PINE CASTLE: Home for the Holidays: Part 5 - Lady Isaphoenia

 

PINE CASTLE

Home for the Holidays

Celebrating America’s Paradise

 Part 5: Lady Isaphoenia

 

Isaphoenia C. (Ellington) Speer 1824-1867

Any history discussion of Fort Gatlin and nearby Pine Castle without inclusion of Lady Isaphoenia, arguably the most remarkable central Florida frontierswoman of all-time, would be nothing less than an injustice to the remarkable history of this area. Lady Isaphoenia was first introduced by this author in the first sentence, of the first paragraph, of my first book. Here is that exact 2013 introduction:

“Prologue: The Lost Kingdom of Central Florida

Lady Isaphoenia arrived in central Florida a wife and mother to five, the youngest not yet then a year old. Within 3 years, and after giving birth to a sixth child, Isaphoenia began accumulating land, lots of land! This intriguing lady’s true story is fascinating, especially when considering the pivotal, albeit long overlooked, role she played in Central Florida’s earliest stages of settlement.”

CitrusLAND: Curse of Florida’s Paradise, (2013); Second Edition (2016)

 

Isaphoenia came to central Florida in 1854, arriving with husband James G. Speer the same year Orange County’s coastal beaches, and all land east of the St. Johns River, was removed from Orange and made apart of a new Volusia County. Half of the nearly 500 Orange County citizens residing here in 1850 became residents of Volusia County as of 1854, leaving 250 or so settlers to populate 3,000 square miles of Orange County’s smaller wilderness. 

Orange County of 1854 had NO city. There were no roads to speak of either – only sand-rutted trails accessible via horse, ox team, or walking. Coming ashore at Mellonville, on the south shore of Lake Monroe near where Sanford is today, the Speer family followed a trail inland 1.5 miles to an abandoned Army fort named Reid. There they found the first of two Orange County stores in existence at that time, the second being a bit further south - like 20 miles dirt miles south – where a remote settlement was still two years shy of becoming the Village of Orlando.

That was Orange County of 1854 – no town and only two stores in a land of 3,000 square miles of free-ranging cows, a few log cabins, lots of palmetto brush - and far too many sandspurs.

 Orange County of 1850 offered ocean-front property at New Smyrna

(New Smyrna of 1845 was Orange County's Second Post Office)

Seventeen years after Isaphoenia came ashore in central Florida, another pioneer told of his difficult journey from Lake Monroe to Orlando, and of seeing only one house and store between Fort Reid and Orlando - at Maitland. Neither the house nor store house however had existed when Isaphoenia made that same difficult trek in 1854.

Orange County of 1854 was a treacherous place for a man to live, but an even tougher place for a woman to survive. Many a frontierswoman perished their first year in Orange County's wilderness, often during or soon after childbirth.

 

Isaphoenia C, (Ellington) Speer and husband James Gamble Speer are most often associated historically with Orlando and West Orange County’s Oakland, history ignoring their intriguing and mysterious association with land further south at Lake Pineloch (#5 on map). At 160 acres square, this property served, literally, as a gateway to the origins of settlements at Fort Gatlin and Pine Castle. The old Fort Mellon to Fort Gatlin trail, the main road to Fort Gatlin up until the mid-1870s, crossed the acreage Lady Isaphoenia acquired in 1860.

Even today, travel south on Orange Avenue toward Pine Castle crosses over land once deeded solely in the name of Isaphoenia C. Speer.

 Number 5 on map is the 160 acres owned in 1860 by Isaphoenia C. Speer; See Parts 1 thru 4 of this series for details about the homesteaders of areas identified above as parcels 1 thru 4.

 

The mystery and intrigue of these 160 acres extends beyond her ownership to include the next owners, Francis W. Eppes (80 acres) and Nicholas P. Trist (80). Eppes is well-known to local history as the grandson of President Thomas Jefferson. Trist, not as well known in this area, was the husband of a Jefferson granddaughter, and the ex-President’s Private Secretary.

In 1868, William Mayer Randolph arrived in central Florida with his family, purchased 200 acres adjacent to the front door of old fortress Gatlin – directly south on the trail of the 160 acres Lady Isaphoenia had owned prior to her death a year earlier. Widower James Speer had tried to sell his deceased wife’s land in 1868 – even going as far to sign a contract – but Randolph arranged for that sale to be voided, acquired the property himself, and then conveyed half each to Eppes and Trist. Thousands of vacant acres surrounded Lady Isaphoenia’s land in 1868, so what was so special about the 160 acres along the west shore of Lake Pineloch?

The simple answer - family!

1876 Death notice of William M. Randolph

Was it a coincidence that Lady Isaphoenia had lineage ties to the Eppes family? Was it purely coincidental that Lady Isaphoenia descended as well from a Virginia Jones family, a family who had a proud heritage of men named Orlando? Was it a coincidence William M. Randolph, in 1876, returned to Virginia to live out his final days on earth at the residence of William Strother Jones?

 Vaucluse, Virginia, residence of William Strother Jones

The Jones residence has been restored as a B&B. One of the bedrooms is named "The Randolph".

Coincidences - No! Fort Gatlin had originated in 1838 as a military fortress, but the earliest of settlers to follow had big plans for this remote region. Lady Isaphoenia played a role in that grand plan, and for that reason, any history discussion of Fort Gatlin and nearby Pine Castle, in South Orange County, must include Lady Isaphoenia, the most remarkable frontierswoman of central Florida, first introduced by this author in the first sentence, of the first paragraph, of his first book.

Her legacy, as well as that of her family’s connection to the development of Orlando and South Orange County, unfold on the pages of three of my central Florida history books, a trio that is a perfect holiday gift set for every history lover in your family.

CitrusLAND: Curse of Florida’s Paradise

First Road to Orlando

Beyond Gatlin: A History of South Orange County

 

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Happy Holidays 

PINE CASTLE - Home for the Holidays Part 4: NATHANIEL POYNTZ

 

PINE CASTLE

Home for the Holidays

Celebrating America’s Paradise

 

Part 4: Nathaniel Baldwin Poyntz

Nathaniel Baldwin Poyntz (1847-1928

“Too old” was the bureaucrat’s 1926 excuse as to why Nathaniel Baldwin Poyntz had been denied his soldier’s bonus application. Then nearly 80 years old, Nathaniel learned of the denial while at work in a Massachusetts Army field office. At that time, 60 years after the Civil War had ended, Nat Poyntz was the only Confederate Veteran still on active duty roles of the Regular Army. But not only had his special bonus been denied – Poyntz was also unable to retire from the service because, said the Army, there was no provision in the retirement laws for the “Poyntz case”. And so Nathaniel Poyntz continued working as a Boston Quartermaster field clerk until his death in 1928 – a week before Christmas.

A native of “neutral” Kentucky, Nathaniel B. Poyntz likely lied about his age when enlisting in the Civil War at Maysville, Mason County, Kentucky. It appears he was only about 14 years of age when he enlisted in Company C of Kentucky’s 9^th Confederate Calvary. The Blue Grass State was likewise home during the Civil War of Pine Castle homesteader Will Wallace Harney. Harney was one of three co-publishers at the start of the War at a Louisville newspaper that was a staunch Union supporter – again, in a state that had pledged neutrality in the conflict.

After War’s end, Nathaniel Poyntz, in 1870, relocated to Orange County, where the Confederate Veteran homesteaded on 78 lakeside acres at Lake Conway (see #4 on map below), land adjoining Will Wallace Harney’s lakeside homestead. Ex-Union newspaperman Harney, by 1870, had become the Widow of a proud Louisiana Southern Belle.

Today, Nela Avenue heads east from Orange Avenue along the south property line of the 1870s homestead of Nathaniel B. Poyntz. Matchett Road now runs north from Nela Avenue, crossing the one-time Poyntz homestead in its approach to the Harney homestead.

Nathaniel B. Poyntz Homestead (#4 above); other numbered homesteads of this series: 

W. R. Anno #1; Florence Milton #2; William & Minnie (Iverson) Randolph #3

Enemies during the Civil War, the veterans who relocated to central Florida immediately after the war set aside their war-time differences to become neighbors, friends, and even civic leaders.

Nathaniel Poyntz married Levinia Strode in 1872, and soon thereafter, he returned to his Pine Castle homstead accompanied by his hometown Kentucky bride. But then, a few years later, he decided to settle instead in downtown Orlando. The Poyntz family move to Orlando coincided with the start of Nathaniel’s active involvement in Orlando development. After two years as Orange County Tax Collector, he teamed up with central Florida’s legendary pioneer James Parramore to form Poyntz & Parramore Real Estate Company.

Nathaniel and Levinia, (“Vina” to locals), built a handsome residence at the southwest corner of Magnolia Avenue and Amelia Street, adjoining property that, in 1885, became part of a “Poyntz & Parramore Subdivision”. (The Poyntz home, in 1900, sold to Alexander H. Darrow of Chicago, Illinois, who converted the structure into the Darrow Hotel. A third owner expanded the 15 room Darrow Hotel into the Wyoming Hotel).

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Around the time Nat relocated from Pine Castle to Orlando, in 1875, he also teamed up with a small group of pioneers to establish Orlando’s Greenwood Cemetery. He then established the first bank in Orlando around 1883, although banking eventually proved to be Nathaniel’s central Florida downfall. Also in 1883, Nathaniel Poyntz teamed up with Pine Castle’s William R. Anno (Part 1 of this series), and others, to organize the Tavares, Orlando & Atlantic Railroad. (As told in my book, Tavares: Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County, Anno and Poyntz were two of three “Pine Castle Boys” (pages 264-270), with the third being John P. Morton - a long-established Louisville family and friend of the Will Wallace Harney family.

Nathaniel Poyntz was among the first of many Orange County pioneers to take interest in the new 1882 town of Tavares, personally acquiring in February of that year several downtown lots.

Lavinia (Strode) Poyntz died at her family home in 1894 at the age of 46. “She possessed many excellent qualities”, said her obituary, “and was an affectionate wife and mother and her home bore an enviable reputation for genuine hospitality that was shared by hundreds of people in every walk of life.”  

After the death of Lavinia in 1894, a personal tragedy coinciding with Florida’s horrific Freeze of 1894-95 which brought about the collapse of central Florida’s economy, Nathaniel Poyntz returned to active military service. He served in both the Philippines and World War I, and thereafter, continued serving as a Quartermaster clerk for the Army at Massachusetts. Poyntz died at his Massachusetts post on the 18th of December, 1928, and was laid to rest alongside Levinia at their hometown of Maysville, Mason County, Kentucky.

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Happy Holidays 

PINE CASTLE Home for the Holidays Part 3: MINNIE

 

PINE CASTLE

Home for the Holidays

Celebrating America’s Paradise

Minnie (Iverson) Randolph - Part 3

Mrs. Minnie Iverson Randolph (1912 Atlanta, Georgia)

Dateline Atlanta, GA 1947: “Her husband was William Beverly Randolph, a wealthy Floridian, who was also a spoiled scion, she says, and when her son, William Beverly Randolph II, was 12, the elder Randolph died and left her with a frozen orange grove, no money, and a growing son.”

Pine Castle’s Hoffner Avenue of today, heading east from Hansel Avenue, crosses first land that in 1870 was the northernmost tip of Will Wallace Harney’s historic homestead. After that, nearer to Marinell Drive, Hoffner Avenue encroaches on a peninsular having Lake Conway on either side, acreage that is yet another historic homestead dating to the early 1870s. Better known for its third owner, Charles H. Hoffner, who bought the abandoned homestead after Florida’s Great Freeze of 1894-95, this property had originally been the homestead of William Beverly Randolph I.

Mary Caroline “Minnie” Iverson, daughter of pioneer Alfred Holt Iverson, became the second wife of William Beverly Randolph, son of William & Mary (Pitts) Randolph, landowners in 1870 of extensive land at Fort Gatlin as well as proprietors of the Orange House Hotel at Fort Reid. They were also in-laws of Pine Castle's very own, Will Wallace Harney.

Widow Minnie (Iverson) Randolph was interviewed a second time on August 3, 1947 when she was 89 years of age. At that time, Minnie was still a fulltime employee, President of Randolph Beauty Shop of Atlanta, Georgia. She had been interviewed thirty-two years earlier, in 1912, at which time the Georgia newspaper proclaimed Minnie Iverson Randolph as “one of the most successful of Atlanta’s women in business.”

#3 on above map: Homestead of William B & Minnie Iverson Randolph

#1 and #2 are explained in Parts 1 & 2 of this Blog Series 

As a young girl, Minnie came to Orange County in the late 1870s, living first near Maitland with her father and stepmother. The family later moved further south to Shingle Creek. By the mid-1880s, Miss Minnie was investing in land, buying for example a town parcel on the corner of Central Avenue and Gertrude Street in downtown Orlando. Minnie then married William B. Randolph on June 10, 1884, and their first and only child, William B. Randolph II, was born near Pine Castle in 1892.

Mrs. Minnie Randolph traveled to Atlanta in 1895 for a singing debut, where she was proclaimed to be “one of Florida’s most-delightful sopranos”. Later that year the freeze occurred, and Minnie relocated with her son to Atlanta, where she went to work in the advertising business. By the early 20^th century, Minnie changed careers once again, entering the beauty business.

“I simply had to do it,” said Minnie in 1947 of entering the Beauty trade, a career change that led to her training the first-ever class of beauty operators at Atlanta Opportunity School.

Doris Lockerman, Woman’s News Editor for the Atlanta Constitution in 1947, described the 89 year old Minnie as keeping a “doll-size little body straight as a ramrod, her blue eyes mischievous and clear, ‘though I read every night lying down, and her crown of white hair high on a lofty head.”

“I think children ought to be taught family backgrounds,” said Minnie Iverson Randolph, for it “would give all youngsters a feeling of confidence.” Although she spent only a brief time as a resident of Pine Castle, Minnie’s upbringing at Orange County’s 19^th century wilderness had no doubt implanted – as Will Harney himself described his fellow Orange County pioneers – “as having the pluck and energy” necessary to face adversities head on, tackle every challenge life presented - and rise to success at a time in our history when few women ever entered the business world.

 

THE perfect holiday gift this season: Central Florida History by R. L. Cronin 

In May of 2018 this author received the following email: “I am a direct descendant of Wm Beverly Randolph, Sr (my father is his grandson) and was completely awed by your tree. I spoke my great-great grandparent’s names for the first time today! My father’s Randolph lineage was always mysterious. My father was raised an only child by his mother and never spoke of Randolph relations other than Minnie.”

Mary Caroline ‘Minnie’ Iverson died at Dekalb, Georgia on July 2, 1953.

BEYOND GATLIN: A History of South Orange County

Rated 4 Stars at Goodreads.com  

VISIT CRONINBOOKS.COM WEBSITE FOR MY COMPLETE COLLECTION

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Happy Holidays 

PINE CASTLE: Home for the Holidays Part 2: FLORENCE

 

PINE CASTLE

Home for the Holidays

Celebrating America’s Paradise 

Part 2: Florence (Clark) MILTON 

Looking west from Cypress Grove Park to the Milton Homestead

During the summer of 1876, Pine Castle’s very own Will Wallace Harney wrote the following: “The benefit to a pioneer settlement by the presence of an active Christian lady, keenly alive to the moral and religious destitution around her has never been better illustrated than by the generous energy of Mrs. MILTON, a settler among us.”

Lake JESSAMINE became the location of the first Christmas service held in a church building south of downtown Orlando. The year was 1876, and the Christmas service was made possible by the untiring efforts of the devout Christian lady Harney wrote of earlier that year. Mrs. Milton was the Christian lady’s name, and the church building campaign she began was to raise funds to construct a church on the north shore of their Lake HOGAN property.

“Lake HOGAN,” wrote correspondent Harney in March of 1876, “is a half a mile from me and about six feet above Lake CONWAY and has nearly as large a basin. If it was emptied into Lake Conway without an outlet provided, it would ruin much of the Conway land.” There is no Lake Hogan today, but the number of similar sized lakes to that of Conway, within a half mile of the Harney homestead, can be counted on one finger.

Lake HOGAN of March 1876 had been renamed Lake JESSAMINE by year’s end, when the first Christmas Service was celebrated December 25, 1876.

 

Location 2 on the map above was the Milton Homestead. The X indicates the land donated for the first church located south of Orlando, Florida. (For #1, see prior post for the Anno homestead)

Two of Harney’s published 1876 articles in the Cincinnati Commercial unwittingly chronicled the name change of Pine Castle’s second largest body of water. That April, Harney wrote: “The settlements on Lake Conway and Lake Hogan have received a considerable accession from Kentucky this year.”

Thanks in large part to the excellent family research of Kelly Parks it is possible to shed light on the lake’s first name. Hogan is a surname in both ancestries of Orlando’s celebrated Patrick and Jernigan families, Mary Ann HOGAN had married Aaron Jernigan.

The signature of famed Orlando pioneer William A. Patrick was witnessed in 1882 by “A. Hogan”, and until Patrick sold his 80 acres parcel in the mid-1870s, he had owned land bordering the east shore of Lake Hogan. In fact, the property owned by Harney and Patrick provided a land bridge between Lakes Conway and Hogan (aka Jessamine) for southbound hunters, explorers and trekkers on their way to and from the remote regions of Lake Tohopekaliga and the Everglades.

 Lake Jessamine is one of 303 central Florida lakes found in my 'ORLANDO LAKES: Homesteaders & Namesakes', an encyclopedia of 19th century waterways and the pioneers who settled on these lakeshores.

Published articles in the North, authored by Will Harney and other brave souls living in the wilderness of Orange County, attracted northerners to buy Citrus-Belt land to either settle on or invest in. Among these early settlers were new “Kentucky” arrivals Harney had written about, Blue Grass "snowbirds" that included William & wife Florence (Clark) Milton. Retired Historian and UCF Professor Paul W. Wehr, one of the best authorities on Pine Castle history as far as this author is concerned, also described Florence A. Milton as an “active Christian lady”.

Author and UCF retired History Professor Paul W. Wehr, with yours truly, at my Beyond Gatlin book presentation at a Pine Castle Historical Society Quarterly Meeting 

Florence began raising funds to build a Presbyterian church, but after falling short of her goal among the locals, said Harney, she “applied to her old home, the Blue Grass region of Kentucky. The old First church in Lexington gave $30, and Mr. Young of Nicholasville in Jessamine, out of a minister’s scanty salary, gave $20.” The second contributor is worth repeating: “Mr. Young of Nicholasville, Jessamine” County, Kentucky. Nicholasville in Jessamine County was also the birthplace of John H. Harney, the father of Pine Castle’s Will Wallace Harney.

Writing again of the little Pine Castle church, Harney, in a December 23, 1876 newspaper article, wrote: “Mr. Crutchfield, a carpenter, built our church on Lake Jessamine.” Between March and December 1876, the large lake one half-mile from Harney’s homestead changed from Hogan to Jessamine, and that December, church goers in and around Pine Castle gathered for a Christmas service at that new little Presbyterian church - built on land donated by Florence Milton, land that was “200 yards from the margin of Lake Jessamine”. The church was capable of holding, it was said, 100 comfortably and 150 with crowding.

William A. Milton & M. Florence Clark had married October 13, 1869 at a Presbyterian Church in Henderson County, Kentucky. They were Lake Jessamine snowbirds for a time, but settled full time at Louisville, Kentucky. She was born at Washington, DC in 1848, where her father, a Kentucky native, worked as a law clerk. Mrs. Florence (Clark) Milton died at Louisville in 1906, and was buried in the very cemetery where Will Wallace Harney laid to rest his father in 1868. 

Thank you Rudi of Goodreads for the 4 Star Rating of Beyond Gatlin: A History of South Orange County, Florida. Your rating is sincerely appreciated. Rick Cronin

GIVE A GIFT OF HISTORY THIS HOLIDAY SEASON

Next Friday we introduce an 89 year young lady who was interviewed at her Georgia business while still gainfully employed. A former Pine Castle resident, she told the interviewer that her husband – “a spoiled scion”, had died when their son was 12 years old, leaving her “with a frozen orange grove, no money, and a growing son”. Minnie’s story is next when my special Pine Castle: Home for the Holidays blog series continues next Friday.

PINE CASTLE Home for the Holidays Part 1: ANNO

Attorney William Reuben ANNO

PINE CASTLE: Home for the Holidays, Part 1

 

Anno Avenue at Oak Ridge Road, Pine Castle, Florida

The historical significance of ANNO Avenue in the overall development of central Florida is far from obvious to an occasional observer today. A side street connecting Oak Ridge and Lancaster Roads, the half-mile long Anno Avenue remains as one of but a few original Town of Pine Castle streets laid out nearly 136 years ago. But in a historical sense, the name Anno should conjure up thoughts of one of many Pine Castle pioneers - early settlers who also became major influencers in both the design and creation of Florida’s amazing 19^th century “Citrus-Belt”.

William Reuben Anno is the Avenue’s namesake, and a portion of this road is located on Anno’s original homestead, 160 acres reaching north from Lancaster Road to Lake Mary Jess Road (See red rectangle on map below). William & Sarah (Nute) Anno built their residence at the northwest end of their land, where the X is shown on the map below, on the shoreline of Pine Castle's Lake Mary.

 160 acres Anno Homestead (red rectangle #1 - Anno 1880s residence marked with X)

An Attorney by trade, W. R. Anno became active in development of central Florida even prior to his subdividing half of his homestead to expand Pine Castle in 1884. A January 1883 article about rapid growth in and around Orlando mentioned that the reporter interviewed “Colonel W. R. Anno, President of the Tavares, Orlando & Atlantic Railroad. In that interview, Anno said he owned 800 orange trees and 600 guava trees.

Railroad President Anno also described plans for the railroad, including a planned terminus at Titusville on the east coast. Two months later, on March 5, 1883, Anno was mentioned as an organizer of the railroad, along with two other important Citrus-Belt pioneers having ties to Pine Castle. (Chapter 28, The Atlantic Gateway of my most recent book: Tavares: Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County, includes a section called "The Pine Castle Boys", in which two other organizers of the Tavares railroad were said to be John P. Morton and Nathaniel Poyntz - both Kentuckians who had close connections with the Pine Castle settlement - more on Poyntz in Part 5 of this Series).

The Tavares railroad only made it as far east as Orlando, and even then, the first train did not arrive at the county seat until July 2, 1885. By then, Anno had established a law practice in downtown Orlando while also selling town lots at Pine Castle (Plats of 1884 Pine Castle, recorded by Clement R. Tiner and William R. Anno, are Exhibit 51 in my book, Beyond Gatlin, A History of South Orange County).

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Two Pine Castle streets laid out in the Anno addition to Pine Castle were named for daughters Maud and Blanche, but in 1955, County Commissioners changed both. Maud became Dumont, and Blanche became Jason Street. At the same time, Commissioners changed West Avenue to Anno Avenue.

A travelogue describing the South Florida Railroad route in 1887 said this of the Anno residence at Pine Castle: “The railroad line, between lake shore and orange grove, aligns the shore, and at Jessamine passes W. R. Anno's handsome home and grounds, enclosed between two large basins of Conway and Jessamine, having a natural fish pond (assumed to be Lake Mary) on its southern orchard.”

Beyond Gatlin: A History of South Orange County

Proud recipient of the 2017 Pine Castle Historical Society 'Book Award'

Born Christmas Day of 1844 at Mercer County, Illinois, Attorney W. R. Anno arrived in central Florida in 1878, selected 160 acres for a family homestead, and planted orange trees as most other neighbors of that time were doing. He then became an active participant in transforming Orange County’s remote wilderness into a 19^th century American Paradise.

Although born in Illinois, William was raised at Mason County, Kentucky, relocating there after the death of his mother when he was only three years old. William married Sarah Louise (Nute) at Mason before first relocating to Jacksonville in 1870 and then to Pine Castle in 1878. (Beyond Gatlin, Chapter 23, addresses Pine Castle's "1887 Secret", a secret concerning the death of the "father of Mrs. W. R. Anno".

Following back to back freezes in 1894-95, William, Sarah and daughter Blanche moved further south, to Miami, Florida, where Attorney William R. Anno died on March 3, 1904. His remains are buried at Greenwood Cemetery in Orlando.

Maude Anno remained in central Florida with her husband, Sanford pioneer Forrest Lake. In 1925, Maude & Forrest Lake sold many of the long-dormant Pine Castle town lots to the first in a series of land speculators. In 1954, town lots first laid out in 1884 by W. R. Anno, then passed to Interstate Development Company, a Kroh Brothers firm from Kansas, just as Orange County Commissioners began changing many of the county’s street names – including Anno Avenue.    

Join us next week for Mrs. Milton’s Christmas Tea Party, and meanwhile, why not do a little holiday shopping.

THE PERFECT Holiday Gift for every History Fan in your family

BEYOND GATLIN: A History of South Orange County

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Sister Cities - Part 6 - Alsobrook's Ferry

Alsobrook’s Ferry, Lake County

Sister City Onslow, North Carolina

Haynes Creek of today looking west toward Alsobrook's Ferry of Yesteryear

Government hired surveyors moved through central Florida from 1842 through the early 1850s and mapped an Orange County wilderness into 61 townships of 36 square miles each before moving into Sumter County. Their job was not to name lakes, although they did name a few. Their task was to sketch the land, lakes, and rivers in such a way that legal descriptions could be written onto homestead deeds for incoming settlers. Paying little to no attention to county borders, the surveyors provided a method to pinpoint property, work product that was so successful it is in use today with but minor alterations. If you own property now, your deed is described using the surveys mapped in the 1840s, identifiers that appear as the first six numbers on your real estate tax bill (example 02-19-25 is land in the one square mile Section 2; 19 South; 25 East).

Occasionally the early land surveyors added dotted lines to show existing trails, but few trails existed then. There were no actual towns then, but occasionally a surveyor would locate an abandoned fort. On rare occasions they would also pinpoint an existing "log cabin". One example of the latter is included on page 155 of my Tavares book, a one-square mile survey showing a cabin at “Hill’s Permit” (Stacey B. Hill  1808-1850), alongside a dotted line for a trail. This example is part of my book because it was here that Evander LEE first located his family – several miles west of present day LEESBURG – a Lake County town now that was named by Evander’s family (Chapter 24).

This lengthy lead-up is necessary to fully appreciate 1850 notations found on another survey of one-square mile Sections 2, 3 and 9 of Township 19 South; 25 East. A “schoolhouse” is shown to exist in this section as of 1850! Of early surveys I have personally reviewed over the years, Township 19S; 25E is the ONLY government survey of central Florida of that time period that I have seen a ‘schoolhouse’. The survey also shows two areas marked “clearing”, a residence belonging to a “Vaught”, yet another marked “Bryant”, and a third residential area marked “E. D. Howse Permit”.

1850 Survey of 19S; 25E: Section 2 showing dirt trail crossing Haynes Creek of today; Schoolhouse in Section 3 along trail; E. D. Howse "Permit" in Section 3; "Bryant in Section 3 and Vaught in Section 9

A History of Marion County Sheriff’s Office tells us Edmund D. Howse was that county’s first Sheriff. A native of Onslow, North Carolina, Howse, in 1850, was noted as a farmer & Sheriff. He was also living at a “Private Embankment” with wife Cynthia and four (4) school age children. The next year, 1851, William & Mahala Alsobrook came to Florida with their six (6) school age children, settling within a mile of the Howse “Permit”, land that today borders “Haynes Creek”. 

The third noted residence – Vaught – is likewise fascinating, for nearly 30 years later, Volney V. Haynes homesteaded on land adjacent to the schoolhouse. Volney’s middle name was Vaught. His mother had been Sarah Vaught (1828-1913).

William J. Alsobrook opened ‘Lake Griffin Post Office’ in Marion County December 22, 1851. Then, when Sumter County was formed in 1853, ‘Lake Griffin Post Office’ became a Sumter County Post Office. 

Clearing debris from the Ocklawaha River south of Silver Springs, delayed first due to the Civil War, resumed in 1867, and the first Hart Steamboat arrived in Lake Griffin via the Ocklawaha that same year. It was to be another 13 years before the first railroad arrived at Fort Mason - to compete with the area's riverboat traffic. (See also Chapter 27 of my Tavares book, 'Ocklawaha, The River Gateway'.) 

Perfect HOLIDAY GIFTS for the history lovers in your family 

Route 44 crosses Lake County’s Haynes Creek where, in 1853, the Ocklawaha River had been the border between a new Sumter County and existing Orange County. Surveyor Trafford’s 1879 Orange County survey (photo below), shows the river as the dividing line, noting also the “Ferry” crossing near where Lisbon was established in 1884. (In an 1887 description of Lisbon it was noted that this place was sometimes called Alsobrook's Ferry).

1879 survey by E. R. Trafford (see also Chapter 14, Trafford Street of my Tavares book)

A timeline will aid in understanding the significance of the above information. Pioneers first settled in this region around the same time as the establishment of Mellonville on Lake Monroe, years before a place called “Orlando” was imagined, and these settlers built a Marion County schoolhouse which in 1853 became a Sumter County schoolhouse. Today, a busy Route 44 intersects with Fernery Road in the vicinity of a once-upon-a-time schoolhouse at Alsobrook’s Ferry crossing.

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In 1887, trains departing Leesburg bound for Fort Mason stopped at Orange Bend prior to proceeding east on a 10 minute journey to Lisbon after crossing the “Ocklawaha River”. After departing Orange Bend, it would be an hour, when on schedule, before travelers reached Fort Mason.

Next Friday we transfer to a Phantom Train at Fort Mason to visit a few Ghost Towns. Our journey will begin with a stop at a present day “DITCH” – where once-upon-a-time – believe it or not - the largest of all 19^th century Lake County towns was planned.

Thank you to all who have made my Tavares: Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County my most successful book launch to date.  

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Holiday shopping made easy! Why not give a lasting gift for the history buff in your family - Tavares: Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County.

Perfect companions: First Road to Orlando; Beyond Gatlin; Orlando Lakes; The Rutland Mule Matter; CitrusLAND: Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains. Visit my CroninBooks.com website for details on each. 

Sister Cities - Part 5 - Lisbon

 

LISBON of Lake County

Sister City: Ozark, Alabama

 

 Town of Lisbon, Lake County, Florida

LISBON, the first “town” south of Emeralda Island on Emeralda Island Road, is a community formally settled in 1884. One Lisbon founder was Andrew J. CASSADY, one of three partners who acquired the Sellers family homestead on Emeralda Island in 1874 (See my prior Emeralda Island Post). Founded in 1884 as a one square-mile city having Emeralda Avenue as its main corridor, it appears as though this place had wanted to be town for a decade, maybe longer.

One-Square Mile Town Plat of Lisbon (1884)

Palatka Daily News of March 10, 1885 reported that: “a new town on the Leesburg Branch of the St. Johns & Lake Eustis Railroad now has a name – Lisbon.” Completion of rail service between Leesburg and Fort Mason, it seems, was the encouragement residents needed to finally establish their town. Still another Palatka Daily News article of March 28, 1886 stated: “Lisbon is on a boom. There are now eleven houses in course of erection, and there is some talk of a large store going up, which will be opened during the summer”.

On May 27, 1887, Lake County became official, while the Orange County Gazetteer of that year described Lisbon as home to 113 residents. A Lisbon Hotel had opened under management of Wiley Laine (1835-1918) of Georgia, who doubled as the town’s railroad agent. In describing the city, the Gazetteer added: “this place is sometimes called Alsobrook’s Ferry”.

A reporter traveling aboard the train to Fort Mason during the summer of 1887 speculated that Lisbon might be a possible candidate for location of the new County’s seat (Chapter 30 of my Tavares book). His article also described his journey from nearby Orange Bend: “All along the road to Lisbon the way is lined by trailing vines and wild morning glories. Back of these are huge thrifty orange trees.” The reporter added: “The train leaves Lake Griffin at Orange Bend, and makes off due east to Lisbon, crossing the Ocklawaha River on pile bridges. The river has two or three separate and distinct channels at this place, and all along these channels, both up stream and down, are boats filled with fishermen, busy catching fish of all kinds that frequent Florida steams”. SR 42 crosses over Haynes Creek today, “the Ocklawaha River” of 1887.

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Andrew J. Cassady, a native of Ozark, Dale County, Alabama, married Mary Jane Alsobrook, herself a native of Dale County, Alabama, in Orange County June 2, 1868. Five years later, on October 8, 1873, Andrew replaced his father-in-law, William J. Alsobrook (1814-1888), as the Postmaster of “Oak Bluff” Post Office.

The Alsobrook family had been among the earliest settlers at this place, likely attracted to this remote region in 1851 because of “The Narrows”, the name given the creek by surveyors. The creek was used by watercraft traveling between Lakes Griffin and Eustis. Now Haynes Creek, for namesake Volney V. Haynes, eldest son of Captain Melton Haynes of Lake Harris further south, Volney had homesteaded on the creek in the late 1870s, long after William & Mahala Alsobrook had arrived with their four sons and two daughters. 

1879 Survey of “Ferry” crossing Ocklawaha River

Buck Lake? More on that when this series continues

A creek-side town at this “place” progressed something like this: A Lake Griffin settlement was established in this area around 1851, and William J. Alsobrook was named Postmaster in 1858. By 1873 is became Oak Bluff; where Alsobrook’s Ferry carried folks across Haynes Creek as we know the waterway today. Finally, in 1884, Lisbon became the official town name. Zachariah T. Alsobrook, son of William & Mahala Alsobrook, was operating a Lisbon store in 1887.

What then really attracted the Alabama family of William J. Alsobrook to this specific location in 1851? State Road 44 crosses the creek today, and then continues all the way east to the 1850 town of New Smyrna Beach - now in Volusia County. A wilderness of 3,000 square miles with fewer than 600 citizens, something unique had attracted William & Mahala (Goolsby) Alsobrook to raise their family here alongside the Ocklawaha River!

Next Friday, this series continues with Buck Lake, an 1850 Howse, and an 1850 Schoolhouse!

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Holiday shopping made easy! Why not give a lasting gift for the history buff in your family - Tavares: Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County.

Perfect companions: First Road to Orlando; Beyond Gatlin; Orlando Lakes; The Rutland Mule Matter; CitrusLAND: Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains. Visit my CroninBooks.com website for details on each. 

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Next week: Lake County's LISBON and its Sister City.