Town of EDGEWOOD, Florida

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

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

1860 Homestead of James J. & Lydia Patrick

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

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

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

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

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

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

The 20s Boom

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

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

Robert M & Lucy B Shearer, Circa 1919

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

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

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

BEYOND GATLIN

A history of South Orange County

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

BEYOND GATLIN, AVAILABLE AT AMAZON.COM

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

ORLANDO'S OAK RIDGE?

Was there a Ridge of Oaks in South Orange County? 

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

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

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

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

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

Beyond Gatlin; Exhibit 73 of 97

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Beyond Gatlin, Exhibit 72 of 97

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

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

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

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

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

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FORT GATLIN and an ORLANDO Deaconess

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

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

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

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

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

A complex Randolph family tree

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

BEYOND GATLIN: Perils of PINE CASTLE

The Pine Castle - residence of Will Wallace Harney

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

Chapter 10: Perils of Pine Castle

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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November, 2017

The CRAWFORD HOUSE

A CRAWFORD HOUSE History

Pine Castle, Orange County, Florida

By Richard Lee Cronin, Author

(Not affiliated with Pine Castle Woman's Club, nor
Pine Castle Historical Society. Author is fully
responsible for the articles content.) 

Photo of Crawford House by Pine Castle Historical Society

Pine Castle Woman’s Club recently rescued a magnificent piece of south Florida history – a one-hundred year old residence now planned to be a History Center. To discover the origins of this structure was not easy, but to assist in researching its past were several helpful clues. A small town home relocated twice during its lifetime, the structure’s story, finally discovered, proves the Woman’s Club could not have selected a better facility to serve as a history center for this remarkable community.

The Crawford House story begins with the very homestead upon which the historic 1870 Pine Castle was built. And while it is a fact a Crawford family had possession of this home for five (5) decades, it’s also true the story of this home would not be complete with mentioning as well its role in the founding of an acclaimed engineering firm, a business that to this day is a vital member of the Pine Castle community.

As mentioned, clues about the house launched my research project: (1) it was the long-time home of a schoolteacher, Essie Crawford Johns; (2) the original address had been 909 Fairlane Avenue; and (3) the house dated to around 1919.

Once I began digging I located two Crawford schoolteachers. Ethel Crawford, born in 1888, lived in Conway and listed her occupation in 1920 as a ‘School Teacher’. A second young lady, S. E. Crawford, was born 1901 in Alabama, and by 1930 was a ‘teacher’ in the Pine Castle area. Having a 50% chance of selecting the correct ‘teacher’ to research, I started off with the wrong Crawford. I’ll return to her in a bit.

The correct Essie Crawford Johns was the 29 year old Miss S. E. Crawford in 1930, a teacher residing with her parents, William E. & Corosia Crawford. A sister, Virginia L., age 19, was also living with her parents. The son, James E. Crawford, had married and was living in Pine Castle as well.

I can assure you this is the Crawford House family for which the home gets its name, but arriving at that conclusion required a lot of convincing on my part. I assume the same will be of you, so allow me to begin.

Census pages seldom included street names, but many did for the year 1930, and this Crawford family was listed as living in Pine Castle on Tyner Road. Okay, so the street name doesn’t jive with clue #2, but a little history about this downtown area can make sense of the name discrepancy in short order.

The original town of Pine Castle, laid out in 1884 by Clement R. Tiner, had a dozen streets, half running north to south, the other half, east to west. The Crawford House did not exist in 1884, and the land upon which it would eventually be built was not part of Tiner’s Pine Castle. Twenty-five (25) years later, the Crawford House was built on land in James G. Tyner’s 1912 Pine Castle addition.  

Orange County Commissioners brought clarity to Pine Castle street names in August, 1955. Every original town street named by Clement in 1884 received a new name. An example is ‘Division Street,’ which was renamed ‘Fairlane Avenue’. Clement had originally laid out ‘Main Street’ to parallel the railroad tracks. You know that road today as Orange Avenue, but during the 1920s, it was going by ‘Dixie Highway’.

Clement Tiner’s Central Avenue ran north to south along his east property line. The same road is known today as Hansel Avenue. Clement Tiner’s Pine Castle was west of the centerline of Central (Hansel) Avenue. The homestead of Will Wallace Harney was east of Central (Hansel) Avenue.

During the summer of 1912, James G. TYNER, nephew of the 1884 town founder, recorded a subdivision described as part of the Will Wallace HARNEY homestead. That same year, August 21, 1912, James G. Tyner sold Lot 10 and 11, two adjoining lots fronting on an “unnamed street.”

J. G. TYNER Sub-division, Lots 10 & 11 facing unnamed ‘street’.

(See note left of arrow: unnamed street becomes Fairlane Ave.)

The 1912 buyer of the two lots were Florida natives. Paul MACY, born c 1870, was the son of William H. & Martha J. MACY. Martha J. Macy was proprietor of a Pine Castle Hotel in 1887. Paul’s wife, Alice Caroline PATRICK, born 1872, was the daughter of William Wright PATRICK, one of the earliest of Orange County settlers dating to the 1840s. The Patrick pioneer was buried west of Pine Castle - near the ‘Oak Ridge’.

Harney himself had begun the breakup of his homestead. He sold off several parcels in 1879 and 1880 but without filing a plat. One parcel sold became known later as Lot 9, Harney’s Homestead, and that parcel become property of James G. Tyner in 1912.

It appears the Macy’s did not build on these lots, and in June of 1919, they sold the land to W. E. BISHOP. One year later, Widower Bishop sold the lots to Hugh G. REDDITT. A $2,500.00 selling price, inclusive of a $2,000.00 mortgage dated 1 December, 1919, suggests a home had been built by this time. Clue #3 suggested the home dated to the year 1919.

Even before a home was ever built the land was rich in history. Pioneers Harney, Macy, and Patrick had ties to land surveyed in 1912 by the celebrated county surveyor, John Otto Fries.

    

William E. & Corosia Crawford relocated from Dothan, Alabama, buying the home from Hugh & Evelyn Redditt, July 16, 1921. The street out front of their residence was not yet named Fairlane. Perhaps it was being referred to as ‘Tyner’s Road’.

The Crawford family bought the home in 1921, and would continue to have ties to this residence until the year 1980.

William E. Crawford together with son James Edward Crawford became involved in trucking, but the father dabbled some in land speculation too. Within a month of buying the family residence, William Crawford bought a rail-siding at the present day junction of Oak Ridge Road and the railroad track. He acquired two lots in Pine Castle, and five lots further south at Sphaler’s upcoming town of Prosper Colony at Taft.

2017 Orange County Property Appraiser of Fairlane Ave

Meanwhile, a schoolteacher in 1930, Miss Essie, more formerly, Siddie Emmaline Crawford, married Earl Johns December 26, 1937. Earl was of another Pine Castle area family with south Orange County roots dating to Post-Civil War days. The Johns family relatives included such names as Keene, Harris and Hansel.

The Crawford House remained in the family long after the 1953 death of William E. Crawford. In 1955, two months before an unnamed street became known as Fairlane, the next owners of Crawford House were married at Orlando, Florida. It was to be a few years though before the new owners signed on.

Born 1929 at Istanbul, Turkey, Mehmet Erdem Ardaman married Orlando native Mary Jo Fishback June 25, 1955. She was a graduate of Orlando High School and had gone on to become a lawyer, graduating from University of Florida in 1952.

As the sun was setting on the 50s, literally, Mehmet & Mary Jo Ardaman acquired, December 31, 1959, a Pine Castle parcel identified as 6015 Randolph St. The land was also identified as being part of Lot 10 of the Will Wallace Harney Homestead.

Much like that of 909 Fairlane, Ardaman’s street address on Randolph no longer exists says the Orange County Property Appraiser office, but for many years, 6015 Randolph was used as the business address of Ardaman & Associates.

The engineering firm now occupies a much large building south of town, but in 1959, Ardaman & Associates was located steps from the Crawford House. The number of steps between these two locations would become fewer over the years.

Earl Jones passed in 1961. Corosia Crawford died in 1968, and with her passing, three Crawford heirs took over the 50 year old family home at 909 Fairlane. As the Crawford family grew smaller over the years, Ardaman & Associates had grown in size and needed to expand. Ardaman bought the Crawford House in December, 1972, signing a mortgage with the Crawford heirs: Widow Essie Johns the schoolteacher; her sister, Virginia L. Caldwell, and their brother, James E. Crawford. The estate of Virginia L. Caldwell signed a satisfaction of mortgage with Ardaman in 1980.

Essie (Crawford) Johns passed in 1973, Virginia in 1979, and by this time Ardaman & Associates appeared ready to move on. Six (6) decades after the first occupant moved into the Crawford House, the home, together with lots 10, 11, 12 and 13, all of J. G. Tyner’s Subdivision, were conveyed to its neighbor, Pine Castle Methodist Church.

A long struggle to save a remarkable historic Pine Castle residence only then began. In fact, Crawford House the museum is not ready to accept visitors yet, although I am certain the Woman’s Club will gladly speak to anyone interested in assisting financially in their excellent cause.

History is best understood when you feel a part of it, a sense certain to welcome visitors to a museum that has been witness to the story of the Pine Castle area.

About that other school teacher.

The first Crawford schoolteacher I came across in the area was Ethel, a 33 year old unmarried gal residing with her parents, George W. & Sarah C. Crawford. George and his family had lived in the Fort Gatlin area since 1873. Sarah, a native of Florida, had been in the area even longer. The father had been a State Senator, the mother was a descendant of the Mizell family. And so this Crawford family has all the makings of a great history story too, but their story must wait, until FALL 2017.

Beyond Gatlin picks up where my 2015, First Road to Orlando book left off. The old forts trail started off as the first road to Gatlin, but then Orlando got in the way!

South Orange County, the land beyond Fort Gatlin, has a remarkable history, a story never really told – not until Beyond Gatlin. The history of South Orange County is coming this FALL!

BEYOND GATLIN

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ELIZABETH of PALM SPRINGS, Seminole County, FL

Blog Series: Central Florida Would-Be TITANS

Part 2: Elizabeth of Palm Springs, Seminole County, FL

A Seminole County Ghost Town today, PALM SPRINGS began as a railroad hub in 1888 Orange County, a city developed by Elizabeth McClain Saunders-Massey.

“As we passed through Palm Springs,” wrote Amos Root, a passenger on one of six daily trains passing through Elizabeth’s 1895 Palm Springs, “I got just enough of a glimpse to feel I wanted to stop there.” Amos did return, but curious central Floridians might find themselves asking today, “returned to where?”

1890 Orange County Map: (A) Orange Belt Railway from Sanford; (B) Florida Midland Railway from Longwood, now SR 434; (C) Hoosier Springs Grove & Estate; (D) Intersection of I-4 & State Road 434 today; (E) Lake Brantley.

Elizabeth came to Florida in 1887 because of her son’s deteriorating health. Setting out from Toronto, Canada, the Widow Saunders arrived in the widely-promoted land of health, wealth and sunshine, a land I call CitrusLAND. Timing is crucial to appreciate Elizabeth’s legacy, for women of the 19^th century were typically confined to the difficult task of homemaking and child rearing. The business world was a male thing. But in 19^th century central Florida women, such as Widow Saunders, were breaking with tradition.

A biography of Elizabeth M. Saunders-Massey, as our Palm Springs developer was known in 1915, was included with a collection of biographies of Orange County settlers, and began by stating: “Usually men are the earliest settlers.” Even in 1915 the author understood the significance of her achievements, a lady who lived in the “mansion on the hill-side and orange grove known as the “Hoosier Springs Grove.”

Our story of Elizabeth of CitrusLAND began at a place called Hoosier Springs.

1885 Plat of Hoosier Springs (Partial)

Widow Saunders bought the 161 acre homestead of Ingram & Gertrude Fletcher, closing on her purchase January 28, 1887. The land itself had been sub-divided in 1885 as both a personal residence on the Wekiva River and a town of “Hoosier Springs” on the south side of the planned Florida Midland Railway track. (Hoosier Springs, in the 20^th century, became SANLANDO SPRINGS.)

But Hoosier Springs of 1887 had not been a success story. Elizabeth’s deed spells out the town’s lackluster development. Excluded from all 161 acres was a one acre church lot; a 0.87 acre town lot sold to brothers Frank & William Baker; and the standard right-of-way path allowing two railroads to cross over the property. Most all of the town first platted by the Fletcher’s remained unsold and undeveloped.

“The mansion on the hill-side and orange grove known as “Hoosier Springs Grove,” as the CitrusLAND home of Elizabeth Saunders was described, had been the winter residence of a one-time prominent banker from Indianapolis, Ingram Fletcher. As his native Indiana was the Hoosier State, hence – Hoosier Springs!

Bordering the less than successful town of Hoosier Springs was yet another tiny village, a much older want-to-be town known as Altamont. First envisioned in 1874 by a New York doctor, Washington Kilmer, this neighboring town was no more a success than Hoosier Springs.

Had Elizabeth looked across her 1887 landholdings, she would have seen the unfulfilled dream towns of two city planners, two adjacent towns having a hundred plus vacant town lots each, acreage crisscrossed by two railroads. Surrounded as well by countless citrus groves though, the potential of her landholdings likely seemed endless.

Within five months of closing on her land, the Widow Saunders revised the Altamont plat, merging Kilmer’s city with the old Hoosier Springs town she had acquired from Ingram Fletcher. Elizabeth however dressed up the layout of the town by adding a dozen ‘Town Squares’, each crossroad square called out by such names as Gardenia Square, at the junction of Saunders and Cambridge Streets; or Oleander Square where Orange Avenue crossed Toronto Street.

A portion of 1887 revised Altamont Town Plat

A month later, June 14, 1887, Elizabeth sold her first town lot. Lot 18 of the new Town of Altamont fronted Railroad Street, on the east side of the Orange Belt Railway and Florida Midland Railway crossing. The Baker Brothers, lot number 22, was on the west side of the crossing, where they operated a general store and railway depot. The buyer of lot 18 was William Massey, the man Elizabeth would soon marry. (William died soon after they married, and so Widow Saunders became Widow Massey.)

ALTAMONT could boast of location, location, location, but so too could a neighboring city three miles east. That town, ALTAMONTE, was situated on another railroad line, the South Florida Railroad, and that location had a luxury hotel as well. Distinguishing the two locations became crucial, and so on the 12^th of January, 1888, one year after Widow Saunders acquired Hoosier Springs, Frank W. Baker, the merchant of Lot 22 in Altamont, became Postmaster of a newly formed Palm Springs Post Office.

“Palm Springs 1893: The spring from which the place takes its name is about one quarter of a mile north of the store. Hoosier Springs is a short distance west of the store.” Illustrated Orange County, 1893

Having viewed Palm Springs in 1895 from onboard Orange Belt Railway, Amos Root returned a day later to personally “investigate” the area: “In a little shady nook were great palm trees that threw their protecting branches all over and around, and a beautiful crystal spring boils up, sending out a volume sufficient to make a good sized creek. The waters are just warm enough for nice bathing, and there are seats arranged on the mossy banks, making it a most inviting place for picnickers or pleasure-seekers.”

The author of ‘Gleanings in Bee Culture’, Amos Root wrote of touring central Florida months after the freeze of 1894-95. The region’s future at the time of Root’s visit was not yet known, although perhaps unknowingly, he predicted the area’s fate while at the same time telling of a little shady nook known as Palm Springs: “In consequence of the freeze, however, business was, as might be expected, dead, and things looked dull.” 

Elizabeth McClain Saunders-Massey had been mother to seven. She buried two husbands and five of her children prior to 1900. The son she brought south because of his poor health, John McClain Saunders, was buried at Greenwood Cemetery in Orlando after his death, August 30, 1906. John’s Orlando physician at the time of his death was Dr. Washington Kilmer, formerly of Altamont.

Elizabeth and her only surviving son, Thomas Malcolm Saunders, returned north to Canada. Thomas died in April, 1917, in France, during World War I. One month before her 83^rd birthday, eight years after Seminole County carved away a portion of Orange County, Elizabeth McClain Saunders-Massey, on June 3, 1921, passed away at Ontario, Canada.  The year of her death, only one of two 1921 Seminole County maps included Palm Springs. Soon thereafter, most every sign of Elizabeth’s once-upon-a-time town began to vanish.

Florida’s Great Freeze of 1894-95 destroyed not only the State’s record-setting citrus crop, projected to be nearly 9 million boxes, it wiped out as well the ambitious dreams of many of the wealthiest individuals in the world.

Racing along at a top speed of nearly 6 mph, travel aboard Orange Belt Railway in the spring of 1895, and meet the visionaries, men and women alike, those who had given it their all to establish West Orange County.

CitrusLAND: Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains includes stops at Sylvan Lake; Paola; Island Lake; Glen Ethel; Palm Springs; Forest City; Toronto; Lakeville; Clarcona; Crown Point; Winter Garden and Oakland.

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Along the 35 mile West Orange County route of Orange Belt Railway you will meet many of the region’s earliest settlers, including: Edward T. Stotesbury; John Parker Ilsley; Brothers Alastair & William MacLeod; Whitner; Benjamin M. Robinson; Thomas E. Wilson; Fox; Mary Lambert; Dr. Washington Kilmer; Ingram Fletcher; Roswell Fulmer; Walter W. Hunt; Mrs. Elizabeth (McClain) Saunders-Massey; Peter A. Demens; Allan MacDowell Smyth; the Root family; John G. Hower; George Reed; Alice C. Hill; Samuel Hyde; Sidney Witty; David E. Washburn; Robert A. Mills; Mahlon Gore; the Roper family; the Speer family and many others.

CitrusLAND books, the true history of the people and events that shaped central Florida, by Richard Lee Cronin. Copyright 2015.