KEUKA of Putnam County, Florida - Part 4 of 4

KEUKA & Lady IDA of Florida’s Pleasant Valley

PART 4 - The Conclusion to KEUKA of Putnam County, Florida

‘I have lived in several States and different localities in each.” William H. Mann wrote this in 1884, while commenting on MANNVILLE in a marketing brochure for his new start-up town. Four (4) miles east of Ed Rumley’s town of KEUKA, Mann had subdivided 2,000 acres west of Palatka, summarizing the attributes of his place as “the best to enjoy health and life the writer has ever found.”

William H. Mann and Edward Rumley had both relocated to Florida from Illinois, and both founded town on Florida Southern Railroad (FSRR). Mannville is today on Route 20. Rumley’s town of Keuka is now a rural community off Route 20A, an old road that originally followed, and then replaced entirely, the FSRR.

Old Keuka Cemetery Road runs off 20A, and requires little explanation as to what awaits at trails end. Town of Keuka was first laid out in 1883. The earliest documented burial at Keuka Cemetery was Eunice GARLING, January 4, 1886. In 1885 however, sixteen (16) deaths were recorded at Florida’s Pleasant Valley District of Putnam County. Of the causes of these deaths, seven (7) were of Typhoid Fever. The average age of all 1885 deaths was only 19.

Two fever fatalities were Mattie Rumley (age 16), and George Rumley (age 14), of the KEUKA family founders, Edward & Anne Rumley. An even earlier death at Pleasant Valley though was a 25 year old bride. All but forgotten now by historians, the young girl, and her brother, are truly the most likely candidates for the naming of not only Lake Ida near Mannville, but Rumley’s town of Keuka as well.

Ida Amie (Winegar) Harrison (1857-1883)

Hafner Publishing Co - 1970

As reported in Part 2, Edward Rumley was credited by Palatka Daily News of 1884 as the individual who laid out Keuka in 1883. FSRR had begun service in 1881, but a stop at Keuka depot did not appear on its original schedule. Part 1 told of the first owner of the land upon which Keuka was laid out. A railroad employee, Land Agent Charles A. Boardman acquired the property in 1882. But neither Rumley nor Boardman appear to have named the town.

“The significance of the name Keuka is ‘Crooked Lake’.” This curious comment was reported by Palatka Daily News in 1887. Six years earlier, in 1881, one of New York’s celebrated ‘Finger Lakes’ changed its name. Originally known as ‘Crooked Lake’, the lake suddenly became known as Lake Keuka. Mere coincidence? I think not!

Keuka is said to be of Seneca Indian origin, of the Iroquois tribe, having ties not to Florida’s Putnam County, but to New York’s Finger Lakes. Long before the lake changed names, a steamboat named KEUKA was sailing New York’s Crooked Lake, so the two names share a history. It has been said that Keuka means, ‘Canoe Landing’.

Although Ed Rumley, a native of England, had settled at Iroquois County, Illinois, and married Anne, a New York gal, nothing to date connects him to New York’s Finger Lakes. Canadian Charles A. Boardman was born at New Brunswick, and nothing has been found to link him with the Finger Lakes of the Empire State either.

With my search into how Keuka, Florida got its name going nowhere, I decided to look into the one source quoted most often throughout this blog series, the Palatka Daily News. The Library of Congress shows the newspaper was published from 1884 to 1888, and that the paper’s editor during this time was Benjamin Harrison.

A 27 year old single fruit grower in 1880 Putnam County, Florida, the Alabama native, single as well in 1885, had become Palatka’s Postmaster and editor of the Daily News. During this same five year period, Benjamin Harrison had written often about towns along the route of the FSRR heading west from Palatka. His name never appeared in his writings, nor did Benjamin ever write of his tragic, short-lived marriage.

1887 Palatka, Florida Advertisement

Four (4) days shy of celebrating her eight (8) months of marriage to Benjamin Harrison, Ida A. (Winegar) Harrison, age 25, died at Palatka, Florida. They married October 10, 1882. Ida died June 6, 1883.

Ida Amie Winegar followed her older brother, Palatka banker William J. Winegar, south to Florida. He was four years older than Ida, both were born at Union Springs, on Lake Cayuga in Cayuga County, one of New York’s numerous ‘straight’ Finger Lakes.

Only one of New York’s Finger Lakes curved like that of Putnam county Keuka Lake!

KEUKA OF PUTNAM COUNTY FLORIDA TIMELINE

1881: A Private Bank, William J. Winegar & Co., opened at Palatka, Florida, about the same time as the FSRR was laying down track in the direction of Palatka. The first trains begin running in August, but towns Mannville and Keuka were not listed then as station stops.

1882: Gainesville banker Henry F. Dutton, a native of Vermont, bought most all of the acreage bordering modern day Lake Ida, on September 25, 1882. Benjamin & Ida married on the 10^th of October; Mannville Post Office opened November 17^th.

1883: Ida Amie (Winegar) Harrison died June 6, at age 25. Keuka Post Office, on crooked Keuka Lake in Putnam County, opened September 25th.

1884: Palatka Daily News began publishing April 29^th.

1892: Benjamin Harrison became Associate Editor for Jacksonville Daily Standard, and then Editorial Writer for the Jacksonville Times Union in 1899. He continued with Jacksonville newspapers as a contributor until his death, November 5, 1926. The tombstone of Benjamin Harrison says simply; “He was a writer.” Benjamin F. Harrison (1852-1926) clearly was a listener too, for the stories told by his young wife IDA, his one and only spouse, of her New York Finger Lakes homeland, clearly found their way into the extraordinary history of 19^th century Putnam County, Florida.  

CitrusLAND: Curse of Florida’s Paradise

A land I’ve dubbed, CitrusLAND

Farming Citrus and developing Florida’s wilderness were two constants defining 19^th Century CitrusLAND. The first settlers arrived around 1842, and immediately began planting commercial orange groves. But despite promised wealth in a land of health and sunshine, by 1870, few families were calling the 3,000 square miles of Orange County their home. More than a history, CitrusLAND is the story of remarkable people, men and women alike, brave pioneers who took on the challenge of their lives, a challenge that very often cost them their lives. 37 Exhibits and a bibliography citing 700 plus references assists in the telling of a fascinating story – the first days of Central Florida.

AVAILABLE at AMAZON.COM

https://www.amazon.com/CitrusLAND-Floridas-Richard-Lee-Cronin-ebook/dp/B01F7TBZTS/ref=sr_1_5?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1501002894&sr=1-5

Acknowledgements:

Special thanks to the Genealogy of the Winegar Family of Lake Grove on Cayuga Lake, NY – begun by Ira Winegar in 1859 with photos added by Hafner Publishing Co., 1970.

References available upon request: contact RCronin@Croninbooks.com

KEUKA of Putnam County, FL - Part 3

Part 3 – John H. Moore & the Family Companion

“We want the capital removed to KEUKA just as soon as we get fixed up a little.” This August 27, 1884 letter to the Palatka Daily News Editor was likely written in jest, for the author was responding to the paper’s editorial claiming Palatka would make a more convenient State Capital. The letter, signed J. H. Moore, concluded: “Great oaks from little acorns grow. Keuka is the little acorn, and is now growing rapidly.”

Non-existent in 1881, Putnam County’s town of KEUKA, according to Webb’s 1885 publication, was a “town of 250 inhabitants,” adding that a town newspaper, “Family Companion,” enjoyed a circulation of 3,000. That Keuka had its own newspaper was of no surprise, since town founder Edward Rumley had been a publisher of various Illinois newspapers for nearly 30 years prior to moving to Florida. But the Family Companion was not Ed Rumley’s paper!

The Family Companion, J. H. Moore, Publisher

Rowell’s Newspaper Directory of 1884

Florida’s first Brethren Church, according to Sebring Church of the Brethren (2016), was established at Keuka in 1884. The Minister, John H. Moore, was also editor and publisher, said Webb’s of 1885, of the widely circulated ‘Family Companion,’ a long-established paper having its origins, like that of many Keuka citizens, in #Illinois. Publisher J. H. Moore based his national newspaper at Mount Morris, Illinois, prior to relocating his publication to Florida.

A cluster of Putnam County start-up towns, each a stop on the Florida Southern Railway (FSRR), began, during the early 1880s, referring to themselves collectively as ‘Pleasant Valley.’ In reality however, these neighboring cities could have identified the region as ‘Publishing Valley’. Within a few miles of each other were depots Keuka, Interlachen, Lanarks, and MacWilliams, each a want-to-be town during the 1880s, all founded by a journalist.

John H. Moore, one of these journalists, was born April 8, 1846 at Virginia but his family moved to Illinois when he was 4 years old. At age 25 John married Mary S. Bishop (1853-1888) at Champaign, Illinois. Three of their children were born while they resided at Illinois. A fourth child, a daughter Alice, was born in 1884 at Keuka, Putnam County, Florida.

Established in 1876, ‘Brethren at Work Publishing House’ had been founded by John H. Moore at LANARK, Illinois. Six years later, the Moore family moved to Putnam County, Florida, and a LANARK train station popped up along the FSRR railway line between INTERLACHEN and MANNVILLE.

Mary (Bishop) Moore died in 1888, and the Minister remarried a year later, to Phebe Brower (1847–1932). By 1891, John H. Moore and his newspaper had returned to Illinois, but the Minister would again find his way to Florida. In 1916, John H. Moore helped establish the Sebring Church of the Brethren. Phebe died at Sebring in 1932. John died at Sebring December 23, 1935.

Next week, KEUKA, our series concludes: “The significance of the name Keuka is Crooked Lake,” was the lead sentence in May, 1887 from a Palatka Daily News feature story on the town of Keuka, Florida. Compare this opening line to another town’s history, found on the website of the Keuka Lake Association: “In 1885, common usage had changed the name of the lake from “Crooked” to “Keuka.”

BY AUTHOR RICHARD LEE CRONIN

A FLORIDA MYSTERY – TRUE FLORIDA HISTORY!

THE RUTLAND MULE MATTER

Anxiously awaiting his father’s return from the war, a 9 year old Central Florida boy instead becomes witness to a most unusual occurrence; a military officer delivers a mule to his mother. A mule! But what happened to his father?

Fast forward 20 years, and Othman Rutland is still haunted by that childhood memory.  

Determined to learn what really happened to his father, he sets out on a life-altering journey. Traveling to Rutledge in 1885, he visits with a retired General, and begins to collect fragments of a past others preferred to forget. Learning of the Navy’s 1864 landing at Lake Monroe at the end of America’s Civil War, Othman Rutland’s search leads next to Ohio’s State Capital, and later to the sacred chambers of a stunning new Pensions Building at our Nation’s Capital.

http://www.CroninBooks.com/Mule.html

Ultimately, Othman’s search exposes a long buried file folder, a U. S. Provost Marshal’s file, TRUE correspondence dated in the 1860’s. A historical novel, The Rutland Mule Matter reveals a true-life story of an early Central Floridian, a statesman, a man who was eradicated off the pages of Florida history.

Isaac N. Rutland was the true-life Statesman. That man’s son was Othman Rutland.

Real people, real events! Finally knowing why his father disappeared, Othman is now faced with a troubling dilemma - what to do with that disturbing discovery?

KEUKA of Putnam County, Florida - Part 2

Part Two: Ed Rumley & his Illinoisans:

Keuka, Florida (1918) “is a discontinued post office on the A. C. L. Railway, in Putnam County, 19 miles southwest of Palatka.” R. L. Polk’s Florida Gazetteer of 1918 made Keuka sound much like a Ghost Town, contrary to an 1884 description by Palatka Daily News describing the place as a “beautiful county village.” Keuka, in 1884, was a stop “on the Florida Southern Railway”, laid out in 1883, “by Ed Rumley.”

1890 Putnam County, route of Florida Southern Railway

Years before involving himself in the 1883 Florida town, the very same man had been involved in organization another new city, that one far to the north, in Illinois: “With the assistance of Mr. Edward RUMLEY, a young man whom GILMAN will always hold in remembrance, (Mr. Thomas) surveyed the town and began the work of making a city.” This account of Rumley is found in ‘History of Iroquois County, Illinois’, a history penned in 1880 by H. W. Beckwith, citing Ed Rumley as being one of the founders of Gilman, Illinois back in the year 1857.

Palatka Daily News, of April 29, 1884, while writing of the developments at a new town named Keuka, said the town had been, “laid out little more than a year ago by Mr. Ed Rumley, then a new citizen of the county.” Rumley was indeed new Putnam County and Florida, as he and wife Anne had just relocated from Illinois.

One man did not alone make Keuka, but without question, Edward M. Rumley was a major player in establishing a cluster of neighboring communities to the west of 1880s Palatka, railway stops, places including Mannville, Interlachen, Lenarks, and to an extent, Pleasant Valley. Each of these place names had once been a stop on Florida Southern Railway, a train running between Alachua County’s town of Gainesville and the St. Johns River port town of Palatka.

Not every settler to the area were native Illinoisans, but many of those who arrived in the 1880s relocated to Florida from that State. Even the railroad surveyor, Nathan R. Gruelle, a native of Kentucky, had been an Illinois County Sheriff before serving as a Civil Engineer with Florida Southern Railway.

William H. MANN (1827-1905) was also a native of Kentucky, but married at Illinois in 1851. The founder of MANNVILLE, on the route of Florida Southern Railway, he had been a long-time Iroquois County ‘Nurseryman” before becoming a Putnam County ‘Nurseryman’. The town of Gilman was located in Iroquois County, Illinois.

Lenarks, a station one mile east of Mannville, and home to the Baptist Minister of Keuka, shared a connection as well with Lenark, Illinois. Elder J. H. Moore, a Virginia native, brought his national reputation to the Pleasant Valley region west of Palatka. Much like Rumley, J. H. Moore was also an Editor and Publisher, although his story we reserve for ‘Part 3: John H. Moore & the Family Companion.’

The first Keuka general store, Reid & Son, opened in 1883 (See Part 1). Merchant John D. Teeter (1846-1908) opened his store soon after. Teeter, a native of the State of Pennsylvania, relocated as a child to Illinois with his parents. John married Illinoisan Susan Hershey (1855-1904), and after a brief California stint, they came too came to Keuka. (The Teeter’s later moved to Hawthorn, in Alachua County, where John and three of the couple’s grown children taught school. John and Susan were both buried at Hawthorn, Florida in the 1900s). 

1880S Advertisement for KEUKA by Ed Rumley

Perhaps the largest single Rumley sale was 480 acres in 1884 to Mr. Uriah Copp, Jr. (1830-1908). Born at Great Falls, New Hampshire, Attorney Uriah Copp practiced law in 1881 at Loda, Illinois in Iroquois County. Another interesting 1884 sale was a 40 acre parcel that included, ‘the famous Keuka Springs.’ The buyer, said Palatka Daily news, was “a wealthy gentleman, Mr. Gnagy of Illinois.”

No record of a Keuka Springs has thus far been found, but the same year Gnagy of Illinois purchased that parcel, Reid & Son merchants began selling tickets for a stage coach journey between Keuka and Orange Springs.

A Palatka Daily News reporter visited Ed Rumley’s residence and toured the town of Keuka in 1887, writing this of his visit: “I was taken in hand and my eyes made to feast on the beauties of his place, where his (Rumley’s) house stands on the summit of the hill you have a fair view of the lake and surrounding countryside.”

The reporter was in Keuka for a special marketing event, and critiqued the town: “Four years ago the sound of woodman’s ax had wakened the long slumbering echoes where now stands Keuka. Less than twenty miles of speed and luxurious railroad travel, over the popular pioneer road, The Florida Southern - The Orange Belt Route, separates it from its neighbor Palatka. The excursion taxed the capacity of the road to transport the crowd, and town lots went like hot cakes, the wonder is that there were any left. There are now two general stores with a business that keeps up a good average throughout the year, and a neat drug store is kept by Mr. Belden where the few ailing ones can find panaceas for their woes.”

James L. Belden (1840 – 1918), owned Keuka’s ‘neat’ drug store, but Belden also had a store at Gaddes, New York.  The chemist expanded his Keuka location in 1888, to include manufacturing space with his 20’ x 32’ Drug Store, and in his manufacturing addition he prepared a product he called ‘Eve Salve’, sold statewide.

Edward M. Rumley had established several Illinois newspapers prior to relocating to Putnam County as a Land Agent for his new town of Keuka, and he remained active as a reporter in Florida. In 1887, he edited, “Palatka, The Gem City,” a brochure telling of the many merits of, “Putnam County, Home of the Citrus Family.” (Later editions of this brochure appeared in the early 1900s). ‘Florida Agriculturist’, published in 1891, “The Poor Man in Florida, by Mr. Ed Rumley, of Keuka,” an article that also appeared in Rumley’s Journal, ‘Home Seeker’, offering advice about the difficulties poor northerners will find if trying to relocate to Florida.

An Illinois newspaperman for a quarter century, Ed Rumley played a major role after his move to Florida in directing potential residents southbound to Florida as well as Ed Rumley’s town of Keuka. His many years as a Putnam County journalist served to expand the reporter’s national reputation, until that is, The Ocala Evening Star, on 23 February, 1898, brought closure to his stoic career: “Edward Rumley of Keuka, Fla., died suddenly a few days ago. He was a noted correspondent of the Palatka Times-Herald.”

Next Week, Part 3: Elder J. H. Moore & the Family Companion

And then, Two weeks from now: KEUKA or CROOKED LAKE?

“The significance of the name Keuka is Crooked Lake.” This was a lead sentence in May, 1887 for a Palatka Daily News feature story on Keuka, Florida. Comparing this opening line, used to describe an 1883 Florida city, to another town’s history far to the north, found on the website of the Keuka Lake Association, adds even more intrigue to our Florida story.

Crooked Lake Mercantile logo design at Keuka lake, NY

“In 1885, common usage had changed the name of the lake from “Crooked” to “Keuka.”

This Keuka Lake Association will not be found in Illinois though, as Keuka Lake is one of New York’s famous ‘Finger Lakes.”

VISIT MY WEBSITE, www.CroninBooks.com for Florida History

KEUKA of Putnam County, Florida - Part 1

Part One: Like Fathers, Like Sons

A skinny two-lane road meanders through a heavily forested region of Florida today where once a series of hopeful new towns suddenly appeared during the 1880s. For one to fully appreciate the ‘why here’ though, one must take into account that the skinny road was once a right-of-way for the Florida Southern Railroad.

Florida Southern Railroad terminal at Palatka, Florida.

Provided east-west train service to Hawthorne & beyond.

Photo: Palatka: ‘The Gem City’, 1887, by Edward Rumley

Photo source: George Smathers Libraries, UF Gainseville

Florida’s western Putnam County town of KEUKA was originally “laid out” in 1883 by Edward Rumley. A native of England, Rumley had long been Editor of an Illinois newspaper prior to relocating to a remote, “unbroken pine forest in Florida.” Arriving in Florida, like many other newcomers of that time, Ed Rumley tried his luck at growing oranges as well as land development.

I’ll get to the fellow Rumley and his Illinois clan soon, but feel I should begin my series by telling of three other individuals responsible for encouraging Rumley to start a town of Keuka in an out-of-the-way Putnam county location. Each of these three were sons who followed, to some degree, in their footsteps.

First is Charles Augustus BOARDMAN. He acquired 1,120 acres in the “unbroken pine forest” along the “Road from Alachua County to Picolata.” Purchased in 1882, his land was located 20 miles west of the St. Johns River port town of Palatka. A native of New Brunswick, Canada, Charles, 37 years old at the time, was an Alachua County resident making plans to greatly expand a personal Florida financial empire.

The name BOARDMAN was actually a perfect fit for a father and son Canadian team dealing in lumber. George A. Boardman, the father, had begun the business in 1828, having relocated from Massachusetts. His son Charles, born at Milltown, across the St. Croix River from Calais, Maine, was Canadian born because of his father’s prosperous New Brunswick lumber business.

Charles Boardman, by 1880 a graduate of Bowdoin College, found his way 1,500 miles south, and was Land Commissioner for the Florida Southern Railroad. As a partner in the railroad venture, Boardman began accumulating land, lots and lots of land, all of which was acreage located along the train’s intended route east to Palatka.

Most land he acquired in the name of the railroad, but the 1,120 acres in west Putnam County was purchased in his name alone. Heavily forested land, this ‘board-man’ from Canada was looking out for himself as well as his expanding railroad.

SEE ALSO: Florida’s Forgotten Founders Blog: Charles A. Boardman

http://rightingfloridahistory.blogspot.com/2017/06/charles-augustus-boardman-1844-1903.html

Land Commissioner advertisement 1884: C. A. Boardman

Palatka had become an important transportation hub during the 1880s. Its location on the St. Johns River had made it a key port city for steamboat traffic running between Jacksonville and Lake Monroe. As track was laid down, the north-south Jacksonville, Tampa & Key West Railroad travelled through Palatka, as CSX Railroad does so today. A second railway terminal served Florida Southern Railroad (sketch above), making the city of Palatka a major transportation hub in Florida. (The sketch of the Florida Southern Railroad terminal appeared in an 1887 marketing pamphlet prepared for the ‘Palatka, the Gem City’ by Edward Rumley, Editor).

Our second son was Hamilton Disston. He bought four (4) million Florida acres in 1881. His historic land purchase became the catalyst for most schemers and dreamers who then found their way to the wildernesses of Florida during a 1880s land boom.

Many think first of Osceola County when hearing the Disston name, but the man’s massive landholdings reached far beyond central Florida. Both Tarpon Springs and Pine Island in Charlotte Harbor were also part of the Disston lands. Today a quality tool brand, a company founded as a manufacturer of quality saw blades, DISSTON was already a huge success by 1880. Henry Disston, the father, began his firm in 1840. Eldest son Hamilton assumed control of the business after Henry’s death in 1878.

But in 1880, State of Florida had entered its tenth year of a court injunction prohibiting use of public lands to encourage the building of railroads. The State’s pre-Civil War debt had included huge amounts owed to Francis Vose, a New York Capitalist. Vose funded Florida’s first railroad, the Sea-to-Sea Railroad running from Fernandina to Cedar Key. Built in the 1850s, some of its debt was still outstanding as of 1880. So, until he could be repaid, Vose got a court order preventing new railroads from being built, an action that in turn had stymied development in the State following the Civil War.

Hamilton Disston came to Florida’s rescue, buying 4 million acres for $1 million dollars. The State became debt free, resolving the court injunction and releasing public lands that could finally be used to entice the building new railroads. Florida witnessed, as a result, an onslaught of dreamers and schemers.

Charles A. Boardman and Hamilton Disston were both born in 1844. Each began taking notice of Florida in 1880, just as South Florida Railroad arrived for the first time, (built using private funds with no reward of public lands), in the tiny four (4) acre village of Orlando.

That same year, 1880, long-time Palatka merchant and visionary, Robert R. Reid, still a resident of Palatka, recorded the first ever town plat of a twenty-three (23) year old county seat of government known as the village of Orlando.

Joseph F. REID, our third son by a third father, turned 21 in the year 1880. Robert R. Reid, the father, had settled at Palatka in 1851, and platted at that time the town of Palatka. The father however soon went bankrupt because of a lack of buyers, but Reid’s mercantile business thrived. The dockside Teasdale & Reid store supplied river traffic for those traveling between Jacksonville and Lake Monroe.

Palatka Daily News Advertisement of 1884

Keuka Family Store & Disston 4 million acre Purchase

After the Civil War, Robert R. Reid purchased, at auction, the town of Orlando, paying the County Sheriff $900 for 120 acres surrounding a tiny log courthouse. Reid held on to his mostly vacant Orange County land until that first train finally arrived at Orlando in 1880. The train increased land value, as new arrivals no longer had to trek down a long lonely 22 mile dirt path from the pier at Lake Monroe. Settlers could instead hop aboard a train and travel in style to their Orange County inland homestead.

Like that of his father, Joseph F. Reid was interested in developing a new town down a long lonely dirt road from a pier at Palatka. Of course, Joseph’s 19 mile trek inland, where the planned town site of KEUKA was to be established, was also about to get a new railroad too. The train had begun meandering through an unbroken pine forests, connecting Hawthorne and Gainesville in Alachua County, with Putnam County, Palatka, and that busy port on the St. Johns River.

The Florida Southern Railroad followed an old trail, taking public lands no longer held hostage thanks to Hamilton Disston, trekking upon land acquired by the train’s Land Commissioner, Charles A. Boardman.

Reid & Son branched out, opening a KEUKA mercantile store that soon boasted of having weekly sales averaging $1,000 (See Reid & Son Ad above). A KEUKA Post Office opened September 25, 1883, its first Postmaster being the town’s merchant, Joseph F. Reid. The actual town site of KEUKA itself however was the creation of an Illinois newspaper Editor, a native of England, Ed Rumley.

His story, and the founding of KEUKA of Putnam County, are the subjects of Part 2.

Wednesday, July 12, 2017: Part Two

Ed Rumley & friends

RIGHTING HISTORY one factual step at a time

VISIT my website for details:

http://www.CroninBooks.com/RIGHTING-HISTORY.html

DISTON, DISSTON, DREXEL of PASCO County, THE CONCLUSION

PART FOUR: Our search for a Pasco County Ghost Town

Tracing movements of James J. HEAD has been key in our search for the long lost PASCO County Ghost Town named DREXEL. Beginning at HEADLAND, Alabama, founded by James in 1871, to the remote Gulf Coast resort at TARPON SPRINGS, founded by Hamilton DISSTON, previous installments of this series has led us to the 1883 DISTON Post Office in Hillsborough County. Established on lands owned by Hamilton DISSTON, one can only speculate that one ‘S’ was accidental. James Head then moved, establishing an 1888 DISTON Post Office in Pasco County.

THE TARPON SPRINGS HOTEL, Library of Congress

Philadelphia Capitalist Hamilton Disston acquired four million Florida wilderness acres in 1881, remote lands desperately in need of reliable transportation. By 1883 though, his Gulf Coast properties, including a resort at Tarpon Springs, was still only accessible via steamboat. The planned railroad to Tampa Bay from Savannah, GA, intending to travel alongside Lake Magdalene in northern Hillsborough County, fizzled out, leaving Head’s short lived DISTON Post Office in that County isolated.

But then a different railroad builder started in the direction of the Gulf Coast in 1886. On January 12, 1888, the Orange Belt Railway first arrived at Tarpon Springs, a big day for Florida’s Gulf Coast. Long awaited rail service finally started servicing this remote coastal region, providing access to the growing tourist industry up north. Eight days after that first train arrived at Tarpon Springs, DISTON Post Office, on January 20, 1888, relocated into Pasco County. DISTON became a stop on the Tarpon Route, the moniker assigned to the Lake Monroe to St. Petersburg line of the Orange Belt Railway.

Postal records though show DISTON became DREXEL nine months later, on September 15, 1888, and that James J. HEAD remained on as the Postmaster.

Russian immigrant Peter A. Demens founded Orange Belt Railway in 1886 with $25,000 of his own money, but needed additional financing to complete the line to the Gulf of Mexico. The additional funds were arranged by a Philadelphia banker, a Senior Partner in DREXEL Bank, Edward T. Stotesbury (At that time Drexel Bank was a subsidiary of J. P. Morgan of New York).

Edward T. Stotesbury

Drexel encouraged Herman O. Armour, of the meat packing Armour & Co. fame, to provide funding for the railroad extension. Edward T. Stotesbury served on the board of railway, and twice served as President. As Orange Belt Railway progressed in the direction St. Petersburg, Armour appeared only briefly as a railway stop, located south of Clearwater and north of Largo in then Hillsborough County (now Pinellas).

Like that of the Armour depot, the community of Drexel eventually fizzled out too. Today, long after trains stopped running that once served this region, present day Land O’ Lakes Boulevard, a/k/a US Highway 41, crosses an abandoned railroad right-of-way east of Lake Thomas. In fact, if it were not for Pasco County’s Tax Appraiser, and reference to a once-upon-a-time place called Drexel (Plat Book 3, Page 157), one might never realize the Orange Belt Railway crossed here, carrying 19^th century tourists to and fro the popular tourist destinations of Tarpon Springs and St. Petersburg.

Drexel reference (upper left) at Railroad Right of Way (double red line)

Land O' Lakes Boulevard - US Highway 41, Pasco County

DISTON of Hillsborough and Pasco Counties were meant to honor the man who had bailed Florida out of debt in 1881, the man who then paved the way for the building of badly needed railroads. DREXEL of Pasco County honored the bank that provided the additional funding required in 1888 to extend rail service to the Gulf Coast.

Hamilton Disston, Edward T. Stotesbury and Drexel Bank were merely a few of many who altered Florida’s Gulf Coast history, yet memorials meant to remember each have long since vanished. A Drexel Road wanders around the west side of Lake Thomas today, while on the east side, south of the old abandoned railroad crossing, Land O’ Lakes Boulevard intersects with northeast bound Ehren Cutoff Road.

I mention this crossroad because it seems appropriate to end my series with the very individual we’ve tracked from 1871 Headland, Alabama. North a few miles on Ehren Cutoff takes you to the one-time location of Ehren Post Office, of Pasco County, a postal center was established January 17, 1890. The first postmaster at Ehren is also a familiar character in this series, the one and only, James J. Head.

My blog will return in mid-July with the history, mystery and intrigue of yet another fascinating Florida Ghost Town.

For more on the Orange Belt Railway visit my website:

http://www.CroninBooks.com/OBRR.html

References available upon request to Rick@CroninBooks.com

DISTON, DISSTON, DREXEL of PASCO County, FL Part 3

Headland, Alabama is north of Dothan and home to nearly 5,000 residents. The town was founded in 1871 by James J. Head. The founder however relocated in 1883, settling north of Tampa in Florida’s Hillsborough County. On May 28, 1883, James J. Head was appointed Postmaster of a newly established DISTON Post Office, located on land owned at the time by a Philadelphian Capitalist and saw blade manufacturer, Hamilton DISSTON. Head is said to have named the county’s Lake Magdalene.

(Note the Pasco County map of 1888 above. DISTON, circled in orange, is shown in Hillsborough County, while circled in blue is a town called 'Seminole', which then became DISTON of Pasco County.) 

As mentioned in Part two of this series, Savannah, Florida & Western Railroad was hoping to extend rail service from Ocala south to Tampa Bay. The railroad, among others making plans for service on the Gulf Coast, would improve travel for those desiring to buy Disston properties in west central Florida, including his coastal town of Tarpon Springs.

What all DISSTON planned for Hillsborough County is unclear, but whatever his plan for the lakeside town of DISTON quickly vanished! James J. Head relocated again, and on January 20, 1888, he was again appointed a postmaster, this time for a Pasco County Post Office – a post office also named DISTON.

A likely explanation would be a shift of county lines, but that was not so in the case of Pasco County’s DISTON. Still misspelled, this new post office had definitely moved, a distance of nearly 10 miles. DISTON of 1888 Pasco County was also located on a lake, the north side of Thomas Lake – as opposed to the 1883 location at Lake Magdalene.

Why the move? The intended line of Savannah, Florida & Western Railroad, that proposed train to connect with Tampa, never happened! A train from Ocala eventually arrived at Tampa, but its alignment bypassed DISTON to the east.

Moving DISTON to Pasco County made perfect sense – as this stop would be on the new Orange Belt Railway line, a train providing connecting service from Sanford on Lake 

Monroe to DISSTON’S Gulf Coast development at Tarpon Springs.

The Mary Disston steamboat docked at Tarpon Springs, Florida

Wednesday, June 21, 2017, Part Four of DISTON, DISSTON, DREXEL, Our search for a PASCO County Ghost Town, will pick up right here, at Doctor James J. Head’s new residence and Post office, not in Hillsborough County, but rather Pasco County, Florida.  

DISTON, DISSTON, DREXEL of PASCO County, FL Part 2

In search of a PASCO County Ghost Town - Part 2

Florida’s first railroad began service before the Civil War. Called the Sea-to-Sea Railway, the train ran from the Atlantic Coast to Cedar Key on the Gulf of Mexico. As late as the 1880s though, Coastal areas south of Cedar Key, including Tampa Bay, were not easily accessible. Transportation was critical to further development, and nobody knew that better than Hamilton DISSTON, the Capitalist from Philadelphia who had bailed Florida out of debt. Owner of 4 million acres of central Florida land stretching from the Atlantic to the Gulf of Mexico, he needed railroads if his investment was to pay off.

Various plans for railway routes were in the works by 1883, but until ideas transformed into real train service, developers decided to use the old 155 mile train that ran between Jacksonville and Cedar Key. At Cedar Key, passengers and freight then transferred onto a steamship to continue a journey south to the new coastal towns of Port Richey, Tarpon Springs (Part 1) and beyond.

In 1884, steamers ‘Governor SAFFORD’ and ‘California’ began “Plying between Cedar Keys and DISSTON on the West Coast of Florida,” delivering settlers and supplies, then returning north with fresh oranges for markets up north. Railroad builders meanwhile were racing to lay down track in the direction of Tampa Bay on the west coast.

Peninsular Railroad sought approval to extend their existing ‘Waldo to Ocala’ route even further south to Tampa. South Florida Rail Road had extended rail service to Kissimmee, but the Gulf Coast region of the State still eagerly awaiting their planned service to Tampa. A third railroad, Savannah, Florida & Western Railway, planned to lay down track along the western coast. An 1884 brochure, bragging of ‘Florida and the famous Tarpon Springs, the new Health Resort,’ was a DISSTON sales brochure showing all three proposed routes.

The Tarpon Springs Hotel, Source, Library of Congress

Both Peninsular Railroad and Savannah, Florida & Western Railway, as shown in the DISSTON sales brochure, were to cross land in Hillsborough owned by Hamilton Disston. One was to pass alongside present day Lake Magadelene, by the brochure failed to say when that particular service might be available.

Routes of Railroads heading toward 1883 Tampa 

Meanwhile, in far off Headland, Alabama, a historical marker today provides a clue as to what happened next down in Florida’s Hillsborough County. “Headland, founded in 1871 as ‘Head’s Land’ by James Joshua HEAD (1839-1927). He platted the town and built his home.” The plague goes on to explain, “J. J. HEAD moved to Tampa, Florida in 1883, and established Lake Magdalene.”

An Alabama town founder moved to Florida, where on May 28, 1883, he was appointed Postmaster for the DISTON Post Office. A Hillsborough County map of 1888 shows DISTON, spelled incorrectly in both postal archives and on that map, as being located in Section 2 of Township 27 South; 19 East. The entire 640 acre Section 2, where the DISTON Post Office was shown to exist, had been deeded 18 months earlier, October 6, 

1881, to Mr. Hamilton Disston of Philadelphia.

Friday, June 9, 2017, Part Three of DISTON, DISSTON, DREXEL, Our search for a PASCO County Ghost Town, picks back up right here, at Doctor James J. Head’s residence and Post office in Hillsborough County, Florida.