WILKS - A Short Avenue Long on History
Part Three: The MOTHER
During the summer of 1915 an estimated hundred
automobiles formed a convoy and drove “all the way from Sanford to Kissimmee.” Saturday
Evening Post advertised personal automobiles that year from as low as $795. New!
Although still very much a novelty item in 1915, Americans began altering how
they viewed their world as “Horsepower” took on an entirely new meaning. Improvements
were made too in 1915 to “Pine Castle Road,” the main drag heading south out of
Orlando. Known soon after as Dixie Highway, this road became Orange Avenue.
As the convoy traveled through Pine Castle in 1915,
James A. Wilkes had only recently sold his corner lot (pictured in this post)
at Wilks and Orange Avenue. Lula’s mother had died one month before the convoy
departed Sanford, while her daughter Lula was pregnant with her fourth child, a
daughter, born days after the convoy of a hundred horseless carriages passed
through town.
Wilks Avenue and Perkins Road are memorials today to
brothers in laws who decided to take part in developing Pine Castle in the
early 1900s. One memorial, unfortunately, is misspelled.
Lula M. Parker was teaching school when she met and
married, on October 16, 1907 at #Ocoee, James A. Wilkes. She had been living at
the time with her widowed mother, Mary (Barrows) Parker. Lula’s sister Della, already
married to Epaminondas D. M. Perkins in 1907, was living in the Ocoee –
Minorville area of West Orange County as well.
Lula was one of four siblings who came to Florida in
1893 from Knox County, Indiana with their parents. Her father, William R. Parker,
died in 1897. Prior to the Wilkes 1907 marriage, James Wilkes purchased his
first Pine Castle parcel, a small lot near Isaac Aten’s General Store. After he
and Lula married, brother in law E. D. M. Perkins also took an interest in Pine
Castle.
Wilkes and Perkins likely determined their future
alongside South Florida Railroad track would be brighter than along the Florida
Midland Railway track at Ocoee and Minorville. Both families however maintained
connections with Ocoee. Lula and her mother are even buried there.
Jerome Parker (1877-1959), a brother of Lula, married
Willie Capie Minor (1882-1960), a daughter of Minorville’s Tyrannus J. Minor
(1849-1936). Another brother, Paul Barrows Parker, went off to West Point, served
in France during the first World War, and then settled in DC.
James A. Wilkes family were settled in Pine Castle by
1909. Four children were born at Pine Castle: (1) James Parker Wilkes, born in
1909 but died at age 10; (2) Mary Cornelia (Wilkes) Hunt, born in 1912 and died
at California in 1992. (3) Wallace Harney Wilkes, born at Pine Castle in 1913
and died at Chicago in 2000, and (4) Alwena (Wilkes) Misztal, born 1915, and
died at Chicago in 1992.
Lula (Parker) Wilkes died at age 46 in 1921. She left
three little tykes, each under of the age of 10. The Wilkes kids therefore
were raised by a stepmother, whom you will meet tomorrow in Part Four of my
series: The Stepmother.
Mark your calendar too for next Saturday, November 30th,
when Pine Castle Historical Society will open its doors at 631 WILKS Avenue
(not Wilkes) - from 10 AM until 3 PM, where you can meet friends of Pine Castle
and pick up “Will Wallace Harney, Orlando’s First Renaissance Man”, a PERFECT
holiday gift for every history lover in your family. As the author, I’ll even
personalize and sign the book for you.
Watch too for my Christmas holiday series: “12 Days of
a Central Florida Christmas.” Hum this classic tune while reading each new
day’s post beginning Friday, November 29, 2019 and running thru Tuesday,
December 12th.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM CITRUSLANDFL!
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