PINE CASTLE'S 19th Century Secret

UNRAVELING A MYSTERY OF HISTORY:

PINE CASTLE’S 19^th CENTURY SECRET

An 1886 Pine Castle death became a mystery for the ages, a secret kept by the town’s citizens – a secret that over time was explained away by blaming Florida’s Great Freeze. Pine Castle’s death however had occurred nearly a decade before Florida’s worst-ever freeze of 1894-95, long after the body of Charles Goodspeed Nute had been laid to rest at Orlando’s Greenwood Cemetery. So why the secrecy about Nute’s death? What was Pine Castle’s 1880s secret? And was the very reason for residents at a hopeful new Orange County railroad town on the southern outskirts of Orlando, the decision to keep secret details of a May 26, 1886 death, proven to be justified?

Noah H. Grady House, Randolph Avenue

Courtesy Orange County Appraiser's Office

Answers to each intriguing question are revealed by fusing together histories of three residences of 1880s Pine Castle. Of the three 19^th century homes however, only one still stands today, that being a residence on Randolph Avenue built in 1885 by Noah H. Grady. At times referred to as the “Founder’s House” and/or “Lancaster House,” this very parcel is jam-packed full of history. And this very parcel is also where the unlocking of Pine Castle’s secret of the ages begins.

Now located in the 20^th century town of Belle Isle, the 19^th century home built by Noah H. Grady was originally part of the Will Wallace Harney homestead. For a brief time in history, this home, which I will refer to as the Grady House from this point on, sat within a stone’s throw of the real Pine Castle – the home built by Will Wallace Harney a decade before Grady arrived. Harney’s Pine Castle residence is the second of three residences in our quest to unravel the 1880s secret of the town named Pine Castle.

A Missouri native, Noah Hamilton Grady arrived a single man at Pine Castle in 1884. He bought two acres from Pine Castle residents Isaac & Sally Aten on September 2, 1884. Said in the deed as being “a square,” the parcel Grady purchased was further described as located “on the east side of Randolph Avenue.”

Noah H. Grady was living at Pine Castle, with his parents Josephus & Serelda Grady, in 1885. He gave his occupation in the census of that year as “Law & Insurance.” Noah was again listed in the Orange County Gazetteer of 1887, a partner in Ormsby, Knox & Grady Insurance. Noah’s residence in 1887 was listed not as Pine Castle though, but Main and Magnolia in Orlando. (Noah’s partner, Collis Ormsby, had relocated, not surprisingly, from Louisville, Kentucky, the prior homeplace of Will Wallace Harney.) After 1887, Noah H. Grady vanished from central Florida, and history mistakenly recorded his departure as the result of Florida Great Freeze of 1894-95.

Noah married Annie L. Veach at her birthplace of Bartow, Georgia on October 20, 1891. Their first child, Henry Veach Grady, was born at Missouri in August of 1892. Annie Veach Grady, child number two, was born at Chattanooga, Tennessee in April of 1894 – eight months before the first of two back to back freezes wiped out central Florida’s citrus industry. (Noah’s wife Annie was a niece of Orlando Dentist John W. Veach. Noah and his bride therefore may have met in central Florida prior to their departure from Orlando and Pine Castle.

The Noah H. Grady parcel became Lot 7 of the Will Wallace Harney Homestead plat filed at Orange County in 1891. Orange County Appraiser’s office identifies the house on Randolph Avenue referred to as the Grady House as being part of Harney’s Lot 7.

1891 Plat of Will Wallace Harney (Blue square is Lot 7)

A deed dated July 6, 1897, after Florida’s Great Freeze of 1894-95, conveyed “Lot 7 of Harney’s Homestead” back to Isaac and Sally Aten after they paid in full the $2.35 in unpaid property tax. Sold at tax auction after the freeze, this is possibly how the “faux-history” of the Grady house began, but the property had obviously been abandoned long before the freeze.

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Pine Castle merchants, Isaac & Sally Aten had originally purchased this parcel directly from Will Wallace Harney on September 9, 1882. The original Harney-Aten deed is also historically significant, for the deed, signed by Will Wallace Harney, describes the purchase as being “two acres on the east side of Randolph Avenue,” the exact description of the sale in 1884 to Noah H. Grady. Why is this deed significant? “Randolph Avenue” was spelled out in a deed as early as 1882. Harney’s plat showing Randolph Avenue was not recorded until 1891, and the first plat of the town of Pine Castle, recorded by Clement R. Tiner, to the west of Harney’s Homestead, was not recorded until 1884.

Worth noting also are the two streets laid out in 1882 by Will Wallace Harney. Each connects with one another – the intersection of Randolph and Wallace – and each connects with Lake Conway, but neither connects with any offsite artery.

So, Isaac & Sally Aten first owned the Lot 7 Harney Homestead parcel, sold it to Noah H. Grady, who then built a home on the land, but then departed central Florida by 1886-87. The Aten’s then bought this same Lot 7 back in 1897 for the cost of the unpaid taxes.

Why did Grady leave town, only to restart his insurance company at Chattanooga, Tennessee?

In 1884, Attorney William R. Anno lived on 160 acres at Pine Castle. That same year, half of his land became an addition to Clement R. Tiner’s 1884 Town of Pine Castle. William Anno’s 80 acres doubled the size of the town. Anno Avenue, running north and south today, divides Tiner’s original city and William R. Anno’s addition to the west. Anno’s other 80 acres, land north of Oakridge, fronting little Lake Mary on the west, north to Lake Mary Jess Road, was where the personal residence of William and Sarah Anno was located.

The Anno residence is the third home important to unraveling Pine Castle’s secret of the ages.

“The residence and home of the said first part, W. R. Anno and his wife Sarah,” was sold, as per a deed dated February 15, 1889, to Orlando Attorney E. R. Gunby. The Anno’s departed Pine Castle, although William’s wife Sarah likely never forgot what occurred at their Pine Castle home a short 3 years earlier, March 6, 1886.

Everything about Pine Castle changed during 1886-87. Noah H. Grady gave up on his Randolph Avenue investment at Pine Castle. Clement R. Tiner abandoned his new town of Pine Castle and relocated, with his mother - further south to Lakeland in Polk County. Other second-generation Pine Castle descendants likewise moved to Polk and Hillsborough County. Will Wallace Harney, a prolific writer of the 1870s and early 1880s, after selling a second Novelette for publication in 1887 by Louisville’s ‘Southern Bivouac’, suddenly stopped writing about America’s ‘Gardens of the Hesperides’ – central Florida’s Eden.

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South Florida Sentinel of Orlando, on May 26, 1886, reported: ‘Mr. Charles G. Nute died at the residence of his son-in-law and daughter, Colonel and Mrs. W. R. Anno, near Pine Castle, at noon Monday, of paralysis. Mr. Nute was stricken with the fatal disease Thursday evening while at the tea table.” The fatal disease Charles, 75 years old, died of was not mentioned further – not that is, until 43 years later, when a descendent of Charles Goodspeed Nute wrote that Charles had died at Orlando, May 26, 1886, “from Yellow Fever.”

Orange County had built a reputation on the notion that it was free of Malaria and yellow fever, exempted of the fearful diseases because of its perfect location. Railroads of the 1880s opened up the opportunity for town building in central Florida, and 150 new towns spring up, promoted by prolific writers such as Will Wallace Harney and others - who promoted central Florida as being unequaled the world over for its healthful living.

Tampa and Jacksonville headlined the 1887-88 Yellow Fever Epidemic that kept land buyers away from Florida. As the death toll mounted, northern cities along railroad lines refused to allow trains to stop – refused to allow passengers from Florida to depart. Harper’s Magazine included sketches of Northerners denying passengers to depart in their town. Florida’s growth stopped dead in its train tracks – as residents remaining in central Florida lived in fear.

Helen (Heig) Warner, a resident of Runnymede near Kissimmee, wrote home to her mother on June 18, 1887: “There is a scare of yellow fever just now, we are in quarantine.”

As the epidemic cleared, trains finally began to deliver potential buyers once again to central Florida – until that is, December 29, 1894, when the first freeze struck. A second colder freeze rained down on central Florida February 7, 1895. “Multitudes,” said Benjamin M. Robinson, brother in law of Will Wallace Harney, “abandoned their groves and homes, in some cases leaving tables set and beds unmade, and went away.

America’s Paradise fell from grace. By the year 1900, fewer people were living in Orange County than lived here in 1890.

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ORLANDO Founding Families: Robert R. REID III

Part 12: ORLANDO RESCUER: Robert R. REID (continued):

Note: Part 13 of this Summer Series will be posted Friday, August 9, 2019

The Mayor’s 1879 proclamation dissolving the City of Orlando was a call to action for Robert Raymond Reid III. Landowner at the time of 120 acres surrounding Orlando’s 1875 Orange County Courthouse, a three-story structure that had been financed by Florida’s cattle-king Jake Summerlin, Robert R. Reid III went right to work rescuing the county seat from almost certain doom.

It had been 22 years since out of state founder Benjamin F. Caldwell of Talladega, Alabama donated four wilderness acres for a log cabin courthouse, a dozen years since Reid himself travelled from Palatka to submit the low bid to acquire Orlando, at auction, on its own courthouse step. It had been four years since out of towners Broome and Cohen had arrived to officially incorporate Orlando as a town. But in 1879, the question of multiple property deeds persisted clearly revealing overlapping landowners, some of whom perished during the Civil War. Barely a town as of 1879, Orlando, if it was to survive as a city, needed a big-time legal fix. Luckily, Robert R. Reid III had the wherewithal to fix Orlando’s problem.

Step One of Reid’s Big Fix:

Reid turned first to Orange County pioneer James G. Speer, the original attorney involved in founding Orlando as Orange County’s seat of government in 1856-57. Brother in law to Benjamin Caldwell, Speer traveled to Talladega personally during the spring of 1879 as a representative of Robert R. Reid III of Palatka. James G. Speer, a resident of West Orange County since returning from Florida’s Gulf Coast in the late 1860s, then met with the widow of Benjamin F. Caldwell, Speer’s one-time sister in law.

On April 21, 1879, James G. Speer signed as a witness to the signature of Louisa ‘Lou’ (Morris) Caldwell (1831-1906), “widow of Benjamin F. Caldwell of Talladega, deceased,” and conveyed to Robert R. Reid all title to land at Orange County, Florida. Also signing the document were three sons of Orlando’s 1857 original founder: William Sandy Caldwell (1856-1936); Lewis Ellington Caldwell (1860-1927); and Benjamin Franklin Caldwell II (1864-1936).

With the signed document in hand, Speer returned home to Orange County, where he recorded the document with Orange County’s clerk of court five (5) days after Orlando’s Mayor had issued the July 24, 1879 proclamation dissolving Orlando’s town’s charter.

Step Two of Reid’s Big Fix:

With the Reid/Caldwell conflict resolved, phase two kicked in. Palatka Attorney William F. Forward, son of the 1850s Circuit Judge Forward, who in 1857-58 had traveled to Village of Orlando to hold court, was in 1879 also the son in law of Robert R. Reid III. Reid looked to William to negotiate a settlement with the county. Orange County Commissioners James M. Owens; Benjamin F. Whitner; Henry Overstreet; and Christopher C. Beasley accepted Reid’s agreement May 17, 1879, and Attorney Forward recorded the approved county resolution with the clerk of court September 5, 1879.

Benjamin Caldwell had gifted 4 acres (except lot 10) to Orange County in 1857. Deeded 119 acres by the land office in 1860, Caldwell’s 119 acres included the 4 acres gifted to the county. Robert Reid acquired at auction 113 acres in 1867, the very same parcel owned by Caldwell, less 4 acres owned by the county as well as two, one-acre parcels, land adjoining the village that the Patrick’s believed they rightfully owned. With the Caldwell family now out of the picture, and County Commissioners in agreement, Reid could then proceed with the final phase of his plan.

Side-by-side aerial and map views of Benjamin F. Caldwell’s 119 acres (outlined in orange at right above) acquired by Robert R. Reid III at auction in 1867 and resolved through negotiations with William A. Patrick in 1880. Green square at left above was the 40 acres developed by Patrick. Red rectangle above was developed by Reid.

Step Three of Reid’s Big Fix:

Robert R. Reid and William A. Patrick came to a written agreement on who owned what. This phase was handled by Reid himself, and involved two stages resolved through two documents. First, Reid and the Patrick family representative reached agreement with regards to two parcels adjoining Orlando’s town square. Second, Robert Reid and William Patrick then agreed to a distribution plan for the remaining 120 acres. William A. Patrick settled on a square parcel 40 acres in size (see green square at left on aerial view above), leaving 80 acres in a rectangle shape that remained with Robert R. Reid III (red rectangle on right on aerial view above).

Southernmost railroad town of Orlando:

As yearend 1880 approached South Florida Railroad’s first train arrived at Orlando, the county seat of Orange County and the southernmost city (for a moment in time) in the United States of America having rail service. The first train stopped where Church Street today intersects with Gertrude’s walk, and where back in 1880, William A. Patrick owned land to the west of that track, and Robert R. Reid owned land east of the track.

A town called Orlando was back in business, saved largely due to the determination of Robert R. Reid III, a merchant from Palatka. Robert and Mary C. Reid of Palatka sold their first Orlando town lot March 16, 1881, signing that deed, as they did all sales deeds to follow, from their home in Putnam County.

Founded by an out-of-state resident who never lived at Orlando, the county seat was saved from almost certain doom by an out-of-town resident who never lived at Orlando!

This series will return Friday, August 9, 2019. The railroad’s arrival at Orlando was an important step in opening South Florida to development. As new track was laid further south, the depots built at intervals along that track encouraged settlers to chance “City Building in the South.” Some towns survived while others didn’t!

Friday, August 9, 2019: Mackinnon

Friday, August 16, 2019: Kissimmee

Friday, August 23, 2019: Davenport

Friday, August 30, 2019: To be announced

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First Road to Orlando; The Fort Mellon to Fort Gatlin Road (2015)

Orlando Lakes: Homesteaders & Namesakes (2019)

Curse of Florida’s Paradise (2016 2^nd Edition)

Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains (2015)

Altamonte Springs of Florida (2014)

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ORLANDO Founding Families: The REID family

Part 11: Robert Raymond REID & friends:

“A stage wagon twice a week goes from Orlando to Sanford and Mellonville through a region of country picturesque with new groves and pine castles risen like Aladdin’s palace.”

Robert R. Reid residence at Palatka, Florida

Orlando parcels sold by the Reid’s during the 1880s were signed at Palatka, FL

Correspondent Will Wallace Harney, a resident of Orange County, told of “stage wagon” service between Orlando and Lake Monroe in 1877. The article, entitled “Florida Letter,” was penned at Will Harney’s “Pinecastle” on Lake Conway. Twenty years had passed since Orange County’s seat of government had been established by 31 registered voters choosing Orlando as its site. An Abbeville clan (Part 10) had been the advocates of this remote location. And a decade had passed since Robert Raymond Reid III made the journey from his Palatka residence, arriving at Orlando in time to submit the low bid of $900 for 113 acres surrounding the 1857 Orlando village. After submitting his winning bid, Reid then returned home to Palatka.

COMING THIS FALL: PIONEERS of South Florida Railroad’s route beyond Orlando: Founding families of Kissimmee, Lakeland, Plant City, Seffner & others as the railroad continues laying down track toward Tampa Bay. Follow this Blog or my CitrusLANDFL Facebook Page for details.

Robert R. Reid III did more to rescue the forsaken village of Orlando than any other founder, but history failed to remember the Palatka merchant for his accomplishments. He had stepped ashore at Mellonville in 1867, before stage wagon service, and journeyed inland to Fort Reid, a small settlement named for the fortress built at this location in 1842. Fort Reid had been named by the Army for Territorial Governor Robert R. Reid II, father of the Palatka merchant Reid who passed this way 25 years later, on his way to the county seat - to rescue Orlando!

Reid had another twenty (20) miles to traverse south of Fort Reid, following the Fort Mellon to Fort Gatlin Road, to arrive at Orlando. Will Harney traveled this way two years later, describing the trail in 1869 by conjuring up Alexander Kinglake’s 1835 description of the Sahara (Sinai), “Sand and sand and sand, and only sand and sand and sand again.” But despite all the sand, Robert R. Reid III arrived at Orlando in time to submit the winning bid at Sheriff John Ivey’s January 7, 1867 auction.

Robert R. Reid III was the successful bidder at $900 of the 113 acres outlined in orange, but with exception of four (4) acres outlined in red, the Village of Orlando. 40 acres inside orange area, left of the green line, was platted by William A. Patrick. 80 acres right of green line was platted by Robert R. Reid III. More on this development in Part 12.

Among the many intriguing uncertainties of Orlando’s founding are several mysteries involving R. R. Reid III: Why did Reid buy Orlando? Why, after submitting his winning bid, did Reid III return home to Palatka and do nothing for more than a decade with his newly acquired property? Why did Reid wait 13 years prior to recording Orlando’s first town plat? Why didn’t Robert R. Reid III relocate to the land he purchased in Orange County?

Historian Kena Fries wrote this of the Palatka merchant in 1938: “Robert R. Reid, a lawyer from Jacksonville, was engaged to settle the dispute, and for his services was paid that part of Orlando known as Robert R. Reid’s addition to the original town of Orlando. There was a romance, Reid fell in love and married Mary Lovell. They left soon after.” Reid III however was a not a lawyer, nor was Reid given the land for services rendered. As for Mary, the daughter of William Allen Lovell, she married a Taylor, not a Reid. Robert R. Reid III had married Mary Benet in 1850, not Mary Lovell, and the Palatka couple remained married until her death at Palatka in 1889.

The particulars of Orlando’s origin are complicated, so it is no wonder historians often got the story of the town’s founding wrong. Even Orlando’s timeline is askew. Founded in 1857, the village wasn’t incorporated as a town until August 1875. Jacob Summerlin financed building the three-story county courthouse that same year. And at the 1875 incorporation meeting, locals all agreed to expand the town size from its original 4 acres to a square mile. But despite Orlando’s 1875 incorporation, a town plat was not recorded until 5 years later.

When the first town plat was recorded, it was depicted on two pages and recorded with the clerk of court in 1880. At the center of the town plat was shown the 4 acres donated to Orange County in 1857 by Benjamin F. Caldwell. The north half of the 80 acres platted as Addition to Orlando appeared on page one, with the owner listed on the page as Robert R. Reid. Page two of the plat showed the south half of the town, and the owner was listed as R. R. Reed. The correct name of course was Robert Raymond Reid III of Palatka, and there is also an excellent explanation as to why Reid’s plat was 80 acres rather than 113 acres. Reid III, one could say, was a peace maker.

Plat of Orlando recorded as two pages at Orange County in 1881 by Robert R. Reid III 

Remember the Patrick family of Part 4, and how they believed the 113 acres outlined above in orange belonged to them? And remember Benjamin F. Caldwell of Part 5, and the deed showing he owned that very same parcel? Well, by 1879, Robert R. Reid III of Palatka had one big mess on his hands. He could not sell the acreage he had owned since 1867 without first cleaning up his deed. Cohorts of Robert R. Reid III, including merchant Jacob R. Cohen, had been instrumental in formally incorporating the Town of Orlando in 1875, but then the past reared its ugly head.

Reid’s problems reached fever pitch in July 1879. Historian William F. Blackman wrote of that year’s strange turn of events: “Some question having arisen as to the legality of the existing Charter, the Mayor issued a proclamation that the corporation of Orlando is dissolved by the majority vote of the citizens of Orlando.” Orlando dissolved? Four years prior Henry S. Sanford had made his pitch to move the county seat to Sanford. Jacob Summerlin said never!

Founded by an out-of-state family, Orlando’s only hope of rescue in 1879 rested with an out-of-town landowner. Orlando now looked to Robert R. Reid III to solve a problem 22 years in the making. And had it not been for what happened next, Orange County’s courthouse may well have been relocated to Sanford, despite the objections of Jacob Summerlin.

Next Friday, Robert R. Reid III steps in to save a mysterious little county seat named Orlando.

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

This Orlando Founding Families Series delves deeper into the courageous people who found their way down a lonely dusty forts trail – and became the first families to settle Orlando.

Central Florida History by Richard Lee Cronin

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ORLANDO Founding Families: Aaron vs the ABBEVILLE Consortium

Part 10: Aaron vs the ABBEVILLE Consort:

Pin the Tail on the Donkey comes to mind when I think about how a location for the town of Orlando appears to have been made by the 1850s “planners” of Orange County.

The long donkey’s “tail” in this case was the 28 mile long Fort Mellon to Fort Gatlin Road. Note I used the word “planners” rather than “settlers,” an important distinction. The 19^th century organizers of central Florida – perhaps while blindfolded – pinned their 1857 county seat at an unremarkable location on a sand rutted military trail 28 miles in length. There was  NO lake for drinking water, NO waterway or railway for transportation to and from the county seat, and yet for some unknown reason the site selected for Orlando seemed acceptable to all involved.

Settlers versus planners of a place called Orlando were indeed two entirely distinct families. “Settlers” at the time were mainly the Jernigan’s, the bravest of brave pioneers who in the early 1840s had followed Aaron Jernigan to Mosquito County. The Jernigan-Patrick families arrived in central Florida when there was nothing in the form of civilization. Nothing! 

Those representing the region when Jernigan arrived were residents of areas far to the north of Fort Gatlin, areas that are today Seminole and Volusia Counties.

Aaron Jernigan (1813-1891) Photo courtesy of Ross Adam Wood, Sr.

Aaron Jernigan represented a dozen or so homesteaders spread across ten square miles surrounding present day Orlando. Not a one however, not even Aaron, homesteaded ON the trail itself.

The “planners” were folks I call the “Abbeville Consortium”, natives of historic Abbeville, South Carolina. Many of the planners working to establish the town of Orlando never even settled in the area. But of those who did come to central Florida, the first, James & Isaphoenia Speer, arrived in 1854, a decade after the Jernigan clan had built homes and cleared palmettos for their ‘home garden.’ Aaron Jernigan even established a Jernigan post office - four years before the Speer family arrived.

Although the original settlers were mainly cattlemen, Aaron Jernigan had not only homesteaded 160 acres prior to the “planners” arriving, he had established himself as a land speculator on the old forts trail as well. He had opened a store at Henry A. Crane’s lakeside town of Mellonville on Lake Monroe, and he acquired 160 lakefront acres on Lake Lucerne, near Orlando, but before there was an Orlando. Aaron bought 80 acres on Lake Conway at Fort Gatlin, and lakefront land far south of the old fort, on Lake Tohopekaliga. Aaron Jernigan even owned his own island - Jernigan Island in Lake Toho.

Aaron Jernigan had a plan in the mid-1850s for central Florida, a wilderness of fewer than 200 residents – a quarter of whom were his relatives. But in 1854, as the Speer’s first followed the old forts trail south to Jernigan’s neighborhood, one wonders what his plan was, and how that first meeting between the Jernigan’s and Speer’s worked out. Did James Speer inform Jernigan that they too had plans for central Florida’s remote wilderness?

Judge James G. Speer (1820-1893) Early Settlers of Orange County

Within two years of the Speer’s arrival an election was called to determine a location for a new Orange County Courthouse. Attorney James G. Speer (Part 6 of this series) and wife Isaphoenia C. (Ellington) Speer (Part 7) represented the Abbeville Consortium; as did Abbeville, South Carolina families John R. Worthington (Part 3); Thomas Harris, Jr. (Part 8); and William & Emily (Watson) Hull (Part 9).

Then too, from far off Talladega, Alabama, the Caldwell family (Part 5), originally of Abbeville, fulfilled their part of the town building plan hatched by the family’s patriarch, William Harris Caldwell.

The Abbeville Consortium’s plan worked – Orlando, Florida was established as the Orange County seat of government and made official October 5, 1857 with Benjamin F. Caldwell donating land for the site of a courthouse. But then, most all those involved in Orlando’s origin had vanished from the town within a decade. And by 1867, even Aaron Jernigan had departed the State of Florida. Most all of Aaron’s family who stayed in Orange County chose to relocate further south in the county.

Legacy requires history to remember that which occurred, but a horrific Civil War, four short years after Orlando’s founding, threatened to erase all memory of the hopes and dreams of one proud Abbeville consortium. A family’s who heritage dated to America’s unprecedented Revolution and beyond, had set out to establish a family memorial to one of their own. But by 1867, Orange County residents struggled to survive while still enduring a demeaning post-Civil War Military Reconstruction Period.

A nearly abandoned 1867 town of Orlando was literally on the verge of going the way of ghost towns. A court decree had been issued in late 1866, an order Sheriff John Ivey had no choice but to carry out. The Sheriff was ordered to sell at auction the landholdings of Orlando’s Postmaster, John R. Worthington, a casualty of the Civil War.

Sheriff John Ivey held an auction January 7, 1867, selling all 113 acres surrounding four acres where the village of Orlando had been founded in 1857, in one package. A merchant from Palatka, Robert R. Reid III, the son of Florida Territorial Governor Robert R. Reid II (1789-1841) submitted the low bid of $900.

A story about a family founding a town in memory of an ancestor came so near its conclusion until Reid came to town that day in January 1867. And although he returned home to Palatka, the history of this place called Orlando survived because that “family” was more determined than ever to make it so.

Next Friday, June 14, 2019: Robert Raymond Reid III     

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

This Orlando Founding Families Series delves deeper into the courageous people who found their way down a lonely dusty forts trail – and became the first families to settle Orlando.

Central Florida History by Richard Lee Cronin

Visit my Amazon author page by clicking on the link below

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

ORLANDO Founding Families: The HULL Family

Part Nine: The HULL Family of Orlando

Most every key to unlocking the intriguing mystery of Orlando’s origin is consistently found to be a woman! It’s true! Like that of the obscure Caldwell family’s connection with Lady Isaphoenia Speer, even the reasons for pioneers Thomas H. Harris, Jr. (Part 8), and William Benjamin HULL, Jr. of this installment, first came to a remote central Florida wilderness was because of a woman. So, in order to learn why they founded the village of Orlando, we must delve into the genealogy of each amazing frontierswoman who arrived in the 1850s as well.

  

William Benjamin & Emily Harriett (Watson) Hull

EMILY of Cobb County, Georgia

   

William Benjamin HULL, Jr. was 26 years old when he and his bride Emily came to central Florida with his grandfather, arriving on Christmas Day 1855. A biography of William, published in 1915, tells of their arriving in Orange County with a party of 34. Migrating from Georgia’s Cobb County, the Hull’s settled first at Fort Reid, a mile east of today’s Sanford, but then, in 1855, not much else existed in all of Orange County than the tiny settlement of Fort Reid.

As stated in last week’s installment of Families of the Village, Thomas H. HARRIS, Jr. also arrived in Orange County during 1855. Harris had come to Florida from Cobb County in Georgia as well, and their common arrival date was not coincidental!

12 Chapters, each beginning with a biography of an amazing 19^th century central Florida frontierswoman: CroninBooks.com

CitrusLAND: Curse of Florida’s Paradise, Second Edition 2016

A Village of Orlando did not yet exist on Christmas Day 1855, but Caldwell’s of Talladega had at that time already made a lasting imprint on central Florida. William Harris & Obedience Caldwell signed a June 13, 1855 deed at Talladega, Alabama, a document recorded at Orange County, in which they named daughter, Isaphoenia C. Speer, as a resident of Orange County. Between signing the deed and the Christmas Day arrival of Harris and Hull, William H. Caldwell died at Talladega.

A family’s plan for central Florida was already in motion though, only now, after the death of that family’s Patriarch, other members of the family would take on the task of carrying the plan through to fruition. The plan? Establish a county seat along a new railroad route connecting Lake Monroe with Tampa Bay. Sound absurd?

The newly enacted Florida Internal Improvement Fund, designed by Florida’s General Assembly to improve transportation by building railroads and canals, took affect January 6, 1855. Governor James E. Broome, neighbor, friend and relative of Benjamin F. Whitner, Sr., father of the Surveyor Benjamin F. Whitner, Jr., became the first Chairman of the Fund’s board. Arthur M. Randolph of Tallahassee, also a surveyor, was appointed the Fund’s official surveyor. Benjamin Whitner Junior had recently completed 540 square miles of surveys in South Orange County and had purchased a considerable amount of acreage surrounding today’s Lake Gatlin.

Awarded the 2017 Historian Award by Pine Castle Historical Society

Beyond Gatlin: A History of South Orange County

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Across Lake Monroe from Mellonville, residents on the lake’s north shore were about to celebrate the first anniversary of Volusia County as Harris and Hull arrived in 1855. Formed December 29, 1854, largely from Orange County, Volusia County had confiscated all of Orange County’s prime oceanfront property – as well as half of the 1850 population of 500 courageous pioneers. Sanford wasn’t to be for another two decades. Of seven Orange County post offices when Volusia County was formed, only two were still located in Orange County after Volusia arrived on the scene.

Newcomers to the south shore of Lake Monroe, like Harris and Hull, had but a small pier awaiting at the recently abandoned Orange County port of entry called Mellonville. A U. S. Supreme Court 1850 decree in favor of Moses Levy’s Spanish Land Grant caused the canceling in April 1850 of Henry A. Crane’s homestead, upon which was located the old fort and pier.

“One must take a buggy and follow the picturesque old Fort Mellon Road among the groves and gardens of a prior generation.” South Florida Railroad, 1887

First Road to Orlando: The Mellonville to Orlando Road

CroninBooks.com (2015)

With the lakeside town of Mellonville abandoned, a tiny village of Fort Reid awaited any pioneer brave enough to venture inland nearly two miles. In 1855, Orange County’s Fort Reid was it! There was of course Jernigan Post Office, established May 1850 in the vicinity of today’s Orlando, but Jernigan served a widely scattered community of only a hand full of families. Homes and stores were nonexistent in 1855 along the lonely sand rutted trail south from Fort Reid to the abandoned Fort Gatlin at trail’s end. 

As desolate as Fort Gatlin was in 1855, within three days of the Hull family arriving at Fort Reid, Thomas HULL, on December 28, 1855, purchased 120 acres two miles east of Fort Gatlin – acreage fronting what is today Lake George. Thomas Hull bypassed 28 miles of uninhabited wilderness, a full day’s ride from Fort Reid, to settle on land in the middle of nowhere. And Thomas HULL was 83 years old when he arrived at Orange County. After burying Winifred (Evans) Hull at Cobb County in 1853, his wife of 55 years, Thomas Hull joined 33 others in a land party heading south to central Florida. But why did they come to Orange County?

Thomas & Winifred (Evans) Hull lived at Georgia’s Cobb County during the 1850 census. Their neighbor was James McDowell Watson, wife Nancy, and seven children. One of the seven children was Emily H. Watson, age 14, the future bride of William Benjamin Hull, Jr.

Nancy Watson however was Emily Harriett Watson’s stepmother. James McDowell Watson’s first wife had died in 1842, when Emily was but 5 years old. The biological mother of Emily Harriett (Watson) Hull was Anne Harris, daughter of Thomas & Martha (Moffett) Harris (1808-1842). Remember John Moffett Harris, son of Thomas H. Harris, Jr. of last week? Anne Harris was a sister of Thomas H. HARRIS, Jr.

Isaphoenia C. (Ellington) Speer and her stepbrother Benjamin F. Caldwell were born at Abbeville, South Carolina. So too were Anne (Harris) Watson and her brother, Thomas H. Harris, a niece and nephew of William Harris Caldwell, father/stepfather of Benjamin and Isaphoenia. One big happy family, it appears, was gathering in the wilderness of Orange County, Florida.

AND THE WINNER IS...

An election was called for October 16, 1856 in which all 73 registered Orange County voters were asked to vote on where Orange County’s Courthouse should be located. The winning location, wrote historian and UCF Professor Paul W. Wehr in his book ‘From Mosquito to Orange County’ (2016), published by the Pine Castle Historical Society, was not a town, but rather: “Section 26, Township 22 Range 29, south and east.”

Survey Section 26, Township 22 South; Range 29 East

Fort Mellon to Fort Gatlin Road inside red rectangle

Rather than selecting a town, 31 votes, a majority, chose a “surveyed region” over “Orangeburg, [27 votes], Fort Reed (sic) [13 votes], Centre [1 vote] and Lake Monroe [1 vote].”

The one square mile Section 26, Township 22 South; Range 29 East is today bordered by Colonial Drive (SR Hwy 50) on the north; Westmoreland Drive on the west; South Street on the South; and Palmetto (near Rosalind Avenue) on the east. A landmass 640 acres, the only notable land feature in 1856 was a short stretch of the Fort Mellon to Fort Gatlin Road crossing the “southeast quarter.”

Voters cast ballots in October 1856. The Orlando Post Office was established September 19, 1857. Benjamin F. Caldwell’s deed, giving four acres for a courthouse site, was signed October 5, 1857, the exact same day of Governor James E. Broome’s final day in office. Fort Mellon to Fort Gatlin Road took on a new name, “Mellonville Road,” although for that brief portion passing through the new town of Orlando it became known as “Main Street,” or Magnolia Avenue as it is known today.

William & Emily Hull had relocated from Fort Reid to Orlando, but when the Civil War began, William enlisted with Captain Joshua Mizell’s regiment. Emily remained at Orlando running their boarding house for the occasional traveler in need of rest. Injured twice, William Benjamin Hull was captured at Gettysburg and imprisoned at Fort Delaware until War’s end. (George Terrell, an Orlando neighbor, was also taken prisoner at Gettysburg, sent to Fort Delaware, but he died there. Twelve thousand prisoners, said Prison Dr. Mitchell, were held on an island capable of perhaps holding four thousand. Dr. Mitchell wrote of “an astronomical number of deaths daily).”

William B. Hull however had been among the fortunate. At War’s end he was released, transported as far south as Palatka, where he walked home to his Emily. He and Emily then sold their Orlando town lots, to William A. Lovell, and settled instead on the outskirts of Orange County’s seat.

Orlando was not able to establish itself during its brief history prior to the Civil War. There was no time build a courthouse, no time to construct a railroad. Four years of War followed by a long military Reconstruction Period meant town building had to wait.

“U. S. Provost Marshal, Mellonville, FL July 24, 1865: “On behalf of Mrs. Isaac N. Rutland, I make request that a certain mule, the property of her husband, which is now in possession of the United States, be returned to her, Respectfully, Deputy Naval Officer, C. D. Lincoln.”

The Rutland Mule Matter, by Richard Lee Cronin

CroninBooks.com (2015)

The “Abbeville Consortium,” did in fact accomplish their primary goal: Orlando became Orange County’s seat of government. But would their town survive the test of time? Fact is, Orlando would likely have become a Ghost Town had it not been for a “Palatka Consortium,” a fascinating bunch of guys who – for very special reasons – kept a family’s dream alive.

Next Friday, June 7, 2019: The “Abbeville Consortium” Reunion

Friday, June 14: The Reid / Reed / Read family of the “Palatka Consortium”

IS THIS A FUN SUMMER OR WHAT?

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

My Orlando Founding Families Series delves deeper into the courageous people who found their way down a lonely dusty forts trail – and became the first families to settle Orlando.

Central Florida History by Richard Lee Cronin

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FOR MORE ON CENTRAL FLORIDA HISTORY

First Road to Orlando: The Fort Mellon to Fort Gatlin Road

And beyond TRAIL’S END; 

Beyond Gatlin: A History of South Orange County

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