CASSADAGA of Volusia County

Unraveling the Mysterious Origin of CASSADAGA

The usual account as to how Volusia County’s Spiritualist camp got its start is that it was founded in 1894 by George P. Colby. This is true, but the rest of an intriguing story as to how CASSADAGA, a unique sort of CitrusLAND Ghost Town, came to be wouldn’t be complete without mention as well of a fellow named Luther Colby, the legendary Amelia Colby Luther, and a lake in western New York named Lake CASSADAGA.

 “What I saw at CASSADAGA Lake, 1888,” was authored by a Pennsylvania Attorney, writing of experiences not at Florida’s CASSADAGA Spiritualist Camp on Volusia County’s Colby Lake, rather at CASSADAGA Spiritualist camp of New York.

Two CASSADAGA camps, one in Florida and the other in New York, share a history of Spiritualism dating to the 19^th century. Both camps share as well a family’s history, that of the #Colby family.

CASSADAGA Lake Free Association of New York was established August 26, 1879. Minutes of the organization reflect that a Mrs. Amelia H. Colby was asked to name the association, and so she selected the name CASSADAGA. The State charter says the association was founded for “literary and scientific purposes and mutual improvement in religious knowledge.”

Located beside New York’s Lake CASSADAGA, southwest of Buffalo, in Chautauqua County, the camp was six miles east of LAONA, home to a forerunner organization that led to the CASSADAGA movement. History records a ‘Trace Medium’ was a resident of LAONA, NY as early as 1853.

Holland, NY is northwest of CASSADAGA and the birthplace, in 1829, of Amelia Hunt. At Age 20 at Holland, Amelia married Hylon COLBY. Two years later the couple moved west, and by 1870, Amelia H. Colby was living in Indiana, a mother of three teenagers and already promoting herself as a Spiritualist Lecturer.

The Omaha Daily Bee reported on March 2, 1875 that Amelia’s appearance at Meyer’s Hall was so crowded she agreed to deliver four additional lectures. Mrs. Amelia Colby was also a guest speaker at the 1880 Freethinkers of the United States convention. Held at Hornellsville, NY, the 1880 gathering was covered by “Banner of Light,” a prominent Spiritualism publication of which Luther Colby of Massachusetts had served as Editor since the paper’s founding in 1857.

Interest in Spiritualism was spreading throughout the north in the 1880s, and new meeting camps were popping up in nearly every state. Amelia continued traveling the countryside lecturing, but she also remarried in 1887. Her second husband was James H. Luther of Crown Point, Indiana. Now Mrs. Amelia H. Colby Luther, she and her husband became members, in 1888, of the Indiana Association of Spiritualists, and both were instrumental in the founding of Camp Chesterfield.

Meanwhile, the essay by that Pennsylvania lawyer, “What I saw at CASSADAGA, 1888,” was published in 1889 by Colby & Rich Book Publishers of Boston, MA. The Colby of this publishing company was the same Luther Colby that was Editor of the Banner of Light newspaper.

And so by 1890, CASSADAGA of New York had come into its own as a Spiritualist camp, due in large part by both Mrs. Amelia Colby Luther of Indiana and Luther Colby of Massachusetts. Another traveling Spiritualist however had visited Florida prior by 1890. Palatka Daily News of January 4, 1888 reported: “George P. Colby to Lecture on Spiritualism at Fry’s Opera House.”

George P. Colby was also invited to address the New York CASSADAGA assembly of 1894, speaking there two years after Susan B. Anthony and Clara B. Colby, two prominent woman suffragists of that time, had addressed the 1892 gathering.

Four Colby’s had been involved with CASSADAGA of New York by 1894, the same year George P. Colby sliced off a corner of his 150 Volusia County acres for a ‘Spiritualist Meeting-Camp.’

Touring central Florida in 1895, Amos Root, author of ‘Gleanings in Bee Culture’, told of attending a ‘Lake Helen camp-meeting’ at Volusia County. Root expressed skepticism after visiting the camp, remarks in sharp contrast to the Pennsylvania Attorney, Anson R. RICHMOND who had argued in his “What I saw at CASSADAGA Lake, 1888” essay trying to disprove allegations the New York camp was a fraud.

ROOT and RICHMOND of course epitomize the widely conflicting views by the public, both then and now, on what occurs at Spiritualist camps. Leaving from DeLand, FL in 1895, then the closest railroad station to the Volusia County Spiritualist camp, Amos ROOT described his experience; writing that he had employed “a livery man to take me the five or six miles. The driver and I naturally discussed this camp-meeting, as he had attended one or two. Once a week they held a “séance,” if that is the right name for it, where the spirits not only wrote on slates, played on instruments, operated telegraphic machines, etc., but the faces of the dead appeared to the audience, and the departed ones conversed with their friends, shook hands, etc. The admission fee was $1.00.”

“The speaker’s stand was spanned by a beautiful arch on which was the text, ‘Peace on earth, good will toward men.’ The hymns that were sung were such as we generally use in our places of worship. The music was most beautiful. A bright young daughter of my friend played the violin, and another bee-keeper’s daughter played the guitar.”

Root was not himself convinced by the visit, yet told of one woman who said; “she saw the face of her mother, who died years ago, as plainly as she saw my face, and talked with her.” Amos said he could not “understand how the things were done, and that he never “weighed individuals and studied faces as he did then.”

CASSADAGA of Volusia County today sits along the western shore of Lake Colby, a short distance from Giddings Lake, named for Theodore D. Giddings, an 1880s homesteader who came south from Wisconsin with George P. Colby. Both mediums, both had relocated to CitrusLAND, America’s 19^th century Paradise.

Luther Colby died October 7, 1894 at Boston. Mrs. Amelia H. Colby Luther died December 26, 1897, or so the administrator of her estate swore to upon oath. Despite a grave marker verifying court records, Eli Wilmot Sprague described a July 29, 1904 camp meeting at Chesterfield, Indiana: “Mrs. Amelia Colby-Luther occupied the platform in the morning giving one of her masterly discourses.” Two days later, the following was stated; “Sister Luther, I am happy to clasp hands with you from across the borderland.”

As for CASSADAGA of Volusia County, George P. Colby remained active until his death in 1933.

References furnished upon request to Rick@CroninBooks.com

A Goodreads #MysteryWeek Special Edition of Rick’s Blog

A Ghost Town needn’t be a place of paranormal activity. It can also be a mysterious once-upon-a-time town long since vanished. Central Florida of the 19^th century had many such locations, a vague recollection identifying a once planned town that failed to survive. Instead, today a place name merely hints at that one-time location. Lakeville Road in West Orange County is one prime example, for other than the street’s name, there is no indication today that the once planned town of Lakeville existed.

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CRESTON of West ORANGE COUNTY, Florida

A 240 acre Town Plat of CRESTON was recorded with Orange County’s Clerk of Court on the 1^st day of April, 1887. Now a Ghost Town, Creston of the 19^th Century was intended to be a key railroad hub. Situated on the east side of Johns Lake, bordering also the north shore of Black Lake, the new city’s intended role was to play a role in opening up West Orange County for development, a plan evidenced by an abundance of historical documents including the town’s name itself.

1890 Town of CRESTON, Florida, at center of map above

Central Florida’s legendary James G. SPEER filed his plat of Oakland after Creston had been filed. Oakland was recorded July 12, 1887, 103 days after Creston, making Creston the earliest planned official town of West Orange County. Plats indicate Oakland as being larger, but each town shared one attention-grabbing feature – a railroad. Two different railroads at that!

The primary distinction between Speer’s Oakland and Town of Creston was that Oakland had an operating train. Orange Belt Railway had begun service from Sanford on Lake Monroe south to Speer’s Oakland in late fall 1886. The planned railroad for Creston however never happened.

Still, despite Creston planners failing to establish a successful town, their 1887 plat tells wonders about one long-forgotten Chapter in West Orange County’s intriguing history. Dates truly matter when tracking history. Consider Creston, founded in 1887. The town plat shows an intriguing alignment for a planned railroad, and even names the railroad. The letters TA&GRR (see circled letters on Plat). The abbreviated letters are for ‘Tavares, Apopka & Gulf Railroad,’ but that train, at that place and at that time, challenges that was known about this region’s history.

To appreciate the significance, we must first differentiate between TO&A, TA&G and T&G. All three call letters identify trains. The ‘Tavares, Orlando & Atlantic Railroad (TO&A)’, operated between Tavares and Orlando, but north of Lake Apopka; Tavares, Apopka & Gulf Railroad (TA&GRR), operated along the west side of Lake Apopka, from Tavares south to Montverde, where it was intended to veer westward to Clermont, and ultimately continue west to the Gulf of Mexico. After going into foreclosure in 1890, the TA&GRR reemerged a year later as Tavares & Gulf Railroad (T&G). The revived T&G did enter Orange County, but didn’t reach Oakland until 1891, Winter Garden in 1899, and finally Ocoee by 1914.

1887 Plat of Town of CRESTON, Orange County, Florida

The 1887 plat of Creston however shows the original TA& GRR as planning a stop southeast of Oakland four years before the revived T&G railway finally arrived at Oakland. Why does this matter? The Creston Plat establishes that planners had switched directions for the TA&GRR long before the railway filed for foreclosure in 1890.

Prior to 1880, Central Florida growth had been lethargic. Transportation, or the lack thereof, was the principal reason for lackluster growth throughout the region. A decade earlier, creditors had obtained an injunction preventing the State from issuing public lands to entice building railroads. Typically, land was the reward to investors willing to foot the bill to lay down track. But Florida’s Post-Civil War debt had yet to be paid off, and the court injunction because of that unpaid debt hindered would-be railroad builders. Enter Henry Disston, the man who saved the day!

Disston changed everything in 1881 by depositing with the State his first installment on a pledge to acquire 4,000,000 acres of public land, money used to eliminate Florida’s debt. Much of the acreage was in South Orange County, land that became Osceola County May 12, 1887. More than paying off debt though, Disston had big plans for Osceola County, and he needed railroads to deliver customers interested in buying his lands.

Florida Midland Railway originally intended to operate between Lake Jesup and Leesburg, but the east-west railroad abruptly turned south, passing through Ocoee and Gotha on its way to Disston’s new town of Kissimmee. South Florida Railroad had already extended its service from Orlando to Kissimmee in 1882.

In West Orange County, Orange Belt Railway was well ahead of TA&GRR in laying down track toward the Gulf of Mexico. Palatka Daily News, May 28, 1887, wrote: “The Orange Belt Railroad is displaying wonderful activity. 1,800 men are at work along the line between Oakland and Pinellas.” Orange Belt Railway squeezed out the Tavares competition at Clermont, requiring an immediate change in direction of the TA&GRR if it hoped to survive.

Tavares founders believed their city provided a better alternative to the combination steamboat and train through Sanford. Planned as a hub for multiple land based railroads, Tavares offered a direct land route to Jacksonville. The TA&GRR had arrived at the doorstep of Orange County when it found it could not continue westward, so a change of direction was needed. Now enter the New Hampshire Attorney, Harry BINGHAM.

Bingham bought 1,756 acres south of present day Winter Garden, with the first acquisition occurring October 30, 1882. In rapid succession, other investors began buying land surrounding Bingham’s property: Anthony H. SEIPT, President of Perkiomon Railroad of Pennsylvania, purchased 5,336 acres, and Charles H. Morse of Winter Park, acting as Trustee for himself and partners Franklin Fairbanks and Francis B. Knowles, bought up 9,901 acres.

By mid-1883, an enormous swath of West Orange County, 17,000 acres in all, belonged to five (5) Northerners. Oakland and Winter Garden did not yet exist as towns. Another land sale the same year, finalized October 5, 1883, conveyed 120 acres to an individual identified only as F. A. RUSH.

Fannie A. RUSH, wife of Dr. Warren B. RUSH, had acquired the first of several parcels, land that would exceed 500 acres by 1884. Warren & Fannie RUSH then sold 40 acres March 25, 1886 to Margaret A. BLACK of Scotland, a parcel that was adjacent to 40 acres acquired by George BLACK, land that today would be adjacent to Black Lake.

Five (5) months after recording their plat, Dr. Warren & Fannie RUSH closed on the first town lot sale. The date was August 27, 1887, and B. N. ZERKLE was the buyer of “Lots 90 & 94 in Block B of Town of Creston.”

Dr. RUSH and wife Fannie came to Orange County from Sidney, Iowa, arriving around the same time as their 1883 land acquisitions. Residents of Sidney in 1880, their life on the prairielands had changed abruptly.

Outlaws Wells & Norris robbed nearby Davis & Sexton Bank in Riverton in 1881, using horses stolen from Sidney. After capture, both bandits were returned to Sidney. Though the desperados had been caught, the RUSH family residence was amid the turmoil of the wild, wild-west. And so Dr. Warren & Fannie (ASHER) RUSH moved to Central Florida, and along with them came John A. ASHER.

The RUSH clan likely departed Iowa aboard the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, and no doubt had a layover at a town established by the CB&Q – a site selected for a hub by the railroad because of its location - a “division point, on a crest of land between the basins of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. By the 180os”’, says Amtrak Station Facts, “the town of CRESTON, Iowa had become a major rail hub.”

Acreage selected by Warren B. & Fannie A. RUSH, and the adjacent parcels acquired by John A. ASHER, were strategically located as well, midway between TAVARES and KISSIMMEE City, the perfect location for CRESTON, Florida.

1890 Lake County Map showing TA&GRR in Orange County

An 1890 Lake County map shows the (TA&GRR) as entering Orange County west of Oakland, (even though this line was not built), and then veering south along the west side of Butler Chain of Lakes, terminating at Kissimmee City. Had Creston materialized, West Orange County would have developed very differently, but like many a 19^th century CitrusLAND planned town, it is today a Ghost Town.

Research for the Town of Creston was donated in 2015 by this author to:

WINTER GARDEN HERITAGE FOUNDATION

Visit www.CroninBooks.com and peruse: The Rutland Mule Matter; CitrusLAND; Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains; First Road to Orlando; CitrusLAND: Curse of Florida’s Paradise; and CitrusLAND: Altamonte Springs of Florida. Books are available at WINTER GARDEN HERITAGE FOUNDATION, Bookmarkit stores in Orlando; Amazon.com and directly from the Author by emailing: Rick@CroninBooks.com