A History of LAKE UNDERHILL - Part 2

A History of LAKE UNDERHILL

Rick’s CitrusLAND Holiday Blog

Part 2: A Louisville School Board (or two)

Three huge land deals, involving millions of central Florida acres, ignited what can best be described as a mediocre 1880s surge in Orange County’s growth. Hamilton DISSTON had started the surge by purchasing four (4) million acres. Disston in turn inspired two British groups, working independent of one another, to acquire thousands of acres at Sanford as well as a large portion of a desolate East Orange County.

Looking west today across Lake Underhill toward Orlando skyline

Included in the millions of acres changing hands during the 1880s was a tiny parcel on the northeast shore of Lake Underhill. Currently an Orlando Executive Airport runway, the parcel was purchased in 1884 by a German immigrant. By that time though, much of the lake shore had already become private property. Philadelphia’s Hamilton Disston and the two British investors indeed triggered a growth surge, but interest in the Lake Underhill area itself appears to be more the result of migrating Kentuckians.

#Louisvillians to be precise!

The red rectangle on the Orange 1888 map above outlines the area of present day Lake Underhill. The two townships (each square on map) east of Orlando shows little to no settlement as of that year. The lake doesn't even appear on this map.

A Louisville Editor and Educator:

Students of central Florida history might assume, incorrectly, that I’d be referring to Pine Castle’s Will Wallace Harney in stating a school principal turned newspaper editor was an early Lake Underhill homesteader. Harney settled on Lake Conway, moving from Louisville in 1869, where he had been both an editor and school principal. Harney built a home of native pine trees on a lake shore, thereby inspiring the naming of the town.

But another Louisville editor and school principal, Norman Robinson, came to Orlando a decade after Will Wallace Harney. Robinson bought numerous parcels around central Florida, including 80 acres on the north shore of Lake Underhill. Planes taxi today on land once owned by Norman Robinson, a New York native who had relocated at a young age to Louisville, Kentucky.

Norman became so engaged in land development at central Florida that he convinced a brother to relocate to Orlando as well. That brother, Samuel A. Robinson, eventually became a prominent Orange County Surveyor.

Norman Robinson maintained dual citizenship, for in 1879, in addition to being an Orlando land developer, he was still Principal of Louisville’s Holyoke Academy. He and Leora Bettison Robinson, his wife and an acclaimed author, also taught at Holyoke Academy. Prior to the school, Norman had been editor of Louisville’s Western Recorder, a Baptist newspaper still operating today.

Norman & Leora settled near downtown Orlando, where CATHCART Avenue of today crosses Colonial Drive (CATHCART was Leora’s mother’s maiden name). The acreage Norman bought at Lake Underhill sat about 2 miles due-east of Orlando, a trek made much easier today simply by taking Robinson Avenue due east from Cathcart to the road’s end at Orlando Executive Airport.

The Robinson Brothers’ 1880s landholdings were widespread. They were among the first, for example, to plat an Addition to Kissimmee City, and they expanded Orlando as well. Norman acquired land on the north shore of Lake Underhill as well, whereas Samuel, he selected acreage along the south shore. Today, Lake Underhill Park and boat ramp sits upon property originally owned by Samuel A. Robinson.

Snowbirds began taking interest in the quiet lakeside seclusion east of the county seat, largely due to the Robinson’s. Northerners such as Henry CONANT, a New York City piano manufacturer; Alexander DUNCAN, a Toronto Police Sargent; and a British emigrant turned citrus farmer, Hugh B. CHURCH, each celebrated the 1884 New Year as Lake Underhill neighbors, enjoying the Sunshine State far from the frigid North that each had long been accustomed.

Who else? Well, Benjamin B. ELSE! He too lived on lakefront acreage that, as far as Orange County recorded documents reflect, did not yet have a formal name.

The ‘OTHER’ Louisville Girls School:

As the Robinson brothers were taking interest in the body of water now known as Lake Underhill, the town of Louisville, Kentucky was still harboring two key players in the story of our East Orlando Lake. Both were school teachers!

Ida M. Babbitt celebrated her 15^th birthday at Louisville in 1880, but not while living with her parents. Ida was living with Henrietta Barbaroux, founder and principal of Barbaroux’ School for Girls. Three years later, at age 18, Ida listed her occupation in an 1883 Louisville Directory as “teacher.” She was still living with Miss Barbaroux.

Meanwhile, back at Orlando, heirs of Sheriff David W. Mizell, Jr., the first landowner on Lake Underhill, sold their lakefront property November 13, 1884. Three recorded deeds, having a combined five (5) pages, described the acreage sold without ever mentioning a name of the lake bordering one side of the land.

William D. PALMER, a native of Monticello, Jefferson County, Florida, bought the land from the Mizell family, days before departing for Kentucky. Six (6) days after the Lake Underhill deed had been signed, William married at Louisville. His bride was a school teacher, Miss Ida May Babbitt, and so the Lake Underhill plot thickens.

How do I know, you might ask, that it’s the same Babbitt? Within one month of their marriage, William D. & Ida M. Palmer were living at the Summerlin Hotel, in downtown Orlando. The Summerlin Hotel manager was Miss H. Barbaroux, who would go on to establish the Cathedral School for Girls at Orlando.

The Palmer newlyweds also made their first land sale of acreage William had purchased only days before their wedding. The deed the couple signed as Mr. & Mrs. Palmer included descriptive language of the property location, including the sentence: “Thence south along LAKE UNDERHILL.” 

The Palmer land sale of December 16, 1884 by the is the first known recorded document referencing the name Lake Underhill. That 12 acre parcel was purchased by Elizabeth Harn, wife of Sam Harn, an Orlando Realtor. The very same parcel is today Colonel Joe Kittinger Park.

Two central Florida lakes became home, in 1860, to a prominent citizen named David W. Mizell. A father and son, both were well-known to local history. Senior chose his parcel on Lake Conway, across from an ex-Louisville High School principal who went on to become an Editor at the Louisville Democrat newspaper. Junior selected acreage on a lake destined to become Lake Underhill, across the shore from where a one- time Editor of Louisville’s Western Recorder turned High School Principal homesteaded 80 acres. The coincidence of history is very often amusing, but even more so here in central Florida.

The first Lake Underhill parcel settled in 1860 went on to become, in 1884, the first recorded deed to establish the lake’s name as Underhill, a name not easily found in the annals of central Florida history. The Palmer’s sold additional lots as “Lake Underhill”, adding to a growing list of lake shore residents. Part Three of this Blog will introduce you to an Arkansas Brigadier General and his Moscow, Russia buyer, as our Holiday event, A History of Lake Underhill, continues. Stay tuned, and in the meantime, check out...

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References are available upon request, email Rick@CroninBooks.com

Author Richard Lee Cronin

Proud recipient of the 2017 Pine Castle Historian Award

A History of LAKE UNDERHILL - Part 1

A History of LAKE UNDERHILL

Rick’s CitrusLAND Holiday Blog

Part 1: A Familiar Story; a Familiar Surname

Vehicles by the thousands scurry across the hectic overpass daily while their first time occupants consider ducking, so as to avoid all the low flying aircraft. Planes make a final approach above the traffic, each one aiming for a landing strip that begins at water’s edge, on the north side of Orange County’s 408. On the bridge’s south side, pleasure boats pulling skiers maneuver in and out of a maze of wave runners, while joggers watch the action from a popular lakeside trail. With so much occurring at this location, one might easily forget that at the center of it all is a mysterious body of water, known today as Lake Underhill.

East-West Expressway (The 408) at Lake Underhill

The East-West Expressway slices the lake in half. Also known as the 408, travelers on the east-west toll road have long used the expressway to access East Orange County. In fact, locals have either crossed over or driven around this lake for nearly a century.

An ‘Orlando, Underhill & Conway Express Wagon’ carried passengers and freight here as the 1880s, leaving Conway at 8:30 AM twice weekly, passing through “Underhill” about 9 AM, and arriving in Orlando ‘about’ 9:30 AM. For anyone desiring to return, the ‘wagon’ departed Orlando at 11:30 AM. The roundtrip fare was 40 cents. What then is the story of Lake Underhill? Who first settled at this body of water destined to become Lake Underhill? Or for that matter, who was Underhill?

The lake was not shown on maps prior to 1880, but an Official 1890 Orange County map not only shows the lake, it identifies the body of water as Lake Underhill.

A Familiar Story:

The lake’s absence from 1880 and earlier maps is misleading. Early pioneers arriving in Central Florida first settled alongside a narrow north-south artery, a dirt trail known as Fort Mellon to Fort Gatlin Road. This old forts trail is one and the same as the route I call First Road to Orlando (2015 by Richard Lee Cronin). Leaving Lake Monroe, the 1838 trail led south to towns; Maitland, Orlando, and eventually Pine Castle.

The earliest pioneers ventured into West Orange County as well, homesteading along yet another military trail, but prior to 1880, few had ventured east into the county. The end result was East Orange County developed much later than the western half.

Surveyors of the 1840s though had charted the entire county. In spring of 1843, Deputy Surveyor Henry Washington completed surveying Township 22 South; Range 30 East, the region that included Lake Underhill. Washington’s survey provides our first look at Lake Underhill, and also sheds light on why the 408 slices through the center of the lake today.

1843 Land Survey by Henry Washington

Lake Underhill is shown to straddle Sections 29 & 30

Lake Underhill straddles two, one-square mile survey ‘Sections,’ numbers 29 and 32. Each ‘Section’ contains 640 rounded acres. Between 1842 and 1900, most homesteads most were issued in 40, 80, 120 or 160 acre increments. Deeds were issued using legal descriptions from these 1840s surveys. As the ‘Section” line sliced through the body of water east-west known today as Lake Underhill, the dividing line for early property owners likewise cut through the lake’s center. As roads were needed, roads most often kept to the property edges. Hence, the East-West Expressway’s alignment!

Henry Washington called the water feature he surveyed in 1843 a “pond.” This was not unusual. Few lakes were named by the 1840s surveyors mapping them.

Most central Florida lakes were named by homesteaders and developers, with names often being family surnames or locale names. Lake Conway, for example, was named for Valentine Y. Conway, Florida’s General Surveyor at the time the lake was surveyed.

The Familiar Surname:

MIZELL is a central Florida pioneer surname most often associated with Harry P. Leu Garden’s, or perhaps the 600 acre Lake Conway estate. Widow Angeline Mizell did not however acquire the Leu Gardens land until after her husband’s death, while that huge estate fronting Lake Conway belonged to the Widow’s father-in-law.

Like father, like son, David W. Mizell, Sr. & Jr. selected lakefront property in 1860.

The first landowner on the shore of future Lake Underhill was David W. Mizell, Jr, a native of Florida born 1833. He bought this parcel August 1, 1860, at the same time his father, David W. Mizell, Sr. began accumulating acreage on Lake Conway.

Within one year of the land purchases, Junior and his brothers went off to fight in the Civil War. Surviving the War, David returned to Orange County only to die in an 1870 hometown ambush while he was surviving as Orange County Sheriff.

At the time of Junior’s death in 1870, his land was nearly two miles east of the tiny four (4) acre county seat of Orlando. Not until 1875 did Orlando incorporate, and even then, further development was at a snail’s pace. The lake destined to be Underhill remained well outside of city limits, although at this time, the lake did begin attracting a little attention from outsiders.

EAGAN of Florida’s Panhandle

Kate E. EAGAN, of Madison County, Florida, purchased 40 acres adjacent to and west of the Widow MIZELL’S property. Kate’s deed was dated December, 1875, and had been signed by several Florida Officials, including the Land Commissioner, Dennis EAGAN.

Dennis & Kate (LIVINGSTON) EAGAN were newlyweds. A Wisconsin native, Kate was born out west while her father served as a Registrar of Lands. The family moved back to Brooklyn, NY by 1870 though, in time for her to meet and marry Dennis, an Irishman and Union Infantryman, in 1873. After the wedding, the Eagan’s moved to Florida.

The Eagan’s purchased land throughout Orange County, but on January 1, 1877, the couple purchased 40 acres south of and adjacent to Widow MIZELL. Dennis and Kate however did not relocate to central Florida.

Another 1870s land transaction occurred September 10, 1879. Widow Mizell deeded a 40 acre parcel adjacent to the south property of her EAGAN neighbor. This parcel was deeded over to Widow Mizell’s daughter, Lula and husband, Humphrey T. ARNOLD.

1880: (1) MIZELL land; (2) EAGAN land; (3) ARNOLD land

At the close of the 1860s decade only one individual owned land at Lake Underhill. By the end of the following decade, three (3) individuals owned the west lakeshore: Mizell (#1 on map); Eagan (#2 on map) and Arnold (#3 on map). Two of these three parcels were vacant of homeowners, as neither Widow Mizell nor the Eagan’s lived lakeside.

The actual name Underhill for this lake does not appear to have existed as of 1880, but big changes were in store for upcoming decade, which is where I will pick up in Part Two of my Holiday BLOG: A Louisville School Board, on December 13, 2017.

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References are available upon request, email Rick@CroninBooks.com

Richard Lee Cronin

Proud recipient of the 2017 Pine Castle Historian Award

BUCKEYES and CitrusLAND's FIRST Avenue

BUCKEYES and CitrusLAND’s FIRST AVENUE:

I received an email several days back inquiring about the origin of an unusual First Avenue. The First Avenue in question was located in a rural part of Seminole County, off BUNNELL Road. It’s a very short street, ending after only two blocks at PINE Drive.

“Since any ‘1^st Avenue’ would typically be near the downtown area of a town,” the author of the email wrote; “was there a town located there?” I should add that there is NO Second nor Third Avenue anywhere nearby, only this one numbered street, a mysterious First Avenue, a street located far from the nearest metropolitan district.

  

FIRST Avenue off BUNNELL Road, beneath arrow in above map.

The gentleman inquiring about the mysterious 1^st Avenue had recently finished reading my book; CitrusLAND: Altamonte Springs of Florida. He told me my book was; “excellent, and I love how well you did your research.” Well, such kind words were certainly deserving of a response, so now having learned of the lone numbered rural road, and with my curiosity peaked as well, I set out to learn of the origin of 1^st Avenue. I knew where to begin my search, and the inquisitive email author had considered the same possibility as well.

A once-upon-a-time town of Forest City was nearby. But founded in 1883, Forest City, today a Ghost Town, was laid out using street names, not numbers. My email author also mentioned that he had purchased another of my books; CitrusLAND: Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains, but had not yet read it. Ghost Towns will be a helpful reference too, as Exhibit 16 on page 88 shows the actual 1885 Plat of Forest City.

The map included above shows a sliver of old Forest City, the southwest corner, outlined in green. Not shown on this map is the one-time location of the Forest City rail station.

For those knowledgeable of the present day area, Target Department Store occupies land where the Orange Belt Railway once stopped at a “handsome rail depot.” At this location was the intersection of Bay Street and Orange Avenue, (Bay Street is Forest City Road now, whereas Orange Avenue still goes by Orange Avenue today).

First Avenue of today, the subject of this blog, is outside the property platted in 1885 as Forest City. First Avenue is quite a distance, especially in the pre-automobile age, from Forest City’s main downtown intersection of Bay and Orange.     

In my very first book, I nicknamed central Florida CitrusLAND because this describes best how a wilderness evolved into the metropolitan area we know and love today. Many of the earliest settlers arrived at central Florida to farm Citrus, but quickly decided they could add to their personal wealth by developing a corner of their LAND as a new town. As a result, 160+ towns came on the scene during the 1880s.

Each new town founder tried to sell small town lots to snowbirds, northerners desiring an escape from harsh winters. Trying, as even First Avenue can attest, was the operative word here, for few who took on the challenge of developing central Florida then were successful.

Peter & Frederika Hoequist of Hamilton County, Ohio were one such example of the earliest families to attempt taming central Florida’s wilderness. The couple bought 160 acres in what was at the time Orange County. (A June 30, 1883 deed was issued to Peter Hogquist). At the time Hoequist bought his property, an established Cleveland Ohio department store owner had already acquired hundreds of adjacent acres, and was in the process of planning his town (Chapter 8 - Buckeye Territory; CitrusLAND: Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains). [Why the name Forest City? Forest City Racetrack opened in 1850, near Cleveland. For more, see CitrusLAND: Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains.]

Hoequist sold his land within the year. Harrison L. Donham and William J. Foster bought 120 of the 160 acres, and within a year, Donham bought out Foster.

So, by year-end 1883, Harrison L. & Elizabeth Donham of Hamilton County, Ohio, often misspelled Danham or Denham, owned 120 acres adjacent to, and southwest of, the 600+ acres owned by John G. Hower of Cleveland, Ohio. But this region in 1883 was not easily accessed. The nearest railroad station, said the 1885 Webb’s Historical publication, was “South Florida Railroad, 3 ½ miles east”. 3 ½ miles east via a sand rutted dirt trail!

Hower’s town of Forest City did not get rail service until 1886, but when the train did arrive, track of Orange Belt Railroad crossed diagonally through town. The southbound train departed Forest City, exiting Hower’s land near today’s intersection of Pearl Lake Causeway and Pine Drive. In 1886, this was the intersection of Pearl Lake and Pine Street, the southernmost east-west artery in Hower's town of Forest City. Present day Pine Drive, west of Pearl Lake Causeway, lines up perfectly with a once-upon-a-time Pine Street of Forest City.

Dr. Harrison & Elizabeth Donham, of Orange County, Florida, granted the Orange Belt Railway permission to cross their land. In 1887, Dr. Donham was listed in the Orange Gazetteer as a Physician at Forest City. He was also listed as a citrus grower. Peter Hoequist was listed as the Forest City Blacksmith.

Florida’s Great Freeze of 1895 devastated central Florida landowners. Many settlers up and left, returning to homes up north, or elsewhere to start anew. The Donham’s went back to Hamilton County, Ohio, where Dr. Harrison Lafayette Donham died in 1898. His wife Elizabeth (Watkins) Donham lived in Ohio until her death in 1907.

Would-be Orange County towns failed as the local population fled. Orange County of 1900 actually had fewer residents than in 1890. Property sat idle, property taxes went unpaid, and so during the mid-nineteens, Joseph E. McNeil, of Adams County, Ohio, began buying up thousands of Orange County acres, for mere pennies on the dollar, simply by paying off old unpaid tax bills.

If McNeil sounds familiar, refer back to our map. McNeil Road runs east to west, between Pearl Lake Causeway and Bear Lake Road. Seminole County was formed a few years before McNeil bought his land, and he platted a portion in the new county as McNeil’s Orange Villa, filed with Seminole County in 1917. Each square of the McNeil plat shown below is 640 acres in size. The square at far right, outlined in Orange, (Lot 60), includes pre-Freeze acreage once owned by the Donham’s of Hamilton County, Ohio. A red arrow points to the old route of Orange Belt Railway.

McNeil’s Orange Villa, recorded April, 1917

Land development didn’t get any easier for those who tried to start over in the twentieth century. Florida’s Great Land Bust of 1927-28, the financial market’s collapse of 1929, a Great Depression during the 1930s, and a World War in the 1940s, combined to leave much of central Florida undeveloped. Not until 1952 did the old Donham land show signs of renewed life – and then it was under a new name, Lavada Court.

Lavada Court, surveyed 1952, recorded 1955

Recorded in 1955, Lavada Court shows Pine Street rather than Pine Drive as it is today. Oak Street is now Shamrock Lane. 1^st Avenue remains 1^st Avenue today.

Ohio native Harrison L. Donham owned plenty of land adjacent to Forest City during the 1880s, ample acreage for expanding further westward, possibly planning to a Second Avenue, perhaps even a Third Avenue, had plans for the nearby Orange County town, a city founded by an Ohioan as well, worked out.

Little remains to remind us of these early pioneers, courageous men and women who attempted to tame central Florida. We can now, however, look at First Avenue, and to some extent Pine Drive, aka Pine Street, with an entirely new historical perspective.

First Avenues are typically near a downtown area, and yet in Seminole County, two such numbered streets are rural roads. Each are remnants of a ghost towns, Forest City and Sylvan Lake. Both stand as testament of a remarkable 19^th century history, and both are featured in CitrusLAND: Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains.

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CitrusLAND: the amazing story of central Florida

Bibliography available upon request

Town of EDGEWOOD, Florida

Two cities now encroach on the one-time homestead of the man most often credited with naming Pine Castle. The acreage upon which Will Wallace HARNEY built his historic pine residence is today part of Belle Isle. Still another sliver includes, to quote a Town Plat of Edgewood, “a portion of Lot 1, Harney’s Homestead.”

Each of today’s three ‘place names’ associated with Pine Castle are rich in South Orange County history, but as for this blog, I’ll be zeroing in on the origins of one specific locale, the origins of a Town of Edgewood!  

1860 Homestead of James J. & Lydia Patrick

Government Lot 4 & SW ¼ of SW ¼ Section 13; 23S; 29E

Edgewood Town Hall, on Larue Avenue, is south of the original town site. A product of Florida’s 1920s ‘Land Boom’, the original Edgewood was north of Lake Mary Jess Road, midway between 1880 towns Pine Castle and Gatlin, on land dating to the earliest South Orange County settlers.

John T. Jerkins lived at Hawkinsville, on St. Johns River, in 1856, when the 30 year old Orange County resident followed Fort Mellon to Fort Gatlin Trail south, all the way to the end. Here, Jerkins enlisted with Aaron Jernigan’s Volunteer Militia at Fort Gatlin. Likely using a Military Land Warrant, Jerkins acquired 74 remote acres beyond Gatlin, acreage along the west shore of the upper basin of Lake Conway.

Jerkins sold his 74.4 acres September 18, 1858, to a fellow Volunteer Militiaman by the name of James J. Patrick. Known to surveyors as “Lot 4 and the southwest ¼ of the southwest ¼ of Section 13,’ (above map), this very same parcel, by 1915, belonged to two land developers; H. Carl Dann and J. B. Long.

Dann & Long subdivided a portion of their land, naming the development CONWAY HEIGHTS. Newspapers of 1915 reported over the summer that improvements had been made to ‘Orlando to Pine Castle’ road, and that on August 24, 1915, a hundred or more cars would form a convoy, driving all the way from Sanford to Kissimmee. Dann & Long’s property sat east of South Florida Railroad’s track, and east too of the soon to be heavily traveled road rechristened, ‘Dixie Highway.’

Conway Heights offered six, long slender lakefront lots, each stretching from Dixie Highway east to the shore of Lake Conway. John & Eleanor Droege, of New Haven, Connecticut, bought three (3) adjoining lots, each being 650 feet deep, having a combined 135 foot frontage on the lake as well as Dixie Highway. OAK LYNN Drive, off Hansel Avenue, is currently in the vicinity of the three Droege lots, where the New England couple built their winter residence, complete with a, “boathouse and bathing pavilion,” on Lake Conway.

The 20s Boom

Orlando Attorney Edward S. Bridges acquired the Droege property, including the boathouse and bathing pavilion, July 12, 1920. Bridges however did not keep the parcel. He instead deeded the land that same month to his brother-in-law and sister, Robert M. & Lucy (Bridges) Shearer, both of whom were returning to the United States after a long overseas stint.

Native Kentuckians, the Shearer’s bought additional nearby acreage, and on January 26, 1926, as Mayor of the Town of Edgewood, Robert SHEARER approved OAK LYNN at EDGEWOOD, a subdivision of 100 plus lots platted by the Alleman Brothers. A 1929 Orlando City Directory includes the following listing: “Colonel Robert M. Shearer, President Orange County Mortgage and Investment Corporation, wife Lucy B., home address Oak Lynn Edgewood, Florida. Phone 7558.”

Robert M & Lucy B Shearer, Circa 1919

Forty (40) years after Clement R. Tiner platted his Town of Pine Castle, residents new to Orange County, and unfamiliar with the amazing history of the place, laid out a new Town of Edgewood. Their new city, over time, started encroaching southward, on land once owned by William A. Patrick, and later platted by the son of Will Harney, William Randolph Harney – but then, that’s a story in and of itself. You'll find it in Beyond Gatlin!

During the year 1900, Robert M. Shearer was serving in the Philippines, in the Army, but so too was the 1884 Postmaster of Conway, another startup town east of Fort Gatlin. Orange County Surveyor Augustus C. Hart was likewise in the Army, also stationed in the Philippines. Another fellow, an Ohioan, soon to be elected President of the United States, was in the Philippines too, and by remarkable coincidence, all four of these individuals were to influence the 20^th century development of South Orange County.

Pine Castle of yesteryear is a borderless community today, a ‘place’ remembered by nearby residents of each location. Beyond Gatlin, a History of South Orange County, delves much further into the lives of remarkable central Florida pioneers, and the many challenges the bravest of the brave faced head-on, events that shaped the earliest settlements south of the county’s seat of government at Orlando.

BEYOND GATLIN

A history of South Orange County

“Between two beautiful lakes and projecting into a third,” central Florida’s Fort Gatlin, established in 1838, became a hub for the earliest settlements south of Orlando. BEYOND GATLIN is a history of true-life courageous pioneers, hardy men and women who endured an endless barrage of challenges to establish 19^th century settlements of Kissimmee City, Shingle Creek, Pine Castle, Mackinnon, Troy, Gatlin, Conway, Campbell City, Runnymede, and 20^th century communities of Taft, Prosper Colony, Edgewood, Belle Isle. Beyond Gatlin also goes in search of the real Fort Davenport, the ridge of Oaks, and more. 97 Exhibits and an extensive bibliography support this 236 page history of how South Orange County and early Osceola County came to be.

BEYOND GATLIN, AVAILABLE AT AMAZON.COM

https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Gatlin-Orange-Florida-History/dp/1977714730/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1507568885&sr=8-1&keywords=beyond+gatlin

ORLANDO'S OAK RIDGE?

Was there a Ridge of Oaks in South Orange County? 

Central Floridians by the thousands drive or cross OAK RIDGE ROAD in South Orange County daily, yet none ever get to view the real Oak Ridge. A key east-west artery, Oak Ridge Road crosses four major roadways: Orange Avenue (Route 527); South Orange Blossom Trail US 441); John Young Parkway (Route 423; as well as world famous, International Drive.

Any one of the four major north-south crossroads would provide a perfect dividing line for separating East Oak Ridge from West, but instead, the division occurs at Jason Street. A lesser-known north-south artery, connecting Lancaster Road with Oak Ridge Road, why choose Jason Street as the east-west division point for Oak Ridge Road?

East of Jason Street, Oak Ridge ends at Pine Castle. West of Jason, Oak Ridge crosses busy South Orange Blossom Trail. If you were to head southbound on Orange Blossom Trail, after a mile or so, you would come to yet another busy intersection at Sand Lake Road. Florida Mall can be found there, as well as a fascinating mystery of central Florida history.

Barely noticeable on the northwest corner of busy Sand Lake Road and Orange Blossom Trail is Oak Ridge Cemetery, a historic graveyard that is located a mile and a half to the south of Oak Ridge Road. A fascinating mystery? Oak Ridge Cemetery appears on a 1953 Orange County Oak Ridge Manor Plat as fronting on Oak Ridge Road!

1953 “Existing” Oak Ridge Cemetery on Oak Ridge Road.

Beyond Gatlin; Exhibit 73 of 97

Two logical starting places in my search for a Ridge of Oaks became Jason Street and the 1953 Oak Ridge Cemetery.

Orange County Commissioners, I learned, had a field day in the 1950s changing street names. “Oakridge Road” was changed January 20, 1958, to “McCoy Road.” One section of McCoy, closer to McCoy Airport (now OIA), still exists. But closer to Orange Blossom Trail, that Oakridge was changed, twice, later becoming Sand Lake Road. 

At year end 1953 though, the road out front of Oak Ridge Cemetery was known as Oak Ridge Road, as evidenced by the above plat..

On April 13, 1930 a census taker noted that Ralph & Ada Macy lived on Oakridge Road over in Pinecastle (both place names written as one word). Another fascinating mystery of central Florida history, Orange County Commissioners changed, in 1955, nearly every existing street name in the old Town of Pine Castle. Macy Street officially became Oak Ridge Road! Odd, that a quarter century after the 1930 census taker’s notation, Orange County had finally made the name change official.

First laid out in 1884, the northernmost road in Pine Castle was Macy Street, named by town founder Clement R. Tiner for early resident and Macy Hotel founders, William & Martha Macy.

Attorney William R. Anno doubled in size Clement Tiner’s town the very same year, adding 80 acres toward the west. Three north-south streets were laid out by Anno in 1884: West Avenue; Maud Avenue; and Blanch Avenue.

Orange County Commissioners again went to work on August 16, 1955 changing names. They changed West Avenue to Anno Avenue; Maud, a street that had been named for Anno’s daughter, became Dumont. Blanch Avenue, also named for a daughter of W. R. Anno, became – Jason Street. Today, 100 East Oak Ridge, the first parcel on East Oak Ridge Road, is described in legal terms as: Lot 4; Block 4 of W. R. Anno’s Add to Pine Castle.

North portion of W. R. Anno’s Add to Pine Castle

Beyond Gatlin, Exhibit 72 of 97

In my book, Beyond Gatlin, A History of South Orange County, The Oak Ridge is one of 26 Chapters detailing the many challenges and misfortunes of early settlers in the remote wilderness south of Orlando. “Oak Ridge the name traces to June 15, 1903,” as I state on page 178; “although likely existed even before that date. F. A. Adden deeded 70 square yards, identifying the one acre parcel as the present corner of Oak Ridge Cemetery.” The property changed hands four times during one decade, so that between 1893 and 1903, the story of this historic place was nearly lost, for one land speculator after another sold the property, first acquired for unpaid taxes.

The fascinating story of the Oak Ridge was not entirely lost though. Chapter 26 traces the origin of Willis & Avey (Ava, Arey) Tiner's Homestead. A brother of Pine Castle founder Clement, Willis Tiner relocated west from Pine Castle, following the “present very old road,” shown above Lot 4; Block 4 of W. R. Anno’s Addition (see above), a road shown on a 1890 map as veering sharply south, toward a ridge of trees. The family settled on 80 acres in the early 1880s, but then Willis died, March 19, 1885, leaving behind a Widow and eight (8) small children.

“Between two beautiful lakes and projecting into a third,” central Florida’s Fort Gatlin, established in 1838, became the hub for settlements south of Orlando. BEYOND GATLIN is the history of true-life courageous pioneers, hardy men and women who endured an endless barrage of challenges to establish the 19^th century settlements of: Kissimmee City; Shingle Creek; Pine Castle; Mackinnon; Troy; Gatlin; Conway; Campbell City; Runnymede; and 20^th century communities of Taft; Prosper Colony; Edgewood; and Belle Isle.

BEYOND GATLIN also goes in search of the real Fort Davenport, the ridge of Oaks, the naming of Lake Jessamine, and much more. 97 Exhibits, and a detailed bibliography, support this first-ever history of how South Orange County and Osceola County came to be.

BEYOND GATLIN, now available now at Amazon.com - visit my Amazon book page for a closer look: 

https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Gatlin-Orange-Florida-History/dp/1977714730/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1507043881&sr=8-1&keywords=Beyond+Gatlin

Further details at www.CroninBooks.com

FORT GATLIN and an ORLANDO Deaconess

Miss Parkhill, Deaconess at Cathedral School for Girls, an Orlando preparatory school located at the southeast corner of Orange Avenue & Jefferson Street, mailed off a letter of introduction to Alexander T. Jones at Winchester, VA. In the letter dated May 9, 1916, the 75 year old schoolmistress opened with, “To my dear cousin,” and then proceeded to explain their family connection.

The Manor House, Residence of W. S. Jones, Vaucluse, VA.

The daughter of John Parkhill and Lucy Beverly Randolph, the deaconess was born Harriet Randolph Parkhill at Tallahassee, Florida on April 5, 1841. Harriet told Alexander Jones that they shared an amazing family lineage, a history documented in letters written by his very own grandmother, Ann Cary (Randolph) Jones.

On the 23^rd of May, 1916, Alexander Jones replied to Harriet, and as a result of their exchange of letters, a prior generation’s correspondence between Virginia and Florida cousins became part of the Handley Regional Library System of Winchester, VA.

“Ann Cary Randolph Jones”, explains the library’s introduction; “wrote long, loving letters, replete with family and local news. Many of those sent to her Florida cousins were saved. The “Harriet” addressed in some of the letters – Harriet Parkhill – eventually sent them back to Winchester, to her cousin, Mrs. Jones’s grandson, Alexander Tidball Jones.”

A complex Randolph family tree

Lucy Beverley Randolph Parkhill, mother of Harriet, was the sister of the first wife of Francis Wayles Eppes, grandson of President Thomas Jefferson. Eppes, in 1871, built a residence on a central Florida lake that he had personally named, Lake Pineloch. The family lineage of Ann Cary Randolph Jones is traced through central Florida pioneer, William Mayer Randolph. William was a prominent 1870s figure in a settlement surrounding the 1838 Fortress Gatlin. Francis Eppes began building his home while the land upon which it was built was still deeded to William M. Randolph.

Ann never relocated to Florida, and yet she is linked to Orange County history through her brother’s son, William M. Randolph. Married to William Strother Jones II, the couple lived in Frederick County, Virginia, at a place known as “Vaucluse”.

Vaucluse Spring, Virginia on the Homestead of W. S. Jones

An esteemed New Orleans Attorney, William M. Randolph and wife Mary E. Pitts were heavily invested in central Florida property. They built the first free standing hotel south of Lake Monroe. Family members including Randolph, Preston, Magruder, Pitts, Eppes and Harney populated a large area around Fort Gatlin.

Although his business interests were at New Orleans and Florida, William M. Randolph chose to live out his final days, as his death notice reveals, “At Vaucluse,” Frederick County, Virginia, after a long and painful illness.”

William M. Randolph’s obituary states the man died at the home of a relative, “W. S. Jones”, and that after his death, Randolph’s body was transported to Florida, for burial at Fort Gatlin.

Harriet Parkhill did far more than preserve a family’s history by returning letters to her cousin in Virginia. Thanks to Harriet Randolph Parkhill, a long chapter in the story of Fort Gatlin was likewise preserved.

The Vaucluse Legacy is Part One of my four part Beyond Gatlin, a history of South Orange County. 200 plus pages, 70 plus Exhibits and a detailed bibliography picks up where my, First Road to Orlando left off – at Fort Gatlin.  

The official unveiling of this history is November 9, 2017, the 179^th Anniversary of Fort Gatlin. You can reserve, at no cost now, your very own signed and numbered copy, simply by emailing; BeyondGatlin@CroninBooks.com with a note to reserve a copy. You will be contacted when your copy is ready to be signed and mailed. Anticipated retail price $19 plus tax, and all advance orders are guaranteed that price.

BEYOND GATLIN: Perils of PINE CASTLE

The Pine Castle - residence of Will Wallace Harney

 A complimentary sneak peek of BEYOND GATLIN, due out November, 2017

Chapter 10: Perils of Pine Castle

One might assume development south of Fort Gatlin began in the town of Pine Castle, home to Will Wallace Harney, son-in-law of the Honorable, William M. Randolph. Although such an assumption seems logical, it wasn’t so.

Arriving in late 1869, Harney built a lakefront home on Lake Conway, personally naming his residence Pine Castle. Over time, a city did eventually grow around his homestead, and even adopted the homestead’s signature name, but personal perils got in the way of Harney himself reaping rewards as a town developer. The actual town of Pine Castle was platted in 1884, and not by Will Wallace Harney.

Arriving at Orange County in late 1869, Will Harney had been one of a family that had endured a long arduous journey south. His 25 year young wife, Mary St. Mayer (Randolph) Harney, eldest daughter of William & Mary E. (Pitts) Randolph, made the challenging move to Florida’s wilderness carrying an infant son, William Randolph Harney, born June 24, 1869, the same year of the family’s relocation to Florida.

After debarking at a ‘raggedy’ Mellonville pier, they still had a rugged trail to trek, 28 miles in all. They saw not the first house nor store for the first 22 miles of that trail. Orlando welcomed them at Mile 22, all four acres of this remote County Seat then still containing the charred ruins of the courthouse, burned to the ground a year earlier. Orange County records were destroyed by an arson’s torch, believed set by those involved in a cattle wrestling case awaiting trial, a trial that was awaiting the next circuit judge to arrive from the port at Mellonville.

Across on the east side of the old forts trail was one of only two stores in Orlando’s tiny village, the last place they could buy goods before journeying south the next six miles. And these next six miles would be even more remote than the 22 already traveled.

A newspaperman, Harney had departed Louisville, Kentucky, a town of 100,000 in 1870, and relocated to Fort Gatlin, deep in the wilderness of Orange County, Florida, at a time when the entire county Orange, all 3,000 square miles, had fewer than 2,200 residents.

Arriving during the final days of 1869, Will Harney’s wife Mary died January 8, 1870. Mary (Randolph) Harney was laid to rest beside the old ruins of Fort Gatlin, on part of the land where William M. Randolph made his homestead. Within months of arriving in a land intended to improve his wife’s health, Will Wallace Harney had become a Widower.

Six weeks after Harney’s wife died, Sheriff David W. Mizell, Jr., on February 21, 1870, was shot and killed in an ambush in south Orange County. The Sheriff’s parents lived across the lake from Will Harney, while one of the accused murderers, John J. Barber, lived south of Harney on Lake Conway. The lifeless body of yet another of the accused, Moses E. Barber, was found in Lake Conway, not far from Harney’s Pine Castle residence. Some said Moses Barber had drowned. Others said no, he had been murdered.

As Harney’s infant son was turning one in June of 1870, Will learned of his father-in-law’s failed attempt at constructing Orange County’s first railroad. The long tiring journey from Mellonville to Harney’s homestead on Lake Conway was to remain long and tiring, hardly a prime location for founding a new town.

One could even make the argument that 1870 Orange County didn’t have a town. Orlando was still a four (4) acre village, occupying land donated to the county in 1857. Would be towns of Apopka, Fort Reid, and Mellonville were places where one could buy goods. Not one of these places had yet filed a town plat. And so for Will Wallace Harney there was no incentive to consider establishing a city, not during his early years as a resident of Orange County.

The hurricane of 1871 brought an entirely new set of problems for the locals, Harney included. Repairing extensive property damage meant little or no time to deal with such frivolous matters as town building. The storm (Chapter 8: Harney’s Hurricane) left behind dead cattle, giant trees uprooted, and many of the crops destroyed.

Throughout the decade of the 1870s settlers had little reason to imagine being town developers. Putting food on the family table continued to be their full time job.

But agents of change were gathering at Orange County, and it’s easy to understand why locals may not have at first noticed. Settlers began to find their way south to Orange County. Veterans of the Civil War came for grants of land, given to retired warriors in lieu of wages. Confederate Veterans came first, followed soon after by a number of Union Veterans.

RESERVE A SIGNED, NUMBERED COPY – PAY NOTHING NOW

First Road to Orlando, Second Edition 2015 ended at Fort Gatlin

NOW THE JOURNEY CONTINUES

www.croninbooks.com/Beyond-Gatlin

November, 2017