Women's History Month - Day 22

 

Frontierswomen of Central Florida

 

1862: General Butler at New Orleans Proclaims

Women may no long spit on Union soldiers 

A Women’s History Month Tribute

By Richard Lee Cronin, CroninBooks.com

22 March 2022

 

Day 22

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

 

Referred to as “The Woman Order,” General Butler issued a proclamation in 1862 stating that the Women of New Orleans could no longer spit in the faces of Union occupiers.

Amelia #Paschal Baker of Lake Gatlin

North of Pine Castle, along the northwest shoreline of Lake Gatlin, Mary E. Randolph, on 1 June 1882, purchased 40 acres. The deed reads as follows: “Amelia E. Baker, being the widow of J. McRobert Baker, deceased, the northeast one-quarter of the northwest one-quarter of Section 13, Township 23 South, Range 29 East, of Orange County, Florida, containing 40 acres.”

Prior to her purchase of these 40 acres, Widow Mary E. (Pitts) Randolph, together with Widow Sarah J. (Church) Whitner, owned all remaining property surrounding Lake Gatlin. Widow Amelia (Paschal) Baker had owned a corner of lake since the death of her husband, State Senator Joseph McRobert Baker of Jacksonville, and Sumter County.

1860 Joseph McRobert Baker Property

Lake Gatlin at bottom, Lake Jennie Jewel above

By 1882, a railroad had finally made the land around Lake Gatlin more valuable. A train heading south from Lake Monroe reached Orlando in November 1880, was then extended to Pine Castle, crossing over Widow Whitner’s property in 1881 and was soon to be extended further south to Kissimmee and Tampa Bay. A two-decades dream of train connecting Lake Monroe with Tampa Bay, envisioned by Widow’s Whitner’s husband, Surveyor Benjamin F. Whitner, finally looked as though it would become a reality.

Widow Baker had been part of a railroad dream since 1860, but that was her husband’s dream, a dream that had ended with his death - on a killing field of our Nation’s Civil War. Amelia might have become a lady of central Florida in the 1860s, but no longer envisioned such a move in the 1880s. So, Widow Amelia sold her Lake Gatlin land to Widow Mary.

[Further reading: Beyond Gatlin: A History of South Orange County by Richard Lee Cronin].

 

Mary #Pitts Randolph of Lake Gatlin:

Widow Mary was not part of the railroad dream of 1860, but she and her husband, along with the Whitner’s, were very much a part of a second railroad attempt of 1870.

Mary E. (Pitts) Randolph and Sarah (Church) Whitner teamed up in 1869 to manage Florida’s very first free-standing hotel south of Lake Monroe (see also Sarah #Church of March 4 post). Opened in March of 1870, their Orange House Hotel at Fort Reid was two miles south of Lake Monroe, on the old forts trail, aka First Road to Orlando. Husbands William M. Randolph and Benjamin F. Whitner had also accumulated hundreds of acres at Lake Gatlin, at the southern end of the old forts trail. In fact, the Randolph and Whitner families owned land at various points on the old forts trail, much like those who had first envisioned an 1860 train prior to the War.

One difference between 1860 and 1870 however occurred on March 3, 1870, the day a gathering of landowners from Tampa to Orange County met at the Orange House Hotel in Fort Reid. The met to organize the Upper St. Johns, Mellonville, and Tampa Railroad.

Complications soon derailed the 1870 dream as well, but challenges of the 1870 group merely delayed the train. The dream lived on, even after the 1876 death of William M. Randolph, and the 1881 death of Benjamin F. Whitner.

As the railroad finally approached Pine Castle, Widow Mary E. (Pitts) Randolph decided to add to her family’s landholdings at Lake Gatlin. Among her land purchases was Widow Baker’s 40 acres. By 1883, Mary owned the entire fortress Gatlin parcel and more, property that in time became known as the “Randolph Peninsular”.

 

1890 Randolph Peninsula including Joseph McRobert Baker Parcel

Acreage including Railroad parcel acquired by Mary E. (Pitts) Randolph

 

The initial post-Civil War appeal of Central Florida for Mary E. Randolph likely did not involve a railroad. Fort Reid and Fort Gatlin in a sparsely inhabited Orange County appears to have been the real appeal for her, an opportunity to bring together family members – brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters – each of whom were scattered throughout the war-torn South.

Having accomplished that goal as a mother, Mary Elizabeth (Pitts) Randolph then moved on to town building matters – becoming in time the “Mother of Pine Castle.” Her sons-in-law, Will Wallace Harney and Benjamin M. Robinson, as well as brother-in-law Ouachita Pushmataha Preston, received much of the credit for all that followed, but Mary had her family together, and that, for her, was what really counted.

[Further reading: Beyond Gatlin: A History of South Orange County, and CitrusLAND: Curse of Florida’s Paradise, both by Richard Lee Cronin].

Follow Author & Historian Richard Lee Cronin

https://www.amazon.com/author/richardcronin

 

Jane #Pitts Preston of Lake Gatlin

Jane #Pitts Preston had followed her husband to Texas before the Civil War but seemed anxious to join her sister in Central Florida after War’s end. Jennie Preston purchased 82 acres near Fort Reid on November 25, 1868, being among the first family members to own land along the old forts trail, but with husband Ouachita Pushmataha Preston (1833-1901) they selected land in the Fort Gatlin area once they arrived.

Lake Gatlin, an Indian War fortress named for Dr. Gatlin, a casualty of the Dade Massacre which took place in December 1835, was surrounded by three lakes: Lake Gatlin to the south, Lake Gem Mary on the east, and Lake Jennie Jewel on the west. The latter two were named in 1870 for sisters Mary Ellen (Pitts) Randolph and Jane E (Pitts) Preston.

The old forts trail of the Indian War, winding south nearly 28 miles from Fort Mellon on Lake Monroe to Fort Gatlin, made its final approach in the south by squeezing through lakes Gem Mary and Jennie Jewel.

When sisters Jane and Mary arrived in late 1869, Mary settled at the north end of the old forts trail, where she partnered in opening the Orange House Hotel. Jane settled at the abandoned Fort Gatlin at the sound end of the trail. “Half a mile or more from where I write”, wrote Will Harney in 1871, “is the site of the old Fort Gatlin, with its camp drill grounds and marks of old quarters and chimney standing till last year.”

Jane E. (Pitts) Preston was born in 1831 at Virginia, lived for a time in Kentucky, New Orleans, Missouri, and Texas, and settled at Orange County, Florida in 1870, where she lived until her death in 1901.       

[Further reading: Beyond Gatlin: A History of South Orange County, and CitrusLAND: Curse of Florida’s Paradise, both by Richard Lee Cronin].

 

 

History Museum of the Day

Pine Castle Historical Society

On June 28, 2015, one of the area’s most important old homes, the Crawford House, shown above, was moved to 631 Wilks Avenue in the heart of Historic Pine Castle. There it joined a small house, known as the “White House,” already on the property. Both are being restored to become the Pine Castle History Museum.

To join the Society and assist in making the dream of a Pine Castle Historical Museum possible, visit www.pinecastlehistory.org/

Get involved in your local history group – they need your volunteer work.

Questions? Comments? Rick@Croninbooks.com