Sunday, May 27, 2018

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




50 States of central Florida, Part 4:

Builders of America’s 19th 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 19th 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

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