Frontierswomen
of Central Florida
Mary Kenan Flagler (1867-1917)
A
Women’s History Month Tribute
By
Richard Lee Cronin, CroninBooks.com
16
March 2022
Day 16
CitrusLAND is observing Women’s History Month by
honoring extraordinary Central Florida frontierswomen. And as we celebrate
Women’s History Month throughout March, we are also featuring 2022 each day a
History Museum, listing their days and hours of operation.
See
also our featured History Museum in this Post
The role Mary #Kenan Flagler played as a central Florida railroad builder has, for far too long, been overlooked.
As a named community, Bithlo first appears in
a railroad timetable published by the Miami Herald in 1914. The earliest known
recorded plat of a town of Bithlo was in 1919, but that plat itself
suggests a town of sort pre-dated its filing because the plat added to
preexisting streets. Historian William F. Blackman, author of
the 1927 History of Orange County, states the town’s origin
coincided with the “opening of the railroad,” supporting the idea that Bithlo
was founded around the year 1914.
Henry Flagler spoke of plans for an ‘Okeechobee
Branch’ of Florida East Coast Railroad in 1910 and began
accumulating right-of-way agreements thereafter. In 1911, Flagler obtained
permission to cross property owned by William Vom Scheidt, land that later
became the site of the town of Bithlo. Recorded agreements filed by Flagler
required that a train be operating by January 1, 1914, to as far
south as Wewahotee, the next train stop south of Pacataw and the
second railroad stop south of Bithlo.
Flagler’s first Okeechobee Branch train arrived
at Lake Okeechobee, the southern terminus, on September 14, 1914. This
train would have passed through Bithlo on its way south to Lake Okeechobee, once
again supporting the 1 March 1914 advertisement in the Miami Herald.
What then does all the above mean? Henry Flagler, the
railroad’s founder, died May 20, 1913, and it was said that Flagler had
been bedridden since March of 1913.
The Sun Sentinel of 2
July 1989 reported on the events following Henry Flagler’s death,
stating that his Widow, Mary Kenan Flagler, had become the owner of Florida
East Coast Railroad, four million acres of land, eleven hotels and the assets
of Florida Power & Light Company as well as the Miami
Herald newspaper.
Mary (Kenan) Flagler’s wealth as of 1914 was
estimated at $6 billion in present-day currency. Widow Flagler lived
until July of 1917, meaning that between May of 1913 and July of 1917,
the railroad, including the first train arriving at Bithlo, belonged to her!
Mary Kenan Flagler – Bingham
(1867-1917)
Mary’s train to Bithlo is long gone, but Flagler’s
Okeechobee Branch railroad, during its brief existence, allowed for the
founding, by an Optic’s Doctor and an Orlando Dentist, to plat the city of Bithlo.
A town charter was issued in 1922 for Bithlo, and on 5 April of that
year, a Bithlo Post Office opened. Between 1921 and 1925, the Orlando
partners filed nine additional town plats.
A full-page advertisement for Bithlo on 2 April 1925 tells
of the many accomplishments for this east Orange County city, stating Bithlo
had a total 6 ½ miles of paved streets and the developers were in the
process of building a golf course. “More than 3,000 people from across America”
said the advertisement, had already purchased lots in the town proclaimed to be
the city with a vision, serviced by Florida East Coast Railroad and
the new Cheney-Dixie Highway (now State Highway 50), officially christened
December 31, 1924.
Land sales stalled in 1925, then crashed
in 1926. Florida’s Land Boom ended in the aftermath of the Great
Hurricane of 1926, having winds of 125 mph. The 1926 storm killed 115 in Miami,
destroyed 13,000 homes, and then travelled inland, causing a tidal
wave at Lake Okeechobee which drowned an estimated 300 inhabitants. The
Land Bust and Hurricane of ‘26 was followed by the Stock Market Crash
of ‘29, then the Great Depression of the 1930’s.
A scribbled note atop a page in Orange
County’s 1935 Census, “Bithlo Charter Surrendered”, provides an
epitaph for this East Orange County community.
The Okeechobee Branch of Florida East Coast
Railroad, like that of more than a dozen central Florida railroads, opened
a vast wilderness for settlements. And like the many other railroads, this
train too left behind a remarkable heritage, only one long forgotten fact was this
train had been established during the time Mary (Kenan) Flagler owned the
railroad.
#Lambert of Island Lake
Frontierswoman Mary Lambert did not build a 19th
century railroad, but she did establish a town in 1887 which included a
railroad depot. Southwest of Sanford today, Heathrow residents enjoy a round of
golf on a body of water still known as Island Lake, the name given the
lake in the 1880s by a courageous young lady.
Long, long ago, at a time when women rarely ventured
into the business world, Mary Lambert of Pennsylvania dared to do the
unthinkable. In the 3,000 square miles of wilderness known then as Orange
County a single woman, Mary Lambert, planted 200 acres of orange trees,
considered an extremely large grove in her day.
Not only did she plant citrus trees though, on June
17, 1886, Mary Lambert became Postmistress at her Island Lake Post Office.
She also platted her very own town, a city (see below) fitting the community now
occupying her one-time town. Island Lake had a public lakeside park, accessed
via a “Boulevard around the Lake.
Island Lake, 1887 Orange
County, Florida
[Further reading: Citrusland: Ghost Towns &
Phantom Trains by Richard Lee Cronin.
#Lambeth of Fort Reid
Widow Frances Bernard (Lambeth) Pitts died at Orange
County, Florida in 1882. First buried at Gatlin Hill in the Randolph Cemetery, she
was later reinterred to Greenwood Cemetery, where her remains were once again buried
in a Randolph plot. The mother of sisters Mary & Jane Pitts (see 22 March
Post), Frances Bernard (Lambeth) Pitts (1798-1882) likely played a much larger
role in the early days of a developing Orange County than ever given credit.
William M. Randolph, husband of Mary Pitts and
son-in-law of Frances, is most often credited by historians as the financier who
jump stared Central Florida’s economy. But it is possible the cash infusion
needed to launch settlement of central Florida came instead from Frances
Bernard (Lambeth) Pitts. Most Southerners had lost their wealth following the
Civil War. William M. Randolph was indeed a Southern Gentleman, an ex-Virginian
who found his way to New Orleans in the 1840s after marrying Mary Pitts. An
Attorney, William Randolph served as the administrator of the estate of William
Meredith Lambeth, brother of Randolph’s mother-in-law. William Lambeth died at
New Orleans in 1853. A sizeable Lambeth estate went to the deceased’s sister,
Mary (Pitts) Randolph, wife of Attorney William M. Randolph.
Orange House Hotel, the first free-standing hotel ever
built south of Lake Monroe, was built in 1869, supposedly financed by William
M. Randolph. One could argue, however, that the money likely came from
Randolph’s mother-in-law.
[Further
reading: Will Wallace Harney: Orlando’s First Renaissance Man, authored
by R. L. Cronin for, and distributed by, Pine Castle Historical Society].
History
Museum of the Day
Goldsboro
Museum
1211
Historic Goldsboro Blvd.
Schedule
museum visits by emailing visitgoldsboro@goldsboromuseum.com
A
Town of Goldsboro was established in 1891 and was the second Black incorporated
city in the United States.
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