St. Petersburg leads a 24-year fight against Hillsborough; North Pinellas is promised the county seat. In 1911, the tide finally turns.

Inspired by "the most remarkable political and legislative victory in the history of Florida," hundreds gathered amid bonfires in Clearwater in 1911 to celebrate the possibility of Pinellas independence.

The date was May 22. Four days earlier in Tallahassee, legislators agreed that area voters could decide if the Pinellas peninsula was to separate from Hillsborough County.

When the news reached the separatists in St. Petersburg, it was time for a party that exceeded "Philadelphia in 1776," the Times said.

St. Petersburg led the 24-year fight for sovereignty. "Clearwater and upper Pinellas were extremely lukewarm about division," historian Walter Fuller wrote.

Separatists complained that Hillsborough, which had governed the peninsula since 1834, neglected area roads, bridges and schools. The distance to the Tampa county seat also infuriated the Pinellas rebels.

The Revolutionary War proved that government should be "as near the people as possible," C.H. Evans said.

State Rep. W.A. Belcher ignited the battle to free "the Point of Pines" in 1887. His bill would have created Gulf County, but Sen. Joseph Wall killed the effort, angering many of the area's 1,200 residents.

On Feb. 23, 1907, Times editor William L. Straub established himself as the premier separatist with an editorial, "Pinellas County," which became the Pinellas declaration of independence.

"There is not an argument to be brought against division," Straub wrote. "Now is the time."