Braden Castle Ruins

Braden Castle

The Braden Family

Dr. Joseph Addison Braden, son of Robert and Elizabeth Stevens Braden, was born around 1811 in Loudoun, Virginia. He had eight other siblings, and he was the youngest. There is very little information about Joseph’s formative years, so when or where he received the title of Doctor is unknown.

Joseph’s oldest brother, Hector Wright Braden, was an early settler of Florida. He arrived in the new town of Tallahassee in the winter of 1825-1826. By July 1826, Hector was buying land in Leon County, Florida. He registered several purchases with the Tallahassee Land Office through September 1827. This land was located about three miles east of Tallahassee. On November 14, 1827, his father, Robert Braden, died at his home in Waterford, Loudoun County, Virginia, and was named the heir in his father’s will.

In 1833, Hector and two gentlemen named William Nuttall and William P. Craig took advantage of the Lafayette Grantlands and bought 2,400 acres.  Hector built a comfortable home and lived on the property. His plantation was called “Chermonie,” and he maintained it with approximately 60 working slaves.  Mr. Nuttall, one of the three landowners, died, so Hector and Craig decided to sell the property.  It was sold to Dr. John Adam Craig in 1839.  Dr. Craig named the plantation “Andalusia.”

By 1834, Hector was practicing law in Tallahassee and was one of the principal stockholders in the Union Bank of Tallahassee.  He was also investing in developing his plantation. Several advertisements seeking to purchase slaves for his plantation appeared in Virginia newspapers during the summer of 1835. One read:

“SLAVES WANTED.  The subscriber wishes to purchase THIRTY or FORTY SLAVES, for the use of his plantation in Florida.  As he designs them for his own special use, (of which any assurance will be given,) he will not purchase any of bad character, and would prefer them in families. — Liberal prices will be given.“

His younger brother Joseph joined him in Tallahassee, settling in nearby Fort Braden, named after his wife, Virginia Ward, who he married on April 17, 1837. The two brothers lost much of their fortune after the collapse of the Union Bank during the Panic of 1837.

Braden Plantation

After the Seminole War ended in 1842, the United States opened Florida to settlement by European Americans. Major Robert Gamble, a war veteran, received a 160-acre homestead and arrived in Manatee County in 1844. Soon after, sugar planters from South Carolina and other slave states joined him in the fertile valley along the Manatee River. They enslaved many individuals to clear land and cultivate sugarcane, constructing plantation houses and mills. By 1845, around a dozen plantations were producing crops for the New Orleans market, shipping their goods downriver and across the Gulf of Mexico.

Hector and his brother Joseph followed Gamble down to Manatee County in 1843 and purchased 640 acres of land in what is now Bradenton from the Federal Government for sugar cane. Joseph brought with him his wife and three children, as well as a large population of enslaved people. This area was located south of Robert Gamble’s plantation across the Manatee River. This plantation eventually grew to 1,100 acres and was considered one of the most extensive plantations at the time.

Death of Hector Braden

On September 19, 1846, Hector Wright Braden drowned in a flooded stream while traveling home from business in the north of Florida. The incident took place near Hearn’s Plantation in Benton County, present-day Hernando County.

A letter written on October 10, 1846, by his nephew, Charles F. Dulaney, who was living in Florida with Hector and Joseph A. Braden, includes a copy of Mr. Mackay’s letter describing Hector’s death. It says: “It appeared that he had set out from Capt. W. W. Tucker’s plantation on Saturday the 19th day of Sept. between the hours of 2 & 3 oclock. Capt. Tucker was extremely anxious for him to remain until the next day, thinking that night might possibly overtake him, but he seemed very desirous to get to Mr. Hearn’s plantation, a distance of about 10 miles, that night.

About one mile North of Mr. Hearn’s house, the recent heavy rains have filled the road with water forming a pond never known before directly across the road, a distance of about 100 yds. and about 10 ft. deep. It appeared that he had ridden into the pond, and finding the water too deep, had made an effort to return, from the manner in which the bridle bits were drawn through the mouth of his mule. The mule being stubborn and the girth giving way, he was thrown and clinging to the bridle both were drowned.

He was buried near the spot at my suggestion, believing at some future period you would wish to remove his remains. Every respect was manifested and attention kindly volunteered, attesting to the high regard with which he was personally held by the citizens present. Mr. Hearn and his good lady have frequently expressed to me their sympathy for your loss.“

According to the letter, Hector drowned in a flooded stream that crossed the road. This stream was roughly 100 yards long and 10 feet deep. Attempting to cross the flooded waters, he found the water was too deep and tried turning around, but the mule refused to cooperate. Both the mule and Hector fell into the water and drowned. His body was buried near the site of his death. His brother Joseph was named administrator of Hector’s estate.

Braden Castle

In 1850, Joseph Braden hired Ezekiel Glazier, a minister and carpenter, to oversee the construction of a sugar mill and the main house on the Braden Plantation. Glazier’s assistant was Reverend Edmond Lee, a Presbyterian minister who had come to Manatee County for his health.

Braden Castle was built of a concrete-like mixture of lime, sand, crushed shells, and water known as “tabby.” Slaves waded into the river at low tide, scooped up the shells with shovels, and put them into gunny sacks. Deep pits were prepared, and the shells were burned in them. The Castle was a two-and-a-half-story structure with 16 to 20-inch thick walls measuring about 54′ by 38′. Four large rooms were on each floor with four chimneys and eight fireplaces. The central hall contained a grand wooden stairway to the second floor, and the floors were hand-hewn pine planks. The roof was covered with red cedar shingles.

Attack of the Braden Plantation

The third Seminole war broke out on Dec. 17, 1855, after Lieutenant George Hartstuff raided Big Cypress Swamp, damaging banana trees. This act angered Seminole Chief Billy Bowlegs and prompted an attack by 30 Seminoles, igniting the last of the Florida Seminole Wars. Shortly after this incident, attacks and raids began to occur all over the Manatee frontier.

On March 4, 1856, Captain John Charles Casey reported in his diary that an attack had taken place on the residence of Florida Senator Hamlin Valentine Snell, where the house was burned to the ground, and one man was killed. Shortly after that, the home of Asa Goddard, located near the headwaters of the Manatee River, was plundered and burned. The John Craig home, nearly one-half mile away, was also robbed of its remaining contents.

This fortified building of Joseph Braden offered security for his family and neighbors during the Third Seminole War. On the night of March 31, 1856, a party of seven Seminoles approached the castle while Dr. Braden, two guests, and his family were inside. A letter written by Sarah Gates to her sister said that “the girl that attended to the baby” noticed Seminoles creeping outside the house and alerted Braden to their presence. Braden sent the occupants of the house to the second floor. He exchanged gunfire with the Seminoles outside. After the brief skirmish, the Seminoles retreated further south into the plantation and stole several mules, chickens, and enslaved people.

A week later, Captain John Addison raised a militia party to hunt and capture the band of Indians responsible for the attack. They tracked the Seminoles to the banks of Big Charley Apopka Creek, where mules and enslaved people were recovered after a brief skirmish. Several Seminoles were killed, and one was captured but later executed. Two of the Indians were scalped. One scalp was sent to Braden Castle as proof of their deaths, and the other was sent to Captain William Brinton Hooker.

Foreclosure and Future Occupants

In 1857, the Braden Castle was foreclosed on. Joseph Braden reportedly moved to Lagrange, Georgia, where he passed away from dysentery on February 7, 1859. Some sources, though, state that Daniel and Elizabeth Ladd, the legal owners of the plantation after foreclosing on it, refused to evict their friend. The Bradens stayed there until 1964, when they moved back to Tallahassee.

After the Bradens left the area, their residence was mainly empty. In 1867, Mary Elizabeth Cooper Pelot, the wife of Dr. John Crews Pelot, purchased 1,147 acres of land, including Braden Castle, for $2,000. She gifted it to her father, Major General James Gignilliat Cooper. A cupola was added on the home roof, and a guard was on constant duty, watching for any Native Americans. The Coopers lived in the house until General Cooper died in 1876.

A Local Meeting Place

After General Cooper died, the house was abandoned and fell into ruin. In 1903, a brush fire gutted the abandoned Braden Castle by burning down the wooden portions, including the floors and roof.

After its destruction, Braden Castle remained a landmark and a local meeting place. Families in the area would picnic on the grounds, schools would visit, and young couples would meet in the ruins. Most of the historic photographs and postcards of the Braden Castle come from this period.

In February 1924, the land was purchased from the Pelot family for a campground for “Tin Can Tourists, ” winter tourists who came in droves to Tampa and the surrounding area. Locals often ridiculed and disliked these tourists as they didn’t contribute to the local economy, bringing their own tinned provisions. As one Tampa paper put it, they only brought with them a $10 bill and one pair of underwear and never changed either.

The very first tents were pitched in the back of the Castle, and it was written that, at first, they couldn’t see either of the two rivers because the wilderness was so dense with palmettos and trees, underbrush, and hanging Spanish Moss. Mrs. George Harold was quoted as saying, “We found this land by the Braden Castle, and it even had a well on it that had such force that it shot clear over to the Castle when we opened it up. Well, right then and there, we decided to buy the place!” The water had a nasty odor to it and was the only water used by the campers.

On May 9, 1983, Braden Castle Park was added to the National Register of Historic Places as a historic district. The park, composed of cottages, trailer sites, and a common recreational area built between 1924 and 1927, survives and functions much as it did when initially conceived. The park is open to the public from sunrise to sunset.

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