Builders of America’s 19th 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 21st State, Illinois was also the
location of a 400th 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 19th 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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