PINE CASTLE Home for the Holidays Part 1: ANNO

Attorney William Reuben ANNO

PINE CASTLE: Home for the Holidays, Part 1

 

Anno Avenue at Oak Ridge Road, Pine Castle, Florida

The historical significance of ANNO Avenue in the overall development of central Florida is far from obvious to an occasional observer today. A side street connecting Oak Ridge and Lancaster Roads, the half-mile long Anno Avenue remains as one of but a few original Town of Pine Castle streets laid out nearly 136 years ago. But in a historical sense, the name Anno should conjure up thoughts of one of many Pine Castle pioneers - early settlers who also became major influencers in both the design and creation of Florida’s amazing 19^th century “Citrus-Belt”.

William Reuben Anno is the Avenue’s namesake, and a portion of this road is located on Anno’s original homestead, 160 acres reaching north from Lancaster Road to Lake Mary Jess Road (See red rectangle on map below). William & Sarah (Nute) Anno built their residence at the northwest end of their land, where the X is shown on the map below, on the shoreline of Pine Castle's Lake Mary.

 160 acres Anno Homestead (red rectangle #1 - Anno 1880s residence marked with X)

An Attorney by trade, W. R. Anno became active in development of central Florida even prior to his subdividing half of his homestead to expand Pine Castle in 1884. A January 1883 article about rapid growth in and around Orlando mentioned that the reporter interviewed “Colonel W. R. Anno, President of the Tavares, Orlando & Atlantic Railroad. In that interview, Anno said he owned 800 orange trees and 600 guava trees.

Railroad President Anno also described plans for the railroad, including a planned terminus at Titusville on the east coast. Two months later, on March 5, 1883, Anno was mentioned as an organizer of the railroad, along with two other important Citrus-Belt pioneers having ties to Pine Castle. (Chapter 28, The Atlantic Gateway of my most recent book: Tavares: Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County, includes a section called "The Pine Castle Boys", in which two other organizers of the Tavares railroad were said to be John P. Morton and Nathaniel Poyntz - both Kentuckians who had close connections with the Pine Castle settlement - more on Poyntz in Part 5 of this Series).

The Tavares railroad only made it as far east as Orlando, and even then, the first train did not arrive at the county seat until July 2, 1885. By then, Anno had established a law practice in downtown Orlando while also selling town lots at Pine Castle (Plats of 1884 Pine Castle, recorded by Clement R. Tiner and William R. Anno, are Exhibit 51 in my book, Beyond Gatlin, A History of South Orange County).

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Two Pine Castle streets laid out in the Anno addition to Pine Castle were named for daughters Maud and Blanche, but in 1955, County Commissioners changed both. Maud became Dumont, and Blanche became Jason Street. At the same time, Commissioners changed West Avenue to Anno Avenue.

A travelogue describing the South Florida Railroad route in 1887 said this of the Anno residence at Pine Castle: “The railroad line, between lake shore and orange grove, aligns the shore, and at Jessamine passes W. R. Anno's handsome home and grounds, enclosed between two large basins of Conway and Jessamine, having a natural fish pond (assumed to be Lake Mary) on its southern orchard.”

Beyond Gatlin: A History of South Orange County

Proud recipient of the 2017 Pine Castle Historical Society 'Book Award'

Born Christmas Day of 1844 at Mercer County, Illinois, Attorney W. R. Anno arrived in central Florida in 1878, selected 160 acres for a family homestead, and planted orange trees as most other neighbors of that time were doing. He then became an active participant in transforming Orange County’s remote wilderness into a 19^th century American Paradise.

Although born in Illinois, William was raised at Mason County, Kentucky, relocating there after the death of his mother when he was only three years old. William married Sarah Louise (Nute) at Mason before first relocating to Jacksonville in 1870 and then to Pine Castle in 1878. (Beyond Gatlin, Chapter 23, addresses Pine Castle's "1887 Secret", a secret concerning the death of the "father of Mrs. W. R. Anno".

Following back to back freezes in 1894-95, William, Sarah and daughter Blanche moved further south, to Miami, Florida, where Attorney William R. Anno died on March 3, 1904. His remains are buried at Greenwood Cemetery in Orlando.

Maude Anno remained in central Florida with her husband, Sanford pioneer Forrest Lake. In 1925, Maude & Forrest Lake sold many of the long-dormant Pine Castle town lots to the first in a series of land speculators. In 1954, town lots first laid out in 1884 by W. R. Anno, then passed to Interstate Development Company, a Kroh Brothers firm from Kansas, just as Orange County Commissioners began changing many of the county’s street names – including Anno Avenue.    

Join us next week for Mrs. Milton’s Christmas Tea Party, and meanwhile, why not do a little holiday shopping.

THE PERFECT Holiday Gift for every History Fan in your family

BEYOND GATLIN: A History of South Orange County

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Sister Cities - Part 6 - Alsobrook's Ferry

Alsobrook’s Ferry, Lake County

Sister City Onslow, North Carolina

Haynes Creek of today looking west toward Alsobrook's Ferry of Yesteryear

Government hired surveyors moved through central Florida from 1842 through the early 1850s and mapped an Orange County wilderness into 61 townships of 36 square miles each before moving into Sumter County. Their job was not to name lakes, although they did name a few. Their task was to sketch the land, lakes, and rivers in such a way that legal descriptions could be written onto homestead deeds for incoming settlers. Paying little to no attention to county borders, the surveyors provided a method to pinpoint property, work product that was so successful it is in use today with but minor alterations. If you own property now, your deed is described using the surveys mapped in the 1840s, identifiers that appear as the first six numbers on your real estate tax bill (example 02-19-25 is land in the one square mile Section 2; 19 South; 25 East).

Occasionally the early land surveyors added dotted lines to show existing trails, but few trails existed then. There were no actual towns then, but occasionally a surveyor would locate an abandoned fort. On rare occasions they would also pinpoint an existing "log cabin". One example of the latter is included on page 155 of my Tavares book, a one-square mile survey showing a cabin at “Hill’s Permit” (Stacey B. Hill  1808-1850), alongside a dotted line for a trail. This example is part of my book because it was here that Evander LEE first located his family – several miles west of present day LEESBURG – a Lake County town now that was named by Evander’s family (Chapter 24).

This lengthy lead-up is necessary to fully appreciate 1850 notations found on another survey of one-square mile Sections 2, 3 and 9 of Township 19 South; 25 East. A “schoolhouse” is shown to exist in this section as of 1850! Of early surveys I have personally reviewed over the years, Township 19S; 25E is the ONLY government survey of central Florida of that time period that I have seen a ‘schoolhouse’. The survey also shows two areas marked “clearing”, a residence belonging to a “Vaught”, yet another marked “Bryant”, and a third residential area marked “E. D. Howse Permit”.

1850 Survey of 19S; 25E: Section 2 showing dirt trail crossing Haynes Creek of today; Schoolhouse in Section 3 along trail; E. D. Howse "Permit" in Section 3; "Bryant in Section 3 and Vaught in Section 9

A History of Marion County Sheriff’s Office tells us Edmund D. Howse was that county’s first Sheriff. A native of Onslow, North Carolina, Howse, in 1850, was noted as a farmer & Sheriff. He was also living at a “Private Embankment” with wife Cynthia and four (4) school age children. The next year, 1851, William & Mahala Alsobrook came to Florida with their six (6) school age children, settling within a mile of the Howse “Permit”, land that today borders “Haynes Creek”. 

The third noted residence – Vaught – is likewise fascinating, for nearly 30 years later, Volney V. Haynes homesteaded on land adjacent to the schoolhouse. Volney’s middle name was Vaught. His mother had been Sarah Vaught (1828-1913).

William J. Alsobrook opened ‘Lake Griffin Post Office’ in Marion County December 22, 1851. Then, when Sumter County was formed in 1853, ‘Lake Griffin Post Office’ became a Sumter County Post Office. 

Clearing debris from the Ocklawaha River south of Silver Springs, delayed first due to the Civil War, resumed in 1867, and the first Hart Steamboat arrived in Lake Griffin via the Ocklawaha that same year. It was to be another 13 years before the first railroad arrived at Fort Mason - to compete with the area's riverboat traffic. (See also Chapter 27 of my Tavares book, 'Ocklawaha, The River Gateway'.) 

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Route 44 crosses Lake County’s Haynes Creek where, in 1853, the Ocklawaha River had been the border between a new Sumter County and existing Orange County. Surveyor Trafford’s 1879 Orange County survey (photo below), shows the river as the dividing line, noting also the “Ferry” crossing near where Lisbon was established in 1884. (In an 1887 description of Lisbon it was noted that this place was sometimes called Alsobrook's Ferry).

1879 survey by E. R. Trafford (see also Chapter 14, Trafford Street of my Tavares book)

A timeline will aid in understanding the significance of the above information. Pioneers first settled in this region around the same time as the establishment of Mellonville on Lake Monroe, years before a place called “Orlando” was imagined, and these settlers built a Marion County schoolhouse which in 1853 became a Sumter County schoolhouse. Today, a busy Route 44 intersects with Fernery Road in the vicinity of a once-upon-a-time schoolhouse at Alsobrook’s Ferry crossing.

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In 1887, trains departing Leesburg bound for Fort Mason stopped at Orange Bend prior to proceeding east on a 10 minute journey to Lisbon after crossing the “Ocklawaha River”. After departing Orange Bend, it would be an hour, when on schedule, before travelers reached Fort Mason.

Next Friday we transfer to a Phantom Train at Fort Mason to visit a few Ghost Towns. Our journey will begin with a stop at a present day “DITCH” – where once-upon-a-time – believe it or not - the largest of all 19^th century Lake County towns was planned.

Thank you to all who have made my Tavares: Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County my most successful book launch to date.  

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Holiday shopping made easy! Why not give a lasting gift for the history buff in your family - Tavares: Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County.

Perfect companions: First Road to Orlando; Beyond Gatlin; Orlando Lakes; The Rutland Mule Matter; CitrusLAND: Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains. Visit my CroninBooks.com website for details on each. 

Sister Cities - Part 5 - Lisbon

 

LISBON of Lake County

Sister City: Ozark, Alabama

 

 Town of Lisbon, Lake County, Florida

LISBON, the first “town” south of Emeralda Island on Emeralda Island Road, is a community formally settled in 1884. One Lisbon founder was Andrew J. CASSADY, one of three partners who acquired the Sellers family homestead on Emeralda Island in 1874 (See my prior Emeralda Island Post). Founded in 1884 as a one square-mile city having Emeralda Avenue as its main corridor, it appears as though this place had wanted to be town for a decade, maybe longer.

One-Square Mile Town Plat of Lisbon (1884)

Palatka Daily News of March 10, 1885 reported that: “a new town on the Leesburg Branch of the St. Johns & Lake Eustis Railroad now has a name – Lisbon.” Completion of rail service between Leesburg and Fort Mason, it seems, was the encouragement residents needed to finally establish their town. Still another Palatka Daily News article of March 28, 1886 stated: “Lisbon is on a boom. There are now eleven houses in course of erection, and there is some talk of a large store going up, which will be opened during the summer”.

On May 27, 1887, Lake County became official, while the Orange County Gazetteer of that year described Lisbon as home to 113 residents. A Lisbon Hotel had opened under management of Wiley Laine (1835-1918) of Georgia, who doubled as the town’s railroad agent. In describing the city, the Gazetteer added: “this place is sometimes called Alsobrook’s Ferry”.

A reporter traveling aboard the train to Fort Mason during the summer of 1887 speculated that Lisbon might be a possible candidate for location of the new County’s seat (Chapter 30 of my Tavares book). His article also described his journey from nearby Orange Bend: “All along the road to Lisbon the way is lined by trailing vines and wild morning glories. Back of these are huge thrifty orange trees.” The reporter added: “The train leaves Lake Griffin at Orange Bend, and makes off due east to Lisbon, crossing the Ocklawaha River on pile bridges. The river has two or three separate and distinct channels at this place, and all along these channels, both up stream and down, are boats filled with fishermen, busy catching fish of all kinds that frequent Florida steams”. SR 42 crosses over Haynes Creek today, “the Ocklawaha River” of 1887.

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Andrew J. Cassady, a native of Ozark, Dale County, Alabama, married Mary Jane Alsobrook, herself a native of Dale County, Alabama, in Orange County June 2, 1868. Five years later, on October 8, 1873, Andrew replaced his father-in-law, William J. Alsobrook (1814-1888), as the Postmaster of “Oak Bluff” Post Office.

The Alsobrook family had been among the earliest settlers at this place, likely attracted to this remote region in 1851 because of “The Narrows”, the name given the creek by surveyors. The creek was used by watercraft traveling between Lakes Griffin and Eustis. Now Haynes Creek, for namesake Volney V. Haynes, eldest son of Captain Melton Haynes of Lake Harris further south, Volney had homesteaded on the creek in the late 1870s, long after William & Mahala Alsobrook had arrived with their four sons and two daughters. 

1879 Survey of “Ferry” crossing Ocklawaha River

Buck Lake? More on that when this series continues

A creek-side town at this “place” progressed something like this: A Lake Griffin settlement was established in this area around 1851, and William J. Alsobrook was named Postmaster in 1858. By 1873 is became Oak Bluff; where Alsobrook’s Ferry carried folks across Haynes Creek as we know the waterway today. Finally, in 1884, Lisbon became the official town name. Zachariah T. Alsobrook, son of William & Mahala Alsobrook, was operating a Lisbon store in 1887.

What then really attracted the Alabama family of William J. Alsobrook to this specific location in 1851? State Road 44 crosses the creek today, and then continues all the way east to the 1850 town of New Smyrna Beach - now in Volusia County. A wilderness of 3,000 square miles with fewer than 600 citizens, something unique had attracted William & Mahala (Goolsby) Alsobrook to raise their family here alongside the Ocklawaha River!

Next Friday, this series continues with Buck Lake, an 1850 Howse, and an 1850 Schoolhouse!

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Holiday shopping made easy! Why not give a lasting gift for the history buff in your family - Tavares: Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County.

Perfect companions: First Road to Orlando; Beyond Gatlin; Orlando Lakes; The Rutland Mule Matter; CitrusLAND: Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains. Visit my CroninBooks.com website for details on each. 

Buy the Tavares book at Amazon by clicking on my book cover above.

 

Next week: Lake County's LISBON and its Sister City.

Sister Cities Part 4 - Emeralda Island

 Enchanting EMERALDA Island

Sister-City Brunswick, North Carolina

 

Looking west across Lake Griffin from Emeralda Island

Ghost Town of SLIGH on distant bluff across Lake Griffin (see below)

Among my Father’s leisurely Sunday afternoon drives in our 1955 Ford, had I been raised here in central Florida, one drive I am certain would have included a journey into Lake County’s rural northwestern countryside. Dad would have explored and then written of the charm of Emeralda Island especially, a little community chock full of history. So then, let us go there now!

Returning to Ghost Town Higley, my last post, drive west on ‘Em En El Grove Road’ a mile and cross County Road 452, where the name changes to ‘Emeralda Island Road’. Continue west until you come to a sharp left turn. At this point, Emeralda Island Road becomes a north-south artery, and at this point, it is visible to view 157 years of incredible central Florida history. The house at this turn in the road, says Lake County’s Property Appraiser, was built in 1863.

 1863 Sellers Residence on Emeralda Island

To fully appreciate the significance of home’s age, consider several facts: Neither Eustis, Mount Dora, Tavares, nor Lake County existed in 1863. This area was then Orange County, the county seat of which was Orlando, at that time a tiny four-acre village, itself only six years old. There were no railroads then, and the few dirt trails that existed were old military and Indian trails.

When build in 1863, the Reverend Willets D. and wife Sarah (Stanaland) Sellers had owned the land for 14 years. The Reverend died in 1858, so by 1863 Widow Sarah was living with son Jesse and family. 11 years after the house was built, Widow Sarah, in 1874, sold the land that had been the family’s homestead for 25 years.

Reverend & Sarah Sellers came to Florida from Brunswick, North Carolina, where generations of Sellers had lived since before the days of America’s Revolution. Florida had yet to celebrate its 5^th Anniversary of Statehood when the Sellers family settled on land that was only steps from the Marion County line. So close in fact, the family was listed in the Marion County census of 1850 and 1860.

Land transactions and homestead deeds however were recorded at Orange County, establishing too the 1874 buyers were a consortium of investors from a small settlement to the south, a city that could not settle on a formal name until 1887. But EMERALDA Island had an identity crisis as well though, for it was at times referred to as ESMERALDA Island.

 1850 Government survey of present day Emeralda Island

(Red Star is location of 1863 Sellers Residence, Blue Star was Sligh Landing of 1885)

Although cluttered with trees and debris in the early 1860s, the spooky Ocklawaha had become a gateway to Lake Griffin and today’s Lake County region in the 1870s, before the first railroad arrived. (Ocklawaha – The River Gateway is Chapter 27 in my “Tavares: Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County).

Webb’s Historical of 1885 did not mention Emeralda Island as a city, but while describing the riverport town of SLIGH, Webb’s said this of its neighbor across the river: “Esmeralda Island, two miles east, is nearly one solid orange grove. From the foot of the lake during the winter of 1883-4 were shipped ten thousand boxes of oranges, which amount will be materially increased each season as the trees come into bearing.”

The Sellers family had sold their home 10 years before Webb’s publication. Georgia’s Savannah Morning News also wrote of Emeralda Island in May of 1885, telling of a proposal to build a railroad from Silver Springs “to the new town of Lisbon”, adding that the route, as projected, “is to run through Emeralda Island.” And in December 1885, Weekly Floridian told of the planned ‘Leesburg, Esmeralda and Lake George Railway’, adding that growers were offering a bonus of $6,000 if the railroad established a depot at Emeralda Island.

Emeralda Island as one big orange grove likely came about by the consortium of investors who purchased the Sellers homestead in 1874. Those new landowners, Andrew J. Cassady and Drs. Leffers and Hopson, were also participants in the 1886 “boom town of Lisbon”.

Leaving Emeralda Island southbound, the next sign of civilization today is Lisbon. Known in earlier times as OAK BLUFF and ALSOBROOK’S FERRY, Lisbon is our next stop when this Lake County series continues next Friday.

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Holiday shopping made easy! Why not give a lasting gift for the history buff in your family - Tavares: Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County.

Perfect companions: First Road to Orlando; Beyond Gatlin; Orlando Lakes; The Rutland Mule Matter; CitrusLAND: Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains. Visit my CroninBooks.com website for details on each. 

Buy the Tavares book at Amazon by clicking on my book cover above.

 

Next week: Lake County's LISBON and its Sister City.

Sister Cities Part 3 - Town of Higley, Florida

HAUNTS of a Town of HIGLEY

Sister-City: Cedar Rapids, Iowa

 

 Higley, Florida Advertisement - March 18, 1885

The HIGLEY HOUSE Hotel fronted on “the Boulevard, principal street of Town of Higley”, at a Citrus-Belt settlement founded in 1883 by Edward Emery Higley and his mother Hannah. Each formerly of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the Higley’s 21 room, three story hotel was said to be “situated in the midst of 8,000 acres of the finest high, rolling pine land’. When opened March 1, 1885, the hotel’s guests arrived via stagecoach - from either Lisbon or Fort Mason, and the hotel offered a barn that could accommodate up to a dozen horses and three buggies.

Opening a hotel was no doubt a proud moment for Edward, for two decades earlier, as a young tyke, he stood helplessly and watched as his father’s Cedar Rapids hotel burned to the ground. He and mother buried Edward’s father at Cedar Rapids, Iowa soon thereafter, and in 1880, began making plans for a move to Florida.

George & Julia Webb lived at Higley House Hotel in 1885 while building their own residence, and while George assisted in establishing Webb & Higley Real Estate, a land agency offering choice lots in the far northwest reaches of Orange County. Located north of Lake Yale’s shore, Higley’s development became part of a new Lake County in May of 1887.

A precise whereabouts of Town of Higley had long remained a mystery – yet hints do exist that can once and for all resolve the mystery. For starters, an 1884 Georgia newspaper described the town as “situated within less than a mile of the northern end of Lake Yale”. That article also told of Webb & Higley’s plan to place a steamboat on Lake Yale to connect with a railroad landing at Fort Mason. (That railroad was the St. Johns & Lake Eustis (Chapter 25 in my Tavares book). 

Town of Higley (1 being City Center, see descriptions below)

 

Town of Higley was divided into "Blocks" and "lots", with lot sizes becoming larger as they moved away from city center – location of the Higley House Hotel. The settlement included acreage that is now used as a Lake Yale boat launch (A on Map) on Thomas Boat Landing Road (E on Map). Today, Holiday Lake Subdivision is adjacent to and west of the ramp, and when platted, was described as bordering the ‘East line of Block 60 of Higley.

Little more than a grassy path now, Sunset Drive (#1 on Map) began as part of a 1990 Mayfield Subdivision, the plat of which also shows an existing 50’ wide easement referred to as “Railroad Avenue”. But there is no train anywhere near this parcel now. A notation in the legal description of Mayfield (see below and right of curved road) states the land was “part of Block 22 of the unrecorded plat of Higley”. Land once owned by Hannah Higley abutted land owned by her son Edward at this exact location in 1883 - where today one travels on ‘Em En El Grove Road’ (C on Map).

 

“Railroad Avenue” easement at right above, beside “Higley unrecorded”

One 1885 deed mentions the intersection of “Webb Street and Boulevard in Block 30”, while a document recorded in 1937 places Block 30 in the same location as “Railroad Avenue”, and in the vicinity of Block 22 - or the area identified on the Map as #1 – the once upon a time heart of downtown Higley. [B and D on map are South and North ‘Em En El Grove Road’].

Florida Agriculturalist of April 22, 1885 published a notice regarding organization of the “Silver Springs, Higley and Southern Railway”, listing two officers as “E. E. Higley of Chicago, Ill., and George W. Webb of Higley, Florida”. The proposed route of the new railroad was said to be Silver Springs south to Lisbon, due south of Higley, Florida. That train, and another earlier planned railroad in the direction of Fort Mason, were never completed.

 

Higley Post Office of Orange County opened August 20, 1883. Nearly every land deed refers to a “plat of Higley, filed on or about April 2, 1884”, at the county seat in Orlando, 50 miles and a full day’s journey to the south. By 1887 the town was said to be home to 300 residents. 

After Lake County was established in 1887, copies of town plats were handed over to the new county – but neither Orange nor Lake appear to possess the Higley plat.

Florida’s Yellow Fever scare of 1887 was the first nail in the coffin of many a central Florida Ghost town. A second and final nail for many early Citrus-Belt towns were back to back freezes of December 1894 and February 1895. Countless central Floridians lost everything due to these freezes. Two months after Florida’s second freeze, Edward E. Higley died, April 10, 1895, at Eustis. 

Higley's remains were returned to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he was buried alongside his father, Henry Higley (1818-1868). Hannah (Emery) Higley died in 1918, seven years after the U. S. Land Office had made its first list of vacated lot and block numbers in a nearly abandoned Lake County Town of Higley.

Today, Town of Higley remains rural, accessible only by buggy – horseless or otherwise. But when founded, Higley had been promoted as an excellent citrus growing region, a fact established by a neighbor settlement (#2 on our Map), founded two decades before Edward E. Higley ever set sights on this northwest corner of Orange County. I will take you to that historic site next!

Emeralda – where history is hiding in plain sight - when this series continues next Friday.

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Holiday shopping made easy! Why not give a lasting gift for the history buff in your family - Tavares: Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County.

Perfect companions: First Road to Orlando; Beyond Gatlin; Orlando Lakes; The Rutland Mule Matter; CitrusLAND: Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains. Visit my CroninBooks.com website for details on each. 

Buy the Tavares book at Amazon by clicking on my book cover above.

 

Next week: Lake County’s Emeralda Island and its Sister City.