First train to LAKELAND

First train to LAKELAND

A full-page March 12, 1890 advertisement in the Florida Agriculturist newspaper reads much like a history of the victorious town in a battle between two place names. Last week’s blog told of a Lake Parker town of Acton, now little more than a ghost town. A few miles west of Acton a fellow named A. G. Munn laid out his town of LAKELAND, the winner in the battle between the two towns, and in 1890, Munn was selling the Tremont Hotel at Lakeland, said to have been built, per the full-page advertisement, “in the Fall of 1884, enlarged during the Winter of 1885-86, and thoroughly repaired and repainted in February 1890.”

Abraham Godwin Munn (1819-1909)

Abraham Godwin Munn (1819-1909), of Louisville, Kentucky, founded Lakeland on 80 acres he purchased in 1881-82. President of an Agricultural equipment manufacturing firm at Louisville, Munn originally selected DeLand as the site for his winter residence, arriving there, reported the Florida Agriculturalist, March 2, 1881. The paper wrote that Mr. Munn of Louisville “invested largely in the fine residence on the place he purchased from Dr. Lancaster.” The residence had presumably been the home of Dr. George W. Lancaster (1836-1913), an early DeLand pioneer.

Munn kept his property and interest in DeLand, for in 1889, he was listed as a partner in the St. Johns and DeLand Railway Company, a venture desiring to build a line between Lake Beresford and DeLand. Abraham Munn’s son, Morris G. Munn, established a farm in the DeLand area.

Two other railroads however became of interest to Abraham G. Munn long before he invested in the short 1889 DeLand line. These two railroads were mentioned in Munn’s 1890 Tremont Hotel advertisement. “Lakeland,” the Munn’s ad stated, “is at the Junction of the South Florida and Florida Southern Railroads, and now has 11 passenger trains daily.” Lakeland was described in Munn’s advertisement as “beautifully laid out with wide streets and is the highest point on the South Florida Railroad line, and very desirable for a winter home.” Interested parties could buy the hotel of 36 guest chambers, said to have had 4,000 guests since first opening, at “a bargain, on easy terms.” Interested parties were encouraged to contact Morris G. Munn at DeLand.

Kentucky Avenue, Lakeland, circa 1880s, Munn Public Park at right

As viewed from the railroad tracks, courtesy Floridamemory.org

Abraham Munn, son of Ira Munn (1792-1857) and Elizabeth (Godwin 1796-1878), had been a native of New Jersey who relocated at a young age to Louisville, Kentucky. On November 13, 1844 Abraham married Rebecca (Morton). Other than spending winters in Florida – either at DeLand or his Lakeland property, Abraham did not move to Florida as a full-time resident. He died at Louisville October 18, 1909.

South Florida Railroad’s extensive 1887 travelogue described central Florida’s terrain heading west from Kissimmee, explaining how the grade ascended in terraces ranging from 65 feet above sea level near Lake Tohopekaliga to 210 feet at Lakeland. “An energetic settler and English company have cut 3 ½ miles of canal,” reported the travelogue, “and are engaged in redeeming these meadows, which will be astonishingly fertile.” One supposes the brochure might have been talking about Englishman Piers Eliot Warburton and his lakeside town of Acton (Last week’s blog).

The travelogue continued in his description: “Lakeland unites to its natural advantages and present opportunities as the junction of the main line and Pemberton branch of the South Florida Railroad, the prospective hope of drawing to it the associate lines of the West Coast.” East-West South Florida Railroad and north-south Florida Southern Railroad had both set their sights on Lakeland. “The town,” the travelogue added, “is more city-like than any point north of it, and is laid off about a main plaza forming a square of ten acres, with the railway extending along one thoroughfare.”

The main plaza was that of today’s Munn Park (outlined in green below on the early plat of A. G. Munn’s Town of Lakeland. The red line indicates the path of South Florida Railroad.)

A.    G. Munn’s 1884 survey of his town of Lakeland

Of each description of Lakeland, and for most every town in this vicinity for that matter, is that “it is hard to believe the babe born the day it was incorporated is yet in long clothes; or that four years ago there were more wild cats and panthers than men and women in the city.” Abraham G. Munn acquired his land only four years before the arrival of the Lake Monroe to Tampa Bay train.

There is far more to the story of Lakeland’s founders and founding, a history requiring its very own blog series, but for now – in the interest of telling how a train to Tampa Bay influenced the development of central Florida – suffice it to say that Abraham Godwin Munn envisioned the town of Lakeland, a city he first platted in 1884.

This blog series resumes next Friday as the South Florida Railroad continues to lay down track toward the Gulf of Mexico. Next Friday we enter Hillsborough County, stopping first at Plant City.

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