Lakeland, Florida

===Early history===
[[File:Lakeland fl.jpg|thumb|right|Lakeland's business district, early 1920s]]
[[File:Lakeland Cox School01.jpg|thumb|The John F. Cox Grammar School opened in 1925, now re-purposed as the clinic for Lakeland Volunteers in Medicine]]

In the 18th century Native Americans groups, collectively called "[[Seminole]]s", moved into the areas left vacant. In 1823, the United States and the various tribes in Florida signed the [[Treaty of Moultrie Creek]], which created a reservation in central Florida that included what is now Polk County.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mahon|first=John K.|title=History of the Second Seminole War 1835–1842|year=1985|publisher=University of Florida Press|location=Gainesville, Florida|isbn=0-8130-1097-7|edition=Revised|pages=2–8, 18–37}}</ref> Starting in 1832, the United States government tried to move the Seminoles in Florida west to the [[Indian Territory]]. Most of the Seminoles resisted, resulting in the [[Second Seminole War]], 1835–1842. By the end of that war, most of the Seminoles had been sent west, with a few remnants pushed well south of what is now Polk County.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mahon|first=John K.|title=History of the Second Seminole War 1835–1842|year=1985|publisher=University of Florida Press|location=Gainesville, Florida|isbn=0-8130-1097-7|edition=Revised|pages=317–318}}</ref>