50 STATES OF CENTRAL FLORIDA Part 13: KS, WV & NV

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 Kansas, State #34, admitted January 29, 1861; West Virginia, State #35, admitted June 20, 1863; and Nevada, State #36 admitted on October 31, 1864, the last State to join the Union prior to the November 1860 election of President Abraham Lincoln.

KANSAS:

“FOREST CITY is on the Orange Belt Railroad,” said the Illustrated Orange County special Chicago Expedition circular of 1893. “It has a first class Grocery Store and Post Office kept by Mr. G. W. COOLEY.” A native of New York, George W. COOLEY had followed his brother west to KANSAS in 1883, but soon then found his way to Central Florida, where he and wife Phillipina settled at John G. Hower’s town of Forest City.

The Great Freeze of 1895 however destroyed Cooley’s orange grove, and so he returned to Galena, Kansas, where he found work in soon to be depleted Kansas mines. Today, Galena of Kansas and Forest City of Central Florida share Ghost Town status. So the Cooley’s decided to give Central Florida a second chance, even giving the Orange Belt Railway a second look. George & Phillipina Cooley lived the remainder of their lives at OAKLAND, Florida. In 1908, daughter Pina Cooley married Alva, son of James & Nora Willis, then thirty year residents of Luther Tilden’s West Orange town of TILDENVILLE.

Kansas was admitted as a State three weeks after Florida decided to secede. As Civil War broke out, there lived in Canada a 2 year old boy – a youngster who soon relocated with his parents to the wide open prairies of ELLIS, Kansas. Desiring to escape those cold prairie winters, Elias followed a friend south to ACRON, in North Orange County. Elias DISNEY was the young man’s name, and after he first planted his own grove, he married his friend’s daughter, Miss FLORA CALL. Elias Disney lost his grove in the freeze of 1894-95, watched too as his town of Acron became a Ghost Town, and departed Central Florida. 

Decades later his son, WALT DISNEY, would also decide to give Central Florida a second chance.

WEST VIRGINIA:

Edgar HARRISON was more than qualified for the position of PAOLA Postmaster when the proud native of WEST VIRGINIA was appointed the job on April 30, 1880. Founded by Dr. Joseph Bishop, Paola was situated on the Lake Eustis & Sanford Railroad line, six miles west of Sanford, in present day Seminole County. Edgar homesteaded 115 acres at Paola, and he was included in the town’s census of that year. Harrison, born 1833, listed his birthplace as West Virginia, slightly unusual, as the 35^th State to join our Union didn’t yet exist, not until June of 1863.

Specifying his native state as “West” Virginia was obviously important to Mr. Harrison, especially considering the man had moved out west by the time he was 18. Virginia and West Virginia split into two states during the Civil War, with the latter supporting the Union. As a citizen of Central Florida in the post-War years, Edgar Harrison’s statement about his true birthplace said volumes about the land I call CitrusLAND – America’s true-life Melting Pot. By 1880, Union and Confederate Veterans lived as neighbors.

Prior to homesteading at Paola, Harrison had been an Iowa Sheriff and politician, and soon after the freeze, Edgar departed PAOLA aboard the southbound Orange Belt, all the way to the train’s final destination, St. Petersburg. “GRANDPA” HARRISON, the St. Pete Evening Independent headline declared in January of 1912, was again running for the office of Mayor. Then Chairman of the Pinellas Democratic County committee, Edgar Harrison was 79 years young when he decided to run for office yet again.

NEVADA:

George Augustus HILL, 79 years old at the time of his death in Los Angeles, CA, had left specific instructions on what he wanted done with his cremated ashes. His family complied, placing his remains in a pre-existing grave located 450 miles east, at the town of Dayton, NEVADA, in the 36^th State to join our Union of 50 States.

The existing grave was that of his father, Cornelius A. B. HILL, a man “brutally murdered,” on April 10, 1867. Cornelius, a Silver City, NV Superintendent, was on his way home that April evening when the incident occurred. He “was a man universally esteemed”, said a Sacramento newspaper, “and his sad death and untimely fate has cast a gloom over the whole community. He leaves a wife and two children.” George and Walter were the ‘two children,’ and Ellen M. Hill was the Widow left behind by the father’s brutal murder.

Widow Ellen M. HILL brought her two sons to America’s Paradise, acquiring first a twenty (20) acre site on the outskirts of a new start-up city east of Pine Castle, FL called CONWAY. Son George A. HILL, went to work for Orange Belt Railway, starting at age 22 as a timekeeper, and by 1890. By April of 1893, Hill was listed as the Treasurer, assisting Philadelphia banker and OBRR President, Edward T. Stotesbury.

Brothers  George & Walter Hill of Conway, FL

George A. Hill’s became involved with Orange Belt Railway because of Conway citrus farmer and family friend, Henry B. Sweetapple. A native of England like that of Ellen Hill, Sweetapple also relocated to central Florida from Dayton, Nevada, where he had owned a silver mine. He purchased a home at Orlando on Lake Concord, but also bought land at Oakland after investing in the Orange Belt Railway. Henry Sweetapple was Treasurer of the railroad until his death in 1887.    

Widow Ellen M. Hill also relocated to Oakland from Lake Conway in 1889, acquiring Lot #1 of Block 15 from the Orange Belt Railway’s founder, Russian immigrant, Peter Demens.

George Augustus Hill always took time to return frequently to his native Nevada, making each trip specifically to visit the grave of the father he lost as a child. In 1944, George A. Hill, Jr. complied with his father’s wishes by burying his father’s ashes at Dayton, Nevada.

NEVADA mines attracted many a Florida lad to venture west in search of wealth, but a promise of becoming rich farming Florida oranges offered an alternative to those who had not been able to earn their fortune in the dangerous mine fields out west.

Grave of George A. Hill and father Cornelius, Dayton, Nevada

Walter P. Hill, younger brother of George, and his mother, Ellen Mary (Palmer) Hill, are both buried at Conway Cemetery.

Next week – States Nebraska, Colorado and North Dakota.

YOUR INVITATION TO A VERY SPECIAL EVENT

Monday evening, October 13, 2018

MEET THE EARLIEST PLANNERS OF AN ORLANDO BOUND RAILROAD

Hear of those who began planning a train one entire decade before the 1880 South Florida Railroad, visit my Event Page for details:

https://www.facebook.com/events/179002359459248/

50 STATES OF CENTRAL FLORIDA Part 12: CA, MN &OR

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 California, State #31, admitted September 9, 1850; Minnesota, State #32, admitted May 11, 1858; and Oregon, State #33 admitted on February 14, 1859, the last State to join the Union prior to the November 1860 election of President Abraham Lincoln.

CALIFORNIA

“It is elsewhere shown that the climate of Florida suits the orange better than does that of California.” So claimed author C. Vickerstaff Hine in his 1891 book; ‘On the Indian River,’ in which he tells of Florida’s rivalry with citrus growers in the 31^st State. California had by then declared itself to be the “great orange growing State,” even though Florida countered by pointing out it had 15 counties in its Orange Belt, and one county alone had 10 times the orange farming acreage than its west coast competitor.

A few prominent Floridians however did relocate to the State of California. Peter A. Demens invigorated central Florida’s landscape by organizing, in 1886, a train that opened up West Orange County and Florida’s then remote Gulf Coast. But cash flow problems led to the Russian immigrant “escaping” to California to save his life. Having grown his railroad a bit too fast, Demens, out of money, was reportedly chased out of town by irate employees when he could make payroll. 

Peter A. Demens is featured in my book, CitrusLAND: Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains

In 1903, Peter A, Demens became a naturalized American citizen at Los Angeles.

Having arrived from Russia in 1881, Peter Demens made his way to Florida and the new Orange County town of Longwood. He founded P. A. Demens & Co, a construction company that expanded into the railroad industry. By 1886 Demens laid down track from Lake Monroe toward Oakland, and jump started the new towns of Sylvan Lake, Island Lake, Glen Ethel, Palm Springs, Forest City, Winter Garden, San Antonio, and St Petersburg to name but a few. Peter A. Demens died at Los Angeles in 1919.

Another central Floridian to move west to California was Robert A. Mills. A 1880s land agent, Mills partnered with Mahlon Gore to plat a 2,400 acre development he named Chuluota in East Orange County, a plat that included Lake Mills. The great freeze of 1894-95, and failure of promised railroads to service his new city, led to the failure of his real estate venture, and Robert A. Mills accepted a manager’s position in California with a large citrus grower.

Elias & Flora Disney, parents of Walt Disney

Prior to the birth of Walt Disney his parents, Elias Disney and Flora Call, met and married in North Orange County. Elias Disney homesteaded and planted orange trees at Acron, presently a Lake County Ghost Town. Flora Call taught school at Acron, and they married at her parent’s home in nearby Kismet, Florida. Disney’s citrus grove was lost in the freeze of 94-95, and eventually the family settled in California, birthplace of a rival citrus industry and birthplace of Disney’s entertainment industry.

Two states battled it out in the 19^th Century for title King of Citrus title, challenging each other as well, to this very day, for a share in the Disney entertainment empire.

MINNESOTA

BAKER Brothers General Store sat at the crossroads of two 1880s railroads in the Orange County town of PALM SPRINGS. Presently in Seminole County, the location is now the crossroads of SR 434 & Markham Woods Road. Frank W. Baker and William J. Baker opened a store in 1886 where tracks of Florida Midland Railway crossed Orange Belt Railway tracks. The Baker brother were born at St. Paul, Minnesota, the 32^nd State to join our Union of States.

Frank had been born within a year of the Minnesota Territory being admitted as a State, and within 2 years of the founding of Village of Orlando far to the south in CitrusLAND. Frank became first a grocer at Indianapolis, where younger brother William worked for a railroad, but each soon ventured south to ALTAMONT at a time when the town was trying to re-define itself. Too many were confusing the city with ALTAMONTE. On January 12, 1888, Frank W. BAKER was named the first Postmaster of the newly named PALM SPRINGS Post Office. Each brother departed Central Florida after the freeze of 1895.

Bishop Henry B. WHIPPLE came to Florida with his wife Cornelia in 1876.  Residents of FARIBAULT, Minnesota, these snowbirds began spending winters at MAITLAND, where in addition to building a winter residence, they established as well the Church of the Good Shepherd. The church still stands today.

The Whipple residence (left) and church at Maitland, Florida

Much has been written of Bishop Henry, but not nearly enough of his wife Cornelia. A devout Christian, Cornelia was the eldest child of one of our State’s earliest influential Christian families. A sister Sarah was the first wife of St. Augustine Attorney, Historian, and prominent member of the Episcopal Church, George R. FAIRBANKS. Fairbanks was the owner of 1,000 acres of Orange County land in 1850. A brother of Cornelia’s was Reverend Benjamin Wright of Leon County, Florida.

A Bishop Whipple subdivision was filed in 1888 Orange Couny, and one street remains today, EUNICE Avenue, off Shader Road at Bay Lake. Whipple’s plat was filed 2 years before Cornelia (Wright) Whipple died of injuries sustained in an 1890 train accident, a derailment that occurred while she was on her way south to CitrusLAND.

OREGON

In 1861, a young Union soldier left his home at Cottage Hill, ILLINOIS and enlisted in that State's 51^st Infantry. As he was leaving home, his mother handed him a small bible, and instructed him to carry it at all times. In a fierce 1864 battle, a deadly engagement in which many of the 51^st lost their lives, this particular soldier was captured and imprisoned. His bible was left behind on that deadly Tennessee battlefield.

In 1914, the Morning Oregonian wrote of a Veteran who had a lost bible returned to him after 50 years. The man had been a 27 year resident of Metzger, a town south of Portland, in OREGON, the 33^rd State to join our union of 50 States.  (See photo above).

SNOWVILLE, Florida, the precursor to ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, had been established by this very same man, James Edgar SNOW. As a Georgia prisoner, Snow later told of being “fed a pint of cornmeal ground up with the cob each day,” and yet after the War, James, as did so many other Veterans, set their differences aside and relocated to the south, homesteading in Central Florida.

Lake Adelaide, Altamonte Springs, Florida

Lake ADELAIDE is named for Edgar’s wife, Adelaide (FAVOUR) Snow. The lake had one of the two SPRINGS that gave the later town its name. Adelaide passed away at Oregon in 1914, while being cared for by her FLORIDA born daughter FANNIE, very likely the first child ever born at modern day Altamonte Springs, Florida.

The mystery and intrigue that I have come to love about Central Florida history is found in nearly every early settler. These folks were brave but mysterious individuals. Edgar J. SNOW had negotiated a SNOWVILLE depot in 1880, a railway stop that is today’s SUNRAIL station at ALTAMONTE SPRINGS. 

Edgar Snow then departed Central Florida, moved to OREGON, and became a railroad employed there for the remainder of his life.

Next week: Kansas, West Virginia and Nevada.

50 STATES OF CENTRAL FLORIDA Part 11: TX, IA & WI

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 Texas, State #28, admitted December 29, 1845; Iowa, State # 29, admitted December 28, 1846; and Wisconsin, State #30 admitted on May 29, 1848.

TEXAS

Florida and Texas were each admitted to the United States in 1845. Both selected a Mockingbird as their State bird. And commonalities didn’t end there!

At the corner of Main & Central Avenue in the Village of Orlando, in the year 1857, a legendary central Florida pioneer got into deep trouble, and went into hiding in faraway Texas. Around the very same time, a malaria scare in West Orange County caused a family to pack their bags and head to Texas as well.

Aaron Jernigan was indicted for murdering militiaman William H. WRIGHT at the corner of Main & Central, and soon after abandoned the big plans he had for Orange County. One of the first homesteaders of remote Fort Gatlin, by 1857 Jernigan had become the most influential person in all of South Orange County. He had opened a post office in 1850, stores along the First Road to Orlando in 1851, and within a few years built a real estate empire extending from Mellonville to Kissimmee City. He gave it all up to go into hiding, for two decades, along the Red River in Fannin County, Texas.

Edward Murray HUDSON, fearing malaria was lurking amidst his hammock lands on Lake Apopka, sold the family’s 2,300 Orange County acres in 1859. Having lost his wife Nancy over the summer of 1858, and fearing for his three children, he departed an area that is today WINTER GARDEN, and fled to Texas. But in October, 1861, at age 39, after enlisting in the Civil War, Edward Hudson died of pneumonia.

Another legendary central Floridian and Orange County mystery man is “Benjamin F. CALDWELL.” Historians have long told of Caldwell donating land for courthouse, yet little else was ever known of the stranger who made Orlando the seat of government of Orange County. My book, CitrusLAND: Curse of Florida’s Paradise, first brought closure to an age-old mystery. Having lived in West Orange for less than a year, Caldwell took his family to Cass County, Texas. He too enlisted in the Civil War, and he too died in the war, at age 30, of a gunshot wound inflicted during a friendly-fire incident.

The road to Texas traveled both ways. Ouachita Pushmataha Preston, a resident of Texas and member of the State’s 1^st Calvary during the Civil War, came with his brother John Preston to Fort Gatlin in the closing days of the 1860s. Ouachita homesteaded alongside Lake Jenny Jewel, a quaint little lake he named for his wife, Jennie, who he said was Jewel. Jennie (Pitts) Preston was the sister of the wife of William Mayer Randolph.

IOWA

“I came here on crutches, feeble with rheumatism,” Cornelius CLAFLIN was quoted in Burlington Hawk Eye & Telegraph newspaper of January, 1883. He was explaining why he left IOWA, the 29^th State to join our Union, to relocate to central Florida. “I had not slept over 20 minutes at a time for 2 years. I can now sleep with comfort and natural rest.” Formerly of the town of Morning Sun, Iowa, Claflin opened the Palmetto Hotel at Orlando, on land just east of where the old railroad depot stands today.

‘EUREKA,’ was the headline of the Burlington full page newspaper article, proclaiming: “Orange County in Southern Florida, ‘Tis summer always; there’s fruits, health and wealth.” The Hawkeye & Telegraph also mentioned Louis HEEB of Dubuque, saying he too relocated to Central Florida for health reasons. After only one visit, he was quoted as saying, his health improved. HEEB too stayed and opened a business at Orlando.

CHULUOTA town founder Robert A. MILLS had also been interviewed by the Hawk Eye newspaper: “For years an agent for the American Express Company in Sioux City,” said the article, Mills, by 1883, had become a partner in a central Florida real estate firm. Mills treated the Iowa journalist, “to a long ride in the country around Orlando,” telling the reporter that he “thinks his northern friends should come and share in his prosperity and enjoy the salubrious climate”. (A later write-up about Mill’s town of Chuluota, on Mills Lake, said the name was Indian, meaning ‘Beautiful View’.

Wachusett Hotel, Tangerine, Florida

Dudley W. ADAMS, a founder of TANGERINE, northwest of Apopka, came from Iowa in 1882. Among the earliest merchants in Allamakee, Iowa, and President in 1877 of a newly organized Iowa railroad, Dudley Adams changed professions, becoming a horticulturalist by planting 3,000 citrus trees at his new town of Tangerine. One year later, in October 1883, Adams opened WACHUSETT Hotel. Dudley Avenue was one of the first streets in Tangerine.

WISCONSIN

James INGRAHAM, Mr. Railroad to central Floridians, was born November 18, 1850 near where, two years later, his birthplace would be known as Racine, Wisconsin, part of the 30^th State to join our Union of States.

The Ingraham’s relocated to St. Louis, Missouri, and there James met Maria, his bride-to-be. The couple married in 1872. Maria Ingraham partnered in 1875 with Rosalie Draper, the wife of a Missouri railroad executive, to acquire 80 Orange County acres.  The parcel these two Missouri ladies purchased was south of the new town of Sanford, and it was that land deal which brought James Ingraham to central Florida.

For a brief stint James Ingraham worked for Henry Sanford as land agent, but realized he had come to the right place at the right time. He attended a February 1880 meeting that was to become historic, for one party transferred their State Franchise to construct a railroad from Lake Monroe to Orlando. By January 1881, James E. Ingraham was President of South Florida Railroad Company, the start of a life-long career as a railroad executive.

James Ingraham worked alongside such railroad legends as Henry Plant and Henry Flagler. From St. Augustine, where he served a term as Mayor, to Miami and all points between, the Ingraham influence in a developing Florida is visible to this day.

Henry NEHRLING, born 1853 at Howards Grove in Sheboygan County WI, was a son of German immigrants. He was also a nature lover from birth. Nehrling purchased land in 1883 at the town of GOTHA, where the celebrated horticulturist established a world renowned gardens visited by tourists to this day.

Caladiums under roof at Henry Nehrling's Gotha Gardens

John M. CHENEY was born at Milwaukee, WI in 1859, and relocated to Orlando in 1885, where he established a law practice. Attorney Cheney partnered in infrastructure improvements such as Orlando Water Works, Orlando Electric Light, and was a staunch promoter for new improved roads. State Highway 50 east from Orlando is also known as Cheney Highway as a memorial to the man from Wisconsin.

Next week: California, Minnesota & Oregon:

50 STATES OF CENTRAL FLORIDA Part 10: MI & FL

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 Michigan, State #26, admitted June 26, 1837; and Florida, State #27 admitted on March 3, 1845.

MICHIGAN

“The Michigan people,” said the Orange Land magazine of 1883, a publication sanctioned by Orange County Commissioners, “are clustering around Hoosier Springs and Lake Brantley.” Known today as ‘The Springs,” a Seminole County community, the Florida Midland Railway was at the time laying track at Hoosier Springs in the direction of Lake Brantley. The railroad was opening up a narrow strip of land west of present day I-4 for 1880s settlers, a stretch that is today SR 434.

Other residents from the 26^th State were also locating in the 1880s along the old forts trail, or the trail I’ve dubbed the, ‘First Road to Orlando.’ Samuel A. ROBINSON followed his brother Norman to Florida, and the two partnered in platting additions to both Kissimmee City and the County Seat of Orlando.

Sam Robinson served as County Surveyor, sketching in 1881 the first known original plat of the 1857, 417’ X 417,’ Village of Orlando. The original village of 12 lots and a small courthouse square had not previously been recorded. Robinson also surveyed an 80 acre addition to that four acre Orlando village, completing that task for the Palatka merchant and Orange County landowner, Robert R. Reid.

Born at Michigan’s Calhoun County, Samuel A. Robinson (1849-1926) arrived at central Florida in 1876, just in time to begin surveying a planned Lake Jesup & Orlando Railroad route for George C. BRANTLEY. The survey was done by 1878, but the railroad was never completed. Brantley died in New York city while trying to purchase track for his railroad.

Arriving in fall of 1875 with his mother, Edward Hall, son of Ishpeming, MI banker Charles H. Hall, told historian William Blackman of his half day journey down the old trail, beginning at Michael Doyle’s pier at Mellonville on Lake Monroe, to their winter cottage at C. C. Beasley’s up and coming town of Maitland.

From Portage, Michigan in 1885 came jewelers David & Lydia Washburn, buying up property in several Orange County locations. They soon focused their attention at a soon-to-be town along the Orange Belt Railway. Their story as to how the railroad crossed a tiny corner of the Washburn’s land, an infringement very likely leading to the naming of Winter Garden, is detailed in my book, CitrusLAND: Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains.

At the grand opening of the new Winter Garden Heritage Foundation building in 2014, local high school students entertained guests with a play depicting three versions as to how the town got its name. I was honored to watch as one version was taken from the pages of my Ghost Towns book, which is available for purchase at that fine museum.

Winter Garden High School students performing at WGHF museum opening in 2014. An honor that their skit on how Winter Garden got its name was taken from the pages of CitrusLAND: Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains.

Michigan native Mahlon GORE walked 22 miles to Orlando in May of 1880, arriving at the county seat within months of the first train arriving. Born at Climax, MI, Gore went west first, staking a claim to a homestead in the rugged wilderness of the Dakota Territory. He told of how he slept under the stars out west while building a log home, and of health reasons for changing plans and making tracks toward Orange County. A journalist, Mahlon Gore bought Orlando’s Orange Reporter newspaper, and within a few years, also partnered in developing a new town of Chuluota, presently in Seminole County. Gore is remembered as being one of central Florida’s staunchest promoters.

FLORIDA

James PARRAMORE personifies native Floridians of the 19^th century. Five years old at the time Florida became the 27^th State, James was raised at Madison County, in the State’s Panhandle. He is immortalized today by an Orlando neighborhood and road he had personally platted nearly 140 years ago.

Technically born at Georgia, when considering the circumstances, we believe the man to be a homegrown Floridian, The third son, two older brothers were born in the Florida Territory prior to Indian uprisings of 1836. Due to the unrest, most settlers escaped Madison County, going north into Georgia until conditions were right for returning. The Parramore’s returned after War’s end, so James was technically a Florida native.

Six months prior to the Civil War, James Parramore acquired 1,200 Orange County acres from Joseph Finegan of Nassau County. He then married Finegan’s daughter, and during the War, served alongside General Joseph Finegan. After the War, and after first having to bury his wife, Agnes (Finegan) Parramore, at Madison, James and his widowed mother relocated to Fort REID, a town inland two miles from Mellonville on the First Road to Orlando.

In 1882, with the War of Rebellion still fresh on the minds of every American, James Parramore acquired 40 acres west of the new railroad track in Orlando, and platted ‘Parramore’s Addition to Orlando.’ James employed a Yankee surveyor to lay out nine crossroads, naming one of the streets Parramore, and another for assassinated President Lincoln, who had fought to end slavery. On September 28, 1882, James then gifted a corner parcel at LINCOLN Street to Trustees of the African M. E. Church, stating that land was to be used expressly for religious purposes. (Lincoln Street was later abandoned).

Still another Madison County native was Robert W. BROOME, a mysterious out-of-town lawyer who came to Orlando, got himself elected Chairman of the 1875 village meeting to incorporate the county seat, and then vanished, never to be heard of again. Robert was the nephew of James E. Broome, Florida’s 3^rd Governor, who had served his final day in office on October 5, 1857. On that exact same day, October 5, 1857, an Alabama landowner donated four acres for Orlando’s courthouse. Coincidence?

Homesites around Lake Eola were first developed in 1874 by Florida's Cattle-King, Jacob Summerlin. Attorney Robert L. Summerlin, Jacob's son, had a residence on the lake.  

Florida native Robert L. SUMMERLIN was born near Tampa. A lawyer as well, the son of Florida’s cattle-King, Jacob Summerlin, was said to have been the person who gave Orlando’s Iconic LAKE EOLA its name. Robert Summerlin attended the 1875 incorporation meeting along with his father, served a term as Orlando Mayor, and yes, his childhood crush appears to have been the inspiration for the naming of Lake Eola.

Florida boys made central Florida proud!

Next Sunday: Texas, Iowa & Wisconsin

50 STATES OF CENTRAL FLORIDA Part 9: ME, MO & AR

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 Maine, State #23, admitted March 15, 1820; #24, Missouri admitted August 10, 1821, and Arkansas, admitted as State #25 on June 15, 1836.

MAINE

A dozen years after Province of MAINE ‘seceded’ from MASSACHUSETTS, becoming the 23^rd State in our Union of States, Alonzo W. Rollins was born, March 20, 1832, at York. He eventually settled in the windy city of Chicago, where Rollins built a successful business selling dye to woolen mills. Rollins became a snowbird, living during the colder winter months in a WINTER PARK lakeside cottage. He became one of the major contributors in the founding of ROLLINS COLLEGE.

Rollins College Engraving circa 1889 courtesy Florida Memory Project

John Parker ILSLEY was born at Portland, Maine in 1825, but followed his family west, where he became active in the ever-expanding railroad industry. At age 70, John P. Ilsley, then working in Pennsylvania, accepted the challenge of his life, purchasing at auction, on ORLANDO’S courthouse steps December 7, 1893, the financially troubled ORANGE BELT RAILWAY. Timing however was not the best, for one year later, Florida’s Great Freeze of 1894-95 wiped out the citrus crop along John Ilsley’s train route. Ilsley, as President of the OBRR, is one of the main character’s in CitrusLAND: Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains, now in second edition and available at Amazon.com.

New England investors constructed a luxury hotel, The ALTAMONTE, in 1882, on land now part of ALTAMONTE SPRINGS. The investors hired Frank STAPLES, son of the founder of MAINE”S first-ever Oceanside hotel, Ye OLDE Staples Inn of Old Orchard, Maine, as manager during the winter months of The Altamonte.

MISSOURI

“He was the bravest boy in the Army, as ready to handle a musket as the drum.” The entire regiment described the 16 years old musician who had enlisted in 1861 in the Civil War. A native of MISSOURI, the young man was honored at War’s end by his fellow soldiers, who gave the lad an engraved drum reading: “Presented to HIRAM S. MING, by the members of Company E 2d, Wisconsin Volunteers.” Hiram’s family was living at Appleton, WI when War broke out, but the young man was a Missouri native none the less. After the war, Hiram MING began working on the railroad, and by 1893, was living at OAKLAND, FL in West Orange County. Ming was employed by the OBRR as their Assistant Superintendent.

Hiram S. Ming, Drummer Boy, Left

“South Florida Citizen was established in April, 1879,” reported the 1883 Orange Land publication. “A new press and outfit have recently been purchased and the paper will hereafter be called APOPKA CITIZEN.” Reverend Frank A. TAYLOR, the Editor, was a native of Missouri. Subscriptions to the Apopka Citizen newspaper were “$1.50 per annum in advance.”

The notorious “Boat Burner” of St. Louis, MO had been a mild mannered Attorney prior to the Civil War. After the war, the retired boat-burner became a mild mannered Attorney, Judge and resident of Fort Reid, southeast of present day Sanford. Across the Missouri River from St. Louis another attorney, William M. RANDOLPH, lived at historic St. Charles, MO. Daughter Fanny Randolph was born at St. Charles, MO in 1854. The Randolph family then made their way to Orange County after the War, and each family member became instrumental in central Florida’s development. Fanny Randolph became the first wife of Orlando’s legendary, Benjamin M. Robinson.

ARKANSAS

“Warriors, COACOOCHEE speaks to you,” quoted historian George R. Fairbanks in 1871, while writing of the final address of the son of King PHILIP, before a small gathering of tribe members who had assembled at Tampa Bay in 1841. “I wish now to have my band around me and go to ARKANSAS. I am done!” Chief Coacoochee and 210 tribe members departed the Florida Territory October 11, 1841, relocating to the 25^th State to join our Union. Arkansas was admitted to the United States June 15, 1836.

Orange County Florida plat of ALTOONA

ALTOONA town founder Francis J. HINSON of GA sold his largest lot in 1884, an orange grove consisting of 100 trees. “There is but one bearing grove in sight,” said the Webb’s 1885 publication; “This was planted by Mr. F. J. Hinson, and was sold by him about July 10, 1884 to Mr. Rumph, of ARKANSAS, for $10,000.00 dollars. It covers ten (10) acres, is first-class high pine land, and can boast of one hundred trees under four years old now loaded with fruit.” Part of Orange County when Hinson founded his town, Altoona quickly benefited as a stop on the St. Johns & Lake Eustis Railroad. George B. RUMPH was a merchant and orange grower, an Alabama native who had been raised and then married in Ouachita County, ARKANSAS prior to moving to a central Florida region that is today located in Lake County.

Major Nathaniel WOFFORD (1766-1846), father to one of Central Florida’s earliest pioneers, John T. WOFFORD, father-in-law of William Allen LOVELL, and relative of J. Wofford Tucker featured above, died while serving in the military at ARKANSAS. Nathan was buried in the 25th State.

Our series has now been to 25 States. Next Sunday: Michigan and FLORIDA.

This Summer of 2108 series is compliments of www.CroninBooks.com

THE CENTRAL FLORIDA HISTORY STORE

Richard Lee Cronin, Author