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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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. 

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