Much of the history of early modern Marco Island may be told in the lives of three families who have played leading roles in the three centuries of population of the island. They are the W.T. Collier family at Marco, especially one son, W. D. "Captain Bill", the Barfields at Caxambas and the Pettits at Goodland Point. Indeed it is believed that the Colliers were the first permanent American settlers to Marco.

In 1870 W.T. Collier brought his wife and nine children down the Atlantic coast in a two masted schooner, Robert E. Lee, from Tennessee. They ran into a storm at Indian Key which damaged the vessel considerably but after some repairs they took on some 15,000 feet of lumber with which to build a house when they reached their destination.

They built their first home just west of Collier Creek across from what is now Old Marco. After a hurricane destroyed the structure three years later, they built on the other side of the creek. Soon after this time other settlers began to arrive on Marco and a fair trade of vegetables, furs and fish began with Key West. On October 20th, 1888 William D. "Captain Bill" Collier received a commission as postmaster, making Marco the second post office in the county. It had been called Malco for some time because of the mistaken assumption that there was another Marco in Florida. Apart from completing some building work for lodging, Captain Bill also had a boat yard which was becoming very established by the late 1880's. He built a store which stands at the waterfront and to it came Indians bringing hides, furs and feathers to trade. Hiram Newell recorded in 1889 that sometimes 30 or 40 canoes were gathered there.

Collier developed into a successful entrepreneur and he played a key role in helping to guide the business expansion of the island as it moved into the 20th century. Like so many others, Captain Bill operated a boat service. In March 1898 one of his schooners, Speedwell, was on a scheduled trip to Key West to pick up supplies and carry passengers. The schooner met with a tragic accident when a squall of Marquesas, hit the boat 18 miles off Key West, she overturned and three of Captain Bill's sons (aged 8,6 and 4) along with 6 other people drowned. Captain Bill himself was thrown clear along with two deck hands and another passenger. The boys were buried in the little cemetery off Bald Eagle Drive and a grave stone still marks their resting place today. The tragedy was to affect Captain Bill Collier for the rest of his life, but he continued his struggle of making a living for himself and his wife on Marco Island. Two years after the tragedy he maintained a 5,000 tree coconut grove on the island and planted an orange grove at Henderson Creek. He also built a number of houses and represented the area of the Lee County Board of Commissioners. It was at this time that he began his avid interest in the growing clam industry on the island. In 1908 Captain Bill invented a clam dredging machine and at Caxambas a canning factory was established in 1904. In 1920 Florida was on the eve of the land boom of the 1920's and remote Marco became the feel that stirring impulse of growth. Captain Bill cut a road to the south beach about a mile from the Marco Townsite for tourists and locals.