The Braden River, the largest tributary of the Manatee River, is 35 miles long and was named for Dr. Joseph Braden, a Tallahassee sugar planter who came here in 1842 and established a sugar plantation at the western intersection of the Manatee and Braden Rivers. In 1850, settlers began arriving on the eastern side of the Braden River, including Lambert and Mary Catherine Vanderipe Hayes, after Hayes received 40 acres as a reward for service in the Second Seminole Indian War and later homesteaded 150 adjoining acres. In 1855, Hayes drowned after falling from a raft while crossing the river. Shortly after his death, local Indians warned his widow of an impending attack, and she took her three children by rowboat to Braden Castle; while she was gone, Indians burned her home, which stood about 100 feet north of this site. Other families, including those of James Cunliffe and the Rev. W.W. Burts, came to the Braden River area in the 1850s. Because the community was remote, settlers formed deep friendships and often intermarried. Burts was a Methodist minister who served as a traveling preacher, a circuit rider for the Manatee area. Cunliffe married Mary Catherine Hayes' mother, Nancy Vanderipe, in 1853. In June 1858, Mary Catherine Hayes married Levin P. Johnson, and their two sons, Morgan and Maurice, later formed the Johnson Brothers Cattle Company. The family owned vast acreage from what became known as Morgan Johnson Road to Lena Road, which was named for Maurice's wife.