50 STATES OF CENTRAL FLORIDA; Part 4: NH & VA

50 States of central Florida, Part 4:

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

All 50 States played a role in founding central Florida, and CitrusLAND will pay tribute to such remarkable individuals each Sunday throughout the summer of 2018, doing so in the order States were admitted to our Union of States. This week our spotlight shines on New Hampshire, State #9, admitted June 21, 1788; and Virginia, admitted as State #10 on June 25, 1788.

NEW HAMPSHIRE

John G. SINCLAIR, a native of NEW HAMPSHIRE, relocated to Florida in November, 1879. He opened a real estate office at the corner of Orange & Pine Streets in Orlando. “There is no agency in the county,” said an 1883 article of Sinclair, “whose success has been so marked as this. From a small beginning in April, 1881, a course of square dealing has built up a business second to known.” As a realtor, Sinclair, it was said, had made sales “to parties from nearly every State in the Union.” (Fitting, since this Blog series is about every state in our Union.)

Birds-eye view of 1884 Orlando prepared for land agent John G. Sinclair

Sinclair’s home was 2 miles north of downtown, on Lake Ivanhoe, near the Wilcox Railway depot. According to author George M. Barbour, John G. SINCLAIR had, in addition to his real estate firm, “an orange grove, cassava starch-factory, saw-mill and a cotton-gin”. He had 800 orange trees. As well. The Sinclair agency, it was reported, “had probably nine-tenths of the properties for sale in and around Orlando exclusively on its books.”

Born 1826 at Barnstead, NH, John G. Sinclair returned to New Hampshire following Florida’s Great Freeze of 1894-95, where he died, at Grafton, in June, 1899.

VIRGINIA

One of only a few soldiers staying behind in 1842, after the close of Florida’s Seminole Indian War, was Augustus J. VAUGHN, a native of Campbell County, VA, who then filed for a 160 acre Homestead upon which sat Fort Reid. Two miles inland from Lake Monroe, Vaughn’s Historic Fort Reid was preserved because this man chose to reside on his homestead for the next 50 years, until his death in 1893.

Virginia became an unfortunate final resting place for many Florida Infantryman during the Civil War. Orange County Sheriff Jonathan C. STEWART, and William Vaughn, 16 year old son of Fort Reid veteran Augustus, both died near Richmond, VA in 1862-63. These were but two of many young Florida boys killed on the Virginia battlefields.

Manor House, Vaucluse, VA - Residence of W. S. Jones

Most all of the family of William M. Randolph ventured into central Florida to make a new home after the Civil War. A prominent New Orleans Attorney, William Mayer Randolph kept up his Louisiana law practice while his wife Mary partnered in Orange County’s first free-standing hotel. William reportedly died a long painful death at Vaucluse, Virginia. (While researching Vaucluse for my book Beyond Gatlin, my wife and I had the pleasure of staying overnight in the beautifully restored residence of William Strother Jones, the very home where William M. Randolph died in 1876). Randolph’s body was shipped via rail south to Fort Gatlin for burial. (From my latest book Beyond Gatlin).

1876 Obituary of William M. Randolph

Within a mile of old fortress Gatlin was the residence of Francis Wayles Eppes, born at his grandfather’s Monticello plantation. Eppes was the only grandson of President Jefferson.

For more on CitrusLAND and 19^th century central FLORIDA:

William Mayer Randolph and his numerous central Florida family members are featured in my latest book, awarded the 2017 Pine Castle Historian Award by Pine Castle Historical Society: BEYOND GATLIN: a History of South Orange County. Learn more at my Beyond Gatlin page at www.CroninBooks.com – and can also be found in my CitrusLAND: Curse of Florida’s Paradise– chock full of early pioneers and their families.

 Next Week: New York, North Carolina and Rhode Island

50 STATES OF CENTRAL FLORIDA; Part 3 MA MD SC

50 States of central Florida, Part 3:

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

All 50 States played a role in founding central Florida, and CitrusLAND will pay tribute to such remarkable individuals each Sunday throughout the summer of 2018, doing so in the order States were admitted to our Union of States. This week our spotlight shines on Massachusetts, State #6, admitted February 6, 1788; #7, Maryland, admitted April 28, 1788, and South Carolina, admitted as State #8 on May 23, 1788.

MASSACHUSETTS:

Orange County’s second post office, NEW SMYRNA was established June 5, 1845 by John D. SHELDON, a native of Massachusetts, the 6^th State to be admitted to our Union of States. Sheldon came to Florida Territory as a Customs Inspector, met and married Jane MURRAY, and together they worked to tame coastal Mosquito County. He served too as a scout for the Army as they searched for waring Indians in the late 1830s. The Sheldon’s opened a hotel, and later stood helplessly as it was bombed by the Union Navy during America’s Civil War.

Many citizens of Massachusetts were active players in a developing central Florida, including owners of the BOSTON HERALD. The newspaper provided financing for the first ever train to run from Sanford to Tampa, laying 22 miles of track in 1880, from a new Sanford port at Lake Monroe, to Orange County’s Seat at Orlando.

Two years later, Boston investors built a luxury hotel in the midst of a 1,200 acre development they called ALTAMONTE (Photo above). From Newburyport came Thomas C. SIMPSON, representing the Boston investors, and buying up dozens of homesteads. The hotel and cozy cottage sites later became known as ALTAMONTE SPRINGS.

1884 Altamonte Advertisement

Retired Navy Secretary James M. ALDEN arrived in 1895, acquiring South Orange County’s historic EPPES residence on Lake Pineloch. The career Officer and Massachusetts native was also an artist, and one of his paintings was of a dead tree, the famous COUNCIL OAK, said to be a gathering place of the Seminole Indians. Alden’s presence and painting helped preserve an important part of local history.

MARYLAND:

Born at Montgomery County, Maryland, Mary married William E. PATTERSON. Neighbor Fannie ROSS, schooled at Georgetown, Maryland, married James FRANKLIN, a Navy Cadet who was also a native of Annapolis. The two Maryland couples relocated in 1880 to the west shore of Lake Apopka. Originally Sumter County, their two homesteads became part of Lake County in 1887.

Meanwhile, back at Georgetown Maryland, is a landmark known as SUGARLOAF Mountain, and nearby is the historic residence of MONTVIDEO. Maryland Historical Society tells us the name of the home is Latin, meaning, “I see the MOUNTAIN.” 

Montverde, Florida Railway depot

MONTVIDEO was one of two residences owned by a Georgetown family. Their second residence, an even older landmark, was called MONTANVERDE. On Lake Apopka, James & Fannie FRANKLIN built a home, and began selling parcels at a place they called, “Town of MONTVERDE.” The Franklin’s could even see, from their homestead, Lake County’s SUGARLOAF Mountain.

SOUTH CAROLINA

South Carolina, the eighth state to join the USA, had been Florida’s-Mother State. As early as 1803, South Caroline plantation owner William WILLIAMS the Elder, a British Loyalist, carved out SPRING GARDEN Plantation, (presently Deleon Springs State Park in Volusia County, 1830s survey of Spring Garden is shown above). This was the very same site owned by Colonel ORLANDO REES of South Carolina in 1832, when John James Audubon visited the Colonel and drew of map of the region (Below). Indians burned the Rees Plantation in 1836.

Map drawn in 1832 by John James Audubon

The first survey of Fort GATLIN region, south of Orlando, was completed in 1842 by a South Carolina native, Benjamin F. WHITNER. Cousin Joseph N. WHITNER was instrumental in developing the Fort REID area. In between Gatlin and Reid, on ORLANDO’S Lake Lucerne, South Carolina native Vincent LEE homesteaded 160 acres in 1842. Clearly, South Carolina was well represented in the development of early central Florida.

Volusia County was carved from Orange County in 1854, while Florida Governor James E. BROOME, a South Carolina native, was still in office. Broome’s final day in office coincided as well with the exact date of a deed conveyance of four acres for an Orange County Courthouse site, a land donation made in 1857 by South Carolina Attorney, and resident of Orange County, James G. SPEER. Caldwell and Speer were both born in South Carolina. The first female Orange County land tycoon, owner in 1860 of 1,700 central Florida acres, was, as you guessed it by this point, a native of South Carolina.

Then too there is Orlando’s first Post Master, appointed in 1857. John R. WORTHINGTON was also born in South Caroline!

For more on CitrusLAND and 19^th century central FLORIDA:

Francis W. EPPES and the COUNCIL OAK are featured in my latest book, awarded the 2017 Pine Castle Historian Award by Pine Castle Historical Society: BEYOND GATLIN: a History of South Orange County. Learn more at my Beyond Gatlin page at www.CroninBooks.com Also check out First Road to Orlando – chock full of early pioneers and their families.

 Next Week: New Hampshire and Virginia

50 STATES OF CENTRAL FLORIDA Part 2: NJ; GA; CT

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

All 50 States played a role in founding central Florida, and CitrusLAND will pay tribute to such remarkable individuals each Sunday throughout the summer of 2018, doing so in the order States were admitted to our Union of States. This week our spotlight shines on New Jersey, State #3, admitted December 18, 1787; #4, Georgia, admitted January 2, 1788, and Connecticut, admitted as State #4 on January 9, 1788. Within 32 days our United States had grown to include five States.

NEW JERSEY:

Henry A. CRANE of New Jersey remained behind in 1842 after the U. S. Army pulled out of Fort Mellon, a Lake Monroe fortress located a mile east of present day Sanford. The Army veteran filed immediately for a homestead where the fortress then stood. Homestead Act requirements hadn’t yet been changed to require homesteads be two miles from the nearest fort, so CRANE’S homestead preserved, for a time, the landing site which served newcomers to a remote Orange County for the next 38 years. Elias WOODRUFF, also a New Jersey native, arrived soon after, and became Orange County’s first Postmaster March 1, 1845.

CRANE departed Orange County after the U. S. Supreme Court cancelled his homestead, and WOODRUFF moved inland  about two miles, to FORT REID, where, according to historical accounts, he built the THIRD frame house in the 3,000 square mile County. Woodruff died at his historic ‘WOODRUFF PLACE’ in 1863. Port of Mellonville, one could easily argue, was the New, New Jersey!

GEORGIA:

Many a Southern Belle participated in central Florida’s early development, and yet for each, life in this remote CitrusLAND was anything but easy! Georgia native Christiania (GINN) Speer was living on the south shore of Lake Monroe by 1848. In that year, Christiania purchased “a mule, ox wagon, two steer and calves” at an Orange County Sheriff’s auction. She paid $32.11 for the lot. Four years later the mother of six used 200 head of her own cattle as collateral to acquire a used steamboat, the SARAH SPALDING. Christiania, and husband Algernon Speer, homestead along the St. Johns River between lakes Monroe and Jesup. Their orange grove, believed to be the first in central Florida, was called The River Grove.

CitrusLAND: Curse of Florida's Paradise (Exhibit 15)

The Algernon S. SPEER RIVER GROVE as surveyed in 1845

Two sisters, Rebecca & Margaret SMITH, were born at St. Mary’s, GA, and they too became vital players in shaping Florida. Rebecca married Attorney Joseph FINEGAN, Florida’s first railroad contractor, an Irishman who later became Florida’s Confederate Brigadier General. Rebecca’s sister, Margaret Mary Smith, widow of Territorial Governor Robert R. REID at the time America’s Civil War broke out, followed her only son north to the Virginia battlefields. Mary founded a hospital at Virginia specifically to care for Florida’s wounded soldiers. There were many! After War’s end, Mary first buried her son Raymond at Virginia, and she then walked home to Florida, a distance of 900 miles.

CONNECTICUT:

The Hartford CONNECTICUT Courant reported the sad news in 1901 of the death of that city’s long-time resident, Lucius STEBBINS. The gentleman had died at age 91, said the newspaper, at his home in ORLANDO, Florida. Lucius lived and worked at Hartford prior to moving south to CitrusLAND in 1886. Stebbins purchased land east of Orlando, acreage encompassing Lake COMO. There is also a Lake Como a few miles west of Hartford, Connecticut!

At Hartford, Stebbins had been a publisher & printer. Among his career successes was a patent in 1840 for perfecting printing colorized maps, and an 1848 patent for improving railroad brakes. Stebbins also acquired the copyright edition of “Reading of the Proclamation of Emancipation to Slaves in a Cabin.” The Stebbins copy was reported as the first print of its kind. He also purchased, for $12,000, the engraving of “Sherman’s March to the Sea.”

Orlando Sentinel reported March 14, 1986: “A 98 year-old house, thought to be one of the oldest buildings in the Orlando area, was damaged Thursday by fire. The tw0-story wood house at Lake Como Circle and Newark Street was built as a farmhouse in 1888 by Lucius Stebbins.”

Sanford House Hotel (1886) on Lake Monroe, Sanford, FL

Henry SANFORD, founder of Orange County’s Town of Sanford, currently County Seat of Seminole, and Elliott S. DANN, an Ocoee homesteader and builder, were likewise natives of Connecticut who found their way south to CitrusLAND in the 19^th century.

For more on CitrusLAND and 19^th century central FLORIDA: MELLONVILLE, the Woodruff family, and Henry A. Crane are all featured in: CitrusLAND: Curse of Florida’s Paradise. Learn more at my PARADISE page at www.CroninBooks.com

Next Sunday: Massachusetts, Maryland & South Carolina

50 STATES OF CENTRAL FLORIDA Part 1: DE & PA

Sanford & St. Petersburg Railroad Engine #6 (left); Edward T. Stotesbury (right)

50 States of central Florida, Part 1:

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

All 50 States played a role in founding central Florida, and CitrusLAND will pay tribute to such remarkable individuals each Sunday throughout the summer of 2018, doing so in the order States were admitted to our Union of States. This week our spotlight shines on Delaware, our Nation’s first State, admitted December 7, 1787; and Pennsylvania, admitted as State #2 on December 12, 1787.

DELAWARE:

ORLANDO CITIZENS BANK was insolvent by 1894, but reopened only months before Florida’s great freeze of 1895, reorganized under the guidance of a DELAWARE native, ISAAC W. C. PARKER. He had first owned land at OVIEDO in East Orange County, then moved to ORLANDO, where after rescuing a bank, he served as Orange County Tax Collector.

Dr. Joseph F. TANTUM was listed as afflicted with a disease in Delaware’s 1880 census, and mentioned in WINTER PARK’S Loring CHASE scrapbook of 1883: “For medical testimony as to the healthfulness of this region, ask J. R. Tantum, M. D. Of Wilmington, Delaware.” Our Nation’s first State sent CitrusLAND a bank rescuer along with a medical doctor who vouched for Orange County as being a healthy place to live.

The contribution by Parker and Tantum may have helped alter a view locals had long held about our Nation’s first State. Three decades earlier, when Orlando barely qualified as a town, three local boys, two of whom were residents of the four acre Village of Orlando, experienced a very inhospitable DELAWARE.

William B. HULL and George TERRELL were Orlando businessmen when both were called to the Civil War battlefields up north. They were both captured at Gettysburg, and as neither were officers, they were imprisoned at Fort DELAWARE, on an island in Delaware Bay.

HULL lived to tell of his experience, TERRELL, the merchant from Orlando’s Lot 1, did not. He died a   prisoner in October, 1863. William B. WATSON lived at ENTERPRISE, on the north shore of Lake Monroe, and he too served in the War, as Captain of WATSON’S Home Guard Unit. Watson was captured at Cook’s Ferry (on Lake Jesup), and was also imprisoned at Fort DELAWARE.

PENNSYLVANIA:

A Russian immigrant opened up West Orange County for settlements with the founding of the Orange Belt Railway, but it was a Philadelphian who assisted the railway financially, including providing the cash to extend the line to the Gulf of Mexico. Banker Edward T. STOTESBURY of Philadelphia continued on in 1892 as President of OBRR after founder Peter Demens left the State. Stotesbury is shown at right in the above post.

CitrusLAND: Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains journeys aboard the OBRR with Edward T. Stotesbury days after Florida’s Great Freeze of 1894-95. This historic novel introduces true-life homesteaders and towns each founded such as: Sylvan Lake, Island Lake, Glen Ethel, Palm Springs, Forest City, Toronto, Lakeville, Clarcona, Crown Point, Winter Garden and Oakland. Along the way you learn of a half-dozen other railroads the OBRR encountered on its way to Oakland. Note the named President of Orange Belt Railway in the schedule above, dated April, 1893.

Mary LAMBETH was yet another remarkable frontierswoman! On 200 acres in what is today Seminole County, Miss Mary, a native of PENNSYLVANIA, founded Town of ISLAND LAKE, designing her city amidst an orange grove she herself farmed. The Orange Belt Railway crossed over her land, making regular stops at Miss Lambeth’s depot. After Florida’s freeze of 1894-95, she donated her land to the PITTSBURG Orphans Home, and departed Florida. Mary Lambeth and her town are featured in CitrusLAND: Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains book.

1887 Plat of Island Lake

Hamilton DISSTON of Philadelphia paid off Florida’s staggering pre-Civil War debt. In 1881, he received four-million acres of public lands, at $0.25 per acre, in exchange for $1,000,000. Disston’s saw manufacturing business, a firm founded by his father and is today DISSTON TOOL Company, had made the transaction possible.

Many Pennsylvania’s deserve mention, but as space is limited, I’ll mention two others. Jane MURRAY of NEW SMYRNA, one of only three females in the 1840 central Florida census, was one amazing frontierswoman, while Philadelphia Attorney James M. WILLCOX, first of MAITLAND and later of Orlando, are deserving of special recognition.

For more on CitrusLAND and 19^th century central FLORIDA:

The Orange Belt Railway and Edward T. Stotesbury are featured in: CitrusLAND: Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains. Learn more at my OBRR page at www.CroninBooks.com or #MrEdwardT on social media.

Next Sunday: Participants from 

New Jersey, Georgia and Connecticut