Colonel Isaac Trabue, and the fisheries moved
to the “new” railroad wharf at the end of King
Street (now northbound US 41). The company
was incorporated in 1928, with Harry Dreggors
as its first president. Harry L. Goulding joined
the firm in 1939 and W. H. Monson, who had
arrived in 1935, became president in 1940. In
1944, the corporation became a partnership
with Dreggors, Guthrie and Monson the major
partners.
In 1901, the Chadwick brothers – Steve, Clay,
and Hubbard, who lived on Manasota Key –
started the Chadwick Fish Company in Punta
Gorda. By 1898, the Chadwicks had established
a highly successful fishing operation in Lemon
Bay and they often netted more mullet than
they were able to process.
The Punta Gorda Fish Company, the Chadwick
Fish Company, and the West Coast Fish
Company constructed fish buying and storage
houses – ice houses – throughout Charlotte
Harbor. Many of these houses, as well as adjoining
bunk houses for the fishermen, were built
on stilts over the water or at the ends of doks
overhanging the water.
The ice houses were designed to be serviced
by “run boats” operated by the Punta Gorda
fish dealers. As C. D. Gibson describes the
process, “These boats scheduled stops at
two-day intervals, bringing fresh ice and taking
The run boat named Carroll went
all over Charlotte Harbor picking
up fishermen from the stilt houses
on the water,picking up and
delivering supplies
away fish which the fishermen had delivered to
each fish house's resident manager. Following
receipt, the manager's function was to pack the
fish in ice, awaiting the arrival of the run boat.
From Punta Gorda, much of the fish was
shipped by train to markets throughout the
south and, in later years, to northern cities.”
Once the new system was in place for
collecting iced fish from the ice stations, now
widely scattered throughout Charlotte Harbor,
the traditional salt fisheries ceased to be viable.
The Peacon Fish Ranch at Gasparilla Island's
north end closed down, and the Padilla family at
the northern end of Cayo Costa switched from
salting and drying fish to icing freshly caught fish
for delivery by run boats to mainland fisheries.
In Williams' and Cleveland's book on
Charlotte Harbor history, titled “Our Fascinating
Past, Charlotte Harbor: The Early Years,” the
memories of Harry “Pete” Goulding, who fished
with his father Joseph at the turn of the century,
are recorded. “Fancy fish – pompano, trout,
mackerel, and king – were packed in wooden
barrels made in a cooperage right on the dock.
These went to northern cities. Bottom fish, or
mullet, were placed in bins constructed in the
boxcars with alternating layers of fish and
crushed ice.” Goulding stated that “Fish began
to die out when canals were dug and huge
developments discharged sewage into the