User:Kkopta60/Fort Kissimmee Cemetery

Fort Kissimmee Cemetery is one of the oldest Central Florida pioneer cemeteries located on the eastern boundary of the Avon Park Bombing Range in Highlands County, Florida along the Kissimmee River. The cemetery is approximately 20 miles east of Avon Park, Florida.

The cemetery was started from a community of cattle farmers located along the Kissimmee River near the old Fort Kissimmee site used during the Seminole Indian wars. Kissimmee River is an Indian name meaning "long water", given to the river by the Creek Indians. Once the indians were driven further south, the central Florida area became safe to live. Getting to Central Florida was not easy during the mid 1800's. Supplies had to be brought to these settlers by steamboats and used to haul out their produce.

History of Fort Kissimmee Cemetery
Florida became a state in 1845 and cattle famers began migrating to Florida from Georgia and South Carolina to the Manatee and Kissimmee River Valley areas. By 1855 cattle had become a number one industry in Florida. These areas were some of the better conditions for grazing cattle in Florida. The Kissimmee River Valley was nothing like Texas with wide open ranges but was rough sandy and swampy terrain mixed with prairies, piney woods, sloughs and palmetto patches along with live oak hammocks.

The community along the Kissimmee River continued to grow more settled with the building of a church and school at Fort Kissimmee. A tragedy happened in the community during the late 1800's while building the school house close to where the men lived which is near the current location of the cemetery. Two men named John Sheffield and a man with the last name Shaw got into a violent argument in which both went for their shotguns and shot each other. John's two small boys, John Lewis and Tom Sheffield, stood and watched as they fired their guns at the same time. Both families used lumber from the old school house to build the two men coffins and buried them near the site of the school house. This is the beginning of the Fort Kissimmee Cemetery.

Just before World War II began in 1942, all settlers were moved from the Kissimmee River Valley area to the Fort Basinger area by the United States Air Force before turning the cattle grazing land into a bombing range. Over the next several years the cemetery deteriorated because the pioneer families had limited access to maintain the cemetery since the USAF controlled the land surrounding the cemetery. While the base was still active during the war, several of the settlers paddled up the river to check on the condition of the cemetery and visit their ancestors grave sites. After arriving, they discovered many of the grave stones were broken by wild cattle left in the area and military maneuvers. The condition of the cemetery was brought to the attention of the USAF high commanding officers and orders were given to place a wrought iron fence around the cemetery.

It was several years later during the 1950’s when a few pioneer descendants returned to the area to find much of the cemetery had overgrown with trees and grass. This same group wrote a letter to the USAF requesting how to acquire some of the land surrounding the cemetery. With success, the United States goverment deeded at no cost approximately 4.25 acres to the newly formed non-profit Fort Kissimmee Cemetery Association, Inc. The land stretches from the back side of the cemetery to the river.

Today the cemetery is maintained by many of the pioneer’s family descendants involved through the Fort Kissimmee Association. The association meets every Memorial Day weekend to camp and clean the cemetery. On Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, many of the family members and old timers come to enjoy a big Bar-B-Que consisting of wild razorback hogs, beef and swamp cabbage. This is some of the same foods their ancestors lived on when Fort Kissimmee was a thriving community.