Cowboys
& Lawyers: Part 6
Central
Florida Attorneys of the 19th 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
4th 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
10th 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
No comments:
Post a Comment