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Cracker Fair 2020
A LOOK BACK TO 2020
18th ANNUAL CRACKER FAIR SPONSORS
These great businesses and organizations helped make the Cracker Fair possible. Please visit them. Shop local!
Arts Alliance of Lemon Bay Inc.
Tony Babington Realtor Keller Williams
Bigfoot Cooling and Heating
Brian Faro Paradise Exclusive Real Estate
FPL
Ivy’s On Dearborn
Jeff Joyce A Sound Beginning
Key Agency, Inc.
Lasbury – Tracy Realty
Lemon Bay Garden Club
Michael J. Looney Electrical Contractor
Joe Maxx Coffee Company
Merrill’s Heating & Air Conditioning
Olde Village Publix
Pioneer Days Committee
Pope Insurance
Sarasota County Community Redevelopment Agency
Janet Shawen PA Paradise Exclusive Real Estate
Jonathan Varner Wampler Insurance & Financial Group
The Windsor of Venice
On February 8, 2020, the 18th Annual Cracker Fair, a celebration of Old Florida, was held at Dearborn Street Plaza. Organized by the Lemon Bay Historical Society, it is our gift each year to the community. Admission is free. The Cracker Fair is the culmination of the Lemon Bay Fest, a week of celebrating Englewood’s history. The Fair is also a fund-raiser for our community programs and our mission to preserve the rich history of the Lemon Bay area.
There are food vendors, live entertainment, crafts, demonstrations, authors, artists and activities for children. In past years attendees enjoyed lemon desserts, sampled swamp cabbage, watched the Bit of Hope Ranch give a whip-cracking demo, learned how to throw a cast net and interacted with animals brought by the Peace River Wildlife Center. Become a Sponsor of the Fair to help celebrate our historic Englewood community!
The Society is a not-for-profit 501 (c)(3) corporation founded in 1985. Our purpose is to preserve Englewood area’s history and to educate the public about our past through our programs, books, and open houses. One of our latest and most successful area restoration projects was saving the Historic Green Street Church by moving it from leased land to property we own on Indiana Ave.
A COPY OF THE OFFICIAL REGISTRATION AND FINANCIAL INFORMATION MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE DIVISION OF CONSUMER SERVICES BY CALLING TOLL-FREE (1-800-435-7352) WITHIN THE STATE. REGISTRATION DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT, APPROVAL, OR RECOMMENDATION BY THE STATE. OUR REGISTRATION NUMBER IS CH49480. www.FloridaConsumerHelp.com.
Cracker Fair 2019
Food Vendors, Artists, Authors, Local Merchants, Crafts, Music, and more
Kids Zone
Lemon Dessert Baking Contest
Located in Pioneer Plaza, Dearborn Street, Englewood, Florida.
Why lemons? They played a role in Englewood since 1894 when the Nichols brothers purchased 2000 acres of property to develop a town with surrounding lemon groves. The land sold for $30 an acre. If you were interested in a 1-acre home lot, you had to also purchase a 10-acre grove lot. Unfortunately, 2 hard freezes in 2 consecutive years doomed the lemon crops.
The 2019 CRACKER FAIR was pleased to present the following musical artists:
CLICK PHOTOS FOR LARGER VIEW:
CRACKER FAIRS THROUGH THE YEARS
(CLICK FOR LARGER VIEW)
CLICK TO SEE THE 2018 CRACKER FAIR HIGHLIGHT VIDEO
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Christmas wishes for Green Street Church
By STEVE REILLY Staff Writer for the Englewood Sun
ENGLEWOOD — The historic Green Street Church is settled in its new location at the Lemon
Bay Cemetery on South Indiana Avenue — but that doesn’t mean the work is completed.
The Lemon Bay Historical Society still needs help before the 90-year-old historic building can
be reopened to the public. The members put together a wish list they hope donors can help fill.
“We still need help financially and in-kind help,” Historical Society president Charlie Hicks
said. “We’re at a standstill.”
The project has proven expensive, far more so than anticipated. The nonprofit Historical
Society raised $161,000 through donations and grants of which $160,000 has been spent on
the project.
After a year-long wait, in September, in the middle of the night, R.E. Johnson & Sons movers
lifted the 90-year-old church onto a trailer, tied it down securely and inched it from its
longtime location on West Green Street to the Lemon Bay Cemetery on South Indiana Avenue
(State Road 776). The 1.1-mile journey took most of the night at around 4 mph.
The church was gently set down at the southeast corner of the cemetery, its new permanent
home. In October, the steeple — which was removed before the move — was placed atop the
church.
Since then, Leo Pfliger Construction, the Englewood contractor overseeing the project for the
Historic Society, began work on a retention pond that’s required by Sarasota County and
preparing the site for the finishing touches.
Historical Society members had hoped to reopen soon after the new year, but a lot more work
needs to be completed — such as landscaping, lighting, a parking area, handicap-accessible
ramp, and hook ups to utilities — before the county will issue its certificate of occupancy to the
Historical Society.
The Historical Society will have access to a $50,000 grant from the Sarasota CountyEnglewood Community Redevelopment Agency. However, the grant provides reimbursement
funds the Historical Society only receives after it completes all the work and garners permit
approvals required by Sarasota County. The historic building has to have its certificate of
occupancy before the county will release the $50,000.
“We can’t plan anything,” Hicks said.
Members are continuing their fundraising efforts. The Lemon Bay Garden Club, Florida Native
Plant Society and the Master Gardeners are all ready to assist with the landscaping, which is
also required by the county.
The church had been Englewood’s first house of worship and for years sat on property the
Historical Society leased from the Crosspoint Church of the Nazarene on West Green Street.
The Historical Society bought property at the cemetery so the church can have its “forever
home.”
The historic building hasn’t seen a religious service in decades, but the Historical Society
schedules weddings, memorial services, meetings and other community events at the church.
The Historical Society is now planning for a fundraiser 6 p.m. Jan. 25 at the Englewood
United Methodist Church, 700 E. Dearborn St. That happens to be the congregation that
originally built the church nine decades ago. The fundraiser will include a video highlighting
the move and a performance by John Tuff & Friends.
Email: reilly@sun-herald.com
Historic church wish list
The nonprofit Lemon Bay Historical Society depends upon donations and hopes donors will help fulfill their
wish for the reopening historic Green Street Church:
• Changeable letter sign for front of building
• Irrigation for landscape plants; soaker hoses. Maybe an irrigation well.
• Handicap signs.
• Concrete parking bumpers.
• Sidewalks completed.
• Solar-powered parking lights.
• 11 silver buttonwood trees.
• 109 cocoplum plants.
• Two black olive trees
• 14 bags of organic mulch.
The Moving of the Church & John Tuff Concert
2019 CRACKER FAIR
DOWNLOAD VENDOR FORM FOR 2019
Food Vendors, Artists, Authors, Local Merchants, Crafts, Music, and more
Lemon Dessert Baking Contest
Located in Pioneer Plaza, Dearborn Street, Englewood, Florida.
CRACKER FAIR 2018:
CLICK TO SEE THE 2018 CRACKER FAIR HIGHLIGHT VIDEO
We thank our 2018 Cracker Fair Sponsors! Please support them:
Thanks to all who helped make the 2018 CRACKER FAIR a success!
We are proud to list, in no particular order, the vendors, artists, merchants and organizations who were at the 16th Annual Cracker Fair: Variety, Food, Fun and new discoveries.
Pioneer Days Committee: Kids’ Free Arts & Crafts Tent
Catharina Bearse: pastel paintings
Angler Pocket Guides
FurBaby Beds
S&K’s Nice Stuff
Les Caraher, mountain music
John Tuff and Friends, classical Western music
Hazy’s What Knots
Shabby Chic Boutique
RJ Coons: Southwest Florida mysteries Blaine Sterling novels
D.L. Havlin: Florida action mysteries, historical fiction, thrillers
Brenda Spalding: adult mystery novels
Southern Yankee Foods
Jane Deutsch: painted visors, jewelry
Young Living Essential Oils
Artist Karen Dukes, LMC Outdoors
Uniqpottery
Glassy Lady Jewelry
925 Fabulous Jewelry
Mermaid Jewelry
Sons of Confederate Veterans
Trinkets & Treasures
Blasé Van Thomme: pens, key chains
Pat Vettese
Eden East
Wagon Wheel Décor
Pretty Girl Cosmetics
Morgan’s Goat Soap
Punta Gorda Historical Society: swamp cabbage
Peace River Wildlife Center: birds of prey
Susan Klaus: fantasies & thrillers; part owner of a thoroughbred horse farm
and cattle ranch
Clarissa Thomasson, Salt Marsh Publications: Florida historical fiction
Bob Fuqua: books, fossils, sharks teeth
Sarasota County Mosquito Management
Elsie Quirk and Charlotte Libraries
S.H.O.R.E.: fresh lemonade
Sarasota County Englewood Community Redevelopment Agency
Designs by Patrice
Sweet Leaf Relief (wellness foods)
Englewood Masonic Lodge 360
N&G Cornhole
Paradise Hot Dogs
G & E Concessions: funnel cakes, fresh fruit smoothies
Manasota Key Archaeological Site
VIEW VIDEO courtesy ABC7 mysuncoast.com
About 7,200 years old and buried 21 feet deep below the Gulf of Mexico, 350 yards off Manasota Key is an extremely well preserved human burial site. Archaeologists are exploring what has been termed a “globally significant” discovery. National Geographic calls it an “unprecedented” find.
On Tuesday, March 27 at 7pm the Lemon Bay Historical Society will host a presentation at Fellowship Hall, Englewood United Methodist Church, 700 E. Dearborn St., Englewood, on this incredible find. Our guest speaker will be John McCarthy, Executive Director of Historic Spanish Point. A native Floridian, John has spent his entire adult life learning about and bringing awareness to the power of nature, heritage, recreation and civic engagement to build community identity, value and pride. He is best known for his passionate lectures and unconventional management style. John, also a tour guide and author, served as Sarasota County’s official historian (beginning at the age of 19) and went on to have a 32-year-career in County Government, serving 10 years as an Environmental Specialist
How was this site discovered? A diver picked up a barnacle-crusted jaw from a shallow spot off the shore of Manasota Key. The specimen sat on a paper plate in his kitchen for a couple weeks before he realized it was probably a human bone. The diver sent a picture to Florida’s Bureau of Archaeological Research, where it landed in front of Ryan Duggins, the bureau’s underwater archaeology supervisor.
“As soon as we were there (at the site) it became clear that we were dealing with something new,” Duggins recalls. First, he spotted a broken arm bone on the seabed. Then, when he noticed a cluster of carved wooden stakes and three separate skull fragments in a depression, Duggins realized he might be dealing with a Native American bog burial site—one that had been inundated by sea level rise, but was miraculously preserved.
“What we currently are thinking is that when an individual passed, they would have been wrapped in handwoven fibers and sunk to the bottom of the pond,” he explained. “A series of fire-hardened and sharpened stakes would be pounded into the pond bed around the body with the tops of those stakes protruding above the water line.”
Despite the murky water, several aqua archaeologists measured and marked the ocean floor with the help of laser guided equipment. Each waterproof white tag marks intricate details of this sacred ground below the sea.
The site, which measures roughly 0.75 acres dates back to the Early Archaic period, over 7,000 years ago, a time when Florida’s hunter-gatherers were living a more sedentary lifestyle, researchers say.
Learn all about this unprecedented find at the first public presentation on this significant and sacred burial site.
John McCarthy is Executive Director at Spanish Point as well as a writer for Sarasota Magazine. He served over 10 years an an Environmental Specialist for Sarasota County responsible for providing environmental and development review for coastal resource protection and coordination of resource monitoring and enhancement projects. Mr McCarthy was Sarasota County Historian from 1982 to 1988.
Join us on Tuesday, March 27 at 7pm at Fellowship Hall, Englewood United Methodist Church, 700 E. Dearborn St., Englewood. A $10 donation is requested to help save Englewood’s historic Green Street Church.
What is a Cracker?
It is said the term “Cracker” comes from the cracking of the whip Florida cow hunters used to herd cattle. Florida was the first cattle producing state in America — not Texas, not Missouri – Florida. In the early 1500s Spanish conquistadors landed on the shores of Florida and attempted to colonize the area. They were thwarted and attacked by Native Americans. The colonists abandoned their quest, leaving behind horses, hogs and Andalusian cattle they had brought by ship: this was the first livestock in North America.
The Florida livestock bred and ran wild for centuries. Prior to the Civil War, a rugged brand of individual settled along Florida’s central corridor. They relied on bullwhips to flush cows out of the palmetto scrub. They used 10-to-12-foot-long whips made of braided leather. The snaps of these whips would break the sound barrier making a loud CRACK. Thus these early settlers became known as Cracker Cowmen, Cow Hunters, or Florida Crackers. They provided food for the Confederate soldiers during the Civil War and also rounded up cattle for shipment to Cuba. The Cubans loved Florida beef and paid for the cattle with gold doubloons. Today the term Cracker is used to refer to anyone who is a true native Floridian.
At this year’s Cracker Fair there will be classic country music by John Tuff and Friends, historical songwriter James Hawkins will be returning to our stage and we are looking forward to be introducing a few new artists as well. There will also be a Cracker whip demonstration, local food, a lemon dessert baking contest, kid’s games and all sorts of crafts and fun for all. Come one, come all: Saturday, February 8th from 10 to 4 at Dearborn Plaza (AKA Pioneer Park) on Dearborn Street. Admission is free.
A Litard Knot Floater
The storm was a “litard knot floater.” Mike Miller (with Florida Backroads Travel.com) quotes his friend Howard who is a Florida Cracker. A Cracker is a true Native Floridian. Mike says Crackers have a language of their own. He explains, “a ‘litard’ is a fat pine knot used like kindling to start fires. A fat pine knot is very heavy, and it takes a lot of water to make it float.”
Most Floridians say the term Cracker comes from the cracking of the whip Florida cow hunters used to herd cattle.
Physicists Alain Goriely and Tyler McMillen at the University of Arizona explain: “The crack of a whip comes from a loop traveling along the whip, gaining speed until it reaches the speed of sound and creates a sonic boom. Even though some parts of the whip travel at greater speeds, it is the loop itself that generates the sonic boom.”
For the past sixteen years Englewood has been celebrating the Crackers and Old Florida with a Cracker Fair. This year the tradition continues. We hope there will be fair skies and no “litard knot floaters!”
Historic Preservation in Charlotte County
Gene Murtha, President of the Punta Gorda History Center and Margaret Bogartus, President of the Punta Gorda Historical Society gave a power point presentation about the dedicated efforts and wonderful successes made in the name of historic preservation in Charlotte County.
They discussed the history of the beautifully preserved Train Depot as well as the Woman’s Club which opened in 1925 and was at one time the area’s first community library. They also talked about History Park, a unique collection of historic buildings with a past including the Maxwell Price House. Price was an architect best known for designing the Punta Gorda jail house, just to name a few.
GROWING UP IN BOCA GRANDE: BITS and BYTES OF HISTORY
December 12th
7:00 PM
at the Historic
Green Street Church
From “fish ranches” to phosphate shipping; from the “Grand Plan” with Grand Hotels to Boom and Bust and Boom again – learn about one of Southwest Florida’s first planned communities: Boca Grande on Gasparilla Island.
Betsy Fugate Joiner, director of the Boca Grande Historical Society, will share some stories about her life growing up in Boca Grande. She is a 3rd generation member of the Fugate Family of Boca Grande (you may know of Fugate’s Drug Store and Delmar Fugate’s Pink Elelphant). She is also a 4th generation Florida Cracker. Her father was actually born on Banyan Street in 1912. Her mother, Margaret was a teacher at Boca Grande High School, beginning in 1939 and then moved to Lemon Bay School in 1963 as Librarian and Spanish teacher when the school closed.
In addition, Betsy is Chair of the Boca Grande History Byte program which is held each season in February on Wednesday mornings at the Johann Fust Library. The “Byte” program began with Sallie Van Italie’s idea in 2009 about having people share their stories in an informal setting.
Betsy is also General Manager at PJ’s Seagrille in Boca Grande, located inside the Historic San Marco Theatre Building.
Also speaking will be Pat Agles, Director of the Boca Grande Historical Society who will give a presentation on how the Society came about and where they are today. Pat, a founding member of the Boca Grande Historical Society, was owner of Galleria of Boca Grande from 1993-2005. She is Director of Product Development and licensing for the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village and is also Chair of the docent program at St. Francis of Assisi Cathedral Basilica in Santa Fe, NM. There she is a Team Member/Artist for the restoration of the Cathedral’s interior murals for a Celebration with the King of Spain.
We also expect a visit from Karen Grace, BGHS President. Karen & husband Jim are past owners of the historic Temptation Restaurant.
A Bit About the Boca Grande Historical Society:
“Four couples began the BGHS in 1995. It was the sesquicentennial of our state. To announce our founding, we had a fun historical/hysterical skit at the railroad depot on the train tracks. After a crowd gathered, we announced the news and the society was born. We operated for awhile in the Van Itallies kitchen. The island was growing quickly and we knew the importance of collecting stories/oral histories and photographs before these treasures disappeared.
“We are still active in the business of collecting these priceless histories and making them more easily available for viewing to our community. We invite all to come for a visit or perhaps a docent led walking/golf cart tour of our historic village of Boca Grande.”
WEBSITE: bocagrandehistoricalsociety.com