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 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 Nebraska, State #37, admitted March 1, 1867; Colorado, State #38, admitted August 1, 1876; and North Dakota,
State #39 admitted on November 2, 1889.
NEBRASKA
“Captain PINE murdered!”
This headline appeared in the Miami Herald newspaper March 15, 1921. “The body of James A. Pine of
Miami was found lying in a ditch by the side of Boss Road.” A suspect,
reported the newspaper, surfaced immediately, with the alleged killer being
traced first to Florida’s HAINES CITY,
but the suspect could not be found there. Newspapers had little else to add, so
over time, the murder of a Miami Charter Fishing Boat Captain, a native of the
State of NEBRASKA, faded from headlines.
And of newspapers running stories about the incident, not one offered a clue
that the victim, during the 1880’s, had been a resident of an emerging Central
Florida community.
Captain James A. Pine first came to Central Florida as a young
boy, arriving at EUSTIS with another
Captain, and another James A. Pine, his widowed father.
James A. Pine,
Senior had earned his Captain title while serving in Indiana’s
Calvary during the Civil War. After the War, he found his way west to Omaha, NEBRASKA, where the Union
Veteran met and married Mary PEARCE
in March of 1873. James Pine Junior,
the murdered Miami fishing boat Captain of 1921,
was born at Omaha on the 4th day February, 1874.
Pine, Sr. once wrote that he began taking an interest in Florida soon after the birth of his
son, so following his wife’s death, Pine Sr. and Jr. moved to Gainesville, FL, the location at the
time of a U. S. Land office. In 1883,
the Pine’s moved once again, to EUSTIS,
where Pine, Sr. teamed up with the legendary Central Florida land agent and
Civil Engineer, John A. MacDONALD.
It was MacDonald who had made the town of Eustis happen, and Pine, Sr. assisted
during the earliest stages of developing the “Lake Region around Lake Eustis.”
James A. Pine, Sr. became more than a partner when he married
John A. MacDonald’s daughter, Maria
Theresa MacDonald.
Captain J. A. Pine, Assistant to John A. MacDonald
Meanwhile, Henry Flagler’s East Coast Railway was making its way toward Miami, and close behind the earliest southbound trains were families
of John A. MacDonald and James A. Pine. Florida’s Great Freeze of 1894-95 had caused the families to move
south, where by 1900, Cocoanut Grove, on the outskirts of ever-expanding
Miami, had become the new home of MacDonald the surveyor, and Pine the Land
Agent.
Nebraska native James A. Pine had followed his father and
step-mother to south Florida as well, and there he became a charter boat
fishing Captain. Pine Jr’s murder story led to my discovery of another lost
CitrusLAND pioneer, much as a 1922 Mexico City bank robbery assisted in
solving Miami’s cold murder case. The robber, under the alias of Peter Paul FISHER, turned out to be Ludwig KOHLWEISS reported Palatka Daily
News of July 17, 1922. Kohlweiss had
been a person of interest in the February, 1921
murder of a Miamian, late of Central
Florida, a native of Nebraska; Captain
James A. Pine, Jr.
Add a vowel to PINE
and you get the name of a fellow who arrived in CitrusLAND from the next State
to be admitted into the Union of States, a young lad who even having an
interesting first name for a newcomer to Orange County’s seat of
government.
COLORADO
“Even the vaunted health
resorts of COLORADO,” declared
central Florida land agents Matthew R.
MARKS and John G. SINCLAIR, “show a death-rate among the resident
population of double that of Orange County, FLORIDA.” Marks & Sinclair,
realtors and authors of this 1880 declaration
on the merits of CitrusLAND, were of course selling land in Florida, not the 38th
State to join the Union.
“The Rocky Mountain
Resorts and wonderful Mineral Springs of Colorado,” said an Ohio newspaper
in 1877, “never lose their interest to the tourist, and the benefits to Invalids
are magical and never-failing.” Perhaps because of such endorsements, Marks
& Sinclair felt the need to counter; “of
the invalid and tourist class, the death-rate in that much advertised region is
fully ten times as great as among the same class here”, with here meaning
central Florida.
The competitive rivalry inspired ORLANDO J. PAINE of Colorado to invest in Central Florida real
estate in 1883. Arriving from HERMOSA, home of a Mineral Spring north
of Durango 10 miles, Paine, despite his first name, set his sights on EUSTIS. Born 1826, three decades before
the town of Orlando had been named,
Orlando Paine was a native of Portland,
MAINE.
LONGWOOD grocer James R. POOLE tried several CitrusLAND
occupations prior to departing Florida and moving to DENVER. Poole and his Root
family in-laws came to Central Florida from Indiana. They laid out an Orange County town along the route of
Orange Belt Railway called Glen Ethel,
a community that is today a Seminole County Ghost town. Poole opened a hardware
store, but by 1887, James R. Poole
was in the business of selling “staple and fancy groceries, cigars and tobacco.”
A son, Thomas S. Poole, was born
that same year at Orange County.
Plat of Glen Ethel on Orange Belt Railway by Root
Poole gave up on Central Florida even before the great freeze,
and headed west to join his brothers at DENVER,
where James soon after became President of Poole’s
Laundry Company, a business also known as Denver Soap Co. A CitrusLAND grocer traded the sweet smell of
orange blossoms to develop a brand advertising itself as, “Poole’s Denver Best Soap.” He died at Denver, Colorado in 1926.
NORTH
DAKOTA
TWO States
were admitted to the Union on the 2nd day of November, 1889, and despite each being carved out
of ONE much larger Dakota Territory,
both seem to have had strikingly different assessments of faraway Central
Florida. One of the two you will read about below. The other will require
waiting a week.
NORTH
DAKOTA, our 39th State (because N comes before S),
appears to have been more competitive in its early appraisal of FLORIDA. At first glance, Dakota and
Florida couldn’t be much more different, but in reality, each were at that time
developing States. Both States were using public land, at a cheap price, to
entice settlers. Each were looking for railroads to provide much needed
transportation. Florida, “a land of
wealth, health and sunshine”, benefited by more free press. Besides, many
of the settlers were looking for a warmer climate!
Florida also had a 35
year head start as a State by 1880,
for North Dakota was still part of the Dakota a Territory during that time. An 1888 newspaper editorial tells of North
Dakota’s frustration: “Dakota has a population
of about 700,000; Florida has 266,000. Dakota has 4,246 miles of railroad;
Florida 1,294. Dakota has 352 newspapers; Florida has 102. Last year Dakota
paid $2 million for schools; Florida $835,948. And yet the Democracy has
refused Dakota the rights of Statehood for more than 6 years.”
Still, North Dakota claimed to be #1 among States and Territories issuing public lands to new
settlers, outpacing even Florida. Dakota press also seemed compelled to defend
its homeland, and did so regularly, casting doubt on the ‘true’ merits of
Florida. One North Dakota paper in 1886
published the following: “A friend from
Florida writes: I have had a good look at Florida and thought you would like to
know something about it. I think very little of it. I would not swap land in
Dakota for land in Florida. The old settlers here live mostly on sweet potatoes
and little else!”
Perhaps the best known family to actually relocate to Central
Florida and stay was the BARTHLE
family, German immigrants who settled first in the North Dakota Territory.
Three BARTHLE brothers settled at San
Antonio, Florida, on the Orange Belt
Railway line well west of OAKLAND,
the railroad’s 1880s headquarters. Charles
BARTHLE opened the St. Charles Hotel
at San Antonio.
Holy Name Academy, San Antonio, Florida on Orange Belt Railway Line
New York native Myron
A. FULLER spent many of his early years in North Dakota, but then decided
to move south. He opened the Minnesota
House Hotel in Orlando, but very soon after chose to return to the north.
Sister State SOUTH
DAKOTA had a different relationship with CitrusLAND, and that is a story
for next Sunday – when our summer 2018 series continues. Also next Sunday,
Montana and Washington – States #41 and #42.
COME
JOIN US FOR A VERY SPECIAL EVENT
Monday,
August 13, 2018 – 7 PM
Central
Florida Railroad Museum, Winter Garden, FL
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