Thursday, May 23, 2019

ORLANDO Founding Families: The HARRIS Family



Orlando didn’t even have a real name. It was out in the middle of nowhere, without so much as a creek to give it a harbor.”
Orlando Sentinel, December 26, 1943


Where along this trail would YOU have built Orange County’s 1857 courthouse?

Students and scholars of Orlando history alike know of Benjamin F. Caldwell and James G. Speer, but what about Thomas H. HARRIS, Jr.? He too had ties to the founding of 1857 Orlando, and yet the important role he played has long been overlooked.

James G. Speer signed the October 5, 1857 deed gifting land from Benjamin F. Caldwell for the site of Orange County’s Courthouse. Two other signatures however also appear on the document. John R. Worthington, mentioned earlier in this series as Orlando’s first postmaster, witnessed the signature of James G. Speer. Also appearing on the deed is the signature of Thomas H. Harris, Jr., affixing his name as the “Justice of the Peace.”

Harris and Worthington therefore were both in close proximity to the newl village of Orlando on October 5, 1857. Appointed postmaster September 19, 1857, and owner of Worthington’s boarding house at Orlando, one might expect John Worthington would be available to serve as a witness, but, and it’s an important but, Worthington was not in Florida one year earlier, as Aaron Jernigan was forming Orange County’s 1856 Militia.

Thomas H. Harris, Jr. however was listed on Jernigan’s March 10, 1856 militia roster. So too was John Moffett Harris, the son of Thomas H. Harris, Jr.

Five days after Jernigan organized his militia, as we learned from research of historian and retired UCF Professor Paul W. Wehr, Benjamin F. Caldwell, on March 15, 1856, purchased 119 acres in Orange County that included the site donated in October 1857 for a courthouse. So, of four known individuals associated with the founding of Orlando: Caldwell, Speer, Worthington and Harris, only two are known to have been in 1856 Orange County – Speer and Harris!

Thomas H. Harris, Jr. appears again in an odd Orange County deed recorded November 23, 1857. In that document, “John Patrick” gave one acre to “Captain A. Jernigan, Thos. H. Harris and Henry Hodges, a committee appointed by the subscribers to a free church to be built at Orlando.” Stated as being in the Southeast Quarter of Section 26, the deed is a bit odd because, as established in earlier installments, the Patrick’s had sold this land to John R. Worthington earlier that year. Also, Benjamin F. Caldwell thought he owned the very same parcel. (Multiple owners of the exact same land - the main ingredient in the intriguing story of Orlando’s mysterious founding!)



Thomas H. Harris, Jr. and John Moffett Harris are relevant to the founding of Orlando for a variety of reasons, but especially so because of their pre-Civil War ties to Cobb County, Georgia, and their post-Civil War ties to Isaphoenia C. Speer on Florida’s Gulf Coast. Born at South Carolina, Thomas Harris died January 7, 1884 at Pinellas County, Florida. His gravesite can be viewed in the ‘Anona Pioneer Section’ of Serenity Gardens Memorial Park at Largo, Florida.

A settlement of Anona appeared on an 1888 Hillsborough County map. The county of Pinellas was not formed until 1911, and prior to that year Largo and Dunedin were in Hillsborough. John M. Harris homesteaded on Clearwater Harbor, in the vicinity of the Anona Ghost Town, north of where his father was buried in 1884. A little further north on Clearwater Harbor was homesteader Josiah R. Wise, the very Wise man who witnessed James G. Speer’s signature, at Hillsborough County, on an 1868 deed recorded at Orange County. The deed was voided in 1869, but it serves to place our James G. Speer in the vicinity of Thomas H. Harris, Jr soon after the War.

Josiah R. Wise married Catherine Speer, daughter of James G. Speer, and relocated soon after to central Florida with his wife and father in law. Josiah R. & Catherine Wise became post-Civil War residents of Oakland of West Orange County.

As Civil War broke out in the South, the families of Harris and Speer departed Orange County. Both settled as neighbors on Clearwater Harbor. But who followed who?

Isaphoenia C. Speer died at Hillsborough County in 1867, we know this from the Probate Court. Widower James G. Speer returned to Orange County, but Thomas H. Harris, Jr., after arriving in central Florida circa 1855 from Georgia, remained on the Gulf Coast. One might think, therefore, that the Speer’s had followed Harris to Hillsborough County during the War.

Although Thomas Harris, Jr. came to Florida from Georgia, he had been born at Abbeville, South Carolina in 1811. His father died at Abbeville in 1826, and one of two administrators of the man’s estate happened to be William Harris Caldwell, father of “Benjamin F. Caldwell of Talladega,” and the stepfather of Isaphoenia C. (Ellington) Speer.


Above: 1826 Will of Thomas H. Harris, Sr. naming William H. Caldwell Administrator

Again, the plot, as they say, thickens! Before Orange County’s population topped 1,200 persons, three natives of Abbeville, South Carolina became involved in creating a county seat of Orlando. Thomas Harris, Jr., Benjamin F. Caldwell, and Isaphoenia C. (Ellington) Speer were also related.

Coming from Cobb County, north of Atlanta, GA,” we learn from a biography of an early Orange County pioneer published in 1915 describing his arrival on: “a glorious Christmas Day 1855, they first located at Ft. Reid and a year later moved to the neighborhood of Orlando.” One might at first think the pioneer was Thomas H. Harris, Jr., but the biography was in fact telling of the arrival of William Benjamin Hull. And this will be a great place to pick back up next Friday.

Next Friday, May 31, 2019: William Benjamin Hull

“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.
My Orlando Founding Families Series delves deeper into the courageous people who found their way down a lonely dusty forts trail – and became the first families to settle Orlando.

Central Florida History by Richard Lee Cronin


FOR MORE ON CENTRAL FLORIDA HISTORY

First Road to Orlando: The Fort Mellon to Fort Gatlin Road
And beyond TRAIL’S END; 
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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