CENTRAL FLORIDA'S FASCINATING HISTORY: Part IV Fort Gatlin Month: The Cabin

Dateline Fort Gatlin: The Cabin

March 27, 1924 at Fort Gatlin

Three decades after pioneer William Wallace Harney wrote of seeing “the site of old Fort Gatlin, with its camp drill grounds and marks of old quarters and chimneys still standing,” an admirer of Harney’s poetry, William Dunbar of New Orleans, called upon the aging poet at the tiny hillside cabin where Harney was living in 1904. Harney’s home in 1904 was no longer his historic “Pine Castle” of the 1870s. He no longer looked out across Lake Conway from his residence, as he had done so as the Orange County pioneer who had inspired the founding of a city named for his lakeside dwelling. Will Harney was 73 years old when Dunbar came knocking on the door of a little cabin atop Gatlin Hill, where his view then was of Lake Gem Mary, a lovely little round lake named in 1870 for the mother of Will Harney’s beloved bride, Mary St. Mayer Randolph.

“He was a rather small man, heavy-set, with one of the most superb heads I ever saw. His brow was so high it reminded me of pictures of Shakespeare. His eyes were handsome, and very intent and keen. He was most gracious in his manner and cordial, seeming to really appreciate my visit.”

William F. Dunbar’s description of Will Wallace Harney

Established in 1838 and abandoned by the Army in 1842, the brief existence of a remote Army fortress became etched in the annals of Central Florida history not so much because of its brief stint as an Army outpost during the Second Seminole Indian War, but rather because of the pioneers who came thereafter – and kept the memory of Fort Gatlin alive.

Fort Gatlin as a settlement pre-dates Orlando. Named by the earliest pioneers, individuals such as Aaron Jernigan, a Fort Gatlin community encompassed a large portion of Orange County, extending north from the fortress and encompassing that which we know of today as Orlando, the county seat.

The writings of correspondent Will Wallace Harney, published in the Cincinnati Commercial newspaper during the 1870s, wrote of Fort Gatlin, the historic location owned as of the 1870s by Harney’s in-laws, William & Mary (Pitts) Randolph. And it was on the east side of the old Fort Gatlin, only weeks after Harney’s arrival in Central Florida in December 1869, where he buried his one true life-long love, Mary, his bride of only18 months.

“The Randolph Family erected and occupied a fine home on the northwest shore of Lake Gem Mary; this lake was named for Mrs. Randolph. A family burial ground, often mistaken in later times for an Indian burial place, was located near the house; in this some half-dozen bodies were interred, all of them later being removed to Greenwood Cemetery.”

History of Orange County by William Fremont Blackman (1927)

Government surveyors first arrived in Central Florida to survey the land south of Lake Monroe in the 1840s. The first landmass surveyed however was south of both present-day towns of Orlando and Sanford. In fact, seventy-two square miles of Orange County, land surrounding Fort Gatlin and Lake Conway, had been surveyed before the land from Orlando north to Sanford was surveyed.

Gatlin Hill, the name coined for the historic property tucked between three awe-inspiring lakes; Jenny Jewel, Gem Mary, and Lake Gatlin, was purposely selected for a greater role by the first private citizen to step foot on Gatlin Hill following the end of the Seminole Indian War. Deputy Surveyor Benjamin F. Whitner not only envisioned a great future for this location, he also took part in developing that planned role. Whitner acquired hundreds of acres around old Fort Gatlin years before the village of Orlando was founded.

“In the dead of the night, the dead of the night

There’s a sound along the rails.

The creaking of a whirling crank

Like the flapping of iron flails.

With the long, low roll that herald’s a storm,

Over sunburnt fields of grain:

With the sullen roar of rain in the wood

Comes the Invisible Train.”

The Phantom Train

By Will Wallace Harney

Cypress Grove Park, one mile east of Gatlin Hill, is the location of Pine Castle Pioneer Days, an annual celebration of this region’s bravest of the brave, the founders and settlers who carved out a remote wilderness to create a region we know and love today as South Orange County. There is much to see, do, and hear at Pine Castle Pioneer Days, such as Vintage Baseball, a Classic Car Show, great Music all day long, and scheduled history talks at the History Tent.

Bring the family and help celebrate the legacy of Fort Gatlin. You even stop by my Cronin Books booth and pick up a signed copy of my book, Beyond Gatlin: A History of South Orange County.