KEYSVILLE a/k/a LITHIA:
“A prosperous town of 500 inhabitants,” was how Webb’s Historical
publication of 1885 described KEYSVILLE, “situated 12 miles distant (south) from
PLANT CITY and South Florida Railway. Fare by stage (coach) is $2, and the time
via rail and steamer from Jacksonville, 24 hours. The village contains two churches,
a good common school, and numerous orange groves.” A secluded rural area today,
a one-time town center, if there had been one, has long since vanished.
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| Keysville and Purvis intersection, Hillsborough County |
Land identified once as KEYSVILLE now seems to share acreage
with another equally mysterious place called LITHIA. Maps today do not seem to
know where Lithia begins or Keysville ends. Keysville first appears on an 1880
map, shown as being northeast of where Lithia first appeared in 1907. Today
though, Beulah Baptist Church, situated in Polk County, has a Lithia mailing
address, and is east as opposed to south of Keysville?
Located in Hillsborough County, the original KEYSVILLE Post
Office was established February 4, 1878. The Postmaster was Daniel McQueen BLUE,
a Dry Goods Merchant from McIntosh County, Georgia. BLUE was not first to
settle in these parts though.
Surrounded by phosphate fields today, KEYSVILLE had begun as
part of Florida’s Citrus Belt. In 1882, South Florida Railroad laid down track
from Orlando to Tampa, staying well north of an already established Keysville,
which first appears on an 1880 map of Hillsborough County. The town’s earliest
settlers however may have welcomed their seclusion.
Civil War Confederate Veterans, the area’s first settlers
migrated here and planted citrus trees soon after War’s end. Among these
settlers were Stephen J. LIGHTSEY, born 1838 in Georgia; Joseph L KEENE, born 1833
in Florida; John W. TANNER, born 1838 in Alabama; and two other well
established families relocating from Orange County, FL.
John L. STEWART and Jeptha PURVIS were both Orange County
residents prior to the War. John L. Stewart died in 1885, and is said to be the
first internment in the Beulah Baptist Cemetery. Located in Polk County, access
to the church and cemetery is via only one road, crossing the 160 acre William
PURVIS homestead in Hillsborough, County.
John Levi & Lenora (BRYAN) STEWART of Orange County
pre-dated ORLANDO, the county seat. They settled at APOPKA around 1851, and
Masonic Lodge #36, established on land donated by Stewart, competed with
Orlando in 1856 for the coveted title of county seat. Both John and Lenora are
buried at Lithia’s Beulah Baptist Cemetery.
Jeptha & Cassandra PURVIS first homesteaded at Orlando
also. By 1870 though, Purvis and Stewart, grieving for sons and son-in-law’s
killed during the War, relocated further south, to Hillsborough. Joining other
southern veterans of the War, Keysville came on the scene in a secluded corner
of Hillsborough far from the hustle and bustle of a State struggling to recover
from the War.
In 1878, a Post Office was established at Keysville, and by
1885, this remote community was being serviced by a stagecoach out of Tampa.
The charge, $2.
LITHIA, the present mailing address for Beulah Baptist Church
and cemetery, across the county line in Polk, came on the scene in 1904. Originally
known as PELOT Post Office, Gardner F. ELLIOTT served as the first Postmaster
for the newly named mail station, serving from June 18, 1904 until that
November, when Reverend Charles E. Kingsley became Postmaster.
At the turn of the 20th century Lithia Mineral
Water, from various sources around the country, was being marketed as having
health benefits. Lithia Springs, GA was among the first location selling the
water. Newspapers nationwide advertised 5 gallons of the healthful water at
$1.50. Lithia Springs, FL is today located west of Keysville about 10 miles,
near the original site PELOT, the site of LITHIA in 1904.
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| 1891 Hillsborough Florida map |
FLORIDA GHOST TOWNS is sponsored by CitrusLAND: Ghost Towns
& Phantom Trains, by Richard Lee Cronin, and other Florida History books by
this author, each available for review at www.croninbooks.com
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| Ride aboard the Orange Belt Railroad in early Spring, 1895 |
