MAITLAND Neighbors & South Florida Railroad

Virginia native Bolling BAKER of MAITLAND was an 1879 neighbor of Dr. Clement C. HASKELL of Massachusetts. An Attorney, Confederate Veteran Baker and the doctor, a Union Veteran, shared two things in common. Both men owned land in a Florida town that was by then 8 years old, and yet each had to endure an arduous 16 mile land trek from the port at Lake Monroe to their homestead alongside Lake Maitland.

“The natural and customary gateway to Orange County,” stated Orange Land of 1883, “is the St. Johns River steamers to Sanford on Lake Monroe.” Steamers on the river had been the customary means of travel for 40 years. The problem for travelers was not the river though, rather how to continue their journey after arriving at Lake Monroe.

Maitland’s Bolling BAKER had been trying to improve land travel, but by 1879, his retired warriors group had yet to find the cash needed to build a railroad. Enter Baker’s neighbor, Dr. Clement C. HASKELL, a brother of newspaperman Edwin B. HASKELL, one of the owners of the celebrated Boston Herald.

Edwin B. HASKELL

Edwin HASKELL was acquainted with central Florida. A sister, Arabella (HASKELL) Bent, had married Charles A. BENT, and after moving to CitrusLAND, they planted an orange grove that was to become known as BENT”S Grove, you know it today as LAKE MARY. Edwin Haskell held a mortgage on Bent’s Grove dating back to 1874. During 1879, Edwin also became involved with his brother’s Maitland home.

Orange County’s population had yet to reach 7,000 by 1880. The county’s landmass at that time included all of present day Orange, Osceola and Seminole – and then some. But New Englanders were taking notice of this “EDEN on earth, a land of sunshine and health, lacking in the cheerless rigors of a bleak, frozen northern winter.” Central Florida offered a haven from harsh northern winters.

    

Improved transportation in central Florida became critical for continued expansion, and at that time, a railroad offered the best solution. Various plans to build a railroad had not gone well. George C. Brantley’s, ‘Tuskawilla to Orlando’ train faltered soon after his 1878 death while in New York City. Joseph J. Finegan and friends, desiring to build rail service between Mellonville and Orlando, had gotten nowhere.

Bostonians came to the rescue, financing South Florida Railroad. Track installation began during February of 1880, days after two Maitland neighbors agreed to transfer franchise rights. That deal however was subject to one “express condition,” service to Maitland had to be completed within four months. “So vigorously was the work prosecuted, that by June 1, 1880,” said the 1883 Orange Land, “the road was in operation to LONGWOOD, July 1st to MAITLAND, and December 1st to ORLANDO.”

The final agreement hammered out by Baker and Haskell forever changed the landscape of central Florida. Why? Baker’s group planned a railroad following the alignment of the original forts trail, the 'First Road to Orlando', that dirt path serving the County Seat for nearly 40 years.

The original forts trail did pass through Maitland, but the alignment north of Maitland shifted to the west. Haskell’s group ran their railroad toward Henry S. Sanford’s, ‘Belair Grove’, then continued toward Bent’s Grove, location of Haskell’s sister land; then on to Longwood, owned by the Civil Engineer from Boston, Edward W. Henck.

The train’s new alignment destined Mellonville, Fort Reid and Tuskawilla to Ghost Town status, and opened up an entirely new winter-haven for Northerners, along the alignment of Boston Herald’s historic South Florida Railroad. The first train ran between Sanford and Orlando November 11, 1880, and within two years, Thomas C. Simpson was in town to acquire 1,200 acres for a group of Boston investors. Land he acquired included a tiny village and depot between Longwood and Maitland called Snowville, land soon to be renamed Altamonte, and renamed again, Altamonte Springs.

At today’s busy intersection of Maitland Ave and SR 436, location of the once elegant hotel named The Altamonte, was a 25 acre ‘Hotel Park.’ The park connected Lake Adelaide and Lake Orienta, and surrounded the hotel. A few home sites fronted that park, with one such residential site, Lot 445, being sold May 16, 1887. Celia (HILL) Haskell purchased the one acre site the very year her husband, Edwin Bradbury Haskell, retired as Editor-in-chief of the Boston Herald.

Edwin & Celia Haskell owned Lot 445 until 1906, when they sold that parcel, “along with the house and enclosure,” according to the deed, to Bostonian George Frost, Altamonte’s second generation developer. Heirs of George Frost sold this acre lot in 1909, “including house and furnishings.”

Residence at Lot 445, Altamonte Springs, FL

Altamonte Springs became part of Seminole County in 1913. County records today lists the “actual or effective” date of construction as 1920. But a home existed on this exact site in 1906 according to deeds, and quite likely as early as 1887. Perhaps one day a researcher will provide compelling evidence regarding the house sitting on Lot 445 today. Is the home 96 years old or perhaps 129 years old?

Beyond the structure itself, of special interest to history was the 1887 owner of this land. Edwin Bradbury Haskell, Editor-In-Chief of the Boston Herald, was also an investor in land at Sanford, Lake Mary, Altamonte Springs, and Maitland – 4 of the first 7 stops on the South Florida Railroad line.    

“Although individuals have located here and there, all over the county,” Orange Land of 1883, “the great majority have made their homes in the lovely strip of country but a few miles wide that extends either side of the South Florida Railroad from Sanford, on the south side of Lake Monroe, the natural gateway of the county, to Orlando, the county seat, and a few miles beyond.”

South Florida Railroad not only reshaped central Florida’s landscape, this first train to Orlando made it possible for Orange County to prosper throughout the 1880s. Boston’s Edwin Haskell and partners understood the importance of their railroad to the barren Orange County wilderness. Visionaries, they were indeed the forefathers a new central Florida era – the golden age of CitrusLAND.

South Florida Railroad rolled into Orlando the first time on November 11, 1880. Forty years had passed since the first surveyors had followed the old forts trail south from an old military pier on Lake Monroe. Throughout the course of these 40 years, pioneers wanting to settle the Orange County wilderness traversed an old dirt trail, trekking 22 miles down a lonely path to reach the Orange County seat.

Stay tuned, as a new RAILS & TRAILS, and another GHOST TOWN or two, returns next Wednesday, July 6, 2016. This summer series is sponsored by ‘Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains’ a Novel based on actual Central Florida 19^th century residents, and one tragic 1895 event that forever changed CitrusLAND.

Kindle Unlimited members read the book FREE, but all summer long, Central Florida Railroad Museum at Winter Garden, in association the Winter Garden History Center, and Bookmark it Orlando book stores, have all priced this book at a summer discounted price of $15.00. Explore central Florida’s network of RAILS & TRAILS.

Richard Lee Cronin Author Page is now up and running at www.Goodreads.com. From now until July 28, you can register for the Goodreads FREE giveaway of 10 CitrusLAND: Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains Books. 

Want to know more about any of my books? Visit www.CroninBooks.com.

A MATTER of the RUTLAND MULE MATTER

Below is a sample page from my Post-Civil War Novel, The Rutland Mule Matter. Enter to win one of 10 signed print copies to be given away by GOODREADS.com on July 28, 2016. Simply click on the entry link at the right of my most recent Blog.

Isaac N. Rutland, of Orange County, was one of 69 delegates of Florida's 1861 Secession Convention. Three years later, Isaac was killed while fighting in the Civil War. His name never became part of the history of Orange County, not until now.

While reading this sample page I suggest you keep one thing in mind - ALL of the characters, and place names, are historically accurate.

Enjoy!

Chapter 8; Page 102:

Sunday, October 9, 1888:

My favorite time of the day is again nearing an end. My morning ritual is to sit on my Finegan Porch and watch a beautiful sunrise over Lake Apopka, but that portion of this day has now past. So too is day one of my sister Sarah's family visit.

While the others still sleep, I thought I’d commit events of yesterday to my diary. It was an interesting day.

We started with a sightseeing tour, taking Sarah and Ezekiel into West Apopka so they could see first-hand how folks, ‘on the far side of the lake’ live. We walked up to the rail depot, watched the southbound Tavares, Apopka & Gulf Railroad pass through town, and later visited with a few of the townsfolk.

Neighbor William Patterson insisted we all come by his place for lunch, so we did, and during our visit the topic of me traveling to Ohio of course came up. That in turn led to a discussion of the search for my father.   

Ezekiel, who I swear can talk to anyone about anything, mentioned the Navy being at Mellonville at war’s end. Patterson’s response nearly knocked Ezekiel and I both off our feet. “Othman, you need to talk to Jim Franklin about this, he’s a retired Navy guy.”

I had not known, and to save my brother-in-law from asking, I filled him in on the man mentioned. “Jim has a grove to the south of here.”

“More than a grove!” William Patterson was right, at this time the man had far more going than just a citrus grove, so I allowed Mr. Patterson to fill in details. “Jim Franklin is developing a town to rival most any Central Florida city. His land sits high on a hill, and many of his town lots have a splendid view of Lake Apopka.”

Assuming Ezekiel wouldn’t know the town, I saved him from having to ask. “It’s called Montverde.”

The VETERANS Railroad at MELLONVILLE

SANFORD, on Lake Monroe, is typically considered the birthplace of Central Florida’s railroad. South Florida Railroad began running trains between Sanford and ORLANDO November 11, 1880, but organizers had begun planning a Lake Monroe to Tampa train one entire decade earlier, in March, 1870. Among the earlier organizers was a gentleman who had already constructed Florida’s first-ever train.

The story of Central Florida’s first railroad remained buried in newspaper archives until only recently. While collaborating with Sanford researcher Christine Kinlaw-Best, a Director at Sanford Historical Society, she happened upon an 1870 newspaper article that altered what was thought to be the history of railroading in this region.

Christine and I had been researching Matthew R. Marks, an early Florida pioneer, and the man’s involvement with Fort Reid’s Orange House Hotel. Also known by its Indian name, ALAHA CHACO, it had been said that the Orange House was the first hotel built south of Lake Monroe. In the land of hotels today, the first-ever is truly historic!

Dated April 6, 1870, the article Christine Kinlaw-Best had located not only spoke of Fort Reid’s Orange House Hotel though, at two miles south of MELLONVILLE, it mentioned too that the hotel had been a meeting place, on March 3, 1870, of those incorporating the “Upper St. Johns, Mellonville, Tampa & South Florida Railroad.”

Ten (10) years before the first South Florida Railroad train departed Sanford in 1880, planners had gathered a mile to the east of Sanford at Fort Reid, a gathering intended to organize central Florida’s first inland train to run between Lake Monroe and Tampa.

A predecessor to Sanford’s 1880 train had been known – to an extent. In February of 1880, the directors of ‘Mellonville & Orlando Railroad,’ of which Joseph Finegan was President, conveyed their State franchise right-of-way to South Florida Railroad.

Joseph Finegan was one and the same as Florida Brigadier General Joseph J. Finegan, builder of Florida’s first railroad – a sea-to-sea railway, connecting the Atlantic Ocean near Jacksonville with Cedar Key on the Gulf of Mexico. Finegan completed the State’s first railroad prior to the Civil War. Other directors involved with the Mellonville & Orlando Railroad of 1880 were Michael J. Doyle of Mellonville; Dr. W. A. Spence of Fort Reid; and Bolling Baker of Maitland.

The residence of Michael J. Doyle at Mellonville

Photo source: Florida Memory Project

Joseph J. Finegan and Michael J. Doyle had also been involved a decade earlier as organizers of the Upper St. Johns, Mellonville, & Tampa Railroad. In 1870, other planners included Arthur Ginn and Matthew R. Marks of Mellonville; William Watson and Jacob Brock of Enterprise; Matthew A. Stewart of Apopka; as well as John T. Leslie and Charles Moore of Tampa. The Honorable William M. Randolph, of Fort Reid, Fort Gatlin and New Orleans, Louisiana, was yet another organizer.

Each individual involved with the first central Florida railroad had one thing in common besides railroading, as each was also a Veterans of the Confederacy, a group of retired warriors who then joined together in an attempt to start over in central Florida.

At that March 1870 meeting, a motion was approved authorizing Matthew R. Marks to journey north to New York City, with his end-game being to raise cash to build their new railroad. Perhaps you recall, from part one of this series, that George C. Brantley died in 1878 at New York City, there hoping to buy rails for his Tuskawilla to Orlando train. Matthew R. Marks though survived his New York City visit, but the railroad he and fellow Southern investors hoped to build, did not.

The Lake Monroe to Tampa railroad of 1870 died as a result of a law suit filed by a New Yorker named FRANCIS VOSE. Within nine (9) months of that Fort Reid organization meeting, on the 6^th day of December, 1870, Vose, holder of pre-Civil War railroad bonds, obtained an injunction, restraining the State from using public land for further railroad construction until he was paid in full. Francis VOSE held $211,885 in past due bonds on Florida railroads constructed before the War.

The Court injunction derailed plans for Central Florida’s first railroad, a train that was to be built by Confederate Veterans of America’s Civil War. Instead, the South Florida Railroad Company, organized by Union Veterans of America’s Civil War, built Central Florida’s first railroad during the year 1880.

Stay tuned, a new RAILS & TRAILS, with another GHOST TOWN or two, picks up where we left off next Wednesday, sponsored by ‘Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains’ a Novel based on true Central Florida 19^th century railroads.

Kindle Unlimited members read this book FREE, but all summer long, Central Florida Railroad Museum at Winter Garden, and Bookmark it Orlando book stores, have print copies available at a special discounted price of only $15.00. It’s all a part of a RAILS & TRAILS SUMMER 2016 Series.

My author page, Richard Lee Cronin, is now up and running at www.Goodreads.com or simply visit www.CroninBooks.com for more details.

At GOODREADS.COM you can register in two summer drawings for a chance to win a FREE book by Richard Lee Cronin: The Rutland Mule Matter giveaway is running from June 28^th to July 28^th 2016. Watch also for First Road to Orlando giveaway begging in early July. 

FORT MASON on the ST. JOHNS & LAKE EUSTIS RR

Today a Ghost Town, ORANGE County’s Fort MASON was located two miles southwest of MOSQUITO County’s Fort MASON, although to visit either site now, one would need to take Lake County’s Route 19, following the one-time track alignment of St. JOHNS & LAKE EUSTIS Railroad. Clear as mud, right?

A St. Johns & Lake Eustis train waits at the Fort Mason Depot 

The easternmost corner of Lake County was part of Orange County until May 27, 1887. And prior to 1845, this same area was part of Mosquito County. In 1836, Fort MASON was established by the Army during the Seminole Indian War. The fortress was built alongside a north-south trail, shown a decade later on a survey as located on the west bank of present day Lake BRACY, east of Lake SMITH. Now inaccessible by car, the one-time fortress sat one half-mile east of County Road 19. A city of Fort Mason was later established two miles south, on the north shore of Lake EUSTIS.

Lake County’s Route 19 connects ASTOR, on St. Johns River, with the one-time town of Fort MASON. An 1883 publication described Fort Mason as, “situated on Lake Eustis, and has been for three years the terminus of the St. Johns & Lake Eustis Railroad.”

Incorporated February, 1879, St. Johns & Lake Eustis Railroad was certified complete from Astor to Fort Mason on the 13^th of November, 1880. (South Florida Railroad ran its first train between Sanford and Orlando on the 11^th of November, 1880).

A town of FORT MASON dates to September 24, 1872, with John M. Bryan being named first Postmaster on that date. (A year later, SANFORD established a Post Office). A two acre Fort Mason site was sold in 1877 for a store lot, and that land sale was described as located, “on the railroad right-of-way.” Planning for the railroad began as early as 1877!

“Capitalists in Florida,” were hard at work planning Central Florida’s earliest inland trains. The New Orleans Morning Star of April 1, 1877 reported, “Mr. Astor of New York and Captain W. Stokes Boyd desire to make extensive investments in Florida.” Town of Astor, on the St. Johns River at Lake George, was to be the nucleus of a planned 80,000 acre “Manhattan Project.’ George C. Brantley and Henry S. Sanford were, at this same time, planning Orange County towns as major ports along the St. Johns River.

“Fort Mason is in what is known as the Lake Region,” said Orange Land of 1883, "lying on Lake Eustis, which is a large and beautiful body of water, connected by steam boats with Lakes Harris, Griffin, Dora, Beauclair and Apopka.”

As the Astor based railroad extended its line further south to EUSTIS, interest in SANS SOUCI Street, paralleling RAILROAD Avenue and IGOU Street at Fort Mason very quickly diminished. ‘Carefree,’ as the French Sans Souci suggested to newcomers, could no longer live up to being worry free as Fort Mason progressed toward Ghost Town status.

“Two large general stores kept by Charles T. Smith and Samuel M. Owens, and a large well-kept hotel,” as each was described in 1883, are long gone today, but one can still trace 19^th century footprints of Central Florida’s earliest dreamers and schemers.

Town Plat of Fort Mason, Surveyed 1874 by E. G. Rehrer, Recorded 1885

Drive north from downtown Eustis, veer northwest onto Route 452, and then follow the lakeshore. Turn left on FORT MASON Drive, and this short street will end at State Road 44, where in 1945 Fort Mason met its demise, and where our Rails & Trails drive begins today. Construction of Route 44 paved over portions of the Ghost Town’s earliest streets.

Railroad Avenue once crossed here at the intersection of Fort Mason Drive and SR 44. Track continued toward the lake, ending at a pier where passengers transferred to steamers for the next leg of their journey on Lake Eustis. Original street names have since vanished.

Turn right here (east) onto 44, then left at 19A (northbound) and drive north to Route 19. About 2 miles north, at Dona Vista, the road begins to parallel the old St. Johns & Lake Eustis Railway. Off to your right (east) will be Lake Smith, and beyond that lake, the 1836 Fortress Mason. Continuing north, CR 19 passes through towns & villages that were once scheduled stops for the railway: Umatilla; Glendale; Chipcoe; Pittman; Ravenswood; Summit; Sellars Lake; Bryanville; before finally arriving at Astor at St. John River. At Astor, stop alongside the river, and imagine anxious newcomers to the region arriving here aboard steam vessels of the 19^th century. 

“It would be well for persons who contemplate settling in Florida to examine in person, or by letter, this particular section of the State.” These words, first penned in 1883, apply as well today, and for persons already residing in Florida who have not yet visited this region.

Stay tuned, a new RAILS & TRAIL, and another GHOST TOWN or two, picks back up right here – next Wednesday!

Kindle Unlimited members read ‘Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains’ FREE, while all this summer, Central Florida Railroad Museum at Winter Garden, and Bookmark it Orlando have copies available at a special discounted Rails & Trails price of $15.00

Visit www.CroninBooks.com for even more details.

ORLANDO & LAKE JESUP RAILROAD at TUSKAWILLA

ORLANDO & LAKE JESUP RAILROAD, as well as the Town of TUSKAWILLA, are among many examples of how railroads shaped the central Florida as we know it today.

An actual town of Tuskawilla no longer exists, but if George C. BRANTLEY had had his way, this Ghost Town of today would have been the starting point for his railroad. The FIRST central Florida train departed out of SANFORD, but months before, the FIRST track in this area had been surveyed for the ORLANDO & LAKE JESUP Railroad.

During the 1870s, long before personal automobiles, the task of transforming Florida’s interior fell on trains. Riverboats, like the ‘Tuskawilla’, delivered people and cargo to various docks, but an inland alternative to old sand rutted trails was needed for the area to attract settlers in large numbers.

The Civil War had interrupted the building of an Orange County railroad, but following the War, plans resurfaced. By 1870, retired warriors floated the idea of a train running between MELLONVILLE and TAMPA. Money problems put that start-up venture on hold.

Dreamers kept dreaming though, and a race of sort was on to build the first railroad to serve a growing number of steamers on the St. Johns River. One planner was a Georgia boy named George C. BRANTLEY.

A merchant having “a large store and warehouse” on Lake Jesup, Brantley’s Wharf was visited in 1873 by Thomas W. Lund, Jr, son of a St. Johns Riverboat Captain. Lund’s parents owned a winter residence near the wharf, and Lund, Jr. described mule teams hauling freight from “Tuscawilla to Maitland and Orlando.” Planning for the town of SANFORD was still in its infancy during 1873, and as for the train at nearby Mellonville, it was still on hold, still hoping to raise cash.

Brantley’s plan began to take shape on the 2^nd day of January, 1874. On that day he sold 225 acres to cattleman Jacob Summerlin, land surrounding much of present-day Lake Eola, on the east side of downtown ORLANDO.

Brantley’s Orlando railway depot was planned for the east side of Lake Eola. Had his train been first to arrive at the County Seat, it would have drastically altered not only how downtown Orlando evolved, but also how cities north and east of Orlando might have developed. This train, for example, was to have stayed east of present day Winter Park, as opposed to South Florida Railroad track passing to the west of that town.

TUSKAWILLA was platted in 1874, and so too was Summerlin’s Addition to Orlando. All Brantley needed to do next was to lay 13 miles of track between these two towns.

1874 Plat of Tuskawilla on Lake Jesup (Jessup)

Brantley reportedly surveyed 3 miles of track before heading to New York City to arrange rail delivery. That’s when fate intervened, as George C. Brantley died while in New York City, October 22, 1878, fifteen months before South Florida Railroad began laying down their track in the direction of Orlando.

On November 11, 1880, the first South Florida Railroad train departed Sanford, rolling into Orlando, Florida later that afternoon, stopping at a depot well to the west of Jake Summerlin’s addition. Eventually, both the Sanford & Indian River Railroad and Florida Midland Railway set sight on the Tuskawilla region, but by then, it was too little too late, as railroads in general were experiencing a financial crisis.

Today, Seminole’s Cross County Trail crosses a portion of the 8,000 acre Mitchell Grant, part of the original 1830s Levy Grant. Along Lake Jesup’s south shore, the trail passes just south of the intersection of Orange Avenue and Tuskawilla Road, remnants of a 19^th Century Town of Tuskawilla, a Ghost Town today.

Had George C. Brantley the visionary lived, if his railway line been completed as he had hoped, there is no doubt Central Florida would look very different today.

Each Wednesday, throughout the summer of 2016, we celebrate the early railroads of Central Florida. But you needn’t wait until Wednesdays to experience Florida railroads. Explore the excellent system of trails built atop old rail beds, and visit Winter Garden’s Railroad Museum on Boyd Street. While touring the museum, pick up a copy of Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains, specially priced during this 2016 Rails & Trails Summer.

STAY TUNED FOR A NEW RAIL, A NEW TRAIL, AND ANOTHER GHOST TOWN!

Kindle Unlimited members can read Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains FREE.

Visit my Website at: www.CroninBooks.com