Cowboys & Lawyers - Part 9 - Robert W. Broome

Cowboys & Lawyers: Part 9

Attorneys of 19^th Century Central Florida

A series inspired by Pine Castle Historical Society’s

Will Wallace Harney: Orlando’s First Renaissance Man

By Richard Lee Cronin

Central Florida’s 1875 Mystery Attorney:

Earnest Chapel, Fort Reid (1873)

Named for congregation member Felix W. Earnest

“One must take a buggy and follow the picturesque old Fort Mellon Road among the groves and gardens of a prior generation.” South Florida Railroad (1887)

Arriving at Lake Monroe in the summer of 1875, the Lake City Attorney bypassed the newest Orange County pier at Sanford so he could disembark a mile further east - at the original Fort Mellon pier. Five years prior to his arrival, Attorney Joseph J. Finegan (Part 5) had sold his 12,000 lakeside acres along Lake Monroe’s south shoreline to Henry S. Sanford. In 1875 however, Henry Sanford’s dream of a port city named Sanford was still very much in the early stages of development.

A Sanford Post Office had opened September 9, 1873, three (3) days before a Fort Reid Post Office opened on the 12^th of September, 1873. Two entry points therefore were competing in 1875 to become the ultimate Lake Monroe “Gateway” to Orange County.

Mellonville and Sanford would continue to compete for freight and passenger traffic for several more years, but in 1875, the reason the Lake City Attorney chose to come ashore at Mellonville was family. His two siblings, a brother and sister, were partners in a Mellonville town lot – land on the First Road to Orlando. They had purchased the site at Mellonville a year earlier, and this roadside parcel served as the family’s wilderness Oasis, a place to rest after a long river journey to Mellonville, or a place to recoup after a long horseback journey from Orange County’s remote interior seat at Orlando.

Thomas and Sarah, brother and sister of the mystery lawyer from Lake City, are now the latest tantalizing clues in solving Orlando’s 1857 obscure origin, and the city’s subsequent rescue in 1875 from near ghost town status by an out of town Attorney from Florida’s Panhandle.

First Road to Orlando (2015) by Richard Lee Cronin

Southbound from Mellonville to Orlando:

FORT REID:

After mounting up and starting south on the old Fort Mellon to Fort Gatlin Trail, aka the First Road to Orlando, the Lake City Attorney would have passed Earnest Chapel (see photo above and cover of First Road to Orlando), gifted to Trustees of the new church in 1873. A centerpiece for the village of Fort Reid, this chapel served as the main house of worship for a town that had grown around the 1840s military post of the same name.

Since 1870, Fort Reid had also been home to Alaha Chaco Hotel, or ‘Orange House’ for those not familiar with the Indian language. Considered the finest in the county, Orange House Hotel was the first-ever, free-standing hotel built south of Lake Monroe. Financing for the hotel came from Attorney William M. Randolph of New Orleans (Part 7). As the Lake City Attorney passed this way in 1875, citizens of Fort Reid were also looking forward to the completion of their first schoolhouse - Orange High School of Fort Reid.

TUSKAWILLA:

At Mile 6 of the First Road to Orlando the Lake City Attorney crossed Soldiers Creek, where for the next five or so miles the old trail crossed over a corner the 8,133 acre Mitchell Grant. Platted in 1874 by Attorney Daniel Randolph Mitchell of Georgia (Part 1), the Tuskawilla subdivision was, in 1875, the largest development project in all of Orange County. The trail exited Attorney Mitchell’s property at Ten Mile Lake, south of the homestead of Attorney George B. Hodge of Longwood.

MAITLAND:

The next several miles south of the old trail – aka First Road to Orlando, were lonely, and the Lake City Attorney likely didn’t see another living soul until reaching the thriving village of Lake Maitland. Many a lakefront homesite offered in 1875 by town founder Christopher C. Beasley had already been sold. And like that of Fort Reid, citizens of Lake Maitland were also looking forward to completion of their Maitland High School that year as well.

19th Century Maitland street scene (c 1880s) courtesy FloridaMemory

Beasley’s town of Lake Maitland had served as a respite for trail trekkers long before Beasley established his post office in January 1872. It’s possible the Lake City Attorney even stopped at Lake Maitland to visit a fellow Florida Panhandler. Attorney Bolling Baker had only recently relocated to Orange County from Tallahassee and, in 1875, was an active partner in a group trying to organize a Lake Monroe to Orlando Railroad.

Their proposed train was by no means a new idea - and would of course pass through Beasley’s village of Lake Maitland.

ORLANDO:

The Lake City Attorney arrived at Orlando (Mile 22) of the trail by June 23, 1875. It is not known for certain if he travelled further south, but he did have good reason to make such a journey. Fort Gatlin (Mile 28) was the original trails end, but the Lake city Attorney may well have travelled Beyond Gatlin! Had he followed the trail west around Lake Gatlin, passing the 160 acres owned by Attorney Will Wallace Harney (Part 8), the Lake City Attorney would have then come to 45 acres owned by his sister Sarah. She had purchased the Lake Conway land on the 14^th of January 1875, only six months before the Lake City arrived at Orlando. (Neither of the three siblings ever homesteaded land in Orange County, but their brief presence on the old forts trail – despite each being for largely forgotten by history – changed history forever!)

CALLING THE MEETING TO ORDER:

On the evening of June 23, 1875, Attorney Robert W. Broome of Lake City, Florida, having travelled to the Orange County seat on designated business, assembled area property owners for the purpose of incorporating Orange County’s 18 year old seat of government. Broome, serving as Chairman of the meeting, steered the little town of Orlando toward a corporate charter.

1875 Orlando Incorporation Meeting (partial) - R. W. Broome Chairman

So, why then did Attorney Robert W. Broome travel from Lake City to rescue Orlando?

THE WHY?

Chapter 19 of my First Road to Orlando is called ‘Broome’s in Orlando’s Closet’. Along with family information in Chapter 18, I offered my reasoning into how Orlando had been named. A mystery for the ages, Robert W. Broome’s journey to Orange County in 1875 - specifically to incorporate a village founded in 1857 - made a good argument for my case.

Now, learning of Robert’s brother Thomas and sister Sarah – they lend even more support the conclusions of First Road to Orlando.      

On Friday, March 13, 2020, in the first of two Women’s 2020 History Month blogs, you will meet Robert’s sister, Sarah of Lake Conway. Meanwhile, Cowboys & Lawyers will take a little breather:

March 13, 2020: Sarah of Lake Conway

March 27, 2020: Sarah of Fort Reid

April 3, 2020 Cowboys & Lawyers returns with Part 10

Visit CroninBooks.com

Cowboys & Lawyers - Part 8 - Will Wallace Harney

Cowboys & Lawyers: Part 8

Attorneys of 19^th Century Central Florida

A series inspired by Pine Castle Historical Society’s

Will Wallace Harney: Orlando’s First Renaissance Man

By Richard Lee Cronin

The Honorable William Wallace Harney of Lake Conway

Special Pine Castle Pioneer Days 2020 Edition

Will Wallace Harney

Saturday, February 22 & Sunday, February 23

Cypress Grove Park, 290 W. Holden, Orlando

Saturday 9 AM to 5 PM; Sunday 10 AM to 4 PM

Attorney Archer Phillips of 1869, said Will Wallace Harney, “was a graduate of law, he could put up his shingle,” meaning an ‘Attorney-at-Law’ sign, “but for some time business would seek more experienced advisers.” A member of Kentucky’s State Bar, Archer Phillips had relocated to central Florida at a time when only 1,170 residents lived in all of Orange County. How many lawyers, one might logically ask, could earn a living in a county with fewer than 1,200 potential clients?

Will Wallace Harney Novelette (Second line from bottom) 

Phillips apparently realized early on that legal professionals, in large numbers, had taken interest in Harney’s new homeland. Having left the love of his life back in the Blue Grass State, Attorney Archer Phillips had traveled to Florida alone. “It was part of his imaginative character that he selected Florida. It is the only State,” Harney wrote, “which its origin and history has the air of romance. It lies on our western Mediterranean. Stern Spanish bigots, heroic statesmen and soldiers, rough naval adventurers, cruel speculators, have alike pictured it as the El Dorado.”

Archer planned to have Judith join him in Florida later – after he had settled in and built a home for her. Perhaps, while writing about Attorney Archer, author Will Wallace Harney had wished he had done the same. A graduate of law school as well, Harney had buried the love of his life – Mary St. Mayer (Randolph) Harney – within weeks of their arrival at Orange County.

Attorneys Archer Phillips and William Wallace Harney clearly had a lot in common. In fact, the biggest difference between the two was reality. You see, Harney was a real “character”, whereas Attorney Archer Phillips was a figment of Will Harney’s imagination.

Published by Southern Bivouac Magazine in 1886, Archer Phillips, much like Will Harney, had departed Kentucky for the wilds of Florida in 1869. Was Archer only a fictitious character? “If this experiment of giving up all the advantages of education and training was a mistake, it was terrible one!” Archer Phillips questioned the wisdom of moving to Florida. Or had Will Harney himself questioned the wisdom of his move south?

Harney's Historic Pine Castle

Harney’s Lake Conway homestead was established 150 years ago this month. Arriving at Fort Reid during the last days of 1869, he then buried his true love days after the dawn of the new decade. The year 1870 was the start of a central Florida Renaissance, the year Harney settled on the banks of Lake Conway, and the year he began clearing and grubbing his homestead. Archer Phillips, wrote Harney, also began clearing his land in 1870. “All about him were the marks of his labor. He had been at it all morning and had cleared a space about the size of a family dining table.”

William Wallace Harney had practiced law at Louisville, Kentucky prior to joining his family’s newspaper business in that same city. His legal expertise - combined with editorial skills – then made it possible to both identify and write about Florida’s rampant land fraud. Harney wrote of such fraud soon after arriving in Florida. He continued to expose the “robbery and extortion practiced by Federal and carpet-bag officials upon the people of the Southern States.”

Another Attorney Will Harney wrote about was Colonel Alton, a self-described old-fashioned lawyer and politician. In February 1869, Attorney Alton, wrote Harney, met a Southern Belle in Tallahassee who needed a lawyer having political clout. Alton was happy to assist. “She is here on business. She has some claims that may require legislative action.”

City Building in the South, penned by Will Wallace Harney, introduced yet another client of Mr. Alton’s. And yes, Alton is also a fictitious character, as is the other client, Mr. Basil Rankin.

In a four-part series, Harney tells of a railroad, the Lopez Land Grant, and a voyage in search of land belonging rightfully to a ‘Southern Belle’. “The scenery on the St. Johns; the linked lakes, like a string of beads, the innumerable shades of green,” and a landing, “Melonville, or Millionville, as it was called, seemed to be the general entry point.”

Two Novelettes written by Harney speak of Attorneys busy at work developing central Florida’s vast wilderness. Novels? Perhaps to an extent, but the very last paragraph of Will Harney’s 1887 City Building in the South concludes with this statement: “So, under the veil of fiction, has been told the story of the founding of one American city and county.”

Eight installments of this series have thus far introduced a plethora of legal professionals, lawyers and judges who, in the 19^th century, had been intent on transforming a wilderness into major new settlements. This weekend, Pine Castle Pioneer Days provides a perfect setting in which we can celebrate the eventual success of those amazing legal professionals.

COME CELEBRATE AT CYPRESS GROVE PARK!

Next Friday, on the eve of Women’s History Month, you will meet an Attorney who arrived in central Florida on a specific mission. He did not come as a settler. He did homestead. His reason for coming to Orange County was to rescue its county seat. This lawyer from Lake City came to save the settlement of Orlando from extinction. That’s next Friday, and then, a week later, in a special Women’s History Month blog, you will meet his little-known sister – a long-overlooked central Florida frontierswoman I call - Sarah of Lake Conway – quite likely the most convincing key to finally solving the long-standing mystery of Orlando’s origin!

IF YOU LIKE HISTORY, YOU WILL LOVE PIONEER DAYS!

AND ADMISSION IS FREE THIS YEAR!

This year, Pine Castle Pioneer Days is celebrating the 150^th Anniversary of the arrival of Will Wallace Harney and William M. Randolph to central Florida. Cronin Books is once again having a booth – our third year. Look too for my article in the Pioneer Days Magazine, you can picka copy at the front gate – and its free also.

Will Wallace Harney: Orlando’s First Renaissance Man

By Richard Lee Cronin

Commissioned by Pine Castle Historical Society

More than a biography of one pioneer – this is a biography of Orange County

I invite you as well to stop at the Pine Castle Historical Society ‘History Tent’, where every hour on the hour, from 10 AM to 3 PM Saturday and Sunday, guest speakers will present on a variety of fascinating topics.

1 PM Saturday & Sunday

 Richard Lee Cronin

A Tribute to 150 years of Orange County Educators

Be sure to stop by my CroninBooks.com booth and say hello. I’d love to talk central Florida history with you.

Cowboys & Lawyers - Part 7 - Attorney William M. Randolph

Cowboys & Lawyers: Part 7

Attorneys of 19^th Century Central Florida

A series inspired by Pine Castle Historical Society’s

Will Wallace Harney: Orlando’s First Renaissance Man

By Richard Lee Cronin

The Honorable William Mayer Randolph of #Fort-Reid & Fort Gatlin

Far too many noteworthy pioneers were neglected by chroniclers of Central Florida’s incredible 19^th century history. One such long-overlooked Citrus-Belt founder was Attorney William Mayer Randolph. So admired by his peers was Randolph, that upon his death, the criminal and civil courts of New Orleans recessed as a memorial to their good friend and jurist. Even the Supreme Court of New Orleans shuttered its doors, and newspapers of that city set aside entire pages to report the man’s passing.

Randolph Street at Lake Conway, Harney Homestead, Pine Castle, Florida

Central Florida historians have casually mentioned his name, yet much like that of his friend and partner, Surveyor Benjamin F. Whitner II, the accomplishments of each have been overlooked, and their vital roles in the formative years of America’s Paradise seem to have been forgotten.

The Randolph family does have two Central Florida roadways named in their honor, one at each end of the historic Fort Mellon to Fort Gatlin trail. To truly do justice to both men however, the I-4 corridor of today could in fact be re-christened as the Randolph-Whitner Corridor.

Attorney William M. Randolph practiced law at New Orleans, Louisiana, and died at Vaucluse, Virginia. But at the time of his death, Randolph was planning to retire at Fort Gatlin. A son and daughter had planned to settle on nearby Lake Conway, and his wife Mary and another daughter had taken up residence at Fort Reid, as the opposite end of the trail.

Randolph Street of Fort Reid (Sanford) 

Published memorials in New Orleans papers celebrated the man’s life. The memorial told of his lifetime achievements, beginning with his birth at Virginia’s Cumberland County in 1815, to the young man’s early education and training at West Point Academy. At an early age Randolph left the military and took up law, mentoring, said the memorial, under his uncle, the honorable Judge William Randolph. He departed his birth state to open a law firm at Tallahassee, in Florida’s Panhandle. He later moved to Kentucky and eventually New Orleans.

Attorney Randolph’s biographical sketch filled an entire page, detailing his triumphs in life before telling of how he died after a long painful death at Vaucluse, Virginia. In closing, the obituary memorial added: “Far off in Florida, beneath whose stately pines he now rests, there was a daughter whose very being was enfolded in her worship of her father.”

The “stately pines” were those of the Randolph family cemetery at Fort Gatlin, five miles south of Orlando. The daughter was that of Mary St. Mayer (Randolph) Harney, the deceased wife of Attorney Will Wallace Harney, Lake Conway homesteader and founder of Pine Castle, Florida. Harney’s wife had been buried atop Gatlin Hill only days after the family’s move to Florida.

William M. Randolph is “The Lawyer” of Chapter 8

Will Wallace Harney: Orlando’s First Renaissance Man

Arriving in the final days of 1869, William Mayer Randolph partnered in building the first-ever free-standing hotel south of Lake Monroe. Orange House Hotel was the first built in a land now possession well in excess of a hundred thousand hotel rooms. Located at Fort Reid, Mile Marker 1.5 of the Fort Mellon to Fort Gatlin Road, the historic Orange County hotel, now in Seminole County, within days of opening in 1870, hosted an equally historic railroad meeting.

Called to order March 3, 1870 by Judge John W. Price of Enterprise, seventeen organizers came together with the intent to organize the Upper St. Johns, Mellonville, Tampa and South Florida Railroad. Among an impressive roster of organizers was Attorney William Mayer Randolph, Attorney Joseph J. Finegan (see Part 6), Attorney Daniel R. Mitchell (see Part 1), Judge James M. Baker, and Central Florida’s first Surveyor, Benjamin F. Whitner, to name but a few.

William M. Randolph owned land at Fort Gatlin as well. The Randolph’s accumulated in excess of 300 acres adjoining the fortress and Surveyor Whitner’s property, and other Randolph family members became Fort Gatlin landowners as well.

The extent of Attorney Randolph’s connection in the original development of a Lake Monroe to Tampa Bay corridor was cut short by an extended illness followed by his death in 1876.

I had the privilege to tour Vaucluse, the vey home where William Mayer Randolph died in 1876. Today a bed and breakfast, one upstairs bedroom is aptly named “The Randolph Bedroom”. The exterior of the restored 1785 William Strother Jones Manor House below was included as well as an Exhibit in ‘Beyond Gatlin: A History of South Orange County’, my award-winning history of the land south of Fort Gatlin, released in 2017.

The William Strother Jones Manor House

Vaucluse, Frederick County, Virginia

Beyond Gatlin: A History of South Orange County

2017 HISTORIAN AWARD

Recipient of Pine Castle Historical Society’s

Ironically, legal issues prevented Attorney Randolph and partners from building their railroad, which would in turn encourage development along the route of their proposed railroad. Others were credited with turning the dream into reality a decade later, but Will Wallace Harney, and eyewitness to the real story, proclaimed the two most important central Florida pioneers to be Randolph and Whitner.

ADMISSION TO PIONEER DAYS IS FREE THIS YEAR!

This year, Pine Castle Pioneer Days is celebrating the 150^th Anniversary of the arrival of Will Wallace Harney and William M. Randolph in central Florida. Cronin Books will once again have a booth – our third year. Look for my article in the Pioneer Days magazine explaining why this remarkable event of 150 years ago is so very important to the history of central Florida.

Will Wallace Harney: Orlando’s First Renaissance Man

By Richard Lee Cronin

Commissioned by Pine Castle Historical Society

More than a biography of one pioneer – this is a biography of Orange County

I invite you as well to stop in at the Pine Castle Historical Society ‘History Tent’, where every hour on the hour, from 10 AM to 3 PM Saturday and Sunday, guest speakers will present on a variety of fascinating topics.

1 PM: Richard Lee Cronin presents:

A Tribute to 150 years of Orange County Educators

Also, stop by my CroninBooks.com history tent and say hello. I’d love to talk central Florida history with you and perhaps even show you one of my books – or two - on the incredible story of America’s Paradise – Florida’s Citrus-Belt.

Next Friday – while I’m setting up at Pine Castle Pioneer Days, my Cowboys & Lawyers blog will set the stage with the history of Attorney William Wallace Harney.

Cowboys & Lawyers - Part 6 - Judge Robert R. Reid III

Cowboys & Lawyers: Part 6

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 Robert Raymond Reid of #Fort-Reid

President Andrew Jackson – namesake of Jacksonville, Florida, in 1832, appointed Judge Robert R. Reid III as U. S. Judge of “East Florida”. In doing so, President Jackson unwittingly charted, as well, the future of a vast but remote wilderness known today as Central Florida.

 

Honorable Robert Raymond Reid III

Florida was still a Territory of the United States at the time, and “East Florida” defined all land east of the Apalachicola River near Tallahassee. “West Florida” was the Panhandle west of the river. The new appointee, a prominent Augusta, Georgia lawyer, relocated to St. Augustine the same year, bringing with him a son, Robert R. Reid IV, and two married daughters. The judge was at the time a Widower.

Judge Robert R. Reid III, on December 2, 1839, became Florida’s 4^th Territorial Governor. The Second Seminole Indian War was in its third year when Reid became governor - a war that was not going well, and so Reid went before the State Legislature and asked lawmakers to untie the Army’s hands. Too many restrictions, argued the Governor, were preventing the military from getting the job done.

The unpopular Indian war was still underway when Governor Reid died March 10, 1841 during Tallahassee’s “yellow fever” epidemic. The Army, very appreciative of Governor Reid’s earlier efforts to assist them in the War effort, honored the governor by naming a newly built Army post in central Florida, Fort Reid.

After moving to Florida in 1832, Reid had remarried. His bride, Mary Martha Smith, as a sister of Rebecca, the soon to be wife of Jacksonville merchant and Attorney, Joseph J. Finegan (see Part 5).

One year following Governor’s Reid’s death the Indian War was declared over, Army troops began abandoning central Florida fortresses. A few Veterans however chose to stay, one being Augustus J. Vaughn, who, on the 10^th of April 1843, filed a homestead of 160 acres - land upon which stood the abandoned Fort Reid. Vaughn, for the next 51 years, preserved the memory and history of the Army fortress.

Despite being misspelled “Reed” throughout the decades, the true story of Orange County’s Fort Reid, currently a Seminole County landmark – is celebrated today because a War Veteran who served at the fortress made the structure his home after the War.

Fort Reid (Spelled Reed) at lower left on 1845 survey, 1.5 miles south of Lake Monroe

Augustus Vaughn and others attempted to establish a town named in honor of Fortress Reid. In fact, according to Historian William F. Blackman in his 1927 History of Orange County (1927), county business was being conducted at “Fort Reed” during the early 1850s. Then, village of Orlando was founded by Judge Speer (see Part 4). (Fort Reid eventually blended into with the city of Sanford.

But despite being named county seat in 1857, Orlando struggled to survive. Abandoned during the Civil War, by 1867, Judge Benjamin A. Putnam had ordered the land surrounding the county seat to be sold at auction on its own courthouse steps. And it was sold – for $900 - the successful bidder receiving 113 acres – including land on all four sides of the four-acre Orlando village.

The low bidder of Orlando was Robert R. Reid IV of Palatka – the Georgia native who had come to Florida in 1832 with his father - Florida Territorial Governor, Robert R. Reid III.

Partial plat of 1880 Orlando filed by Robert R. Reid

Shaded area center right is the 1857 Village of Orlando

After acquiring this land in 1867, Reid waited until 1880 to sub-divide  

Orlando had been founded at Mile 22 of a military trail used in the Second Seminole Indian War. 

Robert Raymond Reid IV of Palatka, in 1867, came ashore at Lake Monroe, crossed land owned by Attorney Finegan - his deceased father’s brother-in-law – and proceeded south on the trail to a village at Mile 1.5. The village and abandoned fortress – Fort Reid – had been named for his deceased father. Robert Reid IV then continued south on the trail another 20 miles to a deserted village – Orlando – where he rescued a near “Ghost Town”.

Fort Mellon to Fort Gatlin trail, a dirt road, was dubbed First Road to Orlando by this author.

Two years later, Attorney William Mayer Randolph, in 1869, came ashore at Lake Monroe in the very location where Robert Reid IV arrived in 1867 to rescue the village of Orlando. Attorney Finegan still owned nearly 12,000 acres of the southern lakeshore. Attorney Mitchell by that time owned 8,133 acres six miles south on the trail at Lake Jesup. Orlando, at Mile 22, was still a struggling county seat. Its log courthouse had been set ablaze a year prior.

As a remote as Orlando was in 1869 – the trail continued south for another five miles to Fort Gatlin, site of the acreage Attorney Randolph purchased before finding his way to this remote wilderness. Attorney Baker still owned 40 acres on Lake Gatlin, adjacent to Randolph’s newly acquired property, and bordering too land owned by Surveyor Benjamin F. Whitner.

Cowboys & Lawyers continue next Friday, with Attorney William Mayer Randolph of New Orleans.

A mile west of Fort Gatlin, Pine Castle Pioneer Days is February 22 & 23, 2020. FREE this year.

(1) is the location of 1838 Fort Gatlin; (2) is the location of Pine Castle Pioneer Days 2020, cypress Grove Park on Holden Avenue - AND ADMISSION IS FREE THIS YEAR! 

Stop by my booth - near the history tent - and say hello. You can also pick up signed copies of my books - including SEVEN HONORABLE FLORIDIANS, new this year!

Plan to attend my 1 PM Pioneer Days presentation February 22, 2020

A TRIBUTE TO 150 YEARS OF ORANGE COUNTY EDUCATORS

(Approximately 45 minutes in length at The History Tent

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