Bartow

Bartow, city, seat (1861) of Polk county, central Florida, U.S. It lies near the Peace River and Lake Hancock, 12 miles (19 km) southeast of Lakeland. In 1851 the Readding Blount family built a stockade community known as Fort Blount on the site of an earlier settlement (Peas Creek). It was later named for Francis S. Bartow, a Confederate general. Bartow was incorporated as a town in 1882 and became a city in 1893. Phosphate...