CENTRAL FLORIDA'S FASCINATING HISTORY

Central Florida Trailblazers - February 20

2024-02-20T08:00:00.001-05:00

Zora Neale Hurston

“Zora is young and vibrant and spirited. And exceedingly attractive.” An interview arranged to promote the release of her first-ever book, Zora’s published Richmond, Indiana interview of 1934 turned out instead to read more like the biography of a rising Eatonville, Florida star. The interviewer was obviously impressed, seemingly unable to say enough about the lively character of the new author. “Spellbinding and bewitching is the personality of Zora Neale Hurston.”

Published in the Richmond Item of 14 November 1934, the interview had been arranged as part of the introduction of Zora’s first book. “She is the young author of a book called Jonah’s Gourd Vine,” the article said of the new fast-tracked book. Zora had mailed her completed manuscript to J. B. Lippincott & Co. publishing house on 3 November 1933. Lippincott, after receiving it on 6 November, mailed an acceptance letter on 16 November, merely ten days after receiving it. “The oldest publisher in the country,” said the article, “departed from a long-established custom of not publishing negro books in their eagerness to print Jonah’s Gourd Vine.

Zora Neale Hurston, 1935

The Zora Neale Hurston interview gave her birthplace as “Eatonville, in the first incorporated Negro town in the country.” Born June 1891, Zora was in fact a native of Alabama, although her family relocated to Eatonville when she was only two. “She attended grammar school in Eatonville and High School in Baltimore, Maryland,” said the article, “after which she attended Howard College.”

Zora entered a short story in a writing contest during her second year of college and won first prize. That entry also forever changed her life, as one of the judges happened to be Novelist Fannie Hurst (1889-1968), who after reading her story arranged a two-year scholarship for Zora at Barnard College. Another first; as Zora Neale Hurston became the first Black female ever to attend Barnard.

Zora’s “young, vibrant and spirited’ attitude had everything to do her continuous climb toward new career heights. Majoring in Anthropology, Zora, after graduation, was awarded a fellowship to study under Franz Uri Boas (1858-1842), considered the Father of American Anthropology. “Her study,” reported the 1934 interview, “was concentrated on the folk lore of her own race, collecting materials on music, tales, dancing, religious experiences, superstitions, and the like.”

Described as a story of love and community, Jonah’s Gourd Vine was loved by a community of book critics, earning the book’s author praise as one of the 20^th century’s greatest authors.

Not usually referred to as a historian, Zora was able to write exceptionally well about her topic because of her research. Six years before the release of her first Novel, Zora had spent more than three months at Plateau, Alabama, home then to Cudjo Lewis, who at eighty-six years of age, was believed to be the sole-surviving slave captured in Africa and brought to America to be sold as a slave. That time spent with Cudjo also led Zora to writing Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo.”

Cudjo Lewis (1841-1935)

Zora Neale Hurston, an accomplished Author, Anthropologist, and Historian from Eatonville, Florida, died 28 January 1960. She was 69 years of age.

Central Florida Trailblazer - 13 February 2024

2024-02-12T14:00:00.020-05:00

Dr. Jerry B. Callahan (1883 - 1947)

Read his life story and the word “Trailblazer” immediately comes to mind. Arriving in Orlando at the age of 23, at a time when the city still referred to itself as The Phenomenal City, Dr. Jerry B. Callahan, fresh out of Leonard Medical College of Raleigh, North Carolina, established the city’s first African American medical practice. Not only had he graduated from the first school of medical in the United States to offer a four-year curriculum in medicine, Leonard Medical, now part of Shaw University, had also been the first to open their curriculum to African American students.

When he arrived in 1907, Americans were just beginning to get acquainted with personal motorized automobiles. The horse and buggy remained the favorite form of local transportation for the ever-growing population. Orlando would be home to 3,894 citizens by 1910, and not until 1915 would The Dixie Highway set sights on the remote Orange County seat.

Within a year of Dr. Callahan’s arrival, the city’s slogan changed to The City Beautiful as the new doctor in town set out to build his Orlando medical practice. He purchased four town lots west of Division Street on 29 September 1908 – but eventually settled at 243 West Church Street, where I-4 now carries traffic across Church Street.

February 2013 Opening of the Dr. J. B. Callahan Exhibit. Left to Right, Grace Chewning of Orlando Remembered; Sara Van Arsdel, Ex. Director of Orange County Regional History Center; Mayor Buddy Dyer; Texann Ivy Buck, Exhibit creator and Orlando Remembered member.

Dr. Jerry B. Callahan’s practice spanned four decades by the time of his death in 1947, and during these 40 years as an Orlando Physician, he established himself as a highly respected and surgeon. He was described by those who knew the man as an outstanding citizen, a champion of his adopted hometown of Orlando, and a charitable man forever eager to support worthy civic projects.

Praised by other Orlando physicians for his skill and ability as both a practitioner and surgeon, Dr. Callahan earned yet another first, the first Black surgeon to use the operating room at Orange Medical Hospital.

An Orlando downtown neighborhood west of I-4, Callahan was named for Dr. Jerry B. Callahan.

“Hundreds of friends,” reported Orlando Evening Star of 4 March 1947, filled Mt. Zion Baptist Church at Washington and Chapman Streets to say farewell to Dr. Jerry Basial Callahan, M. D. Born 1883 in South Carolina, he died 28 February 1947. For the many local citizens of Orlando who came to mourn his death, skin color meant nothing.

Dr. Callahan was survived by his wife of 33 years, Mattie (Muse) Callahan, the daughter of Merritt & Sarah Muse of Jacksonville, Florida. Mattie passed 7 March 1959 and was buried in Jacksonville alongside her husband.

Central Florida Trailblazer: 6 February 2024

2024-02-05T08:22:00.006-05:00

A CITRUSLAND FLORIDA 2024 Series

Bennye Jones Kinsler, upon retiring in 1991 after 58 years of teaching in Lake County, Florida schools, was quoted as saying, “If I had 58 more years, I would give them all to teaching.” She launched her career in 1932, during the Great Depression, teaching in a one-room schoolhouse in Sorrento, Florida. By the time of her retirement in 1991, Mrs. Bennye Kinsler was teaching mentally handicapped children at Tavares Elementary School. During her first 44 years as an instructor, Bennye Jones Kinsler was teaching in a segregated school system.

Teacher of the Year 1989

“A Special Education Teacher”

Tavares Elementary School

“I have commended Mrs. Kinsler as an excellent teacher,” said Robert D. Crawford, principal of Tavares Elementary Scholl in 1988. “She is knowledgeable of the subject material, has an unfailing love for kids and an understanding of their needs. She has dedicated her whole being to helping young people reach their potential. Her patience in this task is an inspiration to all who know her. Long hours, resources, sage advice are all freely given by Mrs. Kinsler in her drive to enrich lives.” Florida Governor Lawton Chiles and his cabinet recognized Bennye Jones Kinsler’s remarkable career in 1992.

Before integration, Bennye served as Principal of Cromartie Elementary School in Tavares, and in 1976, students of Cromartie moved to Tavares Elementary School. Named for William Reed Cromartie, an early leader in the Tavares Black community, the school itself no longer exists.

Tavares Elementary School

Florida Governor Lawton Chiles and his cabinet recognized Bennye Jones Kinsler’s remarkable career in 1992.

Born 17 March 1911 in Calhoun County, Georgia, Bennye came to Lake County, Florida with her parents. In 1932, she earned a bachelor’s degree from Bethune Cookman College in Daytona Beach, and thereafter received a teaching certificate in September of 1936. Bennye married in 1935, to Clarence Dennis Kinsler – a teacher.

“This school and our school system,” said Principal Robert Crawford, “is a better place for kids because of the love, dedication, and talents of this unique individual.”

Tavares Trailblazer Bennye Jones Kinsler died 8 March 1999 at age 87.

Florida Trailblazer - Bertha Honore Potter

2024-01-27T09:07:00.000-05:00

Mrs. Potter Palmer was a Daughter Too!

Above: Bertha (Honore) Palmer at right (1849-1918)

A Special Edition Blog Compliments of The Ladies Were Daughters Too

Conflicting Narratives

During the question phase of my presentation to the Sara De Soto Chapter of The Daughters of the American Revolution (NSDAR) recently, a member commented that their Society had been informed that the wife of Chicago’s esteemed Potter Palmer had “declined joining The Daughters of the American Revolution at the request of her husband.”

The comment was indeed appropriate, for I had just then informed the members that Bertha (Honore) Palmer had been the “first-ever NSDAR State Regent.” I had contradicted information previously supplied to the Chapter regarding the incomparable Mrs. Potter Palmer of Chicago and Sarasota, the woman described by VisitSarasota.com as “The Woman Who Tamed Wild Sarasota.”

Although I did respond by saying that I had full confidence in my statement, time, unfortunately, prevented me from doing justice in responding to her question. Therefore, for the Sara De Soto NSDAR Chapter members who attended my January presentation, and to those curious to know, this Special Edition blog is intended especially for you.

From the Capital City to the Windy City:

My Sarasota presentation was about the similarities of the Mount Vernon Ladies Association (MVLA) founders and the organizers of the NSDAR, a talk based on snippets from my new book, The Ladies were Daughters Too. The MVLA had been formally established in 1858, whereas the NSDAR was founded in Washington, DC in 1890. Both organizations were to be national in scope with each founded by patriotic women having lineal family ties with the founders of this great Nation.

Although founded in the District of Columbia in October 1890, the first NSDAR State organization and the first NSDAR Chapter were established 700 miles west of DC in Chicago, Illinois.

Chicago, the first NSDAR Chapter, and Illinois, the first DAR State organization, were each formed on 16 March 1891. Twenty-eight Chicago ladies attended an organization meeting for both the State and local Chapter on that date. The first of 28 names listed in the 17 March 1891 news article about the NSDAR Society’s was “Mrs. Potter Palmer.”

Chicago Meeting of 16 March 1891

“Mrs. Frank Osborne presided over a meeting of Chicago ladies, who assembled at the World’s Fair headquarters yesterday to form a Chapter of The Daughters of the American Revolution." Among (28) ladies listed as present at the meeting was "Mrs. Potter Palmer.”

“They were all descendants of men who fought in the Revolution. The first work to be done will be to secure an extensive collection of revolutionary relics for the Exposition.”

“Mrs. Potter Palmer is Regent of the Illinois organization, and Mrs. Frank Osborne has been made Regent of the Chicago Chapter.”

Chicago Tribune, 17 March 1891”

Important takeaways of this Chicago Tribune article, released the very next day of the organizing meeting to establish both the Chicago and Illinois organizations, are this:

1. Mrs. Potter Palmer was identified as Regent of the Illinois organization.

2. The meeting took place at the World’s Fair Headquarters.

3. The Daughters of the American Revolution planned to have an exhibit at the World’s Fair.

Membership in the NSDAR grew quickly after the founding of the Chicago Chapter, and for good reason: Exposure! The birth of the Illinois State DAR organization and the Chicago DAR Chapter coincided with Bertha Palmer becoming the head of a World’s Fair sub-organization called Lady Managers, women from every state in the Union taking part in the planning of the Chicago World’s Fair Exposition of 1892-93. The two organizations were in fact founded, as the article above said, "at the World's Fair Headquarters."

The Women's Building, Chicago World's Fair Exposition 1892-93

Exhibit 72 of The Ladies were Daughters Too

There were 117 World’s Fair Lady Managers in all, women who were NOT representing the NSDAR but rather ladies working for the Lady Managers Committee funded by the United States Congress. Although introduced to the DAR organization when the Chicago Chapter and State organization were formed, it seems the DAR organizers decided to separate themselves from the government funded World’s Fair organization of Lady Managers.

At a meeting of 30 April 1892, reported the Great Falls Tribune: “It was decided that it will not be feasible for The Daughters to have a colonial exhibit at the Columbian fair.” The reason for a change of heart was that the Lady Managers were to have the exhibit in the Women’s Building – all paid for by taxpayer money. In what appears to be a prudent move, Mrs. Potter Palmer, President of the Lady Managers, surrendered her Illinois State Regent position to Mrs. Frank Osborne, aka Effie (Reeme) Osborne.

A Gala Chicago Celebration

Planning for Chicago’s World’s Fair had begun with an all-male organization. A 'World Exposition,' the organizers of the Fair had huge plans from the start, a World’s Fair celebration coinciding with the 400^th Anniversary of Christopher Columbus arriving in the New World. Congress became a partner in the Fair, as funds were approved in DC to support Chicago’s extravagant affair.

Although women’s suffrage was afoot in the 1890s, men continued to exclude women from such matters as voting and making decisions at the World’s Fair. The very reason the NSDAR exists today is because men denied the ladies memberships in the Sons of the American Revolution, organized one year prior to the creation of the DAR. A group of women thereafter decided to form their own organization. Despite the formation of Lady Managers’ who were not to have decision making authority – they made decisions. Big decisions!

And the reason the Lady Managers made decisions about the World’s Fair was because of their leader, Bertha (Honore) Palmer. The resolve and persuasive powers of Bertha were no match to the male dominated planning committee. “Mrs. Potter Palmer” became a tough lady to say no to, including for the Congress, who granted a request of $400,000 to build the extravagant free-standing Women’s Building shown above, Exhibit 72 of my book, The Ladies were Daughters Too.

UPCOMING TRAILBLAZERS

February: Black History Month Trailblazers

March: Women's History Month Trailblazers

A Perfect Place at a Perfect Time:

Understanding how the World’s Fair played an important part in the initial development of the NSDAR is to fully appreciate how the NSDAR membership increased so rapidly throughout the United States during the 1890s.

“When we review,” said Mrs. Potter Palmer in September 1891, “the gradual steps by which we have slowly gained one point after another – from the directory a superb building, from Congress favorable legislation, and from the commission the right to take charge of all the interests of women at the Exposition – we must feel that we have been upheld and sustained for the accomplishment of a grand purpose; that we have a mission to fulfill which we must regard as scared, and that to its accomplishment we must bend our untiring energies.”

The Lady Managers of the World’s Fair were not serving as members of the NSDAR, but many returned home after the fair to help organize NSDAR chapters throughout the country. And while Bertha (Honore) Palmer only served as Illinois State Regent of NSDAR for only a brief time, her role as the first-ever State Regent is indeed irrefutable. Her powerful influence gave relevance to the National Society, for which Mrs. Angell is but one shining example.

Sarah (Caswell) Angell (1831-1903)

Exhibit 74: The Ladies were Daughters Too

Mrs. Angell, more properly identified as Sarah Swope (Caswell) Angell, represented Michigan as one of the 117 Lady Managers of the World’s Fair. After the Fair ended, Sarah returned home to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she organized the Ann Arbor Chapter of the NSDAR, a chapter that is today known as the Sarah Caswell Angell Chapter of The Daughters of the American Revolution.

Giving Credit where Credit is Due

It seems unlikely in this author’s view that Bertha Palmer ended her involvement in the NSDAR at her husband’s request. Potter Palmer had already achieved success and seems to have supported his wife’s every endeavor. It is more likely that Bertha relinquished her role as Illinois Regent to concentrate her time on a demanding position with the World’s Fair. In that capacity, Bertha not only traveled to DC to testify before Congress, she also traveled the World convincing other nations to have Exhibits in the Women's Building at the Chicago World's Fair.

Mrs. Bertha (Honore) Palmer survived husband Potter and in time became a prominent figure in the story of Sarasota, Florida. Widow Bertha Potter acquired 75,000 acres in Manatee County (Sarasota County did not yet exist), acreage that had been part of Hamilton Disston’s four million acres. First acquired from Disston by Scottish investors in the 1880s, the 75,000 acres were then acquired after Florida's Great Freeze of 1894-95 by investors associated with Joseph H. Lord of Orlando, Chicago, and Sarasota.

The Ladies were Daughters Too is available at Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/Ladies-were-Daughters-Too/dp/B0CR82P2ZG/

Having left an indelible mark on the Windy City, Widow Bertha (Honore) Palmer migrated to Florida, where she made magic once again. Bertha the snowbird, however, is a remarkable story all its own, part of which is told in my book, To Sarasota, with Love, Orlando.

I invite you to check out my entire Central Florida history collection

Books by Richard Lee Cronin

Florida Trailblazer: William W. Woodruff

2024-01-23T08:00:00.001-05:00

William Washington Woodruff (1831-1841)

Imagine an orange grower of 1860 turned State politician, a fellow 30 years of age, riding astride a scrappy mule as he journeyed ever so slowly 115 miles along rugged Florida dirt trails between Sanford and Gainesville, and you will have successfully conjured up a glimpse of William Washington Woodruff of Fort Reid, Florida.

One of two little-known Orange County residents of 1860, William Woodruff, in January 1861, traveled to Tallahassee to take part in Florida’s Secession Convention. His role as a delegate at the convention transformed Woodruff into one of the most widely known citizens of his day. As for the other little-known delegate from Orange County – Isaac N. Rutland - not so much.

Nancy (Galloway) Woodruff - Beck

William Woodruff, born 1831 in Mississippi, came to Orange County’s Mellonville in the 1850s to live with his father, Elias Woodruff. Elias had been appointed the first postmaster at the Lake Monroe village of Mellonville on 31 March 1846. The father and son also established a citrus grove of 40 acres, a historic parcel which became known as “Woodruff Place.”

In 1860, William Woodruff and Isaac Rutland, two of only several young men residing in all of Orange County, were chosen to serve as delegates representing Orange County at the Secession Convention. Both men voted NO to Secession at the convention, two of only seven delegates to oppose Florida leaving the Union. Both men then remained in Tallahassee to write a new Florida Constitution, and afterwards, each then enlisted in the Home Guard, a local Orange County Calvary regiment charged with protecting Central Florida from a possible Union invasion.

William Woodruff narrowly escaped being captured by the Union Army in May 1864 at Cook’s Ferry, near Lake Jesup. He reportedly swam across the St. John’s River to safety. As a member of the Home Guard, William was able to return home to his wife Nancy (Galloway) at times during the War. Two Woodruff children were born during the War, and another two after.

William Washington Woodruff died in 1872. Widow Nancy (Galloway) Woodruff remarried, to Charles Beck, a subject for a later 2024 Trailblazer.

The Rutland Mule Matter, Florida's Civil War Historic Novel

Seven Honorable Floridians, The Seven Delegated who voted NO!

Both will be available at Pine Castle Pioneer Days, February 2024

Ethel State Park Grand Opening, March 9, 2024

And Amazon.com

Florida Trailblazer: Robert R. Reid II

2024-01-16T08:00:00.019-05:00

Robert Raymond Reid II (1789-1841)

The namesake of Fort Reid (Mellonville Road east side of Sanford) was Robert Raymond Reid II, Florida’s Territorial Governor from 1839 until his death from typhoid fever in March 1841. Reid II was soon mistaken by surveyors with several Reed’s who came to Florida, including Florida's Governor Harrison Reed, who served from 1868 thru 1873.

Reid II spoke in favor of allowing the Army to wage war as they saw fit when the Second Indian War began to drag on. The Army showed their appreciation for his support by naming Fort Reid in his honor. Named in 1842, surveyors showed it as Fort Reed as early as 1846 – locking in the confusion throughout Florida’s history. The survey section below is borrowed from my 2015 book, First Road to Orlando.

1845 Government Survey showing "Fort Reed."

"First Road to Orlando" Exhibit

Robert R. Reid II was the father of Robert R. Reid III, the merchant of Palatka who traveled in 1867 to the wilderness of Orange County to submit the low bid of $900 at a Sheriff’s auction for 113 acres of what we now know as downtown Orlando. Thirteen years after acquiring Orlando at auction, Reid III, in 1880, paid to resolve the land dispute between himself and the Patrick clan, a dispute that threatened to have the railroad bypass Orlando.

First Road to Orlando (2015)

Reid III is indeed an important name in the fascinating story of 19^th Central Florida, a story I first wrote of in 2013 in ‘First Road to Orlando,’ and a fascinating history expanded upon in my 2023 book, ‘Orlando: A History of the Phenomenal City.’

Orlando: a History of the Phenomenal City (2023)

Available at Pine Castle Pioneer Days, 24 & 25 February 2024

Ethel State Park Grand Opening, 9 March 2024

And at Amazon.com

Florida Trailblazer: Hannah (Huestis) Adams

2024-01-13T09:41:00.002-05:00

Hannah (Huestis) Adams of Tangerine, Florida

0109 Hannah (Huestis) Adams

Hannah (Huestis) Adams is the first Central Florida pioneer to be highlighted throughout the year 2024 in my Florida Trailblazer series. As I write this post a blizzard is burying much of Iowa in snow, so it is easy to understand that, especially in the 1870s, Iowans might choose to escape the winter and spend their winter months in Florida. The Adams family did just that!

One can read a lot about her husband, for Hannah (Huestis) Adams was the wife of Tangerine, Florida founder Dudley W. Adams. Hannah and her sister Bessie were rugged Central Florida Frontierswomen as early as 1875. But there were no railroads in Central Florida then, so they came to Lake Beauclair south of the present town of Mount Dora overland. They became Tangerine snowbirds even before the neighboring town of Mount Dora was founded.

Dudley W. Adams (1831-1897)

Why Hannah and her clan endured the difficult journey to tough it out in Central Florida is likely best explained by a poem written by her husband Dudley:

"In the radiant, the magic glow,

reflects itself in the lake below;

The rainbow clouds have each shining fold,

richly embroidered around the gold,

O! Where on earth is a scene more fair

than a sunset view on Lake Beauclair?"

Dudley and Hannah of Tangerine, Florida are featured in my book, "Mount Dora: The Lure. The Founding. The Founders." (2021). Tangerine of Orange County was so close to Mount Dora of Lake County that residents often thought of themselves as Lake County citizens.

Available for purchase at the Tavares History Research Center

121 E. Alfred St., Tavares (Open Tuesday & Thursday 10-2)

Pine Castle Pioneer Days Festival February 24 & 25, 2024

Ethel State Park Grand Opening, March 9, 2024

And at Amazon.com

New Smyrna Beach via Pine Castle Pioneer Days

2024-01-12T12:43:00.006-05:00

New Smyrna Beach via Pine Castle Pioneer Days?

Historian Robert Redd to be a History Tent Guest Speaker

The History Tent by Pine Castle Historical Society

One of our nine guest speakers at this year’s Pine Castle Historical Society History Tent, we are thrilled to announce, will be Historian Robert Redd of Volusia County.

But why, some might question, a Volusia County speaker in Pine Castle, Florida? A question of this nature would be reasonable for those new to our area, or even for one who is not up to par on how Central Florida developed during its earliest years.

Volusia County history, however, should feel right at home here in Pine Castle, in the heart of Orange County - and for a plethora of reasons.

Orange County’s second post office opened 5 June 1845 at New Smyrna, merely three days after the first Orange County post office had opened at Enterprise. Each place is today part of Volusia County, but back in 1845, New Smyrna was a village in the newly established county of Orange, in the newly formed State of Florida. For the next nine years, from 1845 until 1854, Orange County had oceanfront property to offer - but only a handful of settlers dared to venture this far south in the new State.

The 1850 census of Orange County recorded 566 inhabitants, with half of these courageous citizens living east of the St. Johns River in what would become Volusia County in 1854. The remaining 250 plus brave souls lived in what is now Orange, Osceola, Seminole and half of Lake Counties.

J. McRobert Baker (Exhibit 10, Beyond Gatlin: a History of South Orange County by yours truly)

In 1854, State Legislator J. McRobert Baker introduced a Bill to create Volusia from Orange County. Volusia was made official on 29 December 1854. Although a resident of Duval County, J. McRobert Baker was interested in Orange and Sumter County, and he even owned 40 acres at Fort Gatlin – the Pine Castle region of today. (Fort Gatlin is east of and just up the hill from Cypress Grove Park, where the History Tent will be located).

J. McRobert Baker was also responsible for sneaking a Bill through the legislature making Orlando the County Seat of Orange County in 1857. With Orlando the County Seat, chances of a railroad crossing Baker’s property at Fort Gatlin increased – thereby increasing land values too.

Unfortunately, as I explain in Beyond Gatlin: A History of South Orange County, J. McRobert Baker became a casualty of the Civil War. His involvement with the future of Orange and Volusia Counties ended abruptly, but his accomplishments pre-Civil War endured. Volusia and Orlando exist in their current form largely because of J. McRobert Baker.

Decades later, the Dixie Highway passed through Volusia County, Orlando, and then Pine Castle on its way to all points in South Florida.

Pine Castle circa 1910

Volusia and Orange have a lot of history to share, so plan on attending Robert Redd’s 2 PM presentation on Saturday, 24 February 2024, in the History Tent at Pine Castle Pioneer Days. He will be discussing how postcards of yesteryear can aid in learning about our history, and he will have an assortment of cards to demonstrate just such a claim.

While you are at Pioneer Days, stop by my booth adjacent to the History Tent and say hello. I'll be the fellow who introduces Robert Redd at 2 PM, and you can then find me in my booth nearby. I’m always eager to talk Central Florida history.

Bring your family and tell your friends!

See you at Pioneer Days, February 24 & 25, 2024

Custodians of Orlando, Florida History - Part 3

2023-09-29T11:52:00.003-04:00

Part Three: Orlandoans Remembered

Towering nineteen stories above the skyline in 1971, the new Continental National American Insurance building on Orange Avenue became a harbinger for the next generation of buildings in downtown Orlando. Known by locals as the CNA Building, the impressive skyscraper set an example of excellence for other downtown high-rises to follow, launching a transformation from a small southern city into a World-Class Metropolis. Today, one must look closely to view the CNA amidst the busy Orlando skyline. One word often used to describe this evolution: “Progress.”

As the impressive new CNA building neared completion, an Orlando landmark several blocks to the north was preparing to refurbish its aging lobby. Commercial Interior Designer Dan Acito was hired to oversee the refurbishing of San Juan Hotel’s lobby. A Cincinnati transplant, (not yours truly), Dan was new to the Central Florida area, having relocated his established Ohio based business to Winter Park in 1968.

The original San Juan Hotel Circa 1885

Nearly a decade after his San Juan Hotel remodeling project, “progress” led to the historic hotel falling victim to the wrecking ball. Acito was at that time quoted as saying, “we decided if we can’t save the building physically, we’ll save it visually.” The "we" for whom Dan Acito was speaking was the Orlando Remembered group, an organization he and a dozen others had organized in the aftermath of the destruction of the San Juan Hotel.

Organized as a Committee of the Orange County Historical Society, the mission of the Orlando Remembered group included the placement of displays in downtown lobbies to memorialize the historic structures that once graced Orlando’s downtown district. One of the early displays was of the San Juan Hotel, but in June 1985, “250 people helped unveil the Orlando Remembered memorabilia display of the Bass Hotel – Spanish Restaurant Block.”

The historic Bass Hotel, operated by Walter C. Bass, an Orlandoan proclaimed in 1973 to be a “City Father,” was the proprietor of the hotel which once stood alongside the historic Wilmott Building, on the east side of South Orange Avenue, where today stands the CNA Building. The Bass Hotel, prior to Walter acquiring the hostelry, had originally been known as the Astor Hotel.

1915 Orlando Directory for the Astor Hotel

Orlando’s Astor Hotel of 1914 occupied the upper two floors of the newly completed Giles-Hovey Building. Constructed by Orlandoans James L. Giles and C. A. Hovey, their three-story building stood beside the Wilmott Building, completed around 1914 by the legendary Captain Wilmott.

Historic structures are not merely architecturally pleasing, they remind us too of the remarkable individuals, men and women, who transformed a free-range cow pasture into a vibrant Orlando we know and love today. Remembering their buildings are but one reason for preserving the magnificent structures of yesteryear. They are also memorials to the Orlandoans who built them.

Still, for Orlando anyway, it seems to have been a challenge – albeit labor of love – for those who have struggled over the years to preserve the visions of yesteryear. They did so under various Society names, but they all had one thing in common - saving the past.

We may not have an Orlando Historical Society anymore, but we do have individuals still trying to preserve the past. And Orlando Remembered, for nearly 44 years now, has been one such organization doing just that.

This is your invitation to an extra-special Orlando event.

If Central Florida history is of interest to you, we at Orlando Remembered invite you to attend our meeting on 18 October 2023. Free and open to the public, this meeting is held on the 2nd floor of the downtown library, where at 10:15 AM on that date, we will present, “Remembering Orlandoans,” an exclusive visual history of some of the remarkable men and women who have participated in the founding and development of Orlando.

Worth repeating is this, our 10:15 AM event is free and open to the public.

Custodians of Orlando, Florida History - Part 2

2023-09-27T11:55:00.000-04:00

Custodians of Central Florida Hisotry

Part Two: This Dog has History

“This dog has a history,” a catchy 9 November 1956 headline for an Orlando Sentinel article in which a piece of tree bark, in the shape of a dog, was described as one of the items on display at the Orange County Museum. The museum was located then “in the old red brick courthouse.”

Described as a piece from the historic Council Oak tree near Pineloch Lake, a photo of the tree bark artifact (shown with this post) had also been an exhibit in ‘Orlando in the Long, Long Ago’ (1938), by author Kena Fries. Miss Fries, daughter of Orange County surveyor John O. Fries, wrote of visiting the old Council Oak in September of 1904, and of her picking up the tree bark, “a chip with the most peculiar markings and shape, resembling a watch dog.” Kena Fries also wrote that she had been visiting the residence of J. M. Alden on the day she collected the tree bark, a casual mention that is itself a statement chock full of intriguing Orange County history.

Known as the ‘Yankee Artist of the Pacific Coast,’ James M. Alden retired in 1891 after 57 years in the Navy. He had been a participant in the Navy’s West Coast Expedition and his paintings of that journey are today valuable collector items. In his later years with the Navy, Alden served in Washington, DC as Secretary to Rear-Admiral David Dixon Porter. Upon retiring he and wife Frances (Hewlett) Porter purchased an existing home on the west shore of Lake Pineloch, a home that had originally been the residence of Francis W. Eppes, the grandson of President Thomas Jefferson. Francis Eppes began building his home in 1871, and although remodeled a time or two over the past 150 years, his historic residence continues to stand guard over Lake Pineloch.

We do not know if Kena Fries was aware of the history of the Alden residence, or of the artistic talent of James M. Alden, who would later paint the dead and decaying Council Oak. In 1915, Clarence E. Howard, in his book ‘Early Settlers of Orange County,’ included a black and white photo of Alden’s ‘Council Oak’ painting. Along with the painting was a brief history of Orange County authored by Annie (Caldwell) Whitner in which she wrote: “At Fort Gatlin, stands the bleached trunk and bare widespread branches of an immense dead Live-Oak. The red men and white men met here to hold a council.”

Melrose Room, Second Floor downtown, Orlando Library

10:15 AM October 18, 2023

If Central Florida history is of interest to you, I invite you to attend our Orlando Remembered meeting on 18 October 2023. Free and open to the public, our meeting is held in the Melrose Room on the 2nd floor of the downtown library, where at 10:15 AM on that date, my special presentation, “Remembering Orlandoans,” will feature a visual history of the remarkable men and women who participated in the founding and development of Orlando. Worth repeating is this, our 10:15 AM event is free and open to the public.

Now, as for the historic Council Oak and the Custodians of Orlando History, this series will continue. Stay tuned!

Custodians of Orlando, Florida History

2023-09-24T07:08:00.002-04:00

Custodians of Orlando History

An Orlando Remembered Group Series

By Author & Historian Richard Lee Cronin

Part One:

Have you attended an Orlando Historical Society meeting lately? Neither have I, which is why I became curious of late as to why no such organization exists today. A Society by this name did in fact exist once upon a time but has since become part of Orlando’s rich history its members had set out to preserve.

The Orlando Historical Society was not the first such organization organized to be the custodians of Orlando’s fascinating history. As early as 1912, prior to Seminole County being carved out in 1913, Annie Louise (Caldwell) Whitner of Sanford, as Chairperson of an Orange County Historical Society formed to preserve Central Florida history, authored a brief history of the county – and included the legend of Fort Gatlin’s infamous Council Oak, a notable tree dead yet still standing near the homestead of yet another member of the early Society (more on the tree later in this series).

Historians, including yours truly, have authored numerous books about the origins of our Orange County seat of government, and in most every case, we authors relied heavily on the invaluable information passed along to us by volunteers who had taken on the role of custodians of relics and data relating to our past.

One organization the custodians of the past operated under was known as the Orlando Historical Society. Another such organization was the Orange County Historical Commission, who in 1964, opened an exhibit on the 8th floor of what was then the new Courthouse Annex (since demolished), a building which replaced the historic 1892 red brick courthouse shown with this post. One item on exhibit at that time was the bell (Insert of photo above) retrieved from the red brick courthouse just prior to its demolition.

Plan to attend this exclusive presentation

Free and Open to the public

10:15 AM October 18, 2023

Orlando Remembered Meeting

Orlando Library Downtown

Orlando native Donald Alexander Cheney, son of Orlando pioneer Judge John M. Cheney, served as Chairman of the Orange County Historical Commission from its founding until his death in 1983; was credited as well for establishing a historical museum in Loch Haven Park; and assisted in the 1971 formation of the Orange County Historical Society, serving as its first President. Donald A. Cheney (1889-1983), said his obituary, “Virtually was the history of Orange County.”

So then, who better for us to feature in kicking off this special Orlando Remembered series?

If historic Orlandoans are of interest to you, plan to attend the October 18, 2023 Orlando Remembered meeting, in the Melrose Room on the 2nd floor of the downtown library, for a special presentation of “Remembering Orlandoans”. This free event starts at 10:15 AM and is open to the public.

Meanwhile, this Custodians of Orlando History series will be continued. Stay tuned!

Sarasota Month: Emeline Dykes

2023-03-15T11:22:00.006-04:00

Sarasota Month: Emeline Dykes Foster

The "Phillippi House" on Sarasota Bay (1847)

Sarasota Month here at Rick’s Blog began by celebrating the amazing life of Bertha Honore, an accomplished Floridian who is better known throughout South Florida as Mrs. Potter Palmer (see also my Blog of March 7, 2023). Many of the bravest of the brave frontierswomen however are rarely mentioned in history books, despite their ability to survive the most difficult of times. These all too often forgotten Florida pioneers are the women I challenge myself to learn of, so I can in turn share these extra-special individuals with my history fans.

SARASOTA MONTH at RICK'S BLOG

Of particular interest to Sarasota’s History Day in the Park celebration should be Miss Emeline Dykes, a Florida native born 27 February 1842 in Citrus County. The fact that Emeline counts among the young female survivors of the 1840s is of itself qualification for special mention, but her place in Sarasota history – or I should say Florida history – deserves more than a sentence or two about her being among those young women who conquered the difficulties of surviving to adulthood in Florida’s wilderness.

Emeline is equally fascinating to me as a Central Florida historian because of her ties to pioneers of my homeplace. Her mother was Frances Blitch, a name that traces as well to the earliest days of Florida’s Fort Gatlin and Pine Castle area south of downtown Orlando. The Blitch family of the pre-Statehood Homosassa region spread throughout Central and South Florida.

Emeline Dykes, as best as we can determine, had married three times. Her second husband was Ephriam Rollin Foster, who she married 10 March 1875. Emeline and Ephriam then had a daughter, born 28 October 1879, at Manatee County. As Sarasota County did not yet exist, genealogy records for Emeline’s daughter have been adjusted by family records to show her place of birth as “Sarasota, Sarasota County.” That adjustment is not disputed in the least.

One month following the marriage of Emeline and Ephriam in 1875, the General Land Office issued a homestead deed to Ephriam R. Foster for 38 acres that is identified as “Lot 1, Section 31, Township 36 South, Range 18 East.” This very parcel appears on the 1847 survey above as Lot 1, the sliver of land fronting Sarasota Bay just above the red arrow added by me.

BOOK LAUNCH AT PHILLIPPI'S ESTATE

To Sarasota, With Love, Orlando

Our Shared Heritage

By Richard Lee Cronin

My red arrow points to a noteworthy structure of early Sarasota history. Surveyors of the 1840s rarely sketched “places of interest” because their work preceded most every homesteader. But in 1847, Deputy Surveyor A. H. Jones noted the existence of the “Phillippi House” on Sarasota Bay. Its location in Lot 2 places the Phillippi House as adjacent to the property deeded to Ephriam and Emeline (Dykes) Foster. (Surveyor Jones identified the Phillippi house of 1847 as being about one-half mile north of Siesta Drive of today.)

Following the death of Ephriam in 1882, Emeline remarried. One of the earliest of pioneer women ever to reside in what is now the town of Sarasota, and after giving birth to seven known Florida pioneers in the 1860s and 1870s, she died in 1913 at the age of 71.

Sarasota Frontierswoman Emeline Dykes was a neighbor to one of the areas first known structures, the Phillippi House. On March 25, 2023, at the Phillippi Estate in Sarasota, History Day in the Park will celebrate this town's history. And I am extremely proud to be part of this splendid celebration. (Note: Phillippi Estate Park is located along the Phillippi Creek and not at the location pinpointed in 1847 by the government surveyors.)

I hope you will stop by my booth and say hello. I invite you to also attend one or more of my 15-minute after each hour presentations at my booth. Here's my schedule for each brief presentation:

Snippets of Florida History

Rick Cronin’s History Booth

Sarasota’s History Day in the Park

Saturday, March 25, 2023

Snippets Schedule (Each Talk 10 minutes or less)

A Women’s Month Tribute to Rose (10:15 AM)

Mrs. Joseph H. Lord’s Orlando Ghost (11:15 AM)

Orlando and the Sanibel Lighthouse (12:15 PM)

Would YOU have been as Honorable? (1:15 PM)

What’s with Lake Wailes of Lake Wales? (2:15 PM)

A Women’s Month Tribute to Bertha (3:15 PM)

From Sarasota’s Indian Beach to Orlando (4:15 PM)

Naming Lakes Sue & Virginia

2023-03-12T08:12:00.000-04:00

Naming Lakes Sue & Virginia

1890 Orange County map of Lakes Sue and Virginia

During my ‘Naming the Winter Park Lakes’ presentation recently at the Winter Park Historical Association, I was asked about the accuracy of my version of how Lake Sue and Lake Virginia were named. It was a legitimate question since another written history had assigned credit for the naming differently: “Much, if not all the timber came from a sawmill of George W, Moyers,” says an alternate version about where the wood came from to build early Winter Park structures, “whose operation was located on a portion of Lake Virginia’s shore now occupied by Rollins College.” Mr. Moyers, concludes that alternate version, “named Lake Virginia after his state of origin, Lake Sue for his wife, the former Miss Henkel.” I believe this alternate version is wrong!

I stand by the documented account as stated in my book ‘Orlando Lakes: Homesteaders and Namesakes.’ As is so often the case in early Central Florida histories, oral histories are mistaken as facts to draw incorrect conclusions. There was indeed a pioneer named George W. Moyers, who did in fact have a sawmill and was indeed married to Susan Henkel. But Lake Sue was not named for Susan (Henkel) Moyers.

Lake Sue is known to have been named as of mid-1882 because it is mentioned in a deed dated the 3^rd of July of that year. George W. Moyers never owned land on or near Lake Sue as of that date, whereas William F and Susan P. Russell were homesteaders on 160 acres when they sold forty of those acres to a Mr. Joseph H. Bruce, issuing a deed to the man which contained the following wording: “about eleven and one-half acres being land, and the remainder of said tract being in Lake Sue.” Russell’s deed correctly gives the location of Lake Sue as Section 18, Township 22 South, Range 30 East (Note the 18 printed on Lake Sue in the map above). “Mrs. Susan Russell,” after the death of her husband, also placed an ad in the Orlando Evening Star of 29 February 1884, attempting to sell her remaining 100 acres, land which, according to her ad, was said to be located on “Lake Sue.”

3 July 1882 Lake Sue deed by William F. & Susan P. Russell [OCID#18839022136]

George W. Moyers had relocated his family from Virginia by 1880 and was a resident of Orange County in the census of that year, but his original homestead was not at Winter Park. The Moyers homestead of 1880 was in Township 21 South (not Township 22 South), six miles north of Lake Sue. West of Altamonte Springs, Moyers property was near today’s intersection of Montgomery Road and Highway 436. When Moyers arrived in 1880, Altamonte Springs was at the time in its early development, and Winter Park had yet to establish itself.

1890 Orange County map of G. W. Moyers west of Lake Orienta, Altamonte Springs

The 1880 Orange County census lists the youngest Moyers child as 2 years old, born in Virginia. Moyers family records reflect that a son Kagen was born at Altamonte Springs, Florida, on “16 February 1881.” In February 1882, George W. Moyers purchased land at Winter Park, receiving a deed which described his property as located on the shore of Lake Osceola in Section 5, Township 22 South, 30 East. An 1884 map of Winter Park (see below) shows the Moyer property as located on the shore of Lake Osceola.

1884 Winter Park map showing G. W. Moyers parcel on Lake Osceola

Lake Virginia was already named when George W. Moyers relocated from Altamonte Springs to Winter Park. In fact, Lake Virginia was already named when Moyers arrived in Florida. We can establish this fact from another recorded deed dated May 29, 1878. The Moyers family was still at Virginia when Bolling R. & Helena Swoope signed a deed which included this description of the parcel being sold: “to a point in Lake Virginia.”

The Swoope’s had purchased 40 acres on Lake Virginia on October 13, 1876, acquiring the land from a friend and fellow Virginian, Anzi Arthur. Swoope and Arthur were residents of Augusta County, Virginia.

Lake Sue was indeed named for the wife of a pioneer who had homesteaded on the lake, but the last name of the pioneer was Russell, not Moyers. And Lake Virginia was in fact named for the state of Virginia by a resident who had relocated from that state to the Winter Park area, but the name of that pioneer was, I firmly believe based upon extensive research, Swoope not Moyers.

References for my research of each of the 303 lakes included in Orlando Lakes: Homesteaders & Namesakes can be found verified for I list them at the end of each lake.

Early Central Florida written history does indeed contain inaccurate information, but this is so, I believe, because of the tragic times our pioneers endured while attempting to tame a wilderness that was anything but kind to these newcomers. Survival topped the to-do list of every day life, and the recording of an accurate history was far down on that same list. But we have today an opportunity to peruse the many dated documents of yesteryear – and right their story.

Orlando Lakes: Homesteaders & Namesakes

By Richard Lee Cronin

Sarasota Month: Bertha Honore Palmer

2023-03-07T15:25:00.003-05:00

Sarasota Month:

Woman's History Month: Bertha Honorȇ Palmer

Bertha Honorȇ Palmer (1849 – 1918)

Sarasota’s growth and development benefited immensely from its association with Bertha (Honorȇ) Palmer, widow of Chicago millionaire Potter Palmer. In 1910, newspaper headlines informed the world that Mrs. Potter Palmer had acquired 75,000 plus acres in the vicinity of Sarasota and Venice, along Florida’s famed Gulf of Mexico. By the time of her death in 1918, Bertha had, in eight years, nearly doubled the value of the estate that had been left to her by her husband. But even before her husband’s death, Bertha had herself become an accomplished individual. She was by no means simply a wealthy Widow.

A Triumphant World’s Fair:

The Inter Ocean, Chicago, Illinois 1 November 1893

“In the organization of the board,” reported an extensive review of the management of Chicago’s 1893 World Exposition, “it was generally conceded that the election of Bertha Honorȇ Palmer as President of the Board of Lady Managers was the wisest choice that could be made.” The independent review spoke highly of the achievements of the Board that had been formed in 1890, and went on to say, “she came to her position with very thorough social training, with tact and self-mastery that have been invaluable.”

“She is of Southern extraction,” said the World’s Fair review of Bertha Honorȇ Palmer, “being born in the city of Louisville. She was educated in a convent at Georgetown, D. C., and is still remembered there as a student of brilliant promise. She is a fine linguist and a pleasing conversationalist, two accomplishments that have been of the greatest advantage.”

In her role as President of the Board of Lady Managers, Bertha Honorȇ Palmer traveled to Europe to promote involvement by other countries in the Exposition. “At the time of the opening exercise last May (1892),’ the review article stated, “the board had the satisfaction of seeing represented in the Woman’s Building a valuable and complete showing from Great Britain, France, Germany, Austria, Russia, Italy, Mexico, Brazil, Siam, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Holland, and Greece.”

A Woman’s Building at Chicago’s World Fair:

The Woman's Building, Chicago World's Fair of 1893

Says the National Park Service website of the Board of Lady Managers for the Chicago 1893 Exposition: “During the planning stage, some civically engaged, upper-class women pressured Exposition administrators for greater representation. As a result, Congress authorized and funded the Board of Lady Managers. The 117 Board members were the first women who served in an official capacity at a world’s fair. Yet, women were still excluded from any major decision-making. Socialite Bertha Honoré Palmer served as the Board’s president.” One thing the NPS failed to say about the accomplishments of Bertha and her Board of Lady Managers is best summarized by an 1893 statement by a review of the Exposition itself:

“Mrs. Palmer’s efforts to exploit The Fair in Europe were not surpassed in zeal and perseverance by those which had such force and weight with the Congress of the United States. It is universally admitted that no one member of the National Commission or Directory exercised with that difficult body one-tenth the influence which Mrs. Palmer exerted through the force of her own personality.”

“It is a Lovely and Charming Place.”

In late fall 1916, while motoring south from Chicago toward Sarasota, Bertha Honorȇ Palmer detoured onto the Central Branch of the newly established Dixie Highway to pay a visit to Winter Park, a town she described that November as a lovely and charming place. The Widow Palmer had come to Orange County on both business and pleasure.

Earlier in 1916, Bertha Palmer had been elected the First Vice-President of the Florida Livestock Association, and so one reason for her driving to Central Florida was to visit with Dr. William Fremont Blackman. Retired from his position as President of Rollins College, and not yet ready to publish his acclaimed History of Orange County, Dr. Blackman had been elected President of the Florida Livestock Association at the same meeting that February. And so, among other places in Central Florida she planned to visit, Mrs. Palmer toured Dr. Blackman’s 4,000 acres Wekiwa Ranch on the St. Johns River. Afterwards, she visited the Willett Ranch at Lake Maitland to “view the thoroughbred hogs that Mr. Willett was making a specialty of,” prior to proceeding toward her winter residence near Venice. Bertha Honorȇ Palmer was by no means a passive Florida rancher.

Nor did Bertha Honorȇ Palmer likely appreciate how historic her journey through Central Florida had been. After crossing the St. Johns River at Lake Monroe, her motoring would have taken her into downtown Sanford, where in the 1880s, arriving settlers the likes of Piers E. Warburton would have disembarked from steamers arriving from Jacksonville. Piers Warburton came in 1883 and settled at Maitland before moving further south to lay the groundwork for a town of Sarasota.

Driving the new Dixie Highway in 1916, Bertha would have passed through Longwood, where in the early 1880s, the Longwood Whisper was being published by a man who was to become known as the “Dean of South Florida Press,’ the very “Dean” who later published Sarasota’s first-ever newspaper. Next, after departing the lovely and charming town of Winter Park, Bertha Honorȇ Palmer would have crossed a narrow strip of land separating Lakes Ivanhoe and Highland on her way into Orlando, where roadside was located the one-time residence of Joseph H. Lord, the very person who had enticed Bertha to bring much of her vast wealth to Sarasota.

Look for my booth at Sarasota's

History Day in the Park

Phillippi Estate Park

March 25, 2023 from 10 AM to 5 PM

Florida history is chock full of fascinating individuals and intriguing happenstances, a shared heritage between Orlando and Sarasota included. Railroads of the 1880s became the initial link – a means by which to reach Tampa Bay from the steamboat docks at Sanford. And although that was before Bertha Honorȇ Palmer’s time, it was the precise time for a young Irish lass named Winifred A. Hodgson to make the long journey from England to Sarasota.

Florida history indeed includes many of the most fascinating individuals ever – men and women alike. You read a bit about Bertha, was one such founder, and Winifred, she will be next in this March series.

To Sarasota, with Love, Orlando

Our Shared Heritage

By Richard Lee Cronin

Pick up a signed copy at History Day in the Park

Or, Buy it today at Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/author/richardcronin

Part IV Fort Gatlin Month: The Cabin

2023-02-23T09:38:00.001-05:00

Dateline Fort Gatlin: The Cabin

March 27, 1924 at Fort Gatlin

Three decades after pioneer William Wallace Harney wrote of seeing “the site of old Fort Gatlin, with its camp drill grounds and marks of old quarters and chimneys still standing,” an admirer of Harney’s poetry, William Dunbar of New Orleans, called upon the aging poet at the tiny hillside cabin where Harney was living in 1904. Harney’s home in 1904 was no longer his historic “Pine Castle” of the 1870s. He no longer looked out across Lake Conway from his residence, as he had done so as the Orange County pioneer who had inspired the founding of a city named for his lakeside dwelling. Will Harney was 73 years old when Dunbar came knocking on the door of a little cabin atop Gatlin Hill, where his view then was of Lake Gem Mary, a lovely little round lake named in 1870 for the mother of Will Harney’s beloved bride, Mary St. Mayer Randolph.

“He was a rather small man, heavy-set, with one of the most superb heads I ever saw. His brow was so high it reminded me of pictures of Shakespeare. His eyes were handsome, and very intent and keen. He was most gracious in his manner and cordial, seeming to really appreciate my visit.”

William F. Dunbar’s description of Will Wallace Harney

Established in 1838 and abandoned by the Army in 1842, the brief existence of a remote Army fortress became etched in the annals of Central Florida history not so much because of its brief stint as an Army outpost during the Second Seminole Indian War, but rather because of the pioneers who came thereafter – and kept the memory of Fort Gatlin alive.

Fort Gatlin as a settlement pre-dates Orlando. Named by the earliest pioneers, individuals such as Aaron Jernigan, a Fort Gatlin community encompassed a large portion of Orange County, extending north from the fortress and encompassing that which we know of today as Orlando, the county seat.

The writings of correspondent Will Wallace Harney, published in the Cincinnati Commercial newspaper during the 1870s, wrote of Fort Gatlin, the historic location owned as of the 1870s by Harney’s in-laws, William & Mary (Pitts) Randolph. And it was on the east side of the old Fort Gatlin, only weeks after Harney’s arrival in Central Florida in December 1869, where he buried his one true life-long love, Mary, his bride of only18 months.

“The Randolph Family erected and occupied a fine home on the northwest shore of Lake Gem Mary; this lake was named for Mrs. Randolph. A family burial ground, often mistaken in later times for an Indian burial place, was located near the house; in this some half-dozen bodies were interred, all of them later being removed to Greenwood Cemetery.”

History of Orange County by William Fremont Blackman (1927)

Government surveyors first arrived in Central Florida to survey the land south of Lake Monroe in the 1840s. The first landmass surveyed however was south of both present-day towns of Orlando and Sanford. In fact, seventy-two square miles of Orange County, land surrounding Fort Gatlin and Lake Conway, had been surveyed before the land from Orlando north to Sanford was surveyed.

Gatlin Hill, the name coined for the historic property tucked between three awe-inspiring lakes; Jenny Jewel, Gem Mary, and Lake Gatlin, was purposely selected for a greater role by the first private citizen to step foot on Gatlin Hill following the end of the Seminole Indian War. Deputy Surveyor Benjamin F. Whitner not only envisioned a great future for this location, he also took part in developing that planned role. Whitner acquired hundreds of acres around old Fort Gatlin years before the village of Orlando was founded.

“In the dead of the night, the dead of the night

There’s a sound along the rails.

The creaking of a whirling crank

Like the flapping of iron flails.

With the long, low roll that herald’s a storm,

Over sunburnt fields of grain:

With the sullen roar of rain in the wood

Comes the Invisible Train.”

The Phantom Train

By Will Wallace Harney

Cypress Grove Park, one mile east of Gatlin Hill, is the location of Pine Castle Pioneer Days, an annual celebration of this region’s bravest of the brave, the founders and settlers who carved out a remote wilderness to create a region we know and love today as South Orange County. There is much to see, do, and hear at Pine Castle Pioneer Days, such as Vintage Baseball, a Classic Car Show, great Music all day long, and scheduled history talks at the History Tent.

Bring the family and help celebrate the legacy of Fort Gatlin. You even stop by my Cronin Books booth and pick up a signed copy of my book, Beyond Gatlin: A History of South Orange County.

The History Tent schedule for February 25, 2023

The History Tent schedule for February 26, 2023

Beyond Gatlin: A History of South Orang County

Available in Paperback & Hardcover

By Richard Lee Cronin

Rick’s March Blog Will Celebrate Sarasota Month

Part III - Fort Gatlin Month: The Militia

2023-02-16T16:00:00.064-05:00

Part III: Fort Gatlin’s Militia

Countdown to Pine Castle's Pioneer Days

Snell's Home, Sarasota Bay, and the Captains of 1856 Fort Gatlin

On the 7^th of January 1856, Florida’s Adjutant General notified communities throughout the state that they should form a militia immediately to protect themselves. Indians had again gone on the offensive, so at Fort Gatlin, veteran Indian fighter Aaron Jernigan answered the Governor’s call by organizing an Orange County Militia consisting of eighty-three (83) settlers. During the months leading up to the Governor’s statewide militia call, beginning in late December 1855, the Indians had attacked an Army regiment in southwest Florida led by Lt. George L. Hartsuff.

It had been thirteen years since the Second Seminole Indian War had been declared over, but in 1856, fears were that a third war would soon be underway. As in prior conflicts, the warriors did not confine their raids on the military. “We have reliable information direct from Tampa” reported the Alligator Advertiser of Manatee County on 16 March 1856 ”that twelve Indians had attacked the premises of the Honorable H. V. Snell at Sarasota (Bay), about sixty miles south of Tampa, and nine miles from the Manatee settlement.” The homesteader, Hamlin Valentine Snell (1810-1886), was not home at the time of the attack, but a gentleman by the name of Cunningham died in the attack. Snell’s home was burned to the ground.

MARCH IS SARASOTA MONTH

North of Tampa in Hernando County (now Pasco County), on 14 May 1856, yet another Indian raid claimed the life of two young children who had been standing on the porch of their family dwelling when the Indians began firing on the home. “Known today as the Bradley Massacre, a history marker now tells of the attack: “A Seminole War party attacked the home of Robert Duke Bradley of the Florida foot volunteers. Two of the Bradley children were killed before the Indians withdrew. This was the last such attack on a settler’s homestead east of the Mississippi.”

Pine Castle Pioneer Days

February 25 & 26, 2023

Cypress Grove Park, 290 Holden Avenue, Orlando, FL

There was, of course, no way of knowing in May of 1856 that the Bradley Massacre was to be the last such attack on homesteaders, so at Orange County, Jernigan’s militia readied itself to defend their communities. Although qualified to lead based on his years of fighting Indians in Georgia and Florida, Aaron Jernigan, in 1856, was not the right candidate for the job. He had witnessed an Indian raid in 1839 on his Georgia home, during which a member of his family was killed. Then, a decade later, Jernigan sheltered his family at Fort Gatlin (Part II) fearing yet another raid, this time on his new home in Florida.

So, in September 1856, Jernigan’s Orange County Militia needed a change of guard. The conduct of the Militia had been called in question, with some reporting that "Jernigan's company, stationed for the protection of settlements, in some cases were dreaded by the settlers more than the Indians." Charged with mistreating Indians, Captain Jernigan was relieved of command, with Isaac Newton Rutland being named the new Captain of the Orange County militia. (Rutland, in January 1861, cast the second vote opposing Secession for Orange County. The Rutland Mule Matter, by Richard Lee Cronin).

The complete list of Orange County’s 1856 Militia “mustered in” at Fort Gatlin will be found in Appendix A, (page 225), of Beyond Gatlin: A History of South Orange County, now available in Paperback or Hard Cover, by Richard Lee Cronin.

Now available in Paperback and Hard Cover

Beyond Gatlin will be available at Pioneer Days

As most all of Florida had been surveyed during the 1840s, these surveys at times included any in place residence or fortress at the time the survey was made. Both Fort Gatlin and the home of Hamlin V. Snell are shown on the earliest surveys of each specific location.

Hamlin Snell’s home was built on the beach of Sarasota Bay about two miles north of present-day downtown Sarasota. The site of Snell’s home later became known as Indian Beach (not to be confused with Indian Rocks Beach of Pinellas County). Today par of Sarasota, a town of Indian Beach existed here as early as 1891. This stretch of Sarasota Bay beach, in the 1880s, had even more in common with Orange County than the Indian raid of 1856.

March: Sarasota Month - Our Shared Heritage

Pioneer Days - Day 1: Professor Paul W. Wehr Day

1856 was a pivotal year for Fort Gatlin. A metropolitan area known up until then as Fort Gatlin became known in 1856-57 as Orlando. The name change came about by the Militia members of 1856 who also voted on a location for a new Orange County seat of government. For more than a century a factual tally of that election was never accurately reported by the historians who have written of the founding of Orlando, Florida.

The accurate result of the election of 1856 is publicly available today because of one man, a true historian, Paul W. Wehr. A professor of history at the University of Florida for twenty-five years before his retirement, Professor Wehr traveled to Tallahassee in years past and dug for the long-buried election results of 1856. And finding the tally sheets, Wehr documented the surprising results in his book, From Mosquito to Orange County, published by the Pine Castle Historical Society in cooperation with the Pine Castle Woman's Club.

I Invite you to join me at 10:15 AM, Saturday, February 25, 2023, at the HISTORY TENT at Pine Castle Pioneer Days, as I open this year's lecture series with a tribute to Author and Historian, Professor Paul W. Wehr.

Then, stop by Cronin Books Booth, adjacent to the History Tent, and say hello.

Part II: Holed Up at Fort Gatlin

2023-02-10T07:00:00.002-05:00

FORT GATLIN MONTH

Part II: Holed up at Fortress Gatlin:

Martha Jernigan Tyler at Fort Gatlin in 1924

In her memoirs, pioneer Martha (Jernigan) Tyler (1839-1926) wrote of an 1849 Fort Gatlin memory, stating that as a young girl, her family “was fortified on the north side of Lake Conway, right against the peninsular, from the Indians.” But why were the Jernigan’s fearing Indians in 1849?

Established in 1838, Fort Gatlin was abandoned in 1842 because General Worth declared the end to the Second Seminole Indian War. Soldiers left the area and settlers returned home to fend for themselves in Florida’s untamed wilderness. So why then, seven years after the War had ended, was Martha Jernigan and 77 other bravest of the brave Central Florida pioneers “fortified” in an abandoned Fort Gatlin?

The answer lies in an 1849 “Wakulla Times” (sic) newspaper article, a story reprinted days later, on 11 August 1849, by The Pensacola Gazette. The article supports Martha Tyler’s recollections as a young girl of ten. Another paper, published in September 1849, also backs up Martha’s memoirs: “The inhabitants of these districts are all forted and have abandoned their crops.”

The Wachula newspaper told of an incident that occurred on 17 July 1849. “Indians,” the story said, “appeared at a store located on Peas Creek that was kept by a Mr. Payne.” George Payne was indeed a storekeeper on Peas Creek, in then Manatee County, and Indians, according to the news account, “fired through the door of the store and killed Messrs. Payne and Whidden and wounded Mr. McCulloch.”

General Store at Payne's Creek Historical State Park

Mrs. Payne, said the article, “escaped out the back with her child, and after firing a shot to deter the Indians, Mr. McCulloch followed her.” Dempsey Whidden (1828-1849) and George Payne both died at the hands of rogue Seminole Indians on 17 July 1849. The location is now part of Hardee County.

Facts traveled at a snail’s pace in 1840s Florida, and so unfortunately, settlers throughout Florida assumed the Indians had once again gone on a rampage. And while facts traveled slow, bad news tended to spread quickly, which is why 75 miles northeast of Payne’s Peas Creek General Store, 26 Orange County adult settlers, together with their 52 children, gathered at the abandoned Fort Gatlin.

The killing of two settlers and wounding of two others brought out the panic in settlers who still had vivid memories of scalping and burning homesteads of a decade prior.

Two months after the incident, Chief Billy Bowlegs sent runners to meet with Captain John C. Casey (Casey’s Key) at “Sara Sota” (Bay). The Chief expressed regret for “the late murders and said he would be able to settle the difficulty to the entire satisfaction” if Captain Casey agreed to meet. In the meeting that followed, Chief Billy Bowlegs blamed the incident on five rogue Seminoles who “lived on the Kissimmee River, one of whom was a criminal”. The Chief told Captain Casey that all five murderers had been “overtaken and captured.”

MARCH IS SARASOTA MONTH

A Month-long Celebration You Wont Want to Miss!

Today, Peas Creek is Payne’s Creek, and the Payne’s Creek Historical State Park now preserves the memory of one fateful day in July 1849. But it is not so 75 miles northeast of Payne’s Creek, where a busy three-way residential intersection where Fortress Gatlin once stood has but a historical marker for those who care to park and read about the fort’s location, the fortress where settlers hunkered down 174 years ago after hearing of the Payne’s General Store incident.

Fort Gatlin: A Gateway to South Florida

Beyond Gatlin: A History of South Orange County

Available in Paperback and Hardcover

By Richard Lee Cronin

The history of Sarasota and Orlando intersected one fateful July afternoon in 1849, but it was not to be the only such incident shared by these two great Florida municipalities. In fact, 1849 was but the beginning, a topic to be continued in Part III of my Fort Gatlin Month blogs.

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Pine Castle Pioneer Days

February 25^th and 26^th 2023

History Day in the Park, Sarasota

March 25, 2023

Part I: Fort Gatlin Marching Orders

2023-02-03T10:54:00.009-05:00

Count Down to Pine Castle Pioneer Days

Part I: Marching Orders

Soldiers Creek on the Fort Mellon to Fort Gatlin Trail

The long-anticipated dispatch many had no doubt dreaded finally arrived. For twenty (20) long months after their encampment had been raided by the Seminole Indians, a raid which claimed the life of Capt. Charles Mellon, soldiers at Fort Mellon had been awaiting orders to march. That order came down in late October 1838, instructions to “occupy the position at Fort Mellon, and to establish a post 25 miles beyond, in the direction of Lake Tohokaliga (sic).”

South was the unstated direction of Lake Tohopekaliga, and the distance of twenty-five miles, that meant the soldiers would be heading deep into Indian territory. A sandy trail leading south was to be their only guide, a sand-rutted trail laden with obstacles that soon after became known as the Fort Mellon to Fort Gatlin Road.

January Blogs Observed Fort Mellon Month

What does Sarasota and Lake Monroe have in common?

March 2023 is Sarasota Month

Lake Tohopekaliga was where the Seminoles were believed to be holed up, and the order to advance south from Fort Mellon was one of a three-prong approach to reaching the lake. Fort Christmas, established east of Lake Monroe in December of 1837, was the eastern flank, with Fort Mason, at Lake Eustis west of Lake Monroe, was the western “prong.”

Marching southwest through a thick forest of pine trees, scrub oaks, and palmettos, each and every sound heard represented a potential threat. Alligators, bears, and panthers, if not Indians, might be awaiting at every bend. Twenty-five miles does not seem all that great a distance today, but back in the 1840s, it was a long tedious dangerous journey lasting two days. And the maiden journey for troops in 1838 likely took even longer.

The actual route taken by the troops as they headed south from Fort Mellon was documented in the 1840s by government surveyors. And this very military trail was then used for nearly four decades by the earliest of Central Florida settlers.

Soldiers Creek Park in Seminole County today was the first treacherous crossing in 1838 for the soldiers on their trek southward. Six miles south of Fort Mellon, crossing this deep ravine was the furthest thing from a walk in the park at that time.

Present-day Soldiers Creek Crossing

At sixteen miles south of Lake Monroe the Army settled down for their first night. A lakeside camp was chosen for the night and this location was also selected as the site for a supply fortress to be named Fort Maitland. Captain William Seton Maitland was a fallen comrade who had died August 19, 1837, of wounds received at the Battle of Wahoo Swamp. (Established in November of 1838, soldiers stationed at Fort Maitland would “be immediately withdrawn” in July 1839 following an Indian attack in South Florida which resulted in the loss of “the greater part of Lt. Col. Harney’s regiment.”

What does Sarasota and Maitland have in common?

March 2023 is Sarasota Month

But back to November of 1838, soldiers continued southbound from Fort Maitland, crossing over the second major obstacle, called the Maitland Branch, before passing by an uninhabited landmass at twenty-two miles south of Lake Monroe, land that in twenty years would become the village of Orlando. Continuing a push southward, yet another encampment was established about five miles beyond, “on a knoll, between two beautiful lakes and projecting into a third.” The fortress, named in honor of Dr. John Slade Gatlin, killed at the Dade Massacre of December 1835, was established on 9 November 1838.

Fort Maitland Historical Marker at Lake Maitland

One mile west of the 1838 Fortress Gatlin, at 290 Holden Avenue, is Cypress Grove Park, where on February 25 and 26, the 50^th anniversary of Pine Castle Pioneers Days will be celebrated. Make plans to attend Pioneer Days, and set aside time to visit The History Tent for one of a dozen speakers over the two-day event. A tribute to Professor Paul Wehr and Fort Gatlin will begin the History Tent scheduled talks at 10:15 AM on Saturday morning.

What does Sarasota and Pine Castle have in common?

March is Sarasota Month

UCF Retired Professor Paul W. Wehr (left) with Rick Cronin

The Entire History Tent Speakers Schedule will be posted in my next blog

Want to more about central Florida history?

Visit my Cronin Books Tent adjacent to the History Tent at Pioneer Days

Lake Monroe - Doyle & Brantley - Part 4 of 4

2023-01-25T07:00:00.002-05:00

FORT MELLON MONTH, Part 4 of 4

Doyle and Brantley at Mellonville

Mellonville Road of today and yesteryear’s Doyle Residence at Mellonville

More like that of a scene out of a Wild-West picture show, it’s not easy today to imagine 300 to 400 painted warriors storming the Lake Monroe beach in their attack on Encampment Monroe. A fierce battle however did in fact occur on the south shore of Lake Monroe on 8 February 1837, a Seminole Indian War clash which forever changed Central Florida.

The Grave of Capt. Charles Mellon

The most noticeable change occurred within days of the incident, with Encampment Monroe being renamed Fort Mellon in honor of the one fallen comrade, Captain Charles Mellon (Part III). The battle of 8 February 1837 was but the beginning of a series of claimed land ownerships that, by the 1880s, would officially establish a gateway for Central Florida settlers.

Coming in February: Fort Gatlin Month

While the Army fought for control of Lake Monroe’s south shore in 1837, a battle of a different nature was already underway at the U. S. Supreme Court in Washington, DC. A Morocco native named Moses was arguing before the court that the very same Florida Territory property, 12,000 acres to be exact, rightfully belonged to him. Spain, said Moses E. Levy, had granted this land to him, and on these 12,000 acres he planned to establish a homeland for persecuted Jews of Europe. Levy had won his case, but the United States filed an appeal.

Spanish Land Grant map of 12,000 acres on Lake Valdez

Moses Elias Levy Grant

Lake Valdez was renamed Lake Monroe

Meanwhile, back in the Florida Territory, two soldiers of the Second Indian War, recruits from the North who survived the six-year War, remained behind as their comrades began to pack up and return home. And the two who stayed in 1842 forever changed Central Florida.

Henry A. Crane of New Jersey and Augustus J. Vaughn of Virginia both remained at their posts – literally – after victory had been declared. Crane and Vaughn became the first settlers, two of the bravest of brave who claimed homesteads south of Lake Monroe.

Henry Crane homesteaded fortress Mellon and 160 acres surrounding the abandoned fort. He established a settlement there, naming it Mellonville. The pier on Fort Mellon built by the Army became a port of entry for private citizens, a landing spot for the earliest steamboats to offload settlers – more of the bravest of brave Central Florida pioneers.

Augustus Jefferson Vaughn homesteaded Fort Reid, a supply fort 1.5 miles inland that had been established just prior to the end of the War. Vaughn selected 160 acres which included the old fortress, and he too established a settlement, naming it Fort Reid (misspelled Reed in 1846 by an early surveyor). [A visitor to Fort Reid in 1873 met an “old gentleman,” Augustus Vaughn, and asked if he could see the fort and its soldiers. Augustus Vaughn replied, “This is the fort, and I am the soldier”]

Fort Mellon and Fort Reid were connected by a trail 1.5 miles long, the first part of a trail that was 22 miles long and known in the 1840s as the Fort Mellon to Fort Gatlin Road. In the 1850s this trail became the Mellonville to Orlando Road, and, for the short portion still in existence, is now known as Mellonville Road.

Coming in March: SARASOTA Month

Settlements Mellonville and Fort Reid were both established in 1842, prior to the Homestead Act Amendment requiring homesteaders to select acreage at least two miles or more from an Army post. Central Florida pioneer Aaron Jernigan arrived in 1843, desiring to homestead Fort Gatlin, but was required instead to choose land that was two miles from the fortress Gatlin – a story best told next week – during Fort Gatlin Month – our countdown to Pine Castle Pioneer Days series.

As Mellonville began developing on the shore of Lake Monroe at the old fortress, the Supreme court in Washington, DC, ever so slowly deliberated the fate of the Moses Levy Grant. In 1850, 18 years after Levy had filed his Spanish Land Grant lawsuit, a final decision was handed down giving Moses E. Levy his land. Then a resident of St. Augustine, Levy was awarded all 12,000 acres, and the Court also ordered a surveyor to return to Central Florida to establish boundaries of the Levy Grant.

Eastern boundary of 1850 Mellonville Survey

Surveyor Arthur Randolph found half of Mellonville, including the Lake Monroe wharf, to be located on property belonging to Moses Elias Levy as of 1850. The 1842 Homestead of Henry A. Crane was voided, and Crane thereafter departed Orange County.

Moses E. Levy sold his 12,000 acres on the south shore of Lake Monroe to an Irishman, Joseph Finegan, who soon after became Florida’s Brigadier General during the Civil War. Finegan sold his 12,000 mostly undeveloped acres to a Northerner, Henry S. Sanford, who in turn sold most of his unsold city of Sanford to a consortium of English Investors.

Although Joseph Finegan still owned most of the 12,000 acres in 1867, one small parcel had been sold to Michael J. Doyle and George C. Brantley, two Civil War veterans who decided to establish a General Store on the south shore of Lake Monroe near the old Fort Mellon Wharf. The Doyle & Brantley store welcomed a new generation of settlers to Orange County - a remarkable generation of dreamers - and doers - from around the globe.

In later years the gateway would shift one mile to the west, but during the 1870s, the First Road to Orlando opened the way to development of the Central Florida we know and love today.

My Five-Star Rated First Road to Orlando is available at Amazon.com

Available also at my CroninBooks Booth next to the HISTORY TENT

Pine Castle Pioneer Days, February 25 and 26, 2023

FORT GATLIN MONTH BEGINS

Next Wednesday, February 1, 2023

Lake Monroe - One Dreadful February Morn

2023-01-18T07:00:00.002-05:00

Part III – 18 January 2023:

One Dreadful February Morn

8 February 1837

Camp Monroe had been established along the south shore of Lake Monroe in late December 1836, but troops had yet to be ordered to leave their post to explore inland. The soldiers reportedly stayed near Lake Monroe. Well to the south, where a town of Orlando would one day be established decades later, was still considered deep in Indian territory. The Army considered the region around Lake Monroe to be “deep in the part of the country in which the great body of the Seminole Nation is concentrated.”

Despite constructing a fortress on the shore of Lake Monroe in December 1836, those stationed at the fort stayed put. And instead of going in search of the enemy, the enemy came looking for them. The Charleston Mercury of 22 February 1837 published a report written by Colonel Fannin, who had been stationed at Camp Monroe, on the events of 8 February 1837.

“A battle occurred on the morning of the 8^th of February at the Encampment Monroe, at the head of Lake Monroe. This post was attacked at 5 o’clock in the morning, and a brisk firing kept up by both parties until 8 o’clock, when the Indians retreated.” Colonel Fannin, in command of about 250 regulars at that day, wrote “Captain Mellon, U S Army, was killed. Lieutenant J. T. McLaughlin and 14 privates were wounded. The hostiles were estimated at 3 or 400 strong.”

This February: Fort Gatlin Month

Countdown to Pioneer Days

The “Encampment Monroe” name was changed immediately to Fort Mellon, a fact that can be establish in the very same dispatch from Colonel Fannin: “The above intelligence is confirmed by the arrival at this place on Tuesday night last, of the Steamer Cincinnati, Capt. Curry. The attack on Fort Mellon, Encampment Monroe, was made, it is supposed, by Philip and his gang.”

Pensacola Gazette, 2 September 1837

“THE GRAVE OF MELLON” was the Pensacola Gazette headline of 2 September 1837: “On the south shore of Lake Monroe, in Florida, on the very ground where the battle of the 8^th of February was fought against the Seminoles, may be seen a little rectangular colonnade of palmetto pickets, enclosing the hallowed spot where are deposited the mortal remains of Capt. Mellon. Over his grave is placed a broad tablet, of that rare and peculiar stone which is only found in certain localities in Florida, and on it is chiseled the name and rank of the departed, with a notice of the manner and occasion of his death:

“Though remote from the haunts of civilized man, that grave still bears the token of human skill and affection. Though the ground is not consecrated by religious ordinance, as the prescribed sanctuary of the dead, it is consecrated in heroic story as the field of martial triumph. Could a gallant soldier desire a better resting place?”

Coming in March: Sarasota Month

Our Shared Heritage

“Mellon received a rifle shot in his breast very early in the action, and before the shout was heard which proclaimed victory along our lines, he had breathed his last. Although attacked by six hundred ferocious savages, bent on an indiscriminate massacre, and persevering for three full hours in the hope of accomplishing their purpose, our troops, but little more than half their number, and all recruits, nobly breasted the showers of rifle balls poured upon them, and so dealt with their assailants in turn, as would have done honor to veterans. In all the war, the Seminoles have never been more severely punished than at Lake Monroe. The only martyr on our post was Mellon, and the handsome stockade fort, now established there, is called by his name.”

First Road to Orlando (2016) by Richard Lee Cronin

The Dade Pyramids, National Cemetery, St. Augustine

After War’s end, the bodies of all fallen soldiers were removed from their temporary burial places established during the war and reinterred beneath three Dade Pyramids at the National Cemetery in St. Augustine.

Next Wednesday: Doyle & Brantley of Mellonville, Florida

Lake Monroe - Christmas 1836

2023-01-11T07:00:00.001-05:00

Encampment Monroe, Christmas 1836

Lake Monroe and namesake, President James Monroe

A year after sixteen plantations were burned to the ground in northeast Florida, Army troops, accompanied by volunteer Militia from Alabama and Georgia, began arriving at Lake Monroe to establish a supply post. The troops built an “encampment,” said dispatches, and named their new lakeside fortress Camp Monroe. The lake itself, previously known as Lake Valdez, while Florida was under Spanish Control, had only recently been renamed in honor of our Nation’s 5th President. Florida’s acquisition had been accomplished while James Monroe (1758-1831) was President, his term ending in 1825.

Orders given at the time were to build and occupy the camp but await further instructions before exploring inland, and so for 250 regular soldiers and 39 friendly Indians under command of Lieutenant Colonel Fannin, spent a lonely Christmas in December 1836 on Lake Monroe.

Sanford Historical Marker at Site of Fort Mellon

Intended to serve as a supply fortress for delivery of soldiers and material to the region, a pier was constructed on Lake Monroe so that steamboats could dock. That dock was located one mile east of present-day Sanford, where today Mellonville Road begins a southbound journey that originally took the road 25 miles south, through utter wilderness, to Fort Gatlin. Beginning in 1842, this pier served as the gateway for incoming settlers coming to claim a homestead, but first, the Army had a job to do.

The Military had begun to mobilize in Florida soon after the two hostilities of the prior Christmas. Among those first to arrive was General Winfred Scott, arriving at Volusia Landing, the plantation and outpost founded in 1821 by Horatio S. Dexter (Part I). Scott, on April 24, 1836, eight months before Encampment Monroe was established, wrote of reaching Volusia Landing on the St. Johns River, just south of Lake George, where he awaited the arrival of General Abraham Eustis.

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General Scott’s dispatch also said he found the Steamer Essayons docked at Volusia, and so while waiting on General Eustis, decided to “embark in her, and with a guard of only seventeen men determined to penetrate, by the St. Johns River, the southern part of the peninsular as far as practicable.”

The purpose of the expedition, said Scott, was to test the navigability of the St. Johns River. Others had traveled this way before him, but as a military officer, he wanted to see for himself what was in store for his regiment should they be ordered to move further south into Indian Territory. His published report began with: “We found no difficulty in passing the bend of Lake Monroe.” That would have been the sharp 90 degree bend the river takes just prior to entering Lake Monroe from the west.

Essayons passed into and then across Lake Monroe, we learn from General Scott’s dispatch, then attempted to enter the small passageway connecting Lake Monroe with Lake Jesup. “We found the river beyond the lake nearly as bold as below,” wrote Scott. A sandbar prevented Scott’s expedition from entering Lake Jesup, so he added, “We do not doubt that we might have gone fifty or seventy miles further to Cape Canaveral, but unfortunately our boat drew more than four feet, and we only found four on the bar.” Scott was writing about the portion of St. John’s River that connects the easternmost end of Lake Monroe with Lake Jesup.

Second Indian War Generals Scott and Eustis

General Scott’s April 1836 report added: “I was anxious to discover whether the Indians had any settlements on the upper part of the (St. Johns) river: and to find out the place of concealment of their women and children”. Scott concluded by saying his curiosities were answered when they (Indians) “fired upon us from a distance of 300 yards.”

Scott’s expedition returned to Volusia Landing, where on 25 April 1836, General Abraham Eustis arrived. Even then however, Eustis had little time to attend to future military plans. He was instead forced to instruct troops to evacuate. “Volusia”, wrote Scott, “for it had already become extremely sickly. Many cases of malignant bilious fever had occurred which, in the opinion of some of the physicians, threatened the approach of the yellow fever.”

Christmas fires of 1835 had been the reason for the Army coming to Florida. One year later, Lieutenant Colonel Fannin and his regulars found little reason to celebrate the coming of a New Year. But as bad as 1836 had been for the Army, 1837 was about to get much worse.

Much, much worse!

Next Week: Camp Monroe, 5 AM, 8 February 1837

Fort Mellon: The Christmas Fires of 1835

2023-01-04T07:00:00.019-05:00

FORT MELLON MONTH – January 2023

Part I: The Christmas Fires of 1835

New Smyrna Sugar Mill Ruins

Forty years before Sanford was founded as the ‘Gateway to Orange County’ (the place we now know as Sanford of Seminole County), a pier was constructed a mile east on Lake Monroe that first served as the entry point for many of the area’s earliest pioneers. Built in December 1836 for steamboats needing to offload troops and supplies, the pier, by 1843, welcomed visitors and settlers to village of Mellonville, a community built around where ruins of a old fortress were still visible.

Mellonville was the first permanent settlement south of Lake Monroe, the original “gateway” to Central Florida, a village named for Fort Mellon of Lake Monroe. Sanford's Mellonville Road, shown in the photo below, the first Central Florida "road," still heads south from Lake Monroe today.

Mellonville Road of today heading south from Lake Monroe

Although Mellonville was in fact built on the lake's southern shore, before Statehood, back in the days the ‘Florida Territory,’ many considered this land to be on the west side of the lake.

South versus west is an important distinction, because all land on the west side of the St. Johns River back then was deemed Indian Territory. Although the St. Johns River meanders south to north on its long journey to Jacksonville, the river, as it flows through Lake Monroe, is flowing east to west.

Fact is, Sanford and Orlando were considered in Indian Territory during the days of Mosquito County, and that is why there were no settlements in these parts. When the Army established their fortress on the south side of Lake Monroe in December 1836, they were in fact on the northern fringe of Indian Territory. And they built their fort at this location because of the Christmas Fires of 1835.

Lake Monroe before Settlements

Horatio Dexter (1785-1834), namesake of Lake Dexter and founder of the Volusia Landing, both of which are on the east side of the St, Johns River, described in 1823 the generally accepted but unofficial boundaries first “accepted” in 1763 by the Brits while they controlled Florida. Horatio Dexter said the boundaries “seem never to have been overstepped by the Spaniards” when they assumed control of Florida. But he was obviously unaware of the tens of thousands of acres in Spanish Land Grants – such as the Levy Grants at Micanopy and Lake Monroe – all of which were smack dab in the middle of that supposed “agreed to" boundary of the Indian territory.

Fact is Florida landholdings were a mess when the United States took control in 1821. There was a smattering of Colonials from the North who had become landowners, like Horatio Dexter from Connecticut. The American Indians supposedly owned land west of the Ocklawaha and St Johns Rivers west to the Suwannee River – meaning one could not travel from Tallahassee to St. Augustine without crossing Indian Territory. There were British Loyalists too, owners of large plantations east of the St. Johns all the way to and including the Atlantic Coast. These folks had escaped the colonies during the Revolution, and were not thrilled to learn they were again part of the colonies they had escaped from. Spanish landowners owned a piece of Florida too, land granted to them while Spain had control. And a few of the Spanish Land Grant holders – such as Moses E. Levy of Morocco, came to Florida from other parts of the world. Then too there were runaway slaves from the North.

A melting pot the Florida Territory was indeed, but its many factions were not blending together. And by late 1835, the melting pot was about to boil over. The Dade Massacre of December 1835 occurred on the trail between present day Ocala and Tampa, and around Christmas of 1835, Indians attacked and set ablaze a total of 16 plantations east of the St. Johns River. Residents of St. Augustine reportedly saw the black smoke on the horizon off to the south, in the direction of New Smyrna Beach.

News traveled slowly in 1835. Vessels docking in the North delivered the news, so it was not until January 1836 that tragic stories of “scalped” women and children made the newspapers in the North. Following these two December attacks, the United States declared war on the Indian Nation.

Meanwhile, the Indians had retreated to the south, crossing Lake Monroe, to return to their land on the "west side" of the St. Johns River.

As the United States Began mobilizing troops to go in search of the warring Indians, fortresses were strategically located between the settlements along the east side of the St. Johns River and the borders of the Indian Nation on the west side. Fort Butler was established across the river from Horatio Dexter's Volusia Landing. Fort Christmas was built near the southeastern terminus of the St. Johns River, inland from the Atlantic Ocean. And “Encampment Monroe” was built and staffed at Lake Monroe - to guard against Indians trying to return to the river's "east side." No order was given however to travel inland from Lake Monroe, not yet anyway.

Next Week: Part II - Encampment Monroe 1836

This Series is Sponsored by the 5 Star Rated

First Road to Orlando, by Richard Lee Cronin

Available at Amazon.com and In-Person History Events

See my In-Person Events Schedule at www.CroninBooks.com

Rutland Mule: A Snippet of Orange County History

2022-11-20T14:33:00.000-05:00

Othman Rutland Residence, Sanibel Island

Frances E. Hewlett, a WASHINGTON, DC Treasury Department Clerk, acquired 40 acres of Florida wilderness in 1885 West Orange County. Miss Hewlett and her land purchase is a fact, NOT fiction! Another fact is that Othman Rutland, a Florida native, was living on the western shore of Lake Apopka in 1889. Othman Rutland is NOT fiction!

Rutland, after an 1889 meeting with Miss Hewlett in her DC Office, wrote in his diary that Miss Hewlett had inquired about the TA&G Railroad, asking if it had reached Oakland yet? Othman wrote that he corrected her; “No Mam, the Tavares, Apopka & Gulf Railroad does not go to Oakland, the train heads west, to Lake Minneola.” Othman was no doubt surprised by Miss Hewlett’s response. “The plan however is to take the train into Orange County, turn south, and take the line south to Kissimmee.”

Circa 1887 Tavares, Apopka & Gulf Railroad map

Othman Rutland had gone to Washington, DC hoping to learn of his father’s disappearance 25 years earlier. He was astounded that a DC clerk might know more than he about the foreclosed railroad back at his hometown.

The 1889 DC meeting between Othman Rutland and Frances Hewlett is fiction – a story in my Historic Novel, The Rutland Mule Matter. Or is it fiction?

The Tavares & Gulf Railroad, the successor to the TA&G, did in fact enter Orange County in 1890. Arriving at Oakland that year, the T&G Railroad planned to continue laying track south to Kissimmee, crossing hundreds of wilderness acres owned by numerous land speculators, some, including Miss Hewlett, who were employed as government clerks in Washington, DC.

In addition to factual DC landowners, a factual DC government file, labeled ‘The Rutland Mule Matter” kept the secret to the 1864 disappearance of Othman Rutland’s father. Care to read more about Othman, including his son’s Sanibel Island residence?

Visit my Website at www.CroninBooks.com for details

A historic Novel chock full of facts, The Rutland Mule Matter pairs well with “Citrusland, DC,” a FACTUAL history of District Columbians of Florida’s 19^th century Citrus Belt.

Did you know Florida is the ONLY State in the Union to have an Embassy in Washington, DC? Citrusland, DC is dedicated to the Florida House.

Mount Dora Historic Inn - Part 3 of 3

2022-05-22T09:40:00.005-04:00

The Mount Dora Historic Inn

Part 3 of 3: The Doctor is in the House

Built by Ivan Franklin in 1910 for his family’s personal home, the charming dwelling at 221 E. Fourth Avenue has, for 122 of Mount Dora’s 141 years of existence, been an eyewitness to the evolution of an alluring lakeside village. The house that Ivan built has been home to many a Mount Doran who played an active role in the making of Mount Dora.

Historic homes are a gem to any community, but the real treasure of each is knowing the role each gem played in the evolution of the town in which it proudly stands.

Known now as the Mount Dora Historic Inn, in past years this dwelling has gone by the “Geer Cottage” and, for almost seventeen years, the ‘Miss Eleanor G. Shaw home.” The house has served as both a full-time residence of local citizens and a winter retreat of families from the North, prominent snowbirds whose presence, even for only six months each year, enhanced the intriguing story of how Mount Dora came to be.

The house Ivan built on 4^th Avenue served for about a year as home to a beloved Mount Dora physician, Dr. Osmer L. Callahan. The Callahan’s lived in this cottage from August of 1920 until April 1921, a temporary lodging while the doctor’s wife, Rose (McNeal) Callahan, oversaw the building of their new home and medical office across from 221 – on the southwest corner of Fourth & Baker Street. The origin of Mount Dora Hospital was at 142 E. Fourth Avenue, and the building is still known today by the year it was built, the 1921 Building.

The 1921 building, 142 E. Fourth St., Mount Dora Hospital

Chapter 24: The Medical Professionals of Fourth Avenue

Mount Dora: The Lure. The Funding. The Founders.

By Richard Lee Cronin

The Callahan’s sold to Miss Eleanor G. Shaw, a Massachusetts native who migrated first to Gainesville, Florida. Miss Shaw acquired the house Ivan built in 1921, and continued owning the home until 1938, years during which she enjoyed bringing family and friends to Mount Dora for long visits. Of periods during which Eleanor wasn’t using this house, the Mount Dora Topic often cited snowbirds who had rented the “Miss Eleanor G. Shaw home on Fourth Avenue for the season.”

A member of the Philharmonic Society of Gainesville, Eleanor was described in the Topic as a great lover of music and was said to have “composed music for a number of songs, one of which ‘No Night There, was sung at her Gainesville funeral service.” (As of this writing the claim that Miss Shaw composed the music of ‘No Night There’ has not been verified. Although timing is about right, another individual is listed as the composer of this sheet music.)

Eleanor G. Shaw (1867-1940), while a resident in the 1920s, was an active member of Congregational Church (now Mount Dora’s oldest structure), where she was a choir member. She was also a member of an outstanding Mount Dora civic organization known as the King’s Daughters, which, during the Great Depression, provided clothing for Mount Dorans and ran a soup kitchen to feed the needy.

Two years before her death in 1940, Eleanor sold the house Ivan built to Mount Dorans Albert & Amy Waltz. “A valued citizen,” said the Topic of Albert Waltz, one-time Mayor and Chamber of Commerce President of Mount Dora, the Waltz’ owned the cottage at 221 E. 4^th Avenue for twenty years, deeding the home, on 26 December 1941, to their daughter and son-in-law, Edward & Florence (Waltz) Nutter. Albert was the founder of Mount Dora Builders Supply Company, and for a time, his son-in-law was an employee. As a builder, Albert Waltz, in 1926, was awarded a contract to expand the Lakeside Inn.

And so, having traced the occupants of 221 E. 4^th Avenue for its first 30 years, we appear to have come full circle. Edward Earl Nutter, like that of Ivan Franklin the home builder, was a carpenter and builder here in the village of Mount Dora.

Watch the comments section of my Facebook page for memories others have of

Mount Dora Historic Inn

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Do you recall Mount Dora of 1969? A Christmas Day 1969 Model Railroad display on Donnelly Street? I would truly appreciate hearing from you if you do recall the event. You can email me at Rick@CroninBooks.com

WHERE THE GOLDEN TRIANGLE TRACKS MEET

Have you ever wondered about the history of your Lake County home? Perhaps I can help! I will be at Tavares History Museum, in the restored train station at Ruby Street and St. Clair-Abrams Avenue, from 10 AM to 2 PM on Thursday, May 26, 2022. The museum is celebrating their first Anniversary. Come on out and visit the museum that day, look over my Tavares and Mount Dora history books, and ask me about how to go about researching the history of your home.

Tavares History Museum is at the convergence of the Golden Triangle railroad tracks, a meeting place for Tavares trains from Eustis and Mount Dora.

On sale at the History Museum’s Anniversary Open House

Tavares: Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County

Mount Dora: The Lure. The Founding. The Founders.

Books by Historian Richard Lee Cronin

Tavares: Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County

The Rutland Mule Matter – A Civil War Novel

First Road to Orlando: The Fort Mellon to Fort Gatlin Trail

Citrusland: Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains

Beyond Gatlin: A History of South Orange County

Orlando Lakes: Homesteaders & Namesakes

Citrusland, DC: District of Columbians of Central Florida

Florida’s Indian River Duchess

Seven Honorable Floridians: Seven Voted NO!

Citrusland: Curse of Florida’s Paradise

Available at Amazon

Mount Dora Historic inn - Part 2

2022-05-18T07:00:00.009-04:00

Part 2: Mattie's Place

The house Ivan built at 221 E. 4^th Avenue in 1910 became known as “Geer Cottage” in 1913. Charles & Ella (Brierly) Geer, snowbirds from Worcester, Massachusetts, had rented in Mount Dora for the winter of 1911, then purchased land in 1912 to build a home. The lot was on the northeast corner of 4^th and Baker, which is where the Geer’s settled, but they purchased Ivan Franklin’s home as a retreat for family and friends seeking an escape from the harsh Northern winters.

Charles A. Geer, born 1855 at Westerly, Rhode Island, was part owner of Whitaker Reed Co, a prominent maker of looms for the wool industry. By 1912 however he was ready to retire, and so he and wife Ella relocated full-time to Mount Dora. Charles became “an active officer in Mount Dora’s Yacht Club,” said Lake Eustis Region newspaper, and continued and active involvement until becoming bedridden. Following a “long and painful death,” Charles Geer died February 20, 1916.

For several years the Geer’s had been active in the community of Mount Dora, A 1913 ad in the Lake Eustis Region had listed his title as Rear Commodore of the Mount Dora Yacht Club.

Lake Eustis Region newspaper, February 20, 1913, C. A. Geer, Rear Commodore

Rick’s Blog beginning June 1, 2022: An Encore Presentation The day history was made at the Mount Dora Yacht Club

A Blog version of my 2022 Mount Dora Yacht Club on location presentation.

Several months prior to Geer’s death in 1916, the Widow Mattie B. Little of Mount Dora took title to both Geer homes, including the house at 221 E. 4^th Avenue built by Ivan Franklin. The deed to both homes were returned to Widow Ella Geer following her husband’s death, but this unusual transaction made Widow Matter Little the third owner of the Ivan Franklin house, even if only briefly. Most thought-provoking about this unusual short term ownership transaction is that it introduces a New England twist to this charming Mount Dora Historic Inn.

Mattie B. Little is a little-known Mount Doran who, during the early 1900s, played a big role, pardon the puns, in fashioning the sleepy little Central Florida town that had been adopted by a New England clan for use as winter residences. A decade before acquiring the Geer Cottage on 26 October 1915, Mattie and husband Charles had arrived at Mount Dora and purchased the Atterberry Store. Located at the southeast corner of 4^th and Donnelly, Charles & Mattie Little, of Hopkinton, New Hampshire, then converted the vacated general store into the historic Robert Burns Inn.

Robert Burns Inn, 4^th & Donnelly, Mount Dora

Mount Dora: The Lure. The Founding. The Founders. (Page 201)

As I said, the Little family affected Mount Dora in a large way, and much of the charm the city enjoys today is a result of Mattie and her exceptionally civic-minded daughter, Emma J. Tallant. The Little family’s influence even spilled over onto 221 E. 4^th Avenue.

Chapter 23: The Incomparable Emma J. Tallant

Mount Dora: The Lure. The Founding. The Founders.

George and Bertha S. Barnard, the fourth owner of the house on Fourth Avenue, took possession in April 1919. Snowbirds, the Barnard’s had been residents of Contoocook, a village in the city limits of Hopkinton, New Hampshire, the previous hometown of the Little’s of Mount Dora. So, to make myself clear, Mattie of Hopkinton bought the house Ivan built, sold it back, and then it was acquired a few years later by the Barnard’s of Hopkinton.

Fast forward a few years, Mattie Little was instrumental in forming The New Hampshire Club of Mount Dora. George E. Barnard was named the first Chairman of the Club, Mattie’s daughter, Mrs. Eugene A. (Little) Tallant, was named the clerk. Formed in 1930, the New Hampshire Club had four Charter Members, one having first arrived at Mount Dora in 1888.

The Mount Dora Historic Inn has been intricately involved in the development of Mount Dora from the moment Ivan Franklin moved his family in, but its rich history is just getting started.

This story resumes Sunday, May 22^nd with Part 3: The Doctor’s in the House.

Have you ever wondered about the history of your Lake County home? Perhaps I can help! I will be the Tavares History Museum, in the restored train station at Ruby Street and St. Clair-Abrams Avenue, from 10 AM to 2 PM on Thursday, May 26, 2022. The museum is celebrating their first Anniversary. Why not visit the museum that day, look over my Tavares and Mount Dora history books, and ask me about how to go about researching the history of your home.

On sale at the History Museum’s Anniversary Open House

Tavares History Museum at Tavares Union Depot

Tavares: Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County

Mount Dora: The Lure. The Founding. The Founders.

Books by Historian Richard Lee Cronin

Tavares: Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County

The Rutland Mule Matter – A Civil War Novel

First Road to Orlando: The Fort Mellon to Fort Gatlin Trail

Citrusland: Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains

Beyond Gatlin: A History of South Orange County

Orlando Lakes: Homesteaders & Namesakes

Citrusland, DC: District of Columbians of Central Florida

Florida’s Indian River Duchess

Seven Honorable Floridians: Seven Voted NO!

Citrusland: Curse of Florida’s Paradise

Also available at Amazon