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Part 4: Nathaniel Baldwin Poyntz
“Too old” was the bureaucrat’s 1926 excuse
as to why Nathaniel Baldwin Poyntz had been denied his soldier’s bonus application.
Then nearly 80 years old, Nathaniel learned of the denial while at work in a
Massachusetts Army field office. At that time, 60 years after the Civil War had
ended, Nat Poyntz was the only Confederate Veteran still on
active duty roles of the Regular Army. But not only had his special bonus been
denied – Poyntz was also unable to retire from the service because, said the
Army, there was no provision in the retirement laws for the “Poyntz case”. And
so Nathaniel Poyntz continued working as a Boston Quartermaster field clerk
until his death in 1928 – a week before Christmas.
A native of “neutral” Kentucky, Nathaniel B. Poyntz likely
lied about his age when enlisting in the Civil War at Maysville, Mason County,
Kentucky. It appears he was only about 14 years of age when he enlisted in
Company C of Kentucky’s 9th Confederate Calvary. The Blue Grass
State was likewise home during the Civil War of Pine Castle homesteader Will Wallace Harney. Harney was one of
three co-publishers at the start of the War at a Louisville newspaper that was a staunch Union supporter – again, in a state that had pledged
neutrality in the conflict.
After War’s end, Nathaniel Poyntz, in 1870, relocated
to Orange County, where the Confederate Veteran homesteaded on 78 lakeside
acres at Lake Conway (see #4 on map below), land adjoining Will Wallace Harney’s lakeside homestead. Ex-Union
newspaperman Harney, by 1870, had become the Widow of a proud Louisiana Southern Belle.
Today, Nela Avenue heads east from Orange Avenue along
the south property line of the 1870s homestead of Nathaniel B. Poyntz. Matchett
Road now runs north from Nela Avenue, crossing the one-time Poyntz
homestead in its approach to the Harney homestead.
W. R. Anno #1; Florence Milton #2; William & Minnie (Iverson) Randolph #3
Enemies during the Civil War, the veterans who
relocated to central Florida immediately after the war set aside their war-time differences to become neighbors, friends, and even civic leaders.
Nathaniel Poyntz married Levinia Strode in 1872, and
soon thereafter, he returned to his Pine Castle homstead accompanied by his hometown Kentucky bride. But
then, a few years later, he decided to settle instead in downtown Orlando. The
Poyntz family move to Orlando coincided with the start of Nathaniel’s active
involvement in Orlando development. After two years as Orange County Tax
Collector, he teamed up with central Florida’s legendary pioneer James
Parramore to form Poyntz & Parramore Real Estate Company.
Nathaniel and Levinia, (“Vina” to locals), built a handsome
residence at the southwest corner of Magnolia Avenue and Amelia Street,
adjoining property that, in 1885, became part of a “Poyntz & Parramore
Subdivision”. (The Poyntz home, in 1900, sold to Alexander H. Darrow of Chicago, Illinois, who converted the structure into the Darrow Hotel. A third owner expanded the
15 room Darrow Hotel into the Wyoming Hotel).
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Around the time Nat relocated from Pine Castle to
Orlando, in 1875, he also teamed up with a small group of pioneers to establish
Orlando’s Greenwood Cemetery. He then established the first bank in Orlando
around 1883, although banking eventually proved to be Nathaniel’s central
Florida downfall. Also in 1883, Nathaniel Poyntz teamed up with Pine Castle’s William
R. Anno (Part 1 of this series), and others, to organize the Tavares, Orlando &
Atlantic Railroad. (As told in my book, Tavares: Darling of Orange
County, Birthplace of Lake County, Anno and Poyntz were two of three “Pine
Castle Boys” (pages 264-270), with the third being John P. Morton - a long-established
Louisville family and friend of the Will Wallace Harney family.
Nathaniel Poyntz was among the first of many Orange
County pioneers to take interest in the new 1882 town of Tavares, personally acquiring in February of that year several downtown lots.
Lavinia (Strode) Poyntz died at her family home in
1894 at the age of 46. “She possessed many excellent qualities”, said her
obituary, “and was an affectionate wife and mother and her home bore an
enviable reputation for genuine hospitality that was shared by hundreds of
people in every walk of life.”
After the death of Lavinia in 1894, a personal
tragedy coinciding with Florida’s horrific Freeze of 1894-95 which brought
about the collapse of central Florida’s economy, Nathaniel Poyntz returned to
active military service. He served in both the Philippines and World War I, and
thereafter, continued serving as a Quartermaster clerk for the Army at Massachusetts. Poyntz died at his Massachusetts post on the 18th of December, 1928, and was laid to
rest alongside Levinia at their hometown of Maysville, Mason County, Kentucky.
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