The Rutland Mule Matter

Ten DAYS of RIDING RUTLAND’S MULE

Compliments of THE RUTLAND MULE MATTER

Day 10: 1865 Lincoln and Rutland’s Mule

Following the Civil War, Naval Officer Charles D. Lincoln, while assigned to Central Florida during the Reconstruction Period, assisted Margaret (Staten) Rutland, a Widow then living at APOPKA, in getting a Mule returned. This 10 Day countdown summarizes a tantalizing true-life story that took place in Post Civil War Florida, and is courtesy of CroninBooks, and a Novel based on a true-life story: The Rutland Mule Mattter.

Day 9: 1867 Cinderella and Rutland’s Mule

CINDERELLA & Matthew Stewart lived in APOPKA. In 1880, their son Miles lived with them, but he would soon be moving across Lake APOPKA, where with his cousin OTHMAN RUTLAND, the two would become key players in establishing the town of WEST Apopka, or as that town is known today, FERNDALE. Cinderella was a sister of Margaret (Stanton) Rutland, the same Widow Rutland who had managed to convince the Navy’s C. D. Lincoln to assist her in getting that Mule shipped down river, from Jacksonville to Mellonville.

Day 8: 1858 Lake Mizell or Lake Rutland?

LAKE MIZELL, on WINTER PARK’S famed chain of lakes, might have been named LAKE RUTLAND! On the 2^nd day of April, 1858, according to an 1881 deed, a lakefront Homestead was bought by David W. MIZELL, and that deed stated: “And whereas the said Isaac N. RUTLAND has died before the execution of said Conveyance.” the administrator of Rutland’s estate, Matthew A. Stewart, husband of Apopka’s Cinderella Stewart, signed the 1881 deed conveyance. Isaac didn’t die until 1864, a year before his Widow, Margaret (Stanton) Rutland, requested her Mule be returned.

Day 7: The PENSION’S Building of DC, and Rutland’s Mule

1888 ORLANDO: At the Real Estate Office of John G. Sinclair, on Orange Avenue in 1880s downtown Orlando, Florida, a wall map of the county, paying particular interest to the area around Lake Hancock in west Orange County, provides the best clue yet in a family’s search for the truth. Othman Rutland heads north again, only this time with assistance from his brother-in-law, Ezekiel C. Vick. The two intend to meet, face to face, with a curious group of Federal pension clerks. They travel to DC, visiting the fabulous new Pensions Building, with hopes of getting answers about his father, knowing they share one thing in common with the clerks they are about to meet: they are all Central Florida landholdings!

Day 6: Florida’s Constitution and Isaac N. Rutland

WHEN is a Lawmaker NOT a Lawmaker? Several months ago, CitrusLAND asked that very question of Tallahassee. Why? Well, in April 22, 1861, Florida ratified a NEW State Constitution. 54 Floridians wrote and ratified that Constitution, but only 23 can be found in Florida’s roster of Lawmakers. CitrusLAND asked why 31 are not mentioned, because Isaac N. RUTLAND is among those 31 NOT listed.

“They were NOT”, replied Tallahassee, actual Lawmakers. But by definition, a State’s Constitution is its “basic, fundamental LAW”. If an individual assists in writing a Constitution, and then ratifies the end product, how is that person NOT a Lawmaker? Florida’s House of Representatives itself, for example, exists solely because the House and its duties was created by the State’s Constitution!

Now, CitrusLAND wants to thank Florida’s lawmakers for its recent change of mind, a decision that will add all 31 missing contributors to the State’s Official Lawmakers, a roster that dates to 1822.

Day 5: 1888 Ohio Representative Harris and the Rutland Mule

“That out of obedience to instructions from headquarters, District of FLORIDA, I caused said Mule to be branded with the letters U. S. The Mule did not belong to the U. S.” Signed 22 Jun 1864; A. L. HARRIS, Colonel, 75^th Ohio Mounted Infantry.

By 1888, Col. Harris was Ohio Representative, Andrew Lintner HARRIS, serving at Columbus, Ohio, leading Othman Rutland to believe Ohio to be a good place to find answers, not only about that mule, but about what happened to his long-missing father, Isaac N. Rutland.

Day 4: Starke Lake and #RutlandMule

1860: Dr. James D. STARKE, of present day OCOEE, Florida, was the selected as Senator of Florida’s 19^th Senatorial District. His district included his home County of Orange.

There were 20 districts in all, and that November of 1860, Dr. Starke had been one of the 16 District Senators who traveled to Tallahassee only weeks after Abraham Lincoln had been elected President.

On 30 November, 1860, 12 of 16 Senators, including Starke, had voted in favor of the following resolution: “this General Assembly having implicit confidence in the wisdom and patriotism of the people and the delegates whom they will select to the Convention, commit to them the interest of the State WITHOUT a suggestion as to the course proper to be pursued.”

Florida State Senators, in essence, abdicated their lawmaking authority, placing their State’s future in the ‘wise’ hands of 69 ‘patriotic’ Floridians. Isaac N. RUTLAND, of “Florida’s 19^th Senatorial District,” was one of 69 patriotic Convention delegates. Rutland opposed Secession, but during early 1861, he fulfilled his duty as a delegate, taking part in, and ratifying, Florida's new Constitution.

Day 3: Cassius M is missing!

15 years after the mysterious 1864 death of “Hon. Isaac N. Rutland,” his estate remained unsettled. The administrator, Matthew A. Stewart, Isaac’s brother-in-law, requested, on June 9, 1879, that a judge appoint Othman’s sister, Sarah K. VICK, wife of Ezekiel C. VICK, as estate administrator, stating: “We have no idea if the other heir is living. He left seven years ago, and we have not seen or heard from him since.”

Isaac’s ‘other heir?’ That would be Cassius M. Rutland, the older brother of Othman and Sarah, last seen, according to the estate administrator, in 1872!

Day 2: The Isaac N. Rutland family:

History failed to record much about Isaac N. Rutland, or of the man’s role in Orange County’s past. But Rutland also had a family, and history reported even less of roles they played in what was then an emerging Central Florida ‘Paradise’. Othman & Sarah Rutland, two of Isaac’s children, were indeed true-life Central Floridians.

As children, all four Rutland orphans had been sent north to Georgia by 1870, but then two returned to a Post-Civil War CitrusLAND. Othman and Sarah then played a part in developing this 19^th Century American Paradise.

The Rutland Mule Matter is far more than a story of one man who became lost in the turmoil of America’s Civil War. It is in fact a historical presentation of one family’s tragic plight in a land seemingly cursed with family plight. “Just finished the Rutland Mule. OMG! Your research is so meticulous and your storytelling so captivating. I felt that I’d gone back to another time.” 

For the reader, separating fact from fiction will be the biggest challenge, but to ease the struggle, here’s a helpful hint: There are only two fictional characters. One is the hotel clerk in Columbus, Ohio. The other it the carriage driver in Washington, DC.

Day 1: Isaac N. Rutland and the Rutland Mule:

Captain Isaac N. Rutland replaced Captain Aaron Jernigan as leader of Orange County’s 1856 Militia, a volunteer militia based out of Fort Gatlin. By 1860, Isaac had been selected to represent a Senatorial district that included Orange County, and was one of two ‘wise’ Central Floridians assigned the task of deciding Florida’s future.

Isaac became one of many War casualties of 1864, and later, he was then denied his rightful place in Central Florida history. Denied, that is, until a 150 year old scribbled file folder suddenly surfaced. Inside that 1865 folder, a Provost Marshal’s file, a folder labeled 

‘The RUTLAND MULE MATTER’, was found the secret Isaac’s children had been searching for. Othman and Sarah finally learned of what really happened to their father. But could they handle the truth? Merely make believe? You can decide for yourself with the assistance of a nine page Bibliography!

THE RUTLAND MULE MATTER, one of five books by Richard Lee Cronin, each digging deep into Central Florida’s long forgotten history. 

Available at Bookmark it Orlando; Winter Garden Heritage Foundation in Winter Garden, Florida and Amazon.com

Please visit my Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/richardcronin

WHO TO BELIEVE?

On Wednesday evening, February 17, 2016, ‘Writers of Central Florida or Thereabouts’, allowed me the opportunity to read a passage from my book, ‘First Road to Orlando.’ If I can help it, I never pass up an opportunity to discuss the fascinating story of 19^th Century Central Florida, especially of how an old forts trail, twinning its way south from Lake Monroe in 1836, from Fort Mellon in the north to Fort Gatlin in the south, evolved into the Mellonville Road, a/k/a, First Road to Orlando

Along a 28 mile old forts trail, settlers in 1842 began building towns of Mellonville, Fort Reid, and Fort Gatlin. Towns of Rutledge, Maitland and Orlando came on the scene thereafter, with all but Rutledge pre-dating the first train to run south from Lake Monroe, which departed Sanford, November 11, 1880.

I selected for my reading Chapter 11, Who to Believe? I chose this chapter because to me, it provides as well a window into the intriguing mystery that surrounds nearly all of Central Florida early history. How Orlando got its name, for example, has long been a topic of debate.

FIRST ROAD TO ORLANDO:

CHAPTER 11: WHO TO BELIEVE?

Samuel S. Griffin, in 1923 a resident of Orlando for more than 40 years, spoke to the Orlando’s Sorosis Club on the subject of their town’s history, and of how Orlando had been named. Griffin used 14 pages of typed notes for his speech, a document now safely stored in Central Florida archives.

He told the members that Mr. Fries had told him, “the story of the Indian killing on the banks of one of their beautiful lakes.” A soldier standing guard while others slept, Sam had said, was attacked and killed by Indians.

John O. Fries, a Swedish immigrant who became County Surveyor, arrived in Orlando on Christmas Day, 1871. The City of Orlando was at that time 14 years old.

Orange County Surveyor, John Otto Fries

Griffin then told the membership that S. A. Robinson had given him a different version, stating Robinson claimed his version came from Arthur Speer, the son of Judge James G. Speer. “A man named Orlando became very ill here and was taken into Judge Speer’s home, and cared for.” Having become friends, as this particular naming of Orlando goes, Judge James Speer named the town for that fellow.

Samuel A. Robinson was also a County Surveyor, and drew the first sketch of what 1857 Village of Orlando looked like. He drew that town plat in 1880.

Orange County Surveyor, Samuel A. Robinson

Samuel S. Griffin then said he was told a third version by B. M. Robinson, stating that Robinson, “Most emphatically declared Judge Speer was a great lover of Shakespeare”, so Speer named the town for a character in the play, “AS YOU LIKE IT.” Benjamin M. Robinson had been a three-term Orlando Mayor. He arrived in Central Florida around 1872.

Three Term Orlando Mayor, Benjamin M. Robinson

Concluding his story of the three versions as to how the town of Orlando got its name, Samuel S. Griffin declared, “I dared not ask another how Orlando got its name!”  

The many versions as to how Orlando had been named have progressed over the years:

1915: Clarence E. Howard published his book, ‘Early Settlers of Orange County Florida,” in which was included a biography on Judge J. G. Speer, stating: “At once the question of a name came up and was named ‘Orlando’ by Judge Speer for one of Shakespeare’s characters.”

Orlando Photographer, Clarence E. Howard

1923: Samuel S. Griffin addressed the Orlando Sorosis Club and reported on three versions told to him.

1927: William Fremont Blackman, Rollins College President, wrote his, ‘History of Orange County, Florida,’ in which he also tells of three versions, similar to Griffin’s, although adding a few details. Blackman said: (1) Orlando Reeves was the soldier’s name, and the ambush took place at ‘Hughey Bay’; (2) The ‘sick’ fellow taken in by Judge Speer was actually an employee of Speer’s who, after his death, the village was named for; and (3) Speer was said to be a lover of, and student of, William Shakespeare.

Rollins College President, William Fremont Blackman

1938: Kena Fries published her book, ‘Orlando in the Long, Long Ago’, in which she stated, “Many versions have been given and many tales told.” Kena, daughter of John O. Fries, was convinced the legend of Orlando Reeves was the legitimate version. She said her father had been told this story by ‘gray haired, widely scattered pioneers.” Kena’s version included details of the incident never before told.

Kena Fries reported that the incident occurred on a full moon night in September, 1835. Fellow soldiers had fallen off asleep while Orlando Reeves kept a ‘vigilant watch’. After several hours, himself fighting off sleep, Orlando Reeves noticed what he thought at first to be a log, floating in Lake Eola. “Realizing they were Indians stealthily creeping on the camp, he gave the alarm, knowing full well it meant death to him and he fell, pierced by more than a dozen poisoned arrows.”

The body of Orlando Reeves, Kena said, was buried in a grave beside Lake Lawson, “beneath a tall pine tree, a landmark on the trail.”

1951: E. H. Gore wrote his, ‘From Florida Sand to the City Beautiful, A Historical Record of Orlando, Florida’, in which he too offers various versions of how the town was named.

Gore said some early settlers believed John R. Worthington, the city’s first Postmaster, named their town, while others believed Judge James G. Speer, “a student of Shakespeare,” named the city “for one of the characters in Shakespeare’s, AS YOU LIKE IT.”

Gore then wrote: “the story that finally won out and was adopted as authentic in regard to the name was told by early settlers about Orlando Reeves.” Gore’s reference in saying won out suggests this version was selected through a popularity contest.

Gore’s version also changes the location, stating the Indian attack occurred “on the east side of Lake Minnie (Now Cherokee).” The body of Orlando in Gore’s version was said to be buried under an oak tree at Lake Eola, but he also stated that another version says Orlando Reeves was buried under a pine tree at Lake Lawson, and that that tree has since been cut down.

Gore stated a pioneer who had lived in Orlando since 1883 told him the Orlando Reeves’ grave was under the oak tree at Lake Eola when that pioneer first arrived. Settlers and soldiers, Gore was told, visited this grave and had handed down the story.

There is another version never told by local historians, but most certainly worthy of inclusion here. Volusia County has long suggested Orlando was named for a plantation owner, ORLANDO SAVAGE REES.

Similarities in the names REES and REEVES, and the two stories, is interesting.

Richard Cronin at South Carolina grave site of Orlando Savage Rees 

Kena Fries began her Chapter 2, ORLANDO - THE NAME, by stating “many versions have been given and many tales told. All are true, more or less, yet no two agree.” If no two agree, as they do not, then in my mind, it is not reasonable to suggest all are true.

What is the truth? Who should we believe? We will examine each and every known version as to how Orlando got its name, and do so having an advantage over earlier historical attempts. We now have access to the vast World Wide Web, data earlier historians did not have at their fingertips. Our goal is to solve a timeless mystery, who named Orlando?

First road to Orlando includes a 21 page Bibliography

For more on the FIRST ROAD TO ORLANDO visit

http://www.croninbooks.com/FIRST-ROAD.html

THE MYSTERIOUS ISAAC N. RUTLAND

The Mysterious Isaac N. Rutland

By Richard Lee Cronin

I enjoy researching and writing about Central Florida of the second half of the 19th Century. A remote wilderness evolved into hundreds of tiny settlements between the years 1850 and 1895. The Census of 1850 found fewer than 500 individuals living in counties known today as Orange, Osceola, Seminole, and Volusia. But the area’s population remained extremely low until after the Civil War, when in the 1880s, this scarcely populated region quite suddenly became known as America’s Paradise – “the land of health and wealth.”

 

Today, Central Florida of that era continues to be a land of mystery and intrigue. Most of the people and events contributing to the building of America’s Paradise have, for the most part, remained vague and uncertain.

 

An excellent example is a fellow born 1825 in Wilson County, Tennessee. By 1850, Isaac Newton RUTLAND had found his way to Florida, and opened a mercantile business in OCALA, where he then met, and soon after married, Margaret STANTON.

 

Margaret’s sister, CINDERELLA (I do not fib), married into a long established Florida family named STEWART. Matthew & Cinderella STEWART then relocated to APOPKA, arriving around 1853, migrating there with his parents, as well as Isaac & Margaret (Stanton) RUTLAND.

 

The Rutland family did not stay at Apopka, but rather settled instead closer to present day SANFORD, near where State Road 46 currently crosses the Wekiva River. Merchant Isaac N. Rutland established a store at that location, and named the place RUTLAND’S LANDING.

 

In 1856, Isaac N. Rutland joined Aaron JERNIGAN’S Volunteer Militia, organized so as to protect settlers of Orange County. A few months later, in September, 1856, Aaron Jernigan was relieved of command, and Isaac N. Rutland took charge of the regiment.

 

Despite the town of ORLANDO being crowned as County Seat in 1857, political power in this region remained mostly in the FORT REID area, an early settlement along the old forts train, a community that predated present day Sanford. Fort Reid’s political clout became apparent in late 1860, when the State of Florida called together delegates for a Secession Convention to be held at Tallahassee.

 

69 delegates would determine the State’s fate, representatives selected as follows: Each State District Senator would be a delegate, and have one vote. In addition, each Florida County was also to select one delegate, so that in all, there would be 69 votes.

 

Orange County selected William W. Woodruff of Fort Reid to be its delegate. Orange County was then part of the 19th Senatorial District at that time, and in 1860, the State Senator representing the 19th district was Isaac N. Rutland, a resident of nearby Fort Reid.

 

A final vote on whether or not to secede was taken on January 10, 1861. Of the 69 delegates, 62 voted in favor. 7 voted NO.

Attorney Joseph J. Finegan, later to become Florida’s General Finegan during the War, voted in favor of secession. Finegan at that time owned 20,000 acres in Orange County, including 12,000 acres that separated Fort Reid from Isaac N. Rutland’s ferry crossing. One actually had to cross Finegan's land to get to and from Fort Reid and Rutland's Ferry.

 

William W. Woodruff, of Fort Reid, on the east side of Finegan’s property, and Isaac N. Rutland, bordering Finegan’s west property line, both voted NO, opposing Secession.

   

After the Civil War, Orange County history remembered William W. Woodruff. Isaac N. Rutland on the other hand was removed from most all of the post-war archives. A roster of Florida Lawmakers dating to 1822 is revised routinely, the most recent being in 2015. Woodruff is included in each roster, Rutland is never included.

 

At the University of Gainesville, the George Smathers Library maintains an online list of all State District Senators, and for the year 1861, the name James D. Starke, a resident of the OCOEE area, appears rather than Isaac N. Rutland.

 

All of the information mentioned thus far was gathered from an exhaustive search of the Rutland family in Florida. I began the research for a historic Novel, and in the process, uncovered a long buried file folder telling of Rutland’s demise, and explains much, much more. That file folder, created by the military in 1865, was titled, ‘The Rutland Mule Matter’.

The facts found in that file, along with other resources, are all historic in nature, and prove existing historic records to be wrong. For that reason, I have gathered together these historic documents, and dispatched a letter to the guardians of Florida’s history along with a request they amend their records for the sake of Florida history.

 

The following is the letter I sent off to Tallahassee earlier this week:

 

TO:

Bob Ward, Clerk

Florida House of Representatives

513 The Capitol

402 South Monroe Street

Tallahassee, FL 32399-1300

 

RE:      The People of Lawmaking in Florida (1822 – 2015)

Isaac N. Rutland, 19 Senatorial District (1861)

 

Dear Mr. Ward,

 

The name Isaac N. Rutland has long been missing from a comprehensive list of all Florida State Lawmakers. I believe this man’s name had been removed from the State roster nearly 150 years ago. I believe too that State archives should now be corrected, and the name Rutland should be included to properly reflect the history of Florida.

The Rutland name has been absent as well from a list of Florida’s 19 District Senators maintained at the George Smathers Library at the University of Florida. I am contacting the university as well under separate cover letter, but including with that letter the same documents I am submitting here, information substantiating the mysterious Senator from Orange County, Isaac N. Rutland.

People of Lawmaking, page 167, lists James D. Starke as the 19 District Senator for the years 1860 and 1861. Then, on page 151, W. C. Roper is listed as the 19 District Senator for the years 1862 – 1863;

§  Isaac N. Rutland attended Florida’s Secession Convention as a delegate. In fact, Rutland was present January 3, 1861, the first day of the convention. The gathering adjourned that same day because not all delegates had arrived, but hand-written minutes of that first day (Exhibit A and B), a document on file in Florida’s archives, list all of the delegates present on the 3, including: “19 Senatorial District, Isaac N. Rutland.”

§  The minutes of January 3, 1861 contradicts that of the roster given in ‘The People of Lawmaking.’ James D. Starke could not have been the 19 District Senator for the year 1861, as Isaac N. Rutland held that position on January 3.

§  Isaac N. Rutland was one of the signers of Florida’s Secession Ordinance, and his signature appears on the Ordinance itself. For your convenience, I’ve included a copy of Rutland’s signature as it appears in our State’s Archives and online at the Florida Memory Project. I labeled this item Exhibit C;

§  A photo of Isaac N. Rutland is included in a collage of delegates who attended the Secession Convention. This photo, dated January, 1861, is also from Florida’s State Archives. Exhibits D (Photo) and E (Names) are both part of State archives. In the Exhibit D photo, Isaac N. Rutland is number 14, second row down from the top. His identity is known from Exhibit E, listing number 14, in the second row, as “Isaac N. Rutland, Orange County”;

§  ‘Civil War and Reconstruction in Florida,’ (1913) by William Watson Davis, PhD, included the complete Minutes of Florida’s Secession Convention. On page 64, (Exhibit F), the names of all seven delegates who voted against Secession were included, one being that of, “Rutland of the 19 Senatorial District.” The minutes also state: “Woodruff of Orange Co.”

§  William W. Woodruff is properly identified in The People of Lawmaking as serving in the ‘Secession Convention, Orange, 1861’ (Exhibit G). Isaac N. Rutland and William W. Woodruff both voted against Secession. Woodruff made into the list of lawmakers, Rutland did not. The reason for Rutland’s removal from the list long ago had to do, I believe, with the man’s unpopular actions after the 1861 Convention. Still, Rutland is deserving of his proper role today.

§  George Smathers Library maintains a list of District Senators online, and one portion of that list stating District 19 Senators is attached as (Exhibit H). Isaac N. Rutland, as you will see, is not included on that list.

 

To correctly reflect Florida history, ‘The People of Lawmaking in Florida’ should add the name “Isaac N. Rutland, Secession Convention, 19 Senatorial District”, and also, adding, “Senate, 19 District, 1861.” James D. Starke should be amended to reflect that he was the 19 District Senator for only the year 1860.

In addition, I am requesting that the George A. Smathers Library, at the University of Florida, also amend their list of 19 District Senators in the same manner.

 

I came across this information while researching a Novel based upon true events, a book entitled, The Rutland Mule Matter. Additional information regarding Isaac N. Rutland can be viewed at my website, or should you have any further questions or comments, please feel free to contact me either by mail or email ME.

 

Respectfully,

 

 

Richard Lee Cronin

Central Florida Author, Historian

Attachments: Exhibits A thru H

 

I’ll post whatever response I receive to keep you informed.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE A COPY OF THE COMPLETE LETTER, INCLUDING EXHIBITS, EMAIL ME AT CITRUSLANDFL@GMAIL.COM AND I WILL SEND YOU A PDF COPY.

FOR MORE ON THE RUTLAND MULE MATTER, VISIT WWW.CRONINBOOKS.COM

John A. MacDonald: A Central Florida Legend

A Central Florida legend: John A. MacDonald

Imagine the year is 1867, and YOU happen to be one of those courageous 19^th Century pioneers who have decided to take up a Central Florida homestead. 160 acres, so YOU are told, will be yours for next to nothing, all YOU need do is select the parcel.

You soon learn the public land to choose from is scattered across 3,000 square miles of rugged wilderness. There are no trains to tour the region, nor scarcely a road. YOU will need to trek along one of only a few dirt trails, so-called roads leading inland to who knows where?

Enter John A. MacDonald, the one CitrusLAND businessman who, in 1867, knew where each of the trails led. Known in Lake County history for jump starting EUSTIS, MacDonald had conceived of his creative Central Florida land agency career while still living at MELLONVILLE.

A native of Canada, MacDonald began working as a Wisconsin woodsman up until the time of the Civil War. After peace returned to the States, he then found his way south to Florida, but discovered there were no jobs available. The self-taught land surveyor then invented a career: assisting others in locating choice homesteads.

John A. MacDonald wrote that a New York Tribune article, written by Horace Greeley, an editorial suggesting invalids go to Florida, brought him to the land of sunshine. The Northern climate had become ‘disagreeable with his health’. “

On landing at old Fort MELLON, on the south shore of the Lake Monroe, I came across the only sign of civilization - the small store building", said MacDonald, of "DOYLE & BRANTLEY, A walk of less than two miles brought me to the celebrated SPEER Orange grove, then twenty-five years old.”

The Speer grove was located at Fort REID, on the old Fort Mellon to Fort GATLIN Road, a 28 mile dirt military trail that by the time of MacDonald’s arrival had become known as the ‘Public Road to ORLANDO.’ This one inland trail is the same trail I have dubbed, ‘The First Road to Orlando’.

“The public road runs through the trees,” said MacDonald, “and the trees were loaded with fruit and nearly all in bloom,” adding, the sight “of an orange grove in all its glory of golden fruit and snowy blossoms, filling the air with its delightful aroma and delicate perfume, captivated me completely and shaped my plans through life.”

The question then became how to get customers? MacDonald concocted the idea of writing letters to editors, sending tantalizing missives to Northern newspapers, writing of the merits of basking in the warm Orange County Florida sunshine, while at the same time growing rich farming Florida oranges.

It wasn’t long before letters began arriving, inquiries from shivering folks up north, each asking how they too could own a slice of America’s 19^th Century Paradise.

While awaiting customers, John A. MacDonald toured the countryside, setting sights on good locations for homesteaders. Happy customers, he thought, would bring referrals!

MacDonald assisted Henry S. SANFORD during the earliest days of building the town of SANFORD; guided Dr. J. N. BISHOP of Mississippi toward SYLVAN LAKE, and then became instrumental in developing Orange County’s ‘Great Lake’ Region, now part of Lake County, including such towns as TAVARES, EUSTIS, SORRENTO and points between.

ORANGE LAND, an 1883 publication sanctioned by Orange County Commissioners, included this of John A. Macdonald of EUSTIS, Orange County, Florida. The man has “done so much for the development of South Florida and Orange County in particular, that a description of the county and no mention of him would be like the play Hamlet with Hamlet left out. With a reputation National in its extent, for honesty, ability and promptness, he finds the calls upon him for information and services so vast and wide spread that he has been compelled to publish a new book, "Plain talk about Florida," mailed free for 25 cents, together with his map of Eustis”. The 1882 MacDonald’s pamphlet was referenced in the writing of this Blog.

Florida’s Great Freeze of 1894-95 was the culprit that sent many a Central Floridian packing, with MacDonald being among them. By the year 1900, John was working as a Civil Engineer at Dade County, participating in yet another new town development, the City of Coconut Grove. 

Born May 10, 1841, John Angus MacDonald died at Dade County, Florida on the 27^th day of January, 1917. His wife of 52 years, Mary A. (DYER) MacDonald, born in 1849, died in 1928.

CENTRAL FLORIDA: AMERICA’S 19^TH CENTURY PARADISE:

IT SIMPLY IS NOT POSSIBLE to portray accurately the story of Central Florida’s earliest days without telling of West Orange County’s first days. Founding families of OAKLAND, WINTER GARDEN and a forgotten neighboring town - once planned as a major railroad hub, today nothing more than a long-forgotten Ghost Town, will be my focus of a very special CitrusLAND Event.

Join me Friday, November 13, 2015, at the fabulous Winter Garden History Research & Education Center, Heller Hall, 21 East Plant Street, in historic downtown Winter Garden for a CitrusLAND presentation of the enchanting story of a time before the arrival of John A. MacDonald, that period of time that was the birth of AMERICA’S 19^th Century PARADISE.

For details, visit my website Home Page: www.croninbooks.com

West Orange County Florida

SPECIAL EDITION

WGHF Speaker Series: Author RICHARD LEE CRONIN

It's simply not possible to tell of the first days of a developing Central Florida without mention of towns WINTER GARDEN, OAKLAND & OCOEE, or of a forgotten neighboring city, today a West Orange Ghost Town! Fact is, from ORLANDO to SANFORD; MELLONVILLE to FORT GATLIN; or SEMINOLE to OSCEOLA County, America’s 19^th Century PARADISE has roots deeply entrenched in West Orange County. Join us Friday, November 13, 2015, here in historic Winter Garden, for a fresh new look at the origins of Central Florida. This event starts at 6:30 PM in WGHF’s beautiful new History Research & Education Center; Heller Hall; 21 East Plant Street, Winter Garden. And about that GHOST TOWN, Richard Lee Cronin plans to send you home with proof that it existed, all compliments of CitrusLAND! Cronin’s books are available at the WGHF History Center. 

Visit my Facebook event https://www.facebook.com/events/902116619880314/

Rick's NEXT Blog: Friday, October 23, 2015, featuring Central Florida's 19th Century legendary pioneer; JOHN A. MACDONALD.

The SAVAGE of CitrusLAND

The SAVAGE of CitrusLAND:

Rick’s BLOG: September 2015 Edition

Central Florida – America’s 19^th Century Paradise

By Richard Lee Cronin

After posting Part One of 12 Central Floridians this January, a Blog Series that began with the 19^th Century pioneer William A. Lovell, I was contacted by a gentleman who was a lineal descendant of my featured character. A life-long Orange County resident himself, this individual still lived on a portion of Lovell’s original 1870 homestead.

We later met at The Museum of Apopkans, where I was presented with a plethora of additional data on a remarkable Lovell/Wofford family of Orange County, Florida. I had featured two men in Part One, as Lovell had relocated to Central Florida just prior to the Civil War, bringing with him the family of his father-in-law, John T. Wofford.

Both men at first settled near Fort Reid, then moved further south to Orlando. By 1870, they relocated west to the Apopka region. Lovell served as Orange County's first ever School Superintendent in 1869, and this man’s great-grandson, in 2015, explained that he too had recently retired from a life-long career teaching in Orange County schools. Like grandfather, like grandson!

While sitting there in Apopka’s marvelous museum, I fully realized I was in the presence of CitrusLAND nobility, yet did not yet know the full extent. After our meeting, I was informed he would also be sending material about his paternal family. Several days later, I received an envelope from my Apopka history friend, and learned that he was also a great-grandson of a Mr. Frank W. Savage.

“Mr. Savage claims that Florida has saved his life.” These words were penned 133 years earlier, in 1882, by the legendary John A. MacDonald. A land agent and surveyor, John MacDonald was then trying to eke out a living in the wilds of Florida. MacDonald, while writing of land dealings with a Dr. Joseph Bishop of Sylvan Lake, mentioned that the doctor had been, “instrumental in bringing many others, amongst them our esteemed townsman, Frank W. Savage, who has one of the most beautiful properties on the peerless Crooked Lake at Eustis”.

Frank Savage had told his family of working alongside Dr. Bishop at Freeman’s Bank at Columbus, MS, when he first began communicating with John A. MacDonald of Florida. MacDonald had advertised that he could assist those interested in acquiring Florida land.

MacDonald wrote of arriving at old Fort Mellon (1 mile east of present day Sanford), in 1868, and of homesteading two miles inland, at Fort Reid. By 1873, his father James was Fort Reid’s Postmaster, but the MacDonald’s soon after became less interested in Fort Reid, and more interested in a quiet corner of Orange County known then as the ‘Great Lake Region.’ You know the region today as EUSTIS!

An early Central Florida pioneer, Frank W. Savage passed to his descendants a detailed account of his early impressions of the region when he first arrived in 1876. Much of what Savage said of 19^th Century CitrusLAND is not only verified by land records, but is easily supported as well by the 1882 writings of John A. MacDonald.

Today, history is often considered dull and lacking, causing many to become absorbed in the 'make-believe'. Some take delight in super-humans, heroic characters who achieve make-believe triumphs – often times in a faraway make-believe universe. But as for me, I fancy real-life individuals, brave men and women who truly achieved the unimaginable, and did so right here on this planet, and at times, in our very own backyard.

19^th Century Central Florida – America’s Paradise - had many true-life pioneers that fit just such a description as Super-Human. Frank W. Savage and John A. MacDonald were but two such individuals, super courageous pioneers who dared to venture into an untamed wilderness of Central Florida, and at a time when the only roads were dirt trails.

Achievements of men such as Savage and MacDonald should never be forgotten. Neither man should ever be thought of as dull or lacking, for their story is the fascinating history of 19^th Century Central Florida. It was pioneers such as these two who, borrowing a line from the make believe, boldly went where no man had gone before. 

Central Florida’s 19^th Century history is, in fact, chock full of fascinating individuals who somehow pulled off the most remarkable of feats. They are the individuals I like to write about. They are the individuals I want all Central Floridians to remember!

My October Edition of this Blog will visit the Great Lake Region of Orange County, a region most folks know today as part of Lake County, and I will reconnect with legendary John A. MacDonald. Because his story is one worth telling again and again!

October 15, 2015: The Legendary John A. MacDonald

A new edition of Rick’s 2015-2016 Blog will post here on the 15^th of every month. Feed burner, if you choose, will send automatic notifications of new Blogs by subscribing in the space provided above. Meanwhile, should you have a comment, question, or desire a bibliography for this Blog, I’d love to hear from you at: Rick@CroninBooks.com

BY THE WAY……

DID YOU KNOW a Florida Senator has gone missing? It is a fact that the Speaker of Florida’s Senate issues regularly a complete roster of Florida Lawmakers who served in the legislature since the very beginning of Florida as a Territory in 1822. At least one name however is missing. THE RUTLAND MULE MATTER is in fact a Novel, but it is based on amazing true-life facts. This is a factual story of one man who was obliterated from the pageS of history! Click on this MULE - IF, THAT IS, YOU DARE!

And also,

RESERVE THE DATE: Friday, November 13, 2015 – for a CitrusLAND Book Event, sponsored by my friends at Winter Garden Heritage Foundation. Attendees will receive an exclusive Orange County historic keepsake as a reminder of their visit to historic Winter Garden, Florida. This event begins at 6:30 PM. If you can make it, I’d love to hear from you at Rick@CroninBooks.com