50 STATES OF CENTRAL FLORIDA Part 8: MS, IL & AL

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

All 50 States played a role in founding central Florida, and CitrusLAND is paying tribute all summer to the remarkable individuals from all around the U. S., and doing so in the order States were admitted to our Union of States. This week our spotlight shines on Mississippi, State #20, admitted December 10, 1817; #21, Illinois, admitted December 3, 1818, and Alabama, admitted as State #22 on December 14, 1819.

MISSISSIPPI

Mrs. Dr. Phillips of Orlando was otherwise known as Della Wolfe, daughter of Ben & Anna Wolfe of Forest, Scott County, Mississippi. Della married Dr. Philip Phillips at Forest, where he first established a cattle business prior to driving a herd of 200 Hereford from Texas to central Florida.

Dr. P. Phillips, Forest, Mississippi

William Washington WOODRUFF arrived at Mellonville in 1848. Then age 17, Woodruff had made the 700 mile journey on horseback, leaving his birthplace of Pike County, MISSISSIPPI to live with his father, Elias. The father son team planted an orange grove on 43 acres and built WOODRUFF PLACE at Fort REID, said to be only the third frame house in 1848 Orange County. In January of 1861, William once again made a long journey, only this time via mule. Woodruff traveled to Gainesville, where he boarded Florida’s first railroad to complete his journey to Tallahassee. A delegate at the Secession Convention, Woodruff voted against secession.

The father of James H. SADLER of OAKLAND was killed while fighting at Jackson, MS during the Civil War in May of 1863. Only 4 years old when his father was killed, James H. Sadler departed SC with his mother while the War was still being fought so as to live with his grandparents, James G. & Isaphoenia SPEER, in Orange County.

Legal descriptions today for many APOPKA deeds reference “CHAMPNEY’S Addition,” an Apopka plat filed in 1885 by John Tunno CHAMPNEY, an Engineer and Civil War Ordinance Officer for the Confederate Army. Champney married Ozella K. TOPP of Lowndes County, MS, while still at Mississippi in April, 1864. During the War John had been overseen the making of gunpowder, handguns and cannons.

Canadian born Joseph N. BISHOP was educated at Columbus, MS. By 1875, he had become Superintendent of Education at Columbus before relocating to CitrusLAND. In 1888, Bishop platted the town of PAOLA, on the Sanford & Lake Eustis Railroad. An 1885 description of Paola mentioned that, “its residents were so healthy that Dr. Bishop had to travel to outlying areas to earn a living”.

ILLINOIS

Our nation’s 21^st State, Illinois was also the location of a 400^th Anniversary celebration of the arrival in North America of Christopher Columbus. Held at Chicago, a FLORIDA Pavilion joined the 1893 exposition with a one-fifth replica of St. Augustine’s FORT MARION, the “oldest structure erected by Spaniards in the United States.” Orange Reporter, Orlando’s newspaper, prepared a special edition for the fair, bragging Orange County was “the most productive and healthful section of Florida.”

KEUKA, Florida in western Putnam County was originally “laid out” in 1883 by Edward Rumley. A native of England, Rumley had long served as Editor of an Iroquois County, Illinois newspaper before relocating to a remote, “unbroken pine forest in Florida.” Like many other newcomers of that time, Ed Rumley tried his luck at growing oranges as well as town development, working as well in Palatka. An Illinois Sheriff, Nathan R. Gruelle hung up his badge to follow Rumley to Florida, where he joined the Florida Southern Railroad team.

Keuka Ad by Ed Rumley

Twenty years before the 1893 World’s Fair, Edgar J. SNOW had departed his Cook County home to homestead at Orange County. Edgar founded SNOWVILLE, the predecessor to ALTAMONTE SPRINGS of today. He named Lake ADELAIDE, where a bubbly spring once existed, naming the pretty little lake for his wife, Adelaide (FAVOUR) Snow.

John W. COOK, President of the ILLINOIS State Normal School, contributed to the founding of ROLLINS College in 1885, donating land at WINTER PARK for the school’s location.

“ACRON,” described in 1883 Orange Land as a town north of SORRENTO: “dates from the autumn of 1876, when J. H. CAMPBELL, one of our present efficient Board of County Commissioners, and a few friends from Rock Island County, Illinois, settled there,” The Illinois friends included wife Sarah and father-in-law, Alexander HAZLETT.

Published in 1882, Florida for Tourists, Invalids & Settlers, authored by Chicagoan George M. BARBOUR, conveyed the benefits of living in CitrusLAND, encouraging many a pioneer to relocate to Orange County. PIRIE, one of Chicago’s more prominent families, of the Carson-Pirie Department Store fame, established a winter family farm called ERROL ESTATES. The family later developed MOUNT PLYMOUTH.

ALABAMA

“Benjamin F. Caldwell, of Talladega, Alabama,” is arguably the most consistent name associated with the founding of ORLANDO. The man’s identity appears in an 1857 deed gifting four (4) acres to Orange County. Described in that deed as, “Town Plat of Village of Orlando,” the land was donated in appreciation for relocating the county seat on Caldwell’s land, acreage what was in the middle of absolutely nowhere!

Benjamin M. Robinson

Even prior to Benjamin’s gift of land, two years before Village of Orlando was founded, Benjamin’s father, William H. Caldwell, had recorded an intriguing document with Orange County. That document was dated June of 1855, and notarized at ALABAMA: “Between Bedy H and William H Caldwell of Talladega, and Isaphoenia C. SPEER of Orange County.” The historical significance of this document is this: William & Bedy Caldwell identify Isaphoenia as their daughter.

Isaphoenia was also the first wife of James G. SPEER, the ‘other’ name most often associated with the founding of ORLANDO in 1857.

Soon after America’s Civil War, about 1874, a Veteran of Alabama’s Infantry relocated to Orange County. He settled first at Fort REID, south of MELLONVILLE, where in 1883 he married a girl named Fanny, the daughter of William & Mary (PITTS) RANDOLPH, the couple associated with the first-ever hotel to be opened south of Lake Monroe. The Alabama veteran’s name was Benjamin M. ROBINSON, and “so that history would never forget Florida’s Great Freeze of 1894-95”, Benjamin subjected himself, in 1896, to a sworn deposition describing the tragic event. An Orlando Mayor and long-time Clerk of Court, Benjamin Robinson’s name is associated, at one time or another during the 19^th century, with three of the earliest historic sites on the original Fort Mellon to Fort Gatlin Road, a/k/a, The First Road to Orlando. Those three sites: Fort Reid, Orlando and Fort Gatlin.

Next Sunday: Maine, Missouri and Arkansas.

The book that started it all, released 2016 in Second Edition

Link to Amazon.com below

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50 STATES OF CENTRAL FLORIDA Part 7: OH, LA & IN

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

All 50 States played a role in founding central Florida, and CitrusLAND is paying tribute to summer to the remarkable individuals from around the U. S., doing so in the order States were admitted to our Union of States. This week our spotlight shines on Ohio, State #17, admitted March 1, 1803; #18, Louisiana, admitted April 30, 1812, and Indiana, admitted as State #19.

OHIO

The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History says Forest City has long been a nickname of Cleveland, and that the nickname has “murky origins.” Forest City in Florida has even murkier origins! Prior to acquiring thousands of acres throughout Florida, John G. HOWER of Cleveland had been a 35 year partner in a successful department store chain, ‘Hower & Higbee.’ The Ohio merchant filed, in 1883, a town plat in Orange County, naming his new town, ‘Forest City – Orange Park.’ A Target Department store is located today where once a “pretty train depot” welcomed passengers of the Orange Belt Railway line.

Hower’s dream of Forest City died with Florida’s Great Freeze of 1895. Two years later, John G. Hower died too. Partner Edwin C. HIGBEE soon after abbreviated the name of the Cleveland store to ‘Higbees.’ Fast-forward a hundred years, and Higbees’s was acquired by Dillard Department Stores chain.

Sorrento, Florida

Albert S. MATLACK of Preble County, OHIO, was appointed first Postmaster for the Orange County SORRENTO Post Office, September 10, 1878. Sorrento is today part of Lake County. Back in 1883, Matlack’s up and coming city was expecting two railroads to pass through town, and overnight guests could stay at The SORRENTO Hotel and shop at the A. S. Matlack & Co store.

At the end of the Civil War, Ohio’s 75^th Infantry, under command of Colonel A. L. HARRIS, a key character in my Historic Novel, “The Rutland MULE Matter, traversed much of central Florida. It was May, 1864, and near NEW SMYRNA the 75^th captured “a few” furloughed Confederate soldiers, their horses, mules, cattle, and “a $1,000,000 of cotton”. The Navy later said the dollar value of the cotton was “an exaggeration.”

Colonel Andrew Lintner Harris, Ohio 75th Infantry

After the Civil War, in 1872, Union Surgeon Dr. Washington KILMER left his wife, daughters and home at Ironton, OHIO, and began walking. Told he had less than a year to live, Dr. Kilmer decided to find out if rumors of Orange County’s healthfulness were true. He brought his family to Florida and founded the town of ALTAMONT in 1874. Later he moved into ORLANDO. He was the first doctor to assist TAMPA during the yellow fever epidemic of 1887. Dr. Kilmer practiced medicine in downtown Orlando until his death in 1919.  Maybe there was some truth to that healthfulness rumor!

LOUISIANA

“TAVARES,” reported an 1883 Orange County publication, “as a center of transportation has no equal in South Florida.” In direct competition with Orange County’s ‘Gateway-City’ at Sanford, Tavares was founded by Alexander St. CLAIR-ABRAMS, both an Attorney and developer having grandiose dreams. Abrams moved to CitrusLAND from LOUISIANA, the 18^th State to join our Union of 50 States.

Attorney Abrams envisioned Tavares as Florida’s transportation hub, but also wanted the State Capitol relocated to Tavares as well. By 1883, Abrams was State Attorney, a town builder, a railroad planner and editor of his own newspaper, the Tavares Herald. Abrams founded the Peninsular Land, Transportation & Mfg. Co as the main holding firm for his ventures, to include a network of railroads operating throughout Central and South Florida.

Louisiana native Rufus E. ROSE settled at Kissimmee City in April, 1882, while still part of Orange County. An engineer, Rose teamed up with Hamilton DISSTON, the Philadelphian who at that time owned much of South Florida.

Christmas day of 1858, at a New Orleans Steam Boat House in Louisiana, Alabama native Benjamin F. CALDWELL, one year after donating four (4) acres to Orange County for a new courthouse, took time to write a letter to his father-in-law, Mr. Morris, explaining that his family was awaiting a connecting Steamer so as to continue their journey to Shreveport. Caldwell told Morris that at Shreveport, they would then be “within 75 miles of their new home in Texas”. His second letter in just over a year, the two letters combine to resolve a 150 year old mystery about the founding of central Florida’s county seat, ORLANDO, Florida.

INDIANA

ALTAMONT (no ‘E’) of central Florida was never much more than a post office and a railway station on Orange Belt Railway. A “mail-wagon” brought goods and occasional visitors as early as 1880, when Phineas G. C. HUNT, from Indianapolis, INDIANA, homesteaded near Altamont, and established a dental office at LONGWOOD, 5 miles east of his orange grove.

Dr. HUNT wasn’t just any dentist. In 1858, he was active in organizing Indiana State Dental Association. He was conferred with a Doctor of Dental Surgery degree in 1870, and served on Indiana’s Board of Examiners prior to moving to Florida. In 1894, Dr. Phineas Hunt returned to Indianapolis, where he died two years later. While a resident of Orange County though, Dr. Hunt granted rights to Florida Midway Railway to travel from Longwood and cross his land in route to Altamont and HOOSIER SPRINGS. That same route today is State Highway 434. Walter W. HUNT followed his uncle Phineas to Florida, where by 1893, he was the ticket agent for Orange Belt Railway.

Town Plat of Glen Ethel, Orange Belt Railway (Orange Line) 

Lumber dealer Sylvester ROOT came from Newton County, Indiana with son-in-law James R. POOLE, a hardware dealer. The two partnered in an 1885 Orange County business providing building materials. The Indiana ROOT family first settled at GLEN ETHEL, a railway depot on the Orange Belt Railway. Charles ROOT planted an orange grove, while his brother Edwin Root founded a short-lived town of Glen Ethel on a homestead north of present day SR 434.

Among the earliest of Hoosier’s to arrive in 1880s central Florida was banker Ingram FLETCHER. He built a winter residence at Hoosier Springs, later a popular swimming hole known as Sanlando Springs. Fletcher platted a town of Hoosier Springs, shown on our post above, a community later part of Palm Springs. Ingram Fletcher later relocated into Orlando.

50 STATES OF CENTRAL FLORIDA Part 6: VT, KY, & TN

Builders of America’s 19^th century Florida Paradise arrived from nearly every corner of the world. Amazing dreamers and doers, these pioneers 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, they came to Florida from parts of every modern day State as well.

All 50 States played a role in founding central Florida, and CitrusLAND is paying tribute to the remarkable individuals from around the U. S. each Sunday throughout the summer, doing so in the order States were admitted to our Union of States. This week our spotlight shines on Vermont, State #14, admitted March 4, 1791; #15, Kentucky, admitted June 1, 1792, and Tennessee, admitted as State #16 on June 1, 1796.

VERMONT

Jacob BROCK, Sr. (1810-1876) was born at Newbury, Vermont. A river Captain, his side-wheeler steamboat, the DARLINGTON, began serving travelers on the St. John’s River in 1853. Brock continued running the river during the Civil War, and in March 1862, after refusing to stop as ordered by the Union Navy, the Darlington was fired on, captured and seized. “Army wagons, ammunition and camp equipment” were found, and so Jacob was imprisoned at New York. He returned to Florida after War’s end, and after hs Darlington was returned, it resumed service on the St. Johns until 1874.

Another Vermont native was Orange County’s first postmaster. Ora CARPENTER (1818-1902). Born at Derby, Vermont, Carpenter was appointed the ENTERPRISE Postmaster in June 1845, three months after Florida was admitted as the Nation’s 27^th State. The town of Enterprise became part of Volusia County in 1854. Established on Lake Monroe’s north shore, Enterprise was home to the BROCK HOUSE Hotel, built by Jacob Brock in 1854.

The Brock House, Enterprise FL

Other Vermonters left their mark on Central Florida as well, including Franklin B. FAIRBANKS (1829-1895) of St. Johnsbury, VT. The main road leading into Winter Park, Fairbanks Avenue, was named for this snow-bird and founder of Fairbanks Scales. The scale manufacturer also mentored a young Vermont native apprentice-turned-partner of the scales business, Charles Hosmer MORSE. Yet another main drag into Winter park is named for this Vermonter. Both men played major roles in early development of the town of Winter Park and Rollins College.

KENTUCKY

Louisville life insurance agent George T. PITTMAN acquired 160 acres in 1881 along the west shore of Lake DORR. At that time part of Orange County, Pittman founded a Town of PITTMAN, situated on the St. Johns & Lake Eustis Railroad. Pittman’s sister liquidated her brother’s Pittman estate in 1889, and the one time town is today a ghost town.

Christopher Columbus BEASLEY came to CitrusLAND in 1871 and founded the town of LAKE MAITLAND. He opened a post office January 2, 1872, following in his mother’s footsteps, who had earlier served as the Clinton, KY postmistress. Beasley subdivided his land and opened a store on The First Road to Orlando. Over time the ‘Lake’ was dropped to become simply, MAITLAND. Beasley’s first town lot sale was made in 1874, at the very site of the 1838 Fort Maitland. “Mr. Beasley, of Kentucky,” said an 1887 South Florida Railroad travel brochure, “planted a grove on Maitland branch in the early seventies.”

PINE CASTLE pioneer William Wallace HARNEY grew to adulthood at Louisville. First an Attorney, next a newspaper editor, Harney relocated in 1869 to Fort Gatlin, with his father-in-law, William M. RANDOLPH, and other family members including the PRESTON’S, a long-established Kentucky family.

Randolph Avenue in Historic Pine Castle FL is located on the original homestead of William Wallace Harney.

Widely known for his poetry, HARNEY’S writings include an 1874 poem; FLORIDA BEACH, from which we borrow one stanza: “The tide comes in, the birds fly low, as if to catch our speech. Ah, Destiny! Why must we ever go away from the Florida beach?” Harney was editor for a short-lived KISSIMMEE CITY newspaper, ‘The Bitter Sweet’.

A stop further south on South Florida Railroad, Abraham G. MUNN “of Louisville, Kentucky” acquired 80 acres in 1884, where he founded the Town of LAKELAND.

TENNESSEE

One of the great mysteries of central Florida history begins with a young man from the State of TENNESSEE, the 16^th State to join our Union of States. I’ll get to him shortly, but first, there are a few other Tennesseans deserving of recognition.

Captain Bluford M. SIMS arrived in central Florida in 1865. Formerly of Ocoee, TN, where he was educated at Hiwassee College, Sim’s was among the earliest of settlers of West Orange County, more specifically the OCOEE area. A 1915 biography of Sims says he built the first frame county courthouse, replacing the original log cabin courthouse of 1857. Bluford was also an original stockholder and Director of Citizens’ National Bank of Orlando, one of only two banks in 1893 Orlando.

John N. SEARCY arrived from Tennessee and selected a homestead on the outskirts of the new town of LONGWOOD. An orange grower, Searcy is said to have been the 3^rd person to settle at Longwood, arriving seven years before South Florida Railroad made its inaugural run from Sanford to Orlando, in November, 1880.

Now then, about the great mystery of Central Florida history. Isaac N. RUTLAND was born at Wilson County, TN in 1824. He settled first at Marion County, where he met and married a sister of Cinderella (STATEN) STEWART. Isaac followed the Stewart’s to Orange County, where in 1860, along with wife Margaret and four children, lived on the Wekiva River at Rutland’s Ferry. Busy State Road 46 crosses the Wekiva River at that location today.

Isaac N. Rutland was one of two Orange County delegates at Florida’s 1861 Secession Convention, and one of seven (7) delegates to vote NO. Six years later, in 1867, Widow Margaret Rutland lived with her four children at Apopka. Four Rutland orphans were residing with their grandmother in 1870 Georgia, and by 1880, two of the four Rutland kids had returned to central Florida.

Isaac N. Rutland opposed Florida Secession in 1861. 

Isaac N. Rutland had vanished. There was no record of the man, none other than a hand scribbled note found in a file folder in far off Washington, DC, a Post-War U. S. Provost Marshal file called The Rutland Mule Matter. Note: it’s all true! Curious? Visit my MULE Page at CroninBooks.com website.

Next Sunday, Ohio, Louisiana and Indiana.

Available at Amazon.com - click on link below

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50 STATES OF CENTRAL FLORIDA Part 5: NY NC RI

A New Yorker operated Wescott Hotel at a time when Orlando was a tiny four (4) acre village. Today, enjoy breakfast at DeLeon Springs State park while experiencing history firsthand.

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

All 50 States played a role in founding central Florida, and CitrusLAND is paying tribute to the remarkable individuals from around the U. S. each Sunday throughout the summer, doing so in the order States were admitted to our Union of States. This week our spotlight shines on New York, State #11, admitted July 26, 1788; #12, North Carolina, admitted November 21, 1789, and Rhode Island, admitted as State #13 on May 29, 1790.

NEW YORK

Orange County’s Sheriff in 1850 was John SIMPSON, a New York native. He lived at Fort Reid, east of modern day Sanford, and was a neighbor of Isaac WINEGORD, yet another New Yorker. Born a Yankee, Isaac Winegord lost two sons in the Civil War, two young boys who served in the Confederate Army.

Orlando’s first newspaper, the Orange County Reporter, was founded by New Yorker Sayres B. HARRINGTON (1837-1913). After selling the newspaper in 1881, he became a partner in a central Florida railroad venture, Tavares, Orlando & Atlantic Railroad.

Leopold P. WESCOTT, (1833-1914) came to Orlando from New York in 1875, and opened Wescott Hotel (see 1880 sketch in the Post above showing location of hotel on east side of the 4 acre Village of Orlando). Wescott also planted a citrus grove. He lived at Orlando, but was quoted once as saying, “I sometimes fear I made a mistake in not settling at Maitland, it seems to have a more promising future.” Perhaps Leopold had seen the large grove planted alongside the Maitland Branch belonging to Lawrence Lewis of Utica, New York. In 1883, President Chester A. Arthur toured the Lewis grove at Maitland when passing through central Florida.

The Maitland Branch, today a drainage ditch easily crossed via a six land Highway 17-92 bridge, may not look like much now, but in the 19^th century, this was a challenge for all settlers to cross on their way to and from Orlando.

Today a drainage ditch out of sight of Hwy 17-92 motorists speeding across the Maitland Branch, crossing this canal was a difficult challenge for the earliest settlers as they made their way south toward Orlando. 

Henry A. DeLand (1834-1908), founder of Deland, Florida, was from Fairport, NY.

Photographer Charles H. STOKES of New York settled at Sumter County, where he founded the town of Mohawk. Attorney Thomas E. WILSON of New York City not only founded Town of Sylvan Lake, on the Orange Belt Railway, he also established a successful law firm catering to railroads.

Then too there was New York’s William Backhouse ASTOR. While cruising the St. Johns River aboard his yacht in the 1870s, so it has been said, Astor envisioned an 80,000 acre settlement called Manhattan. He built two hotels at river’s edge, at the very spot where today there is the fishing village of ASTOR.

NORTH CAROLINA

William WILLIAMS the Elder, a British Loyalist, fled his native NORTH CAROLINA when the American Revolution broke out in 1776. He settled in the Bahamas until 1803, when he returned to establish a plantation in the Florida Territory. The elder Williams cleared part of a 2,020 acre Spanish Land Grant, naming it SPRING GARDEN, today’s De Leon Springs State Park (See photo of mill above.)

Dr. Andrew C. CALDWELL (1821-1894), wife Julia Ann (DOAK) (1831-1911), and daughter Annie Louise CALDWELL (1859-1950), arrived at Fort Reid from North Carolina in 1869. Andrew was among the area’s first doctors, while daughter Annie eventually became one of Orange County’s earliest historians. Penning under the name of Mrs. Joseph N. WHITNER, Annie’s history starts off C. E. Howard’s 1915 book, Early Settlers of Orange County. Dr. Caldwell purchased Algernon Speer’s historic River Grove on the St. Johns River, buying the property by unpaid off delinquent tax bills. The land then passed to his daughter Annie, and her husband established the Whitner shell pit on land that in 1842 was planted the first commercial orange grove.

Cassius Aurelius BOONE (1850-1917) arrived from North Carolina in 1870. He was the first hotel manager hired to run Lovell Hotel in the village of Orlando. Boone attended Orlando’s 1875 incorporation meeting of landowners, planted an orange grove, and eventually opened an Orlando hardware store.

Cassius A. Boone attended the Orlando Incorporation meeting of 1875.

North Carolina native Edward E. HIGLEY (1853-1895) founded Lake County’s town of HIGLEY. Beginning his career as a Telegraph Operator in Illinois, Higley came to central Florida in the early 1880’s.

Joseph M. WILLIAMSON (1856-1915) of North Carolina served as first postmaster of GABRIELLA, a ghost town today in Seminole County.

RHODE ISLAND

Widow Sophia E. BLATCHFORD was a native of Rhode Island. In 1905 she applied for a passport, listing a travel companion as Miss A. K. POTTER, also of Rhode Island. Two Rhode Islanders share one thing in common with CitrusLAND, as both lived for a brief moment in time at Orange County’s town of MAITLAND.

Their story begins with Katherine BROWN, born 1855 in Rhode Island. Katherine had married a New York doctor, Russell H. NEVINS, and the two relocated to Orange County, FL, where they built a home on Lake SEMINARY, north of Maitland. The doctor’s popularity soon extended well beyond medicine after opening the only ice manufacturing plant in the area. President Arthur also visited the plant in 1883, and the NY Times reporter commented: “artificial ice was turning out long slabs of good but rather porous ice that is used exclusively in this part of the State.”

Lake Faith, Hope & Charity, west of Lake Seminary in Maitland, FL

Dr. Nevins encouraged a school chum, Frank H. POTTER, son of Bishop Alonzo Potter, to also relocate to Maitland. Potter and his wife ran a girl’s school on Lake Seminary, but health issues forced the two to return home. Frank’s wife, Alice (KEY) POTTER, was the niece of Francis Scott Key. A brief resident of Maitland, Alice Key Potter died at Rhode Island after giving birth to her third child, Alice Key Potter, the same A. K. Potter who traveled with Sophia E. Blatchford, of Newport Rhode Island. All three Potter children had been raised by Sophia. Rhode Islanders Katherine (BROWN) NEVINS, wife of Dr. Russell, and Katherine’s mother, Hannah (WELLS) BROWN, each owned acreage alongside Potter’s home overlooking Lake Faith and Lake Seminary.

Next Sunday: Vermont, Kentucky and Tennessee

Journey along the 19th century old forts trail that became

THE FIRST ROAD TO ORLANDO

Link to AMAZON.com below

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