetbag” Constitution. (114)

1884 January 22 The last rail on the tracks establishing rail service between Tampa and Kissimmee was laid by Henry B. Plant’s South Florida Railroad, which finally linked Tampa and the Bay area by rail to the rest of the state and opened up the area for the first time to major development. Lesley enthusiastically supported the coming of the railroad to Tampa and to help this, the first railroad to reach Tampa, he donated land just north of East Street near Cass as a right-of-way. (115) Also during this year, Lesley, together with local leaders Stephen M. Sparkman, William B. Henderson, Thomas K. Spencer and Henry L. Mitchell formed the Plant City Land and Improvement Co., otherwise known as “The Tampa Syndicate” to begin development on the present site of Plant City. The site was incorporated the following year as Plant City, named in honor of the railroad magnate who bought the first railroad to the area. Hillsborough County tax rolls for this year also listed Lesley as holding 3,553 acres of land valued at more than $ 12,500.00. By this time, he was, according to Anthony P. Pizzo, “the largest property owner in Hillsborough County.” (116)

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1885 January 2 The thirteenth session of the Florida General Assembly convened at the State Capitol in Tallahassee. In the subsequent assignment of committees for this, what would prove to be his last legislative session, Lesley was appointed to six of the twenty-one Standing Committees of the Senate: to the Committee on Claims; Commerce and Navigation; Legislative Expenses; Indian Affairs; Privileges and Elections (which he chaired); and State Affairs. On January 8, he was also added to a Special Committee on the Revision of the State Constitution. (117)

January 9 Senator Lesley introduced Senate Bill No. 28, “an act concerning the introduction of deeds and other instruments of writing,” and Senate Bill No. 29, “to enable husband and wife to testify in suits for divorce or alimony.” Bill No. 28 apparently did not pass, but Bill No. 29 was approved, and became law on January 29, 1885. (118)

January 10 The next day, Lesley also introduced Senate Bill No. 35, “to grant certain privileges to the Manatee Dry Dock Company,” which became law without the signature of Gov. Edward A. Perry on February 22, 1885. Stating that “It is of the utmost importance to the commercial interest of the State that suitable encouragement be given to the construction of dry docks for the use of our merchant marine,” the act granted the Company “not exceeding ten acres in area, of the tidal lands belonging to the State” at Frankford Bank near Man-of-War Harbor “for the purpose of establishing a dry dock.” (119)

January 15 Senator Lesley introduced Senate Bill No. 67, “an act to incorporate the Tampa Street Railway Company.” The bill became law on February 12, and Lesley also served as one of the company’s incorporators, which established the first street railway in Tampa in 1887, a narrow line gauge which ran between Tampa and Ybor City. (120)

January 30 As chairman of the Senate Privileges and Elections Committee, Lesley submitted a majority report of the committee to the Senate in the case of the contested election between Sewell C. Cobb and Stephen R. Mallory for the First Senatorial District seat. The report recommended that “Mallory was entitled to his seat as Senator . . . and that Mr. Cobb be heard upon the floor of the Senate on his own behalf.” The Senate followed the Committee’s recommendation and Mallory was subsequently given the seat. (121)

February 3 Senator Lesley voted to “indefinitely postpone” a Senate bill “to prohibit dealers in general merchandise from selling drugs and medicines in any incorporated town where there is a regular drug store”--not surprising considering the fact that he owned a drug store himself in Tampa at the time. (122)

February 4 When an act came before the Senate for consideration “to prevent the distribution or selling of the ‘National Police Gazette,’ or other papers of obscene or immoral decency of like character,” Senator Lesley unsuccessfully offered an amendment to include the popular humor

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magazine Puck in the bill. He also was one of only four senators who unsuccessfully voted to create “a commission of three . . . appointed by the Governor as experts, who shall be employed to inspect all daily and weekly papers coming into the State, as well as other reading matter, such as novels, and c., and they shall have the power to forbid the sale of such as in their judgment comes within the spirit of this act.” (123)

February 12 The Senate adjourned sine die. Although still a conservative Democrat at heart, during this session of the General Assembly Lesley reversed his earlier stance on the question of a Constitutional Convention and voted for the calling of a convention to rewrite the state’s 1868 “Carpetbag” Constitution. (124)

May 5 Lesley was elected to serve as one of Hillsborough County’s three delegates to the upcoming State Constitutional Convention, to be held in Tallahassee in June. (125) TABLE 6 OFFICIAL ELECTION RESULTS HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY DELEGATION 1885 FLORIDA CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION SPECIAL ELECTION Total Votes Percentage of

Candidates Cast Total Votes Cast

Samuel E. Hope 250 33.7 John T. Lesley 248 33.5 John P. Wall 243 32.8

He had previously been nominated “by acclamation” in April for this office at a county convention and endorsed by the Sunland Tribune, which noted that “during his term of service in the upper branch of our Legislature [he] has been in the forefront; and commands the respect of that body for his level-headedness, ability and conservatism.” (125)

May 7 At a meeting of citizens at Branch’s Opera House, the Tampa Board of Trade (a precursor to today’s Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce) was organized, and Lesley was elected to serve as the organization’s first vice president. (126)

May 13 At its first session following its organization, the Board of Trade named a committee to “do all possible for the success of the election of the City Water works,” and Lesley, as board vice president, delivered “an eloquent and forceful address” in support of the works, which were eventually installed in 1889. (127)

June 9 The Florida Constitutional Convention convened in Tallahassee at the Hall of the General Assembly in the State Capitol in Tallahassee. A total of 108 delegates were present and they elected Samuel Pasco of Jefferson County to serve as president and presiding officer over the Convention. (128)

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June 15 On the sixth day of the Convention, Lesley was elected “by acclamation” to serve as the Convention’s second vice-president, and as such, briefly presided over some of the deliberations of that body. Also elected as first vice-president was James E. Yonge of Pensacola. In the assignment of committees also made on that day, Lesley drew two--Census, Apportionment and Boundaries, and Private Corporations, which he chaired. (129)

June 18 On the floor of the Convention, Lesley introduced three Ordinances which he proposed should be included in the Constitution: Ordinance No. 17, on “Formation of new counties”; Ordinance No. 18, “Relative to the recognition of existing counties”; and Ordinance No. 19, “Relative to the removal of County seats.” These ordinances eventually became part of Sections 2-4 of Article VIII (Counties and Cities). (130)

June 19 The next day, Lesley introduced two more Ordinances: Ordinance No. 24, “Relative to Legislative powers, elections and assembling of the same”; and Ordinance No. 25, “Relating to tax deeds.” Both of these measures, however, appear to have been quietly shelved and were not incorporated into the final text of the Constitution. During the remainder of the Convention, Lesley appeared to have primarily concerned himself with the issues of census and apportionment and private corporations. In these areas, he seems to have been largely successful in promoting his views to his fellow delegates in the Convention. He was able to push through with few amendments what eventually became Article VII of the Constitution (on Census and Apportionment) and he also managed to keep what he considered to be excessive provisions dealing with the regulation of corporations out of the final document. (131)

June 30 Florida State census records for Hillsborough County in this year recorded John T. Lesley, 50, living with his wife, Margaret, 47, [46] and their six children: India, 23; Emory, 21, who was listed as “Father’s agent”; John J.,17 [16], “Student”; William T., 15, “Student”; Theodore, 12 [11]; and Livingston G., 8 [7]. Lesley’s occupation was listed as “State Senator Cattle and Land Owner.” No agricultural schedules for him have survived to show the size or value of his land or cattle holdings. Meanwhile, in Tampa the local population had exploded from 726 in 1880 to nearly 3,000 in 1885, no doubt having been influenced by the coming of the railroad to the area, as well as the promotional efforts of the Board of Trade. (132)

August 1 During the deliberations of the Constitutional Convention, Lesley introduced a last-minute amendment to the Constitution which called for stiff penalties for election bribery. The measure, however was defeated by a vote of 62 to 31 on the floor of the Convention. Later that same day, as the Convention headed for adjournment, Lesley was presented with “a beautiful gold-headed cane” by delegate Phillip Walter of Jacksonville, representing the Republican minority, to thank him for his impartial service as convention vice-president, to which Lesley was said to have made a “most happy response.” (133)

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August 3 After signing the final draft of the Constitution, the Florida Constitutional Convention adjourned sine die. An analysis of Lesley’s voting during the Convention indicates that he voted for the passage of the section forbidding the state to issue bonds, and he also voted for the final passage of the provision allowing a state poll tax, which thereby disenfranchised the black voters of Florida. He also voted against the provisions dealing with the public school system, and led the fight against a movement for railroad reform and regulation in the State--taking an altogether conservative, though somewhat independent, viewpoint on the issues. (134)

October 22 Ybor and Company, a Cuban-based cigar manufacturer looking to expand the cigar industry into Florida purchased sixteen blocks of “Lesley’s Subdivision” lying east of Tampa and just north of the Fort Brooke Military Reservation from Lesley and his wife, Margaret, for a sum of $9,000.00. This land purchase formed the basis for the present-day community of Ybor City, and by introducing the cigar industry into Tampa, gave the local economy a critically needed boost. (135)

c. December At a meeting of the Board of Trade,

“Gen. Wall [Judge Joseph B. Wall, a prominent Tampa attorney and judge], who was a delegate of the Harbor Convention stated that Dr. Benjamin [H. R. Benjamin, M.D., a prominent Tampa physician and former postmaster of Tampa] was right when he said our delegates were left out in the shade & ignored, that they were given to understand that the Convention was called in the interest of the South Atlantic, and not the Gulf ports. Gen. Wall recommended the appointment of some good man--a man of political influence--to go to Washington and represent the importance of an increasing appropriation to our harbor.

“The proposition met with favor and Capt. John T. Lesley was unanimously elected as representative.

“Mr. Haya of Sanchez & Haya thought it was time to memoralize [sic] Congress for making Tampa a Port of Entry. It was also agreed that Captain Lesley look into the matter of making a Port of Entry and other matters which may be thought necessary to call attention of Congress.” (136)

1886 April 15 Under the headline “He Never Fails,” the Washington, D.C. Free Press reported that:

“Hon. John T. Lesley of Tampa, Florida, State Senator in one of the most energetic and prominent leaders of the Democratic party in South Florida has returned to his home from this city after a visit to the national seat of government where he has been looking after matters of interest to the people of Tampa and that section of his state.

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It is unnecessary to state that Senator Lesley’s visit was successful. He is the sort of public man that rarely undertakes anything without achieving it. He never fails.”

(In 1887, thanks largely to Lesley’s work and after more than a year of lobbying efforts, Tampa was made a port of entry by Congressional legislation). (137)

May 6 The First National Bank of Tampa was established after receiving a national charter. Lesley served as one of the first directors of the bank, and served on its Board of Directors from its charter date until about 1893. This bank was the first nationally-chartered bank in Tampa and for a time was the oldest national bank in Florida. From 1886 to 1896, it occupied the first brick building in town, on the southwest corner of Franklin and Washington Streets. (138)

July 15 An article appeared in a newspaper in Marianna (Jackson County) stating that:

“We see that the Hon. John T. Lesley is out in a letter advocating the Hon. A. S. Man [Austin S. Mann of Hernando County] for Congress. In view of the unanimity with which these two gentlemen worked together in our State Convention last year to defeat the Democrats of that body on some important measures, this was to be expected. Captain Lesley received a handsome cane from the Republicans for his service.” (139)

October 21 At a mass meeting of local Democrats held in Tampa,

“. . . Calls were made for Col. S. M. Sparkman, but that gentleman declined, saying he would much prefer hearing from Hon. John T. Lesley, whose name was received with utmost enthusiasm. Capt. Lesley commenced by branding as a utter falsehood the statement that had been published in a Marianna paper that he had acted with the Republicans in the last Constitutional Convention and grew both eloquent and pathetic in pointing to his career of unswerving fidelity to party in the long years of his political service, adding that he expected this to be the last occasion on which he should address a political meeting in Hillsborough County, and it was for this reason that he chose to make the above unconditional statement. He then spoke in the highest terms of Gen. Wall & the other candidates and after assailing the follies of the independent temperances agitators and giving some wise counsel as to the best method of securing temperance reform, retired amid great applause.” (140)

1887

January 29 Lesley served as one of the five incorporators of the Tampa Electric Company, which was organized on this date. On April 25 of this same year, the company brought the first electric lights to the city, two arc lights--one on the corner of Washington and Franklin, and the other in front of Abe Maas’s Dry Goods Palace--which were powered by a small Westinghouse generator. According to one contemporary article, “The plant of the company will be located on Captain

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Lesley’s property near Dawes & Dillingham’s machine works.” (141)

May 19 An editorial appeared in today’s Tampa Journal which stated:

“The compromised limits of the proposed extension of the Tampa corporation [which at that time was under consideration by the Florida Legislature] are by no means satisfactory. Captain Lesley’s property should not have been left out and we look upon the compromise as an injury to the town, as well as to the Captain but as far as the latter is concerned, it is his own business. However, one fact has been very forcibly illustrated, and that is that Captain John T. Lesley is a man of great influence, and exerts today more power in the State Legislature than our present Representatives, the Board of Trade and the whole town of Tampa.” (142)

June 2 Governor Perry approved a second charter for Tampa which organized it as a city. The new charter also greatly expanded the corporate limits of the city, including North Tampa, Ybor City and “even some land on the west side of the Hillsborough River.” Lesley’s land, however, was left out of the expansion. (143)

June 23 An article in the Tampa Journal noted that Lesley and his son Theodore were now conducting “an extensive livery; sale & feed business. They keep the best horses, the finest buggies and carriages and do a flourishing business.” (144)

September 30 The Town of Fort Brook was incorporated, and Lesley was elected to serve as one of the members of the Town’s first Board of Aldermen. The Town of Fort Brook (the spelling of which was later changed to “Brooke”) comprised most of the military reservation encompassing Fort Brooke which was drastically reduced in 1877, with all but 148 acres going to the public domain for sale. Lesley was one of the largest buyers of this land, which he purchased for $1.25 an acre. According to D. B. McKay, he led the movement to organize the town, “Following a personal affront he felt happened to him over settlement where the old military reservation was located,” no doubt stemming from the City of Tampa’s failure to include his land into their annexation. Tampa historian Karl Grismer calls the Town “notorious for many years for its gambling joints and houses of ill fame,” and D.B. McKay describes the town as:

“adjoining Tampa on the east, extending from East street to about Twenty-second Street and from Sixth Avenue to the bay . . . The town’s principal distinction was that it harbored the notorious Athanasaw gambling, saloon and vaudeville theater. It is doubtful if the equal of this den of iniquity has ever existed in the State of Florida. In 1898, when thousands of troops were assembled here preparatory to the invasion of Cuba, this place was jammed every night, and seldom a night passed without a serious riot. There were hundreds of bullet holes in the metal ceiling of the main

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hall. It is my memory that virtually no taxes were assessed--dependence for revenue was entirely on fines assessed in the police court.” (145)

1888 March 1 An article in an unnamed local newspaper announced that:

“Situated at the roaring shoals are the Hathaway Mills, owned by John T. Lesley of Tampa; J. J. Bartlett, being manager. Mr. Lesley ownes [sic] also about 1,000 acres of land in the big cypress swamps situated along the river, containing an almost inexhaustible supply of cypress timber, which is cut and rafted down to the mill and manufactured into shingles, cisterns, lumber etc.” (146)

June 30 During this period, Lesley was involved in a series of incidents which for a time split the Democratic Party in Tampa. The controversy centered around two local hopefuls for Congress, James McKay (whom Lesley supported) and Stephen M. Sparkman. When a convention of delegates from Precinct No. 6 (Tampa) assembled this night at Branch’s Opera House to select delegates to the county convention, the McKay faction nominated Lesley as the Convention’s permanent chairman, while the Sparkman faction nominated Thomas A. Carruth. Then, as the Tampa Journal tells it:

“Charges were bandied back and forth that their (McKay and Sparkman’s) delegations contained Republicans. The crowd became excited, ill-tempered disputes were indulged; yells rent the room and for half an hour, to a man up a tree, it looked like there was going to be war.”

Finally, the Sparkman contingent stormed out of the Convention in protest, and with the McKay faction now in control, a McKay delegate rose and said that he:

“‘wished to nominate a man who was known throughout Florida, and whose Democracy cannot be questioned. That man, he said, ‘is none other than John T. Lesley.’ Captain Lesley took his place at the desk amid another storm of applause. After the cheering had somewhat abated, the newly-elected Chairman . . . stated that a few weeks ago at a convention held in the same hall he noticed that a line was drawn by a certain faction whose policy was to rule or ruin . . . The Chairman continuing, said: ‘Never, before today, have I seen a man requested to leave a primary convention because he would not vote for a Democratic president.’”

A slate of McKay delegates (including Lesley) was then elected “by acclamation” to go to the county convention on July 11. Meanwhile, the Sparkman faction, meeting in the County Courthouse, had elected their own slate of delegates to the upcoming convention. (147)

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July 11 When the Hillsborough County Democratic Convention met in Tampa, a compromise was proposed which would seat both the McKay and Sparkman delegations, which would be given half a vote each. According to the Tampa Tribune, “a motion to adopt the report of the Committee was made when Captain Lesley took the floor in opposition to it, and Colonel Barron Phillips [of the Sparkman delegation] in favor.” The McKay faction lost by a vote of 52 to 7 and the report was adopted, whereupon “the McKay delegation from Tampa withdrew.” A total of twenty-six delegates were then chosen, who pledged to support Sparkman at the upcoming Congressional convention in Bartow in August. In the end however, the Sparkman supporters failed to get the rest of South Florida to support their candidate, and incumbent R. H. M. Davidson was re-nominated instead. As D.B. McKay later recalled: “A long poem was written about this long-forgotten political fight, in which the McKay-Lesley faction was spoken of as the ‘Romans,’ and the Sparkman faction, as the ‘Baskoms.’” The concluding verse read:

“But after all is over and the Roman forces yield, The Baskoms in good humor take the wounded off the field. While to crown the peace forever, and all enmity to sink, The victors and the vanquished together take a drink.” (148)

September 30 In municipal elections held on this day in Fort Brooke, Lesley was elected for a one-year term as mayor of the Town. He was subsequently re-elected each successive year, serving, according to Theodore Lesley, “for 18 years” until he apparently retired from office in 1906. (On May 17, 1907, Gov. Napoleon B. Broward signed into law an act which revoked and abolished the municipal government of Fort Brooke, and the town was then absorbed into the City of Tampa.) (149)

1891 July 17 In today’s issue of the South Florida Courier, the roll of membership for Hillsboro Camp No. 1 of the United Confederate Veterans was published, which listed John T. Lesley among the ninety-two members of the organization. (150)

1892 May 18 According to the Tampa Daily Tribune, “at the solicitation of many friends,” Lesley announced his candidacy for clerk of the Circuit Court for Hillsborough County. (151)

June 2 At the Florida State Democratic Convention held in Tampa, Lesley, as one of the event’s featured speakers, seconded the nomination of his old friend and comrade-in-arms, Henry L. Mitchell for governor, delivering an impassioned speech on his behalf:

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“. . . his influence like the dew from heaven falls gently upon the down cast and oppressed and but tends to the refreshing and reviving of their drooping spirits. No name could have raised such a cyclone of enthusiasm as the name of Henry L. Mitchell. As a man of destiny to stand in lofty grandeur towering above the noblest production of the most brilliant [sic] minds that have illuminated and enraptured an astonished world--as a councilor [sic] his wisdom is profound, boundless, infinite, as the golden chain reaching from earth to heaven. Let us then take hold of this man of destiny armed in panoply complete here is firm footing here is solid rock. Storms may threaten, but his hand the good man holds with the other fastened to the skies. His sterling worth big heart and teeming brain inspire the masses with confidence.”

(On November 1, 1892, Mitchell was easily elected over two other candidates from the People’s and Prohibition Parties, and on January 3, 1893 became the sixteenth governor of the State of Florida. Lesley attended Mitchell’s inauguration in Tallahassee and acted as his escort to the Capitol and as one of his bodyguards along with the members of the old 4th Florida Regiment during the course of the many ceremonies which attended Mitchell’s inauguration.) (152)

August 5(?) In elections for the office of clerk of the Court for Hillsborough County, Lesley was defeated by incumbent Warren A. Givens in the Democratic primary.

TABLE 7

OFFICIAL ELECTION RESULTS HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY DEMOCRATIC PARTY PRIMARY

CLERK OF THE CIRCUIT COURT

Total Votes Percentage of

Candidates Cast Total Votes Cast Warren A. Givens 937 58.2 John T. Lesley 673 41.8

Although badly beaten, this was the only known election in which Lesley ever lost a bid for a public office. (153)

1893 May 9 Lesley was appointed by Governor Mitchell to serve as clerk of the Circuit Court for Hillsborough County, to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Warren A. Givens, who ironically had beaten Lesley for the post less than a year before. Lesley served in this capacity until he accepted appointment to Federal office early in the following year. (154)

September 22 Margaret (Brown) Tucker Lesley, John T. Lesley’s wife of more than 35 years, died at the age of 54, probably at the family’s home in Tampa. The cause of her death is not known, although her obituary in the Tampa Tribune noted that she had “been a long and patient sufferer,

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during which time everything that medical skill could suggest was given to stop the progress of the disease.” In its memorial tribute to Mrs. Lesley, the Tribune also praised her as a woman who “has from infancy to mature age, imprinted on every passing hour some token of her affectionate nature--some evidence of her expanding intellect.” The following day, her funeral was held at the First Methodist Church, and was attended by “A large crowd of sorrowing friends testifying their love and friendship for the deceased and sympathy to the bereaved husband and children . . . [all] attested the love and esteem in which Mrs. Lesley was held and the great grief felt over her death.” She was buried in Oaklawn Cemetery in Tampa. (155)

1894 February 5 After years of faithful service to the Democratic Party, Lesley finally reaped the rewards of that service with an appointment by President Grover Cleveland to the patronage-rich Federal post of collector of customs for the Port of Tampa. Lesley lobbied hard for the appointment through his friends and political allies within the party, and was supported for the job by a veritable “Who’s Who” of Florida Democrats, including Governor Mitchell, U.S. Rep. Stephen Mallory and both of Florida’s U.S. Senators, Samuel Pasco and Wilkinson Call. Call voiced the only sour note in the chorus of praise, and in an unusually candid message to the President, gave rather equivocal support to Lesley’s selection:

“. . . I have insisted with great urgency that no appointment should be made which rendered your administration liable to the charge that you approved the fraudulent suppression of democratic votes, and the control of conventions by improper corporate influences in primary elections, and state and county conventions. I have insisted that such a policy would drive great numbers of democratic voters into the Populist Party . . . as to the propriety of the selection of Captain Lesley for appointment on the recommendation of Governor Mitchell, I addressed you a letter not intended to be made public, in which I state that notwithstanding my high opinion of Captain Lesley, my personal obligations to him and my entire willingness to give him my support, if you would appoint him, I thought his appointment as Governor Mitchell’s friend and supporter . . . might have the effect of placing the state in control of the Populists in the next election . . . while I still insist that any recommendation of approval by you in appointing to Federal office, any persons in any wise responsible for the suppression of the votes of the democratic people in the primaries in 1892, by the so-called Democratic State Convention which met in Tampa, or any recognition of the representatives of the corporation rule party by which that convention was controlled . . . will be dangerous to continued democratic rule in the state. [However] I am convinced that Captain Lesley may be excepted from this criticism [and] . . . I therefore recommend the appointment.”

Lesley served in this office until October 23, 1897, when his resignation was accepted by Republican President William McKinley. (156)

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1895

August 1 An article which originally appeared in the Dade City Democrat was reprinted in the Tampa Weekly Times concerning Lesley’s performance as collector, noting:

“Hon. John T. Lesley, collector of customs at the port of Tampa, is a man who can court the search light of investigation into his official acts without fear or apprehension. The rumors from Washington that the affairs of the office require investigation will not disturb the serenity of the collector, who is panoplied in his own inward consciousness of right & his unsullied character. Since his appointment as collector he has maintained the dignity & high standing of his official place. In politics he is a democrat of the old school who believes in honesty, fidelity and capability in office. He is an honest man of convictions. He could be depended upon at any time to lead a forlorn hope when his convictions were at stake. He never lacked the courage of his convictions. Personally there is no more popular man in Florida than he. There is a good fellowship & sincerity about him that wins and keeps friends, a good humor & courtesy about him that permits even the resolute expression of his opinions on views from making enemies. He is never in doubt. As to his opinions or views on any subject & no man is bolder in stating his than his Captain Lesley. Crookedness has no place in his make-up, & investigation will be more clearly demonstrate his personal honor, his official integrity & fitness for his high and honorable position.” (157)

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Chapter VII: “A Life of Honor Ended”

(1900-1913)

1900 April 27 By this year, Lesley retired from active business affairs, turning over his cattle-trading operations to his eldest son, Emory. He did not remain idle, however, and continued to exert a powerful influence in local politics. He became one of the leaders of a faction within the Hillsborough County Democratic Party which successfully challenged and unseated Peter O. Knight, then chairman of the party’s Executive Committee, who was a powerful man in Tampa politics. Knight was harshly criticized for helping to impose high taxes on Tampans, with “little of it spent where it can be seen.” To oppose him, Lesley and a number of others ran on an “anti-Knight” ticket which pledged replace Knight’s men on the Executive Committee. TABLE 8

OFFICIAL ELECTION RESULTS HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY DEMOCRATIC PARTY

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE PRECINCT NUMBER 6

Total Votes Percentage of Candidates Cast Total Votes Cast John T. Lesley 208 71.2 Elmer Webb 84 28.8

Throughout the County, the anti-Knight faction won a convincing victory, winning in all but one precinct, and even Knight himself was voted out of office. (158)

June 2 U. S. census records for Hillsborough County recorded John T. Lesley, 65, as residing in the Sixth Precinct of the Town of Fort Brooke with his daughter, India, 39 [actually, she was 38], and son, Theodore, 26. The elder Lesley’s occupation was listed as “Mayor Land Owner”; Theodore’s was given as “Landlord & Livery.” No values were given on his real or personal estates, although he was listed as owning his home free of any mortgage. (159) Also by this year, with Samuel E. Hope, his former colleague in the 1885 Constitutional Convention and an old friend and political ally, Lesley became the leader of a movement to force the State of Florida to pay the last of the Seminole War veterans their rightful pensions and other obligations which had been promised to them in 1858. Saying “That the State of Florida is justly due these claimants no fair-minded man can deny,” Lesley spent the remaining years of his life lobbying both the governor and the legislature to pay these claims. But in spite of all their best efforts, the state still failed to pay off all the veterans, and neither Lesley nor Hope (who died in 1919) lived to see all of the claims paid. (160)

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1906

During this year, Lesley was one of a handful of men who organized and founded Tampa’s first “White Municipal Party,” which pledged “to bring into existence a white primary for our city.” According to one member, as the organization’s first president, Lesley gave “the benefit of his sage advice and the movement that of his influence,” but at this stage of his life that was about all he had left to offer, as he was quoted as saying, “Boys, I am getting so old that I can’t be out much at night, but you can use my name and I will do what I can.” (161)

1910 April 23 U.S. census returns for Hillsborough County, Florida listed John J. [sic] Lesley, 75, as residing in Ward One of the City of Tampa with his daughter, India E., 48; son, Theodore, 36; daughter-in-law, May C., 32; and son, John J. Jr. [sic], 45 [45]. The elder Lesley’s occupation was recorded as “none,” for he was now retired; Theodore was listed as “Merchant” and “Butcher”; and John J. was apparently unemployed, for there was no occupation listed for him. No values were given on Lesley’s real or personal estates. (162)

1911 October 11 Lesley was appointed by Florida Gov. Albert W. Gilchrist to serve as a member of a state committee established to erect “a suitable monument on the Battle Field of Chickamauga, in memory of those soldiers of Florida who took part in that Battle.” The other members of the Committee were Samuel Pasco, Pulaski Broward, ex-Confederate Gen. E.M. Law, and M. I. Coxe. This was the last public office in which Lesley was known to have served. (A monument was eventually erected on May 22, 1913 at a cost of $13,000.00 and may today be seen at the Chickamauga-Chattanooga National Military Park in Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia.) (163)

1913 July 13 John T. Lesley died quietly at his home at 407 East Street in Tampa at the age of 78 years, 2 months and 1 day. The precise cause of his death is unknown, but according to Theodore Lesley, it may have been to due to complications following a stroke. He was survived by five of his six children: Indiana; Emory; John; Theodore; and Livingston. (164)

July 14 After funeral services held at the Lesley home and presided over by Dr. William E. Thompson, pastor of the First Methodist Church, the body of John T. Lesley was interred at Oaklawn Cemetery, next to that of his wife. His grave may today be seen in one of the older sections of that cemetery. In its obituary of Lesley which appeared that same day, the Tampa Daily Times summed up the life and accomplishments of this remarkable man by noting that:

“Captain Lesley needed no flowery tribute to fix his memory in the hearts of the

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people of Hillsborough County, South Florida, and all Florida for that matter, for his recorded works in war, politics and as a developer tell the story better than it can otherwise be written. Just the everyday acts of an honest, brave and unassuming man endear him to his friends and fellow citizens and do more to assure him credit in the minds of posterity than any written words or gleaming marble shafts . . . The death of Captain Lesley . . . removes the last citizen who figured prominently in the work of building Tampa from a military reservation into a city. He was a part of Tampa, and a big part, from the city’s infancy, and his love for the city, county and section increased as the years crept over him . . . His death marks the breaking of the final link that severs the past and its traditions from the present and its hopes, and many tears have been shed because of the breaking of the bond.” (165)

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ENDNOTES

Chapter I: The Early Years (1835-1855)

1. Theodore Lesley, “A History of the Lesley Family in South Carolina Particularly in Regard to the Descendants of William Lesly, Esq., of Abbeville” (Typewritten, n.d.), pp. 30-37, in possession of Mr. John T. Lesley, Jr., Tampa, Florida, the great-grandson of John Thomas Lesley; Florida Genealogical Society, Hillsborough County Florida Cemeteries 1840-1985, 8 vols. (Tampa, Fla.: By the Author, n.d.), 6:133; Ernest L. Robinson, History of Hillsborough County Florida (Saint Augustine, Fla.: Record Company-Printers, 1928), p. 300; D.B. McKay, Pioneer Florida, 3 vols. (Tampa, Fla.: Southern Publishing Company, 1959), 2:353-354 and 3:842; Julius J. Gordon, Biographical Census of Hillsborough County, Florida 1850 (Tampa, Fla.: By the Author, 1989), pp. 356-357; and Florida Confederate pension application of John T. Lesley, Record Group 137, Florida State Archives, Tallahassee, Florida. Curiously, Theodore gives several variant spellings of the family name. The early version was apparently “Lesly,” and he refers to the Rev. L.G. using this spelling, although there are instances when the Reverend himself would sign his name “Leslie.” However, by John T. Lesley’s day, the latter spelling apparently had become the norm, and this is the version I have used throughout this narrative for the sake of clarity. 2. Harvey L. Wells Collection, 28 vols., 2:96, Heritage Village Library and Archives, Largo, Florida; Lesley, “A History of the Lesley Family,” p. 37; and D.B. McKay, “Tampa Harbor Key to Future Growth,” Tampa Tribune, 18 May 1952, sec. C, p. 16. Concerning Lesley’s lifelong love for horses, an interesting article was recently rediscovered from the Lesley family scrapbooks, now in the possession of Mr. John T. Lesley, Jr. of Tampa. It tells the story of “Black,” one of Lesley’s favorites. “It was in 1888,” according to this article,

“that Capt. John Lesley, after serving Hillsborough county as its representative in the legislature returned from Tallahassee with Black, who was then a three-year-old colt and whom he had bought from old man Pierce, a dealer and breeder of high class horses on the east coast . . . Captain Lesley gave him as a present to Miss India Lesley and at that time he was a very prince among horses. Put him where you like, Black made good. He had several saddle gaits, worked in harness and it took a good one to stay with him in a running race . . . Some years ago Black retired from public life and was allowed to spend his days in case in the yards of the Lesley home . . . When ‘Theo’ Lesley went into the wholesale butcher business he decided to see if the old horse could do any work, and in spite of the fact that he is now thirty-two years of age, Black has once more made good. According to Mr. Lesley the old horse took on a new lease of life when he got out of town and is not only able to do his share of herding the cattle, but frolics and plays with the younger horses when turned into the lot.”

(A handwritten notation following the article notes that “Black died February 22, 1913, aged 36 years.” See Lesley family scrapbook.)

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3. Allen Morris, comp., The Florida Handbook 1993-1994 (Tallahassee, Fla.: Peninsular Publishing Company, 1993), p. 369; and Calvin D. Linton, ed., The Bicentennial Almanac (Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1975), p. 124. 4. Lesley, “A History of the Lesley Family,” p. 33; and D.B. McKay, “LeRoy G. Lesley, Fighting Parson Led Tampans in Their Spiritual, Military and Political Endeavors,” Tampa Sunday Tribune, 3 June 1956, sec. D, p. 13. 5. Gary R. Mormino and Anthony P. Pizzo, Tampa: The Treasure City (Tulsa, Okla.: Continental Heritage Press, 1983), p. 55; Robinson, History of Hillsborough County, p. 300; “Captain Lesley Died Yesterday,” Tampa Daily Tribune, 14 July 1913, p. 8; and “Life of Honor Ended; Capt. Lesley is Dead,” Tampa Morning Tribune, 14 July 1913, p. 5. One source (Rowland H. Rerick, Memoirs of

Florida, 2 vols. (Atlanta: Southern Historical Association, 1902), ed. Francis P. Fleming, 2:592) claims that the move occurred in 1849, but this is improbable, based on John T. Lesley’s school attendance record in 1848. 6. Harvey L. Wells Collection, 2:97; and Lesley, “A History of the Lesley Family,” p. 37. 7. Lesley, “A History of the Lesley Family,” p. 34; McKay, “LeRoy G. Lesley, Fighting Parson,” sec. D, p. 13, and “Manatee Methodist Church Marks Centennial with Program Booklet,” Tampa

Morning Tribune, 6 November 1949, sec. B, p. 14. Various reasons are given for the Reverend Lesley’s decision to retire. McKay (in “LeRoy G. Lesley, Fighting Parson,” sec. D, p. 13) states that he retired because of a “throat ailment,” while Lesley (“A History of the Lesley Family,” p. 34) claims that his retirement was caused by “His wife’s health being too frail to stand the frequent moves of this life.” The quote regarding Lesley’s part in the Indian disturbances of this year is taken from an unpublished manuscript by John T. Lesley on the life of Henry L. Mitchell, as quoted in the Theodore Lesley Papers, now in the possession of Mr. John T. Lesley, Jr. 8. Seventh United States Census, 1850, Hillsborough County, Florida (Free Population Schedule, p. 252; Slave Population Schedule, p. 325). 9. Robinson, History of Hillsborough County, p. 300; and McKay, Pioneer Florida, 2:354. According to Mormino and Pizzo (Tampa: The Treasure City, p. 54) the church was destroyed by fire in 1898, but the fire actually occurred in 1894. See D.B. McKay, “First Methodist Church in Tampa Built after Hard Work by Pastor,” Tampa Sunday Tribune, 4 October 1953, sec. C, p. 13. 10. Fred L. Robertson, comp., Soldiers of Florida in the Seminole Indian- Civil- and Spanish

American Wars (Live Oak, Fla.: Board of State Institutions, 1902; reprint ed., Macclenny, Fla.: Richard J. Ferry, 1983), pp. 11-12; and James W. Covington, The Billy Bowlegs War (Chuluota, Fla.: Mickler House Publishers, 1982), pp. 1-2.

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11. Covington, The Billy Bowlegs War, p. 37; and McKay, “LeRoy G. Lesley, Fighting Parson,” sec. D, p. 13.

Chapter II: The Third Seminole War

(1856-1858) 12. Seminole War military service records of John T. Lesley, Lesley’s Co., Fla. Mtd. Vols., Record Group 407, National Archives, Washington, D.C.; and Covington, The Billy Bowlegs War, p. 37. Fort Blount is in that part of Hillsborough County which became Polk County in 1861. 13. John T. Lesley Seminole War service records; Robertson, Soldiers of Florida, p. 19; and letter from Brig. Gen. E.T. Conley, acting adjutant general, War Department, Washington, D.C., to Theodore Lesley, 3rd [sic], 6 December 1935, Theodore Lesley Collection, University of South Florida Library Department of Special Collections, Tampa, Florida. Interestingly, a copy of one of John T. Lesley’s discharge certificates from this period found among papers in the Theodore Lesley Collection gives the following description of the man: “Five feet -- inches high, Light complexion, Dark eyes, Dark hair, and by occupation when enlisted, a Mechanic.” See United States Volunteer Service discharge certificate of John T. Lesley, 23 February 1858, Theodore Lesley Collection. 14. D.B. McKay, “Newspaper Story of 1885 Tells of Lesley’s Fight with Bowlegs,” Tampa

Tribune, 26 October 1947, sec. D, p. 2. Covington (in The Billy Bowlegs War, p. 74) claims that the alleged incident occurred between Bowlegs and John Lesley, but he has no doubt confused the son with the father. See also the Florida Peninsular of 30 January 1858, p. 2, which gives a typical report from the field of the kind of activities Lesley’s command was involved in during the war. 15. John T. Lesley Seminole War service records. 16. Florida Peninsular, 6 June 1857, p. 2; and Florida Genealogical Society, Hillsborough County

Florida Cemeteries, 6:133. 17. John T. Lesley Seminole War service records. 18. Ibid. 19. John T. Lesley Seminole War service records; and Covington, The Billy Bowlegs War, pp. 74-82. 20. John T. Lesley Seminole War service records.

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Chapter III: Before the Storm

(1858-1861)

21. Robinson, History of Hillsborough, p. 300; John Solomon Otto, “Florida’s Cattle-Ranching Frontier: Hillsborough County (1860),” Florida Historical Quarterly 63 (July 1984): 78; and Lesley, “A History of the Lesley Family,” p. 37. For a fascinating account of Lesley’s later cattle operations, see Emory L. Lesley, “Reminiscences of Emory Leroy Lesley,” (Typewritten, c. 1931), in the possession of Mr. John T. Lesley, Sr., Tampa, Florida, son of Emory Lesley and grandson of John Thomas Lesley. 22. Lesley, “A History of the Lesley Family,” p. 40; Gordon, Biographical Census of Hillsborough

County, p. 348; and Florida Peninsular, 28 August 1858, p. 3. 23. Florida Peninsular, 25 September 1858, p. 5.; and D.B. McKay, “Lesley Hobby Offers Interesting Data on Early Tampa History,” Tampa Sunday Tribune, 20 June 1948, sec. D, p. 5. Unfortunately, no returns for this election have ever been found. 24. Florida Peninsular, 8 January 1859, p. 2; and Evanell Klintworth Powell, Tampa that was... (Boynton Beach, Fla.: Star Publishing Company, 1973), p. 137. 25. Florida Peninsular, 23 July 1859, p. 2. 26. Florida Peninsular, 5 May 1860, p. 2; Florida Genealogical Society, Hillsborough County,

Florida Cemeteries, 6:133; and undated newspaper article (c. 1860) by “F. Branch” from the Lesley family scrapbooks. 27. Eighth United States Census, 1860, Hillsborough County, Florida (Free Population Schedule, p. 685; Slave Population Schedule, p. 175); and Lesley, “A History of the Lesley Family,” p. 37. An interesting story concerning Lesley in this period also points to his entrepreneurial spirit. About 1860, one account claims that Lesley and his friend W. B. Henderson “went on a treasure hunt in the Boca Grande area” with “a man named John Gomez, who was supposed to know the location of pirate treasure.” Gomez was a legendary local figure known as “the last of the pirates.”

“On their arrival Gomez did some prospecting and said the treasure was there, but that the moon was not right. So they had to return. Gomez made the excuse that if he told the location of the treasure he would be killed. And he didn’t tell.”

(See McKay, Pioneer Florida, 2:314; and Lesley family scrapbook, Tampa Times, 2 August 1935.) 28. Morris, The Florida Handbook, p. 616; E.B. Long and Barbara Long, The Civil War Day By Day (New York: Da Capo Press, 1971), pp. 1-2; and D.B. McKay, “Sunny South Guards Feted With Poetry, Banner on Departure,” Tampa Tribune, 17 July 1960, sec. E, p. 2. 29. Kyle S. VanLandingham, “James T. Magbee: ‘Union Man, Undoubted Secessionist, and High

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Priest in the Radical Synagogue,’” Sunland Tribune 20 (November 1994): 11. 30. Florida House of Representatives, A Journal of the Proceedings of the House of Representatives

of the General Assembly of the State of Florida (Tallahassee, Fla.: Dyke & Carlisle, 1860), pp. 10-14. 31. Long and Long, The Civil War Day By Day, pp. 12-13. 32. Ralph A. Wooster, “The Florida Secession Convention,” Florida Historical Quarterly 36 (April 1958): 374; and George M. Chapin, Florida 1513-1913: Past, Present and Future, 2 vols. (Jacksonville, Fla.: S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1912), 2:516. 33. Long and Long, The Civil War Day By Day, pp. 22-23.

Chapter IV: Civil War and The Cow Cavalry

(1861-1865) 34. Wooster, “The Florida Secession Convention,” pp. 377-378; Theodore Lesley, Composition Book of Theodore Lesley, Theodore Lesley Collection; and Zack C. Waters, “Tampa’s Forgotten Defenders, The Confederate Commanders of Fort Brooke,” Tampa Bay History 17 (November 1991): 3. Like Lesley, Givens would later play a prominent role in Tampa’s postwar years as well. One rather notable exception to those who supported secession from the Union locally was early Pinellas pioneer James P. McMullen, who “was strongly opposed to secession and announced his views so unmistakably that he became unpopular with his fellow citizens.” See George M. Chapin, Florida 1513-1913: Past, Present and Future, 2 vols. (Chicago: S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1914), 2:406. 35. Morris, The Florida Handbook, p. 369. 36. Long and Long, The Civil War Day By Day, pp. 56-57. 37. Long and Long, The Civil War Day By Day, pp. 59-63 38. D.B. McKay, “The Sunny South Guards was Tampa’s Elite Military Unit at Outbreak of the Civil War,” Tampa Tribune, 6 December 1959, sec. E, p. 4; Karl H. Grismer, Tampa, A History of

the City of Tampa and the Tampa Bay Region (St. Petersburg, Fla.: St. Petersburg Printing Company, 1950), ed. D.B. McKay, p. 139; Waters, “Tampa’s Forgotten Defenders,” pp. 3-4; Robertson, Soldiers of Florida, p. 134; and Commission of John T. Lesley as captain of the Sunny South Guards, 30 July 1861, Theodore Lesley Collection. Also in the Theodore Lesley Collection is an earlier notice from some of the members of the company, stating their suggestion that the unit should be named the “Liberty Guards.”

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39. Canter Brown, Jr., “Tampa’s James McKay and the Frustration of Confederate Cattle-Supply Operations in South Florida,” Florida Historical Quarterly 70 (April 1992): 417-418. 40. Waters, “Tampa’s Forgotten Defenders,” pp. 4-5. 41. Lesley, “A History of the Lesley Family,” pp. 40-41. 42. Waters, “Tampa’s Forgotten Defenders,” p. 5. 43. Waters, “Tampa’s Forgotten Defenders,” pp. 4-5; and McKay, “Sunny South Guards,” sec. E, p. 2. 44. Civil War military service records of John T. Lesley, Co. K--Field and Staff, 4th Florida Infantry, Record Group 109, National Archives, Washington, D.C. 45. Waters, “Tampa’s Forgotten Defenders,” p. 6. 46. Waters, “Tampa’s Forgotten Defenders,” p. 6-7; and Robertson, Soldiers of Florida, p. 118. 47. John T. Lesley Civil War service records. 48. Robertson, Soldiers of Florida, p. 118; and Captions and Record of Events, Co. K, 4 Florida Infantry (Confederate), Record Group 109, National Archives, Washington, D.C. 49. David W. Hartman and David Coles, comps., Biographical Rosters of Florida’s Confederate

and Union Soldiers 1861-1865, 6 vols. (Wilmington, N.C.: Broadfoot Publishing Company, 1995), 1:450; and Robertson, Soldiers of Florida, p. 118. 50. Captions and Record of Events, Co. K, 4 Florida Infantry; and Clement A. Evans, ed., Confederate Military History, 12 vols. (Atlanta: Blue & Grey Press, 1899), 11:167-168. 51. John T. Lesley Civil War service records.; Captions and Record of Events, Co. K, 4 Florida Infantry; Evans, Confederate Military History, 11:168; and McKay, Pioneer Florida, 3:842. 52. S.O. No. 17, H.Q. C.S. Forces, Chattanooga, 5 September 1862, Theodore Lesley Collection; and Robertson, Soldiers of Florida, pp. 119-120. 53. Long and Long, The Civil War Day By Day, pp. 302-303; Robertson, Soldiers of Florida, p. 119; McKay, “The Sunny South Guards was Tampa’s Elite,” sec. E, p. 4; and United States War Department, The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and

Confederate Armies, 128 vols. (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1880-1901), series I, 20:815-819. 54. Long and Long, The Civil War Day by Day, pp. 307; Robertson, Soldiers of Florida, p. 119;

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McKay, “The Sunny South Guards was Tampa’s Elite,” sec. E, p. 4; and United States War Department, The War of the Rebellion, series I, 20:815-819, which includes a report by Major Lesley on the two battles, which he termed “A fierce and bloody contest.” A humorous (and very human) incident from one of these two battles, no doubt remembered by Major Lesley himself, also appears in Theodore Lesley’s Composition book. It reads:

“During the battle of Murfrisbourough [sic], while Major Lesley was assisting in leading his regiment in an attack, he over heard one of his privates remark when a jack-rabbit jumped out [of] his hiding place during the thickest of the battle; ‘Run, rabbit run! If I had no more reputation to sustain than you had tail, I’d run too.’”

55. Waters, “Tampa’s Forgotten Defenders,” pp. 7-8; and John T. Lesley Civil War service records. Some sources have alleged that Lesley resigned to return to Florida for the purpose of raising what later became his company of Cow Cavalry and while this is possible, no mention of it is made in his letter of resignation. An interesting story from this period is also told by Theodore Lesley, as recounted to him in 1937 by Sarah Brown, a former slave in the Lesley household:

“One day during the war, Sarah went into the Lesley home in Tampa and found Margaret Lesley rocking her daughter India. Both were crying. Sarah then asked why they were crying . . . Grandmother [Margaret Lesley] replied that her husband and the father of her child was away in the war and he might be killed . . . Sarah then asked [Mrs. Lesley] if she remembered when [Sarah] was first brought to Tampa she would cry for her mother. And they would spank her. She said she told Mrs. Lesley ‘not to cry, as it would not do her any good.’” (Gordon, Biographical Census, p. 351).

56. Waters, “Tampa’s Forgotten Defenders,” pp. 7-8; Robinson, History of Hillsborough, p. 301; Robert A. Taylor, “Cow Cavalry: Munnerlyn’s Battalion in Florida, 1864-1865,” Florida Historical

Quarterly 65 (October 1986): 196-202; Joe Akerman, Florida Cowman, A History of Florida Cattle

Raising (Kissimmee, Fla.: Florida Cattlemen’s Association, 1976), p. 94; McKay, Pioneer Florida, 2:356; McKay, “Leroy G. Lesley, Fighting Parson,” sec. D, p. 13; and Hartman and Coles, Biographical Rosters, 1:450. Notably also, Lesley’s first lieutenant in his company of Cow Cavalry was his old friend and classmate William B. Henderson. See McKay, “The South Sunny Guards was Tampa’s Elite,” sec. E, p. 4. 57. Lesley, “A History of the Lesley Family,” p. 41; “Haines City Mayor, Native of Tampa, Dies at His Home,” Tampa Morning Tribune, 3 July 1931, p. 1; D.D. Moore et al., eds., Men of the South (New Orleans: Southern Biographical Association, 1922), pp. 306, 389; and Rerick, Memoirs of

Florida, 2:593. 58. Taylor, “Cow Cavalry,” pp. 202, 205; McKay, “The Sunny South Guards was Tampa’s Elite,” sec. E, p. 4; Robinson, History of Hillsborough, p. 301. Taylor (in “Cow Cavalry,” p. 205) mistakenly identifies Bowlegs Creek in Manatee County when in fact it is in Polk County.

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59. Lesley Confederate pension application; Taylor, “Cow Cavalry,” p. 202; Kyle S. VanLandingham, “‘My National Troubles,’ The Civil War Papers of William McCullough,” Sunland Tribune 20 (November 1994): 66; and Lesley, Composition book. As alluded to by Theodore, some blamed David Hope for the shooting, although in a letter to John T. Lesley written shortly after the war, the Reverend Lesley states that: “I have heard it said that some of your old Company have been heard to say, that if they ever got a chance, they would have satisfaction out of Hope for shooting you; the later part I contradict.” (Letter from Rev. L. G. Lesley to John T. Lesley, 7 May 1865, Theodore Lesley Collection.) Although details are not known, in spite of this wound (and the controversy which surrounded it), it is believed that John T. Lesley remained on active service until the end of the war. 60. Rodney E. Dillon, Jr., “The Battle of Fort Myers,” Tampa Bay History 5 (Fall/Winter 1983): 30-33; and D.B. McKay, “Confederates Captured U.S. Pickets at Billy’s Branch but Didn’t Take Ft. Myers,” Tampa Tribune, 26 August 1956, sec. D, p. 15. 61. Long and Long, The Civil War Day By Day, pp. 670-671. 62. Lesley, “A History of the Lesley Family.” See also Michael G. Schene, “The Daring Escape of Judah P. Benjamin” in Tampa Bay History 4 (Spring/Summer 1982): 69-73 and Joe Knetsch, “Forging the Florida Frontier: The Life and Career of Captain Samuel E. Hope,” Sunland Tribune 20 (November 1994): 36. For another interesting discussion of the escape, see Rodney H. Kite-Powell, “The Escape of Judah P. Benjamin,” Sunland Tribune 22 (November 1996): 63-67. 63. Morris, The Florida Handbook, p. 415. 64. Ibid. 65. Taylor, “Cow Cavalry,” p. 214.

Chapter V: Reconstruction

(1865-1877) 66. Taylor, “Cow Cavalry,” p. 214; Lesley Confederate state pension application; Grismer, Tampa, p. 155; and Anthony P. Pizzo, Tampa Town 1824-1886 (Miami, Fla.: Hurricane House Publishers, 1968), p. 71. 67. Morris, The Florida Handbook, p. 646. 68. Theodore Lesley, Untitled typewritten manuscript on the Reconstruction Era in Tampa, p. 5, Theodore Lesley Collection; Commission of John T. Lesley as sheriff and tax assessor & collector ex

officio of Hillsborough County, 17 January 1866, Theodore Lesley Collection; and Robinson, History of Hillsborough, p. 301. As sheriff, Lesley was placed in the uneviable position of having to help enforce the law in the county under military supervision. On July 6, 1867, a notice dated June

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29 appeared in the Florida Peninsular under Lesley’s name which decreed that “Any person or persons wishing to hold Public Meetings in the County of Hillsborough, are notified to give me five days previous notice of such intention,” as prescribed by “General Orders No. 25, from Headquarters, 3d Military District, Georgia, Alabama and Florida.” See Florida Peninsular, 6 July 1867, p.2. 69. “Members, Hillsborough Masonic Lodge,” Florida Genealogical Journal 18 (October 1982): 72; Florida Peninsular, 2 January 1869, p. 2; “Life of Honor Ended,” p. 5; and letter from Roy Connor Sheppard, P.G.M., grand secretary of the Grand Lodge of Florida F&AM, to author regarding John T. Lesley’s Masonic membership, 15 June 1995. 70. Robinson, History of Hillsborough, p. 301. 71. Morris, The Florida Handbook, p. 371. 72. The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 63 vols. (New York: James T. White, 1907) 5:67; Lesley, “A History of the Lesley Family,” p. 38; Florida Peninsular, 15 August 1868, p. 2 and 28 November 1868, p. 3; “Captain Lesley Died Yesterday,” p. 8 and Lesley family scrapbook. Theodore Lesley also quotes a Mr. E. Claude Gates, who “Described Captain Lesley as a most eloquent and forceful speaker in whom the people of South Florida had great confidence” (Lesley, Composition book). There has also been speculation that while a member of Hillsborough County’s Democratic Executive Committee, Lesley may have been involved with the Ku Klux Klan, which had close ties to the Democrats during Reconstruction. However, no evidence has yet ever come to light linking Lesley with the Klan, and so this connection remains pure supposition. John T. Lesley also served as chairman of the county’s Democratic Executive Committee from 1868-1870, 1876-1880, and 1882-1886. In 1878, he also served on the party’s local Congressional District Executive Committee, and in 1884 was elected a vice president of the State Democratic Executive Committee. See Lesley, “A History of the Lesley Family,” p. 39; and Theodore Lesley Papers. Further testimony as to Lesley’s lifelong devotion to the Democratic Party may be found in three newspaper articles of unknown origin from the Lesley family scrapbooks. One article dating from 1894 hails Lesley’s appointment to the office of collector of customs at Tampa with the remarks that: “Captain John T. Lesley needs no introduction to the people of Florida. There is

probably no man better known throughout the state than he, and none who have figured more prominently in the councils and triumphs of the Democratic party during the past thirty years. His political services have at last been recognized and rewarded with perhaps the best political office in the state. However, the reward comes with heavy responsibilities both from business and political standpoints . . . It may also be so conducted as to exert a great and good influence upon the future of the Democratic party, not only in Hillsborough county but throughout the state. That Captain Lesley will be equal to the situation and that his administration of the custom house will be such as to promote the public interests and at the same time encourage harmony and strength in the Democratic party there is no reason to doubt.”

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A second article dating from the same period notes that: “Our friend, R. M. Wilson, of Hernando county requests us to inform the public that

his household has again been brightened by another arrival; that it is a stemwinder and his name is Grover Cleveland. Reub says that he now has the three finest boys in the state and named after the three best democrats in the world-- Samuel Pasco, John T. Lesley and Grover Cleveland. Hurray for Reub!”

And, finally, on his death in 1913, the Executive Committee of Hillsborough County’s Democratic Party adopted a resolution, “. . . that in the death of Captain John Thomas Lesley, we mourn the loss of a distinguished citizen, a true democrat, a good citizen, a kind, true and indulgent friend, and proclaim ‘That earth never pillowed upon its bosom a truer son, nor Heaven opened wide its portals to receive a manlier spirit.’” 73. Gordon, Biographical Census, p. 349; and “Sheriff Lesley is Dead,” Tampa Morning Tribune, 9 December 1904, p. 1. 74. McKay, Pioneer Florida, 2:380; Mormino and Pizzo, Tampa: Treasure City, p. 68; Grismer, Tampa, p. 155; and James W. Covington and Debbie Lee Wavering, The Mayors of Tampa: A Brief

Administrative History, (Tampa, Fla.: University of Tampa, [1987?]), pp. 16-17. Unfortunately, no election returns for Lesley’s election as mayor of Tampa have survived. 75. Florida Peninsular, 12 May 1869, p. 2. 76. Joe A. Akerman, Florida Cowman, pp. 107-108. 77. “Sheriff Lesley is Dead,” p.1; and Rerick, Memoirs of Florida, 2:593. 78. Ninth United States Census, 1870, Hillsborough County, Florida, p. 133. 79. National Cyclopaedia, 5:67; and Akerman, Florida Cowman, pp. 110, 112. 80. Hillsborough County, Florida, Deed Book D, p. 156, 4 August 1873; and Covington and Wavering, The Mayors of Tampa, pp. 16-17. 81. McKay, Pioneer Florida, 3;842-843; “T. Lesley, Tax Collector in 1916 [sic], is Dead,” Tampa

Morning Tribune, 17 October 1942, p. 2; Gordon, Biographical Census, p. 349; Dovell, Florida:

Historic, Dramatic, Contemporary, 4 vols. (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1952), 4:745; and Rerick, Memoirs of Florida, 2:598. 82. United States House of Representatives, Testimony Taken Before the Special Subcommittee on

Investigation of the Election in Florida, Appointed Under Resolution of the House of

Representatives, Forty Fourth Congress, December 4, 1876, 44th Cong., 2d sess., 1877, part III, p. 31; and McKay, “LeRoy G. Lesley,” sec. D, p. 13.

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Chapter VI: The Golden Years

(1877-1899) 83. Lesley, “A History of the Lesley Family,” p. 38; Florida House of Representatives, A Journal of

the Proceedings of the Assembly of the State of Florida (Tallahassee, Fla.: Charles E. Dyke, State Printer, 1877), pp. 3-4, 9-10. 84. House Journal, 1877, p. 616; and Lesley, “A History of the Lesley Family,” p. 38. 85. Sunland Tribune, 10 March 1877, p. 2. 86. Sunland Tribune, 5 May 1877, p. 2. Interestingly, Bishop was not returned to the House in the 1878 elections. See John B. Phelps, comp., The People of Lawmaking in Florida 1822-1993 (Tallahassee, Fla.: Florida House of Representatives, 1993), p. 8. 87. “L.G. Lesley, Well Known Tampan, Dies,” Tampa Morning Tribune, 17 September 1943, p. 4; Florida Genealogical Society, Hillsborough County, Florida Cemeteries, 5:364; and Rerick, Memoirs of Florida, 2:593. 88. Sunland Tribune, 5 October 1878, p. 2. 89. VanLandingham, “James T. Magbee,” p. 18; and Sunland Tribune, 9 November 1878, p. 2. 90. Florida Senate, A Journal of the Proceedings of the Senate of the State of Florida (Tallahassee, Fla.: Charles E. Dyke, State Printer, 1879), pp. 3-4, 6-8, 79. On February 25, he was also appointed one of three senators to form a conference committee with the House to reconcile disagreements over Assembly Bill No. 14, “an act to amend the 69th section of an act entitled an act to provide for the punishment of crime and proceedings in criminal cases, approved August 6, 1866, for the purpose of extending the provisions of the said section to ferries, and to any person who shall aid or assist another to violate the provisions of said section.” (See Senate Journal, 1879, p. 336.) 91. Senate Journal, 1879, pp. 46, 227, 253-254. 92. Senate Journal, 1879, pp. 42-43, 48, 132, 169, 289, 355-362, 373, 378, 396, 442. It should also be noted that Lesley’s motives were not entirely selfless in this endeavor, as he was also one of the twelve original incorporators of this railroad on January 4, 1878. (See Lesley family scrapbook.) 93. Senate Journal, 1879, pp. 75-76; and Henry S. Marks, Who Was Who in Florida (Huntsville, Ala.: Strode Publishers, 1973), pp. 56-57. 94. Senate Journal, 1879, pp. 92, 173, 179. 95. Senate Journal, 1879, pp. 101, 106, 194, 196-197, 208.

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96. Senate Journal, 1879, pp. 147, 176-177. 97. Senate Journal , 1879, p. 175. 98. Senate Journal, 1879, pp. 233, 327, 384. 99. Senate Journal, 1879, pp. 266, 292, 300, 383. 100. Senate Journal, 1879, pp. 232, 264, 332-333, 527; and Sunland Tribune, 14 October 1880, p. 2. 101. D.B. McKay, “McKay Tells Stories of Some of Tampa’s Early Characters,” Tampa Sunday

Tribune, 4 August 1946, sec. A, p. 20; and Sunland Tribune, 10 June 1880, p. 3. 102. Tenth United States Census, 1880, Hillsborough County, Florida, p. 411. 103. Sunland Tribune, 12 November 1881, p. 4. Lesley eventually sold the store in July of 1887. See Tampa Journal, 9 June 1887, p. 6. 104. Sunland Tribune, 21 October 1880, p. 3; and Lesley, Composition book. Theodore adds that:

“Grandfather always carried his pistol to bed with him. He did not put it under his pillow, but at his feet. Aunt India [Indiana Lesley, John T. Lesley’s daughter] said when she was nothing more than a baby, & sometimes slept in the bed, you could always stretch your toes and feel it there, and it always gave you a thrill.” (Lesley Composition book.)

105. Pizzo, Tampa Town, illustrations section. 106. “Captain Lesley Declines A Nomination,” Sunland Tribune, 6 April 1882, p. 2. Theodore Lesley (in “A History of the Lesley Family,” p. 39) also claims that John T. Lesley declined nomination or appointment to several other offices as well-- namely, as lieutenant governor (probably in 1880), and as secretary of Immigration and Commerce under Gov. Edward A. Perry in 1885. According to Theodore, he was also elected as a Florida delegate to the Democratic National Covention in 1880, but was unable to attend due to business concerns. 107. Sunland Tribune, 30 September 1882, p. 2. 108. Mormino and Pizzo, Tampa: The Treasure City, p. 55; and Florida Genealogical Society, Hillsborough County, Florida Cemeteries, 6:133. 109. Hillsborough County election returns, 1882, Record Group 150, Series 21, Carton 18, Florida State Archives, Tallahassee, Florida; and Lesley, “A History of the Lesley Family,” p. 39. 110. Florida Senate, A Journal of the Proceedings of the Senate of the State of Florida (Tallahassee,

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Fla.: Charles E. Dyke, State Printer, 1883), pp. 12, 41-43, 48, 239-240. 111. Senate Journal, 1883, p. 178; The Acts and Resolutions Adopted by the Legislature of Florida (Tallahassee, Fla.: Charles E. Dyke, State Printer, 1883), p. 72; and Acts and Resolutions, 1885, p. 58. 112. Senate Journal, 1883, pp. 379-381. 113. Senate Journal, 1883, p. 398; Acts and Resolutions, 1883, pp. 67-8; and Karen Harvey, St.

Augustine and St. Johns County: A Pictorial History (Virginia Beach, Va.: Donning Company/Publishers, 1980), p. 116. 114. Senate Journal, 1883, pp. 274, 379-381, 664. 115. Grismer, Tampa, p. 174; and “Ancient Leslie Property, Relic of Slave Days, Gives Way to Parking Lot,” Tampa Sunday Tribune, 30 March 1952, sec. C, p. 12. At around this same time, Lesley also served as an agent for the International Steamship and Railroad Company, headed by former Confederate Gen. John B. Gordon and was an incorporator of the Thonotasassa-Alafia Manatee Railroad. See D.B. McKay, “Constitutional Conventions Revisited,” Tampa Tribune, 24 September 1950, sec. D, p. 6. In addition to properties in and around Tampa, Lesley also owned more than 500 acres in what is now St. Petersburg and Gulfport and according to Mrs. Claudette Dean, curator of the Gulfport Historical Museum, he was the second person to develop a subdivision in that area. Also, as founder, president and director of the Hillsborough County Real Estate Agency, he also developed half a dozen subdivisions in the Bay area, some of which bore his name. This company was organized on April 4, 1885, with Lesley as president and S. A. Jones as general manager. According to Jones, the agency “sent by the thousands the first book of the world telling of the great port possibility and the future of Tampa.” Lesley resigned as president in the following year and was succeeded in office by William B. Henderson. See Lesley family scrapbooks, unknown newspaper article dated 12 May 1928 and Theodore Lesley Papers; Harvey L. Wells Collection, “Original Private Owners of Property 1849-1892 St. Petersburg,” Map Collection, Heritage Village Library and Archives, Largo, Florida; Sea Breeze, 1 December 1886, p. 1; “Ancient Leslie Property,” sec. C, p. 12; and Descriptive Pamphlet of Hillsborough County, with Numerous Maps, Engravings, Etc. (Tampa, Fla.: Hillsborough County Real Estate Agency, 1885), which gives an interesting description of both the county and the agency. 116. Article from unknown local newspaper entitled “Plant City Was Cotton Field,” dated 24 February 1934, from Lesley family scrapbooks; Theodore Lesley Papers; 1884 Hillsborough County Tax Rolls, Heritage Village Library and Archives, Largo; and Pizzo, Tampa Town, illustrations section. 117. Senate Journal, 1885, pp. 3, 18-20, 48.

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118. Senate Journal, 1885, p. 51; and Acts and Resolutions, 1885, p. 24. 119. Senate Journal, 1879, p. 58; and Acts and Resolutions, 1885, p. 130. 120. Senate Journal, 1885, p. 178; Acts and Resolutions, 1885, p. 113; Powell, Tampa that was..., p. 139; and Grismer, Tampa, p. 309. 121. Senate Journal, 1885, p. 263; Phelps, The People of Lawmaking in Florida, pp. 20, 61. 122. Senate Journal, 1885, p. 326. 123. Senate Journal, 1885, p. 342. As Lesley’s voting record indicates, on social issues he was a conservative. Interestingly also, according to The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography of 1907 (5:67), “For years he has advocated the cause of temperance, although not a prohibitionist.” 124. Senate Journal, 1885, pp. 412, 580. Another item of note is a bill that was proposed immediately after the act was passed in the 1885 session which called for the convening of the Convention. Entitled “A bill to pack a Constitutional Convention in the interest of the Democratic Party,” it was quickly “laid on the table” on Lesley’s motion, and there died a silent death. Only its author, a certain Sen. H. C. Baker of the Sixteenth District voted for the measure. 125. Hillsborough County election returns, 1885, Record Group 150, Series 21, Carton 18, Florida State Archives, Tallahassee, Florida; and Theodore Lesley Papers. Lesley had been nominated for the post a month before at the Hillsborough County Democratic convention “by acclamation.” A contemporary paper which covered the nomination added that “Capt. Lesley is at present the Senator from the district, and during his term of service in the upper branch of our Legislature has been in the forefront; and commands the respect of that body for his level-headedness, ability and conservatism.” (See Theodore Lesley Papers.) 126. D.B. McKay, “Old Records Tell of Tampa’s First Board of Trade,” Tampa Tribune, 22 October 1950, sec. B, p. 15. Also about this same time, Lesley was appointed by the governor to serve as a member of the Hillsborough County Board of Health. (See Theodore Lesley Papers). 127. Hampton Dunn, “Turn to Greatness,” Sunland Tribune 10 (December 1984): 14; and McKay, “Old Records,” sec. B, p. 15. 128. Journal of the Proceedings of the Constitutional Convention of the State of Florida (Tallahassee, Fla.: N.M. Bowen, State Printer, 1885), p. 3. 129. Constitutional Convention Journal, 1885, pp. 52-54. 130. Constitutional Convention Journal, 1885, pp. 79, 167-169, 397-400, 610-612. 131. Constitutional Convention Journal, 1885, pp. 89, 97, 296-297, 307, 363-365, 396-397, 504-506,

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525-530, 609-610. 132. Florida State Census, 1885, Hillsborough County, Florida, p. 32; and Dunn, “Turn to Greatness,” p. 12. 133. Constitutional Convention Journal, 1885, pp. 89, 97, 566-567, 581; Lesley, “A History of the Lesley Family,” p. 39; and McKay, “Constitutional Conventions Revisited,” sec. D, p. 6; and Theodore Lesley Papers. Also, Lesley kept a diary during this period which briefly touched on his service during the Convention, and shows a growing frustration with the proceedings of that body. As D. B. McKay relates, in the diary “he dwells rather scornfully on the time wasted by both sides, of frequent sessions lasting only from 10 A.M. to 1 P.M., and of the incessant ‘squabbling’ about trivialities.” For more details, see my article “Lesley Diary of 1885 Constitutional Convention Re-Discovered,” in Sunland Tribune 22 (November 1996); 113-116. The cane which Lesley was given is still in the possession of the Lesley family today. 134. Constitutional Convention Journal, 1885, pp. 106, 562, 568-9. Ironically, on this last day of the Convention Lesley--whose attendance record at the convention had been otherwise excellent--was not present to sign the finished document, and the final version did not bear his name. See Constitutional Convention Journal, 1885, pp. 587-627. On November 2, 1886, the new Constitution was ratified by the voters of Florida by a vote of 31,803 to 21,243, and was carried in all but a few counties in the state, including Hillsborough. See Edward C. Williamson, “The Constitutional Convention of 1885,” Florida Historical Quarterly 41 (October 1962): 116-126. 135. Durward Long, “Historical Beginnings of Ybor City and Modern Tampa,” Florida Historical

Quarterly 45 (July 1966): 33-34; and Dunn, “Turn to Greatness,” p. 14. Concerning the Ybor sale, it should be noted that Lesley was at heart a businessman. Vicente Ybor had initially offered $5,000 for the land, but Lesley would not sell for less than $9,000--a price which Ybor felt was much too high. In stepped the Tampa Board of Trade--who, no doubt through Lesley’s influence voted to make up the $4,000 difference in price. Tampa got its cigar industry, and Lesley made a tidy profit as well. See also Grismer, Tampa, pp. 181-183. In addition however, according to a transcription of contemporary newspaper accounts by Theodore Lesley, Lesley donated ten additional acres, making a total of forty acres in all. (See Theodore Lesley Papers). 136. Theodore Lesley Papers. 137. Theodore Lesley Papers; and Powell, Tampa that was..., p. 139. 138. Dunn, “Turn to Greatness,” pp. 14-15; Daniel G. Cassidy, The Illustrated History of Florida

Paper Money (Jacksonville, Fla.: By the Author, 1980), p. 226-8; and Grismer, Tampa, p. 307. 139. Theodore Lesley Papers. 140. Ibid.

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141. Grismer, Tampa, p. 309; and Lesley family scrapbooks. 142. Tampa Journal, 19 May 1887, p. 3. 143. Joseph Hipp, “What Happened in Tampa on July 15, 1887 or Thereabouts,” Sunland Tribune 6 (November 1980): 82-83. 144. Tampa Journal, 23 June 1887. The business was subsequently bought the following year by a J. Yates of Plant City. (See Theodore Lesley Papers). 145. “Ancient Leslie Property,” sec. C, p. 12; “Fort Brook,” Tampa Tribune, 6 October 1887, p.3; Grismer, Tampa, p. 168; and D. B. McKay, “Fort Brooke Town Seal Found on Site of Old Dump,” Tampa Sunday Tribune, 19 October 1952, sec. C, p. 6. Records have also been found which give the spelling of the name variously as “Brook” or “Brooke.” See also Acts and Resolutions, 1895, p. 314. Unfortunately, however, no election returns for the town have ever been found. Another interesting notation on the town may be found in the Theodore Lesley Papers. According to Theodore Lesley, an incident which occurred during the Spanish American War in 1898 reads:

“As stated in the [Tampa] Times, Mayor Lesley & Marshal Stephens of Fort Brooke called on the officers of the four (Negro) regiments, yesterday afternoon and discussed the disorderly conduct of the men in Fort Brooke Tuesday night, and means to prevent a repitation [sic] of the affair. They were promised the Negroes would be kept in camp at night while they remained here & deprived of their firearms. About 40-50 again there last night armed but created no disturbance.” (Theodore Lesley Papers).

146. Lesley family scrapbooks. 147. D. B. McKay, “Tampa Democrats in Party Split over National GOP Candidates 65 Years Ago,” Tampa Sunday Tribune, 12 October 1952, sec. C, p. 4. 148. Ibid. 149. Tampa Journal, 3 October 1889, p. 3; Caption on photograph of the Lesley home at 407 East St., Theodore Lesley Collection; Town of Fort Brooke Ordinance book #2--1888-1907, Tampa City Archives, Tampa, Florida; and Acts and Resolutions, 1907, p. 373. Contrary to what many sources have written, John T. Lesley did not serve as mayor of Fort Brooke for the entire existence of the town, although he did serve as mayor for most of its life. Also, an interesting undated article found in the Lesley family scrapbooks discusses the demise of the town, saying:

“Both branches of the legislature yesterday passed a bill validating the election held August, 1905, for the purpose of annexing Fort Brooke, or a large section of that town to Tampa. Wilfred Clarkson, the well known cigar manufacturer, is said to be

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principally responsible for the passage of the bill, and in his work at Tallahassee he was aided by Mayor Frecker, City Attorney Gunby and Chief of Police, George Walker. Capt. John T. Lesley, for many years Mayor of Fort Brooke, states that he doesn’t intend taking any legal action against enforcement of the bill. Others in that section are angry and show fight.”

150. Quintilla Geer Bruton and David E. Bailey, Jr., Plant City: Its Origin and History (Winston-Salem, N.C.: Hunter Publishing Company, 1984), p. 51. Also, according to Theodore Lesley’s notes from local newspapers, John T. Lesley also fought for the establishment of a “Confederate Soldiers Home” in the county for “old and disabled veterans” of the war. (See Theodore Lesley Papers). 151. Theodore Lesley Papers. 152. “Speech of John T. Lesley Delivered in the State Democratic Convention of 1892 Seconded the Nomination of Hon. Henry L. Mitchell as the Democratic Candidate for Governor,” Theodore Lesley Collection; and Morris, The Florida Handbook, pp. 330, 621. Theodore Lesley, quoting E. Claude Gates, also relays an interesting story regarding Lesley’s role in the Mitchell campaign:

“When Henry L. Mitchell was making the race for Governor of Florida . . . a party of politicians, which included John T. Lesley made a trip to Manatee and held a great political rally. In the course of the governor’s [Mitchell’s] speech he said something which aroused the indignation of the settlers. So that night all the party returned home except Capt. Lesley, who, on the following day smoothed things over.” (See Lesley, Composition book.)

Also of note is the fact that on September 13, 1892, Lesley organized and served as president of the “Cleveland & Mitchell Club” for Hillsborough County. At the same time (or perhaps later), he also wrote a biography on the life of Henry L. Mitchell--probably for purposes of the campaign--which was never published. (See Theodore Lesley Papers). 153. Theodore Lesley Papers. 154. Letter from Jason Emmett, Florida State Archives, regarding appointment of John T. Lesley as clerk of the Circuit Court for Hillsborough County, 14 June 1995; “Life of Honor Ended,” p. 5; and Grismer, Tampa, p. 322. 155. “Death of Mrs. John T. Lesley,” Tampa Tribune, 28 September 1893, p. 1. 156. Application file of John T. Lesley for collector of customs at the Port of Tampa, Record Group 56, National Archives, Washington, D.C.; Call to Cleveland 21 December 1893. It should be noted, however, that this is the only letter in Lesley’s vast application file which delivers such a lukewarm message of support--most endorsements written on his behalf were extremely enthusiastic. Call’s coolness towards Lesley may have stemmed from his role in a title dispute which erupted in the 1880‘s over the remainder of the Fort Brooke Military Reservation land. For clues, see Jeffrey

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Lewis, “How Tampa Lost the Fort Brooke Military Reservation,” Ex Libris 5 (Summer 1982): 11-17, which provides an excellent overview of the circumstances of the dispute; also Tampa Journal, 24 October 1889, p. 10; and Grismer, Tampa, pp. 168-169. Also, according to this file, Lesley was nominated for the post on January 4, 1894 and appointed on February 5, 1894, not in 1893, as most accounts claim. Once appointed, Lesley ran the office in the same pragmatic, businesslike manner which characterized all his undertakings. Interviewed by the Tampa Times shortly after coming into office, Lesley announced that:

“I shall appoint none but honest men, whom I can trust and who are competent to fill the place assigned them. Some people seem to think I will sweep the custom house clean as soon as I enter it, but I have no idea of dismissing qualified men and putting in an entirely new force that know nothing about the business of the office.” (Lesley family scrapbook)

Nevertheless, the post was lucrative indeed for Lesley’s two youngest sons, Theodore and Livingston, both of whom received jobs in the Customs Service under their father. See Rerick, Memoirs of Florida, 2:593-594. Another interesting item to note is the fact that in March 1886, Lesley represented the Tampa Board of Trade in Washington, D.C. in a successful effort to have the city declared a port of entry. See Tampa Tribune, 25 February, 11, 25 March 1886 and 26 February 1887. 157. “Collector Lesley,” Tampa Weekly Times, 1 August 1895.

Chapter VII: “A Life of Honor Ended”

(1900-1913)

158. Lesley family scrapbook. 159. Twelfth United States Census, 1900, Hillsborough County, Florida, p. 166. 160. Rerick, Memoirs of Florida, 2:592; Knetsch, “Forging the Florida Frontier,” p. 39; and Samuel E. Hope, Those Indian War Claims: A Full Truthful History (n.p.: By the Author, n.d.), pp. 7-8. 161. Lesley family scrapbook. Lesley’s views on race relations can otherwise be found in a letter dated January 11, 1885 to Peter W. Bryant, prominent Southwest Florida African-American political leader, which, because of its importance, is quoted here in full:

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“Senate Chamber, “State of Florida, “Tallahassee, Jan’y 11th 1885:

“P. W. Bryant, Esq.

“Dear Sir: I received a day or two ago your esteemed favor, and am glad of the opportunity it affords to give me the colored people my views upon the political situation; that is, to one I consider a leader among [sic] them.

“We, as Democrats, are pledged to stand by and carry out in good faith the pledges made and set forth in our national and state platforms, which assert the equality of all men before the law, whether they be white or black, high or low, rich or poor. It will be the policy of the Democratic party not to wipe out of existence all office-holders merely because they have allied themselves with the Republican party, but to carry out the rules of civil service reform, and especially protect the colored race in all their rights and privileges, either civil, political or otherwise.

“I have known from the first and, as you well know, I have always told my colored friends, that they were following false political prophets, men who merely desired to ride into power at the expense of the colored race; but, thank God, the day has passed when such men could impose themselves upon the colored people of our common country.

“There should never have been a division between the whites and blacks of the south; they have one common interest; your interest is our interest; our interest is your interest. This, you well know, is no new doctrine of mine, but I have upon all occasions, from the stump and the rostrum, expressed the same views; and now that we are in a position to boast or act independently, we have no disposition to depart from the great and grand principles that have ever actuated the true and honest masses of the Democratic party. From Mr. Blaine’s [James G. Blaine, the Republican Presidential nominee the year before] speech and northern newspaper reports, I feel confident that the rights and privileges of the colored race are jeopardized--not from Democrats, but from the Republican party north; but I assure you and your friends, and I pledge the Democratic party, that we will stand by the colored people in all their rights and privileges, and not for political capital, but upon the broad plane of principle. It is our right as American citizens to enjoy the blessings that have been guaranteed to you by the Constitution, and in all these rights, privileges and blessings will the Democratic party, both North and South, protect you. You and all intelligent men of your race now see plainly why you were freed; not for the love the Republican party had for you, but to use you as pliable political slaves. Neither was it the Republican party that freed you, for there were in the rank and file of the Federal army more true and tried Democrats than there were Republicans.

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“Had Gen. Grant accepted the Democratic nomination for the Presidency immediately after the war, or at the time he accepted the Republican nomination [in 1868], his majority would have been much larger than it was, for he would have received the solid vote of the South.

“I think it will be the policy of the administration to give the colored race a fair representation, and I for one will heartily endorse it, and if I can at any time serve any of your race worth of position, it will afford me pleasure to do so. Hoping that the division heretofore existing between the white race and the black will be narrowed down to a mutual political mingling one with the other and a perfect amity of political feeling.

“I am, “Truly yours, “Jno. T. Lesley.” (Tampa Tribune, 7 February 1885) 162. Thirteenth United States Census, 1910, Hillsborough County, Florida, p. 107. 163. Letter from Gov. Albert W. Gilchrist to Samuel Pasco, 11 October 1911, Theodore Lesley Collection. 164. “Life of Honor Ended,” p. 5; Rerick, Memoirs of Florida, 2:592-594; Florida Genealogical Society, Hillsborough County, Florida Cemeteries, 6:133; and Lesley, Composition book. 165. “Captain Lesley Died Yesterday,” p. 8; “Life of Honor Ended,” p. 5; and Florida Genealogical Society, Hillsborough County, Florida Cemeteries, 6:133; and Lesley family scrapbook. Another notable tribute was paid by John B. Johnston, who had served with Lesley in the 1885 Constitutional Convention and later served as speaker of the Florida House of Representatives in 1893. Johnston wrote, in part:

“It is with a sorrow made poignant by many years of uninterrupted friendship that I pay this tribute to the memory of Capt. John T. Lesley . . . For more than half a century he had been a respected, worthy and honored citizen of Hillsborough county. He filled positions of honor and trust with signal ability and unfaltering fidelity. In the full maturity of his powers intellectual he was a pillar of strength for his party during the dark days of reconstruction and radical misrule and corruption . . . Not an orator according to any of the laws of rhetoric, yet he has the oratory of naked truth, of honesty, of conviction. He said what he believed in and he said it like a man in any presence. He met insult or injury as they deserved to be met and upon the instant of their delivery. I loved him for the perpendicular character which he possessed, a character which made him, it might be, a lion now and an infant a moment later. It was a beautiful character. His monument is written in the hearts of the poor. This

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great secret of his powers as a public man lay in his friendship for labor for the poor, and in keeping close to the great, warm, pulsating heart of the masses of the people. The circle of his benefactions was a large one. No one but he knew how large it was, for he gave in his own way and in his own time and published no bulletin of his charities. He was the good angel of many a poor man’s home. When sickness came to a neighbor and the shadow of death settled upon any one’s home, he was there in his own way, and it was not quite like any other man’s way, to comfort and help. His life was full of stirring incident, or manifold labors and he has left his work and impress upon his time. Judging from his daily walk and conversation, ‘We saw that all his ends were true.’ A kinder heart, it seemed to me, never beat. He was clean, he was honest, he was just, he was morally pure . . . His patriotism and his noble pity prompted him to earnest and incessant work in behalf of all Confederate veterans, his voice was heard on all possible occasions in favor of liberal appropriations for the benefit of those brave men and their widows who stood in the ranks in the defense of their country. He was the friend, the champion, the protector of the Confederate widow, these have reason to bless his memory for the efforts he made in their behalf and when he died none were more sincere mourners than they. His bearing was noble, brave, manly, chivalrous, his reputation untarnished. His character stands out to be read and admired of all men. His precepts and examples will not perish with the body, but the maxims of his life, charity, patience, justice, honor, gratitude and friendship, shall teach others when my feeble words of praise shall have passed away. Rest, my noble friend, Thy name shall not perish from the earth, but will be for long, long years embalmed in the hearts and affections of those whom thou loved so well and served so nobly, mourned, beloved, respected and cherished be thy name and character forever.” (See Lesley family scrapbook).

A NOTE ON THE APPENDICES: The Appendices are derived from the following source: Theodore Lesley, “A History of the Lesley Family in South Carolina, Particularly in Regard to the Descendants of William Lesly, Esq., of Abbevillle,” (Typewritten, n.d.), in the possession of Mr. John T. Lesley, Jr., Tampa, Florida.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

I. Public Documents

A. United States Application file of John T. Lesley for collector of customs at the Port of Tampa. Record Group 56, National Archives, Washington, D.C. Civil War service records of John T. Lesley, Co. K- Field & Staff, 4th Florida Infantry and Co. B, 1 Battalion Florida Special Cavalry (Confederate). Record Group 109, National Archives, Washington, D.C. Eighth United States Census, 1860. (Free and Slave Population Schedules). Ninth United States Census, 1870. Seminole War military service records of John T. Lesley, Lesley’s Co., Fla. Mtd. Vols. Record Group 407, National Archives, Washington, D.C. Seventh United States Census, 1850. (Free and Slave Population Schedules.) Tenth United States Census, 1880. Thirteenth United States Census, 1910. Twelfth United States Census, 1900. United States House of Representatives. Testimony Taken Before the Special Subcommittee on

Investigation of the Election in Florida, Appointed Under Resolution of the House of

Representatives, Forty-Fourth Congress, December 4, 1876. 44th Cong., 2d sess., 1877. United States War Department. The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of

the Union and Confederate Armies, 128 vols. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1880-1901.

B. State of Florida Confederate pension application of John T. Lesley. Record Group 137, Florida State Archives, Tallahassee, Florida Florida Constitutional Convention. Journal of the Proceedings of the Constitutional Convention of

the State of Florida. Tallahassee, Fla.: N.M. Bowen, State Printer, 1885.

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Florida Historical Records Survey. Roster of State and County Officers Commissioned by the

Governor of Florida 1845-1868. Jacksonville, Fla.: By the Author, 1941. Florida House of Representatives. A Journal of the Proceedings of the Assembly of the State of

Florida. Tallahassee, Fla.: Dyke & Carlisle, 1860; C.E. Dyke, state Printer, 1877. Florida Legislature. The Acts and Resolutions Adopted by the Legislature of Florida. Tallahassee, Fla.: State Printer, 1883, 1885, 1895, 1907. Florida Senate. A Journal of the Proceedings of the Senate of the State of Florida. Tallahassee, Fla.: Charles E. Dyke, State Printer, 1879, 1883, 1885. Florida State Census, 1885. Hillsborough County election returns, 1882, 1885. Record Group 150, Series 21, Carton 18, Florida State Archives, Tallahassee, Florida. Petition of the Citizens of Tampa, Florida to Gov. M. S. Perry, 15 August 1861. Record Group 101, Series 577, Carton 1, Florida State Archives, Tallahassee, Florida. Phelps, John B., comp. The People of Lawmaking in Florida 1822-1993. Tallahassee, Fla.: Florida House of Representatives, 1993. Records of State and Local Commissions 1880-1895. Record Group 150, Florida State Archives, Tallahassee, Florida.

C. Local Records Hillsborough County, Florida. Deed Book D, filed in the Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court, Tampa, Florida. Heritage Village Library and Archives, Largo, Florida. 1884 Hillsborough County Tax Rolls. ________. Harvey L. Wells Collection. 28 vols. Tampa City Archives, Tampa, Florida. Town of Fort Brooke Ordinance book #2 (1888-1907).

II. Books Akerman, Joe. Florida Cowman. Kissimmee, Fla.: Florida Cattlemen’s Association, 1976. Bruton, Quintilla Geer and Bailey, David E. Jr. Plant City: Its Origin and History. Winston-Salem,

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N.C.: Hunter Publishing Company, 1984. Cassidy, Daniel G. The Illustrated History of Florida Paper Money. Jacksonville, Fla.: By the Author, 1980. Chapin, George M. Florida 1513-1913: Past, Present and Future, 2 vols. Jacksonville, Fla.: S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1914. Covington, James W. The Billy Bowlegs War. Chuluota, Fla.: Mickler House Publishers, 1982. ________. and Debbie Lee Wavering. The Mayors of Tampa: A Brief Administrative History. Tampa, Fla.: University of Tampa, [1987?]. Descriptive Pamphlet of Hillsborough County, with Numerous Maps, Engravings, Etc. Tampa, Fla.: Hillsborough County Real Estate Agency, 1885. Dovell, J.E. Florida: Historic, Dramatic, Contemporary, 4 vols. New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1952. Evans, Clement A., ed. Confederate Military History, 12 vols. Atlanta: Blue & Grey Press, 1899. Florida Genealogical Society. Hillsborough County, Florida Cemeteries 1840-1985, 8 vols. Tampa, Fla.: By the Author, n.d. Gordon, Julius J. Biographical Census of Hillsborough County, Florida 1850. Tampa, Fla.: By the Author, 1989. Grismer, Karl H. Tampa, A History of the City of Tampa and the Tampa Bay Region. Edited by D.B. McKay. St. Petersburg, Fla.: St. Petersburg Printing Company, 1950. Hartman, David W. and Coles, David, comps. Biographical Rosters of Florida’s Confederate and

Union Soldiers 1861-1865, 6 vols. Wilmington, N.C.: Broadfoot Publishing Company, 1995. Harvey, Karen. St. Augustine and St. Johns County: A Pictorial History. Virginia Beach, Va.: Donning Company/Publishers, 1980. Hope, Samuel E. Those Indian War Claims: A Full Truthful History. N.p.: By the Author, n.d. Linton, Calvin D., ed. The Bicentennial Almanac. Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1975. Long, E.B. and Long, Barbara. The Civil War Day By Day. New York: Da Capo Press, 1971. McKay, D.B. Pioneer Florida, 3 vols. Tampa, Fla.: Southern Publishing Company, 1959.

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Moore, D.D., ed. et al., Men of the South. New Orleans: Southern Biographical Association, 1922. Mormino, Gary R. and Pizzo, Anthony P. Tampa: The Treasure City. Tulsa, Okla.: Continental Heritage Press, 1983. Morris, Allen, comp. The Florida Handbook 1993-1994. Tallahassee, Fla.: Peninsular Publishing Company, 1993. Pizzo, Anthony P. Tampa Town 1824-1886. Miami, Fla.: Hurricane House Publishers, 1968. Powell, Evanell Klintworth. Tampa that was... Boynton Beach, Fla.: Star Publishing Company, 1973. Rerick, Rowland H. Memoirs of Florida, 2 vols. Edited by Francis P. Fleming. Atlanta: Southern Historical Association, 1902. Robertson, Fred L., comp. Soldiers of Florida in the Seminole Indian- Civil- and Spanish American

Wars. Live Oak, Fla.: Board of State Institutions, 1902; reprint ed., Macclenny, Fla.: Richard J. Ferry, 1983. Robinson, Ernest L. History of Hillsborough County Florida. Saint Augustine, Fla.: Record Company-Printers, 1928.

III. Encyclopedias and Dictionaries The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 63 vols. New York: James T. White, 1907.

IV. Periodicals

A. Journals & Magazines

Brown, Canter, Jr. “Tampa’s James McKay and the Frustration of Confederate Cattle-Supply Operations in South Florida.” Florida Historical Quarterly 70 (April 1992): 409-433. Dillon, Rodney E. Jr. “The Battle of Fort Myers.” Tampa Bay History 5 (Fall/Winter 1983): 27-36. Dunn, Hampton. “Turn to Greatness.” Sunland Tribune 10 (December 1984): 12-14. Hipp, Joseph. “What Happened in Tampa on July 15, 1887 or Thereabouts.” Sunland Tribune 6 (November 1980): 82-94. Ivey, Donald J. “Lesley Diary of 1885 Constitutional Convention Re-Discovered,” Sunland Tribune

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22 (November 1996): 113-116. Kite-Powell, Rodney H. II. “The Escape of Judah P. Benjamin.” Sunland Tribune 22 (November 1996): 63-67. Knetsch, Joe. “Forging the Florida Frontier: The Life and Career of Captain Samuel E. Hope.” Sunland Tribune 20 (November 1994): 31-41. Lewis, Jeffrey. “How Tampa Lost the Fort Brooke Military Reservation.” Ex Libris 5 (Summer 1982): 11-17. Long, Durward. “Historical Beginnings of Ybor City and Modern Tampa.” Florida Historical

Quarterly 45 (July 1966): 31-44. “Members, Hillsborough Masonic Lodge.” Florida Genealogical Journal 18 (October 1982): 67-73. Otto, John Solomon. “Florida’s Cattle-Ranching Frontier: Hillsborough County (1860).” Florida

Historical Quarterly 63 (July 1984): 71-83. Pettengill, George W. Jr. “The Story of the Florida Railroads.” The Railroad and Locomotive

Historical Society Bulletin No. 86 (July 1952). Schene, Michael G. “The Daring Escape of Judah P. Benjamin.” Tampa Bay History 4 (Spring/Summer 1982): 69-73. Taylor, Robert A. “Cow Cavalry: Munnerlyn’s Battalion in Florida, 1864-1865.” Florida Historical

Quarterly 65 ((October 1986): 196-214. ________. “Rebel Beef: Florida Cattle and the Confederate Army, 1862-1864.” Florida Historical

Quarterly 67 (July 1988): 15-31. VanLandingham, Kyle S. “James T. Magbee ‘Union Man, Undoubted Secessionist, and High Priest in the Radical Synagogue.’” Sunland Tribune 20 (November 1994): 7-23. ________. “‘My National Troubles,’ The Civil War Papers of William McCullough.” Sunland

Tribune 20 (November 1994): 59-86. Waters, Zack C. “Tampa’s Forgotten Defenders, The Confederate Commanders of Fort Brooke.” Sunland Tribune 17 (November 1991): 3-12. Williamson, Edward C. “The Constitutional Convention of 1885.” Florida Historical Quarterly 41 (October 1962): 116-126. Wooster, Ralph A. “The Florida Secession Convention.” Florida Historical Quarterly 36 (April

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1958): 373-385.

B. Newspapers “Ancient Leslie Property, Relic of Slave Days, Gives Way to Parking Lot.” Tampa Sunday Tribune, 30 March 1952, sec. C, p. 12. “Captain Lesley Died Yesterday.” Tampa Daily Tribune, 14 July 1913, p. 8. “Collector Lesley.” Tampa Weekly Times, 1 August 1895. “Death of Mrs. John T. Lesley.” Tampa Tribune, 28 September 1893, p. 1. Florida Peninsular, 6 June 1857, p. 2; 30 January 1858, p. 2; 28 August 1858, p. 3; 25 September 1858, p. 5; 8 January 1859, p. 2; 23 July 1859, p. 2; 5 May 1860, p. 2; 6 July 1867, p. 2; 15 August 1868, p. 2; 28 November 1868, p. 3; 2 January 1869, p. 2; and 12 May 1869, p. 2. “Fort Brook.” Tampa Tribune, 6 October 1887, p. 3. “Haines City Mayor, Native of Tampa, Dies at His Home.” Tampa Morning Tribune, 3 July 1931, p. 1. “L.G. Lesley, Well Known Tampan, Dies.” Tampa Morning Tribune, 17 September 1943, p. 4. “Life of Honor Ended; Capt. Lesley is Dead.” Tampa Morning Tribune, 14 July 1913, p. 5. McKay, D.B. “Confederates Captured U.S. Pickets at Billy’s Branch but Didn’t Take Ft. Myers.” Tampa Tribune, 26 August 1956, sec. D, p. 15. ________. “Constitutional Conventions Revisited.” Tampa Tribune, 24 September 1950, sec. D, p. 6. ________. “First Methodist Church in Tampa Built after Hard Work by Pastor.” Tampa Tribune, 14 October 1953, sec. C, p. 13. ________. “Fort Brooke Town Seal Found on Site of Old Dump.” Tampa Sunday Tribune, 19 October 1952, sec. C, p. 6. ________. “LeRoy G. Lesley, Fighting Parson Led Tampans in Their Spiritual, Military and Political Endeavors.” Tampa Sunday Tribune, 3 June 1956, sec. D, p. 13. ________. “Lesley Hobby Offers Interesting Data on Early Tampa History.” Tampa Sunday

Tribune, 20 June 1948, sec. D, p. 5.

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________. “Manatee Methodist Church Marks Centennial with Program Booklet.” Tampa Morning

Tribune, 6 November 1949, sec. B, p. 14. ________. “McKay Tells Stories of Some of Tampa’s Early Characters.” Tampa Sunday Tribune, 4 August 1946, sec. A, p. 20. ________. “Newspaper Story of 1885 Tells of Lesley’s Fight with Bowlegs.” Tampa Tribune, 26 October 1947, sec. D, p. 2. ________. “Old Records Tell of Tampa’s First Board of Trade.” Tampa Tribune, 22 October 1950, sec. B, p. 15. ________. “Sunny South Guards Feted with Poetry, Banner on Departure.” Tampa Tribune, 17 July 1960, sec. E, p. 2. ________. “The Sunny South Guards was Tampa’s Elite Military Unit at Outbreak of the Civil War.” Tampa Tribune, 6 December 1959, sec. E, p. 4. ________. “Tampa Democrats in Party Split over National GOP Candidates 65 Years Ago.” Tampa

Tribune, 12 October 1952, sec. C, p. 4. ________. “Tampa Harbor Key to Future Growth.” Tampa Tribune, 18 May 1952, sec. C, p. 16. Sea Breeze, 1 December 1886, p. 1. “Sheriff Lesley is Dead.” Tampa Morning Tribune, 9 December 1904, p. 1. Sunland Tribune, 10 March 1877, p. 2; 5 May 1877, p. 2; 5 October 1878, p. 2; 9 November 1878, p. 2; 14 October 1880, p. 2; 12 November 1881, p. 4; 21 October 1880, p. 3; 6 April 1882, p. 2; and 30 September 1882, p. 2; Tampa Guardian, 7 July 1886, p. 1. Tampa Journal, 19 May 1887, p. 3; 9 June 1887, p. 6; 23 June 1887; 3 October 1889, p. 3; and 24 October 1889, p. 10. Tampa Tribune, 7 February 1885; 25 February, 11, 25 March 1886; and 26 February 1887. “T. Lesley, Tax Collector in 1916 [sic], is Dead.” Tampa Morning Tribune, 17 October 1942, p. 2.

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IV. Unpublished Materials Emmett, Jason, Florida State Archives. Letter regarding appointment of John T. Lesley as clerk of the Circuit Court for Hillsborough County, 14 June 1995. Lesley, Emory L. “Reminiscences of Emory Leroy Lesley.” (Typewritten, c. 1931). In the possession of Mr. John T. Lesley, Sr., Tampa, Florida. Lesley family scrapbook. In the possession of Mr. John T. Lesley, Jr., Tampa, Florida. Lesley, Theodore. “A History of the Lesley Family in South Carolina, Particularly in Regard to the Descendants of William Lesly, Esq., of Abbeville.” (Typewritten, n.d.). In the possession of Mr. John T. Lesley, Jr., Tampa, Florida. Sheppard, Roy Connor, P.G.M., grand secretary of the Grand Lodge of Florida F&AM. Letter to author regarding the Masonic membership of John T. Lesley, 15 June 1995. Theodore Lesley Collection. University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida. Theodore Lesley Papers. In the possession of Mr. John T. Lesley, Jr., Tampa, Florida.

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APPENDIX 1:

BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD

Name: John Thomas Lesley

Birth: Lesley family plantation, eight miles outside of the Town of Madison, Madison County, Florida, 12 May 1835.

Ancestry: English.

Father: Leroy Gilliland Lesley; born: “Summer Home,” Abbeville District County, South Carolina, 11 May 1807; married: (i) Indiana Chiles Livingston, 1 May 1834; (ii) Lucy Jane Sandwich, 5 May 1861 (died 18 October 1879); died: Tampa, Hillsborough County, Florida, 31 October 1882.

Father’s Occupation: Planter; Minister of the Gospel in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

Mother: Indiana Chiles (Livingston) Lesley; born: Abbeville District, South Carolina, 22 April 1809; married: Leroy Gilliland Lesley, 1 May 1834; died: Tampa, Florida, 30 April 1860.

Brothers and Sisters: Emory Livingston Lesley; born: Madison County, Florida, 1 April 1837; never married; died: killed in the accidental discharge of his rifle while boating on the Hillsborough River, near Sulphur Springs, Hillsborough County, Florida, 1 June 1857. Mary Camillus Lesley; born: Madison County, Florida, 4 October 1845; married: (i) William Henry Brown, 29 July 1868 (died 31 May 1870); (ii) Rev. Urban Sinclair Bird, 17 January 1883 (died 31 July 1886); died: Tampa, Florida, 2 July 1929. Half-sister, the daughter of Leroy Gilliland Lesley and his second wife, Lucy Jane (Sandwich) Lesley: Emma Celestina Ruth Lesley; born: Hernando County, Florida, 13 November 1862; married: William J. Frierson, 14 February 1882; died: Tampa, Florida, 20 November 1889.

Wife: Margaret Adeline (Brown) Tucker; born: Alachua County, Florida, 25 December 1838; married: (i) William W. Tucker, 31 August 1854 (died 12 June 1856); (ii) John Thomas Lesley, 26 August 1858; died: Tampa, Florida, 22 September 1893.

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Marriage: Tampa, Florida, 26 August 1858.

Children: Indiana Elizabeth “India” Lesley; born: Tampa, Florida, 2 July 1861; never married; died: Tampa, Florida, 18 July 1939. Emory Leroy “Sonnie” Lesley; born: Cork (now Plant City), Hillsborough County, Florida, 31 January 1864; married: Virginia Knight “Jennie” Morgan, 17 September 1896; died: Haines City, Polk County, Florida, 2 July 1931. John James “Johnnie” Lesley; born: Tampa, Florida, 16 September 1868; married: never married; died: Gadsden County, Florida, 19 January 1941. William Taliaferro “Tolly” Lesley; born: Tampa, Florida, 30 June 1870; married: Sara R. Yancey, 7 December 1898; died: Tucson, Arizona, 7 December 1904. Theodore Lesley; born: Tampa, Florida, 4 September 1873; married: Carril “Carrie” May Yancey, 14 November 1906; died: Tampa, Florida, 16 October 1942. Livingston Grillon “Babe” Lesley; born: Tampa, Florida, 1 August 1877; married: Georgia Florence Yancey, 15 June 1898; died: Tampa, Florida, 16 September 1943.

Death At his home on Bay Street, Tampa, Hillsborough County, Florida, 13 July 1913.

Burial: Oaklawn Cemetery, Tampa, 14 July 1913.

Physical Features:

Height: 5'0" Weight: approx. 130-140? Eye Color: Brown Hair Color: dark (later, grey); wore a beard in young

adulthood, but by 1885 went clean shaven.

Distinguishing Marks/Features: Lesley suffered a bullet wound in his left arm on the night of July 10, 1864 at Bayport, Florida while leading his company in battle during the Civil War. The wound nearly cost him his arm and though it was saved from amputation, it was left permanently fixed at a ninety degree angle and virtually useless. Lesley is also described as being of light complexion, and from photographs appears to have been a small, slightly-built man.

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APPENDIX 2:

GENEALOGICAL TABLES Table A: The Ancestors of John T. Lesley William Lesly, Esq. = Ann Caldwell Planter Abbeville District, South Carolina

| John Harris Lesly = Mary “Polly” Gilliland (1784-1855) (1782-1856)

_________________________________________________________________ | | Leroy Gilliland Lesley, M.G. 9 others (1807-1882) = (i) Indiana Chiles Livingston (1809-1860) = (ii) Lucy Jane Sandwich (1825-1879)

|______________________________________________________________________ |_______________________________________________________ | | | | John Thomas Emory Livingston Mary Camillus Emma Celestina Lesley Lesley Lesley Ruth Lesley (1835-1913) (1837-1857) (1845-1929) (1862-1889)

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Table B: The Children of John T. Lesley

John Thomas Lesley = Margaret Adeline Brown Tucker (1835-1913) (1838-1893) ______________________________________________|__________________________________________________ | | | | | Indiana Elizabeth Emory Leroy John James William Taliaferro “India” Lesley “Sonnie” Lesley “Johnnie” Lesley “Tolly” Lesley (1861-1939 ) (1864-1931) (1868-1941) (1870-1904) = Virginia Knight = Sara R. Yancey “Jennie” Morgan ____________________________________________________________________________________________________| | | Theodore Livingston Grillon Lesley “Babe” Lesley (1873-1942) (1877-1943) = Carril “Carrie” = Georgia Florence Yancey May Yancey

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Table C: The Family of Indiana Chiles Livingston Lesley

Cornelius Livingston = Camilla Taliaferro | Thomas Livingston = Nancy Chiles (1759-1809) (1770-1826) Planter Served in Virginia Regiment in Revolutionary War __________________________________________________________________________________ | | Indiana Chiles Livingston 13 others (1809-1860) = Leroy Gilliland Lesley, M.G. (1807-1882)

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Table D: The Family of Margaret Adeline Brown Tucker Lesley William T. Brown = Elizabeth Townsend (1810-1868) (1811-1862) | Margaret Adeline Brown (1838-1893) = (i) William W. Tucker (1815-1856) = (ii) John T. Lesley (1835-1913)