50 STATES OF CENTRAL FLORIDA Part 10: MI & FL

Builders of America’s 19^th century Florida Paradise arrived from nearly every corner of the world. Amazing dreamers and doers, these pioneers selected land locations in a wide swath of a Citrus Belt that stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. A courageous bunch of guys and gals, they came to Florida from parts of every modern day State as well.

All 50 States played a role in founding central Florida, and CitrusLAND is paying tribute to the remarkable individuals from around the U. S. each Sunday throughout the summer, doing so in the order States were admitted to our Union of States. This week our spotlight shines on Michigan, State #26, admitted June 26, 1837; and Florida, State #27 admitted on March 3, 1845.

MICHIGAN

“The Michigan people,” said the Orange Land magazine of 1883, a publication sanctioned by Orange County Commissioners, “are clustering around Hoosier Springs and Lake Brantley.” Known today as ‘The Springs,” a Seminole County community, the Florida Midland Railway was at the time laying track at Hoosier Springs in the direction of Lake Brantley. The railroad was opening up a narrow strip of land west of present day I-4 for 1880s settlers, a stretch that is today SR 434.

Other residents from the 26^th State were also locating in the 1880s along the old forts trail, or the trail I’ve dubbed the, ‘First Road to Orlando.’ Samuel A. ROBINSON followed his brother Norman to Florida, and the two partnered in platting additions to both Kissimmee City and the County Seat of Orlando.

Sam Robinson served as County Surveyor, sketching in 1881 the first known original plat of the 1857, 417’ X 417,’ Village of Orlando. The original village of 12 lots and a small courthouse square had not previously been recorded. Robinson also surveyed an 80 acre addition to that four acre Orlando village, completing that task for the Palatka merchant and Orange County landowner, Robert R. Reid.

Born at Michigan’s Calhoun County, Samuel A. Robinson (1849-1926) arrived at central Florida in 1876, just in time to begin surveying a planned Lake Jesup & Orlando Railroad route for George C. BRANTLEY. The survey was done by 1878, but the railroad was never completed. Brantley died in New York city while trying to purchase track for his railroad.

Arriving in fall of 1875 with his mother, Edward Hall, son of Ishpeming, MI banker Charles H. Hall, told historian William Blackman of his half day journey down the old trail, beginning at Michael Doyle’s pier at Mellonville on Lake Monroe, to their winter cottage at C. C. Beasley’s up and coming town of Maitland.

From Portage, Michigan in 1885 came jewelers David & Lydia Washburn, buying up property in several Orange County locations. They soon focused their attention at a soon-to-be town along the Orange Belt Railway. Their story as to how the railroad crossed a tiny corner of the Washburn’s land, an infringement very likely leading to the naming of Winter Garden, is detailed in my book, CitrusLAND: Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains.

At the grand opening of the new Winter Garden Heritage Foundation building in 2014, local high school students entertained guests with a play depicting three versions as to how the town got its name. I was honored to watch as one version was taken from the pages of my Ghost Towns book, which is available for purchase at that fine museum.

Winter Garden High School students performing at WGHF museum opening in 2014. An honor that their skit on how Winter Garden got its name was taken from the pages of CitrusLAND: Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains.

Michigan native Mahlon GORE walked 22 miles to Orlando in May of 1880, arriving at the county seat within months of the first train arriving. Born at Climax, MI, Gore went west first, staking a claim to a homestead in the rugged wilderness of the Dakota Territory. He told of how he slept under the stars out west while building a log home, and of health reasons for changing plans and making tracks toward Orange County. A journalist, Mahlon Gore bought Orlando’s Orange Reporter newspaper, and within a few years, also partnered in developing a new town of Chuluota, presently in Seminole County. Gore is remembered as being one of central Florida’s staunchest promoters.

FLORIDA

James PARRAMORE personifies native Floridians of the 19^th century. Five years old at the time Florida became the 27^th State, James was raised at Madison County, in the State’s Panhandle. He is immortalized today by an Orlando neighborhood and road he had personally platted nearly 140 years ago.

Technically born at Georgia, when considering the circumstances, we believe the man to be a homegrown Floridian, The third son, two older brothers were born in the Florida Territory prior to Indian uprisings of 1836. Due to the unrest, most settlers escaped Madison County, going north into Georgia until conditions were right for returning. The Parramore’s returned after War’s end, so James was technically a Florida native.

Six months prior to the Civil War, James Parramore acquired 1,200 Orange County acres from Joseph Finegan of Nassau County. He then married Finegan’s daughter, and during the War, served alongside General Joseph Finegan. After the War, and after first having to bury his wife, Agnes (Finegan) Parramore, at Madison, James and his widowed mother relocated to Fort REID, a town inland two miles from Mellonville on the First Road to Orlando.

In 1882, with the War of Rebellion still fresh on the minds of every American, James Parramore acquired 40 acres west of the new railroad track in Orlando, and platted ‘Parramore’s Addition to Orlando.’ James employed a Yankee surveyor to lay out nine crossroads, naming one of the streets Parramore, and another for assassinated President Lincoln, who had fought to end slavery. On September 28, 1882, James then gifted a corner parcel at LINCOLN Street to Trustees of the African M. E. Church, stating that land was to be used expressly for religious purposes. (Lincoln Street was later abandoned).

Still another Madison County native was Robert W. BROOME, a mysterious out-of-town lawyer who came to Orlando, got himself elected Chairman of the 1875 village meeting to incorporate the county seat, and then vanished, never to be heard of again. Robert was the nephew of James E. Broome, Florida’s 3^rd Governor, who had served his final day in office on October 5, 1857. On that exact same day, October 5, 1857, an Alabama landowner donated four acres for Orlando’s courthouse. Coincidence?

Homesites around Lake Eola were first developed in 1874 by Florida's Cattle-King, Jacob Summerlin. Attorney Robert L. Summerlin, Jacob's son, had a residence on the lake.  

Florida native Robert L. SUMMERLIN was born near Tampa. A lawyer as well, the son of Florida’s cattle-King, Jacob Summerlin, was said to have been the person who gave Orlando’s Iconic LAKE EOLA its name. Robert Summerlin attended the 1875 incorporation meeting along with his father, served a term as Orlando Mayor, and yes, his childhood crush appears to have been the inspiration for the naming of Lake Eola.

Florida boys made central Florida proud!

Next Sunday: Texas, Iowa & Wisconsin