Cowboys
& Lawyers: Part 9
Attorneys
of 19th 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 12th
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.
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 14th 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
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