Martha & Lucinda JERNIGAN - Sisters of the old fortress

The FINALE!

I’ve shared stories of thirty plus remarkable frontierswomen throughout March, each of whom, in their own unique way, changed the course of central Florida’s history. Many never made it into history books, with exception of my books, yet each and every one is certainly deserving of being remembered. The final spotlight shines on Lucinda and Martha JERNIGAN, daughters of one of the first area settlers, Aaron JERNIGAN.

Each daughter left a unique mark on local history. Martha wrote memoirs, painting an excellent picture of how challenging life was for the earliest of settlers. Lucinda paid the ultimate price for those attempting to tame a remote Orange County wilderness. Few today realize however that one #Orlando icon was meant to memorialize HER.

LUCINDA was married in 1858 to merchant George HUGHEY when her father gave her 160 acres near the newly established village of Orlando. “In consideration of the sum,” wrote Aaron Jernigan, “of the mutual love and affection which I have and bear toward my daughter.” Any plans George and Lucinda might have had for their acreage is not known, as George died later that year. Lucinda, left with two children ages 2 and 3, married again in 1859. Lucinda’s second husband was Orlando merchant George W. TERRELL, but within a year, at age 27, Lucinda (JERNIGAN) Hughey-Terrell died, likely in childbirth.

The lake on her land came to be known as Lake LUCINDY. Lucinda paid the dreadful price for living in Orange County’s rugged wilderness. A later developer messed with lake’s name a tad, but Lucinda was indeed the inspiration for naming Lake LUCERNE. Today, a Lake Lucerne fountain welcomes visitors arriving from the south.

MARTHA (Jernigan) Tyler was also gifted lakefront land by her father. Her parcel was on Lake Conway, but Martha’s central Florida’s legacy remains her memoirs, a telling history of hard times early settlers were forced to endure. Martha was nine (9) when the families south of Orlando, fearing an Indian attack was imminent, “fortified” themselves at Fort Gatlin. 67 individuals represented the population of South Orange County at the time, and Martha’s detailed account of those families provided the first history about these courageous settlers.

Martha reported that 17 adults and 50 children were gathered at the fortress, 50 young Orange County citizens representing the future of central Florida. I am honored to meet descendants of these brave souls nearly every time I’m asked to address those who want to hear of the region’s earliest days.   

The history of 19^th century central Florida is packed full of amazing individuals, men and women, all of whom struggled to overcome a constant bombardment of unimaginable hardships. The history itself is fascinating, but is made so not merely by events, but rather because of the character of each participant.

These courageous souls are, and will remain, the main focus of my historical writings. I hope you have enjoyed this #WomensHistoryMonth series. I invite you to look over my www.CroninBooks.com website, and please, let me know your thoughts and comments at Rick@Cronin.Books.com

Myra "Lena" (SHORT) Lovell, Teenage Schoolteacher

Born December 1880 in Kansas, Lena SHORT and her family moved to Orange County when she was five. At the young age of 15, she was given a contract to teach in Orange County Schools for a seven (7) month period. Her teaching assignment though was in a remote corner of South Orange County. Out of a $25 monthly salary, Lena had to pay room and board of $8 monthly to live with a family of six, four of whom being the young teacher’s students.

Lena left her Orlando home aboard a horse drawn wagon in October of 1895 to begin her first teaching assignment on a farm seven (7) miles south of Pine Castle. Years later she wrote of her assignment, saying this of her sleeping quarters:

“I was shown my room. It was what is known as a ‘shed room’. That is, one end of a porch had been boarded up. It had a stationary, one pane glass window with a nice scrap of lace curtain over it, a homemade bed with native moss mattress and a pillow, and a small table once known as a washstand with a towel bar at each end. The floor, of course, was far from water or air tight – being a porch – and the cracks between the boards were wide enough to run a lead pencil through. If I dropped any small article woe to me – for that was the last of it. I was soon fast asleep – how long I do not know – for I was awakened by bumping and scraping under the low floor and squeals and grunts of a mother hog coming home to her lair to feed her babies in the bed she made for them and herself under my room. These hogs are infested with ‘hog fleas’ which are very large and can leap incredible distances and heights. Many a time I was obliged to get up in the dead of night that winter and shake the fleas out of my bed so that I, a tired and weary fifteen (15) year old, could sleep. It was some time before there was a rain. When it came it was in the middle of the night, and I was awakened by splashes in my face. I was obliged to get my huge umbrella and open and sit under it while the rest of the bed got a soaking.”

As an adult, Myra married Frederick Charles Lovell, the son of central Florida pioneer and first school Superintendent, William A. Lovell. Education, it seems, ran in Lovell’s family bloodlines, for this excerpt is from a story was submitted to me by another in the Lovell line, a retired schoolteacher of 50 years himself. A special thank you to the Lovell family for sharing the story of this very special #cflParadise frontierswoman.

Tomorrow - our series finale: Sisters of the old fortress

Henrietta (WORTHINGTON) Speer

The pain and suffering endured by the tiny village of Orlando before, during and after America’s Civil War was memorialized in the life of Henrietta WORTHINGTON Speer, first daughter of Orlando, and the eldest child of John R. Worthington.

Her father served as Orlando’s first postmaster beginning September 18, 1857, moving from South Carolina to Orange County after a brief stay in Georgia. Henrietta was born January 28, 1842 at South Carolina, and was only 17 years old when her mother and a sister died, presumably at Village of Orlando, in 1859.

Robert B. F. Roper, an eyewitness to 1860 Orlando, described the Worthington House: “There was a frame house north of the court house owned by J. R. Worthington and used as a boarding house; here the judge and lawyers boarded when holding court.”

After War was declared, Henrietta’s father and eldest brother, Milton, went off to serve with Florida’s Calvary. Neither man ever returned home to the Worthington House. Her brother Milton died of disease at Florida’s Camp Finegan in 1863. Her father John was killed during a ‘skirmish’ at Gainesville. A younger brother died in 1868.

One of an Orlando family of six in 1858, Henrietta was alone by 1868. History lost most all memory of the Worthington family.

Henrietta relocated to Mellonville after marrying, September 28, 1870, Arthur Algernon Speer, first son of Orange County’s first family, Dr. Algernon & Christiania GINN Speer. (Christiania was featured in our March 9 post in this #WomensHistoryMonth series).

Arthur Algernon was named for his grandfather Arthur Ginn, and his father. Arthur and Henrietta made their home at Mellonville as Sanford was still in its infancy. They had four children, naming each to memorialize family ancestry: Christiania Speer (born in 1871); Arthur Ginn Speer (Born 1872); Milton Alexander (born 1877); and Ella Louise Speer (born 1881).

The Widow Henrietta (Worthington) Speer and her children departed Orange County after burying Arthur Algernon in 1889. They settled first at Live Oak before moving to Alabama. At age 80, October 11, 1922, Orlando’s first daughter, Henrietta Worthington Speer, lost to local history, died at Birmingham, Alabama. Only one of her children is believed to have survived Henrietta, a #cflParadise frontierswoman who had witnessed firsthand the death and despair of Orlando during the Civil War.         

Tomorrow: The 15 year old Orange County Educator

A #WomensHistoryMonth celebration. For more on central Florida history visit CroninBooks.com

Emily Harriet (WATSON) Hull

If Orlando were ever to designate a “Foremother”, the most logical, I believe, would be Emily WATSON Hull. Although the city remains uncertain as to its founding fathers, Emily has been cited by at least two early historians as THE pioneer who kept doors to an abandoned village of Orlando wide open during the Civil War. Had it not been for Emily, no telling what might have happened to four acres planned as a county seat.

Born at Marietta, GA, Emily married May 21, 1854. Soon thereafter, she being only 18, the Hull’s journeyed overland to Orange County, traveling with 32 other courageous souls in covered wagons. At the time of their 1855 arrival, all of Orange County to the south of Lake Monroe counted fewer than 300 residents.

Orlando did not yet exist. A few families were clustered around old fort sites such as Mellon, Reid, and Gatlin, while other small settlements existed at present day Apopka and Winter Garden. There was no railroad, wouldn’t be for another 25 years. Dirt paths carved out a decade earlier by the military were the sole means for settlers to get around.

William & Emily Harriet Hull settled first at Fort Reid, but within a year or two, moved further south, setting up home at Orlando. By 1860 the Hull family, then including two children ages one and three, had become residents of Orlando.

Established in 1857, the village of Orlando was but three years old when the Hull’s set up house. The village itself was but four years old when War broke out. Emily’s husband went to war with the Mizell brothers, was wounded twice, and captured at Gettysburg. William Hull was then imprisoned for 23 months at Fort Delaware, and couldn’t return home to Orlando until after War’s end.

A boarding house established by the Hull’s remained open during the war, run entirely by Emily, although she only had an occasional guest. Emily served as the Confederate Postmistress of Orlando as well. “Mrs. Hull furnished dinner to every man in the county,” said a 1915 biographical sketch, and when provisions ran low, Captain Mizell’s father, David, Sr., would butcher a cow and take her a quarter.

While most residents abandoned the village during the War, Emily Harriet Watson Hull stayed behind, lodging folks in need of a room, feeding hungry guests, managing mail, keeping up the family farm, and generally keeping the doors to Orlando open.

The Hull’s owned Lots 2, 3, 4 and 11 of the twelve lot Village of Orlando. Lots 2 & 3 are presently the location of the County’s History Museum, but back in Emily’s day, was the location of Worthington House. Arriving in 1857, John R. Worthington built the House, and it then passed to the Hull family.

Tomorrow: The Village DAUGHTER and more on the Worthington House

A #WomensHistoryMonth celebration by CroninBooks.com

Angeline Augusta (MAY) Mizell

TWO (2) Mrs. David Mizell’s lived among the 1,100 Orange County residents of 1860, but only one, the younger of the two, would spend most of her adult years as the family’s sole head of household. Angeline Augusta MAY married David W. Mizell, Jr. in 1854. He at the time was 21 years old. She had just turned 17.

Within a year of their marriage, the first of seven children was born. By the year 1860, David, Jr. had followed his parent’s to Orange County. David Mizell, Sr. located 5 miles south of Village of Orlando, acquiring 600 acres fronting Lake Conway’s Upper basin. David, Jr. and wife Angeline selected land east of village of Orlando, land fronting on present day Lake Underhill, three miles east of the nearest “dirt’ trail.

Far from the turmoil brewing north of their homeland, David & Angeline celebrated their 6^th wedding Anniversary in December of 1860. A few days later, delegates decided Florida would secede, and both Orange County Mizell families learned soon thereafter that the Confederate Army invaded Fort Sumter.

Civil War had begun, and life for Angeline, 24 and a mother of four, was about to take a drastic turn for the worse. Her husband David enlisted in Florida’s 8^th Infantry, so Angeline, like many a central Florida mother, daughter and wife, was suddenly on her own.

Every young man departed Orlando for the warfront. The only two village of Orlando stores were shuttered. Central Florida’s wilderness became more remote than ever.

David Mizell, Jr. mustered out of service in 1863, but two of his brothers, fellow comrades, were not as fortunate. David’s return home however was to be brief. In February 1870, Sheriff David W. Mizell, Jr. was ambushed and killed. Angeline was a mother of seven then, her oldest only 15. Angeline was on her own again.

On the 30^th of August, 1873, Widow Angeline purchased 50.4 acres, paying $1.25 per acre for property closer to town, yet still in a sparsely developed area. Her parcel is now preserved as the Harry P. Leu Gardens.

Angeline Augusta MAY Mizell, among Orange County’s earliest citizens, died October 25, 1911 at age 74. She had lived within a few miles of Orlando’s city center for 52 years, and at the time of her death, 57 years had gone by since marrying David Mizell, Jr.

Angeline had fewer than 15 of the 57 years of her marriage to enjoy the company of her spouse. During the other 42 years, she had survived on her own in the wilds of Florida. I’ve said this often, the story of central Florida is incomplete without inclusion of the story of the remarkable women who assisted in taming a #cflParadise.  

Tomorrow: The Village MOTHER.

A #WomensHistoryMonth Celebration - for more central Florida 19th century history be sure and visit www.CroninBooks.com

Emily (LOW) Gibson of Orlando's Lake Highland

“HER form could be seen floating among the orange trees,” wrote historian Kena Fries in 1938, in telling of an event that had occurred many years earlier on Orlando’s Lake Highland. “A jolly Christmas party” Miss Fries said, “the guests leaving long after midnight, in the darkened house the hosts slept peacefully. In the early morning the wife awoke, a choking sensation in her throat. The room was filled with smoke, and lurid flames leaped about the building. Frantic efforts failing to arouse her husband, she ran to the nearby water plant, clad only in her night robes.”

The tragedy on Lake Highland, which is not found in other local histories, tells of a young Central Florida bride who, after her husband was rescued, collapsed and died of exhaustion. “After that, for many years, just before sunrise on the morning of December 27^th, her form could be seen floating among the orange trees, from the charred remains of the old house to the water plant, where it dissolved into thin air and vanished.”

The Orlando Water Plant was built at Lake Highland in 1887, so was there really a ghost visible among the orange trees surrounding the water plant? Below are the facts, you decide!

The most popular guy in town during the summer months of the 1880s had to be John W. Anderson. Why? He managed the Orlando Ice House! Born in Indiana, Anderson grew to adulthood in Iowa, and after the Civil War, married Miss Adeth Bell GIBSON.

But five days after the birth of the second Anderson child in 1877, Adeth died. John married his deceased wife’s sister, Emily, and in 1881, the couple relocated to Orlando, Florida. By 1886, John W. Anderson had moved his family to Lake Highland, but he did not buy the land they lived on.

The deed to Anderson’s land had been issued to, “Emily Gibson Anderson, sole heir at law of Peter Gibson, deceased.” A resident of Ryegate, VT, Peter had purchased five acres upon which Lake Highland Preparatory School is now located.

Peter had died at his Vermont hometown. He was buried at a Ryegate hillside cemetery, and a handsome grave marker memorializes not only the life of Peter, but that of his wife as well. And there, on the side of Peter’s tombstone, is a bone chilling inscription, a tragic story replicated in the annals of Ryegate, Vermont history.

Peter married Emily LOW in 1846. They were parents of two girls, Adeth and Emily, both of whom, according to the Vermont town’s history, had been married to John W. Anderson. Now then, about that bone chilling tombstone inscription, it reads: “Emily LOW Gibson died at Orlando, FL, December 23, 1883.”

“A jolly Christmas party” said Miss Fries of her haunting Orlando story, “the guests leaving long after midnight, in the darkened house the hosts slept peacefully. In the early morning the wife awoke.” Vermont recalls Emily LOW Gibson, a central Florida frontierswoman who died in 1883.

You now know the facts, so what do you think? Was Emily LOW Gibson the ghost of Lake Highland’s Water Plant?

Tomorrow: The Sheriff's Widow during #WomensHistoryMonth

Nancy & Martha Hudson of OAKLAND Plantation

HUDSON is a family name rarely associated with central Florida history, a very sad fact, especially considering the earliest role a father-son team, and their courageous spouses, all played in an 1850s attempt to tame a remote #cflParadise.

As is often the case with many of this region’s earliest pioneers, the Hudson line is not easily located when searching early Orange County histories. And even when occasionally mentioned, only Isaac and Edward Murray Hudson appear briefly as one-time early county residents. Women’s History Month seems the perfect time to set the record straight.

Nancy (MURRAY) Hudson was the wife of Isaac. Martha (GRAY) Hudson was the wife of Isaac and Nancy’s son, Edward Murray Hudson. Nancy and Martha both died within a month of one another in 1858, the same year the father and son Hudson team sold their Florida land and moved west.

Nancy and Martha Hudson remain significant clues to learning the origins of central Florida, but like pieces to a complicated jigsaw puzzle, the clues, or puzzle pieces, are not always easily discovered.

Historian Blackman quoted Robert B. F. ROPER in 1927 as saying that his father, William C. Roper, purchased the 660 acre Oakland Plantation (at present day Winter Garden) from Isaac Hudson in 1859. The Oakland Post Office was established by Roper the next year.

Isaphoenia C. (Ellington) Speer (Women’s History Month Post of March 5, 2018) was accumulating hundreds of adjacent acres along Lake Apopka at the same time as Isaac Hudson.

Talladega, Alabama, where the bodies of Nancy and Martha were laid to rest in 1858, was one common connection between the Hudson women and Isaphoenia, the half-sister of Benjamin F. Caldwell of 1857 Talladega, the 4 acre land donor of #ORLANDO.

Another common puzzle piece link between Isaphoena, the Caldwell’s, and the two Hudson women was their birthplace, ABBEVILLE, South Carolina. As early as the 1850s, one family was coming together to establish a new central Florida homeland. The Hudson’s however, after the loss in one month’s time of both spouses, picked up and moved to Texas. “Isaac Hudson, deceased,” Talladega court records state, “who died in Texas, intestate, on the 13^th May, 1865; and whose only child, Edward M. Hudson, also died in Texas, intestate, on the 23^rd October, 1861.”

“Dr. Starke, finding himself and many of slaves stricken with malaria”, wrote Blackman in 1927 of Hudson’s 1858 neighbor, “moved out from the hammocks of Lake Apopka.” Soon after Dr. Starke sold to Isaphoenia, the two Hudson wives had to be buried, and two Hudson widowers, with four motherless children in tow, each child under the age of 10, departed for Texas. Within a year, the four children would be orphans.

Did Nancy and Martha Hudson die at Oakland in West Orange County of malaria? The puzzle piece required to answer that question is still missing, but whatever took place on the southern shore of Lake Apopka in 1858, the event was tragic enough to send the Hudson men packing.

Tomorrow: “Her form floated among the orange trees.”

#WomensHistoryMonth

Mary Margaret (SMITH) Reid, Hospital Organizer

She walked home to Florida, 650 miles, leaving behind a hospital she had founded at Richmond, VA, as well as a fresh grave site containing her one and only son. The third wife of Florida Territorial Governor Robert Reid, Mary (SMITH) Reid did not live in central Florida, but many an eternally grateful mother, daughter and wife throughout the State thought highly of this remarkable frontierswoman.

At the start of America’s Civil War, Mary followed her 18 year old enlisted son to Virginia, where she campaigned rigorously for a Hospital to care for Florida’s injured sons. After winning her battle, Mary stayed on to help care for Florida Infantryman wounded on Virginia’s battlefields. Sarah Whitner, wife of Orange County Surveyor Benjamin F. Whitner, wrote to Mary Reid personally, thanking her for treating her boy, Benjamin III, a soldier who survived the War, and eventually homesteaded near Sanford, Florida.

Another soldier, wounded at Virginia’s Battle of Wilderness and brought to Mary’s hospital, was her son, Robert J. Reid. He did not survive.

Robert J. Reid was a half-brother of Robert R. Reid, the Palatka merchant who rescued, in 1867, the town of Orlando, by buying the town, at auction, on its courthouse steps.

Born 1812 in Georgia, Mary Martha (Smith) Reid, married Robert in 1836. She was the sister-in-law of Florida’s Brigadier General Joseph J. Finegan, second owner of the Moses E. Levy Grant, part of which is the modern day town of Sanford. Mary M. Reid Hall at University of Florida is named in her honor, as was the first Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

My FREE downtown Orange County Library presentation is this Sunday, March 25, 2018 at 2 PM. Hope to see you there!

ORLANDO REEVES: Fact or Fiction?

Orange County Public Library Presentation

Sunday, March 25, 2018 at 2 PM

Visit Facebook Event Page:

https://www.facebook.com/events/164581127512728/

Tomorrow: The Hudson’s of the Wekiva during #WomensHistoryMonth

Cornelia (WRIGHT) Whipple of Maitland, FL

“Mrs. Whipple was, as the Bishop has always said, his right hand in all good work.” Bishop Henry B. WHIPPLE and wife Cornelia (Wright) became Orange County snow-birds in 1876. FARIBAULT, Minnesota residents, the two looked forward each year to spending winters at MAITLAND, where in addition to building a winter residence on the ‘Maitland Branch’, they also established Church of the Good Shepherd. Their historic church still stands today.

Accounts of the Whipple’s in central Florida very often center around the Bishop, but one could argue the spotlight should shine on Cornelia. The Bishop himself credited his wife for him joining the Episcopal Church in the first place. Cornelia was very often the driving force behind his actions.

A devout Christian, Cornelia was the first born of one of our State’s earliest influential Christian families. Sister Sarah was the first wife of St. Augustine Attorney, State Historian, and prominent member of the Episcopal Church, the esteemed, George R. FAIRBANKS. As early as 1850, Fairbanks owned 1,000 acres in northern Orange County. Her brother was the Reverend Benjamin Wright of Leon County, Florida.

Cornelia (Wright) Whipple was a staunch supporter of educating women, and for years served as house mother of St. Mary’s Hall. She cared as well for American Indian families near their Minnesota home town.

“After the death of two of her children,” said Cornelia’s obituary, “Mrs. Whipple determined to build a Church and Parsonage to their memory.” The Maitland Church, said that obituary, “is made up of those reared in different communions and is known as the church of the Good Shepherd.”

Cornelia (Wright) Whipple died in 1890 of injuries sustained in a railroad accident. Her train derailed while on her way south to her #cflParadise winter residence at Maitland, Florida.

Tomorrow: Her Hospital saved lives, but not one dearest to her.

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Leora (BETTISON) Robinson, Author Educator & Developer

Property at the intersection of East Colonial Drive and Cathcart Avenue, on the northern outskirts of downtown Orlando, have legal descriptions that are a bit misleading. Shown as “Norman Robinson’s Addition to Orlando,” the actual recorded plat states: “MRS. Norman Robinson’s Addition to Orlando.”

Cathcart Avenue itself has family ties not to Mr. Robinson, but to Leora, wife of Norman Robinson. Further, Norman was no longer among the living when the Addition to Orlando Plat was filed.

Leora (Bettison) Norman was more than a developer though. ‘American Women, 1,400 Biographies’, published in 1897 by Frances Willard, includes a biography of Leora: “It is conceded, that by her contributions to the press and her pamphlet, “Living in Florida,” she has done more to induce immigration to the state (Florida) than any other has accomplished.

Born at Little Rock, Arkansas, her parents, Dr. Joseph and Ann (Cathcart) Bettison, moved soon after to Louisville, where as a young adult she became a teacher. There, Leora met and married, in 1864, Norman Robinson, a teacher as well.

Norman and Leora partnered in opening Holyoke Academy, a private school they continued running until 1881, when the Robinson’s relocated to central Florida. “Always the genius during her school-days, her writings attracted attention, and many of her early efforts were published in the local (Louisville) papers.” Among the acclaimed writings of Leora Bettison Robinson were “Than,” and “The House of Spectacles.”

Between writing and expanding the town of Orlando, Leora home schooled her daughter, Jeanette Cathcart (Robinson) Murphy. Born at Louisville, Jeanette was raised in Orlando, and went on to become, as reported by the ‘Musical Gazetteer’ in 1918, a “Singer, music teacher, and lecturer.”

The old forts trail originally traced the east side of Orlando’s Park Lake of today, but was known in the 1880s as “Lake Leora.”

Tomorrow: Maitland, Florida’s Good Shepherd!

Clarissa YATES of GOLDEN ROD

Tradition suggests GOLDEN ROD, aka GOLDENROD, has a 20^th century origin, but in fact this ‘place’ dates to the 1880s. A Golden Rod railway depot at this east Orange County ‘place’ is shown on an 1890 central Florida map. At that time Golden Rod was a stop along the short-lived ‘Orlando, Winter Park & Oviedo Railroad.’ Today the area is typically called ‘Goldenrod’.

Golden Rod depot was located on land first conveyed August 25, 1882 to a Clarissa YATES. Born 1837 in Georgia, Clarissa’s deed included 150 acres. Lake NAN occupied the northeast corner of Clarissa’s property, although in the 1880s, it was called BRIGHT Lake. A Widow, Clarissa YATES lived in 1880 Orange County with her 24 year old son, George W. PETTIS, also a native of Georgia.

Clarissa started selling small parcels on her homestead the very same year she received her deed. In 1882, she sold lots to no fewer than four (4) individuals: George Holleman; John Cummings; Alfred D. Le Vesque; and J. P. Magruder. By 1884 however, Clarissa’s last piece of land was sold off by “J. E. Clark, Trustee for Clarissa Yates and George W. Pettis”.

Clarissa does not appear in the 1885 Orange County Special Census, nor does she appear in later Orange County records. Even the whereabouts of George Pettis in 1885 is mystery. Although her presence in #cflParadise appears to have been brief, Clarissa’s story is quite different from any of the frontierswoman told to date.

Clarissa YATES was of African American descent. Her buyers Holleman & Cummings were also identified as “Black” by the census takers. The son of Widow Yates, George W. Pettis, was identified in 1880 as a “Mulatto.” As for the Trustee J. E. Clark signing in 1884 for Clarissa and her son, he was Joseph E. Clark, the prominent 1880s merchant and founder of Eatonville, celebrated as the first all-black town incorporated in America.

Clark himself had been a former slave turned Orange County merchant. He not only envisioned an all-Black city, he played a vital role in incorporating Eatonville in August of 1887. Eatonville is about 7 miles west of Clarissa’s 150 acre lakeside homestead. Obviously a slave herself before the Civil War, Clarissa, in 1860 a young mother to a 4 year old Mulatto boy named George W. Pettis, remains a mystery today.

Neither individual has yet to be located in records prior to 1880, nor have I located either after the year 1884. 19^th century Golden Rod, aka Goldenrod, remains largely a mystery today. The railroad passing through this “place’ soon failed, and the early historians - they failed to mention a 19^th century settlement on land first owned by the courageous Widow and mother, Clarissa YATES.

Tomorrow: A Central Florida Author, Educator & Developer

Miss EULALIE WAY and Summerlin's ORLANDO

Central Florida history is chock full of legends, one in particular being how Orlando’s iconic Lake Eola got its name. Historian Kena Fries passed along a legend as to its naming as told to her: “Sandy Beach was changed to Eola in the early 1870s by Bob Summerlin, in memory of the beautiful young girl, his bride to be, who died from typhoid fever two weeks before the appointed wedding day.” Pieces of Kena’s legend can be proven false, whereas portions appear to be true!

Jacob Summerlin brought his family to Orlando in 1873, bought 200 acres east of a tiny 4 acre town of Orlando, then platted his land that included the lake known today as Lake Eola. Jacob, and son Robert attended Orlando’s 1875 meeting to incorporate the then 18 year old village of Orlando.

Son Robert had graduated from the University of Georgia in 1875, and was admitted to the Florida Bar in 1876. But Bob Summerlin’s bride however was named Texas, not named Eola. And Texas did not die prior to their marriage.

Lake Eola was named as such on Summerlin’s 1874 Addition to Orlando plat, so who then was Eola?

Presbyterian Church of Orlando organized March 18, 1876 with 11 members, including “Mrs. Jacob Summerlin, formerly of Flemington, GA”. Located in Georgia’s Liberty County, the Summerlin’s, all native Floridians, lived there briefly after the Civil War. Family #13 in the 1870 Liberty County, GA census was the Summerlin family. Family #6 was Widow Sarah A. Way.

Children of both families were attending school in 1870, among whom was a teenage girl, EULA Way. Eula was 16. Robert Summerlin was 12.

Born July 22, 1854 at Liberty County, Eulalie Way never married. She died at age 42, October 13, 1896, and was buried in the State and County of her birth.

As legends pass from one generation to the next, facts often become blurred. EULALIE was a popular name in 1854 when Eula was born, popular because it was an Edgar Allan Poe poem. Poe’s poem was “Eulalie”, and speculation was that the poem was about his wife. Married in 1836, one line of his poem is: “I dwelt alone, in a world of moan, till the fair and gentle Eulalie became my blushing bride”.

Miss Eulalie Way is buried at Liberty County, GA

Eulalie Way was nicknamed Eula, and so perhaps Robert Summerlin did have a crush on an ‘older’ Georgia girl that he had gone to school with. Perhaps Jacob surrendered to Robert’s wishes, and instructed his surveyor to name the lake Eula. 19^th century Surveyors were detailed mapmakers, but all too often misspelled names.

LAKE EOLA will also be a topic of discussion in my FREE presentation to be held at the downtown Orange County Library, March 25, 2018. Hope to see you there!

ORLANDO REEVES: Fact or Fiction?

Orange County Public Library Presentation

Sunday, March 25, 2018 at 2 PM

Visit Facebook Event Page:

https://www.facebook.com/events/164581127512728/

JOIN ME SUNDAY at the Downtown ORLANDO LIBRARY

How Orlando REALLY got its name!

Tomorrow: The Lady of Golden Rod

Franc WEBBER Lord of Orlando & Venice, FL

Following in her father’s land development footsteps, Franc, daughter of Frank Webber, also got into #cflParadise land developing. Franc’s career interest along Orlando’s north shore of Lake Ivanhoe soon rubbed off, big-time, on her husband. Together, Joseph & Franc Lord forever altered the landscape of what at that time was a faltering town of #Sarasota, Florida.

Frank & Sarah WEBBER arrived in Orlando in the early 1880s. Their FAIR OAKS Lake Ivanhoe subdivision was platted in 1884. During 1885, the two conveyed several Orange County parcels to their daughter, then 22 years old and single, Miss Franc Mabel WEBBER.

Webber Avenue was the main Fair Oaks artery. The road still exists today, although as Historian E. H. Gore explained in his 1949 Orlando history, when it came time for the city to erect street signs, they misspelled the street name as WEBER.

Frank & Sarah built a home on Webber (Weber), while the daughter’s home faced Lake Highland, along a then unnamed dirt road that is now Highland Avenue. On a plat of 1887 this property is listed as “Mrs. F. W. Lord”.

Franc dabbled in real estate as did her father, a career that continued even after her marriage in late 1885 to Attorney Joseph H. Lord. Franc’s groom had come to Florida looking to make it rich in phosphate. Florida mining of the mineral was a worthy investment since new railroads were opening up South Florida, making it easier to transport phosphate to awaiting markets.

The railroad however also opened up Florida’s Gulf Coast. You may recall Winifred HODGSON of our March 13^th Post, a young English gal who came to America in 1887. Well, Franc’s husband went to South Florida in search of phosphate, but became instead a major Sarasota developer. Those same English investors, who had sold Orange County land to Miss HODGSON, were also developing the city of Sarasota. (One 1880s Englishman involved with Sarasota married Winifred, but that’s a story for another time).

Sarasota was already in serious financial trouble as Attorney Joseph Lord arrived. He found five roadways, like spokes of a wheel, leaving from the center of Sarasota. Called ‘Five Points’, Joseph H. Lord soon owned four of those five points of Sarasota. Before too long, the Lord’s owned nearly 70,000 acres along the Gulf Coast, land from Bradenton south to Venice, and even built one of Sarasota’s first skyscrapers.

Joseph H. Lord & Sons operated a successful real estate business well into the 20^th century, all from a Sarasota office in the ‘Lord Arcade Building.’ The father and son team were beneficiaries of a career first begun by Mrs. Franc Mabel WEBBER Lord at Orlando’s Lake Ivanhoe.

One main Sarasota artery is Webber Street. The first house was built on the east-west road in 1926. Perhaps the street was named for Franc, or maybe for her Widowed mother, Sarah, who came south with the Lord’s soon after her husband’s death at Orlando. Sarah died in 1912, Franc Webber Lord died April 9, 1936, at their summer residence in Chicago. Joseph H. Lord died nine months later, December 24, 1936, at their South Florida winter home.

Tomorrow: One boyhood crush – One Iconic Lake

Florence CLARK Milton of Lake Jessamine

Pine Castle’s William Wallace Harney provided a wealth of Orange County history in his 19^th century writings, but planted as well clues about many of the region’s history makers. When writing about the first church built south of Orlando, for example, Harney included the name, “Mrs. Milton.”

UCF History Professor Paul Wehr, author of ‘Dateline: Pine Castle, Stories of Orange County,’ published by Pine Castle Historical Society, Professor Wehr wrote: “The area south of Orlando was still without a church (mid-1870s), but the energy of Mrs. Milton, an active Christian lady, keenly alive to the moral and religious destitution around her, soon remedied that shortcoming.” 

Florence (CLARK) Milton had been successful in her endeavor. In fact, Harney even described her church: “The structure, which seated one hundred persons comfortably and one hundred and fifty by crowding, stood about two hundred yards from the margin of Lake JESSAMINE. The local Presbytery expected to dedicate (the church) in August 1876.”

Mrs. Milton’s fund raising endeavor, as described by Will Harney, “applied to her old home, the bluegrass region of Kentucky.” Among the donations received was $20 from a minister, “Mr. Young, of Nicholasville.” The town of Nicholasville is located in JESSAMINE County, KY.

Florence Clark, born 1848 at Washington, DC, was born in DC because her father, a native of Kentucky, worked there as a law clerk. Florence married William A. Milton in 1869 at Kentucky. Featured in my latest book, Beyond Gatlin: A History of South Orange County, Florence CLARK Milton was one of many Kentuckians influenced by Will Wallace Harney to buy land near his Pine Castle community.

I do hope you attend my 2 PM FREE presentation today at Orange County SOUTH CREEK branch library. Click on the Event page link below for details.

BEYOND GATLIN: A History of South Orange County

Orange County Public Library Presentation

Sunday, March 18, 2018 at 2 PM

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https://www.facebook.com/events/164581127512728/

Tomorrow: Franc of Lake Ivanhoe’s Fair Oaks & Lord’s Arcade

Mary CROMWELL St. Cyr - Harney of Orlando

Mary’s body was shipped via rail from Orlando to Washington, DC, where she was buried alongside her husband, a legendary U. S. General: William S. HARNEY. The two were laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery.

The General’s wife hasn’t actually been mentioned before in the story of central Florida, but in February, 1902, during Orlando’s gathering of the Grand Army of the Republic, Ocala Daily News reported that a reception was held, “for the venerable widow of General W. S. Harney, held at her “Ponce Castle” residence.” Obviously meaning Pine Castle, whereabouts of her residence raises at least one intriguing question, why was the General’s widow living in the community named for the pine castle residence of Will Wallace Harney?

The two Harney’s, distant relatives, were never known to be neighbors.

“Some 3 years ago,” said General Harney’s 1889 obituary, “he married his housekeeper. His marriage was strenuously opposed by his children, and they attempted to have it set aside and a guardian appointed for him. In this they failed.” General Harney had resided, and even married, at St. Louis, MO. He died though May 9, 1889, at Orlando, Florida.

Born Mary CROMWELL on 24 January, 1826 at Frederick County, MD, Mary relocated to St. Louis with her siblings and widowed mother. At age 40, Mary married Paschal St. Cyr, a widower and father of eight.

By 1880, Widow Mary St. Cyr was a mother of an 11 year old daughter, and went to work as the housekeeper for the retired General William Selby Harney. Mary lived with the general in 1880, both at his main St. Louis residence, and the General’s historic Harney summer mansion at Crawford County, Missouri. 

On the 12^th of November, 1884, the 84 year old General married his 58 year old “housekeeper.”

On November 16, 1888, Marie St. Cyr, the general’s step-daughter, bought 20 acres near Sanford. A half century after first stepping foot in the wilds of Mosquito County, General William S. Harney returned, to live in the town of Rutledge, founded by Florida’s General Joseph Finegan. A ghost town today, Rutledge was 20 miles west of Lake Harney, the lake named in the 1840s for William S. Harney.

Marie, the general’s step-daughter, married Harry L. Beeman, of Orlando’s San Juan Hotel fame. Historian Blackman said the Beeman’s “built their residence on Gore Avenue.” The general’s widow also lived here until her 1907 death.

According to Orlando historian Gore, Mrs. Beeman built a bandstand on a vacant lot near the hotel, and historian C. E. Howard told of Gotha’s Henry Nehrling naming one of his exceptional hybrid Caladium’s the, “Mrs. H. L. Beeman.”

A resident of #cflParadise for nearly 20 years, it appears safe to say that the General’s wife was far more than merely a housekeeper.     

Tomorrow: Mrs. Milton’s Lake Jessamine Church

Catherine of ORLANDO'S many R's

Piecing together Orlando’s mysterious origin is tantamount to assembling a challenging jigsaw puzzle. Pieces to the puzzle include a surveyor’s sketch, a black & white photo of Lake Eola, a legend of how the town got its name, a boy’s recollection of his first visit in 1861 to Orange County’s seat, and of course, a young girl named Catherine.

Robert ROPER recalled for historian Blackman a journey to Orlando with his father in April 1861. He recalled the date because along their way they heard of the Confederate Army attack on Fort Sumter. Roper’s visit is verified by a deed, wherein William C. Roper bought all the goods of a store run by Henry ROBERSON.

Robert, 8 years old in 1861, recalled the Roberson name too. He knew the wife of Henry well, for a year earlier, he and Catherine made the long trip to central Florida together. Cousins, their families traveled in convoy from Meriwether, GA to Orange County. Catherine was at the time 15 years old.

The ROPER’S settled at Oakland Plantation, where Winter Garden is today. Bartlett & Mary REAMES, along with daughter Catherine, continued on to the then 3 year old, four (4) acre village named Orlando.

Catherine’s father purchased one of the 12 town lots. Lot 1 to be exact, his parcel was 100’ x 100’, located where Orange County Library stands now.

Bartlett Reames partnered with Henry ROBERSON to open a store. Henry apparently took a fancy to Catherine, afor they soon married. Bartlett also acquired 80 acres adjacent to the east of the village, land abutting present day Lake Eola.

That April, the 8 year old Robert Roper, Bartlett Reames, and a pregnant Catherine (REAMES) Roberson returned to Oakland together. Henry Roberson shipped off to War, never again to see his wife, nor ever to lay eyes on his son, Henry Roberson, Jr.

At war’s end, Widow Catherine, still a resident of West Orange County, then married for a second time. Her second husband was Mark Bryan REAVES.

Catherine (REAMES) Roberson - Reaves is an integral piece of Orlando’s mysterious puzzle. Her father’s lakeside grove is yet another. I’ll explain how the puzzle fits together at my FREE downtown Orange County Library presentation, March 25, 2018. Hope to see you there!

Plan to attend this FREE Presentation

ORLANDO REEVES: Fact or Fiction?

Orange County Public Library Presentation

Sunday, March 25, 2018 at 2 PM

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Tomorrow: The General’s Housekeeper