A Note to the Reader...

The story of Antonio and Mary Fernandez is fascinating, and it has been the longtime wish of their descendents to tell their story to future generations. It has been our great honor to help make that wish finally come true. Our family has compiled as much information about this pioneering family as we could, and we are proud to share it with you now. The Fernandez family has grown quite large in just a few generations in the new world, so the focus of this book is on the couple who brought our family to America across the great wide ocean from Portugal, and on the first generation of children they raised here. There are many family members responsible for this book ~ every person who took a photograph and passed it on, every person who ever told a story of the old days, every person who ever drew up a family tree ~ each of these people have helped create a rich family lore. Full credit cannot be given to all of these people, but we believe we can honor them best by recording what we know from the stories and photographs collected be the various branches of the family. We invite you take a step back in time and learn what it was like to live on Mound Key and in the little village of Estero, Florida in those pioneer days of so long ago.

Read a chapter from the book...

Memoir of Antonio & Maria Fernandez
by Tom Fernandez & Marlene Fernandez

Once upon a time, there was a Portuguese missionary named Antonio Fernandez, who was encouraged by a fisherman friend, named Frank Gomez, to make a journey to America and take advantage of the abundance of opportunities available and a need for religious guidance. This is the story of the journey and opportunity Antonio gave his family which ultimately brought them to Mound Key, Florida and eventually to Estero,
Florida where family history was made.

Antonio Fernandez de Britto and his wife Maria Rosa Silva ~ later known as Mary ~ were orphans from the parish of Vila Seca in the city of Concelho de Barcelos, in Portugal’s district of Braga. The Fernandez’ began their journey in 1898 when Antonio and Mary boarded a ship in Lisbon with their three young daughters, Anna, Rosa and Dora, and headed out for America with a dream of serving as a missionary. This was their second attempt at making the journey across the sea, although no information is known about the first attempt or why it was not accomplished. The voyage included a stop or a transfer in Key West, at that time a major point of Caribbean shipping and trade.

The captain of the ship carrying the Fernandez family was Juan Gomez, the father of Frank Gomez. Instead of taking the family to Tampa, which had been the intended destination, he abandoned Antonio and his family hundreds of miles further south on Estero Island. Later known as Fort Myers Beach, the island forms a long sandy barrier between Estero Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. In true pirate fashion, Captain Gomez took all of their Fernandez family’s possessions—even their clothes—and left them behind
on the island without food, water, money, or much hope of survival.  By chance, a local resident named Frank Johnson happened upon the Fernandez family. He rescued them and took them to Mound Key where he and his wife Mary ”Grandma” Johnson lived.
Mound Key is located in the middle of Estero Bay, and is just to the east of Estero Island.

For many centuries before, this island had been the ceremonial and cultural center of the Calusa empire. The Calusa’s dominion stretched from what is now Tampa, as far south to the Ten Thousand Islands, and as far to the east as Lake Okeechobee or farther.  The Calusa rule lasted until the Spanish arrived during the 16th century.

By 1566, the Calusa ruler Cacique received the Spanish colonial governor at Mound Key.   In 1567, the Jesuits attempted to establish a mission on the island named after San Anton de Carlos in part to convert the Calusa to Christianity. The attempt failed and the mission was abandoned just two years later. Continuous warfare between the Calusa and the Spanish, along with new diseases brought from Europe, eventually led to the extinction of the Calusa in the 18th century.

With its great shell mounds, canals, oyster beds, fisheries, and protected access to the  Gulf of Mexico, it was a logical place for later settlers to make their home. Frank and Mary Johnson had found life on the island to be abundant and secure. Also living on Mound Key at the time of Fernandez’ arrival were the Tillet Henderson family with their three children. Later, the Luettich, Hawkins, and Hanson families were also allowed to build homes on the island.

With characteristic generosity, Johnson gave the abandoned Fernandez family five acres to build on and begin their life anew. Antonio quickly built a temporary palmetto shack for his family. With Johnson’s encouragement, he planted potatoes, and set about learning how to support his family in the water’s edge of the new world.  Grandma Johnson taught Antonio and his family how to speak English, which was needed to conduct business with the mainland. Grandma Johnson helped Antonio learn to fish with hand-made nets in the local style, thus providing him with a livelihood to support his young family.

Antonio and Maria had several more children, including Joe (1900), Lena (1902), Lenora (1904), Mary (1906), Alfonso (1909) and Lewis (1910). As the family grew, it became necessary that Antonio would have to abandon his original dream of pursuing religious work in America and instead continue fishing to support his family.  After becoming skilled at this work and familiar with the geography of the area, eventually, Antonio was able to purchase land in Estero at which time they moved up the Estero River. He purchased a parcel of land by the Sandy Lane Bridge and another parcel on
Highland Avenue
 (later renamed
Highlands Avenue
), where their family homesteads now stands. They raised various livestock, grew tropical fruits and vegetables to supplement the meals. Back then it was necessary to raise and grow all you could and what was over-produced was shared with the neighbors. For a while, Antonio carried U.S. Mail twice each day from the Atlantic Coast Line depot on Broadway to the post office at the Koreshan Unity.

On November 15, 1928, a full thirty years after being robbed and abandoned mid-journey, Antonio finally made his way to Tampa, and obtained naturalized U.S. citizenship for himself and Mary. After thirty years of fishing and farming, they had finally arrived at their intended destination beside the still waters of the Estero River.

According to the family story, Antonio and Mary had set out from Portugal to build a church. They found themselves struggling to survive at first, but they did eventually accomplish what they were called to do: the couple helped purchase the land and build what became the Estero United Methodist Church just across the street from their home.

—Tom Fernandez & Marlene Fernandez
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