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
No comments:
Post a Comment