MOUNT DORA: The First Mount Dorans - Part TWO

 

The first Mount Dorans – Part 2

 

City Hall, inspired by the historic ‘Guller House’

Perhaps he went next door to borrow a cup of sugar from a neighbor, but however John met Annie, the two married in 1882. John Donnelly and Annie Stone became neighbors the month she sold ten acres of her 1878 homestead in June of 1881. Annie’s homestead became Mount Dora, and 13^th Avenue of today was the north boundary line of her property. John P. Donnelly bought the land on the north side of 13^th Avenue, closing on that purchase June 4, 1881.

Unlike Annie’s choice property, Donnelly’s land did not have Lake Dora frontage. His land did however border the Hawley property to the east, namesake of Mount Dora’s original north-south Hawley Street. In 1882, Hawley Street became the east line of the newly established town of Mount Dora. The street name changed to Tremain soon after the death of pioneer Ross C. Tremain (1841-1912).

As late as 1920, Sanborn Insurance Company surveys referenced “Hawley Street”, but then, the Mount Dora City Directory of 1924 listed the resident at the “southwest corner of 5^th Avenue and Tremain” as Albert & Amy Waltz (see below exhibit). In survey lingo, this could also be called the “Northeast corner of Section 31” – where our westbound 5^th Avenue walk begins.

Mount Dora 1926 City Directory

Albert J. Waltz was described in 1924 as Chamber of Commerce President and Mount Dora Mayor. Waltz, “a valued citizen” said Mount Dora Topic when reporting his death in 1954, had been a prominent citizen throughout his four decades as a Mount Doran. A home builder prior to leaving Medina, Ohio, the Waltz family came to Mount Dora in 1911. His obituary described him as a builder who had “constructed many of the city’s residences and business buildings and established the Mount Dora Builders Supply company.” His A. J. Waltz Company, in 1926, was awarded the job to expand the historic Lakeside Inn – Florida’s oldest continuous operating hotel today. Albert was also a charter member of the Mount Dora Historical Society.

To the west of the Waltz residence, at the corner of 5^th & Baker, stood the original Methodist Church of Mount Dora (see 1895 photo below, courtesy the Methodist website). Organized in 1882 with twelve members, the members first worshiped at the schoolhouse according to a history of the Mount Dora Methodists published in 1940. The church building as shown was begun in 1883, but construction was slow, and the membership finally dedicated the new organ in 1888. The church was reportedly completed finally in 1896, and in 1912, the year the Albert Waltz moved in next door, electric lights were added in the church building. (Albert was also said to be active in the Methodist Church).

Sanborn Insurance Company survey of 1920 at right above 

August 1940 saw the final church service at 5^th and Baker, and subject to requirements of the property buyer, demolition began the following day. Sunoco Gas Station, opened in 1941, was run first by E. C. Frost prior to being acquired later in 1941 by James E. Avery.

America became involved in the World War that year, and within a few years, a young Naval Petty Officer attached with the First Marines landed on Guadalcanal. “He is a survivor of three torpedoed vessels and was also wounded while on Guadalcanal,” reported Mount Dora Topic of September 20, 1945. Twice he received a Presidential citation before returning to the States for medical care. “He liked Mount Dora when he passed through the town from hospital to hospital and stopped overnight at cabins.” After being all around the world, Petty Officer Jerry Morgan chose Mount Dora to live, and in September 1945, acquired the Sunoco Station at the corner of 5^th and Baker.

Today, Sun Bank occupies land where once stood Jerry Morgan’s Sunoco Station. The bank also sits on land where once stood the home of Mount Dora Mayor, Albert J. Waltz.

Sanborn Insurance 1912 survey of Mount Dora Town Block 60 and 61

Block 60 is currently Donnelly Park in downtown Mount Dora

Mayor Waltz would have had a short commute since City Hall sat across 5^th Avenue from his residence. Remembered historically as the Guller House, Mount Dora City Hall occupied one of the first homes ever built in John & Annie Donnelly’s town of Mount Dora.

Henry Guller (1847-1919) had been an 1880 neighbor of Annie Stone and John Donnelly. In fact, the Donnelly’s sale to Henry Guller occurred so early in the organization of the city that the parcel was not described by a lot number. Filed at Orange County, the parcel was instead described as the: “SE ¼ of the SE ¼ of the SE ¼ of SE ¼ of Section 30”, less a right of way allowance on each of the four sides for public roads. The Guller House today is known simply as located in “Block 61” (Note 1912 survey of Guller House with "Windmill" in Block 61 above).

Like that of the old Methodist Church of 1940, City Hall, aka Guller House, was also demolished.  A new City Hall, “similar in style and appeal,” wrote Jacqueline Bowman in 1964, was dedicated April 13, 1964. The new City Hall incorporated into its design the original Guller House columns.

Mount Dora City Hall, Then and Now

  

Today, Mount Dora City Hall continues to grace the entire north side of 5th Avenue, or Block 61, across from Block 1, but City Hall faces Baker Street, in a block long used as a gathering spot for Mount Dorans. Thousands had gathered here, reported the Mount Dora Topic of November 7, 1929, the prior Saturday evening – there to enjoy the first annual Mount Dora Halloween Frolic. “The Parade began,” said the newspaper, “on Baker Street in front of City Hall.”

Cited as “the most unique and comical entry” in the Halloween Parade was a 1914 vintage Ford “carrying two tin-can tourists from the frozen North to the glorious sunshine in Florida.”

Reality of the stock market crash of only a few days prior had yet to register among those who attended the Baker Street festivities, and Baker Street is also where we will gather next, in Part Three of, The first Mount Dorans.

This series was created from research generated while writing my book, Tavares: Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County. Chapter 26 of my book is MOUNT DORA: The Eastern Gateway. 

CLICK ON BOOK COVER TO BUY IT AT AMAZON

 Lake County, established May 27, 1887, was carved from portions of Orange and Sumter counties. The Legislature had defined borders but allowed the 2,200 plus registered voters to decide where to place the county seat. Four elections and a courthouse battle later, Tavares, on August 10, 1888, finally became the official seat. The selection process lasted 440 days from start to finish.

TAVARES: Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake county, is a history of how Florida's Great Lake region transitioned from a wilderness into a vibrant Citrus Belt district. Amazing pioneers dared to dream big - dared to imagine such places as Leesburg, Lady Lake, Mount Dora, Montverde, Eldorado, Eustis, Umatilla, Astor, Clermont, Yalaha and Tavares, to name a few. A section on each place name will be found in this book.

RATED 5 STARS from Four Amazon verified readers, this is a story of triumph over tragedy; of homesteaders becoming town builders; of steamboats and railroads forging a new homeland, and of remarkable men and women who made it happen. There is even a touch of mystery and intrigue.

The story of the earliest days of settlement of Florida's Lake County, a history you can buy now at Amazon simply by clicking on the book cover above.

MOUNT DORA: The first Mount Dorans - Part One

Enchanting Mount Dora, Florida

Much has been written of the origin of enchanting Mount Dora, but how accurate are the traditional beliefs about Lake County’s charming village along the east shore of Lake Dora? Today, a leisure stroll of 1583 feet can provide many surprising answers about the FIRST Mount Doran’s, and so I invite you to join me on just such a stroll - a walk of 1583 feet along 5th Avenue in downtown Mount Dora. I will even do the walking, so all you need do is sit back, relax, and enjoy reading about 175 years of Mount Dora's fascinating history. And awaiting us at the end of this southbound 5^th Avenue stroll is a true story that is bound to astonish you.

First steps of the FIRST Mount Doran:

Our walk begins at a place which will seem, at first, an unlikely starting point. None-the-less, to fully appreciate the town’s real origin, our walk of 1,538 feet needs to commence at the crossroads of 5^th Avenue & Hawley Street. If you do not recognize the latter street name it is because the road now goes by the name, Tremain Street.

There are no retail stores to be found at this intersection, and the oldest existing structure here was not built until 1940. Still, 5^th & Hawley is vital to the telling of Mount Dora’s history, for the area’s first-ever recorded footsteps occurred at this exact spot. Here? Yes, here!

“I began at the northeast corner of Section 31” was the exact sentence penned 173 years ago by Surveyor James M. Gould. Believe me, I have no intention of making a land surveyor out of you, but the importance of Gould’s 1848 notation cannot be overstated in its relationship to the founding of a town 33 years later. The exact spot Surveyor Gould was writing about in 1848 is now the intersection of 5^th Avenue & Tremain Street. And you need not rely merely on my word for that fact.

The Lake County Property Appraiser identifies each corner of 5^th & Tremain as located in a different "Survey Section”. The northwest corner, says the Appraiser, is in Section 30, whereas the northeast corner is in Section 29. A law office on the southeast corner is, according to the County appraiser, in Section 30, while the bank on the southwest corner is in Section 31. To be more specific, the bank is in “the northeast corner of Section 31.” I've added a survey of the four corners below, which I'll get to in a moment. 

Surveyor James Gould, in 1848, added that after starting at the northeast corner of Section 31, he then began walking “23.30 chains,” the equivalent of 1,537.8 feet, due west to “Lake Dora.” If one desired to duplicate Gould’s walk today, as I plan to do in this series, it would be relatively easy – walk west – downhill -on 5^th Avenue until you reach the Lake Dora shoreline.

Of importance is this: the Survey completed in 1848 became the source for writing a homestead deed thereafter. In fact, thirty-four years after Surveyor Gould wrote of the northeast corner of Section 31, a different surveyor, paid to stake out a new town, identified this same spot as “Block One of the Town of Mount Dora.” A square known as Block One today is nearly identical to Block One of 1882. The only significant difference is Baker Street of today was Hawley Street back in 1882.

You now know where our 5^th Avenue stroll begins. Remote wilderness in 1848, our walk of 1,537.8 feet today heads west to Lake Dora, but all along the way is a rich history of the earliest days of this town. This series intends to share that history, and then, upon reaching the lake, I will challenge the validity of the traditional “legend” about the naming of Lake Dora.

Annie – the SECOND Mount Doran:

Land west of 5^th Avenue & Tremain Street, prior to the town of Mount Dora being established, belonged to one of the bravest frontierswomen of 19^th century central Florida. Her name was Annie Stone, and in 1880, it did not matter if you looked north, south, or west from today’s intersection of 5^th & Donnelly, you would still be gazing on Annie Stone’s Homestead of 182 lakeside acres.

Talk about a lady worthy of recognition during Women's History Month!

It was Annie, not John P. Donnelly, who established a town at this location. Annie Stone’s town however was named Glencoe. Now, I realize such a statement is contrary to traditional history, but then, such is often the case when it comes to researching central Florida’s true history. 

And I do not expect you to accept my historical version as accurate without proving such a claim.

1848 survey versus Annie Stone Homestead of 1878-1883

So, first, allow me to remove all doubt about my claim, a task easily accomplished. My exhibit above shows James Gould’s survey of 1848 twice. The left side is the survey as James Gould sketched it. The right side has a few notations to assist in better understanding his document. 

My red arrow above points to where the intersection of 5^th & Tremain is today. Note how Sections 29, 30, 31 and 32 converge at this spot. Section 29, northeast of the intersection, is shown to be one mile by one mile, as is Section 32 below it. Sections 30 and 31 both have less than a square mile of landmass, that is because of Lake Dora.

James Gould’s survey of 1848 was used as reference in 1883 to write a homestead deed to Annie E. Stone after she had completed a five-year residency requirement, which places Annie Stone on the lakeshore of Lake Dora as of 1878. Using the 1848 survey, Annie was deeded the land I outlined in orange, property described as being the south half Section 30, and all of the landmass in Section 31 of Township 19 South, Range 27 East.

The line dividing Section 30 and 31 on Gould’s survey became Mount Dora’s 5^th Avenue in 1882.

Annie Stone herself wrote a deed June 30, 1881 for a sale of part of her homestead. That deed has the following language: “Block #23 in Section 30, Township 19 South of Range 27 East, in the town plat of Glencoe as laid out on Mrs. Annie Stone’s Homestead in Orange County.” (As of 1881, Mount Dora was still part of Orange County).

After selling a small parcel of her homestead in 1881, Annie married John P. Donnelly, and in March 1882, newlyweds John & Annie Donnelly issued another deed having this language: “In a plat of a village on the Homestead of said Annie E. Stone in Section 30, Township 19 South of Range 27 East.” 

On the exhibit above, the Section 30 number is circled in red for your convenience in locating. 

Fast forward to present day, and 13^th Avenue is the north boundary of Annie’s Stone’s 19^th century homestead. To the south, historic Lakeside Inn, built in 1883, occupies part of Annie’s original 182 acres. Annie owned nearly one mile of Lake Dora shoreline when she married John P. Donnelly, the one pioneer most often cited as founder of Mount Dora.

“Her residence and grove are nearly a half mile north of Mount Dora,” said a traveling reporter in 1882 in describing the home of newlywed Mrs. Donnelly, “but stands on ground high above the water, and the path from house to lake is a perfect little Eden of trees, vines, and moss a la nature.” This was the original home Annie Stone, not the historic Donnelly House of Mount Dora built on Donnelly Street in 1893. The original wharf was described as being near Lakeside Inn, so a half mile north would place her residence north of 5th Avenue.  

Annie (McDonald) Stone – Donnelly (1849-1908)

Born 1849 at Wood County, Ohio, Annie McDonald first married William Stone. After the birth in 1856 of Nellie, a daughter, the Stone family relocated to Louisville, Kentucky, where William worked as a railroad clerk. By 1880, Annie was divorced and residing on her homestead at Lake Dora, while a nearby neighbor, John P. Donnelly, had just settled on his land.

Lake Dora of 1880 was not easily reached. The nearest train was at Fort Mason, and the first train had finally arrived that spring. It was a long difficult 1881 land journey from Fort Mason to Annie Stone's Glencoe, but then, in 1882, the Dora Canal was dredged. Larger steamboats could navigate the canal to reach the new town of Tavares, and Lake Dora introduced travelers as well to Glencoe – aka Mount Dora.

Fifth and Tremain 

Intersection of 5th & Tremain Street, Mount Dora

And so, as we look west from the crossroads of 5^th & Tremain, aka 5^th & Hawley of 1882, we now know our downhill westbound stroll will be crossing land first owned by Annie (McDonald) Stone, an amazing 19^th century frontierswoman, and mother of a child not yet a teen when she first arrived in the wilderness of western Orange County. The same property, in 1882, became jointly owned by Annie’s groom, Mr. John P. Donnelly of Pennsylvania.

It is time to get moving, and as there is no better way to be greeted at any town than by the Mayor and or Chamber of Commerce President, this will be our greeting in the next segment of this series. One and the same, a Mount Dora Mayor and Chamber President lived here at the southwest corner of 5^th and Tremain. A bank is here now, where James Gould began his walk west in 1848, and where we will begin our walk wet when The First Mount Dorans resumes in Part 2.

This series was created from research generated while writing my book, Tavares: Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County. Chapter 26 of my book is MOUNT DORA: The Eastern Gateway. 

CLICK ON BOOK COVER TO BUY IT AT AMAZON

 Lake County, established May 27, 1887, was carved from portions of Orange and Sumter counties. The Legislature had defined borders but allowed the 2,200 plus registered voters to decide where to place the county seat. Four elections and a courthouse battle later, Tavares, on August 10, 1888, finally became the official seat. The selection process lasted 440 days from start to finish.

TAVARES: Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake county, is a history of how Florida's Great Lake region transitioned from a wilderness into a vibrant Citrus Belt district. Amazing pioneers dared to dream big - dared to imagine such places as Leesburg, Lady Lake, Mount Dora, Montverde, Eldorado, Eustis, Umatilla, Astor, Clermont, Yalaha and Tavares, to name a few. A section on each place name will be found in this book.

RATED 5 STARS from Four Amazon verified readers, this is a story of triumph over tragedy; of homesteaders becoming town builders; of steamboats and railroads forging a new homeland, and of remarkable men and women who made it happen. There is even a touch of mystery and intrigue.

The story of the earliest days of settlement of Florida's Lake County, a history you can buy now at Amazon simply by clicking on the book cover above.

Pine Castle Pioneers / Pine Castle Lakes - Part 4 of 4

 

Pine Castle Pioneers / Pine Castle Lakes

Celebrating Pine Castle Pioneer Days ONLINE – Part 4

  

 Northeast Pine Castle Township of 1890

Part 4: The Finale - Pine Castle Pioneers / The Pine Castle Lakes

The greatest concentration of lakes in the 36 square miles of Pine Castle Township are clustered within an area of 9 square miles around Lake Gatlin, the strategic 1838 location of Fort Gatlin, the Army outpost which then became, by 1843, the first Mosquito County settlement south of Lake Monroe.

Fortress Gatlin was built on a spit of land surrounded by three lakes (see star on above map): Gatlin, Jennie Jewel, and Gem Mary. Each of these lakes were named prior to 1870 by pioneers who settled alongside them. Lake Conway, as mentioned earlier in this series, had been named in 1843 by Surveyor Benjamin Whitner in honor of his boss, Valentine Y. Conway, while a fifth lake, second largest body of water in the township, was first named Hogan until a name change in the 1880s made it Lake Jessamine. Hogan is a surname found in the Patrick family – one of the earliest of settlers to arrive in central Florida.

In 1890, Surveyor John Otto Fries prepared a detailed 1890 map often mentioned in this series

Access to water was a priority for every pioneer when selecting their homestead, and so it is easy to understand why the region around Fort Gatlin was among the first areas settled. And it is because this region was settled so early in the settlement of central Florida that we celebrate a Pioneers Days event today. Cypress Grove Park on Lake Jessamine, where the festivities take place when we are not having a pandemic, is also within one mile of where it all began in 1838 - Fortress Gatlin.

A variety of guest speakers were planning to present at the 2021 Pioneer Days event

Across from Cypress Grove Park to the north is historic Lake Holden. Aaron and Isaac Jernigan homesteaded half of Section 10 in 1873, within months of Surveyor Whitner completing this one-square mile section (green square on map above). After the Civil War, William H. Holden began buying land that was being auctioned off by the sheriff for unpaid taxes. He accumulated hundreds of acres including Isaac Jernigan’s old homestead. By 1882, William Holden had a grove of 3,000 orange trees alongside the lake that had by then adopted his name.

South of Section 10, Lakes Tyler (Aaron Jernigan’s son-in-law), Bumby (Immigrant Jesse of England), and Tyner (aka Tiner, the family of Leonard & Mary, including Clement, the son who in 1884 platted the first town site of Pine Castle).

Surveyor Whitner, after mapping 540 square miles of 1840s Mosquito County, selected one lake – Lake Gatlin adjacent to the abandoned fortress, to begin acquiring land in a new Orange County. He purchased two parcels before a town of Orlando was established further north. Whitner also brought members of the Randolph family to the shores of Lake Gatlin, Gem Mary, Jennie Jewel, and Conway. And it was because of Surveyor Whitner that South Florida Railroad, the first railroad to open South Orange County to settlements, laid track from Orlando south to Kissimmee through Pine Castle. Indeed, as far as this author is concerned, Surveyor Benjamin F Whitner was “The Architect” of South Orange County.

Much of this four-part series was extracted from two of my books on central Florida history. Orlando Lakes: Homesteaders & Namesakes, is an encyclopedia of 303 central Florida lakes – who settled each and why? Who named each and why? In 2017, Pine Castle Historical Society awarded me their 2017 Historian Award for my book, Beyond Gatlin: A History of South Orange County.

And there is still so much to talk about!

Next time, let’s meet in person at Pine Castle Pioneer Days

 ALSO,

I have TWO ON-LINE MARCH EVENTS coming up that you might want to watch:

On March 17, 2021, I will be the online guest speaker at the Orlando Remembered Group meeting which begins on Zoom at 9:30 AM. My talk is entitled, Harriett, Henrietta & Orlando’s Girl School, in honor of Women’s History Month (for details email Rick@CroninBooks.com ).

On March 25, 2021, Winter Garden Heritage Foundation is sponsoring my live on-line presentation of, When Winter Garden was Oakland. Details on how to tune in to this special West Orange County presentation will be posted as the date approaches.

IF YOU ENJOY CENTRAL FLORIDA HISTORY, YOU WILL LOVE

  CRONINBOOKS.com

Your On-Line central Florida History Bookstore

Visit my Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/richardcronin

 

Read reviews and purchase books at my Author Page above

 

Orlando Lakes: Homesteaders & Namesakes (2019)

THE AWARD WINNING - Beyond Gatlin: A History of South Orange County (2017)

First Road to Orlando (Second Edition 2015)

The Rutland Mule Matter – A Novel (2015)

CitrusLAND: Curse of Florida’s Paradise (Second Edition 2016)

TAVARES: Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County (NEW in 2020)

 

Perfect for WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH

 

FLORIDA’S INDIAN RIVER DUCHESS

Download for only $3.79!

 

Author for Pine Castle Historical Society Publication:

Will Wallace Harney – Orlando’s First Renaissance Man

Pine Castle Pioneers / Pine Castle Lakes - Part 3

 

Pine Castle Pioneers / Pine Castle Lakes

Celebrating Pine Castle Pioneer Days ONLINE – Part 3

 

Part 3: Devil’s Bay and Rattlesnake Lake

When last we wrote of Surveyor Benjamin F. Whitner and his two assistants, as you may recall, it was Spring of 1843. Three brave souls were mapping, for the first time ever, South Orange County. Starting at Point Zero near Lake Lancaster, the survey party had worked west, clearing a straight path for six miles to a point that is today Valencia Community College on Kirkman Road. Here, at the “Northwest” corner of Pine Castle Township of 1890, Part 2 of my series ended. And it is at this “Northwest” point where, in 1843, Whitner’s survey team made a sharp turn, and began clearing another straight path – this time southbound - for another six miles. Here, at the “Southwest” corner of Pine Castle Township, was the location later surveyors called “Devil’s Bay”.

Orange County map of 1890 of “Devil’s Bay”.

A bay is most often associated with a coastal waterway, but 19^th century surveyors identified some inland areas as a “bay” too. Central Florida has several lakes named “Bay”. In my Orlando Lakes: Homesteaders & Namesakes book I reference a Will Wallace Harney article of May 1875 in which he writes of “a picnic and fish frolic at Bay Lake”. This lake is south of Pine Castle, and still known by that name today. The 1890 map of Orange County shows Pine Castle’s Bay Lake as the headwater for Boggy Creek.

Devil’s Bay of 1890 was just west of the southwest corner of Pine Castle Township (see arrow on map above). Homesteader SELBY HARNEY, the nephew of Will Wallace HARNEY who came to Florida with his uncle in 1869, lived here alongside Devil’s Bay in the 1880s (see L shaped parcel outlined in red on map above). Selby & Trinity (Yates) Harney resided here during Florida’s Great Freeze of 1894-95, lost their crop, and then moved further south. The abandoned Selby Harney Homestead, in the 20^th century, changed hands several times before eventually becoming part of the Martin Marietta complex.

Where exactly is Devil’s Bay? The Orlando Eye, known as The Wheel at Icon Park, is now located where the “35” appears on the map above.

1954 Aerial of Devil’s Bay area Orange County

The aerial photo above was taken before Martin Marietta, and the red arrow (added) points to a depressed area referred to in 1890 as Devil’s Bay. The easternmost shores of Big and Little Sand Lake are visible on the left side of both the 1890 map and the 1954 aerial photo above.

When Whitner’s 1843 survey team arrived at the southwestern-most corner of Pine Castle Township, the first township surveyed in Lake, Orange, Osceola, and Seminole Counties, the survey party then turned back east. At this point near Devil’s Bay, they began clearing a straight six- mile journey in the direction of today’s Orlando International Airport.

Surveyors pitched tents and set up camps wherever they ended a day’s work, typically said to be about every twelve land miles daily. But the surveyors mapped more than the outer limits of Pine Castle Township, for their task included mapping the entire township, dividing it into 36 individual square-mile Sections. One Section, for example, was the square-mile Section 10, surveyed in 1843 by Whitner and his team. Brothers Isaac and Aaron Jernigan, later that same year, applied for two homesteads of 160 acres each, half of the Section 10 surveyed by Benjamin F. Whitner.

Pine Castle Township Section 29, shown on the 1890 Orange County map above, contains a red square added by this author. Inside that square, dotted lines intersect at a bold black line. This red square is the only alteration I made in Section 29, and I say this because the contents within that square – sketched 130 years ago, – tell a fascinating story of early Orange County.

The bold black line crossing Sections 29 and 32 (top to bottom) is SHINGLE CREEK. Dotted lines are early trails. The trail from the upper right in Section 29 down through Section 31 is nearly identical to John Young Parkway of today. The other trail leaving Section 29 on the right, ends at the 1890 town of Pine Castle. Note too how surveyors show a line, “or ridge” of trees – an Oak Ridge, along each side of Shingle Creek, a riverboat highway during the 1870s and 1880s.

The area east of Section 29 on the same 1890 Orange County map is shown below. Note how the trail leaving Shingle Creek curves northeast to the town of Pine Castle (red star). An orange arrow (added by me) on the map below points to yet another item of interest – RATTLESNAKE LAKE.

One of two 1890 Orange County Rattlesnake Lakes, this one, as reported on page 245 of my Orlando Lakes: Homesteaders & Namesakes, was later renamed ELLENOR for the daughter of Willard & Lena Van Duzor, details of which can be found at Lake ELLENOR on page 89 of my book. “The red blood curdles and hard bones quake,” wrote Will Wallace Harney of Pine Castle in the 1870s, “at the whir of the deadly Rattlesnake.”

Perhaps a warning for those approaching the two Rattlesnake lakes, later developers, no doubt desiring to attract buyers for their developments, changed both Rattlesnake Lakes, opting for more pleasant names. Female names, Ellenor and Kathryn, were selected for each body of water. Where, you might ask, is Kathryn? That one-time Orange County Rattlesnake Lake is now part of Seminole County.

1890 Orange County map of Rattlesnake Lake and Pine Castle

 

Pioneer Days weekend would have been this weekend had it not been cancelled due to the pandemic. The Pine Castle Historical Society was to again sponsor the “History Tent”, and I had been invited to do an in-person presentation of Pine Castle Pioneers / Pine Castle Lakes. Instead, I have adapted my talk to this online format, a four-part series, the conclusion of which will be the next post. In the meantime, I invite you to check out my books either at my webpage or my Amazon Author Page. (You can click Follow Author on my Amazon author page and receive alerts about new publications as they come online).

Pine Castle Historical Society awarded me their 2017 Historian Award for my book, Beyond Gatlin: A History of South Orange County, and much of this four-part series was taken from that book as well as Orlando Lakes: Homesteaders & Namesakes, an encyclopedia-style book of how 303 central Florida lakes came to be settled and named. Both books can be purchased at Amazon.

On March 17, 2021, I will be the online guest speaker at the Orlando Remembered Group meeting which begins on Zoom at 9:30 AM. My talk is entitled, Harriett, Henrietta & Orlando’s Girl School, in honor of Women’s History Month (for details email Rick@CroninBooks.com ).

On March 25, 2021, Winter Garden Heritage Foundation is sponsoring my live on-line presentation of, When Winter Garden was Oakland. Details on how to tune in to this special West Orange County presentation will be posted as the date approaches.

IF YOU ENJOY CENTRAL FLORIDA HISTORY, YOU WILL LOVE

  CRONINBOOKS.com

Your On-Line central Florida History Bookstore

Visit my Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/richardcronin

 

Read reviews and purchase books at my Author Page above

 

Orlando Lakes: Homesteaders & Namesakes (2019)

THE AWARD WINNING - Beyond Gatlin: A History of South Orange County (2017)

First Road to Orlando (Second Edition 2015)

The Rutland Mule Matter – A Novel (2015)

CitrusLAND: Curse of Florida’s Paradise (Second Edition 2016)

TAVARES: Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County (NEW in 2020)

 

Perfect for WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH

 

FLORIDA’S INDIAN RIVER DUCHESS

Download for only $3.79!

 

Author for Pine Castle Historical Society Publication:

Will Wallace Harney – Orlando’s First Renaissance Man

 

Pine Castle Pioneers / Pine Castle Lakes - Part 2

 

Pine Castle Pioneers / Pine Castle Lakes

Celebrating Pine Castle Pioneer Days ONLINE – Part 2

 

Orange County’s FIRST paid job: Clear a straight path SIX MILES long!  

ORLANDO, settled in 1856, is not in PINE CASTLE Township. Orlando Township, six miles by six miles like that of Pine Castle Township, was not surveyed until April 1846, three years after Pine Castle Township had been surveyed by Benjamin F. Whitner.

Arriving in Mosquito County at Lake Monroe in 1843, Surveyor Whitner followed a sand-rutted military trail south, skirting after nearly 15 miles the abandoned fortress Maitland, then proceeding south past a swamp area known today as Lake Eola. Whitner and two laborers, Hale and Randles, continued down the wilderness trail, strolling a narrow winding path through towering pine trees and scrub brush - now Magnolia Avenue in the heart of downtown Orlando - then continuing another mile before finally stopping to set up their equipment to begin work.

They may well have been the only living souls in all of Pine Castle Township that first day, the day Benjamin Whitner began surveying the northernmost line of what was to be 540 square miles of mapping – the very first of which was 36 square miles that later surveyors would call Pine Castle Township, a landmass beginning just north of present-day Kaley Avenue, shown as the top red line on the 1879 map of Orange County below.

 

Pine Castle Township (red square) on the 1879 Orange County map above shows 4 named lakes in the 36 square miles: Clear; Holden; Jessamine and Conway. (Note unnamed Lake Lancaster in upper right corner of red square.

Below: Benjamin Whitner’s 1843 survey of the southern portion of Clear Lake. 

Surveyor Whitner worked his way south from the starting line until reaching present-day Kissimmee. In the 1840s, Benjamin F. Whitner of Florida’s Panhandle, with the help of two “chainmen”, surveyed 540 square miles south of downtown Orlando. Whitner then, after finalizing the surveys, began buying land inside the Pine Castle Township, acreage where he had first begun his surveying work in 1843.

We do not know why Whitner bypassed 23 miles of wilderness prior to starting his survey work. What we do know is that Benjamin Whitner was unlike most every other surveyor who worked in central Florida during the 1840s. Most were roving surveyors, meaning they moved from one territory to the next as the U. S. Land Office needed surveying completed in its new territories. Most of those who surveyed central Florida moved on to Nevada and California by the 1850s. But Benjamin F. Whitner of Madison, Florida was different.

First to survey land in Orange County, Whitner was also among the first to buy Orange County land (beginning in 1851). He was among the first to cultivate Orange County land (farming sugar cane at Lake Gatlin in the 1850s). He was among the first to serve as an Orange County Commissioner (1867); and was a partner (with William M. Randolph) in constructing the first ever free-standing hotel in Orange County (1869). There is good reason to believe Whitner was first to conceive of a railroad to run from Lake Monroe to Tampa Bay.

For 38 years (1843 - 1881), Benjamin F. Whitner worked as an active participant in settling and promoting two of the earliest settlements south of Lake Monroe, Fort Reid and Fort Gatlin.

Of the many lakes surveyed in 1843 by Whitner in Pine Castle Township, he named only two, Clear Lake and Lake Conway. All other lakes in the township were named after 1843, with most being named in the 1870s and 1880s by early pioneers who homesteaded on or near each lake. Whitner is believed however to have named, in the 1860s, Lake Gatlin, where he then owned nearly 300 acres.

Of the two lakes named by Whitner, Lake Conway memorialized his 1843 boss, Florida’s Surveyor General, Valentine Y. Conway (1803-1881) of Stafford County, Virginia. And perhaps impressed by the clarity he found at one other, Clear Lake is identified by that name on Whitner’s 1843 survey (see above). Other lakes surveyed by Whitner were simply noted as a “Pond”.

 

In the late 1870s, Dr. Robert Hamilton McFarland named Lake Lancaster, as I explain on page 171 of my book, Orlando Lakes: Homesteaders & Namesakes.

Doctor McFarland had married Sarah Lancaster at Fulton, IL on March 11, 1847, and a daughter, Rosa Lancaster McFarland, had been born prior to the doctor relocating his family to Orlando. The southernmost tip of Lake Lancaster, likely the first “Pond” Whitner surveyed, remained unnamed nearly 40 years until Dr. McFarland lent his wife’s maiden name to the lake – a name it is still known by these many years later.

“The water in Lake Lancaster in those days,” wrote one 1880s pioneer, “came up to the road and as we stopped to water the horse on our way to the village, many alligators would slide into the water only to come back again to the warm sand as soon as we had gone. Mother was young, slender, and about five-feet tall, but did her share of snake killing and one day killed a six-foot rattler”.

Located near “Point Zero” of Pine Castle Township, as I explain in Part 1 of this series, Whitner and two chainmen would have worked their way west along the north line of “Township 23 South; 29 East”, or as surveyors of 1890 called it, Pine Castle Township”. (As stated in Part 1, the name “Pine Castle Township” was applied to this area not by Whitner, but rather by surveyors in 1890).

1890 Pine Castle Township (page 1 - Lake Lancaster at top center) See note in upper right corner

To fully appreciate the difficult challenges three courageous souls confronted in 1843, I borrow this excerpt from ‘Taming the Illinois Wilderness’ by Author Pat Camalliere:

“Imagine hills, valley, rivers swamps, woods, etc. A typical location such as a heavily wooded area required surveyors to run a straight line through the woods from one fixed endpoint to the next. An axe man would clear a path through the trees and the underbrush while a flagman provided a sighting target for the surveyor. Once the straight line was cleared, two chainmen would measure and set a mark identifying the distance. The surveyor would then bring up the rear, sighting using a compass to make sure the crew stayed on course. A good surveying party could survey about 12 miles in one day.”

 

Surveyor Whitner’s first “endpoint” was “Point Zero” near Lake Lancaster, as defined in Part 1 of this series, at the intersection of Curry Ford Road and Ferncreek Avenue. The other “Endpoint” was six miles due west, at the opposite end of Pine Castle Township. And along the way, while clearing the brush and trekking through swamps, there were those alligators and snakes later pioneers spoke of.

Six miles due west of Lake Lancaster today is Kirkman Road’s centerline, at Valencia Community Campus in Metro West. The campus encircles charming Lake Pamela, (page 230 of Orlando Lakes: Homesteads & Namesakes) a modern-day name for a body of water once known as Lake Moody. Pioneer Jacob Moody owned land here in 1912, although before that, William Thompson of Washington, DC had owned this land. Thompson, Chief Engraver for the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, had died in 1901. Of this man it was said: “The numerous copper plates in the archives engraved by him show the excellence of his work and form an enduring monument to his patience and industry.”

In my next installment, Benjamin Whitner’s surveying crew leaves Lake Pamela and heads in the direction of Devil’s Bay of 1890. Care to guess where that water feature might have been?

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Orlando Lakes: Homesteaders & Namesakes (2019)

THE AWARD WINNING - Beyond Gatlin: A History of South Orange County (2017)

First Road to Orlando (Second Edition 2015)

The Rutland Mule Matter – A Novel (2015)

CitrusLAND: Curse of Florida’s Paradise (Second Edition 2016)

TAVARES: Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County (NEW in 2020)

 

Author for Pine Castle Historical Society Publication:

Will Wallace Harney – Orlando’s First Renaissance Man

 

Pine Castle Pioneers / Pine Castle Lakes - Part 1

 

Pine Castle Pioneers / Pine Castle Lakes

Celebrating Pine Castle Pioneer Days ONLINE – Part 1

"Pine Castle Township" of 1890 Orange County 

During the year 1890, under the watchful eye of county surveyor John Otto Fries, surveyors began a massive project having as its goal to identify and map every Orange County property owner as of that year. Their task was enormous, for not only did the county's homestead deeds date as far back as the 1840s, when brothers Aaron & Isaac Jernigan arrived in this remote wilderness then called Mosquito County, but many parcels had since changed hands. Indeed, some parcels had changed hands multiple times.

 1890 Orange County Townships (Included Seminole County of today)

The 1890 project began by using the original 1840s surveyor system of township and ranges. The 1840s surveys were an amazing accomplishment as the project required courageous surveyors to trek through palmetto brush, swamps and lakes, and the unchartered Mosquito County to map the area into increments, or townships, of 36 square miles. Each 1840s township was 6 miles north to south by 6 miles east to west. The chart of Orange County townships above was prepared by the surveyors in 1890.

As for the 1890 project, these identical 6 miles x 6 miles townships were used, only in 1890, each township was named. The 1890 master sheet above, with Township 23 South, Range 29 East outlined in red, was named for the town of Pine Castle – the predominant “place-name” within that territory in the year 1890.

Orange County property records of today identify land using the same Township system as first laid out in 1843 by surveyor Benjamin F. Whitner. In fact, Whitner drove the FIRST stake in the ground in ALL of Central Florida in the Pine Castle Township, but did so 40 years before the name Pine Castle would become associated with Township 23 South, Range 29 East.

 Archway near Lake Lancaster and Point Zero of Pine Castle Township

It’s true! While eager Army troops in 1843 packed up and prepared to leave Mosquito County at Mellonville on Lake Monroe, surveyor Benjamin Franklin Whitner arrived, unloaded his transit and measuring chains, followed the old Fort Mellon to Fort Gatlin trail nearly 28 miles south, and drove his first survey stake into the ground to identify Point Zero of what is today the Pine Castle Township. Land at present-day Sanford on Lake Monroe was not yet surveyed, neither were areas at Maitland and Orlando.

Whitner’s first survey stake is but one chapter in the amazing story of central Florida pioneers. Point Zero, just south of the Lancaster Arch (photo above), is near the intersection of Ferncreek Avenue, Curry Ford Road, and Briercliff Drive. None of the roads of course existed in 1843, when surveyor Whitner and two “Chainmen” first identified Point Zero of the Township - 138 miles South (23 X 6) and 174 miles East (29 x 6) of yet another stake that had been driven into the ground at Tallahassee Florida.

Surveyor Whitner completed the FIRST central Florida township in 1843, and while doing so, charted 36 “Sections” which allowed for two homestead deeds to be issued in “Section 10 of Township 23 South, Range 29 East" – two deeds issued to brothers Aaron and Isaac Jernigan. Whitner, before proceeding to survey 540 square miles of South Orange County, also charted each existing lake, identifying each simply as a “Lake” or “Pond”. But of all the lakes Whitner sketched in the Pine Castle Township, he named only two, Lake Conway and Clear Lake.

Pine Castle Pioneers / Pine Castle Lakes will pick up here when my ONLINE Pioneer Days Presentation (cancelled due to the pandemic) continues.

In the meantime, here's another brain teaser: Which Pine Castle Township lake had to be shifted west during construction of the Ultimate I-4 project, and what does that lake have in common with a historic downtown Orlando highrise? 

The answer and much more in Part 2, or pages 25-26 of my book: Orlando Lakes: Homesteaders & Namesakes, available at Amazon.

A presentation of Richard Lee Cronin and CroninBooks.com