Thursday, March 28, 2019

GERTRUDE & daughters of Eustis - Mount Dora:


GERTRUDE & daughters of Eustis-Mount Dora:

Valeria’s death at age 83, in faraway Forrest County, Mississippi, on the 25th of June, 1953, begs the question, did anyone recall at the time that a 19th century memorial to Valeria Gertrude (Henry) Baker still existed back at Lake County, Florida?


1925 U. S. Interior Waterways of Central Florida

Today, departing northwest from Lake County’s historic town of Mt Dora, requires driving old Route 441 alongside railroad track first laid down in the 1880s by Leesburg & Indian River Railroad Company. An expansive Lake Dora appears on the left, or south side of your drive, while on your right, or north, a glimpse of Lake Gertrude appears. 

Lake County did not yet exist when Valerie’s father, William Perry Henry of Gwinnett County, GA, first arrived in Orange County’s “Great Lake Region.” Orange Land, an 1883 Orange County publication encouraging newcomers to settle in central Florida, promoted this corner of the county as well: “The route for those wishing to go to the Great Lake Region in the northwest part of the county, is to leave the St. Johns River steamer at Astor and take passage on the cars of the St. Johns & Lake Eustis Railroad to any desired locality.

“Doc Henry,” as locals soon came to know the Georgia native, planted the first orange grove in Mount Dora in 1873. William, wife Mary Jane (Lea), and their three year old daughter Valeria Gertrude, settled on a 147 acre homestead along the west shore of a then unnamed lake on their property. William & Mary Henry sold a ten acre chunk of that homestead March 28, 1884, describing the parcel sold as being located on “Lake Gertrude.” The Henry’s had granted Leesburg & Indian River Railroad permission to cross their property in December of 1882.

When the Henry family arrived in 1873 the nearest post offices were Lake Eustice (sic), opened by James Hull on May 15, 1871, and Fort Mason, opened September 24, 1872. It would be another four years before Augustus & Olivia Pendry built a hotel fronting on Lake Eustis, opened the Pendryville Post Office, and named a lake on their property for their daughter, Grace Olivia Pendry.


Olivia Pendry, mother of Grace Olivia Pendry



Ocklawaha Hotel, Lake Eustis, built by Augustus & Olivia Pendry

Florida native Nettie Morin, born 1880 to Philias & Charlotte (Dowling) Morin on the family homestead near today’s town of Eustis, was the namesake of Lake Nettie.

All three Lake County lakes are still known by the names the parents of three daughters gave to each lake nearly 140 years ago. Nettie Morin of Lake Nettie moved away from Lake County. She became a school teacher. Grace Olivia Pendry of Lake Gracie married Clifford Crandall, moved back to her parent’s home State of New York, but died at Bradenton, Florida in 1964. Valeria Gertrude (Henry) of Lake Gertrude married Benjamin Thomas Baker, a native of Mississippi, and she relocated to Mississippi, where Valeria Gertrude (Henry) Baker died, June 25, 1953.

Not every lake was named for a daughter of a 19th century homesteader, but you now know of at least three that were. Deeds transferring ownership of the Henry parcel of 1884, and the railroad right-of-way of 1882, were both recorded at Orange County’s courthouse in Orlando. Hence the title of my new book, ORLANDO Lakes: Homesteaders & Namesakes.

To learn more on each lake identified in bold above, or other Eustis-Mount Dora waterways such as: Crooked; Dora; Harris; Ocklawaha; Saunders; Simpson; Woodward; Lerla; Neighborhood and more, I invite you to consider purchasing my latest book on the story of central Florida: ORLANDO LAKES: Homesteaders & Namesakes, an encyclopedia of central Florida lakes, profiling the origins of 303 historic lakes from Eustis and Sanford in the north to Kissimmee in the south. In the 19th century, all roads led to Orlando!

Now available at Winter Garden Heritage Foundation in historic Winter Garden, as well as Amazon.com. I invite you to check out ORLANDO LAKES: Homesteaders & Namesakes. You can do so simply by clicking on the convenient link below:



Beginning FRIDAY, April 5, 2019
A series like none other:

FAMILIES of the VILLAGE
The founders of ORLANDO

Part One: Merchant OVERSTREET

CitrusLANDFL: Celebrating central Florida’s amazing Women

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