THE ALDEN'S OF ORLANDO'S PINELOCH:

James M & Frances E (Hewlett) ALDEN

Pine Castle Historical Society Appreciation Edition

Clarence E. Howard published ‘Early Settlers of Orange County’ in 1915. An Orlando photographer, Howard’s enlightening book of biographies included an introduction, ‘Early History of Orange County,’ authored by Annie (Caldwell) Whitner, a resident of Sanford, Florida, part of Orange County until 1913.

From the 1915 book, Early Settlers of Orange County by C. E. Howard

A long-time resident of the county, Annie wrote of the “bleached trunk and bare wide-spread branches of an immense dead live-oak, still standing. It is said that red men and white men met here to hold a council. The Council Oak stands, her white arms held aloft, a silent protest against the injustice of war, a ghostly presence lamenting her children, a memorial of them, which time, nor storm has expelled in all the years since then.”

Rollins College President William F. Blackman authored ‘History of Orange County’ a dozen years later. Blackman too wrote of a legendary tree. “There is a tradition,” he wrote in 1927, of a meeting between the Army and Indians near FORT GATLIN, a meeting said to have taken place “under a huge live-oak tree, and this oak, now no longer existing, was long-known as the Council Oak.”

The Council Oak vanished between 1915 and 1927, but fortunately, Annie Whitner included with her historical account a painting of the tree, along with this comment: “a beautiful picture has been painted of Council Oak by Mr. J. M. Alden, of Orlando, a talented member of our association.”

Upon reading her account, two questions immediately came to mind. Where is J. M. Alden’s painting now, and who was the “talented member” of Mrs. Whitner’s historical association?

James Madison Alden and Annie (Caldwell) Whitner made for a most unlikely pair, as their families had been staunch enemies only a few decades earlier. By 1915 though, both were working alongside one another in an attempt to preserve central Florida history. Born 1859 in North Carolina, Annie grew to adulthood at Fort Reid, a mile east of modern day Sanford. She arrived with her parents at a time Sanford was little more than a ‘concept’ of a port town on the St. Johns River.

Alden was a New Englander, born in Massachusetts in 1834. An Orange County farmer by the turn of the 20^th Century, James M. Alden was by that time in his second career, having already completed nearly a half-century of outstanding military service to his country.

Alden was a Yankee. Annie (Caldwell) Whitner was a Confederate. By 1915, both were proud Floridians. Both were proud Americans!

Even before Annie Whitner was born, James M. Alden had already become a distinguished Navy artist. Traveling with the United States Exploring Squadron led by Captain Charles Wilkes, young Alden’s sketches of Northwest Territory earned him the title, “James Madison Alden, Yankee Artist of the Pacific Coast”. Google this title for even more information on the man and his famous works. During the Civil War, at a time when Annie was an infant, James M. Alden served as Navy Secretary to Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter. Assigned to Washington, DC, Alden remained in DC after the War, continuing to serve Admiral Porter.

Yosemite Falls, by James M. Alden, Yankee Artist of the Pacific Coast

Frances E. Hewlett was born in England and employed as a Clerk at the Treasury Department in Washington, DC by 1880. Single, and twenty-six years younger than James M. Alden, Frances became Mrs. Alden after the death of the first Mrs. Alden, and after resigning her Pensions Department position in June of 1890.

Frances however had already teamed up with fellow DC Pension Clerks to become an Orange County land speculator a full year prior to her marriage to James M. Alden.

In fact, I first introduced Frances E. Hewlett in Chapter Eight, ‘Pen Pals’, of my Historical Novel, The Rutland Mule Matter. Frances, and another true-life Pension Clerk Eugene P. Mallory, are approached by an Orange County lad named Othman Rutland. A nine year old boy in 1865, Othman recalls the time a Navy Officer delivered a mule to his family home at Apopka. Desperate to learn of what happened to father, Othman travels as an adult to DC in 1888, hoping to solicit assistance from two clerks with whom he has something in common – Orange County landownership.

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Othman’s father had gone missing during the closing days of the Civil War, and those still alive and living in Orange County who might know what happened to Isaac N. Rutland weren’t talking. Washington DC clerks, many of whom really did become Orange County land speculators in the 1880s, were Othman’s final hope if ever he was to learn the truth about his father.

Isaac, Othman, Frances E. HEWLETT, Eugene and a return of a mule are all historically accurate, as is the ultimate answer that Othman finds inside an 1865 U. S. Provost Marshal’s file, a file folder buried in DC, and labeled, The Rutland Mule Matter. Yes, even the Provost Marshals’ file is historically accurate!

It was while researching Frances E. Hewlett that I doubled back to James Madison Alden. I had researched Fort Gatlin and the ‘Council Oak’ years earlier, learning of the Navy Artist, and of how valuable his paintings had become. I asked about the Council Oak painting and discovered, with assistance from Christine Kinlaw-Best of Sanford Historical Society, that his painting was gifted to Orange County Historical Society in 1971. I passed that information along to the folks at the Society, informing them as well that the man’s other works are now quite valuable.

Lieutenant James Madison Alden retired a Widower in early 1890, and later that same year, he married Frances E. Hewlett in Washington, DC. On the 7^th of February, 1895, Frances E. (Hewlett) Alden purchased 45 acres on the west side of Lake Pineloch. Buying the land from Albert G. Branham, deeds for this Alden parcel reference earlier deeds issued by R. F. Eppes. [Robert Francis Eppes, born 1851, was the son of Francis Wayles Eppes]

James & Frances (Hewlett) Alden owned an orange grove on a portion of 160 historic Orange County acres. First owned by Lady Isaphoenia C. Speer, this parcel was situated alongside the Fort Mellon to Fort Gatlin Road, THE first north-south road in the county. The Alden land sat north of the historic Fortress Gatlin.

The very land owned by the Alden’s was also the home, in 1871, of Frances W. Eppes, grandson of President Thomas Jefferson. And on this historic property also grew an “immense live-oak tree”, the legendary Council Oak.

Historian Kena Fries, in her 1938 book ‘Orlando in the Long, Long Ago,’ dedicated a chapter to Council Oak: “On the west side of Pine Loch Lake, where the old trail worked its way thru the pine woods, there once stood an immense live oak, said in its glory to have been the largest live oak in all of central and south Florida. It was known as ‘council oak’, the gathering place of the Seminole warriors.” The daughter of Orange County surveyor John Otto Fries, Kena, in describing “the old trail,” a/k/a/ the Fort Mellon to Fort Gatlin Road, went on to say; “In September 1904, while spending the day with the late J. M. Alden, we rowed across the lake.”

An ancient Indian trail became a military route leading from Lake Monroe to Fort Gatlin. The Council Oak was located on the trail, on the west side of a lake named by the grandson of President Thomas Jefferson. A parcel chock full of central Florida history, including an historic old oak tree, was preserved for history by a retired Navy Officer turned Orange County Citrus Grower.

James M. Alden died at Orlando May 10, 1922. His Widow, Frances E. (Hewlett) Alden, passed away April 16, 1930. Both were buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, DC.  

The Alden property at Lake Pineloch became Pine Loch Heights in 1921. Blogger Syd Albright wrote of James M. Alden and his wife in an October 12, 2014. In his blog, Albright said the Alden’s: “retired to OAK KNOLL, Fla, near ORLANDO. He spent the rest of his life tending his fruit trees and painted until 1915 when his eyesight failed.” Council Oak may well have been the last painting of James M. Alden, and one most wonder, did the Council Oak have anything to do with his naming his acreage, Oak Knoll?

Research compiled by Richard Lee Cronin

My thanks to Pine Castle Woman’s Club and their Pine Castle Historical Society for allowing me to present to their organization on Sunday afternoon, March 12, 2017.

PINE CASTLE ORIGINS

Historic MELLONVILLE Road tunnels beneath timeless oaks a mile east of modern day SANFORD, Florida. Beginning at the road’s origin on Lake Monroe, driving south a little more than a mile will bring you to RANDOLPH Street, a rather inconspicuous intersection today, where one is hard pressed to comprehend that they are actually at the hub of 170 years of intriguing Florida history.

Mellonville Road at old Fort Reid

A FORT REID intersection, in the 1840s, met here at this location of RANDOLPH Street and old Fort MELLON to Fort GATLIN Road, the 28 mile trail ending where fortress GATLIN was originally established in 1838. Fortress GATLIN stood along the west shore of a lake known today as LAKE GEM MARY, originally named in the 1870s by William M. RANDOLPH for his wife, MARY E. (PITTS) RANDOLPH.

Continuing south beyond old Fortress GATLIN, tracing the western shoreline of Lakes GATLIN and CONWAY for yet another mile, one again arrives at another road named RANDOLPH. At this 1891 crossroads, RANDOLPH intersects with WALLACE Ave on the one-time homestead belonging to William Wallace HARNEY, builder of a home fronting on Lake CONWAY that he named the PINE CASTLE.

HARNEY’S residence led to the naming of a nearby Post Office, established in 1879. The pine residence was also the inspiration for an adjacent town, founded in 1884. The town hub of 1884 PINE CASTLE is not so easily discernable today, but the center was not far from the present day intersection of South Orange Avenue and Oak Ridge Road, the location of a 70 year presence of PINE CASTLE WOMAN’S CLUB.

One added note of interest. The land upon which the Pine Castle Woman's Club now stands was once owned by Mary E. RANDOLPH.

William & Mary (PITTS) RANDOLPH are but two of the earliest amazing pioneers who settled in CitrusLAND and played roles in shaping a central Florida landscape we know and love today. I am honored to present, Sunday, March 12, 2017, for the Pine Castle Woman’s Club, GATLIN vis-à-vis PINE CASTLE – the true story of how a secluded South Orange County town came to be. 

Free and open to the public, this event begins at 3 PM. Then, Rick’s FREE Blog will follow that very special event with additional insights of an intriguing land south of Orlando. 

Stay tuned for a history packed MARCH and APRIL of Blogs, concluding with a very special Blog: THE REAL MCKINNON!    

JENNIE of Florida's INDIAN RIVER

The conclusion to my Nine Part Fall Blog Series: 

Florida's Forgotten Frontierswomen: 

Florida history has wrongfully identified this intriguing woman as Jennie of the Anheuser beer family, an error illustrating how women all too often became lost or muddled in recorded historical events. The story of a duke and his Duchess living for a time on Florida’s East Coast is indeed true, although the real identity of these high profile individuals had remained, until now, unclear.

Florida's Dummitt a/k/a Dummett Castle along the Indian River 

Jennie was not the daughter of Eberhard Anheuser, founder of Anheuser Busch. Florida’s ‘Duchess of Castelluccia’, as this fascinating lady was most often referred to, was not in any related to the Anheuser family. In fact, Jennie was born in New York before the beer brewer ever arrived on America’s shore.

There is ample compelling evidence as to the true identity of both the duke and duchess, evidence documented in detail in my EBook, ‘Florida’s Indian River Duchess’. Only vague references to a duke and duchess exist in Florida’s history, but the couple did receive extensive notoriety elsewhere in the USA and abroad.

The duke and duchess had purchased historic Florida land along the Indian River in 1881, but then sold their land in 1886. The duke never returned to Florida. His duchess however did return briefly, to wed a final time.

I emphasize the word final in her marriage because of varying accounts as to exactly how often this “strikingly beautiful lady” was said to have walked down the aisle. Early court records pertaining to her estate ‘suggests’ Jennie had been married four times, but the record also  sarcastically added the duchess had, “a special predilection for matrimony and for the making of wills.”

The Duchess of Castelluccia appears to have married only three times. Even the court record suggesting otherwise names only three husbands. Of each of her marriages, the third and final was, by any measure, the weirdest. Jennie’s third and final wedding took place south of her earlier Florida homestead she had owned with the Duke.

On January 29, 1895, the Duchess of Castelluccia married at Hotel Indian River in Rockledge, Florida. Four months following this third wedding, Jennie, Florida’s infamous Indian River Duchess, died in New York.

Newspapers in the North fell in love with America’s Duchess of Castelluccia. They wrote of her and her Italian duke often, published stories that in turn preserved in print a history of Florida’s earliest economic engine, the Florida Orange!

The historic Dummitt (Dummett) Grove appears on early Florida maps

It’s true! A captivating story of a young New York girl who made it BIG actually served to record the history of Florida’s Indian River orange. The Duchess, so it turns out, was rich! Her money, combined with the experience of an Italian duke, acquired what had been one of Florida’s original orange groves. The Dummett (a/k/a Dummitt) Grove south of New Smyrna and northeast of Titusville has long been known as one of the earliest groves, but it was the notoriety of a duke and duchess that helped preserve the grove’s real history.  

The press never tired of passing along stories of America’s adopted royalty – an Italian duke and his American born duchess. From her native New York to an island of granite off the coast of Maine, Jennie had become a millionaire by the time of her second marriage to the duke. Interviewed in the Hawaiian Islands, a Marine, Jennie’s third husband, half her age, told of their short-lived marriage, and of how he lost much of the fortune Jennie had accumulated.

Florida’s Indian River Duchess is available in EBook for $3.79 or FREE to Kindle Unlimited members. Visit: https://www.amazon.com/Floridas-Indian-River-Duchess-Castelluccia-ebook/dp/B01G42CK4G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1482932963&sr=8-1&keywords=Florida%27s+Indian+River+Duchess

The role of women in history is not easily found, but it’s a challenge gladly undertaken by the author of CitrusLAND books. Our true-life American story, including the story of early Florida, can only be told through the lineal descendants of its earliest pioneers, men and women alike. Telling the story of early Florida through its people is an integral part of all CitrusLAND books. Visit my website www.croninbooks.com for further information.

CitrusLAND books are available at BOOKMARKIT ORLANDO bookstores, Amazon.com and FREE to Kindle Unlimited members!

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This concludes Ricks 9 Part FALL 2016 Blog Series

Coming to Rick's Blog in 2017:

The First Families of Florida’s Highlands

GERTRUDE of SANFORD

If you believe the entire story of Henry S. SANFORD and the founding of Sanford, Florida has been told, think again! A native of Connecticut, Henry Shelton Sanford purchased the 12,000 acre Moses Levy Spanish Land Grant in May of 1870. A year prior to his Florida land deal, Sanford was wrapping up a 22 year career as an American diplomatic.

Henry acquired the Levy Grant with an $8,200 down payment and a $10,000 note due in 12 months. A public servant for much of his life, an obvious question seems to be, where did Sanford get the $18,200 to buy his land? One likely answer points to a Philadelphian and one-time owner of the once-upon-a-time 19^th Century orange grove Belair.

Born at Philadelphia in 1841, Gertrude Ellen Du Puy was living in Paris with her widowed aunt when she met and married Henry S. Sanford. Gertrude married Henry in 1864. Sanford retired from diplomatic service five years later, in 1869, and a year later, found his way back to the USA and to central Florida. Henry S. Sanford then invested a sizeable sum of money in undeveloped Florida wilderness land.

Gertrude E. DuPuy (left) with her mother

Three miles inland from a planned town of Sanford, Henry Sanford reportedly developed an estate known as Belair. “I sometimes feel the 18^th day of December at Belair was a delicious dream” wrote a journalist visiting General Sanford’s estate in 1882. Continuing the write-up the reporter wrote: “Having dismounted at the rustic Belair Station, on the South Florida Railroad line, carriages then transported our party through a broad gateway into a shady avenue. The pure fresh air is ambrosial.”

Ten railway minutes south of Sanford, Belair was the first stop on South Florida Railroad’s 1880 first train to Orlando. “The grove and residence of H. S. Sanford,” wrote a reporter in 1889, viewing the estate from onboard his train, “had Crystal Lake on one side and Belair Station the other.” Upon 145 acres, said that reporter, were “all the principal varieties of oranges grown in Florida.”

Early write-ups reference Belair as dating to 1870, yet during 1875 and 1876, Henry S. Sanford and wife Gertrude signed deeds as: “residents of Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida”. Belair occupied acreage included in Sanford’s 1870 Land Grant purchase, so an 1878 deed raises a rather interesting question.

Among Orange County’s early deeds is a transaction regarding Belair estate: “Reverend Charles Du Puy, of the City of Philadelphia, PA, did give and bequeath to Gertrude E. Sanford, his niece, certain property, real and personal.” The parcel transferred in 1878, to Gertrude in exchange for the receipt of $18,000, was 400 acres described as “property known as Belair, bounded on the south by Crystal Lake.”

As Belair was part of the 12,000 acres purchased in 1870 for $18,200, why had Reverend DuPuy bequeathed the 400 acres in 1878 to Gertrude E. Sanford for $18,000?

Reverend Charles Meredith Du Puy, brother of Gertrude (DuPuy) Sanford’s father, died November 26, 1875 at Philadelphia. At the time of the Reverend’s death, Belair, the citrus grove near Sanford, Florida, belonged to a member of the DuPuy family.

Likely the source of funds for Henry S. Sanford to acquire the Levy Land Grant, the 1878 deed may well have settled that loan. Gertrude’s family may have given Henry the idea of not only developing the town of Sanford, but the naming of Belair itself.

Gertrude’s brother, also a Charles Meredith Du Puy, was serving in 1870 as President of a railroad venture at that time constructing a line between New York and Philadelphia. Gertrude’s brother, named for her uncle, had also been instrumental in this nation’s westward movement into Illinois prior to his Philadelphia venture.

The DuPuy family of Philadelphia predates William Penn by five years, says a detailed history of the DuPuy family. DuPuy’s Rock is noted on early Philadelphia maps, while nearby, Bellaire Manor, “a building known by all variations of Bell Air,” according to the building’s historic preservation records, dates to the very early 1700s.

Henry S. Sanford is remembered as founder and developer of Sanford, Florida, but as is often the case with early Florida history, an amazing frontierswomen was clearly involved as well. Presently the County Seat of Seminole County, Sanford, it appears, truly owes its very existence not only to Henry Shelton Sanford, but to his lovely wife, Gertrude Ellen (Du Puy) Sanford (1841-1902) as well.

The next and final installment of my fall 2016 series will be posted December 30, 2016.

The role of women in history is not easily found, but it’s a challenge gladly undertaken by the author of CitrusLAND books. The true-life American story, including the story of Florida, can only be told through lineal descendants of the earliest pioneers, men and women alike.

Each of twelve chapters in my CitrusLAND: Curse of Florida’s Paradise, Second Edition, begins with a dedication and brief biography of an exceptional central Florida Frontierswoman. Telling the story of Florida through its people, each CitrusLAND book is described in more detail at my website: www.croninbooks.com

CitrusLAND: Curse of Florida's Paradise

CitrusLAND books are available at BOOKMARKIT ORLANDO bookstores; Winter Garden Heritage Foundation, and Central Florida Railroad Museum in Winter Garden, FL.

BOOKMARK IT ORLANDO BOOK FAIR, SUNDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2016

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Ricks FALL Blog finale: December 30, 2016

Part 9 of 9: Florida’s Indian River Princess

NAMING LAKE EOLA

A Special Holiday Edition BLOG

NAMING LAKE EOLA

An Orlando, Florida Icon

By Richard Lee Cronin, Author - First Road to Orlando

Folklore, handed down from one generation to the next, often takes on a life of its own. Central Florida history is chock full of such folklore, so the challenge for researchers becomes separating fact from fiction. Such is the case in seeking the truth as to how Orlando’s iconic Lake Eola got its name.

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This Holiday Blog is also Day 6 of our 12 Days of Christmas celebration

Long-time Orlando resident Kena Fries wrote, in 1938: “Sandy Beach was changed to Eola in the early 1870s by Bob Summerlin, in memory of the beautiful young girl, his bride to be, who died from typhoid fever two weeks before the appointed wedding day.” This legend has entertainment value, but an obvious question comes to mind, is there any truth to this legend?

Kena Fries wrote of this legend 63 years after the first known use of the name Lake Eola. So, to solve the riddle of this legend we must begin at the beginning - the 1870s!

Florida cattleman Jacob Summerlin relocated his family to Orlando in 1873. He bought 200 acres adjacent to, and east of, the original four (4) acre village. Jacob, as well his then teenage son, Robert L. Summerlin, both attended an organization meeting at Orlando’s log-cabin Courthouse in June, 1875. The meeting had been called for the purpose of incorporating the town of Orlando.

Robert ‘Bob’ Summerlin graduated from the University of Georgia in 1875, and was admitted to the Florida Bar in 1876. There was indeed a ‘Bob Summerlin’ in the vicinity of Lake Eola during the “early 1870s!” His father Jacob platted all 200 acres of his land, signing the first land deed May 8, 1875.

The name ‘Lake Eola’ appears on the 1875 Plat filed by Jacob Summerlin, suggesting Kena’s legend might indeed have some bases of truth. Bob Summerlin’s beautiful young bride however did not “die of typhoid fever.”

Robert L. Summerlin and Texas B. Parker married May 30, 1876. The newlyweds settled down in Orlando, in a lakefront home on, you guessed it, Lake Eola. Their first child, daughter Ruby, was born 1877, and another daughter, Maude, was born in 1878.

1875 Jacob Summerlin Plat of Lake Eola

Robert L. Summerlin lakefront home was on Lot 2

Attorney Robert L. Summerlin served as Mayor of Orlando in 1880, but then, Robert & Texas divorced in the mid-1880s, and his ex-wife then returned to her family home in Polk County. She remarried in 1888! Robert L. Summerlin departed Orlando too. As years passed, the legend of a mysterious girl, the young bride who died of typhoid fever weeks before marrying Bob Summerlin, a girl named Eola, eventually surfaced.

Local historians never wrote of the whereabouts of Robert L. Summerlin after he departed Orlando in the 1880s.

A New York newspaper however reprinted an 1890 San Francisco story telling of a doctor who had been treating Mexicans for yellow fever. That doctor, the article reported, “effected cures in 85 per cent” of patients treated. The story also reported Dr. Angel Bellinzaghi traveled to New York in preparation of a Brazil trip, and that the doctor was accompanied by, “R. L. Summerlin of San Antonio, Texas.” Was this Orlando’s R. L. Summerlin?

Orange County, Florida records include a February 24, 1900 deed signing by Robert L. Summerlin, a document conveying land to his sister. Robert signed as a single man, residing at the time in San Antonio, Texas. Archives also reflect Robert L. Summerlin as being a land agent in 1900, and assisting Dr. Bellinzaghi in locating land to establish a vaccine laboratory. In addition, University of Georgia Alumni records place their 1875 graduate, one Robert L. Summerlin, “a lawyer and one-time Orlando Mayor” as residing in San Antonio, Texas as of 1890.

Born March 7, 1858 outside of Tampa, Robert L. Summerlin died at Los Angeles, CA, November 7, 1926. At the time of his death, Robert L. Summerlin appears to have remarried only once, that in 1901.

Connecting dots in Lake Eola’s naming certainly includes a dot for Robert L. ‘Bob’ Summerlin, but we’ve yet to mention the name EOLA, or the alleged bride-to-be. To resolve that mystery we must return to other early records of Orlando, and specifically to an organization meeting of Orlando’s Presbyterian Church. Held on the 18^th of March, 1876, the congregation of this new church consisted of 11 members, including; “Mrs. Jacob Summerlin, “formerly of Flemington, Georgia.”

Flemington was a small town southwest of Savannah, located in Liberty County. The Summerlin’s were all native Floridians, but Jacob relocated his family following the Civil War. The reason for moving to Georgia was said to be to allow the children to get a better education. After returning to Florida, and while designing his Addition to Orlando in 1875, Jacob even named one street in his new plat Liberty Street. (See bottom of plat above).

In the 1870 Liberty County, GA census, family #13 was the ‘Summerlin’ clan. Children included: George, Robert, Samuel and Alice, and each noted as “attending school.” Nearby, family #6 was a Widow, Sarah A. Way, along with her eldest daughter, Florence, age 23, a School Teacher. Sarah’s other children, each listed as attending school as well, were; EULA, Ellen and Joseph Way.

Born July 22, 1854 at Liberty County, Georgia, Eulalie Way never married. She died at age 42, October 13, 1896, and was buried in the State and County of her birth. At age 6, her parents gave her name as Eulalie, but in subsequent years, the young girl went by her nickname, EULA.

In 1870, then 16 year old Eula Way was attending school at Liberty, taught by her sister. Classmates included Robert ‘Bob’ Summerlin, then only 12 years old. Bob Summerlin graduated from law school in 1875, and he followed his family south to Orlando that same year. Did young Bob leave behind his childhood sweetheart?

After the Summerlin family departed Orlando in the 1880s, Samuel Y. Way arrived in Orlando. A bachelor, he married the daughter of another celebrated Orlando pioneer, James DeLaney. Samuel became active in land development, platting in 1902, an extension of Ivanhoe and Highland Avenues, north of Colonial Drive.

Samuel Y. Way also served as Mayor of Orlando in 1940, two years after author Kena Fries published her book, a book that included telling how Lake Eola was named. One year old in 1870, Samuel’s older brother, Richard Way, was attending school at Liberty County, along with his cousin, Eulalie Way.

Eulalie was a popular name at the time of Eula’s birth in 1854, and the reason for its popularity was an Edgar Allan Poe poem, released 9 years earlier in 1845. The poem was “Eulalie”, and it has been said the poem was written about Poe’s wife. Married in 1836, one line of Poe’s poem: “I dwelt alone, in a world of moan, till the fair and gentle Eulalie became my blushing bride”.

Fragments of historical facts often assimilate into mysterious legends. In the case of Robert L. Summerlin, and the naming of Lake Eola, pieces of the legend appear to be true, although facts became muddled. Eulalie, the beautiful young girl who first captured a young boy’s heart, became forever memorialized as Bob’s father laid out home sites far away in Orlando. “Dad,” one can almost hear Bob saying, “Could we name the lake EULA?” One must also wonder though, if Robert ever revealed to his wife Texas as to the source of that name?

Central Florida maps of yesteryear verify that early surveyors were detailed mappers, but terrible spellers. Fort REID versus Fort REED, Robert R. Reed vs Robert R. REID, & Lake Jesup vs Lake Jessup, are but a few examples of early place names misspelled on plats and maps. Still, I’ll let you decide, was Orlando’s Lake Eola meant to be Lake Eula?

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MARY Catherine of PALATKA

MARY Catherine influenced her State’s 19^th century history not only from her PALATKA home, but in ST AUGUSTINE and ORLANDO as well. At the risk of repeating myself, I’ll say again, excluding women from the amazing story of Florida’s founding risks telling an incomplete history of the 27^th State. Mary Catherine of PALATKA is merely one example.

Robert R. & Mary C. REID residence, Palatka, Florida

104 distinct ORLANDO 1880s deeds, for example, were not official until after MARY C of Palatka had affixed her signature. And while history did record her husband failing in 1850 to develop PALATKA, historians neglected to mention the town venture ultimately prospered thanks to MARY Catherine’s brother-in-law, Henry R. TEASDALE. Mary C’s family clearly played an important role in the story of early Florida.

Signature of 1880 ORLANDO, Florida deed for land sale

Born 1825, Mary C was a native of America’s oldest city and a daughter of St. Augustine merchant Pedro J. L. BENET. Of Spanish descent, the Benet family was mentioned in an 1895 journal as “respected St. Augustine citizens.” Mary Catherine BENET married on the 22^nd of February, 1850, to Robert R. REID III. Born at Augusta, Georgia, Reid was the son of Florida’s Territorial Governor, Robert R. Reid II, who had died while in Tallahassee in 1841 of Yellow Fever.

Robert & Mary Catherine (BENET) REID relocated the year of their marriage, settling 30 miles west of St. Augustine at a wilderness trading post on the St. Johns River.

Said to mean “crossing over,” PALATKA was a remote community of fewer than 500 in 1850. Despite losing $5,000 in developing the town, the Reid’s made Palatka a permanent home. All seven of their known children were born at Palatka.

After going bankrupt, Robert R. Reid III started over, entering a partnership with Henry R. TEASDALE, husband of Estanislada BENET, Mary Catherine’s younger sister. The new business, Merchants Teasdale & Reid, flourished, and became an important player in the story 19^th century Palatka.

As Florida struggled to rebuild during the wake of America’s Civil War, Teasdale & Reid, in 1867, acquired 120 remote acres well to the south of Palatka. The successful bid of $900 was made to the Orange County Sheriff on the courthouse steps at Orlando. The acreage itself surrounded the tiny log cabin courthouse.

Their investment in Village of Orlando sat idle for the next 13 years before Robert & Mary Catherine (Benet) Reid, “of Palatka, Putnam County, Florida,” platted 80 of the 120 acres in 1880 as an addition to the four (4) acre village of ORLANDO.

The first train to Orlando arrived November 11, 1880, stopping at a depot built on acreage donated by, “Robert R. Reid, and MARY C. REID his wife.” The Reid’s sold 103 parcels, with each and every deed being signed by both Robert and Mary C Reid.

On the 29^th of October, 1889, Mary Catherine (BENET) REID died at her Palatka home.

The role of women in history is not easily found, but it’s a challenge gladly undertaken by the author of CitrusLAND books. The true-life American story, including the story of Florida, can only be told through the lineal descendants of the earliest pioneers, men and women alike. Each of twelve chapters in my CitrusLAND: Curse of Florida’s Paradise, Second Edition, begins with a dedication to and brief biography of a central Florida Frontierswoman. In addition, the Reid family’s involvement in the development of Orlando is detailed in my First Road to Orlando.

Telling the story of Florida through its people, CitrusLAND is described in detail at my website: www.croninbooks.com

CitrusLAND books are available at BOOKMARKIT ORLANDO bookstores; Winter Garden Heritage Foundation, and Central Florida Railroad Museum in Winter Garden, FL.

Also available at Amazon.com and the Kindle Store

Visit also my Goodreads Group, “Florida History”

Ricks Blog resumes December 14, 2016

Part 8: Gertrude of Sanford

CATHERINE of Tallahassee

Catherine WILLIS married a Prince! Not at all a storybook tale, her true-life July 12, 1826 Tallahassee wedding was the start of an extraordinary new chapter in Florida’s history.

Catherine’s Tallahassee marriage was to Prince Charles Napoleon Achilles MURAT, son of the King of Naples. Their wedding created an American nobility in Florida’s panhandle, two decades before the US Territory became a State.

Princess Catherine (WILLIS) Murat

Following the French revolt of 1830, the Murat’s travelled to Europe, stopping in London to pay a visit to Lord Dudley STUART. An English politician, Stuart had married Princess Christine, the daughter of Napoleon Bonaparte, in 1824. The two Christine’s shared a Napoleon heritage, and at a lavish gathering, given in honor of the Murat’s, Lady Stuart introduced her guest as, Catherine MURAT, “the niece of George Washington.”

At another London event, while viewing side by side photos of Napoleon and Washington at an art gallery, their host exclaimed, “Behold, in the Princess MURAT, the niece of both, a distinction which she alone can claim.” Catherine MURAT was indeed a niece of George Washington.

Princess Catherine Murat was the daughter of Colonel Byrd and Mary (Lewis) WILLIS of Tallahassee. The Willis family history speaks highly of their esteemed Princess, telling of Catherine’s journey to England, and stating she had returned home in advance of her husband, doing so, “under the protection of Mrs. PRINGLE, of South Carolina, a good American.”

Mrs. Pringle? The brother of Judith (MAYRANT) Pringle had died in 1757, leaving a four year old son. Judith raised her brother’s boy, John Mayrant, Jr. Years later, John Junior married Maria P. REES, a sister of Orlando Savage REES, a South Carolina Plantation owner and 1830s landowner of Florida’s Spring Garden Plantation in present day Volusia County. Catherine’s was a family rich in Florida history.

Florida’s pioneering family lines of Catherine (Willis) Murat run deep. Catherine’s father was appointed Pensacola Navy Agent, arriving in Florida Territory about the same time as the RANDOLPH family. A son, Lewis Willis, became a doctor, marrying first Harriet RANDOLPH, and second, Hester SAVAGE, as in the family of Orlando Savage Rees.

Catherine (Willis) Murat remained a prominent Tallahassee figure following the death of her husband in 1847. An 1858 Mount Vernon Ladies Association publication appointed her as Vice-Regent of the Florida Chapter, stating: “It may be interesting to know that this lady is the widow of Achilles Murat, son of the celebrated Marshal Joachim Murat, and brother-in-law of the first Emperor of France. She is also grand-niece of Washington, through the family of LEWIS.”

Mount Vernon Ladies Association rescued the original homestead of George Washington, and remains active in that cause to this very day.

“I walk along Tallahassee’s City of the Dead,” wrote traveler C. Vickerstaff Hine in 1891, writing of visiting the town’s Old City Cemetery. “At length, through the wicket-gate, I pass and am among memories of the past. Humble are many of these crumbling records. Others, obelisks of granite, tell of lives spent in marble halls, of life and social gayety. On one of these I read the inscription, “Prince Murat, King of Naples. The lofty monument to this fallen great one tells me that he lies beneath my feet. Near to this monument is another monument, a little lower than the first, as if, even in death, showing wifely submission. It is the monument that marks the last resting-place of the wife of Prince Murat, of the King of Naples, and appropriately, this monument marks the grave of a daughter of the Republic, born, as the inscription tells me, in the Old Dominion.”

Catherine (Willis) Murat resided at PARTHENOPE, the Murat Plantation in Tallahassee that she and her Prince established in 1823. Like that of the short-lived Greek colony of the same name in Prince Murat’s hometown of Naples, for which their Florida plantation had been named, Murat’s plantation too was short-lived. America’s Civil War ended the reign of Florida plantations. With the passing of her home, Catherine of Tallahassee died, and she was laid to rest in 1867, alongside her Prince.

The role of women in history is not easily found, but it’s a challenge gladly undertaken by the author of CitrusLAND books. The true-life American story, including the story of Florida, can only be told through the lineal descendants of the earliest pioneers, men and women alike. Each of twelve chapters in my CitrusLAND: Curse of Florida’s Paradise, Second Edition, begins with a dedication and brief biography of a central Florida Frontierswoman.

Telling the story of Florida through its people, CitrusLAND is described in detail at my website: www.croninbooks.com

CitrusLAND books are available at BOOKMARKIT ORLANDO bookstores; Winter Garden Heritage Foundation, and Central Florida Railroad Museum in Winter Garden, FL.

Also available at Amazon.com and the Kindle Store

Join my Goodreads Group: “Florida History” – It’s FREE!

Ricks Blog resumes November 30, 2016

Part 7: Mary of Palatka