The SAVAGE of
CitrusLAND:
Rick’s BLOG: September
2015 Edition
Central Florida – America’s 19th Century Paradise
By Richard Lee Cronin
After posting Part One of 12
Central Floridians this January, a Blog Series that began with the 19th
Century pioneer William A. Lovell, I
was contacted by a gentleman who was a lineal descendant of my featured
character. A life-long Orange County resident himself, this individual still
lived on a portion of Lovell’s original 1870
homestead.
We later met at The
Museum of Apopkans, where I was presented with a plethora of additional
data on a remarkable Lovell/Wofford
family of Orange County, Florida. I had featured two men in Part One, as Lovell
had relocated to Central Florida just prior to the Civil War, bringing with him
the family of his father-in-law, John T.
Wofford.
Both men at first settled near Fort Reid, then moved further south to Orlando. By 1870, they relocated
west to the Apopka region. Lovell
served as Orange County's first ever School Superintendent in 1869, and this man’s great-grandson, in
2015, explained that he too had recently
retired from a life-long career teaching in Orange County schools. Like
grandfather, like grandson!
While sitting there in Apopka’s marvelous museum, I fully
realized I was in the presence of CitrusLAND
nobility, yet did not yet know the full extent. After our meeting, I was
informed he would also be sending material about his paternal family. Several days later, I received an envelope from my
Apopka history friend, and learned that he was also a great-grandson of a Mr. Frank W. Savage.
“Mr. Savage claims that
Florida has saved his life.” These words were penned 133 years earlier, in 1882, by the legendary John A. MacDonald. A land agent and
surveyor, John MacDonald was then trying to eke out a living in the wilds of
Florida. MacDonald, while writing of land dealings with a Dr. Joseph Bishop of Sylvan Lake,
mentioned that the doctor had been, “instrumental
in bringing many others, amongst them our esteemed townsman, Frank W. Savage, who has one of the most beautiful properties on the
peerless Crooked Lake at Eustis”.
Frank Savage had told his family of working alongside Dr. Bishop at
Freeman’s Bank at Columbus, MS, when he first began communicating with John A.
MacDonald of Florida. MacDonald had advertised that he could assist those
interested in acquiring Florida land.
MacDonald wrote of arriving at old Fort Mellon (1 mile east of
present day Sanford), in 1868, and
of homesteading two miles inland, at Fort
Reid. By 1873, his father James
was Fort Reid’s Postmaster, but the MacDonald’s soon after became less interested
in Fort Reid, and more interested in a quiet corner of Orange County known then as
the ‘Great Lake Region.’ You know
the region today as EUSTIS!
An early Central Florida pioneer, Frank W. Savage passed to
his descendants a detailed account of his early impressions of the region when
he first arrived in 1876. Much of
what Savage said of 19th Century CitrusLAND is not only verified by land records, but is easily
supported as well by the 1882
writings of John A. MacDonald.
Today, history is often considered dull and lacking, causing many
to become absorbed in the 'make-believe'. Some take delight in super-humans,
heroic characters who achieve make-believe triumphs – often times in a faraway
make-believe universe. But as for me, I fancy real-life individuals, brave men
and women who truly achieved the unimaginable, and did so right here on this
planet, and at times, in our very own backyard.
19th Century Central Florida – America’s Paradise - had many true-life pioneers that fit just such
a description as Super-Human. Frank W. Savage and John A. MacDonald were but
two such individuals, super courageous pioneers who dared to venture into an untamed wilderness of Central Florida, and at a time when the only roads were dirt
trails.
Achievements of men such as Savage and MacDonald should never
be forgotten. Neither man should ever be thought of as dull or lacking, for
their story is the fascinating history of 19th Century Central
Florida. It was pioneers such as these two who, borrowing a line from the make
believe, boldly went where no man had gone before.
Central Florida’s 19th
Century history is, in fact, chock full of fascinating individuals who somehow pulled
off the most remarkable of feats. They are the individuals I like to write about. They are the individuals I want all Central Floridians to remember!
My October Edition of this Blog will visit the Great Lake Region of Orange County, a
region most folks know today as part of Lake County, and I will reconnect with legendary John A. MacDonald. Because his
story is one worth telling again and again!
October
15, 2015: The Legendary John A. MacDonald
A new edition of Rick’s 2015-2016 Blog will post here on the
15th of every month. Feed burner, if you choose, will send automatic
notifications of new Blogs by subscribing in the space provided above.
Meanwhile, should you have a comment, question, or desire a bibliography for
this Blog, I’d love to hear from you at: Rick@CroninBooks.com
BY
THE WAY……
DID YOU
KNOW
a Florida Senator has gone missing? It is a fact that the Speaker of Florida’s
Senate issues regularly a complete roster of Florida Lawmakers who served in
the legislature since the very beginning of Florida as a Territory in 1822. At least one name however is missing. THE RUTLAND MULE MATTER is in fact a Novel, but it is based on amazing true-life facts. This is a factual story of one man who was obliterated from the pageS of history! Click on this MULE - IF, THAT IS, YOU DARE!
And
also,
RESERVE THE DATE: Friday,
November 13, 2015 – for a CitrusLAND Book Event, sponsored by my friends at Winter Garden Heritage Foundation. Attendees
will receive an exclusive Orange County historic keepsake as a reminder of
their visit to historic Winter Garden, Florida. This event begins at 6:30 PM.
If you can make it, I’d love to hear from you at Rick@CroninBooks.com
