A History of LAKE UNDERHILL - Part 2

A History of LAKE UNDERHILL

Rick’s CitrusLAND Holiday Blog

Part 2: A Louisville School Board (or two)

Three huge land deals, involving millions of central Florida acres, ignited what can best be described as a mediocre 1880s surge in Orange County’s growth. Hamilton DISSTON had started the surge by purchasing four (4) million acres. Disston in turn inspired two British groups, working independent of one another, to acquire thousands of acres at Sanford as well as a large portion of a desolate East Orange County.

Looking west today across Lake Underhill toward Orlando skyline

Included in the millions of acres changing hands during the 1880s was a tiny parcel on the northeast shore of Lake Underhill. Currently an Orlando Executive Airport runway, the parcel was purchased in 1884 by a German immigrant. By that time though, much of the lake shore had already become private property. Philadelphia’s Hamilton Disston and the two British investors indeed triggered a growth surge, but interest in the Lake Underhill area itself appears to be more the result of migrating Kentuckians.

#Louisvillians to be precise!

The red rectangle on the Orange 1888 map above outlines the area of present day Lake Underhill. The two townships (each square on map) east of Orlando shows little to no settlement as of that year. The lake doesn't even appear on this map.

A Louisville Editor and Educator:

Students of central Florida history might assume, incorrectly, that I’d be referring to Pine Castle’s Will Wallace Harney in stating a school principal turned newspaper editor was an early Lake Underhill homesteader. Harney settled on Lake Conway, moving from Louisville in 1869, where he had been both an editor and school principal. Harney built a home of native pine trees on a lake shore, thereby inspiring the naming of the town.

But another Louisville editor and school principal, Norman Robinson, came to Orlando a decade after Will Wallace Harney. Robinson bought numerous parcels around central Florida, including 80 acres on the north shore of Lake Underhill. Planes taxi today on land once owned by Norman Robinson, a New York native who had relocated at a young age to Louisville, Kentucky.

Norman became so engaged in land development at central Florida that he convinced a brother to relocate to Orlando as well. That brother, Samuel A. Robinson, eventually became a prominent Orange County Surveyor.

Norman Robinson maintained dual citizenship, for in 1879, in addition to being an Orlando land developer, he was still Principal of Louisville’s Holyoke Academy. He and Leora Bettison Robinson, his wife and an acclaimed author, also taught at Holyoke Academy. Prior to the school, Norman had been editor of Louisville’s Western Recorder, a Baptist newspaper still operating today.

Norman & Leora settled near downtown Orlando, where CATHCART Avenue of today crosses Colonial Drive (CATHCART was Leora’s mother’s maiden name). The acreage Norman bought at Lake Underhill sat about 2 miles due-east of Orlando, a trek made much easier today simply by taking Robinson Avenue due east from Cathcart to the road’s end at Orlando Executive Airport.

The Robinson Brothers’ 1880s landholdings were widespread. They were among the first, for example, to plat an Addition to Kissimmee City, and they expanded Orlando as well. Norman acquired land on the north shore of Lake Underhill as well, whereas Samuel, he selected acreage along the south shore. Today, Lake Underhill Park and boat ramp sits upon property originally owned by Samuel A. Robinson.

Snowbirds began taking interest in the quiet lakeside seclusion east of the county seat, largely due to the Robinson’s. Northerners such as Henry CONANT, a New York City piano manufacturer; Alexander DUNCAN, a Toronto Police Sargent; and a British emigrant turned citrus farmer, Hugh B. CHURCH, each celebrated the 1884 New Year as Lake Underhill neighbors, enjoying the Sunshine State far from the frigid North that each had long been accustomed.

Who else? Well, Benjamin B. ELSE! He too lived on lakefront acreage that, as far as Orange County recorded documents reflect, did not yet have a formal name.

The ‘OTHER’ Louisville Girls School:

As the Robinson brothers were taking interest in the body of water now known as Lake Underhill, the town of Louisville, Kentucky was still harboring two key players in the story of our East Orlando Lake. Both were school teachers!

Ida M. Babbitt celebrated her 15^th birthday at Louisville in 1880, but not while living with her parents. Ida was living with Henrietta Barbaroux, founder and principal of Barbaroux’ School for Girls. Three years later, at age 18, Ida listed her occupation in an 1883 Louisville Directory as “teacher.” She was still living with Miss Barbaroux.

Meanwhile, back at Orlando, heirs of Sheriff David W. Mizell, Jr., the first landowner on Lake Underhill, sold their lakefront property November 13, 1884. Three recorded deeds, having a combined five (5) pages, described the acreage sold without ever mentioning a name of the lake bordering one side of the land.

William D. PALMER, a native of Monticello, Jefferson County, Florida, bought the land from the Mizell family, days before departing for Kentucky. Six (6) days after the Lake Underhill deed had been signed, William married at Louisville. His bride was a school teacher, Miss Ida May Babbitt, and so the Lake Underhill plot thickens.

How do I know, you might ask, that it’s the same Babbitt? Within one month of their marriage, William D. & Ida M. Palmer were living at the Summerlin Hotel, in downtown Orlando. The Summerlin Hotel manager was Miss H. Barbaroux, who would go on to establish the Cathedral School for Girls at Orlando.

The Palmer newlyweds also made their first land sale of acreage William had purchased only days before their wedding. The deed the couple signed as Mr. & Mrs. Palmer included descriptive language of the property location, including the sentence: “Thence south along LAKE UNDERHILL.” 

The Palmer land sale of December 16, 1884 by the is the first known recorded document referencing the name Lake Underhill. That 12 acre parcel was purchased by Elizabeth Harn, wife of Sam Harn, an Orlando Realtor. The very same parcel is today Colonel Joe Kittinger Park.

Two central Florida lakes became home, in 1860, to a prominent citizen named David W. Mizell. A father and son, both were well-known to local history. Senior chose his parcel on Lake Conway, across from an ex-Louisville High School principal who went on to become an Editor at the Louisville Democrat newspaper. Junior selected acreage on a lake destined to become Lake Underhill, across the shore from where a one- time Editor of Louisville’s Western Recorder turned High School Principal homesteaded 80 acres. The coincidence of history is very often amusing, but even more so here in central Florida.

The first Lake Underhill parcel settled in 1860 went on to become, in 1884, the first recorded deed to establish the lake’s name as Underhill, a name not easily found in the annals of central Florida history. The Palmer’s sold additional lots as “Lake Underhill”, adding to a growing list of lake shore residents. Part Three of this Blog will introduce you to an Arkansas Brigadier General and his Moscow, Russia buyer, as our Holiday event, A History of Lake Underhill, continues. Stay tuned, and in the meantime, check out...

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References are available upon request, email Rick@CroninBooks.com

Author Richard Lee Cronin

Proud recipient of the 2017 Pine Castle Historian Award