Economic Growth
In October 1842 Atsena Otie Key was hit by a massive hurricane that destroyed almost all of the island's buildings. This was soon followed by boom in civilian homesteading. In 1843 Augustus Steele began work on a resort hotel for wealthy Florida and Georgia planters. The island had its name changed in 1852 to Cedar Key because people had thought the Juniper trees on the island were Cedar trees. It was later changed back to Atsena Otie Key.
During the 1850s trade grew on the island. A rail terminal for the Florida Railroad (which ran across Florida from Fernandina to Atsena Otie Key) was constructed and named Station No. 4. In time several warehouses and wharves were also built on nearby Depot Key, and soon Atsena Otie Key had become an important harbor for shipping in the Gulf of Mexico. Soon cotton, tobacco, turpentine, and rosin were being sent out of the state in large quantities through Atsena Otie Key.
In 1855 A.W. Faber bought large tracts of land in Levy County to be cut for timber. A small amount of land was bought on the island in 1856, which would later become the site for a lumber mill.
Then in January 1858 the town of Atsena Otie was officially chartered by the Florida State legislature. By the time of the 1860 Census there were 215 men, women, and children living in 30 households on the island.
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