Sunday, June 21, 2020

Cowboys & Lawyers Part 11 - Summer 2020 Edition


Cowboys & Lawyers
The Summer Edition

A CitrusLAND Blog Series by Richard Lee Cronin

Old McDonald had a farm, and he had a 19th century law practice too!

A central Florida newspaper correspondent of long, long ago, inspired a prosperous Kentucky publisher to look into Florida’s up and coming Citrus Belt. The Louisville schoolbook publisher did just that, and he then began buying up land – lots and lots of land.

During the 1880s the Louisvillian publisher acquired: 21 acres on Lake Virginia alongside Rollins College; a city lot at Clement R. Tiner’s 1884 town of Pine Castle; another town lot a mile north of Pine Castle at Stanley J. Morrow’s 1885 town of Troy; and then partnered with a fellow Kentuckian in the founding of the entire city of Lakeland. Interested in more than land, he also became a partner in a consortium of Attorneys that were preparing to construct the Tavares, Orlando & Atlantic Railroad.

It was a time in central Florida’s history when everyone seemed to be into building railroads. The personal automobile invention was still decades distant. Most of those who lived in the area at that time journeyed either via horseback or horse drawn carriage, a tedious undertaking on the sand rutted trails of 19th century central Florida. 

So, in 1880, when two trains finally began operating in Orange County, it was clearly a time to rejoice. In no time at all plans emerged for a dozen additional railroads, but the TO&A was thought of by many as unique. The TO&A, you see, was planned as one spoke in a transportation wheel-like hub that promised to improve life - and fortunes - for every resident and land speculator in central Florida.

As for the Louisville publisher first mentioned above, he brought real railroad experience – for he had been one of the original founders of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad and the Texas Pacific Railroad, high-profile railroads up north. This fellow from Louisville added prestige as well as cash for the new railroad - a train having plans to serve the darling of all Orange County towns:

TAVARES

Arriving

September, 2020


The Louisville book publisher also influenced others to find their way to Florida’s Citrus Belt, among whom was Andrew McDonald, a retired Louisville Attorney.

McDonald Depot, 18 miles northwest of Orlando, was established by Lawyer Andrew McDonald, wife Jane (Gay) McDonald, and neighbors John & Mary (Sessions) Wilkins. McDonald Depot on the Tavares, Orlando & Atlantic Railroad line was “200 yards from the community of Grasmere”, as the Orange County Gazetteer reported in 1887, midway between towns Plymouth and Zellwood. 


McDonald Depot is at the center of this 1890 map above

Today, Orlando-Apopka Airport on Highway 441 sits across from Wilkins Street, site of the 1880s McDonald Depot.  

Andrew & Jane McDonald arrived in Florida in the early 1880s. Sons Dr. M Gay McDonald and younger brother George N. McDonald, a real estate agent, settled at the Grasmere community as well. A Grasmere Post Office opened January 20, 1885, soon after surveyors had selected right-of-way land in that section for the laying down of track for Tavares, Orlando, and Atlantic Railway.  


1885 Plat of McDonald & Wilkins Subdivision showing "Depot" 


The family relocated from Louisville, Kentucky – home as well to John P. Morton, the prominent book publisher who assisted in founding two of our Nation’s most well-known railroads – and who, in 1885, became a stockholder as well in the Tavares, Orlando & Atlantic Railroad Company.

Lawyers and legal professionals were by no means the only central Florida homesteaders, but these professionals did seem to have a fascination with America’s 19th century Paradise. This Summer Edition of my 2020 Blog series will introduce many more fascinating pioneers - lawyers, judges, and legal professionals - and their remarkable plans for West Orange County - a land YOU know today as Lake County. 

My next episode of Cowboys & Attorneys will introduce a York, Maine Attorney and his connection with the Orlando Depot of the Tavares, Orlando & Atlantic Railroad.


This September: The extraordinary story of 

TAVARES

Darling of Orange County

Birthplace of Lake County

By Richard Lee Cronin


P. S. The road in front of John P. Morton's 21 acres at Winter Park is presently known as Holt Avenue, but this road was first known as Kentucky Avenue, as in Louisville, Kentucky.


J. P. Morton parcel on Lake Virginia at Rollins College, Kentucky Avenue is now Holt Avenue

Visit my website at CroninBooks.com