The VETERANS Railroad at MELLONVILLE

SANFORD, on Lake Monroe, is typically considered the birthplace of Central Florida’s railroad. South Florida Railroad began running trains between Sanford and ORLANDO November 11, 1880, but organizers had begun planning a Lake Monroe to Tampa train one entire decade earlier, in March, 1870. Among the earlier organizers was a gentleman who had already constructed Florida’s first-ever train.

The story of Central Florida’s first railroad remained buried in newspaper archives until only recently. While collaborating with Sanford researcher Christine Kinlaw-Best, a Director at Sanford Historical Society, she happened upon an 1870 newspaper article that altered what was thought to be the history of railroading in this region.

Christine and I had been researching Matthew R. Marks, an early Florida pioneer, and the man’s involvement with Fort Reid’s Orange House Hotel. Also known by its Indian name, ALAHA CHACO, it had been said that the Orange House was the first hotel built south of Lake Monroe. In the land of hotels today, the first-ever is truly historic!

Dated April 6, 1870, the article Christine Kinlaw-Best had located not only spoke of Fort Reid’s Orange House Hotel though, at two miles south of MELLONVILLE, it mentioned too that the hotel had been a meeting place, on March 3, 1870, of those incorporating the “Upper St. Johns, Mellonville, Tampa & South Florida Railroad.”

Ten (10) years before the first South Florida Railroad train departed Sanford in 1880, planners had gathered a mile to the east of Sanford at Fort Reid, a gathering intended to organize central Florida’s first inland train to run between Lake Monroe and Tampa.

A predecessor to Sanford’s 1880 train had been known – to an extent. In February of 1880, the directors of ‘Mellonville & Orlando Railroad,’ of which Joseph Finegan was President, conveyed their State franchise right-of-way to South Florida Railroad.

Joseph Finegan was one and the same as Florida Brigadier General Joseph J. Finegan, builder of Florida’s first railroad – a sea-to-sea railway, connecting the Atlantic Ocean near Jacksonville with Cedar Key on the Gulf of Mexico. Finegan completed the State’s first railroad prior to the Civil War. Other directors involved with the Mellonville & Orlando Railroad of 1880 were Michael J. Doyle of Mellonville; Dr. W. A. Spence of Fort Reid; and Bolling Baker of Maitland.

The residence of Michael J. Doyle at Mellonville

Photo source: Florida Memory Project

Joseph J. Finegan and Michael J. Doyle had also been involved a decade earlier as organizers of the Upper St. Johns, Mellonville, & Tampa Railroad. In 1870, other planners included Arthur Ginn and Matthew R. Marks of Mellonville; William Watson and Jacob Brock of Enterprise; Matthew A. Stewart of Apopka; as well as John T. Leslie and Charles Moore of Tampa. The Honorable William M. Randolph, of Fort Reid, Fort Gatlin and New Orleans, Louisiana, was yet another organizer.

Each individual involved with the first central Florida railroad had one thing in common besides railroading, as each was also a Veterans of the Confederacy, a group of retired warriors who then joined together in an attempt to start over in central Florida.

At that March 1870 meeting, a motion was approved authorizing Matthew R. Marks to journey north to New York City, with his end-game being to raise cash to build their new railroad. Perhaps you recall, from part one of this series, that George C. Brantley died in 1878 at New York City, there hoping to buy rails for his Tuskawilla to Orlando train. Matthew R. Marks though survived his New York City visit, but the railroad he and fellow Southern investors hoped to build, did not.

The Lake Monroe to Tampa railroad of 1870 died as a result of a law suit filed by a New Yorker named FRANCIS VOSE. Within nine (9) months of that Fort Reid organization meeting, on the 6^th day of December, 1870, Vose, holder of pre-Civil War railroad bonds, obtained an injunction, restraining the State from using public land for further railroad construction until he was paid in full. Francis VOSE held $211,885 in past due bonds on Florida railroads constructed before the War.

The Court injunction derailed plans for Central Florida’s first railroad, a train that was to be built by Confederate Veterans of America’s Civil War. Instead, the South Florida Railroad Company, organized by Union Veterans of America’s Civil War, built Central Florida’s first railroad during the year 1880.

Stay tuned, a new RAILS & TRAILS, with another GHOST TOWN or two, picks up where we left off next Wednesday, sponsored by ‘Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains’ a Novel based on true Central Florida 19^th century railroads.

Kindle Unlimited members read this book FREE, but all summer long, Central Florida Railroad Museum at Winter Garden, and Bookmark it Orlando book stores, have print copies available at a special discounted price of only $15.00. It’s all a part of a RAILS & TRAILS SUMMER 2016 Series.

My author page, Richard Lee Cronin, is now up and running at www.Goodreads.com or simply visit www.CroninBooks.com for more details.

At GOODREADS.COM you can register in two summer drawings for a chance to win a FREE book by Richard Lee Cronin: The Rutland Mule Matter giveaway is running from June 28^th to July 28^th 2016. Watch also for First Road to Orlando giveaway begging in early July. 

FORT MASON on the ST. JOHNS & LAKE EUSTIS RR

Today a Ghost Town, ORANGE County’s Fort MASON was located two miles southwest of MOSQUITO County’s Fort MASON, although to visit either site now, one would need to take Lake County’s Route 19, following the one-time track alignment of St. JOHNS & LAKE EUSTIS Railroad. Clear as mud, right?

A St. Johns & Lake Eustis train waits at the Fort Mason Depot 

The easternmost corner of Lake County was part of Orange County until May 27, 1887. And prior to 1845, this same area was part of Mosquito County. In 1836, Fort MASON was established by the Army during the Seminole Indian War. The fortress was built alongside a north-south trail, shown a decade later on a survey as located on the west bank of present day Lake BRACY, east of Lake SMITH. Now inaccessible by car, the one-time fortress sat one half-mile east of County Road 19. A city of Fort Mason was later established two miles south, on the north shore of Lake EUSTIS.

Lake County’s Route 19 connects ASTOR, on St. Johns River, with the one-time town of Fort MASON. An 1883 publication described Fort Mason as, “situated on Lake Eustis, and has been for three years the terminus of the St. Johns & Lake Eustis Railroad.”

Incorporated February, 1879, St. Johns & Lake Eustis Railroad was certified complete from Astor to Fort Mason on the 13^th of November, 1880. (South Florida Railroad ran its first train between Sanford and Orlando on the 11^th of November, 1880).

A town of FORT MASON dates to September 24, 1872, with John M. Bryan being named first Postmaster on that date. (A year later, SANFORD established a Post Office). A two acre Fort Mason site was sold in 1877 for a store lot, and that land sale was described as located, “on the railroad right-of-way.” Planning for the railroad began as early as 1877!

“Capitalists in Florida,” were hard at work planning Central Florida’s earliest inland trains. The New Orleans Morning Star of April 1, 1877 reported, “Mr. Astor of New York and Captain W. Stokes Boyd desire to make extensive investments in Florida.” Town of Astor, on the St. Johns River at Lake George, was to be the nucleus of a planned 80,000 acre “Manhattan Project.’ George C. Brantley and Henry S. Sanford were, at this same time, planning Orange County towns as major ports along the St. Johns River.

“Fort Mason is in what is known as the Lake Region,” said Orange Land of 1883, "lying on Lake Eustis, which is a large and beautiful body of water, connected by steam boats with Lakes Harris, Griffin, Dora, Beauclair and Apopka.”

As the Astor based railroad extended its line further south to EUSTIS, interest in SANS SOUCI Street, paralleling RAILROAD Avenue and IGOU Street at Fort Mason very quickly diminished. ‘Carefree,’ as the French Sans Souci suggested to newcomers, could no longer live up to being worry free as Fort Mason progressed toward Ghost Town status.

“Two large general stores kept by Charles T. Smith and Samuel M. Owens, and a large well-kept hotel,” as each was described in 1883, are long gone today, but one can still trace 19^th century footprints of Central Florida’s earliest dreamers and schemers.

Town Plat of Fort Mason, Surveyed 1874 by E. G. Rehrer, Recorded 1885

Drive north from downtown Eustis, veer northwest onto Route 452, and then follow the lakeshore. Turn left on FORT MASON Drive, and this short street will end at State Road 44, where in 1945 Fort Mason met its demise, and where our Rails & Trails drive begins today. Construction of Route 44 paved over portions of the Ghost Town’s earliest streets.

Railroad Avenue once crossed here at the intersection of Fort Mason Drive and SR 44. Track continued toward the lake, ending at a pier where passengers transferred to steamers for the next leg of their journey on Lake Eustis. Original street names have since vanished.

Turn right here (east) onto 44, then left at 19A (northbound) and drive north to Route 19. About 2 miles north, at Dona Vista, the road begins to parallel the old St. Johns & Lake Eustis Railway. Off to your right (east) will be Lake Smith, and beyond that lake, the 1836 Fortress Mason. Continuing north, CR 19 passes through towns & villages that were once scheduled stops for the railway: Umatilla; Glendale; Chipcoe; Pittman; Ravenswood; Summit; Sellars Lake; Bryanville; before finally arriving at Astor at St. John River. At Astor, stop alongside the river, and imagine anxious newcomers to the region arriving here aboard steam vessels of the 19^th century. 

“It would be well for persons who contemplate settling in Florida to examine in person, or by letter, this particular section of the State.” These words, first penned in 1883, apply as well today, and for persons already residing in Florida who have not yet visited this region.

Stay tuned, a new RAILS & TRAIL, and another GHOST TOWN or two, picks back up right here – next Wednesday!

Kindle Unlimited members read ‘Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains’ FREE, while all this summer, Central Florida Railroad Museum at Winter Garden, and Bookmark it Orlando have copies available at a special discounted Rails & Trails price of $15.00

Visit www.CroninBooks.com for even more details.

ORLANDO & LAKE JESUP RAILROAD at TUSKAWILLA

ORLANDO & LAKE JESUP RAILROAD, as well as the Town of TUSKAWILLA, are among many examples of how railroads shaped the central Florida as we know it today.

An actual town of Tuskawilla no longer exists, but if George C. BRANTLEY had had his way, this Ghost Town of today would have been the starting point for his railroad. The FIRST central Florida train departed out of SANFORD, but months before, the FIRST track in this area had been surveyed for the ORLANDO & LAKE JESUP Railroad.

During the 1870s, long before personal automobiles, the task of transforming Florida’s interior fell on trains. Riverboats, like the ‘Tuskawilla’, delivered people and cargo to various docks, but an inland alternative to old sand rutted trails was needed for the area to attract settlers in large numbers.

The Civil War had interrupted the building of an Orange County railroad, but following the War, plans resurfaced. By 1870, retired warriors floated the idea of a train running between MELLONVILLE and TAMPA. Money problems put that start-up venture on hold.

Dreamers kept dreaming though, and a race of sort was on to build the first railroad to serve a growing number of steamers on the St. Johns River. One planner was a Georgia boy named George C. BRANTLEY.

A merchant having “a large store and warehouse” on Lake Jesup, Brantley’s Wharf was visited in 1873 by Thomas W. Lund, Jr, son of a St. Johns Riverboat Captain. Lund’s parents owned a winter residence near the wharf, and Lund, Jr. described mule teams hauling freight from “Tuscawilla to Maitland and Orlando.” Planning for the town of SANFORD was still in its infancy during 1873, and as for the train at nearby Mellonville, it was still on hold, still hoping to raise cash.

Brantley’s plan began to take shape on the 2^nd day of January, 1874. On that day he sold 225 acres to cattleman Jacob Summerlin, land surrounding much of present-day Lake Eola, on the east side of downtown ORLANDO.

Brantley’s Orlando railway depot was planned for the east side of Lake Eola. Had his train been first to arrive at the County Seat, it would have drastically altered not only how downtown Orlando evolved, but also how cities north and east of Orlando might have developed. This train, for example, was to have stayed east of present day Winter Park, as opposed to South Florida Railroad track passing to the west of that town.

TUSKAWILLA was platted in 1874, and so too was Summerlin’s Addition to Orlando. All Brantley needed to do next was to lay 13 miles of track between these two towns.

1874 Plat of Tuskawilla on Lake Jesup (Jessup)

Brantley reportedly surveyed 3 miles of track before heading to New York City to arrange rail delivery. That’s when fate intervened, as George C. Brantley died while in New York City, October 22, 1878, fifteen months before South Florida Railroad began laying down their track in the direction of Orlando.

On November 11, 1880, the first South Florida Railroad train departed Sanford, rolling into Orlando, Florida later that afternoon, stopping at a depot well to the west of Jake Summerlin’s addition. Eventually, both the Sanford & Indian River Railroad and Florida Midland Railway set sight on the Tuskawilla region, but by then, it was too little too late, as railroads in general were experiencing a financial crisis.

Today, Seminole’s Cross County Trail crosses a portion of the 8,000 acre Mitchell Grant, part of the original 1830s Levy Grant. Along Lake Jesup’s south shore, the trail passes just south of the intersection of Orange Avenue and Tuskawilla Road, remnants of a 19^th Century Town of Tuskawilla, a Ghost Town today.

Had George C. Brantley the visionary lived, if his railway line been completed as he had hoped, there is no doubt Central Florida would look very different today.

Each Wednesday, throughout the summer of 2016, we celebrate the early railroads of Central Florida. But you needn’t wait until Wednesdays to experience Florida railroads. Explore the excellent system of trails built atop old rail beds, and visit Winter Garden’s Railroad Museum on Boyd Street. While touring the museum, pick up a copy of Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains, specially priced during this 2016 Rails & Trails Summer.

STAY TUNED FOR A NEW RAIL, A NEW TRAIL, AND ANOTHER GHOST TOWN!

Kindle Unlimited members can read Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains FREE.

Visit my Website at: www.CroninBooks.com

Stotesbury's Sanford & St. Petersburg Railroad

Reviewing the convoluted timeline for Sanford & St. Petersburg Railroad should likely come with a caution label, something on the order of: Warning, analyzing this timeline for extended periods of time may bring on a horrendous migraine.

Established in late 1893, central Florida’s Sanford & St. Pete operated along 153 miles of track between Sanford on Lake Monroe, and St. Petersburg on the Gulf of Mexico. Track had been installed originally in the 1880s by Orange Belt Railway. Only one individual, Edward T. Stotesbury of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was involved all throughout the history of the Sanford & St. Petersburg Railroad:

THE TIMELINE

1886: Peter A. Demens of Longwood, Florida establishes Orange Belt Railway;

1889 Jan 21: Orange Belt Railway files Plat, extending the railway 4 miles from the town of Monroe, on Lake Monroe, east into Sanford, including the building of a Lake Monroe Pier at Cedar Avenue;  

1889 May 31: Edward T. Stotesbury signs Orange County document as the “President of Orange Belt Railway Companies”;

1892 May 16: Creditors of Orange Belt Railway foreclose, naming Edward T. Stotesbury as Trustee for H. O. Armour; E. W. Clark & Company; and Drexel & Co, (E. W. Clark and Drexel are both Philadelphia banks.)

1893 Apr: Orange Belt Railway publishes Time Table in which Edward T. Stotesbury is listed as President, William McLeod Vice President;

1893 Dec 7: Orange County Sheriff sale at Orlando’s Courthouse steps sells assets of the Orange Belt Railway to “John P. Ilsley and Joseph S. Clark, both of Philadelphia.” Ilsley had been employed as Manager of a Pennsylvania railroad which E. W. Clark had been appointed as Trustee. Joseph S. Clark was the son of Philadelphia’s E. W. Clark). Total purchase price is listed as $150,000.00;

1894 May 22: Edward T. Stotesbury, Trustee, conveys Sanford parcels on Cedar Avenue at Lake Monroe, to the Sanford & St. Petersburg Railroad (See 4 mile extension listed above for Jan 21, 1889);

1895 Feb 7: “On the night of the 7^th of February, 1895, a still greater freeze occurred, in fact, the greatest ever known in the history of the state, the thermometer reaching as low as 18 degrees above zero, by reason of which second freeze, almost all of the orange trees in orange and other counties were killed to the ground.” February 8, 1896, Benjamin M. Robinson;

1895 Feb 11: A Time Table is issued by ‘Sanford & St. Petersburg Railroad’ that includes a footnote: “Formerly the Orange Belt Railway.” (This timetable was likely printed prior to the freeze of four days earlier);

1895 Mar 17: The New York Times publishes a story telling of the sale of the Sanford & St. Petersburg Railroad to the Plant Systems (A recorded deed has not yet been located, see also 1903 below);

1895: Jun 15: At Palm Springs railway stop: “While others were complaining, and saying there was no use of planting any more orange trees, nor in fussing with them, Mr Root said he sold $600 worth of oranges right here at this doorstop in 1894. Why should I give up?’ The Orange Belt Railroad has packing houses along its whole length. At an early hour Monday morning we stepped off the train at St. Petersburg, at the southern termination of the Orange Belt Railroad.” Source: Gleanings in Bee Culture, June 15, 1895;

1897 Dec: Central Florida newspaper, ‘Florida Home, Farm & Field,’ described Oakland as having two railroads, one being the “Orange Belt Railway”, adding that this train connects in Sanford with the ‘Plant System’;

1899 Mar 13: John P. Ilsley, President of Orange Belt Investment Company, transferred an Oakland, Florida parcel of land to the Sanford & St. Petersburg Railroad;

1902 Jan 12: “John Parker Ilsley, well known to western railroad men, is dead.” Age 77, Ilsley died at his home, in New York. There was no mention in his obituary as being known to ‘southern’ railroad men;

1903 Mar 19: Edward T. Stotesbury, signing as President of the Sanford & St. Petersburg Railroad, conveyed ownership of the railroad, including all 153 miles of track, to ‘Atlantic Coastal Railroad,’ part of the Henry Plant system;

2015: CitrusLAND: Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains was released in a 'Second Edition.' As a passenger aboard the Orange Belt Railway weeks after the devastating 1895 freeze, readers journey, from Sanford to Oakland, with Edward T. Stotesbury and John Parker Ilsley. Along their route, both men meet with the landowners who had just suffered a terrible blow. Not knowing quite yet what they should do, towns of Sylvan Lake, Island Lake, Glen Ethel, Palm Springs, Forest city, Lakeville, Clarcona, Crown Point, Winter Garden, Oakland and Killarney, all fear for their future.     

Edward T. Stotesbury (1849-1938) served as a partner in J. P. Morgan & Co. and its Philadelphia affiliate, Drexel & Company for 55 plus years. In 1910, it was estimated that his worth was in excess of $100 million. Of the many northern companies Stotesbury is most often associated with are: Reading Railroad; Lehigh Valley Railroad; Philadelphia Fidelity Bank; Girard Trust Company; Cambria Iron Company; Latrobe Steel Company; Penn Mutual Life insurance Company; and the Niagara Falls Electric Power Company.

In 1916, Stotesbury was provided with his very own private parlor car, Reading Car 10, which he named ‘PARADISE.’ His personal residences included El Mirasol at Palm Beach, Whitemarsh Hall in his native Philadelphia, and a summer mansion at Bar Harbor, Maine.

Biography material found in Who’s Who 1910 and Stotesbury.com – but in closing I should add – there is not even one mention of Edward T. Stotesbury’s involvement in Orange County, Florida between the years 1889 and 1902.

Click here to proceed to AMAZON.COM

BOOK IS ALSO AVAILABLE AT:

Central Florida Railroad Museum, Winter Garden

Winter Garden Heritage Foundation, Winter Garden

Bookmark it Orlando, Corrine Drive, Orlando

Infusion Tea, College Park

LINGERING MYSTERIES of ORLANDO'S HISTORY

YOUR PERSONAL INVITATION

LINGERING MYSTERIES of ORLANDO’S HISTORY

By RICHARD LEE CRONIN

 The stage is set, and I'm ready to go!

FIRST ROAD to ORLANDO 

A Book Presentation & Signing

WHO founded ORLANDO? WHY the name ORLANDO? WHO was ORLANDO? WHY at this location? HOW did more than one person come to own the city of ORLANDO? WHO planted those “old” Orange Trees? WHO was Robert R. REID; or was it REED? WHY did BROOME chair ORLANDO’s Incorporation meeting of 1875? WHY was ORLANDO dissolved as a city in 1879? WHO was EOLA? Main, Magnolia or BOTH? And More!

Visit my Facebook Events Page for details, and please let us know of your interest

https://www.facebook.com/events/1716223871986125/ 

Books will be available for purchase at the presentation, or NOW at:

Bookmark it Orlando, 3201 Corrine Drive, Orlando

Winter Garden History Center, 21 E. Plant St., Winter Garden

www.CroninBooks.com

FIRST ROAD TO ORLANDO: 

2014 Copyright: Library of Congress #TX 7-993-324

A READING: The Rutland Mule Matter

Rick’s Blog: Special Edition

THE RUTLAND MULE MATTER

Author's reading at the

Writers of Central Florida or Thereabouts…

Stardust Video & Coffee, Orlando, Florida

MARCH 9, 2016

A very special thanks to the Writers of Central Florida or Thereabouts, as well as the kind folks at Stardust Video & Coffee, for providing authors an opportunity to take to the stage and promote their work, as in my case, a reading from my Central Florida mystery-history Novel, The Rutland Mule Matter.

First, setting the stage:

In 1927, then retired Rollins College President & historian, William F. Blackman, published, ‘History of Orange County’, long considered a bible with regard to the story of 19^th Century Central Florida. Blackman however stated that very little was known of the region prior to 1870. Blackman did record that a William W. Woodruff had been the Orange County representative at Florida’s Secession Convention of January, 1861.

Blackman also mentioned Woodruff was one of seven delegates to vote against the State’s Secession. Blackman did not, however, mention the name Rutland.

A dozen years earlier, Clarence E. Howard published Early Settlers of Orange County, and included a biography of William W. Woodruff. Howard described Woodruff’s long mule-ride from Mellonville to Gainesville, and of then boarding a train for his final leg to Tallahassee.

Howard too reported of Woodruff voting against Florida’s Secession, and mentioned the name Rutland – but only once! Woodruff’s wife, said Howard, lived at Rutland’s Ferry prior to their marriage.

William W. Woodruff did in fact oppose Florida’s Secession, but there were two Orange County residents who served as delegates. Both men voted NO! The second opposing vote had been cast by Isaac N. Rutland. Five years later, at War’s end, Rutland, the father of four young children, was dead!

A year after Rutland’s death, Isaac’s Widow, with help from a Massachusetts Navy Officer by the name of Lincoln, was able to get her Mule returned. The Mule, stored at the Quartermaster’s stable, in Jacksonville, Florida, was shipped, by the Navy, down the St. Johns River to Mellonville.

By 1870, four orphan Rutland children had been sent to live with their grandmother in Georgia, but by 1880, two of the four siblings, a son Othman, and a daughter Sarah, had returned to Orange County, Florida.

Now, everything stated thus far is historically accurate, with some information coming from a government file, created in 1865, labeled, ‘The Rutland Mule Matter.’

Isaac N. Rutland has been mentioned, from time to time, since Blackman’s history, but until now, next to nothing was ever known of the man, or his family!

An Orange County politician vanished. I feel certain the man’s son, Othman Rutland, would have wanted to find out what happened to his father. And that brings us to my Novel, The Rutland Mule Matter, named for that 150 year old Provost Marshals file folder.

A Central Florida mystery! Central Florida history! This Novel focuses not only on the father, but on Isaac’s family as well. A brother and sister, then 19^th Century American Paradise pioneers themselves, begin a search for answers during the 1880s. During this search, a nervous Othman Rutland travels to the North, twice.

This reading is of Othman Rutland’s first journey, north to Columbus, Ohio, where he hopes to confront, face-to-face, a retired Civil War Union Colonel.

And one final note, every individual mentioned in this reading was a true-life individual!

The Reading, Page 83:

Chapter Seven

Representative Harris

Thursday, July 12, 1888

Excuse my sloppy handwriting, as this is a first attempt at writing onboard a moving train. I want to update my diary before memory of events fade, but each time I go to write, the train jerks, and my pen slides across the paper. I found a seat in the lounge car though, beside a small table, and I intend to sit here until all my thoughts have been penned.

Sitting on the floor, between my feet, is a box of fresh oranges, Ezekiel’s ‘ingenious’ plan, concocted last fall while convincing me I needed to make this trip.

Already this train has taken me further north than I’ve ever been in my life. Before now, five or six miles north of the Florida line was the farthest, but a few moments ago, a conductor came through the car announcing we were arriving at Brunswick.

The further north I travel, the more apprehensive I’m becoming about traveling to the land of Yankees. For now though, I need to get back to writing.

Stewart’s Homestead last October:

Following dinner at the Stewarts, we all decided to take a breather. Obviously not wanting to discuss my father, Uncle Matt escaped to his rocker on his front porch. The ladies moved to the living room, while Ezekiel and I, we exited out the back door, searching for fresh air in the woods out behind Stewart’s home.

A part of me was still looking for where our cabin once stood. I followed a dirt trail leading down into a shallow hollow, and as I searched, Ezekiel shared his opinion of Uncle Matt’s reluctance to discuss my father.

“Folks around here have a difficult time discussing the war.” My brother-in-law reminded me of things I already knew, like the huge price Central Florida had paid in lives lost during the war. “We are stirring up memories others would prefer not revisit.”

He was right. Talk of father probably did touch raw nerves.

We hadn’t gone far on the path when our conversation was cut short. We had arrived at a small cemetery.

Thirty feet square or so and surrounded by a waist-high iron fence, the tiny cemetery looked to contain about a dozen or so graves. It was clearly an old burial ground, yet regularly maintained. Each grave was marked by a small white cross. The crosses were engraved with only initials, and nearly all ended with the letter ‘S’.

In this largely unkempt wilderness, within a stone’s throw of the Stewart family home, hiding in the midst of wild palmetto bushes and prickly scrub oaks, was this tiny oasis, set out in honor of family members.

Ezekiel and I impulsively stopped to pay our respects, standing with hands folded in prayer while not saying a word for the longest time. As I viewed each marker, I couldn’t help but wonder if one had been placed here for my mother.

We stood there in total silence until suddenly a piercing screech caused us to leap out of our skin. But then I immediately realized the source of that scream had been me, reacting to someone unexpectedly touching my left shoulder. Neither Ezekiel nor I had heard my Aunt Ella approach from behind.

My aunt waited while we each planted our feet back on the ground, and she then pointed me in the direction of that cross I had been searching.

“Your mother’s marker is that one, on the far right!”

I didn’t say a word, I couldn’t. I stared down at the worn cross, a stick in the ground, a weathered marker having three barely noticeable initials – M. M. R.

Aunt Ella then pointed to a small cluster of crosses atop a mound. “That group,” Aunt Ella paused while Ezekiel and I inspected the crosses, each engraved as well with only initials. “They are in memory of your Uncle’s two brothers, and others killed during that awful war. We don’t even know where they are buried.”

Aunt Ella continued, although doing so was obviously a struggle. “J C S is Jonathan Clay Stewart, two years younger than your Uncle. Jonathan was the Orange County Sheriff before going off to war. He died a few months after arriving in Virginia. P B S is Philemon Bryan Stewart. Bryan was an even younger brother of your Uncle Matt. K H is for Kedar Hawthorne, your Uncle Matt’s brother-in-law, husband of his youngest sister. They were all casualties of that war.”

Aunt Ella was tearing up, yet insisted on continuing. “A P M, Angus P. Malloy, my sister Sarah’s husband. So many of our loved ones lost during such a horrible war.” My aunt needn’t say anything more, although I did have a question for her.

“Angus, he was Duncan’s father?” My aunt nodded her head, confirming my suspicion that Duncan was the son of Angus & Sarah Mallory.

I clarified for Ezekiel. “Grandma took Duncan in after the war, and Duncan, Sarah and I lived together up in Georgia. Duncan returned to Orange County with us.”

I hugged my Aunt Ella while she cried, Ezekiel stood by silently, keeping his head bowed.

Then, wiping away her own tears, Aunt Ella looked at me, and confessed. “I should have never said anything about your father. Othman, please do not think badly of your Uncle, he has such a difficult time even today dealing with so much tragedy and loss.” I hugged Aunt Ella tighter.

I don’t recall how long we stood there in total silence, all three of us, staring at the Stewart family cemetery. We stood there for a sufficient length of time though for me to realize others were still enduring the pain caused by a terrible war.

I made amends with my Aunt that very afternoon, and later, I made amends with my Uncle Matthew Stewart.

We bid farewell to Aunt Ella and Uncle Matthew soon after, and I again hugged my aunt, thanked her not only for a delightful afternoon, but for sharing their painful losses as well.

Ezekiel and I slowly packed babies and ladies onboard, pausing again and again as Aunt Ella insisted on more baby hugs and kisses. Ready to mount up myself, it was Uncle Matt who then stopped me.

After first shaking my hand, he hugged me, something my uncle never did before, and he then slipped me an envelope, while whispering, “Wait until you are back at Vick’s before opening this. Understand, your aunt and me, we made a promise to your mother. And one more thing Othman, tell Miles I’m proud of him. I’m proud of you both!”

He wiped his eyes, I wiped mine, and then the Vick and Rutland families departed Stewart’s homestead.

In conclusion,

The Rutland Mule Matter is available at Bookmark it Orlando, 3201 Corrine Drive, Orlando, FL; Winter Garden Heritage Foundation, in historic Winter Garden, FL; and Amazon.com. To order online through Amazon click on my Author page:

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

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