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General Note

Dr. Cyrus R. Teed's utopian community of 200 followers began relocating from Chicago, Illinois to Florida in 1894. Dr. Teed took the name 'Koresh,' the Hebrew translation for Cyrus, meaning shepherd. The colonists believed that the entire universe existed within a giant, hollow sphere. The Koreshans built and operated a printing facility, boat works, cement works, sawmill, bakery, store and hostelry. After the death of Dr. Teed in 1908 at the age of 69, membership of his religious group began to decline. In 1961, the four remaining members deeded 305 acres of their land to the state of Florida as a park and memorial. The Koreshan Unity Settlement Historic District, a.k.a. Koreshan Unity State Park, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.

The oldest house in Estero. Formerly the residence of Gustav Damkohler, it afterwards served as a medical cottage.

Biographical Note

Gustave Damkohler was born on December 13, 1825 in Blankenburg, Germany. He left for Australia in 1846, and returned to Germany and left again for America. He then married and settled in Clarence, Missouri, and homesteaded in Florida. He gave his cabin and 160 acres on the Estero River to the Koreshan Unity and followed his surviving son to Alaska where he died in Juneau on September 5, 1905.