Manatee County, Florida
…V. Snell. The new county covered 5,000 square miles and included all of what are now Charlotte, DeSoto, Glades, Hardee, Highlands, part of Lee, and Sarasota Counties. The original county seat was Manatee, a village on the southern shore of the Manatee River in what now is eastern Bradenton. In 1866, the…