First Train to KISSIMMEE

A train arriving at KISSIMMEE CITY in March of 1882 was a more important event in the story of central Florida than the arrival 16 months earlier of the South Florida Railroad at Orlando.

George M. Barbour, author of Florida for Tourists, Invalids & Settlers (1882), wrote of his first impression of the Orange County seat of government, describing it as “as old place, typical of the South. The ‘boom’ that has enlivened every other spot in Orange County seems to have left ORLANDO comparatively untouched.” The first train’s arrival at Orlando in late 1880 was an important event indeed in the county’s history. For nearly 40 years settlers and visitors had to trek a difficult sandy path 22 miles in length to reach Orange County’s courthouse square.

Further reading: First Road to Orlando by Richard Lee Cronin

But not until the railroad arrived at Lake Tohopekaliga was it possible for all of Orange County, present day Orange, Osceola and Seminole Counties, to reach its long-sought potential. “In June 1881,” wrote Sherman Adams in his 1883 Orangeland publication, “an extension was surveyed from Orlando, to Kissimmee City; the work commenced in July, and the road opened for business in March 1882.” The earliest architects of central Florida’s railroad corridor had gathered a dozen years earlier to jump-start the building of this much-needed train.

   

The first meeting of the ‘Upper St. Johns, Mellonville and Tampa Railroad’ had been held in March 1870 at Fort Reid’s newly opened Orange House Hotel. The planner’s railroad was to depart Lake Monroe heading south to Orlando, pass beside Lake Conway on its way to Lake Tohopekaliga, and then veer west toward Tamp Bay – almost the exact path of the 1880 South Florida Railroad.

Further reading: Beyond Gatlin, A History of South Orange County

An Orlando to Kissimmee City on Lake Tohopekaliga train began operating in March of 1882, and as the Orangeland publication reported: “During the summer a charter was obtained extending the road to Tampa, the route surveyed and a force of 1,200 to 1,500 men  employed, the Plant railroad syndicate taking a three-fifths interest in the road. So great is the energy displayed that the road is expected to be open to the public early in January 1884.”

The train to Kissimmee City not only made it feasible for the railroad to continue toward Tampa Bay, it opened as well south Orange County to development. Travel inland reduced strenuous day-long land journeys to a journey of only a few hours, while riding in the comfort of Pullman passenger cars. That which is thought of today as the I-4 corridor was born with the completion in 1884 of a Lake Monroe to Tampa Bay railroad. Orangeland of 1883 said it best: “The natural and customary gateway to Orange County is the St. Johns River steamers to Sanford on Lake Monroe, 200 miles south of Jacksonville, thence by the South Florida Railroad to the various towns along its line to Kissimmee City, forty (40) miles to the south. From the several stations conveyances can be had at reasonable prices to any point in the contiguous country.”

New towns sprang up around the stations along the train’s route: Gatlin; Pine Castle; Smithville (Taft); Mackinnon and Kissimmee. As the train’s route was extended westward, Campbell City; and Davenport were established as Orange County towns; followed soon after by a host of Polk and Hillsborough County upstarts, such as Plant City and Seffner. Trains solved central Florida’s challenging transportation problem – and in so doing – Orlando benefited as well.

Philadelphia’s Hamilton Disston made all the difference of course. In exchange for him paying off the State’s past due pre-Civil War debt, the successful saw-blade manufacturer was deeded four (4) million central Florida acres. His land was widely scattered, from Tarpon Springs and large chunks of Hillsborough County, to Pine Island in Charlotte Harbor and acreage near Pine Castle. His massive landholdings south of Kissimmee however is what he is most widely known for.

Hamilton Disston’s presence certainly encouraged establishment of Kissimmee, but the original town founders had been good ole Orlando boys. William A. Patrick, James P. Hughey, Surveyor Samuel A. Robinson and younger brother Norman, all teamed up in 1881 to expand upon what Robert & Rhonda Bass had established as their boarding house during the 1870s.

“The town of Kissimmee is situated,” wrote Adams in Orangeland, “at the head of navigation of the Kissimmee and Caloosahatchee rivers, and has direct water communication through these streams and Lake Okeechobee to the Gulf of Mexico. It has also railroad transportation northward, and in a few weeks from the issuing of this pamphlet will have railroad communication with Tampa on the Gulf Coast”.

Kissimmee remained part of Orange County until Osceola County was formed May 12, 1887, at which time the town’s importance as a transportation hub and tourist destination elevated it to being named the new county’s seat of government.

“If we could get a short railroad of a hundred miles or so,” wrote Will Wallace Harney in 1877, published that year in the Cincinnati Commercial newspaper, “connecting Orange County with Tampa, it would add greatly to the advantage of both and would build up Hillsborough County.” Harney, as it turned out, knew exactly what he was talking about.

To be continued....

This blog continues next Friday as the South Florida Railroad, under Henry Plant, begins laying track in the direction of Tampa Bay, while another railroader takes advantage of his land’s close proximity to found the town of AUBURNDALE.   

CroninBooks.com

YOUR ON-LINE CENTRAL FLORIDA HISTORY STORE