ORLANDO Founding Families: Merchant OVERSTREET

PART ONE: Merchant Henry Overstreet

ORLANDO’S story kind of began in 1856. The idea of such a town likely began years before, but not until 1856 was Orange County introduced to the 417’ X 417’ square want-to-be town.

1857 Plat of Orlando, Lot 10

Four acres in size (417’ x 417’), the square town consisted of four streets: two running north-south, and two running east-west. The streets formed sort of tic-tac-toe board. 12 city lots were sketched around the perimeter, surrounding a very small courthouse square. Of the man donating this land to Orange County there were only two requirements: First, the village had to be named the County Seat. Second, the town had to be named, ORLANDO!

Historians have typically told of the town’s Lot 10 merchant, David W. Mizell, but he was not the city’s first merchant, nor was he the first merchant at Lot 10. David W. Mizell acquired the lot (today the southeast corner of Central Avenue and Magnolia), on the 12^th of December, 1859. Mizell paid Henry & Mary Overstreet the sum of $209.87 for the land as well as “all of the goods and merchandise.” Merchant Mizell therefore bought the store of merchant Overstreet.

Because Mizell didn’t buy until 1859, Orlando’s mysterious Lot 10 likely originated with Henry C. Overstreet, (I say likely because some cattle wrestlers burned down the courthouse in 1868, and many of the earliest deeds went up in smoke). Still, Lot 10 is indeed a mysterious parcel.

I know its old news to write about Benjamin F. Caldwell of Talladega, Alabama donating four acres in 1857 for a courthouse,” but you may not know the whole story of that transaction. For starters, the statement is not correct! Benjamin F. Caldwell of Talladega, Alabama signed a deed which stated: “Town Plat of the Village of Orlando, the county seat of Orange County, State of Florida, containing four acres, more or less, excepting Lot No. 10 in said plat, which lot is hereby not conveyed.” So, Caldwell donated less than four acres – because lot 10 was not part of his land gift. But why was one of twelve town lots specifically excluded? One possibility is that a general merchandise store already occupied the land area that then became lot 10.

Another important fact worthy of mention is where lot 10 was located in the overall scheme of 1856 Orange County. Note in the map above that ‘Main Street’ ran north and south alongside Lot 10. The dirt road called Main Street was in reality the Fort Mellon to Fort Gatlin road first established as a military trail in 1838. By the 1850s this route was called Mellonville Road.

Sketch of 1871 Mellonville Road becoming Main Street

After the Civil War, David W. Mizell conveyed his store to his son-in-law, E. W. Spier, shown as such on the 1871 sketch above, on the east side of Main Street. Years before, like in 1856, the 25 mile long Fort Mellon to Fort Gatlin Road was a lonely trail having only ONE store south of Fort Reid at Mile Marker 2 – and that ONE important general store, at Mile Marker 22, belonged to Merchant Henry C. Overstreet.

Overstreet family legend says Henry Overstreet arrived in Florida in 1856. Orange County’s 1860 census supports this claim, for of the family of 10 in 1860, all but two were natives of Georgia. Henry and Thomas were both listed as born in Florida, in 1856 & 1860 respectively. The Overstreet family is also wrongly shown as residents of Brevard County. Although listed with the Brevard census, the family post office address, as shown below, was Orlando.

1860 Brevard Census with heading “Orlando in Orange County”

Merchant Henry Overstreet is the perfect place to begin this Orlando Founding Families series, and for a variety of reasons. His arrival in 1856, together with his 1859 deed to David W. Mizell, helps piece together a complicated origin for this place called Orlando, FL. Twenty-three years after his arrival, in 1879, a then Orange County Commissioner Henry Overstreet signed yet another deed, this one attempting to clarify the four acres: “upon which the courthouse stands.” Even this Orange County Commissioner’s deed however only adds to Orlando’s mystery.

Henry Overstreet is also a great place to start the story of Orlando because, as father to a dozen central Florida offspring, he and wife contributed as well to expanding the area’s population.

Born October 11, 1821 at Swainsboro, Emanuel County, GA, Henry Overstreet married Mary Cowart in 1843 prior to relocating to Florida. He settled first at the Village of Orlando, but as the Civil War began, the village was all but abandoned. Perhaps desiring to get as far away from any civilization as possible, as if Orlando of 1860 could be deemed civilized, the Overstreet family relocated again, this time even deeper into the wilderness of Orange County.

While living at Orlando during the 1850s, merchant Overstreet and James Yates, Sr. had been neighbors. The two families then became Shingle Creek neighbors. Orlando Founding Families next Friday continues with Part II: Patriarch Yates of Orlando.

About the Overstreet’s of central Florida:

CAUTION: Long-time central Florida Overstreet families could be lineal descendants of Moses Overstreet, also of Georgia. He arrived at Orange County after the Great Freeze, began buying up thousands of acres, and established Overstreet Turpentine Co., Overstreet Crate Co, and Overstreet Investment Co. Henry and Moses had different parents, so any family ties between the two would be either a second or third generation relationship.

GENEALOGY: Orlando’s Henry & Mary (Cowart) Overstreet, after moving further south from Orlando, founded Shingle Creek United Methodist Church on their property. Still part of Orange County at that time, Henry died at Shingle Creek on November 23, 1879. Osceola County was carved from Orange eight years after his death.

“First Road to Orlando” is a history of the old Fort Mellon to Fort Gatlin Road and of how a tiny village in the middle of a remote wilderness became the Orange County seat of government.

This Orlando Founding Families delves deeper into the courageous pioneers who found their along a lonely dusty old forts trail – and became the first families to settle at Orlando.

Central Florida History by Richard Lee Cronin

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

Beyond trail’s end – “Beyond Gatlin: A History of South Orange County”

Visit my Amazon Author Page above for a complete listing of my award winning books

GERTRUDE & daughters of Eustis - Mount Dora:

GERTRUDE & daughters of Eustis-Mount Dora:

Valeria’s death at age 83, in faraway Forrest County, Mississippi, on the 25^th of June, 1953, begs the question, did anyone recall at the time that a 19^th century memorial to Valeria Gertrude (Henry) Baker still existed back at Lake County, Florida?

1925 U. S. Interior Waterways of Central Florida

Today, departing northwest from Lake County’s historic town of Mt Dora, requires driving old Route 441 alongside railroad track first laid down in the 1880s by Leesburg & Indian River Railroad Company. An expansive Lake Dora appears on the left, or south side of your drive, while on your right, or north, a glimpse of Lake Gertrude appears. 

Lake County did not yet exist when Valerie’s father, William Perry Henry of Gwinnett County, GA, first arrived in Orange County’s “Great Lake Region.” Orange Land, an 1883 Orange County publication encouraging newcomers to settle in central Florida, promoted this corner of the county as well: “The route for those wishing to go to the Great Lake Region in the northwest part of the county, is to leave the St. Johns River steamer at Astor and take passage on the cars of the St. Johns & Lake Eustis Railroad to any desired locality.”

“Doc Henry,” as locals soon came to know the Georgia native, planted the first orange grove in Mount Dora in 1873. William, wife Mary Jane (Lea), and their three year old daughter Valeria Gertrude, settled on a 147 acre homestead along the west shore of a then unnamed lake on their property. William & Mary Henry sold a ten acre chunk of that homestead March 28, 1884, describing the parcel sold as being located on “Lake Gertrude.” The Henry’s had granted Leesburg & Indian River Railroad permission to cross their property in December of 1882.

When the Henry family arrived in 1873 the nearest post offices were Lake Eustice (sic), opened by James Hull on May 15, 1871, and Fort Mason, opened September 24, 1872. It would be another four years before Augustus & Olivia Pendry built a hotel fronting on Lake Eustis, opened the Pendryville Post Office, and named a lake on their property for their daughter, Grace Olivia Pendry.

Olivia Pendry, mother of Grace Olivia Pendry

Ocklawaha Hotel, Lake Eustis, built by Augustus & Olivia Pendry

Florida native Nettie Morin, born 1880 to Philias & Charlotte (Dowling) Morin on the family homestead near today’s town of Eustis, was the namesake of Lake Nettie.

All three Lake County lakes are still known by the names the parents of three daughters gave to each lake nearly 140 years ago. Nettie Morin of Lake Nettie moved away from Lake County. She became a school teacher. Grace Olivia Pendry of Lake Gracie married Clifford Crandall, moved back to her parent’s home State of New York, but died at Bradenton, Florida in 1964. Valeria Gertrude (Henry) of Lake Gertrude married Benjamin Thomas Baker, a native of Mississippi, and she relocated to Mississippi, where Valeria Gertrude (Henry) Baker died, June 25, 1953.

Not every lake was named for a daughter of a 19^th century homesteader, but you now know of at least three that were. Deeds transferring ownership of the Henry parcel of 1884, and the railroad right-of-way of 1882, were both recorded at Orange County’s courthouse in Orlando. Hence the title of my new book, ORLANDO Lakes: Homesteaders & Namesakes.

To learn more on each lake identified in bold above, or other Eustis-Mount Dora waterways such as: Crooked; Dora; Harris; Ocklawaha; Saunders; Simpson; Woodward; Lerla; Neighborhood and more, I invite you to consider purchasing my latest book on the story of central Florida: ORLANDO LAKES: Homesteaders & Namesakes, an encyclopedia of central Florida lakes, profiling the origins of 303 historic lakes from Eustis and Sanford in the north to Kissimmee in the south. In the 19^th century, all roads led to Orlando!

Now available at Winter Garden Heritage Foundation in historic Winter Garden, as well as Amazon.com. I invite you to check out ORLANDO LAKES: Homesteaders & Namesakes. You can do so simply by clicking on the convenient link below:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=orlando+lakes+homesteaders+%26+namesakes&crid=20A2UMNWOH7VM&sprefix=Orlando+Lakes+%2Caps%2C181&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_14

Beginning FRIDAY, April 5, 2019

A series like none other:

FAMILIES of the VILLAGE

The founders of ORLANDO

Part One: Merchant OVERSTREET

CitrusLANDFL: Celebrating central Florida’s amazing Women

Anna SYBELIA (Hill) Marks of Maitland

MAITLAND, FL: Away from all the hustle, bustle and noise of Maitland Avenue, west of the busy historic district of Maitland, a quiet residential neighborhood of grand stately homes overlooks peaceful Lake Sybelia. Residents have long selected this pristine lake to live on, with among the earliest of central Florida pioneers being Dr. Clement C. Haskell of Boston, Massachusetts, one of crucial organizers of the 1880 South Florida Railroad. Haskell chose to build on the south shore of Lake Sybelia in the late 1870s.

Lake Sybelia, Maitland, FL

Anna Sybelia (Hill) Marks of Maitland

Fourth in a CitrusLAND Series celebrating Women's History Month

Amidst all the tranquility this lovely lake has to offer, a horrific tragedy took place across the lake from Haskell’s future home. The heartbreaking tragedy occurred April 6, 1873, and that incident led to the lake’s naming. Today, 146 years later, what occurred in the spring of 1873 at the home of Land Agent Matthew R. Marks is still best revealed by an obituary published in the Southern Christian Advocate:

“She had nursed, with that sleepless diligence and patient watchfulness springing only from a mother’s love, her little daughter Jessie, through a protracted illness, even until the last hour. On the day after the death of her infant, her husband desired her to accompany him to the grave, but she did not have the strength. She looked, however, from the window, and as the dull sound of the earth falling upon the coffin broke upon her ears, her finely strung heart gave way.”

“Anna SYBELIA Marks, wife of Major Matthew R. Marks, daughter of Judge Eli Hill of Terrell County, GA,” reported her obituary, “died on the 6^th of April, at Lake Maitland, Orange County, Florida, of general exhaustion. Three days and four nights of intense suffering closed her mortal career.”

Matthew Marks, in 1869, had formed a Fort Reid land agency in partnership with his brother, Richard Marks. Soon thereafter, Matthew took special notice in a town being laid out well to the south of Fort Reid, a community located at the abandoned Army fortress of 1838, a fort that had been named for Captain William Seton Maitland. Severely wounded at the Battle of Wahoo Swamp, Captain Maitland was discharged and allowed to return home. His injuries however were so intense that Captain Maitland only made it as far Charleston, SC, where he died, August 19, 1837. According to military records, “he drowned himself during temporary insanity caused by wounds received in Florida.” A year later, a lake and the fortress established alongside that lake were both named for Captain Maitland.

Founded in January, 1872 by Christopher Columbus Beasley, the town of Maitland was established on the shore of Lake Maitland, and Beasley’s town quickly became one of central Florida’s first community’s to attract snowbirds. Northerners bought acreage at Maitland to escape harsh winters, knowing they had to travel 16 miles south on a dangerous trail, crossing Soldiers Creek, passing by Ten Mile Lake and then getting safely around Rattlesnake Lake, all before arriving at their winter cottages. The town of Maitland did not have train service until the summer of 1880.

Life in 1870s central Florida was a daily challenge to each and every pioneer, but living in the backwoods of Orange County was especially challenging for women.  Long before advancements in medicine, childbirth was very often a life-threatening experience for the infant, mother, and at times, both. Lake Sybelia remains a memorial not merely to Anna, a courageous frontierswoman who died at Maitland days after childbirth, but to all of the amazing frontierswomen who ventured into 19^th century central Florida knowing full well the risks that came with living in Florida’s remote wilderness.

1890 Maitland, Florida

But I cannot claim to have learned of Anna Sybelia (Hill) Marks and her tragic 1873 death at Lake Sybelia on my own. Her discovery came while I partnered in researching Matthew R. Marks with another central Florida historian. Several years back, Christine Kinlaw-Best of Sanford Historical Society and I shared in a research project, and among her finds was the obituary of Anna Sybelia Marks. Matching dates to my property records of Matthew, records establishing he owned land bordering the east side of Lake Sybelia, and in learning of the earliest known date of the lake’s naming, the combined research led us to the conclusion as to how this lake had been named.

Our goal was to publish a biography of Matthew R. Marks, but before we could make that happen, central Florida lost a great researcher and historian. Christine Kinlaw-Best deserves special recognition for her never-ending contributions to central Florida history, as well as to her discovery of Anna Sybelia’s obituary.

To learn more on each lake identified in bold above, see Orlando Lakes: Homesteaders & Namesakes below.

FAMILIES of the VILLAGE

The founders of ORLANDO

Begins April 12, 2019 at this Blog Site

ORLANDO LAKES: Homesteaders & Namesakes, is an encyclopedia of sort of central Florida lakes, short stories telling of the origins of 303 historic lakes from Eustis and Sanford in the north, to Kissimmee in the south. 

During the 19^th century, you see, all roads led to the county seat at Orlando!

Now available at Winter Garden Heritage Foundation as well as Amazon.com. I invite you to check out ORLANDO LAKES: Homesteaders & Namesakes. You can do so simply by clicking on the convenient link below:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=orlando+lakes+homesteaders+%26+namesakes&crid=20A2UMNWOH7VM&sprefix=Orlando+Lakes+%2Caps%2C181&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_14

NEXT FRIDAY: Gertrude of Mt. Dora

CitrusLANDFL is celebrating central Florida’s amazing women during

WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH

Would you like to know more about Maitland?

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2017 & 2018 

First Road to Orlando, Second Edition (2015)

LAVINIA of Central Florida's Fairgrounds

FORGOTTEN NO LONGER:

Lady Lavinia of Orange County’s Fairgrounds:

Lake Lawne at Orange County’s Fairground is the 20^th century name of a 19^th century body of water first known as Lake Lavinia. Barnett Park enjoys the use of the lake too, but the lake had already been renamed when Gordon Barnett Park opened in the 1950s. A 19^th century Orange County map, as well as a 1910 recorded deed (shown above and on page 173 of Orlando Lakes: Homesteaders & Namesakes), are evidence of the original 1880s named lake, an early lake name which had gone missing from the incredible story of central Florida.

Mary Lavinia (Hendricks) Peek (1843-1897) however is no longer lost to Orange County history. And despite the lake honoring the wife of a New York sawmill operator not surviving down through the ages, a smaller lake, named for the man’s only daughter, is still known today by the name Eben Peek gave it in the 1880s.

The mother and daughter namesakes never made it onto pages of any ‘Who’s Who’ of yesteryear, but both were equally important to the telling of the region’s 19^th century story. Homesteaders played a huge role in laying out the central Florida we know and love today, but absentee landowners likewise played big roles in shaping the area. Eben B. Peek – one such absentee landowner, named Lake Lavinia for his wife nearly 135 years ago, and also Lake Lotta, west of Lavinia several miles, for his only daughter.

Mary Lavinia Hendrick, born 1843, married Eben Peek in New York State around the start of America’s Civil War. He then went off to war with his Union comrades, while his young pregnant bride remained home, giving birth August 24, 1862 to their first child, Eben Augustus Peek.

By War’s end, the reunited Peek’s were living in New York City, where Eben B. Peek listed his occupation in 1870 and 1880 as a “Sawmill Proprietor”. His 28 year old bride in 1870 gave her name as “Lavinia,” raising three children, the youngest being 10 year old, “Lotta L. Peek.” (A later document identifies Peek’s only daughter as “Lotta Lavinia Peek”.)

By 1884, the New York City sawmill proprietor was partnering with a New York City dealer in “Yellow Pine” lumber. During the early 1880s, pine dealer Robert Sherwood and Eben Peek began buying up a considerable amount of land in central Florida (Lake Sherwood straddles Colonial Drive east of Lake Lotta). Orange County’s official 1890 map shows all three named lakes (below). Lakes Sherwood and Lotta are still known by their original names today.

Tree farming was obviously the reason for the two partners buying Orange County land. Peek acquired 300 plus acres surrounding present day Lake Lawne in March 1884, and then, with partner Robert Sherwood, acquired acreage further west later the same year.

The Peek’s likely became snowbirds as well, and their first born son, Eben Augustus Peek, was in 1887 operating an Orlando nursery on Central Avenue. Mary Lavinia (Hendricks) Peek died at New York City December 4, 1894, only days before the first of two wintry blasts reached Florida and wiped out central Florida’s citrus industry.

Lotta L. Peek married a few years after her mother’s death, and in February of 1913, she and husband Henry Palmer King, both New York City residents, signed an Orange County deed as heirs of “Eben & Mary Lavinia Peek”. The document not only assists in learning about several Orange County lakes, it attests as well to previously unknown Peek family history by stating dates of death. After stating the death of Mary L. Peek as December 4, 1894, the deed further states: “whereas Mary L. Peek died during the life time of her husband and the said Eben Peek died intestate on the 1^st day of December, 1912.”

Lakes Lavinia, Lotta and Sherwood not only serve as important links to the story of a developing 19^th century central Florida region, these lakes assist in filling in missing family history as well. A Canadian native, Robert Sherwood lived in New York City as well, and died there in 1912, the same year as Eben B. Peek.

Florida’s Great Freeze wiped out many a landowner, those living in central Florida as well as absentee landowners such as the Peek and Sherwood families. By the census of 1900, the population of Orange County, Florida had actually decreased from that of a decade earlier, part of the devastation caused by Florida’s Great Freeze. Thousands of acres of abandoned land were sold years later to anyone willing to pay the unpaid taxes, which brought about a new round of land speculators willing to take a chance.

Willis Munger of Missouri was just such a land speculator, purchasing hundreds of vacant homesteads throughout Orange County. One such parcel included Section 20 in West Orange County, land including Lake Lavinia. But then came the land bust and Great Depression, and years later, much of the land around the long abandoned lake was sold again, to a couple in South Florida. The land was deeded to their business that was based out of Fort Lauderdale, Lawne Lake Corporation.

Mary Lavinia (Hendricks) Peek is featured in Lake Lavinia on page 172-173 of my book, Orlando Lakes: Homesteaders & Namesakes. Lake Lotta is profiled on page 183, and Lake Sherwood on pages 269-270.

FAMILIES of the VILLAGE

The founders of ORLANDO

Begins April 12, 2019 at this Blog Site

(Receive each new Blog via Email by subscribing at right above) 

ORLANDO LAKES: Homesteaders & Namesakes, is an encyclopedia of central Florida lakes, profiling the origins of 303 historic lakes from Eustis and Sanford in the north to Kissimmee in the south. In the 19^th century, all roads led to Orlando!

Now available at Winter Garden Heritage Foundation as well as Amazon.com. I invite you to check out ORLANDO LAKES: Homesteaders & Namesakes. You can do so simply by clicking on the convenient link below:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=orlando+lakes+homesteaders+%26+namesakes&crid=20A2UMNWOH7VM&sprefix=Orlando+Lakes+%2Caps%2C181&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_14

NEXT FRIDAY: The Extraordinary Sybelia of Maitland

CitrusLANDFL is celebrating central Florida’s amazing women during

WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH

Would you like to know more?

CitrusLAND: Curse of Florida’s Paradise (2016)

Sara Whitner of Fort Reid

Sara Whitner of Fort Reid

150,000! That’s the best-guess estimate of the current number of Metro-Orlando hotel rooms, second only, so they say, to Las Vegas, NV. Scattered from Sanford in the north to Kissimmee in the south, central Florida’s hospitality industry is indeed massive. And of all these many rooms, have you ever wondered: “where were the first hotel rooms?” Fact is, there’s no better time to find the answer to this question than during Women’s History Month! Two women established the first-ever free standing hotel south of Lake Monroe – or to define more specifically today – Metro Disney World!

Sarah Jane (Church) Whitner (1820-1881)

Portrait courtesy Whitner-Chase families of Sanford, FL

Fact is, if you are even a tad-bit curious about where the first central Florida hotel rooms might have been located, or what exactly that first hotel has to do with Women’s History Month, you cannot say that you don’t like history.

One or two boarding houses (aka Airbnb’s of today), existed prior to 1869. The first-ever “free standing hotel” hotel was constructed in Orange County at the small want-to-be town of FORT REID, a village founded circa 1856 about a mile east of Sanford, FL of today. Two decades had to pass before Sanford would come on the scene, and two more before the town of Sanford swallowed up the village of Fort Reid.

Neither Lake, Osceola nor Seminole Counties existed when the first hotel opened at Fort Reid (County lines of today need to be completely ignored to appreciate the first days of central Florida). Fort Reid’s hotel was truly historic in its day, for it was designed, conceived and managed by two women during a time in history when females were discouraged from entering the business world.

Central Florida’s hospitality industry was founded in 1869 by two extraordinary women! Few 19^th century central Florida occurrences are as easy to prove as the statement you just now read. But rather than take my word for it, read the following quote from a deed recorded in Orange County on the 26^th day of November, 1869: “Benjamin F. Whitner, as Trustee for his wife Sarah J. Whitner and for Mary Ellen Randolph, wife of William M. Randolph of New Orleans in the State of Louisiana, have formed a co-partnership for the purpose of creating, furnishing and conducting on the premises hereinafter described a Hotel to be known as the Alaha Chaco or Orange House Hotel.”

The agreement went on to specify the hotel’s location, a 43 acre parcel known then as “Woodruff Place.”  Historic Woodruff Place, together with the survey points mentioned in the deed, places the 43 acre orange grove and hotel at what is today the south side of 25^th St. at Mellonville Avenue. The 1838 Fort Mellon to Fort Gatlin Road is today Mellonville Avenue.  The Orange House property bordered Mellonville Avenue to the east, Sanford & Indian River Railroad’s track on the west (still existing today), and the present day Orlando-Sanford Airport on the south.

When the Orange House Hotel opened in 1869, the main north-south artery for most points south of Lake Monroe was a dirt trail, Mellonville Avenue, which reached all the way south to Orlando, where it became Main Street through the village, and then continued south to Fort Gatlin and Kissimmee.

“ALAHA CHACO Hotel:” said a headline of a Florida Peninsular newspaper article dated March 5, 1870, played host to a group of individuals planning to build a railroad from Mellonville to Tampa, an idea whose time had not yet come as of 1870. Fort Reid was to be a major Orange County town in 1870, but Henry Sanford’s nearby town would soon mean that the Orange House Hotel was located on the wrong road to Orlando.

A second road south to Orlando would move further west, to pass through new towns of Longwood and Snowville (Altamonte). As a result, fewer and fewer travelers passed through Mellonville and Fort Reid. Alaha Chaco’s pending fate was reported in a Will Wallace Harney article of September, 1876: “Orange House at Fort Reid, a large, commodious hotel built by the late Judge Randolph, was sold in settlement of the estate.”

Historians have written a lot through the years about Mary Ellen (Pitts) Randolph, wife of the celebrated lawyer from New Orleans, William M. Randolph, and of the Orange House Hotel for which William Randolph is said to have built. But my blog today will spotlight Mary’s partner, Sarah Jane (Church) Whitner, a lady who tended to stay below the media’s radar, yet a remarkable frontierswomen worthy of mention.

Before I get others in an uproar, I should clarify: The property upon which the hotel was built was acquired by Matthew R. Marks, William M. Randolph, and Benjamin F. Whitner. The wives of Randolph and Whitner established the hotel on that property.

ABOUT SARAH:

“His daughters were famous for their beauty and their kindness,” says a family history of the daughters of Dr. Alonzo & Sarah Jane (Tripp) Church. And one of their beautiful daughters, Sarah Jane (Church), was born October 21, 1820 at Athens, GA. At the time of Sarah’s birth her father, Reverend Dr. Alonzo Church, was President of Franklin College (now University of Georgia).

Daughter Sarah married Benjamin F. Whitner II on the 7^th of January, 1840 at Athens, GA. Two years later, Benjamin Whitner II arrived at central Florida to begin mapping a total of 540 square miles of Mosquito County, land that is today South Orange County. While Benjamin was in central Florida surveying, Sarah was living on the old Whitner homestead at Madison, Florida. But during the 1850s, her husband also began to buy land in Orange County.

Then came the Civil War and a touching sympathy letter written by Sarah (Church) Whitner. Dated May 27, 1864 at “Prairie Acre,” Florida, her letter was addressed to Mary Martha (Smith) Reid at Richmond, Virginia. In her letter, Sarah extended her heartfelt condolences for the loss of Mary’s son, Raymond J. Reid, who died May 7^th of injuries he had incurred in the war.

Benjamin F. Whitner III served alongside Mary Reid’s son in Virginia. Sara’s son had enlisted in Florida’s 8^th Infantry, one Florida unit that suffered terribly during the war. (As stated in my book, CitrusLAND: Curse of Florida’s Paradise, “At least 5,000 Florida soldiers were dead by the spring of 1865 as a result of campaigning.”)

Mary Martha Reid had been a Floridian, but she went to Virginia to be near her son, a Florida Infantryman in the Civil War. Mary was instrumental in founding a Florida hospital at Virginia for treating and caring for the sons of Florida wounded in the War. A widow, Mary Martha Reid had been married to Territorial Governor Robert R. Reid, the very man Fort Reid of Orange County, now Seminole County, had been named for.

Nearly a year after Sarah (Church) Whitner wrote that letter of sympathy to Mary Reid in Virginia, her son Benjamin III, was captured at Virginia’s Sailors Creek, remaining a prisoner until War’s end.

Sarah's son, Benjamin F. Whitner III, was allowed to return home to Florida in May of 1865. By May 1870, Sarah Jane (Church) Whitner was co-managing the Orange House Hotel at Fort Reid, the town built around the 1840s fortress Reid, an Army encampment named for the husband of Mary Martha Reid. (Orlando, FL of 1870 was still a 4 acre courthouse village, surrounded by 113 acres owned by Robert R. Reid, half-brother of the then deceased son of Mary Martha Reid.)

Sarah (Church) Whitner laid to rest her husband of 41 years in 1881. At the time of his death, Surveyor Benjamin F. Whitner was a resident of Silver Lake, southeast of Fort Reid. Sarah survived her husband by nine years, being laid to rest beside her husband on December 13, 1890.

Orange House Hotel had been closed near 15 years by the time of Sarah’s death, but the 43 acre historic orange grove was still worked by the Randolph family. The land served too as the personal residence of Benjamin M. & Fannie (Randolph) Robinson. Florida’s great freeze of 1894-94 wiped out the nearly 50 year old grove. Fire soon after destroyed the quarter-century old abandoned hotel. Fort Reid’s history became disarrayed, with historians convinced the place was Fort Reed. The real history of Fort Reid blurred.

1890 Fort Reid (Reed). Orange House was at top, residence in 1890 of B. M. Robinson; B. F. Whitner III residence at bottom near Silver Lake. (1887 SFRR Brochure: “The Orange House, now the residence of B. M. Robinson, stands on the site, surrounded by a noble orange grove. The building was constructed in 1870 and was the first hotel south of Palatka.”)

Sarah Jane (Church) Whitner however had accomplished what was likely the one thing most important of all to her – a proud central Florida family that endured the test of time. And while they may think of themselves as Sanford folk, the real Church-Whitner central Florida heritage is centered on a fortress, rescued by a soldier who stayed, built a town named for the fortress, and watched as a new neighbor from the Panhandle built the first free standing hotel in all of today’s Orange, Osceola and Seminole Counties.

Whitner’s Silver Lake is one of 303 historic lakes profiled in my latest book, as is nearby Lake Onoro – or some today might argue – Lake Onora!

ORLANDO LAKES: Homesteaders & Namesakes, an encyclopedia of central Florida lakes. From Eustis to Sanford and Kissimmee, all roads of long, long ago led to Orlando!

Now available at Winter Garden Heritage Foundation and Amazon.com. I invite you to check out ORLANDO LAKES: Homesteaders & Namesakes. You can do so simply by clicking on the convenient link below:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=orlando+lakes+homesteaders+%26+namesakes&crid=20A2UMNWOH7VM&sprefix=Orlando+Lakes+%2Caps%2C181&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_14

NEXT FRIDAY: The Extraordinary Lavinia of Orlando

CitrusLANDFL is celebrating central Florida’s amazing women during

WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH

Want to know more?

CitrusLAND: Curse of Florida’s Paradise (2016)

First Road to Orlando (2015)

Beyond Gatlin: A History of South Orange County (2017)