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| Shirttail Charlie 1910 Florida State Archives/Florida Memory |
By Jane Feehan
With a past that was the stuff of folklore rather than fact, Seminole Shirttail Charlie (1855-1925) was one of early Fort Lauderdale's colorful characters.
He was known for dressing in nothing but a shirt. News accounts of the day claimed he killed his wife and was sentenced by tribal elders to “be attired in a one-piece garment reaching half way to his knees and slit on the sides.” Others claimed he committed only some minor infraction that earned him the shirt sentence.
In reality Shirttail Charlie dressed in garb that was customary among Seminole men a few decades before he roamed the streets of Fort Lauderdale. It was reported that he was a panhandler. “He begs from the white man for the few pennies necessary for his existence ...” On the other hand, Charlie was also thought to have been an athlete and fearless hunter in his younger days.
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| Seminole men circa 1900 Florida State Archives |
Shirttail Charlie Tommie died in 1925 and was buried near his family’s former camp, near today’s Broward Boulevard east of I-95. A restaurant on the New River bearing his name closed a few years ago.
Sources:
Gillis, Susan. Fort Lauderdale: The Venice of America. Charleston: Arcadia (2004).Weidling, Philip J. , Burghard, August. Checkered Sunshine. Gainesville: University of Florida Press (1966).
Miami News, June 19, 1924
Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, Seminole history, history of Fort Lauderdale
