Central Florida History Challenge - Part 6

LADY LAKE Railway Depot, built circa 1883-84, was named for the city it served, a town named for a nearby body of water known in the 1880s as Lady Lake. But 'Lady' was not the lake’s original name. History lost track of the lake’s first name! Named in the 1840s for a specific woman, as years passed, her identity became blurred, and so the lake took on instead an unnamed “Lady”. 

Historic marker at Lady Lake Depot

A legend soon followed, a story suggesting the lake had been named for a woman “who drowned in the lake”. One 1850s map however suggests a different story, and serves as one piece in a compelling story supported by facts - a story about an amazing 19^th century lady – perhaps even two!

Long believed to be a town founded in August 1884 when the first train from Ocala arrived, a depot was in fact established at LADY LAKE because a popular lakeside resort was already existing there.

Enchanting LADY LAKE is also linked historically to TWO of the six central Florida bodies of water listed below. These ‘other’ two lakes help tell the story of that forgotten ‘Lady’. It would not be correct to say Lady Lake’s original namesake makes the lake a “sister lake”, but the amazing female namesake had in fact a close family bond with the two Orange County lakes.

Here then is our central Florida history challenge #6: What TWO lakes below are linked to the mysterious female namesake of the original LADY Lake?

Lake LILY of Maitland

Lake CONWAY of Pine Castle

Lake EOLA of Orlando

Lake BUTLER of Windemere

Lake JOANNA of Mount Dora

Lake MINNEOLA of Clermont    

Select two lakes you think have a historical family link to LADY LAKE, then click the link to my FREE Blog Page. There you will find the answer, as well as a brief of history of all six central Florida lakes listed above.

Now, our History Challenge #6 Answer 

Lakes CONWAY and BUTLER are the correct lakes, but before I explain why, allow me to say a word or two about the origins of the other four lakes:

Once known as John’s Hole according to central Florida pioneer Will Wallace Harney, for an 1870s pioneer who lost his Oxen, Chickens, and Wagon when his rig slid down the steep slope into the lake, John’s Hole is today Lake LILY, keeper of Maitland’s iconic fountain. Along the west side of Lake Lily one can walk a stretch of the historic 19^th century brick road that once guided early settlers south to Winter Park, Orlando and beyond. Named for Fort Maitland from the Seminole Indian War, the town of Maitland was settled in 1870. A Post Office opened here January 2, 1871. Maitland became one of the earliest snowbird colonies in central Florida, and if you’d like to know more about the first days of Maitland, check out my books, First Road to Orlando (2015), and Orlando Lakes: Homesteaders & Namesakes (2019), both available at Amazon.

Iconic Lake Eola, Orlando, Florida

Lake Eola is of course Orlando’s iconic lake, and it too dates to the 1870s and the arrival of cattleman Jake Summerlin. He acquired 225 acres surrounding the lake. Meant to be Eula, short for Eulalie, Surveyor James J. Davis mistakenly spelled it as Eola on the plat and the name stuck. Why Summerlin chose Eula aka Eola is covered in my Orlando Lakes: Homesteaders & Namesakes (2019).

Lake Joanna of Mount Dora, Eustis based on today’s city limits, is yet another body of water chock full of history. The largest of three lakes on the 1870s homestead of Alexander St. Clair-Abrams, this lake he named for his wife Joanna. Two smaller lakes west of Lake Joanna were named Irma and Alfred for his children. (Neither Irma nor Alfred are named on maps today, but you can reach Lake Joanna via Abrams Road to Irma Road as it circles around an unnamed lake). One of two founders of the 1882 town of Tavares, Alexander St. Clair-Abrams also named three Tavares streets Joanna, Irma, and Alfred. Irma Street was later changed to Main Street. This and much more is covered in greater detail in my latest book, Tavares, Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County (2020).

Lake Minneola of Clermont is shown named as such on the 1884 map of Clermont (page 278 of my Tavares book mentioned above). A Minneola post office was established on the lake in 1883, where a lakeside town of Minneola existed north of Clermont.

 

Now then, about Lakes Butler, Conway, and Lady Lake:

Surveyors began mapping the wilderness of central Florida at the end of the Seminole Indian War in 1842. Among the earliest to arrive in then Mosquito County were two different groups of surveyors, one consisting of a half dozen or so ‘traveling surveyors’, those who traveled together surveying one state after another as our nation expanded, and a second smaller band of Florida boys who worked exclusively inside their home state.

Each hired surveyor was assigned one township at a time, six miles by six miles, 36 square miles per township. Each sketched their work on paper, signed and dated it, and passed it along to a Florida Surveyor General, who also signed the survey after approving the work. The documents are today excellent sources for historians to determine the evolution of Florida settlements. A few surveyed lakes were named on those early surveys, but most were shown as an unnamed “Pond”.

Florida resident Benjamin F. Whitner, Jr. completed THE first Mosquito County survey in 1843. He signed off on his mapping of 36 squares miles, land that included Lake Conway, and then his boss, then Florida Surveyor General Valentine Y. Conway, also signed the survey. Lake Conway was named on that 1843 approved sketch.

Whitner stayed in the area, surveying 540 square miles of present day South Orange County and North Osceola County. In 1846, Whitner reached the area where Lake Butler is today, and signed off on his survey that was then approved by his new boss, Robert A. Butler. Lake Butler was also named on Whitner’s 1846 sketch of that township. 

Present-day Lady Lake, 1848 survey by Benjamin F. Whitner, Jr.

Surveyor Whitner then completed a survey in November of 1848 well outside of the area he had been previously working. Earlier surveyors had performed part of the mapping of Township 18S; 23E, but on November 13, 1848, Benjamin F. Whitner signed off on a survey of six one-square mile sections – that area shown above - land surrounding present day Lady Lake.

Palatka Daily News of July 24, 1884, only one year after the railroad entered then Sumter County, reported: “Lady Lake has long been famous with the old residents of Sumter County as a health resort; since the railroad came it has more than sustained its past record.” Lady Lake had long-been a health resort prior to the railroad". A Sumter County map of 1850 identified the very same body of water, as you can see below, as “Lake Sarah Jane”.

Lake Sarah Jane as shown on an 1850s Sumter County map

After the Civil War, Benjamin F. Whitner, by then a retired surveyor, relocated his family from Florida’s Panhandle to Orange County, where he and his wife became key players in the early development of present day Seminole and Orange County. In 1869, Sarah Jane (Church) Whitner, wife of Surveyor Benjamin F. Whitner, partnered with Mary (Pitts) Randolph to manage the first-ever free-standing Orange County hotel. Their Orange House Hotel was located at Fort Reid. 

Benjamin F. Whitner died near Sanford in 1881, two years before the first train ever arrived at faraway Lady Lake in Sumter County. As they laid Surveyor Whitner to rest at Sanford, two Orlando lawyers were at that time in the early stages of establishing Tavares, their Darling of Orange County, a lakeside community destined to become - the birthplace of Lake County.

Webb’s Historical of 1885 described Lady Lake as a town on “Florida Southern Railway, one mile from a lake of the same name. A stage-line runs from Brooksville and Tampa. November 1, 1883 - no population, December 1, 1883 – 1 store and 8 people. J. T. Biles, Postmaster.” According to Webb's, the town had been founded in December of 1883 upon the arrival of "8 people". But we know now that long before those eight folks arrived, the lake had been a popular health resort.

A story of triumph over tragedy; of homesteaders becoming town builders; of steamboats and railroads forging a new homeland; and of remarkable men and women (such as Sarah Jane [Church] Whitner), who made it all happen. And about that "other woman" first mentioned above. One of two daughters living with Surveyor General Robert A. Butler in 1850 was Sarah Jane Patton - but that story, and the real story behind Dora Ann Drawdy and the naming of Lake Dora, are best left for the readers of my new book: Tavares: Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County.

Click on Book cover to buy it at Amazon

And be sure to visit my website CroninBooks.com

Central Florida History Challenge - Part 5

 Central Florida History Challenge #5

Three notable central Florida investors were among an assemblage of dignitaries at William Cramp & Son’s Shipyard on Thursday, October 22, 1885. Arriving in Georgia from New York, a party of 25 had traveled to Savannah aboard a special Henry B. Plant train, transported there to witness the launching of a steamship that was soon to influence as well the naming of a present-day Lake County town.

Henry B. Plant

Among the group was Henry B. PLANT himself (above photo); Henry S. SANFORD; and Philadelphian Hamilton DISSTON. Each an important player in the formation of Florida’s 19^th century Citrus Belt, they all three joined a chorus of cheers at noon in Savannah as Mrs. Margaret (Loughman) Plant smashed a bottle of wine on the bow of the new 200 foot vessel, sending the boat, “gracefully into the water.”.

Built as a fast mail and passenger vessel to run between Tampa and Havana, what was the name of that 1885 Plant steamboat that influenced the naming of a Lake County town?

S. S. AMBASSADRESS

S. S. ASTATULA

S. S. ROXIE

S. S. MASCOTTE

The ANSWER to our History Challenge #5:

NOT “S. S. Ambassadress”! As explained in Chapter 25: Northern Gateway – Eustis (Tavares: Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County), the ‘Ambassadress’ belonged to William B. Astor, Jr.. Built in 1877, it was at that time considered to be the largest yacht in the world. Just prior to buying this yacht, Astor, Jr. had sailed the St. Johns River in his slightly smaller yacht, and upon reaching the southern shore of Lake George, invested in 80,000 acres of wilderness land he and fellow investors called ‘Manhattan’. Here they established a river port town of Astor – and built two hotels at the gateway to Orange County’s ‘Great Lake Region’. 

This is how history had recorded the William B. Astor, Jr. central Florida investment, although missing has been another key player, Samuel Benlisa of New York. Benlisa and the towns along the route of the St. Johns & Lake Eustis Railway are each featured in Chapter 25.

 

NOT “S. S. Astatula”! Truly an important name in the story of a developing Great Lake Region of Orange and Sumter County of the 1870s, a land known today as Lake County, Astatula pre-dates the central Florida arrival of Henry Plant, Henry Sanford, and Hamilton Disston. 

Chapter 27: A River Gateway – Ocklawaha, reveals how a river Captain opened up the Ocklawaha River in the 1860s to bring the first steamboat into Lake Griffin prior to the first train ever reaching this region. Astatula was one of a fleet of ships operated by Hubbard Hart, and for a brief time was the name of one of the region’s “Great Lakes”. Today, Astatula of Lake County is what remains of a much larger 1880s lakeside metropolis on Lake Harris.

 

The Roxie and Okahumkee Riverboats on the St. Johns River

NOT “S. S. ROXIE”! An 1884 ‘Great Lake’ Riverboat,, the Roxie was spotted at Lane Park on Lake Harris by a traveler aboard the St. Johns & Lake Eustis Railroad in 1884. The vessel, shown above thanks to the Florida Memory project, is not the answer however we are looking for.

The Roxie had begun cruising the waters of the Great Lake Region prior to the October 1885 launching of Plant’s vessel at Savannah. “Here we are at the Park (Lane Park); the train stops on one side of the depot, and on the opposite side the Roxie lightly floats on the water of Lake Harris.” Quoted from page 201, Tavares: Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County.

 

“THE MASCOTTE LAUNCHED” headlined an October 25, 1885 issue of Savannah Morning News, an article which told too of a special train from New York that had delivered Henry Plant and two dozen distinguished guests to witness the launching of his newest iron steamship, the S. S. Mascotte, at “200 feet long, 30 feet breadth of beam, and 21 feet depth at hold”.

Gathered at Cramp & Son’s Savannah Shipyard for the special occasion were Henry Plant, Henry Sanford, and Hamilton Disston, three individuals who contributed much to developing central Florida’s 19^th century Citrus Belt. Memorials to the three today include Plant City and Winter Garden’s Plant Street; a town of Sanford; a ghost town of Diston on the one-time Orange Belt Railway line, and multiple Disston Avenues - such as those at Tarpon Springs, Clermont, Minneola, and Tavares.

An excerpt from Tavares Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County, Chapter 29: Gulf Coast Gateway – Clermont: “Three months after the launch of Plant’s new steamship, the Palatka Daily News of January 27, 1886 published yet another article about Mascotte, only this particular story referenced an application for a Sumter County post office of Mascotte.” Opened 30 March 1886, fourteen months later, on May 27, 1887, the post office was changed to Mascotte of Lake County.

A Town of Mascotte website says "J. W. Payne of Baltimore settled here around 1885, and that he named the town after a ship.” And now, you know the rest of the story!

A story of triumph over tragedy, of homesteaders becoming town builders, of steamboats and railroads forging a new homeland, and of remarkable men and women who made it happen, Tavares: Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County, even has a touch of mystery and intrigue. The lady of Lady Lake, it turns out, had a name. And so too did the mystery ladies of Mount Dora.

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Central Florida History Challenge - Part 4

 What was Central Florida’s “BIG Secret” of 1887-88?

James F. Hobart, a correspondent for Palatka Daily News, while traveling from Eustis south to Tavares aboard the afternoon St. Johns & Lake Eustis train of June 22, 1887, described having to present a “stificate” to the conductor after departing the Mount Homer depot. Only then said Hobart, could he enter the “magical city he had read so much about”. We will assume “stificate” was the Great Lake Region jargon for a “certificate”.

The ‘Big Secret’ was certainly not limited to Tavares or the northwest corner of Orange County. Pine Castle, 5 miles south of Orlando, where the first President of Tavares, Orlando & Atlantic Railroad first homesteaded, offered little about the passing of his father-in-law, Charles G. Nute.

The silence was indeed deafening throughout Florida’s Citrus Belt – leaving folks to assume the worst when, at 27 years old, the founder of Ellsworth Junction died in December of 1887.

So, what was Central Florida’s “BIG Secret”? What did the locals prefer not to discuss – despite the fact much of the world already knew? 

THE ANSWER:

More than two hundred Florida Citrus Belt towns were founded during the early 1880s, many being place-names locals recognize today, but cannot precisely pinpoint on any map.

Palm Springs, Crown Point, Ellsworth Junction, MacKinnon, and Paolo were but a few of the up and coming central Florida 1880s towns that suddenly vanished prior to the dawn of the 20^th century. A Great Freeze during the winter of 1894-95 had been the second coffin spike for many of these present day ghost towns, but that freeze had followed on the heels of an earlier, far more serious human tragedy. The freeze killed the citrus, but the yellow fever epidemic of 1887-88 threatened to kill Florida’s visitors and homesteaders.

Orange Belt Railway, orange highlight above, crossed Florida Midland Railway, yellow highlight above, in the town of Palm Springs, formerly Hoosier Springs, (purple square), and Altamont (no E), right of purple square. [Exhibit 12 of CitrusLAND: Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains]. Today this is the intersection of SR 434 and Markham Woods road.

Central Florida had been marketed as free of the fever, malaria, and other such diseases talked of existing in Florida’s swamplands. Land agents had used such enticing marketing terms as Eden, America’s Paradise, the Gardens of the Hesperides, to attract northerners – to convince them to escape the bitter cold and settle instead in a land of health, wealth, and happiness.

Homesteaders and speculators cordoned off a piece of their land in the early 1880s to cash in on an expected onslaught of newcomers - northerners desiring to own a piece of Paradise.

More than dozen railroads began crisscrossing central Florida almost overnight, and all along the newly laid track towns sprang up. A Cleveland Department Store owner founded Forest City on the Orange Belt Railway line (Citrusland: Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains), naming his new Florida city after his hometown’s nickname. An English family set aside a square mile for a town in South Orange County, naming their metropolis on the South Florida Railroad in honor of the family patriarch, Sir William MacKinnon, a shipping titan and British Baronet (Beyond Gatlin: A History of South Orange County).

Sir William MacKinnon (Exhibit 43 of Beyond Gatlin: A History of South Orange County)  

And two Orlando Attorneys partnered in founding Tavares, with plans for establishing it as a South Florida railroad hub. (Tavares: Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County).

Plat of 1882 Tavares recorded at Orlando, Orange County in 1886

A sand-rutted wilderness January 1, 1880, by that year’s end two railroads were operating in Orange County – two railroads that finally made it possible to move about the vast land known today as central Florida. Within only a few years the two railroads became a dozen – and by 1887, six railroads were running 20 trains daily into and out of downtown Tavares. America’s Paradise was flourishing!

Then came a Yellow Fever epidemic. National newspapers in the north began running stories of yellow fever in the Florida Keys, Tampa, and Jacksonville. And as Tampa trains passed through Orange County on their way to Jacksonville, potential land buyers in the north chose not to travel to the land of wealth, health, and sunshine.

As trains from the north stopped bringing snowbirds, town lots went unsold. Railroad revenues faltered, and soon thereafter railroads themselves began to fail.     

Not until 1929 did a letter surface explaining that Charles Goodspeed Nute, father-in-law of Attorney William R. Anno, first President of Tavares, Orlando & Atlantic Railroad, “died at Orlando on May 25, 1886 of Yellow Fever”.

Newspaper correspondent James F. Hobart of the Palatka Daily News was permitted to enter the city of Tavares on June 22, 1887 only after showing his Palatka Health Department “certificate” to the railroad conductor. Four days earlier, at Runnymede, near Kissimmee, Helen (Heig) Warner sat down to write a letter to her mother back home in England. She started her June 18, 1887 letter by writing: “There is a scare of yellow fever just now, we are in quarantine.”      

Later that year, in December, the 27 year-old founder of Ellsworth died. A railroad town five miles south of Tavares, “Junction” had only recently been added after a second railroad laid track into the city. The young town founder died of undisclosed causes, although the reason would not have mattered – not during panic-stricken central Florida of 1887.

Central Florida dreams began to crumble, and citizens likely wondered what could possibly be worse. But as for Tavares, the answer was a devastating fire – in less than four months.

19^th century Central Floridians were amazing people. And they now live again, as do the remarkable times during which much of central Florida was founded, on the pages of books by Richard Lee Cronin.

More than a story about the origins of Tavares, this latest central Florida book tells the transformation from a popular 'Great Lake Region' to Lake County, Florida of may, 1887. Click on my book cover to read the book's critique or to buy it at Amazon.

Tavares

Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County

Click on book cover above to visit Amazon page  

Or visit my CroninBooks.com website for details on each of my central Florida books

Central Florida History Challenge - Part 3

Citrusland’s Central Florida History Challenge #3:

The Challenge:

You are no doubt aware of Hamilton Disston of Philadelphia receiving 4 million Florida acres in exchange for $1 million in cash, funds which then made it possible for the State to pay in full its pre-Civil War debt obligations. The first cash installment was made by Disston on 13 September 1881, and at the same time a Darling of a new settlement - Tavares – was in the design process for a spit of wilderness land separating two large lakes in West Orange County.

Hamilton Disston (1844-1896)

The Tavares original design had one lakeside “Boulevard”, 14 east-west “Streets” and 12 north-south “Avenues”. Of these roadways, the easternmost north-south artery, on the “Township” line, was named Disston Avenue. The roadway still exists today, and is still called Disston Avenue.

Our history challenge #3 is a True or False? “Disston Avenue of Tavares also encroached on a portion of those 4 million acres that were acquired by Hamilton Disston?”

Visit my FREE blog page to find out if your answer is correct by clicking this link:

 

 Answer:

CitrusLAND’s Central Florida History Challenge #3 was borrowed from Chapter 3 of my latest book, Tavares: Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County, now available at Amazon.

The correct answer? TRUE! The 4 million acres acquired by Hamilton Disston starting in 1881 are generally thought of as land in the vicinity of Kissimmee. His property however included land as well along the Gulf Coast - at Tarpon Springs, Tampa, and Charlotte Harbor – as well as some acreage north of Kissimmee, such as four (4) small parcels on each corner of Lake Eustis.

One of the four Hamilton Disston Lake Eustis parcels was a 56 acre site identified by the letter E on the below exhibit, borrowed from page 45 of my new book (The bold black line below and to the left of the E section aligns with Disston Avenue of Tavares).

Each lettered section above is detailed in Chapter 3 of the book.

The Hamilton Disston land deal was reason enough for the founders of Tavares to name a road for the man. The town’s concept was to create a South Florida railroad hub, a plan made possible because Governor Bloxham (Chapter 4: Bloxham Avenue) had made a cash deal with Disston that allowed Florida to begin building railroads. Tavares could not be a railroad hub unless and until Florida’s debt was resolved. But, having a piece of the Disston property adjoining the Town of Tavares – well, that was merely icing on the cake for the town founders.

Hamilton Disston decided to sell all four of the small Lake Eustis parcels, part of the fascinating story of Florida’s “Great Lake Region’ that I will reserve for Chapter 3 readers of Tavares, Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County.

 

CLICK ON BOOK COVER TO SEE BOOK DETAILS

40 plus want-to-be Orange & Sumter County settlements of May 26, 1887

40 plus want-to-be Lake County communities as of May 27, 1887

362 pages including detailed Index and Bibliography

THE STORY OF HOW LAKE COUNTY CAME TO BE

Visit my CroninBooks.com website to view each of my Central Florida history books.

Central Florida History Challenge - Part Two

Question #2:

It is common knowledge that Royal M. PULSIFER, Publisher in 1880 of the Boston Herald, provided the cash necessary to construct South Florida Railroad from Sanford into downtown Orlando. Pulsifer also invested in central Florida real estate after his train began operating, buying property at three newly established Orange County towns. What was the FIRST town where Royal M. Pulsifer bought land?

WINTER PARK

KISSIMMEE

TAVARES

ORLANDO

MAITLAND

  

Royal Macintosh Pulsifer purchased land at three of the five towns listed in our central Florida history quiz. The first, I suspect, will surprised you, for it was NOT located anywhere near the railroad line his newspaper had financed in 1880. Best known to central Florida history fans as owner of lakefront property on Lake Osceola, this Winter Park parcel was NOT Pulsifer’s first Orange County land acquisition.

Royal M. Pulsifer (1843-1888)

As far as Maitland and Orlando, there is no record Royal M. Pulsifer ever owned land at either place, but the Bostonian did purchase one entire city block at Kissimmee on May 3, 1884. This investment property, his third central Florida land purchase, was acquired from South Florida Railroad in the name of “R. M. Pulsifer Company of Boston, Massachusetts”. His second land purchase was in Winter Park.

Fact is, eight months prior to Royal M. Pulsifer buying his Winter Park parcel from Chapman & Chase on October 21, 1882, the Boston Herald Publisher acquired, on February 18, 1882, a total of six city lots at a new Orange County startup town called Tavares. These town lots fronted on Pulsifer Avenue, across the street from a proposed ‘River Park”.

Portion of 1882 Tavares Plat from Tavares: Darling of Orange County,

Birthplace of Lake County. Pulsifer Avenue is second from right above.

Town lots owned by R. M. Pulsifer are indicated by the star.

Royal M. Pulsifer had been among the first individuals to purchase lots at the new West Orange County 19^th century town of Tavares. And perhaps coincidental, three months after the Boston Herald partner invested at Tavares, the Weekly Floridian newspaper of Tallahassee, on May 16, 1882, published a “Prospectus” for a newly created Tavares Herald, in which it was stated the first edition of the newspaper would be printed May 18, 1882.

The Tavares Herald start up followed by only a few months the purchase of land by the Boston Herald Publisher! But Pulsifer was not named the Publisher of the new Florida paper.

Today, portions of Pulsifer Avenue still exist, although River Park is a distant memory. Both the avenue and park however remain as intriguing hints into the origins of one extra-special place dubbed by this author as, “Tavares: Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County.”

Both the Publisher and Editor of the Boston Herald, Royal M. Pulsifer and Edwin B. Haskell, made a huge impact on the development of central Florida as it is known today. The railroad these two individuals financed in 1880, after decades of planning by others, finally fortified a central corridor concept that remains a ‘Main Street’ of present day Orange County. Amtrak, Sunrail, and even Interstate 4, follow closely the path first known as Fort Mellon to Fort Gatlin Road, a sand rutted dirt military trail of the 1840s. This very same worn military path then became the First Road to Orlando in the 1850s.

Three short months after Royal M. Pulsifer bought at Tavares, a visiting newspaper reporter, in town for the “Grand Celebration” of the Dora Canal completion, commented: “Tavares seems actually to have sprung full-grown from the womb of the wilderness”. The town’s early success sprang from its unique concept, an idea which caught the eye of many an influential Orange County resident – and even a few highly influential New Englanders.

The “full-grown” city, a creation of two Attorneys from Orlando, without doubt benefited from its brief association with a Massachusetts newspaperman - and railroad financier – Royal M. Pulsifer. His association with Tavares however can only be described in terms of months. He bought town lots at Tavares within months of the town’s founding, and within months of the first publication of the Tavares Herald. And Pulsifer’s October 19, 1888 tragic death followed the declaration of Tavares as the official Lake County seat by a few months as well.

Formed from portions of Orange and Sumter counties May 27, 1887, the citizens of a new Lake County were assigned the task of selecting a location for their county seat. Four visits to the polls were required before a victory could be declared, but that bittersweet victory was then followed by a courtroom battle – a process that all together lasted 440 days – and finally ended in a victory for Tavares by a decision handed down on August 10, 1888.

Although visual proof of his contribution to the formation of Tavares is today merely a street name, Royal M. Pulsifer, in that respect is not alone. Not at all! Avenues Disston, Ingraham, Bloxham, New Hampshire, Rockingham, Texas, Sinclair, and St. Clair-Abrams - among others - each have a fascinating story longing to be told – histories that are now finally told.

Buy it today at Amazon by clicking on book cover  

TAVARES: Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County, tells of how Florida’s “Great Lake Region” transitioned from a remote 19^th century wilderness into a vibrant Citrus Belt region. Amazing pioneers dared to dream big – dared to imagine creating such places as Leesburg, Lady Lake, Mount Dora, Montverde, Eldorado, Eustis, Umatilla, Astor, Clermont, Yalaha, Bloomfield and Tavares - to name but a few of 40 plus want-to-be communities.

A story of triumph over tragedy; of homesteaders daring to become town builders; of steamboats and railroads forging a new homeland, and of the remarkable men and women who made it happen, Tavares: Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County, even has a bit of mystery and intrigue. After all, the lady of Lady Lake had a name, and so too did the mysteries women of Mount Dora!

A NEW book by the author of the award winning

BEYOND GATLIN: A History of South Orange County

Visit also my website, CroninBooks.com

Contact me via email: Rick@CroninBooks.com

Central Florida History Challenge - Part One

Central Florida History Challenge: Part One

Question:

Women of central Florida’s frontier of the 19^th century were every bit as tough - and creative - as their male counterparts when it came to both homesteading and town building. Between the years 1880 and 1890, more than 200 Orange County cities were established, and while most had been founded by men – some were the creation of amazing frontierswomen. Can you name which 1880s towns of the five listed below were founded by women?

TORONTO

HOOSIER SPRINGS

PAOLA

ISLAND LAKE

PALM SPRINGS

Three of the 1880s towns listed were founded by women! And each frontierswoman is featured in my 5 Star rated (see below) 2015 Second Edition of, CitrusLAND: Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains.

Alice C. (Forbes) Hill started buying Orange County property in 1881, and by 1887, she was ready to file a town plat of TORONTO in Orange County at Mile 23 on the Orange Belt Railway line (orange line below in Exhibit 17 of Ghost Towns). Her city in fact was the junction to two railroads, as the Tavares, Orlando & Atlantic (green line below) line crossed the OBRR track here – and a Union Depot had been planned to serve both. Today, an industrial complex occupies much of the property where Alice Hill planned her 19^th century city. Maitland Boulevard Extension, west of North Orange Blossom Trail, encroaches the southernmost tip of a Ghost Town called TORONTO.

Town Plat of Toronto (Exhibit 17 of Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains)

Dr. Joseph Bishop and ex-banker Ingram Fletcher, two frontiersmen, founded PAOLA and HOOSIER SPRINGS respectively, but back in the 1880s. Mary Lambert (at times identified as Mary Lambeth) founded the town of ISLAND LAKE. Her platted Orange County city occupied part of her homestead of 200 acres (Exhibit 6 of Ghost Towns). Mostly citrus trees, Mary did design her city to have a lakeside path encircling Island Lake, a body of water which can now be found in Seminole County’s Heathrow Subdivision.

A native of the Hoosier State, Ingram Fletcher’s town of Hoosier Springs had been platted prior to his sale to a Canadian Widow, who then re-platted and renamed the land west of I-4 at SR 434. Widow Elizabeth (McLean) Saunders brought her sickly son to Florida for health reasons. She purchased Ingram Fletcher’s flagging Hoosier Springs homestead (Sanlando of the 20^th century), and renamed her developing new city, PALM SPRINGS.

Like that of Alice Hill’s TORONTO, the reconfigured town of PALM SPRINGS had two railroads. The Orange Belt Railway and Florida Midland Railway crossed where today SR 434 meets Markham Wood Road, the 1880s intersection of two towns – Altamont (no ‘E’) and the Widow Saunders town of PALM SPRINGS. Ghost Towns explains the development of both place names.

Widow Mary Elizabeth Saunders - Massey

An American Paradise is how many thought of central Florida during the latter half of the 19^th century. A remarkable period in this region’s history, CitrusLAND: Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains takes you on a rail journey from Sanford to Oakland, racing along at a speed of nearly 6 MPH, and introducing you to such place names as Sylvan Lake, Paola, Island Lake, Glen Ethel, Palm Springs (Hoosier Springs and Altamont), Forest City, Toronto, Lakeville, Clarcona, Crown Point, Winter Garden, and Oakland.

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A 5 Star Review

A retired Orange County schoolteacher of 50 years gave the following 5 Star review of the first edition of my book in May 2015. Citrusland: Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains is now available in Second Edition:

“Excellent historical fiction involving a train trip from Sanford to Oakland, FL during the primitive development of central Florida. Because I am a 4th generation central Floridian living and working in the towns included in the train's itinerary, I was particularity captivated by both the content and the style with which the book is written. The details of the real people included in the descriptions of the towns' populations were of particular interest, because I knew some personally and had the pleasure of teaching many of their progeny who are citizens and leaders of those the towns, today”.

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TAVARES

Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County