Mayor Gillespie and Bob  Heron

"The Father of Sarasota," Mayor John Hamilton Gillespie (14 October 1852 – 7 September 1923) was a Scottish-American soldier, land developer, businessman and politician, who settled in Sarasota, Florida, becoming Sarasota's first mayor.

Gillespie was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. As a boy he lived with his family at 53 Northumberland Street, Edinburgh and was educated at the nearby Edinburgh Academy and subsequently at the University of St Andrews. Like his father, he was a member of the Royal Company of Archers. (a ceremonial unit that serves as the Sovereign's Bodyguard in Scotland). He was admitted to The Society of Writers to Her Majesty’s Signet in 1875 and also served as a captain in the Midlothian Coast Artillery Volunteers. Upon his return from colonial service in Australia, his father, Sir John Gillespie, sent him to Sarasota, Florida in 1886 to work for the Florida Mortgage and Investment Company.

The company had enticed a group of Scottish colonists to Sarasota in 1885 to help settle its 50,000-acre holdings, which included most of the land constituting the present City of Sarasota. The settlers arrived to find most of the company's promises unfulfilled. Gillespie was dispatched to improve the situation. Many disillusioned colonists left, however, and the company entered liquidation proceedings.

Gillespie remained in Sarasota after the court appointed him to manage the assets of the company there. He organized the clearing of three miles of Main Street, the building of a substantial wharf on the waterfront, and the beginning of a 40-acre experimental farm.

In May 1886 he laid out two golf holes on his property. This was the first golf course in Florida and the second in the United States. An avid golfer, Gillespie learned the game at St. Andrews. In 1905 he built a nine-hole course on property now which is now the site of the Sarasota County Courthouse, Florida.

University educated, Gillespie was admitted to the highest legal body in Scotland. Having become a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1896, he joined the American and Florida Bar Associations. He served as president of the local Bar Association. He was influential in building an Episcopal church in Sarasota. He served as chaplain to Sarasota Bay Post #30 of the American Legion. As a Mason, he reached the Order of Knight Templar, was affiliated with the Independent Order of the Odd Fellows and became a charter member of the Kiwanis Club.

1902, he was elected the first mayor of Sarasota when the town was incorporated and held this office for six terms. He also served his community as Justice of Peace four years and Notary Public ten years. He was affectionately known as "Colonel" in this community.

Gillespie is credited with introducing Florida to the game of golf. In 1904 he built a nine-hole golf course east of the present Links Avenue. Over the years, he was commissioned to design and build six other Florida courses and one in Havana, Cuba. He was one of Florida's championship golfers and an authority on the sport.

Sarasota was incorporated as a town on 14 October 1902, coincidentally Gillespie's 50th birthday, and he went on to served as the Town's first Mayor. He was subsequently elected to five additional one-year terms.
Gillespie remained in Sarasota for most of his life. During that time he lived in three different houses, each one reflecting a different phase in his life. His first house was built on South Palm Avenue in 1886. Alex Browning, nineteen-year-old colonist from Scotland who had had some architectural experience, designed the home. He also was one of the six-man crew who built the house with lumber brought by schooner from Appalachicola. On his later memoirs, Browning described the house as "the finest residence in the county," with large rooms, detached kitchen, and verandas on three sides. Behind this house Gillespie built a two-hole golf course, on which he played almost daily, according to Browning. In this house in October 1902 the first town council met after the Town of Sarasota was incorporated.

When John Hamilton and Blanche McDaniel Gillespie returned from their honeymoon in Scotland in July 1905, they moved into "Roseburn" on Morrill Street. The house may have been built as early as the 1880s and was remodeled for the Gillespies. On the far side of the house a conservatory was added for Blanche Gillespie's plants. The windmill pumped water from their well into the tank located half way up the framework. (Prew School occupied this building from the late 1930s until prior to its demolition in the mid 1980s.)

The Gillespies moved into their third home in 1919 after a five year absence from Sarasota. During World War I they had lived in Scotland, where John Hamilton served with the Volunteer Force. Their new home, "Golf Hall," was on the corner of Golf Street and Links Avenue. Across Links was the nine-hole golf course Gillespie had built about fifteen years earlier and which stretched eastward almost to Tuttle Avenue. Next door was the new club house. 

The next four years, Gillespie was active in community life and promoted golf as good for business. His letter to the editor of The Sarasota Times, printed on the front page of the July 10, 1919 edition, bemoaned the fact that none of Sarasota's business and professional leaders were playing golf. "All, all are blind to the fact that to be able to play golf is, now-a-days, as essential to a business man as any other part of his education." For those not yet exposed, he observed that "the golf microbe is as catching as the 'Flu' and far more lasting!"

Gillespie was instrumental in founding the Episcopal Church in Sarasota. He was ordained as a Deacon in the Episcopal Church and is acknowledged as the founder of The Church of the Redeemer Sarasota.

Gillespie volunteered in World War I for duty in Scotland. Because of this service to Scotland, he lost his United States citizenship. An act of Congress restored it after the war.

Mayor "Colonel " Gillespie died on the golf course near his home September 7, 1923. He is buried, alongside Blanche McDaniel Gillespie (his second wife), in the historic Rosemary Cemetery, Sarasota.

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http://www.sarasotahistoryalive.com/history/markers/john-hamilton-gillespie/


http://www.sarasotahistoryalive.com/history/articles/the-homes-of-john-hamilton-gillespie/


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hamilton_Gillespie

https://www.sarasotamagazine.com/articles/2013/7/24/vintage-sarasota-sarasotas-first-golf-club


https://www.visitsarasota.com/article/sarasota-countys-long-and-rich-history-golf

Colonel John Hamilton Gillespie (14 October 1852 – 7 September 1923) was a Scottish-American soldier, land developer, businessman and politician, who settled in Sarasota, Florida, becoming Sarasota's first mayor.[1][2]


Gillespie was born in Edinburgh, Scotland.[3] As a boy he lived with his family at 53 Northumberland Street, Edinburgh and was educated at the nearby Edinburgh Academy and subsequently at the University of St Andrews.[4] Like his father, he was a member of the Royal Company of Archers.[4] (a ceremonial unit that serves as the Sovereign's Bodyguard in Scotland).

He was admitted to The Society of Writers to Her Majesty’s Signet in 1875 and also served as a captain in the Midlothian Coast Artillery Volunteers.[3] Upon his return from colonial service in Australia, his father, Sir John Gillespie, sent him to Sarasota, Florida in 1886 to work for the Florida Mortgage and Investment Company.[3]

Gillespie found his father’s company in poor condition and began improving the community in Sarasota and soon business was booming. In May 1886 he laid out two golf holes on his property. This was the first golf course in Florida and the second in the United States. An avid golfer, Gillespie learned the game at St. Andrews.

In 1905 he built a nine-hole course on property now which is now the site of the Sarasota County Courthouse, Florida. He went on to lay out courses for Henry Plant, Tampa, Winter Park and Havana, Cuba. Sarasota was incorporated as a town on 14 October 1902, coincidentally Gillespie's 50th birthday, and he went on to served as the Town's first Mayor. He was subsequently elected to five additional one-year terms.[5]

Gillespie was instrumental in founding the Episcopal Church in Sarasota. He was ordained as a Deacon in the Episcopal Church and is acknowledged as the founder of The Church of the Redeemer Sarasota.[6]

He is buried, alongside Blanche McDaniel Gillespie (his second wife), in the historic Rosemary Cemetery, Sarasota.

"The Father of Sarasota"

"The Father of Sarasota," John Hamilton Gillespie, was born in 1852 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He arrived here in 1886 to assist the failing Florida Mortgage and Investment Company, a development company partially owned by his father in Edinburgh. The company had enticed a group of Scottish colonists to Sarasota in 1885 to help settle its 50,000-acre holdings, which included most of the land constituting the present City of Sarasota. The settlers arrived to find most of the company's promises unfulfilled. Gillespie was dispatched to improve the situation. Many disillusioned colonists left, however, and the company entered liquidation proceedings. Gillespie remained in Sarasota after the court appointed him to manage the assets of the company there. He organized the clearing of three miles of Main Street, the building of a substantial wharf on the waterfront, and the beginning of a 40-acre experimental farm. In 1902, he was elected the first mayor of Sarasota when the town was incorporated and held this office for six terms. He also served his community as Justice of Peace four years and Notary Public ten years. He was affectionately known as "Colonel" in this community.

University educated, Gillespie was admitted to the highest legal body in Scotland. Having become a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1896, he joined the American and Florida Bar Associations. He served as president of the local Bar Association. He was influential in building an Episcopal church in Sarasota. He served as chaplain to Sarasota Bay Post #30 of the American Legion. As a Mason, he reached the Order of Knight Templar, was affiliated with the Independent Order of the Odd Fellows and became a charter member of the Kiwanis Club.

Gillespie volunteered in World War I for duty in Scotland. Because of this service to Scotland, he lost his United States citizenship. An act of Congress restored it after the war.

Gillespie is credited with introducing Florida to the game of golf. In 1904 he built a nine-hole golf course east of the present Links Avenue. Over the years, he was commissioned to design and build six other Florida courses and one in Havana, Cuba. He was one of Florida's championship golfers and an authority on the sport.

"Colonel " Gillespie died on the golf course near his home September 7, 1923. He is buried in Rosemary Cemetery.

Dedicated in 1995 by the Sarasota County Historical Commission

First Golf Course in the United States in Downtown Sarasota

The game of golf came to Sarasota when Col. John Hamilton Gillespie arrived in 1886. Nobody in the small village of Sarasota knew what Gillespie was doing when in May 1886 he built a practice course consisting of two greens and one long fairway.

This miniature course was located on present day Main Street. Gillespie practiced there daily for many years. In 1905, he laid out a nine-hole golf course on a 110-acre tract east of his old practice course and built a clubhouse. He maintained the course at his own expense until he sold the course to Owen Burns in 1910.

Gillespie continued to help support and take care of the course because upkeep of a golf course can be quite an undertaking. In December 1913, Gillespie came up with the idea of organizing a golf club to help with expenses. On December 13, 1913, a meeting was held at the Sarasota Yacht and Automobile Club to organize the Sarasota Golf Club. Gillespie stated that maintaining a golf course without support from residents, as well as from visitors, is difficult. The group agreed to pay $10 per person to become charter members, and the money would go toward the upkeep of the course. The course's owner, Owen Burns, would also allow members to play for free, with the use of the clubhouse, as long as they made necessary repairs to the windmill and the lavatories in the clubhouse.

The first members of the club read like a who's who of prominent early Sarasotans. Some of these members were early politicians Hugh Browning, Harry Higel, and of course, John Hamilton Gillespie, physicians Jack and Joseph Halton, landowners Owen Burns, Ralph Caples, Honore Palmer and J.H. Lord. The club drew up rules for the organization and by-laws for playing golf on the course. To play golf for the winter season cost $10. For those who did not want to commit to an entire season, the fee structure was $5 for one month, $2 for one week and 50 cents for one day. Although Gillespie encouraged everyone to play, the course was rarely crowded.

Gillespie never stopped in his campaign to promote the game of golf. In a 1921 newspaper article, he wrote about how golf barely existed in the state at the turn of the 20th century. He said that "there was no East Coast golf in Florida then, the Jacksonville Country Club being in its infancy, and, to the credit for making golf well and favorably known in Florida and in the southern state. Tampa for a long time did not take to the game, although Mr. Plant spent considerable money on an endeavor to foster the game. It was not until Bellaire became famous as a golf course that Tampa woke up and took notice."

Gillespie continued to play on his course until his death in 1923. Although he knew that the game would grow in popularity, it was not until the Florida Land Boom of the mid-1920s that it became a popular sport in Sarasota. Two new 18-hole courses were built in Sarasota during the boom Gillespie's old course was sold in 1924 for development and no traces of it remain today.

http://www.sarasotahistoryalive.com/history/articles/gillespie-led-drive-for-golf-in-sarasota/?back=history