Thursday, April 4, 2019

ORLANDO Founding Families: Merchant OVERSTREET



PART ONE: Merchant Henry Overstreet

ORLANDO’S story kind of began in 1856. The idea of such a town likely began years before, but not until 1856 was Orange County introduced to the 417’ X 417’ square want-to-be town.


1857 Plat of Orlando, Lot 10

Four acres in size (417’ x 417’), the square town consisted of four streets: two running north-south, and two running east-west. The streets formed sort of tic-tac-toe board. 12 city lots were sketched around the perimeter, surrounding a very small courthouse square. Of the man donating this land to Orange County there were only two requirements: First, the village had to be named the County Seat. Second, the town had to be named, ORLANDO!

Historians have typically told of the town’s Lot 10 merchant, David W. Mizell, but he was not the city’s first merchant, nor was he the first merchant at Lot 10. David W. Mizell acquired the lot (today the southeast corner of Central Avenue and Magnolia), on the 12th of December, 1859. Mizell paid Henry & Mary Overstreet the sum of $209.87 for the land as well as “all of the goods and merchandise.” Merchant Mizell therefore bought the store of merchant Overstreet.

Because Mizell didn’t buy until 1859, Orlando’s mysterious Lot 10 likely originated with Henry C. Overstreet, (I say likely because some cattle wrestlers burned down the courthouse in 1868, and many of the earliest deeds went up in smoke). Still, Lot 10 is indeed a mysterious parcel.

I know its old news to write about Benjamin F. Caldwell of Talladega, Alabama donating four acres in 1857 for a courthouse,” but you may not know the whole story of that transaction. For starters, the statement is not correct! Benjamin F. Caldwell of Talladega, Alabama signed a deed which stated: “Town Plat of the Village of Orlando, the county seat of Orange County, State of Florida, containing four acres, more or less, excepting Lot No. 10 in said plat, which lot is hereby not conveyed.” So, Caldwell donated less than four acres – because lot 10 was not part of his land gift. But why was one of twelve town lots specifically excluded? One possibility is that a general merchandise store already occupied the land area that then became lot 10.

Another important fact worthy of mention is where lot 10 was located in the overall scheme of 1856 Orange County. Note in the map above that ‘Main Street’ ran north and south alongside Lot 10. The dirt road called Main Street was in reality the Fort Mellon to Fort Gatlin road first established as a military trail in 1838. By the 1850s this route was called Mellonville Road.


Sketch of 1871 Mellonville Road becoming Main Street

After the Civil War, David W. Mizell conveyed his store to his son-in-law, E. W. Spier, shown as such on the 1871 sketch above, on the east side of Main Street. Years before, like in 1856, the 25 mile long Fort Mellon to Fort Gatlin Road was a lonely trail having only ONE store south of Fort Reid at Mile Marker 2 – and that ONE important general store, at Mile Marker 22, belonged to Merchant Henry C. Overstreet.

Overstreet family legend says Henry Overstreet arrived in Florida in 1856. Orange County’s 1860 census supports this claim, for of the family of 10 in 1860, all but two were natives of Georgia. Henry and Thomas were both listed as born in Florida, in 1856 & 1860 respectively. The Overstreet family is also wrongly shown as residents of Brevard County. Although listed with the Brevard census, the family post office address, as shown below, was Orlando.


1860 Brevard Census with heading “Orlando in Orange County”

Merchant Henry Overstreet is the perfect place to begin this Orlando Founding Families series, and for a variety of reasons. His arrival in 1856, together with his 1859 deed to David W. Mizell, helps piece together a complicated origin for this place called Orlando, FL. Twenty-three years after his arrival, in 1879, a then Orange County Commissioner Henry Overstreet signed yet another deed, this one attempting to clarify the four acres: “upon which the courthouse stands.” Even this Orange County Commissioner’s deed however only adds to Orlando’s mystery.

Henry Overstreet is also a great place to start the story of Orlando because, as father to a dozen central Florida offspring, he and wife contributed as well to expanding the area’s population.

Born October 11, 1821 at Swainsboro, Emanuel County, GA, Henry Overstreet married Mary Cowart in 1843 prior to relocating to Florida. He settled first at the Village of Orlando, but as the Civil War began, the village was all but abandoned. Perhaps desiring to get as far away from any civilization as possible, as if Orlando of 1860 could be deemed civilized, the Overstreet family relocated again, this time even deeper into the wilderness of Orange County.

While living at Orlando during the 1850s, merchant Overstreet and James Yates, Sr. had been neighbors. The two families then became Shingle Creek neighbors. Orlando Founding Families next Friday continues with Part II: Patriarch Yates of Orlando.


About the Overstreet’s of central Florida:

CAUTION: Long-time central Florida Overstreet families could be lineal descendants of Moses Overstreet, also of Georgia. He arrived at Orange County after the Great Freeze, began buying up thousands of acres, and established Overstreet Turpentine Co., Overstreet Crate Co, and Overstreet Investment Co. Henry and Moses had different parents, so any family ties between the two would be either a second or third generation relationship.

GENEALOGY: Orlando’s Henry & Mary (Cowart) Overstreet, after moving further south from Orlando, founded Shingle Creek United Methodist Church on their property. Still part of Orange County at that time, Henry died at Shingle Creek on November 23, 1879. Osceola County was carved from Orange eight years after his death.

“First Road to Orlando” is a history of the old Fort Mellon to Fort Gatlin Road and of how a tiny village in the middle of a remote wilderness became the Orange County seat of government.

This Orlando Founding Families delves deeper into the courageous pioneers who found their along a lonely dusty old forts trail – and became the first families to settle at Orlando.


Central Florida History by Richard Lee Cronin


Beyond trail’s end – “Beyond Gatlin: A History of South Orange County”

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