Cowboys & Lawyers: Part 5 - Joseph J. Finegan

Cowboys & Lawyers: Part 5

Central Florida Attorneys of the 19^th Century

A series inspired by Pine Castle Historical Society’s book

Will Wallace Harney: Orlando’s First Renaissance Man

By Richard Lee Cronin

The Honorable Joseph J. Finegan of #Rutledge

Orange County had choice oceanfront property the day Joseph Finegan, merchant and lawyer from Jacksonville, Florida, first acquired his 20,000 remote wilderness acres alongside Lakes Monroe and Jesup. Finegan’s May 17, 1851 deed, reflecting transfer of the Moses Elias Levy Spanish Land Grant to Joseph J. Finegan, was recorded at Orange County by then Clerk of Court, and Mellonville town founder, Henry A. Crane.

Honorable Joseph J. Finegan (1814-1885)

Fewer than 600 men, women, and children lived in all of Orange County at the time of Finegan’s purchase, and the number of children far outnumbered their parents. Half of the population lived north of Finegan’s 20,000 acres, north of Lake Monroe and east of the St. Johns River. The 250 plus citizens living in that part of 1850 Orange County would become residents in 1854 of a new Volusia County.

Orange County of 1850 had only a half-dozen post offices, including Enterprise on the north shore of Lake Monroe, New Smyrna on the Atlantic coast, and a town called Volusia on the St. Johns River. These three post offices would become Volusia County post offices in 1854.

Few settlers had yet to claim government homesteads of 160 acres anywhere in Orange County. Homestead land could be had for next to nothing! But still, in the wilderness south of Lake Monroe, where fewer than 250 courageous soles lived and received mail at one of only two post offices, Mellonville or Jernigan, Attorney Joseph J. Finegan went ahead and acquired 20,000 acres for $7,250.00, translating to a tad over $0.36 per acre.

A lawyer, cotton planter, sawmill owner, and merchant, it is uncertain what Finegan had in mind for the Moses E. Levy Grant. He may have been interested in the timber, for soon after his land purchase, railroad building was added to his extensive resume. He contracted with David Yulee, son of Moses E. Levy, to build the Sea to Sea Railroad from a deep-water port at New Fernandina, southwest to Cedar Key, on the Gulf of Mexico. Completing Yulee’s railroad was to occupy Finegan throughout the 1850s.

Finegan moved from Jacksonville to New Fernandina in Nassau County to build the railroad. Construction began in 1853, with Cedar Key being reached on March 1, 1861, one month before the Confederate Army attacked Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. Volusia County had been formed in 1854 largely from north Orange County while Finegan had been at work in North Florida.

The Railroad Joseph J. Finegan built, 1860 Fernandina, Nassau County

The proposed Mellonville to Tampa Railroad of which Finegan was involved was very similar to the Sea-to-Sea Railroad completed by Finegan in 1861.

And while Attorney Finegan built the Sea-to Sea Railroad in North Florida, the wilderness of Central Florida began to show a few signs of evolving. And Finegan’s undeveloped 20,000 acres on Lakes Monroe and Jesup were at that the very epicenter of that evolution. Of particular importance was the first Orange County commercial citrus grove, farmed contiguous to Attorney Finegan’s property, as the grove was beginning to come into its own throughout the 1850s.

Attorney James G. Speer (Part 4) also arrived in 1854, and by 1857, three sparsely developed areas: Apopka; Fort Reid; and Orlando, each competed for the coveted title of Orange County’s seat of government. Orlando of course won. Then, in 1859, Attorney Finegan sold a portion of his land to Attorney Daniel R. Mitchell of Rome, Georgia (Part 1). Mitchell acquired the 8,133 acres at Lake Jesup. 

And while property owners were positioning themselves for future development, the wife of Attorney Speer (Part 4) had, by 1860, accumulated 1,700 Orange County acres, most in the vicinity of Lake Apopka, although several strategic parcels were along the First Road to Orlando as well.

One might wonder if the legal professionals of the mid-19th century knew something about Orange County’s future that others did not? WHAT did Finegan know? Or perhaps a more appropriate question would be, WHO did Finegan know?

Civil War and a protracted Reconstruction Period halted plans for central Florida. So, not until 1869 did the legal professionals have an opportunity to return to earlier plans for this region. Attorney Joseph Finegan, known in the Post-War era as General Finegan, was broke. He sold his 12,000 remaining acres to Henry F. Sanford - but Finegan did not give up on Orange County. He bought land south of Fort Reid, acreage tucked between his two original Moses Levy parcels, and went to work once again on trying to build a railroad to Tampa Bay.

Rutledge, Orange County, Florida, 2 miles south of Fort Reid

Finegan also established a town he called Rutledge. Named for his deceased son, and a ghost town today, this city, for at least for a brief time, was a stop on the Sanford and Indian River Railroad.

Finegan’s Orange Grove at Rutledge was a mile or so south of Fort Reid, a Seminole Indian fortress dating to 1841-1842, a fort that had been named for Joseph Finegan’s brother-in-law.

Mere coincidence? I think not!

Next Friday, Cowboys & Lawyers continues with the Honorable Robert Raymond Reid.

Further Reading by this author:

First Road to Orlando

CitrusLAND: Curse of Florida's Paradise

Will Wallace Harney: Orlando's First Renaissance Man

COWBOYS & LAWYERS - INSPIRED BY:

Chapter 6: Cowboys & Lawyers, Will Wallace Harney: Orlando’s First Renaissance Man, by Richard Lee Cronin, and published by Pine Castle Historical Society: “Author Cronin sets the stage for his Harney biography with little known facts about pioneer Florida, where he corrects history and then expands it 100 fold!”

And; Central Florida research of Richard Lee Cronin and his books: First Road to Orlando; Beyond Gatlin, A History of South Orange County; CitrusLAND: Curse of Florida’s Paradise; Orlando Lakes: Homesteaders & Namesakes; The Rutland Mule Matter; CitrusLAND: Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains.

VISIT CroninBooks.COM booth at Pine Castle Pioneer Days, February 22 & 23, 2019.

Books also available at Winter Garden Heritage Foundation Museum and Amazon.com