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

https://www.amazon.com/First-Road-Orlando-Mellonville-ebook/dp/B00TUGZ0DC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1528024482&sr=8-1&keywords=First+Road+to+Orlando