Frontierswomen
of Central Florida
Elizabeth (McClain) Saunders -
Massey
A
Women’s History Month Tribute
By
Richard Lee Cronin, CroninBooks.com
18
March 2022
Day 18
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 each day a
History Museum, listing their days and hours of operation.
See
also our featured History Museum in this Post
Among Orlando’s intriguing mysteries of history is Caroline
#Matthews Colbert. In fact, most fans of local history reading of this mysterious
central Florida frontierswoman likely never heard of Lady Colbert
– or that she once owned 228 acres of prime downtown Orlando real estate.
Stanley J. Morrow 1884 photo
alongside J. O. Fries sketch of early Orlando
In 1871, J. O. Fries first arrived in downtown Orlando.
Later an Orange County surveyor, Fries sketched for his daughter how Orlando looked
at the time of his arrival.
Surveyor Fries’ sketch, shown above to the right of
the photo, included an interesting comment that has gone unnoticed by many
historians. In the upper right corner, on the west shore of Lake Eola, John O. Fries
drew what he referred to as an “Old Orange Grove.” Old as of 1871!
The “old Orange Grove” was later captured by
photographer Stanley J. Morrow in 1884, shown above as well on the left. But who
planted these mature orange trees of the 1871 and 1884?
Using surveyor terms, the orange trees were located at
“the NW ¼ of the SW ¼ of Section 25, 22S; 29E”, or more simply stated, the
trees sat lakeside on the east side of what became Rosalind Avenue. The
location of the early citrus grove is now Lake Eola Park.
Jacob Summerlin owned this property after
the Civil War, but the original owner was Bartlett Reames, who brought his
family to central Florida in 1859, arriving with the Roper family. The Roper
family settled where Winter Garden is today, whereas Bartlett Reames continued
further southeast, settling at a then three-year (3) old village of Orlando. Bartlett’s
daughter, Catherine Reames (see her Post later this month), married Henry
Roberson, and Bartlett & Reames became – for a very brief time - Orlando’s
second general store.
Most every young man of 1860 Orange County, including
Henry Roberson, went off to fight with the Confederacy in the Civil War.
Bartlett and daughter Catherine (Reames) Roberson, pregnant when her husband
went off to War, relocated to the Roper homestead at Winter Garden. The Orlando
General Store of Bartlett & Reames was closed. Bartlett sold his Orlando
acreage, land that included the historic orange trees he had planted – the very
trees J. O. Fries viewed when he arrived ten years later.
Bartlett Reames, on January 7, 1861, sold his 80 acres
on Lake Eola at Orlando, together with Lot 1 of 12 in the village of Orlando
(now part of the Orange County Library), to Caroline M. Colbert of Habersham
County, Georgia. The deed issued by Reames was made to “Peyton H. Colbert,
Trustee, for his wife Caroline.” Mrs. Colbert also purchased 158 acres north of
town.
Peyton Harris Colbert (1805-1879) and wife Caroline
Matthews (1805-190?) both survived the Civil War, yet neither returned to
Orange County, Florida to re-claim their Orlando property. Was it merely
coincidental that Caroline acquired property along the First road to Orlando at
the same time as Isaphoenia Cleopatra (Ellington) Speer [March 7 Post]?
In the 1900 Census, Widow Caroline M. Colbert was
residing in Hall, Georgia. Her Orlando land years earlier been auctioned off to
George C. Brantley, who in turn sold to Jake Summerlin. But as for Caroline –
she remains a central Florida mystery frontierswoman – only now she is better
known for having once owned land at Orlando, Florida.
[Further reading: For more on the origins of Orlando: CitrusLAND:
Curse of Florida’s Paradise, and First Road to Orlando: Mellonville
to Orlando Road both by Richard Lee Cronin].
#May of Orlando
Angeline (May) Mizell was one of two Mrs. David Mizell’s residing
among the 1,100 Orange County residents in 1860. She was to be known as Mrs.
Mizell for 57 years, but this mother of seven Mizell children was to enjoy live
fewer than 14 of those 57 years in company with her husband.
A
Florida native, Angeline Augusta May, in 1854, married David W. Mizell, Jr. The
groom at the time was 21 years old, the bride had just turned 17. Angeline gave
birth to the first of seven Mizell children around the time of their first
anniversary. The Mizell’s had migrated to Orange County around 1859, and David
Mizell Senior located on 600 acres fronting on Lake Conway.
David
Junior located his family on a homestead fronting an unnamed lake, one now known
as Lake Underhill.
Angeline,
a mother of four when Florida delegates voted to secede, soon found herself head
of a household of four youngsters when husband David went off to fight with the
Florida 8th Infantry. Her husband was to be among the lucky warriors
of the Civil War, for he returned home in 1863. David Mizell, Jr., and wife
Angeline went on to parent three additional children.
While serving as Orange County Sheriff though in February 1870, David W. Mizell, Jr. was killed in an ambush – an incident which began Orange County’s bloody Barber-Mizell feud.
Widow Angeline, a mother of seven at the time, her oldest only 15, was once again on her own. She acquired 50 acres a little closer to Orlando on August 30, 1873, paying $1.25 per acre, and Angeline moved to this land that is now known as Harry P. Leu Gardens.
Angeline, still a mother of seven in 1885, gave her occupation as “Fruit Grower”, and in 1900, identified herself as a “farmer.” Angeline Augusta (May) Mizell never remarried. She died on 25 October 1911, at age 74, at her residence northeast of Orlando’s city center.
[Further reading: See Lakes Rowena and
Underhill, Orlando Lakes: Homesteaders & Namesakes and Beyond
Gatlin: A History of South Orange County, both by Richard Lee Cronin].
#McClain of Palm Springs
A Seminole County Ghost Town now, Palm
Springs started out a railroad hub in 1888 Orange County, a city
developed by Elizabeth McClain Saunders-Massey.
“As we passed through Palm Springs,” wrote Amos Root, a passenger on one of six daily trains passing through Elizabeth’s 1895 town of Palm Springs, “I got just enough of a glimpse to feel I wanted to stop there.” Amos did in fact return, but central Floridians of today might ask, “Root returned to where?”
1890 Orange County Map:
(A) Orange Belt Railway from Sanford; (B) Florida Midland Railway from Longwood,
now SR 434; (C) Hoosier Springs Grove & Estate; (D) Intersection of I-4
& State Road 434 today; (E) Lake Brantley.
Elizabeth Saunders came to Florida in 1887 because of her son’s deteriorating health. Setting out from her home in Toronto, Canada, Widow Saunders had come to this proclaimed land of health, wealth and sunshine, or a land this author has dubbed CitrusLAND.
Timing is crucial to appreciate Elizabeth’s central Florida legacy, for women of the 19th century were typically confined to the challenging task of homemaking and child rearing. The business world was mostly a male thing – except here in central Florida.
A biography of Elizabeth M. Saunders-Massey, as our Palm Springs developer became known as in 1915, she was included in a book on Orange County, Florida pioneers which began by stating: “Usually men are the earliest settlers.” Even in 1915 the author understood the significance of her achievements, a lady who lived in the “mansion on the hill-side and orange grove known as the “Hoosier Springs Grove.”
The story of Elizabeth Saunders of CitrusLAND begins at a place called Hoosier Springs.
1885 Plat of Hoosier
Springs (Partial)
Widow Saunders purchased the homestead of Ingram & Gertrude Fletcher, closing on the purchase of these 160 acres on January 28, 1887. The land itself had been sub-divided in 1885 as both a personal residence on the Wekiva River and a town of Hoosier Springs on the south side of a planned Florida Midland Railway track.
Hoosier Springs of 1887 had not been a success story, and Elizabeth’s deed spells out the town’s lackluster development. Excluded from all 161 original acres was a one-acre church lot; a town lot sold to brothers Frank & William Baker; and a standard right-of-way path allowing for two railroads to cross over the property. Most of the original town platted by the Fletcher’s remained unsold and undeveloped. The mansion on the hillside, and the orange grove known as “Hoosier Springs Grove,” became the residence of Elizabeth Saunders.
Bordering the town of Hoosier Springs was yet another small village, a much older want-to-be town known as Altamont (see also Delia Leroy Post of March 17). First envisioned in 1874 by Dr. Washington Kilmer, this neighboring town was no more a success in 1887 than Hoosier Springs.
Five months after closing on her land, Widow Saunders revised Hoosier Springs by merging the town with Kilmer’s Altamont. Elizabeth however dressed up the layout of the town by adding a dozen ‘Town Squares’, naming each crossroad square with such names as Gardenia Square, at the junction of Saunders and Cambridge Streets; and Oleander Square, where Orange Avenue crossed Toronto Street.
On June 14, 1887, Elizabeth sold her first town lot, Lot 18, in the new Town of Altamont. The lot sold was at the intersection of Orange Belt Railway and Florida Midland Railway. The Baker Brothers established a general store and railway depot on this lot.
Another town lot buyer was William Massey, who Elizabeth then married. William Massey died soon after thee wedding, making Widow Saunders a Widow Massey.
Having viewed Palm Springs in 1895 from onboard Orange Belt Railway, Amos Root returned a day later to personally “investigate” the area and wrote: “In a little shady nook were great palm trees that threw their protecting branches all over and around, and a beautiful crystal spring boils up, sending out a volume sufficient to make a good-sized creek. The waters are just warm enough for nice bathing, and there are seats arranged on the mossy banks, making it a most inviting place for picnickers or pleasure-seekers.”
The author of ‘Gleanings in Bee Culture’, Amos Root wrote of touring central Florida months after the freeze of 1894-95. The region’s future at the time of Root’s visit was not yet known, although perhaps unknowingly, he predicted the area’s fate while at the same time telling of a little shady nook known as Palm Springs: “In consequence of the freeze, however, business was, as might be expected, dead, and things looked dull.”
Elizabeth McClain Saunders-Massey had been mother to seven. She buried two husbands and five of her children prior to 1900. The son she brought south because of his poor health, John McClain Saunders, was buried at Orlando’s Greenwood Cemetery after his death, August 30, 1906. The Orlando physician at the time of her son’s death was Dr. Washington Kilmer, formerly of Altamont, the town Elizabeth had transformed into Palm Springs.
Elizabeth and one surviving son, Thomas Malcolm Saunders, returned north to Canada. Thomas died in 1917, in France, while serving in World War I.
One month before Elizabeth’s 83rd birthday, eight years after Seminole County carved away a portion of Orange County, Elizabeth McClain Saunders-Massey, on June 3, 1921, passed away at Ontario, Canada. In the year of Elizabeth’s death, only one of two Seminole County maps included a place called Palm Springs. Most every sign of Elizabeth’s once-upon-a-time town of Palm Springs then vanished.
[Further reading: Citrusland: Ghost Towns
& Phantom Trains by Richard Lee Cronin].
Follow Author Richard Cronin at Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/author/richardcronin
Our Featured History
Museum of the Day
Orlando Land Trust
Not an actual History
Museum, but the Land Trust was established as a means of improving and
protecting parks, playgrounds, and great spaces. The Orlando Land Trust was
responsible for saving a valuable corner of Lake Eola Park – a corner once owned
– albeit briefly, by Caroline (Matthews) Colbert featured in today’s post.
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