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.