A New Beginning for Clearwater

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

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

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

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

"The business of raising tropical fruits promises to remunerate those engaged in it, and those seeking proper locations were pleased with the advantages which this peninsula offered, surrounded on three sides by water, and with a large body of good rolling pine land, with means of transportation by the waters of the Gulf, settlers were led to seek its promising offers and commenced to come in.

"The writer of this article, when on his way to this place, made a short stay at Cedar Keys, and inquired what was the prospect of business between Cedar Keys and this coast. The reply was that it would possibly reach two skiff loads a week. Now we have two schooners plying between these places, and several smaller boats irregularly. We have good schools, churches well attended, and the most orderly population I have ever known.