Maggie OUTLAW & Ira W BASS
Submitted by Descendants: Amanda Mae, Brianna Lyndsay, Justin Andrew, Kevin Matthew, Lacie Victoria, Margaret Ann ROYAL, and Robert Jason FRYE; Susan ROYAL Jones; Cheryl Lynn, Daniel Lee, Lindsay Clyde Jr., and Robert Lindsay ROYAL; Jordan Matthew ROYAL-WEISER
Peter Dolphus Outlaw came to Florida on crutches in the year 1885. He came by train to see if he could get relief from his rheumatism that he had contracted while he was serving in the Civil War. He got so well that he discarded his crutches and went back home to Georgia. He bought two mules and a covered wagon and made ready to move to Kissimmee to live.
Peter and his son-in-law, Ira Bass, traveled to Kissimmee by mules and wagons’ carrying the household goods, as was the custom for new families moving to the area; the rest of the family traveled by train to Kissimmee on the first passenger train into the city. They arrived in Kissimmee on 7th January 1886, which was as warm as a summer day as the ground was frozen when they left Americus, GA to come south. Of course they thought they had found the land of paradise and sunshine.
The family consisted of Peter Outlaw’s wife Margaret Bolton Outlaw, and their children Mrs. Maggie Outlaw Bass, Dora Outlaw, Hattie Outlaw, and the youngest son Clevie Outlaw. When the Outlaw/Bass family arrived in Kissimmee, Peter Outlaw set up the first general mercantile store in Kissimmee. At that time, the Seminole Indians went to Kissimmee to do their trading and camped in the Cape Breeze subdivision.
Maggie and Ira Bass had been married about three years when they arrived in Kissimmee to live. It was a hard struggle for them to get along at first, and Ira worked at many things to make a go of it. Ira Bass helped survey and build the Sugar Belt Railroad from St. Cloud to Narcoossee, a line constructed to carry out the sugar that was then produced in the area. The Sugar Belt line was owned by Henry Disston, Florida’s largest land owner at that time. Ira was gradually promoted until he was an engineer on the line and retired in this capacity after 35 years. Maggie Bass made all the wedding dresses for brides in the early days. Maggie was a real pioneer in every sense of the word, as she saw electric lights turned on in Kissimmee and also the advent of automobiles and telephones.
Peter Dolphus OUTLAW /Margaret BOLTON / Maggie OUTLAW / Ira W BASS were first established as Florida Pioneers in 2011