History:

The city now Called Bartow was founded in October 1851 as Fort Blount, a stockade established by Readding Blount and his family.  In the 1850's, the first permanent new settlers came to the area near the dead-waters of the "Peas River" (or Peace River) and established Fort Blount.  This settlement was somewhat stalled by the American Civil War a decade later, although the County government, named after President James Polk, was established in 1861. 

After the war, in 1867, the county  commissioners decided the county seat should be named after General Francis S. Bartow, the first Confederate officer to die in the war, and so, the name of Fort Blount was changed to Bartow. 

A bronze marker at the corner of Main Street and Floral Avenue----about a quarter mile west of the Old Polk County Historical Museum and Genealogical Library----commemorates the fort. 

Much of the community's history is attested to by the graves in the old Historic Oak Hill Cemetery.  Many of the graves have Confederate markers, reminders of the nations's Civil War.  Grave sites include those of Readding Blount and Jacob Summerlin.