Thursday, April 25, 2019

ORLANDO Founding Families: The PATRICK family


PART FOUR: The PATRICK family

Dated 30 August 1858, a poorly worded property deed, signed by “John & Linney Patrick,” complicates the story of a mysterious town of Orlando that unfortunately still cannot be fully resolved today. All that can be done now is to try and speculate the deed’s intent. The Patrick deed conveyed 113.94 acres to Postmaster John R. Worthington (Part Three), and yet there is no record as to how the Patrick’s came to own the land.


Orange County History Center at right fronting on 1857 Village of Orlando

Making matters more difficult to figure out today is that the description of the land spelled out in Patrick’s deed identifies a piece of property 119.95 acres in size. Nothing is mentioned in their deed about exceptions, so what then are we to assume of the missing 6.01 acres?

What we do know is that the four-acre original town of Orlando was on the land as specified in Patrick’s deed. Shown in the photo above is Heritage Park out front of Orange County’s History Center. The park occupies most of the original four acres that made up Orlando from 1857 to 1875. The Patrick deed of 1858 failed to mention anything about a town on their land. These four acres however account for the bulk of the 6.01 acres discrepancy.

Benjamin F. Caldwell of Talladega, AL had gifted the four acres to the county ten (10) months prior to the Patrick’s selling their 113.94 acres to Postmaster Worthington.

Two unknown facts are important facts in attempting to resolve the mystery of how Orlando came to be. First, it’s unknown how the Patrick’s came to own the above described land. Second, its unknown how Ben Caldwell qualified for his homestead deed. The U. S. Land Office issued a deed to “Benjamin F. Caldwell of Talladega, Alabama for ALL 119.95 acres mentioned above. He, according to deeds, owned the land that the Patrick’s sold to Worthington.


One fact about Orlando history that “John & Linney Patrick” have over all other pioneers introduced thus far in this series is that they were included in the 1850 Orange County census, listed as family #45 of 55 families living in all of Orange County at that time.

John Patrick (age 40 in 1850, born South Carolina); and Lyna (age 31 in 1850, born Georgia); appear with five children: Richard (age 10 born GA); Joseph (age 8 born GA); Ellen (age 5 born Florida); Rebecca (age 3 born Florida); and Cornelius (age 2 born Florida). The first Patrick child born in Florida was 1845, which supports family history that says the Patrick family followed Aaron Jernigan to Florida. The Jernigan’s arrived around 1843.

Were John & Linney Patrick “Squatters”? Aaron Jernigan, Isaac Jernigan, and Wright Patrick each filed their own application for homestead land. John Patrick did not, despite the fact he and his family were living in Orange County as early as 1845, and were still residing at the “Orlando Post Office during the 1860 census.”

  
1880 attachment to the Reid-Patrick Orlando Village land settlement

Robert R. Reid of Palatka, in 1880, recorded a series of documents in an attempt to settle long-standing land ownership disputes dating to the 1850s. One such document included the Patrick family. The drawing above was an attachment to the Reid-Patrick settlement, a sketch showing two “Patrick” parcels, (each circled in red by this author).

One of the two “Patrick” parcels is shown as adjacent to the village and north of Lots 1, 2, 3 & 4 of the 12 Lot Village of Orlando. (Orange County History Center is located today on most of the land shown to be “Patrick” land in 1880). The other Patrick parcel is shown as west of Lot 7 and is identified as the “Patrick home”. (This parcel is today the southeast corner of Orange Avenue and Central Boulevard).

The very same two “Patrick” parcels were then shown on a Plat of Orlando recorded by Robert R. Reid in 1881. The plat, as shown below, shows the original village of Orlando as shaded, and shows both Patrick parcels as well. Pointed out by red arrows (added by this author), arrow 1 points to the Patrick land north of the village – today the location of the History Center. Arrow 2 points to the “Patrick Home” at the southeast corner of Orange Avenue and Central Boulevard.


1881 Plat of Orlando by Robert R. Reid of Palatka

The Reid document confirms that a Patrick family had a “home” located adjacent to the four acres village of Orlando as of 1880, so the questions remaining are which Patrick family, and when was the Patrick “home” built? Can the square box on Reid’s 1881 plat shown marked with a red “3-?” (added by author), provide an answer to these questions?

The land marked “3-?” was sold June 12, 1867. Identified as south of the E. W. Speir (Mizell) Store (Lot 10 of the Village) and land owned by “William Whitted,” east of land owned by “W. A. Lovell,” and south and west of land owned by “Teasdale & Reid”, this one-square acre was sold by “John & Linny Patrick.” Involved as stated landowners in 1858 and again in 1867, the Patrick family of the earliest days of the Village of Orlando were obviously John & Malinda (Linney) Patrick. And it seems plausible to suggest this Patrick family lived at Orlando long before there was a place called Orlando.

Surnames Whitted, Lovell, Teasdale and Reid each had a place in the story of Orlando, but we first need to delve into the Alabama mystery man – land donor, Benjamin F. Caldwell.

Next Friday, May 3, 2019: Benjamin F. CALDWELL of Talladega, AL

“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.

Orlando Founding Families Series delves deeper into the courageous pioneers who found their way along a lonely dusty forts trail – to become the first families to settle at Orlando.


Central Florida History by Richard Lee Cronin


FOR MORE ON THE PATRICK’S

CitrusLAND: Curse of Florida’s Paradise, and

First Road to Orlando and Beyond Gatlin: A History of South Orange County

Visit my Amazon Author Page above for a complete listing of my award winning books


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