The Wit & Wisdom of C.G. McKinney – Sage of Chokoloskee

About this event

Learn about pioneer settler C.G. McKinney's life, work, and wry newspaper columns.

In this fun and feel-good presentation, Museum Manager Thomas Lockyear will celebrate the life and work of one the earliest pioneer settlers in the region of Southwest Florida known as the Chokoloskee Bay Country: Charles Greenleigh McKinney. A Civil War Veteran who spent time making moonshine (which he called “Low Bush Lightning”) before making the 10,000 Islands his home, McKinney opened a trading post and established the area’s first post office he would later hand over to Ted Smallwood. The postal address bore the ironic name “Comfort” – a reference to the profound lack of it caused by the abundant “Swamp Angels”: mosquitos. McKinney, a registered midwife who delivered dozens of babies and acted as the area’s de facto dentist, also wrote a regular column for the American Eagle newspaper published in nearby Estero.

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