George W. Storter, Jr.

George Washington Storter Jr. (July 1, 1862 – October 26, 1931) was a trader and founder of Everglades City. His grandfather George Sr. migrated in a covered wagon to Platt, Florida, from Eutaw, Alabama in 1877, making his first trip to the Everglades in September 1881 to farm with one William S. Allen.

George Jr. purchased large tracts of land further south along Chokoloskee Bay and founded the town of Everglade, later to become Everglades City, in 1893. From there the family shipped buttonwood, cane syrup, and grapefruits to Tampa. They also operated a trading post where Seminoles came to barter or sell deer hides and alligator skins. George Storter Jr. became famous for the sugar cane he grew. William Smith Allen, who gave the Barron River its name until 1923, was the first permanent white settler of Everglade. Originally from Connecticut, he eventually moved to Jacksonville, and with the outbreak of war he, with other Unionists, went to Key West. Allen first visited Weeks in 1868 and was impressed by the soil. He then returned, owning all of the present-day Everglade township along the river from 1873 to 1889. "But the real founder of Everglades and its most influential citizen for over a quarter of a century was George W. Storter Jr."

A site called Port DuPont along the Barron river was settled by African-American August Swycover and his wife. They planted sugar cane along the west bank of the river. Swycover shipped the sugar to Key West, used in those days for chewing. By 1883, George Sr. established himself opposite the Port DuPont site. By 1887, George W. Storter Jr. and Nancy arrived; and on January 1, 1889, the first white child was born in the Everglade. A miss Frances Eva Storter, Neal's older sister. After Allen's death, George W. Storter Jr. purchased all the Allen property for $800. In 1895 he secured the first post office first called Everglade with him as postmaster.