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