Madam Julia Atzeroth, whose maiden name was Hunt, was born in the City of Bradford, near the River Rhine, in Bavaria, on the 25th day of December, 1807. Of a family of four children--two males and two females--she is the only survivor. The death of her mother occurring when she was eleven years of age, she was adopted by an uncle on the maternal side, with whom she resided until she attained her majority. At the age of twenty-four years she married Joseph Atzeroth, also a native of Bavaria. The young couple soon after the birth of their first child, a daughter, left the Fatherland and immigrated to America. They arrived in New York in the month of August, 1841, where they remained only a few months. In consequence of the failing health of Madam Atzeroth, they visited Philadelphia and Easton, Pa.; but deriving no benefit from change of location at the North, her physician advised her to go South. They accordingly went to New Orleans, where they remained about one year. Madam Atzeroth's health not improving, her attending physician, a German, proposed a trip to Florida. Laying in a supply of provisions and medicines, and accompanied by the physician, they engaged passage on board the schooner _Essex_, a tender for the United States troops stationed at Fort Brooke, Tampa, where they arrived in the spring of 1843.
Soon after landing at Tampa, Mr. Atzeroth commenced prospecting for a desirable place to locate. After looking about for two or three weeks, he concluded to homestead one hundred and sixty acres of land on Terraceia Island, and on the 12th day of April, 1843, accompanied by his wife, little daughter, the German physician and his dog Bonaparte, landed on the east side of the island about midway of Terraceia Bay. The hammock was so dense that the men were compelled to use their axes to clear a space on which to pitch their tent. The underbrush and vines were so thick, and the progress made by the men so slow, that Madam Joe seized an axe and assisted them. This was her first attempt at chopping and grubbing in Florida. Since that time she has become an expert at the business. When the tent was erected and dinner prepared, it was eaten with a keen relish. From that time forward Madam Joe felt new life and strength. Her torpid liver began to perform its normal functions, and she forthwith discharged the physician and destroyed his medicines. The doctor went to Key West, where he died soon afterward.