Rye is an unincorporated community in

Manatee County Manatee County is a county in the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the population was 399,710. Manatee County is part of the North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its county seat and largest ci ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

History

The community of Rye was named after Erasmus Rye, a Virginian who moved to

while fighting in the

Third Seminole War The Seminole Wars (also known as the Florida Wars) were a series of three military conflicts between the United States and the Seminoles that took place in Florida between about 1816 and 1858. The Seminoles are a Native American nation which co ...

. The Rye community began as a fort which served as protected housing for a small group of militia and their families. The mounted militia helped to capture Native Americans as part of the war effort. After the Third Seminole War, some of the militia's families remained at Rye, establishing orange groves and cattle ranching. The largest homestead belonged to the John Greene Williams family. After his marriage to Mary Williams, Erasmus Rye took over the Williams homestead and became the largest landowner in that area. The developing Rye community was difficult to reach by road, but its residents were well known for their ability to navigate the

Manatee River The Manatee River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 18, 2011 river in Manatee County, Florida, Manatee County, Florida. The river forms in the northeastern co ...

. For a period, Rye was the point of passage for residents in west Manatee County to cross the Manatee River while traveling to the county seat at Pine Level. In 1879 the first bridge across the Manatee River was built in Rye. In 1882, Sam Mitchell, a cattle rancher from

Tampa Tampa ( ) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and t ...

, moved to Rye with plans to develop a subdivision. He opened the community's first store. He applied for the community's

Post Office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

to be named Mitchellville, which was rejected by the

Postal Service The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letters, and parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid-19th century, national postal sy ...

due to the name having been used elsewhere in Florida. The area briefly became unofficially known as Mitchellville, but officially reverted to Rye by 1884. By 1897, the population had grown to 72 families, which allowed a second store to open. At its peak, the community was home to a post office, sawmill,

gristmill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that h ...

, school, and stores. However, as land transportation developed with the introduction of the railroad and automobiles to Manatee County in the early 20th century, river transportation further decreased, leaving Rye increasingly isolated. On January 3rd, 1929, the post office was closed and Rye's township was dissolved. In 1988, the last remaining wooden structures which were the original Rye Home and its detached kitchen area were destroyed in a fire. The Rye Family Cemetery can still be found at Rye Preserve.

References

Unincorporated communities in Manatee County, Florida Unincorporated communities in Florida {{ManateeCountyFL-geo-stub