Ruth Jane Bartlett

Notes:

Died:
Ruth Bartlett Kuykendall, 94, Englewood, and formerly of Venice, died March 20, 2002.

She was born Aug. 22, 1908, in Jackson, Mich., and came to Venice in the early 1930s. She was a licensed real estate broker for many years and was past president of American Legion Auxiliary Novel Post 159 and a charter member of Daughters of the American Revolution, both in Venice, and a member of the Magna Charta Society, Mayflower Society and Venice-Nokomis United Methodist Church.

Survivors include her husband, Kirk; sisters Lois B. Tracy and Leah B. Lasbury; and many nieces and nephews.

A celebration of life will be at 10 a.m. April 13 at Farley Funeral Home, Venice Chapel.

Ruth married Hubert P. Kuykendall on 12 Jun 1945 in Sarasota, Sarasota, Florida, USA. Hubert was born on 6 May 1917 in Texas, USA; died on 6 May 2009 in Sarasota, Sarasota, Florida, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• FindaGrave ID: 24195459

Notes:

James Ellwood Bartlett

It was still the horse and buggy era. Fuel for the horses, of course, was needed on a daily basis. The feed and grain trade was a lucrative profession, if you were a shrewd merchant. James Elwood Bartlett was certainly such a businessman. He owned feed and grain mills, retail stores where he sold his finished products and grain elevators.

He was the largest individual feed and grain operator in the state of Michigan. Being the astute merchant that he was, maybe he foresaw the horseless future that was rapidly approaching. Or maybe he was just bitten by the warm weather sunshine bug.

Whatever the reason, in 1915, at the age of 43, he sold his large and tremendously successful business and said to his wife Nellie, "Let's take the whole winter off and go down to this place we're hearing about, Boca Grande." The Bartletts arrived in Boca Grande with their four children and another on the way.

Leah Lasbury, longtime Englewood resident, is the youngest daughter of Nellie Allen and J.E. Bartlett. She recalls her father was immediately taken with Florida. He travelled all over the state, exploring different areas before he started investing.

He bought extensive orange groves in Fort Ogden, property in Venice and Winter Park. He opened offices in Tampa, Sarasota and Winter Park, but he was most partial to the Lemon Bay area. He thought the bay spectacular and the fishing fabulous. So in the early 1920s, as the Florida boom was going strong, he started buying land here in Englewood. At one point in time, he was one of the largest land owners in our area. He owned about 40,000 acres altogether, some of which is now Manasota Key and Casperson Beach.

One part of his holdings included 16,000 acres that started on the north side of Dearborn Street and meandered unevenly northward beyond Forked Creek. On the east side of State Road 776, there still is an area that is on the record as Bartlett Subdivision. He owned the 5,000 acres that today is platted as the Overbrook Gardens Development. It was probably 1922 when Bartlett bought that piece of land for a total of $700,000 or about $43 an acre. "His land also encompassed what is now Englewood Isles and Alameda Isles" says Leah Lasbury.

"But then the debacle hit Florida in 1927. Everybody in Florida lost everything. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, the BLE, went broke also. They had built the town of Venice, and the town really became a true ghost town.

"Now this is really interesting," continues Leah, "There was one master mortgage on the town. All of those little houses and all the various component parts were included in one mortgage. So, when things began to pick up a little bit, nothing could be purchased because of this one mortgage. My father found out Kingsbury Curtis, he owned Curtis Publishing Company that put out the Saturday Evening Post, held the mortgage. He lived somewhere in the east and my Dad went up there and explained to him that the whole town was being held back. Not one piece of property could be released. Well, my dad got him to agree to break the condition and release individual parcels.

"I think that was my father's greatest contribution to the area. He was the one who broke the log jam and opened things up in the whole Venice area."

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The Bartlett Family

James Elwood Bartlett was the largest individual feed and grain operator in the state of Michigan. Being the astute merchant he was, maybe he foresaw the horseless future that was rapidly approaching. Or maybe he was just bitten by the warm weather sunshine bug. What ever the reason by 1915 he had sold his very successful business and relocated with his wife Nellie and their four children to Boca Grande.

Soon another child was born who would later become a prominent Englewood citizen, Leah Bartlett Lasbury. She said her father bought extensive orange groves in several parts of Florida, hotels and in the early 1920s started buying land here in Englewood. At one point in time, he was one of the largest land owners in our area. He owned about 40,000 acres altogether, some of which is now Manasota Key and Casperson Beach.

One part of his holdings included 16,000 acres that started on the north side of Dearborn Street and meandered unevenly north beyond Forked Creek. It encompassed what are now the residential areas of Alameda Isles, Englewood Isles and Overbrook Gardens. Mr. Bartlett once took Sgt. Alvin C. York, the famous W.W.I hero, on a fishing trip out of Englewood.

Dearborn Street and Olde Englewood Village
http://www.oldeenglewood.com/site/history/pioneers/258-the-bartlett-family.html

A Legacy Continues

James Elwood Bartlett was the patriarch of the Lasbury-Tracy family, one of the early pioneers of Englewood.

J.E. and his wife Nellie took the daring step of moving to Englewood from Michigan in 1915 after selling his successful tackle and feed stores. J.E's adventure south lead him through several Florida communities of interest where he purchased land but it was Englewood and Venice that finally settled him down. No one is really sure what the final attraction to Englewood was. The people? Lemon Bay? Or was it simply the price and availability of land that hooked J.E.

Family stories totaled J.E.'s land purchases as well over forty thousand acres that included large tracts of Venice and Englewood. Manasota Key was purchased but quickly resold because of the limited access and the rugged environment. Venice airport military bunkers were purchased and moved into Englewood for housing. Subdivisions were platted, lots were sold while family members grew up and moved away to pursue higher education, marriage and raise families. J.E. had five children, two boys, James and Alan and three girls, Leah Lois and Ruth. Leah B. Lasbury, Ruth Kuykendall and Lois B. Tracy returned to Englewood years later.

Leah Lasbury founded Englewood's first Real Estate office in 1951 called Lee Lasbury Realty later purchased by Red Branning then Nathan B. Tracy III and renamed to Lasbury Tracy Realty Inc. Leah was a very active supporter of the Englewood community: she served as the president of the Chamber of Commerce, was one of the founders of the Elsie Quirk Community Library, the Englewood Water District and was actively involved in many organizations, including the Business and Professional Women's Organization and many other community and art organizations. Ruth Kuykendall, the youngest of the family settle into Venice working with her father J.E. as his personal secretary and married Kirk. Lois B. Tracy became a renowned abstract painter. Her artwork and her musings made her one of Englewood's most celebrated citizens. Some of Lois' works inducted into the Smithsonian and Metropolitan Museum of Art. Read more about Lois Bartlett Tracy.

Blood lines may thin but in print, photos and canvas, the Bartlett's, Lasbury's and Tracy's will always be part of Englewood past, present and future.

James married Nellie Bethune Allen on 16 Aug 1898 in Jackson, Jackson, Michigan, USA. Nellie (daughter of William Duncan Allen and Ella Maria Wood) was born on 27 Apr 1875 in Lodi, Kalkaska, Michigan, USA; died on 11 Oct 1977 in Sarasota, Sarasota, Florida, USA; was buried in Winter Park, Orange, Florida, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• FindaGrave ID: 53450255

Wright married Rachel Pamelia Ellwood on 6 Sep 1870 in Royal Oak, Oakland, Michigan, USA. Rachel (daughter of Hiram Ellwood and Phoebe Hall) was born on 26 Apr 1848 in Royal Oak, Oakland, Michigan, USA; died on 28 Jul 1935. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

William married Ella Maria Wood on Yes, date unknown. Ella was born on 27 Jun 1853 in Sharon, Washtenaw, Michigan, USA; died on 24 Sep 1935 in Lake Wales, Polk, Florida, USA; was buried on 26 Sep 1935 in Venice, Sarasota, Florida, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• FindaGrave ID: 22381035

Other Events and Attributes:

• FindaGrave ID: 88848206

Notes:

Lawrence Shuler Bartlett was born in Madison County, N.Y. and went west to Chatauqua County with his brothers and father and several others who migrated. Among this number were Ira Bartlett and Daniel Lombard and his sister Margaret. After his marriage Shuler moved to Ellington and then to Waterboro on the Conewanga River, here for a number of years he owned the hotel.

In 1805, Dr. Thomas Kennedy of Meadville, built the first saw-mill, he bought three thousand acres of pine, cut the timber and floated the boards for rafting down the Conawanga, from Kennedy, Poland and Jamestown were piled ten to twenty feet high in 12 by 16 feet squares, each layer crossing the preceding layer. There was cherry and oak as well as some other varieties.

The mill purchased logs of the farmers by the hundred logs, 200 feet to the log was the estimated quantity. Randolph logs were floated down the Little Conawanga. Shuler Bartlett helped run these rafts from the Conawanga to St. Louis, returning to Chicago by foot and from there by boat, sailing vessels, to Buffalo or Detroit. Chicago was then but a fishing village. Later Shular moved to Michigan and operated in pine timber lands, manufactured shingles, had several farms and city properties and became "well to do".

Aaron Bartlett of Brookfield Revolutionary Soldier, compiled by Nellie B. Allen, 1931.

Lawerence married Julia Ann Grover on 24 Mar 1839 in Cherry Creek, Chautauqua, New York, USA. Julia (daughter of Seth Grover and Fanny Withey) was born on 3 Apr 1822 in Chautauqua, New York, USA; died on 1 Mar 1913 in Cold Spring, Cattaraugus, New York, USA; was buried in Cherry Creek, Chautauqua, New York, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• FindaGrave ID: 127152158

Hiram married Phoebe Hall on 4 Jul 1847 in Royal Oak, Oakland, Michigan, USA. Phoebe (daughter of Daniel Hubbard Hall and Letitia Pamela Partridge) was born on 15 Dec 1824 in Schoharie, Schoharie, New York, USA; died on 9 Oct 1914 in Birmingham, Oakland, Michigan, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Residence: 1850, Royal Oak, Oakland, Michigan, USA