50 STATES OF CENTRAL FLORIDA Part 16: ID, WY & UT

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 Idaho, State #43, admitted July 3, 1890; Wyoming, State #44, admitted July 10, 1890; and Utah, State #44, admitted on January 4, 1896.

IDAHO

A promise of great wealth from citrus farming in central Florida captivated the nation’s attention as early as 1870, but then a series of setbacks, miner at first, and capped off by Florida’s Great Freeze of 1894-95, brought down the 19^th century dream of America’s Paradise. Florida eventually regained its place as a world renowned destination, but its recovery as a world class destination was to be ever so slow, and financially painful. 

Newer homesteading opportunities, including mining minerals out west, caught the eye of those in search of a place to settle in an ever-expanding United States.

Edwin W. WADDELL, Jr. turned 5 years old the year of Florida’s Great Freeze. His family celebrated their homeland becoming the 43^rd State, and even the dawn of the 20^th century as residents of IDAHO. His parents had been born at Atchison, Kansas, the father one year before Kansas became a State, the mother, two years after. Edwin’s grandfather, Nathaniel Cruikshank CLARK, was a surgeon in the Civil War, and he was then appointed Atchison mail agent.

On the Ocklawaha River, circa 1890

Grandfather Nathaniel Clark came to Florida with the WADDELL family, and settled at Orange Springs, FL. Located on the Ocklawaha River, the settlement of Orange Springs was in Marion County, along a river that served as a transportation corridor during the earliest stages of a developing ‘Great Lake’ region around EUSTIS. Many a new community sprang up in the late 1880s along the river.

After Florida’s devastating freeze, and after burying Grandpa Nathaniel, the Waddell family abandoned 200 acres of hopes and dreams at Orange Springs and returned home, to IDAHO, where Edwin’s father resumed his position as a Merchant. The only remaining evidence today of the Waddell’s presence here in CitrusLAND is a lone grave marker for their family patriarch, “N. C. Clark; Surgeon; the 8^th Kansas Infantry.”

Newspapers had begun touting Idaho’s potential for settlers, pointing out the fact bank deposits had increased significantly – funds largely from mining operations. The town of Burley, IDAHO attracted William Milton DAVIS, who purchased an existing general store there, and changed the name to DAVIS Mercantile. He prospered until the economic crash of the 1920’s, went bust, and then relocated to Florida. Davis bought a small grocery store at Miami, and with the help of his sons, built a chain of stores that eventually became WINN-DIXIE.

WYOMING

After first attempting to transform Florida’s wilderness into a renowned winter resort, CitrusLAND pioneer Oliver E. Chapman ended up assisting kinfolk develop a ranch in a wide open territory that soon became the State of Wyoming.

“Health & Wealth” was Orange County’s mantra during America’s 19^th Century heyday. Its reputation as a healthy environment began as early as 1867, after land agent John A. MacDonald arrived as a sick man. Five years later, Dr. Washington Kilmer walked from Ohio to present day Seminole County after being diagnosed with a terminal disease. Then came Mahlon Gore, arriving in May 1880 with failing health.

All three recovered, and each broadcasted their recovery to a very attentive world. But Oliver E. Chapman was one prominent Central Floridian to abandon his CitrusLAND dream for health concerns.

Oliver and Loring A. CHASE had become Central Floridians in the early 1880s, and each came citing health problems. Childhood friends, the two men also recovered, and then formed a partnership that forever changed central Florida. Partners Chapman & Chase founded WINTER PARK, FLORIDA. Chapman soon abandoned the land partnership due to health concerns.

Winter Park’s first Postmaster in 1882, Oliver E. Chapman sold his interest in Winter Park to return to Massachusetts with his sick wife. Going home however didn’t help his wife. Elizabeth (FOSTER) Chapman, 31 years old and a mother of two, died March 15, 1887 of Tuberculosis.

Oliver E. Chapman, co-founder of Winter Park, FL

Oliver Chapman disappeared off the radar after his wife’s death, but a comment found in the 1927 William F. Blackman History of Orange County that assisted in locating the rest of Oliver E. Chapman’s story. Blackman said Oliver went to WYOMING to be with his brothers.

Anna Ames-Frohlich, great granddaughter of George F. CHAPMAN, Oliver’s younger brother, wrote of the four brothers, including Oliver Everett Chapman, and their accomplishments at Evanston, WYOMING. The Chapman brothers left quite a legacy in Wyoming.

Oliver S. CHAPMAN, father of the Chapman brothers, had been a railroad builder, and served on the first Board of Directors of Union Pacific Railroad. Evanston had become home to a Union Pacific Roundhouse in 1887, and son George F. Chapman settled at Evanston as an employee of the Union Pacific. Then the family got into ranching - in a big way.

Meanwhile, back here at CitrusLAND, Winter Park’s CAPEN Avenue adds a chapter to the Chapman legacy. “Capen Addition to the town of Winter Park was filed in 1885. George Chapman, brother of Oliver, the half-founder of Winter Park, married Eliza CAPEN just prior to relocating his family to Evanston, WYOMING.

UTAH

“The bride,” reported SALT LAKE Herald on the 11^th of November, 1891, “was Miss ELIZA FLETCHER, recently of ORLANDO, Florida.”

As a little girl, Miss Eliza Fletcher, the 1891 Utah bride, had for a time attended church at ALTAMONT (no ‘e’) CHAPEL near where US 434 intersects Interstate 4 today.

Ingram Fletcher, Eliza’s father, had founder Central Florida’s HOOSIER SPRINGS in the late 1870’s. Prior to moving to Florida, Fletcher had been an Indianapolis banker. He built a winter residence for his family on property near the chapel. In fact, Ingram Fletcher donated, November 9, 1877, the acre site for the chapel, gifting the church land to the Methodist Church. Hoosier Springs eventually became part of Altamont (no ‘E’), and then, around 1890, Palm Springs.

Hard times forced Fletcher to abandon his dream for developing Hoosier Springs into a town, so he relocated his family south to ORLANDO. The Fletcher family settled near Lake Lorna Doone, and by 1890, Ingram Fletcher was Orlando’s Postmaster.

How Lake Lorna Doone was named, by Historian E. H. Gore (1951)

Opportunity required Eliza Fletcher to follow her groom-to-be to Salt Lake City, where he, William A. Chapman, went to work as a construction accountant. The couple’s first child, Ingram Fletcher Chapman, grandson of Ingram & Gertrude Fletcher of CitrusLAND, was born at Salt Lake City, in UTAH TERRITORY, on the 26^th day of October, 1894. Two months after little Ingram’s birth Florida was devastated by a great freeze. A year later, January 4, 1896, UTAH celebrated Statehood.

Next week, States 46, 47 and 48, and then, in two weeks, our summer 2018 Series finale.

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AUTHOR PAGE of Richard Lee Cronin

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