History shows that the founding of the town of Sarasota was conceived in Scotland by officials of the Florida Mortgage and Investment Company, Ltd., a British concern which purchased approximately 50,000 acres in this region, principally from Hamilton Disston and his associates. The townsite was surveyed during the winter of 1884-1885, the town plat was drawn in Edinburgh, and the first sales from it were made in Scotland and England in the late summer and fall of 1885.

A colony of 68 men, women and children, mostly from Scotland, arrived in Sarasota on December 28, 1885. The first census figures reported for Sarasota were in 1910, at which time 840 men, women and children lived here. The first meeting of the Town Council was October 20, 1902. The honor of being the first mayor of the town of Sarasota was given to J. Hamilton Gillespie.

Sarasota grew in size and population and was incorporated as a city by special act of the state legislature effective January 1, 1914. Under the new city charter, provision was made for a mayor and three councilmen to be elected by wards. The charter gave the council a chance to get money to pay for vitally needed improvements. The last barrier to civic progress had been removed!

The 1945 charter, under which the city operated prior to the approval by special election on September 4, 1973, of the new charter, established a commission-manager form of government. On January 19, 1946, the commissioners appointed Colonel Ross E. Windom to be the first city manager of the City of Sarasota.

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