PINE CASTLE
Home for the Holidays
William M. Randolph died here in 1876
Mary E. (Pitts)
Randolph, Part 7 of 8
Lake Gem Mary,
the smallest of three Orange County lakes which helped fortify Fort Gatlin during
the Second Seminole Indian War, became known by its present-day name around 1870,
the year after William Mayer Randolph bought the land on the north side
of the fort. Randolph then named the small lake on his land for his wife, Mary
Ellen (Pitts) Randolph.
Neither William nor Mary appeared to be in a rush
though to settle at Fort Gatlin,
despite their family members setting up homes all around the old fortress.
William continued living in New Orleans, where his successful law practice was
located, traveling occasionally to Florida to visit his family. Mary did set up
a home in Orange County, but not at Fort Gatlin.
Mary lived at first nearly 20 miles north, at Fort
Reid, where she and her husband also owned property.
Randolph’s Fort Reid property was already historic when they acquired
it in 1869. A residence existed on the 40 years referred to then as Woodruff
Place, a grove and home of pioneer Elias Woodruff. And so, at Fort Reid in 1869,
Mary E. (Pitts) Randolph partnered with Sarah Jane (Couch) Whitner to manage
the first-ever freestanding hotel south of Lake Monroe. In fact, the
Randolph’s 1869 Christmas gathering likely took place here at the Woodruff
residence.
Mary Randolph and Sarah Whitner opened their hotel in
the spring of 1870 under the name Alaha Chaco, or Seminole Indian for Orange
House Hotel. The historical significance of their venture, and the grove
the hotel was built upon, is worth reiterating; Mary and Sarah partnered in
1869 to open the FIRST hotel in Orange County, Florida, on 40 acres that
had already become a historic orange grove dating to 1854.
The family of William & Mary Randolph, scattered throughout
the South at the end of the Civil War, reunited in central Florida, selected
neighboring homesteads, and spent their first Christmas together as central
Floridians in December of 1869.
“We kept Christmas here where it
never snows or grows apples to the maturity of Apple Toddies. Instead, there is
an orange punch about which Hebe and he Nectarine Gods had better inquire.” Will
Wallace Harney, January 24, 1872
After the death of William M. Randolph in 1876, Mary
continued to acquire property around her Fort
Gatlin property, acreage that
eventually became known as the “Randolph
Peninsular”. In fact, for a time during the early 1880s, one
traveling south from Orlando either on foot or by train crossed land belonging
to Widow Mary Ellen (Pitts) Randolph.
Mary Randolph’s Peninsular of the 1880s included area 7 shown, plus area 6 (this lot was referred to by Mary as the “McBaker” parcel – see Part 6). Mary also acquired the area identified as 7a, but gifted this parcel to her grandson, William Randolph Harney.
The Randolph’s three grown children had relocated to
Orange County with their parents. Mary St. Mayer Randolph, the eldest,
had married Will Wallace Harney in the summer of 1868, and arrived in
Florida with her husband and six-month old child via a rugged journey of a thousand
land miles. Mary (Randolph) Harney spent her first and only Florida Christmas
with her clan in 1869, dying soon after the New Year. She was buried atop
Gatlin Hill, a few steps from the old fortress, but moved relocated to Greenwood
Cemetery later by her son.
William Beverly Randolph, son of William & Mary, homesteaded
adjacent to the homestead of Will Wallace Harney (See Part 3 of this series). Fanny
Lambeth Randolph, youngest of William & Mary Randolph’s children, resided with
her mother at the Orange House Hotel in Fort Reid, where she died in 1892,
leaving three children and her husband, Benjamin M. Robinson.
Randolph contributions to the development of South
Orange County were many. William and Mary both earned mentions in my books First
Road to Orlando and Beyond Gatlin: A History of South Orange County. Mary E.
(Pitts) Randolph however was more than wife, a hotel operator, and land
speculator. She was also a grandmother, “mamma” to those who lovingly
knew her as the matriarch of the Fort Gatlin Randolph’s. In that role, likely one Mary enjoyed
the most, she was immortalized by her son in law and poet, Will Wallace Harney.
It was a lazy afternoon in 1873, and the
grandparents were visiting the Harney Homestead. The renowned New Orleans Attorney
at this moment was simply grandpa, dozing by Lake Conway as his grandson played
ball with Mustard, the family dog.
“A sweet little rustic scene it is
Of tropical splendor and homely
bliss.
The sunburned baby, as brown as a
nut,
Tosses the ball in the broad
log-hut.
Till Mustard catches it, hand over
hand,
And rolls outside, with a bump, on
the sand.”
Baby and Mustard Playing Ball
was written by Will Wallace Harney in 1873. His poem informs us that despite
the daily trials and tribulations settlers had to endure in the wilds of 19th
century central Florida, there was also those precious moments when they could
pause and be parents – or grandparents, even when an unsuspecting snake burst
on the scene.
“Courage little one, chubby and
tough,
But surely now you have done
enough?
Not, with your baby and naked
hands,
To grapple the pretty thing in the
sands.
Yet grandpa’s shout and mamma’s
scream
Burst like life in a startled
dream.
Too late, but Mustard has heard the
call,
And goes for the snake instead of
the ball.
Mary Ellen Pitts, born 1816 at Essex County, Virginia,
met William Mayer Randolph (1815-1876) at Tallahassee. They married in Kentucky
September 10, 1838. Her family brought about the Randolph’s move to New Orleans,
but they also established a home at St. Charles, Missouri prior to the Civil
War. She died at Orange County, Florida October 12, 1886, and was laid to rest at
Gatlin Hill, beside her husband William and firstborn child Mary, at old Fort
Gatlin.
That same month, in the same year, son in law Will
Wallace Harney released his poem called The Reapers.
Next week, PINE CASTLE: Home for the Holidays, concludes as we feature yet another amazing Fort Gatlin area pioneer.
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