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. 

DISTON, DISSTON, DREXEL of PASCO County, FL - Part 1

PART ONE: In search of a PASCO County Ghost Town. 

DISTON started out as a Post Office in 1883, but was located in Hillsborough County. By 1888, this Post Office had relocated to Pasco County, but the County line in this region had not changed. Then, within only a few months, the name DISTON changed to DREXEL on September 15, 1888. At that time the post office was a stop on the Orange Belt Railway, a train running between Sanford and St. Petersburg. So, what’s the story of Diston, said by early researchers to have been misspelled - meant to be DISSTON, and why the change to Drexel?

To fully appreciate this fascinating story we must begin with a Hernando County farmer named Aaron M. RICHEY. Homesteading in the early 1880s, Aaron RICHEY farmed 80 acres alongside land belonging to the ex-Governor of Arizona, Anson P. K. SAFFORD. 

In late 1884, RICHEY & SAFFORD laid out a new Gulf Coast town they named Port RICHEY. That November year, the Steamboat ‘Governor SAFFORD’, owned by Florida Railway & Navigation Company, made its inaugural run hauling freight and passengers between Port RICHEY and Cedar Key.

Steamer 'Governor Safford' began service November, 1884

In addition to operating a schooner, Aaron RITCHEY planted orange trees, and his were said to be “as large as many of the trees in other parts of the State.” By 1885, the area around Port RICHEY, said Webb's Historical of that year, had "a great many trees from six to ten years old that are loaded with oranges." 

Settlers buying at Port RICHEY were, “almost without exception, raising orange groves.”

Following his stint as Arizona Governor, SAFFORD had occasionally journeyed to New York and Philadelphia on business. While visiting Philadelphia, SAFFORD learned of the four million acre Florida land acquisition by Hamilton Disston, and so SAFFORD came to Florida as one of Disston’s land agents. 

Arizona Governor Anson P. K. SAFFORD

Anson SAFFORD and Aaron RICHEY developed land north of the Pithlachescotee River, the location of their new town, while Disston Land Company owned the acreage on the south side of that river, land fronting as well on the Gulf of Mexico. 

Disston Land Company also owned land further south, also along the coast, where yet another new town was about to be developed, TARPON SPRINGS, which is exactly where Part Two picks up next Wednesday, May 31, 2017.

IN SEARCH OF A PASCO COUNTY GHOST TOWN

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CitrusLAND: Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains

Much, much more to come as this series works its way inland!

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.

Mystery and History – get all the details, and view each book at www.croninbooks.com

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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