The Seminoles were driven into the Everglades or marched westward to reservations after the seven-year Seminole Wars ended in 1842. To prevent another war, Congress passed the Armed Occupation Act, encouraging pioneers to move to the Sunshine State. Any head of a family or single man over 18 who would bear arms and live on the land in a fit habitation for five years and cultivate at least five acres would be granted 160 acres. Fifty-two homestead deeds on the Pinellas peninsula were issued in the ensuing 18 years.

In 1539, Hernando de Soto organized an expedition to Florida. The de Soto National Memorial on Tampa Bay commemorates de Soto's landing and the start of his trail.

Prior to that act, Clearwater had been used as a recovery base for soldiers from other Florida forts who were wounded in the Seminole Wars. Situated in a large log building nestled at Druid Road and Orange Place, in the area now called Harbor Oaks, Fort Harrison housed officers and enlisted men from the 6th United States Infantry. It was named in honor of General William Henry Harrison, the 9th president.

As a result of the Armed Occupation Act, James Stevens became the father of modern-day Clearwater, prodigiously filing more than 1,300 claims, including all of the land west of Fort Harrison Avenue, extending southward from Drew Street to Jeffords Street. By 1848, his holdings included about one-half mile of waterfront from the old Fort Harrison wharf south.

In North Clearwater, he was joined by Samuel Stevenson. Leaving behind him Stevenson Creek, still a popular Clearwater fishing spot that runs under alternate U.S. Highway 19, Stevenson sold out to John C. White after the gale of 1848.