0109 Hannah (Huestis) Adams
Hannah (Huestis) Adams is the first Central Florida pioneer to be highlighted throughout the year 2024 in my Florida Trailblazer series. As I write this post a blizzard is burying much of Iowa in snow, so it is easy to understand that, especially in the 1870s, Iowans might choose to escape the winter and spend their winter months in Florida. The Adams family did just that!
One can read a lot
about her husband, for Hannah (Huestis) Adams was the wife of Tangerine,
Florida founder Dudley W. Adams. Hannah and her sister Bessie were rugged
Central Florida Frontierswomen as early as 1875. But there were no railroads in Central Florida then, so they came to Lake Beauclair south of the present town of Mount Dora overland. They became Tangerine snowbirds even before the neighboring town of Mount Dora was founded.
Dudley W. Adams (1831-1897)
Why Hannah and her clan endured the difficult journey to tough it out in Central Florida is likely best explained by a poem written by her husband Dudley:
"In the radiant, the magic glow,
reflects itself in the lake below;
The rainbow clouds have each shining fold,
richly embroidered around the gold,
O! Where on earth is a scene more fair
than a sunset view on Lake Beauclair?"
Dudley and Hannah of Tangerine, Florida are featured in my book, "Mount Dora: The Lure. The Founding. The
Founders." (2021). Tangerine of Orange County was so close to Mount Dora of Lake County that residents often thought of themselves as Lake County citizens.
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