• Mary Lanier Johns (1874 - 1964): She
was the daughter of early Punta Gorda settlers
James and Sarah Youmans Lanier. At the age of
8, she walked from her Punta Gorda home on
Retta Esplanade to Shell Creek (east of I-75) to
fetch her uncle to help her sick brother. Her
brother died on his way to Fort Ogden.
• William “Billie” Westberry Knight
(1893 - 1926): He was the son of Ellen and
T.S. Knight Jr. Members of the Knight family
were early settlers famed for their cattle trade
and the Knight-Willis Store. Billie was married
to Mary Kathleen. He became a partner in the
Punta Gorda Fish Co., organized in 1897, which
was one of the largest fishing operations in
Florida.
• F. Peabody McLane (1877 - 1889): This
young boy has the oldest marked gravestone in
Indian Spring Cemetery. He was the son of George
McLane, a Civil War veteran who served as mayor
of Punta Gorda, Justice of the Peace and as a
commissioner of Desoto County before Charlotte
County was formed.
• Katie Sloan (1866 - 1891): The assistant postmistress
of Punta Gorda from 1888 to 1891. She was
with child when dogs attacked her on the streets of
Punta Gorda and killed her. Her gravesite is the only one
in the cemetery with two burials – hers and her unborn
child’s.
• Willie A. “Miss Billie” White (1879 - 1969):
A Western Union Morse code telegrapher for 52 years
and the first telephone operator in the area, she has
three commemorative emblems on her headstone: One
for 50 years of Morse operator service; one for being a
member of Wireless Pioneer; and one for her membership
in the Eastern Star. Her good friend, Thomas Edison,
would delay his departure to Fort Myers just so Willie
could transmit his telegrams.
G
M