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.

Buyit here at amazon.com

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”.

NOW ALSO AVAILABLE at AMAZON

TAVARES

Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County