Mary Jane Whitaker
Among the first of these was Mary Jane Whitaker, wife of William Whitaker, Sarasota’s first pioneer settler.
As gutsy as she was small she stood in at 5 feet tall the diminutive Mary Jane was fearless. Besides contending with the hardships inherent in surviving life on the frontier, she faced danger from marauding Seminole Indians who burned her Yellow Bluffs home down in a raid.
Later, she went toe-to-toe with Union soldiers during the Civil War who threatened to burn her second home down. Legend has it that Mary Jane handed the officer in charge a match, saying, “I want to look in the eyes of a man who can stoop so low as to burn the house of a helpless woman and her children.” He and his men rode off leaving the Whitaker home standing.