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