 In the early stages of the Second Seminole War, during the winter of 1835 and 1836, and in the spring of the latter year, both "Mala Compra" and "St. Joseph" plantations were taken into military possession by the United States, and the houses occupied and fortified as military posts.During the course of that winter and spring, both places were occupied, evacuated, and reoccupied by various detachments and bodies of troops, until the Indians, taking advantage of a temporary evacuation, burned all the buildings of any consequence or value on the sugarcane plantation.At "Mala Compra", they burned the cotton warehouse that had been prepared and used as a defensive fortification.