Thursday, March 10, 2016

A READING: The Rutland Mule Matter

Rick’s Blog: Special Edition
THE RUTLAND MULE MATTER
Author's reading at the
Writers of Central Florida or Thereabouts…
Stardust Video & Coffee, Orlando, Florida

MARCH 9, 2016

A very special thanks to the Writers of Central Florida or Thereabouts, as well as the kind folks at Stardust Video & Coffee, for providing authors an opportunity to take to the stage and promote their work, as in my case, a reading from my Central Florida mystery-history Novel, The Rutland Mule Matter.

First, setting the stage:

In 1927, then retired Rollins College President & historian, William F. Blackman, published, ‘History of Orange County’, long considered a bible with regard to the story of 19th Century Central Florida. Blackman however stated that very little was known of the region prior to 1870. Blackman did record that a William W. Woodruff had been the Orange County representative at Florida’s Secession Convention of January, 1861.

Blackman also mentioned Woodruff was one of seven delegates to vote against the State’s Secession. Blackman did not, however, mention the name Rutland.

A dozen years earlier, Clarence E. Howard published Early Settlers of Orange County, and included a biography of William W. Woodruff. Howard described Woodruff’s long mule-ride from Mellonville to Gainesville, and of then boarding a train for his final leg to Tallahassee.

Howard too reported of Woodruff voting against Florida’s Secession, and mentioned the name Rutland – but only once! Woodruff’s wife, said Howard, lived at Rutland’s Ferry prior to their marriage.

William W. Woodruff did in fact oppose Florida’s Secession, but there were two Orange County residents who served as delegates. Both men voted NO! The second opposing vote had been cast by Isaac N. Rutland. Five years later, at War’s end, Rutland, the father of four young children, was dead!

A year after Rutland’s death, Isaac’s Widow, with help from a Massachusetts Navy Officer by the name of Lincoln, was able to get her Mule returned. The Mule, stored at the Quartermaster’s stable, in Jacksonville, Florida, was shipped, by the Navy, down the St. Johns River to Mellonville.

By 1870, four orphan Rutland children had been sent to live with their grandmother in Georgia, but by 1880, two of the four siblings, a son Othman, and a daughter Sarah, had returned to Orange County, Florida.

Now, everything stated thus far is historically accurate, with some information coming from a government file, created in 1865, labeled, ‘The Rutland Mule Matter.’

Isaac N. Rutland has been mentioned, from time to time, since Blackman’s history, but until now, next to nothing was ever known of the man, or his family!

An Orange County politician vanished. I feel certain the man’s son, Othman Rutland, would have wanted to find out what happened to his father. And that brings us to my Novel, The Rutland Mule Matter, named for that 150 year old Provost Marshals file folder.

A Central Florida mystery! Central Florida history! This Novel focuses not only on the father, but on Isaac’s family as well. A brother and sister, then 19th Century American Paradise pioneers themselves, begin a search for answers during the 1880s. During this search, a nervous Othman Rutland travels to the North, twice.

This reading is of Othman Rutland’s first journey, north to Columbus, Ohio, where he hopes to confront, face-to-face, a retired Civil War Union Colonel.

And one final note, every individual mentioned in this reading was a true-life individual!

The Reading, Page 83:
Chapter Seven
Representative Harris

Thursday, July 12, 1888

Excuse my sloppy handwriting, as this is a first attempt at writing onboard a moving train. I want to update my diary before memory of events fade, but each time I go to write, the train jerks, and my pen slides across the paper. I found a seat in the lounge car though, beside a small table, and I intend to sit here until all my thoughts have been penned.

Sitting on the floor, between my feet, is a box of fresh oranges, Ezekiel’s ‘ingenious’ plan, concocted last fall while convincing me I needed to make this trip.

Already this train has taken me further north than I’ve ever been in my life. Before now, five or six miles north of the Florida line was the farthest, but a few moments ago, a conductor came through the car announcing we were arriving at Brunswick.

The further north I travel, the more apprehensive I’m becoming about traveling to the land of Yankees. For now though, I need to get back to writing.

Stewart’s Homestead last October:

Following dinner at the Stewarts, we all decided to take a breather. Obviously not wanting to discuss my father, Uncle Matt escaped to his rocker on his front porch. The ladies moved to the living room, while Ezekiel and I, we exited out the back door, searching for fresh air in the woods out behind Stewart’s home.

A part of me was still looking for where our cabin once stood. I followed a dirt trail leading down into a shallow hollow, and as I searched, Ezekiel shared his opinion of Uncle Matt’s reluctance to discuss my father.

Folks around here have a difficult time discussing the war.” My brother-in-law reminded me of things I already knew, like the huge price Central Florida had paid in lives lost during the war. “We are stirring up memories others would prefer not revisit.

He was right. Talk of father probably did touch raw nerves.

We hadn’t gone far on the path when our conversation was cut short. We had arrived at a small cemetery.

Thirty feet square or so and surrounded by a waist-high iron fence, the tiny cemetery looked to contain about a dozen or so graves. It was clearly an old burial ground, yet regularly maintained. Each grave was marked by a small white cross. The crosses were engraved with only initials, and nearly all ended with the letter ‘S’.

In this largely unkempt wilderness, within a stone’s throw of the Stewart family home, hiding in the midst of wild palmetto bushes and prickly scrub oaks, was this tiny oasis, set out in honor of family members.

Ezekiel and I impulsively stopped to pay our respects, standing with hands folded in prayer while not saying a word for the longest time. As I viewed each marker, I couldn’t help but wonder if one had been placed here for my mother.

We stood there in total silence until suddenly a piercing screech caused us to leap out of our skin. But then I immediately realized the source of that scream had been me, reacting to someone unexpectedly touching my left shoulder. Neither Ezekiel nor I had heard my Aunt Ella approach from behind.

My aunt waited while we each planted our feet back on the ground, and she then pointed me in the direction of that cross I had been searching.

Your mother’s marker is that one, on the far right!”

I didn’t say a word, I couldn’t. I stared down at the worn cross, a stick in the ground, a weathered marker having three barely noticeable initials – M. M. R.

Aunt Ella then pointed to a small cluster of crosses atop a mound. “That group,” Aunt Ella paused while Ezekiel and I inspected the crosses, each engraved as well with only initials. “They are in memory of your Uncle’s two brothers, and others killed during that awful war. We don’t even know where they are buried.”

Aunt Ella continued, although doing so was obviously a struggle. “J C S is Jonathan Clay Stewart, two years younger than your Uncle. Jonathan was the Orange County Sheriff before going off to war. He died a few months after arriving in Virginia. P B S is Philemon Bryan Stewart. Bryan was an even younger brother of your Uncle Matt. K H is for Kedar Hawthorne, your Uncle Matt’s brother-in-law, husband of his youngest sister. They were all casualties of that war.”

Aunt Ella was tearing up, yet insisted on continuing. “A P M, Angus P. Malloy, my sister Sarah’s husband. So many of our loved ones lost during such a horrible war.” My aunt needn’t say anything more, although I did have a question for her.

Angus, he was Duncan’s father?” My aunt nodded her head, confirming my suspicion that Duncan was the son of Angus & Sarah Mallory.

I clarified for Ezekiel. “Grandma took Duncan in after the war, and Duncan, Sarah and I lived together up in Georgia. Duncan returned to Orange County with us.”

I hugged my Aunt Ella while she cried, Ezekiel stood by silently, keeping his head bowed.

Then, wiping away her own tears, Aunt Ella looked at me, and confessed. “I should have never said anything about your father. Othman, please do not think badly of your Uncle, he has such a difficult time even today dealing with so much tragedy and loss.” I hugged Aunt Ella tighter.

I don’t recall how long we stood there in total silence, all three of us, staring at the Stewart family cemetery. We stood there for a sufficient length of time though for me to realize others were still enduring the pain caused by a terrible war.

I made amends with my Aunt that very afternoon, and later, I made amends with my Uncle Matthew Stewart.

We bid farewell to Aunt Ella and Uncle Matthew soon after, and I again hugged my aunt, thanked her not only for a delightful afternoon, but for sharing their painful losses as well.

Ezekiel and I slowly packed babies and ladies onboard, pausing again and again as Aunt Ella insisted on more baby hugs and kisses. Ready to mount up myself, it was Uncle Matt who then stopped me.

After first shaking my hand, he hugged me, something my uncle never did before, and he then slipped me an envelope, while whispering, “Wait until you are back at Vick’s before opening this. Understand, your aunt and me, we made a promise to your mother. And one more thing Othman, tell Miles I’m proud of him. I’m proud of you both!”

He wiped his eyes, I wiped mine, and then the Vick and Rutland families departed Stewart’s homestead.

In conclusion,

The Rutland Mule Matter is available at Bookmark it Orlando, 3201 Corrine Drive, Orlando, FL; Winter Garden Heritage Foundation, in historic Winter Garden, FL; and Amazon.com. To order online through Amazon click on my Author page:





Tuesday, March 8, 2016

The Rutland Mule Matter

Ten DAYS of RIDING RUTLAND’S MULE

Compliments of THE RUTLAND MULE MATTER


Day 10: 1865 Lincoln and Rutland’s Mule

Following the Civil War, Naval Officer Charles D. Lincoln, while assigned to Central Florida during the Reconstruction Period, assisted Margaret (Staten) Rutland, a Widow then living at APOPKA, in getting a Mule returned. This 10 Day countdown summarizes a tantalizing true-life story that took place in Post Civil War Florida, and is courtesy of CroninBooks, and a Novel based on a true-life story: The Rutland Mule Mattter.

Day 9: 1867 Cinderella and Rutland’s Mule

CINDERELLA & Matthew Stewart lived in APOPKA. In 1880, their son Miles lived with them, but he would soon be moving across Lake APOPKA, where with his cousin OTHMAN RUTLAND, the two would become key players in establishing the town of WEST Apopka, or as that town is known today, FERNDALE. Cinderella was a sister of Margaret (Stanton) Rutland, the same Widow Rutland who had managed to convince the Navy’s C. D. Lincoln to assist her in getting that Mule shipped down river, from Jacksonville to Mellonville.

Day 8: 1858 Lake Mizell or Lake Rutland?

LAKE MIZELL, on WINTER PARK’S famed chain of lakes, might have been named LAKE RUTLAND! On the 2nd day of April, 1858, according to an 1881 deed, a lakefront Homestead was bought by David W. MIZELL, and that deed stated: “And whereas the said Isaac N. RUTLAND has died before the execution of said Conveyance.” the administrator of Rutland’s estate, Matthew A. Stewart, husband of Apopka’s Cinderella Stewart, signed the 1881 deed conveyance. Isaac didn’t die until 1864, a year before his Widow, Margaret (Stanton) Rutland, requested her Mule be returned.

Day 7: The PENSION’S Building of DC, and Rutland’s Mule

1888 ORLANDO: At the Real Estate Office of John G. Sinclair, on Orange Avenue in 1880s downtown Orlando, Florida, a wall map of the county, paying particular interest to the area around Lake Hancock in west Orange County, provides the best clue yet in a family’s search for the truth. Othman Rutland heads north again, only this time with assistance from his brother-in-law, Ezekiel C. Vick. The two intend to meet, face to face, with a curious group of Federal pension clerks. They travel to DC, visiting the fabulous new Pensions Building, with hopes of getting answers about his father, knowing they share one thing in common with the clerks they are about to meet: they are all Central Florida landholdings!

Day 6: Florida’s Constitution and Isaac N. Rutland

WHEN is a Lawmaker NOT a Lawmaker? Several months ago, CitrusLAND asked that very question of Tallahassee. Why? Well, in April 22, 1861, Florida ratified a NEW State Constitution. 54 Floridians wrote and ratified that Constitution, but only 23 can be found in Florida’s roster of Lawmakers. CitrusLAND asked why 31 are not mentioned, because Isaac N. RUTLAND is among those 31 NOT listed.

“They were NOT”, replied Tallahassee, actual Lawmakers. But by definition, a State’s Constitution is its “basic, fundamental LAW”. If an individual assists in writing a Constitution, and then ratifies the end product, how is that person NOT a Lawmaker? Florida’s House of Representatives itself, for example, exists solely because the House and its duties was created by the State’s Constitution!

Now, CitrusLAND wants to thank Florida’s lawmakers for its recent change of mind, a decision that will add all 31 missing contributors to the State’s Official Lawmakers, a roster that dates to 1822.

Day 5: 1888 Ohio Representative Harris and the Rutland Mule

That out of obedience to instructions from headquarters, District of FLORIDA, I caused said Mule to be branded with the letters U. S. The Mule did not belong to the U. S.” Signed 22 Jun 1864; A. L. HARRIS, Colonel, 75th Ohio Mounted Infantry.

By 1888, Col. Harris was Ohio Representative, Andrew Lintner HARRIS, serving at Columbus, Ohio, leading Othman Rutland to believe Ohio to be a good place to find answers, not only about that mule, but about what happened to his long-missing father, Isaac N. Rutland.

Day 4: Starke Lake and #RutlandMule

1860: Dr. James D. STARKE, of present day OCOEE, Florida, was the selected as Senator of Florida’s 19th Senatorial District. His district included his home County of Orange.

There were 20 districts in all, and that November of 1860, Dr. Starke had been one of the 16 District Senators who traveled to Tallahassee only weeks after Abraham Lincoln had been elected President.

On 30 November, 1860, 12 of 16 Senators, including Starke, had voted in favor of the following resolution: “this General Assembly having implicit confidence in the wisdom and patriotism of the people and the delegates whom they will select to the Convention, commit to them the interest of the State WITHOUT a suggestion as to the course proper to be pursued.”

Florida State Senators, in essence, abdicated their lawmaking authority, placing their State’s future in the ‘wise’ hands of 69patriotic’ Floridians. Isaac N. RUTLAND, of “Florida’s 19th Senatorial District,” was one of 69 patriotic Convention delegates. Rutland opposed Secession, but during early 1861, he fulfilled his duty as a delegate, taking part in, and ratifying, Florida's new Constitution.

Day 3: Cassius M is missing!

15 years after the mysterious 1864 death of “Hon. Isaac N. Rutland,” his estate remained unsettled. The administrator, Matthew A. Stewart, Isaac’s brother-in-law, requested, on June 9, 1879, that a judge appoint Othman’s sister, Sarah K. VICK, wife of Ezekiel C. VICK, as estate administrator, stating: “We have no idea if the other heir is living. He left seven years ago, and we have not seen or heard from him since.”
Isaac’s ‘other heir?’ That would be Cassius M. Rutland, the older brother of Othman and Sarah, last seen, according to the estate administrator, in 1872!

Day 2: The Isaac N. Rutland family:

History failed to record much about Isaac N. Rutland, or of the man’s role in Orange County’s past. But Rutland also had a family, and history reported even less of roles they played in what was then an emerging Central Florida ‘Paradise’. Othman & Sarah Rutland, two of Isaac’s children, were indeed true-life Central Floridians.

As children, all four Rutland orphans had been sent north to Georgia by 1870, but then two returned to a Post-Civil War CitrusLAND. Othman and Sarah then played a part in developing this 19th Century American Paradise.

The Rutland Mule Matter is far more than a story of one man who became lost in the turmoil of America’s Civil War. It is in fact a historical presentation of one family’s tragic plight in a land seemingly cursed with family plight. “Just finished the Rutland Mule. OMG! Your research is so meticulous and your storytelling so captivating. I felt that I’d gone back to another time.” 

For the reader, separating fact from fiction will be the biggest challenge, but to ease the struggle, here’s a helpful hint: There are only two fictional characters. One is the hotel clerk in Columbus, Ohio. The other it the carriage driver in Washington, DC.

Day 1: Isaac N. Rutland and the Rutland Mule:

Captain Isaac N. Rutland replaced Captain Aaron Jernigan as leader of Orange County’s 1856 Militia, a volunteer militia based out of Fort Gatlin. By 1860, Isaac had been selected to represent a Senatorial district that included Orange County, and was one of two ‘wise’ Central Floridians assigned the task of deciding Florida’s future.



Isaac became one of many War casualties of 1864, and later, he was then denied his rightful place in Central Florida history. Denied, that is, until a 150 year old scribbled file folder suddenly surfaced. Inside that 1865 folder, a Provost Marshal’s file, a folder labeled 
The RUTLAND MULE MATTER’, was found the secret Isaac’s children had been searching for. Othman and Sarah finally learned of what really happened to their father. But could they handle the truth? Merely make believe? You can decide for yourself with the assistance of a nine page Bibliography!


THE RUTLAND MULE MATTER, one of five books by Richard Lee Cronin, each digging deep into Central Florida’s long forgotten history. 

Available at Bookmark it Orlando; Winter Garden Heritage Foundation in Winter Garden, Florida and Amazon.com


Please visit my Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/richardcronin