1958-2020 - Fire Chief Willie Morgan

Memories of Groveland

   Willie Morgan's family moved to Groveland in 1958. His parents were both teachers and they came to Groveland to meet Frank Farr who was the principal of Groveland Elementary or High School at the time. Willie recalls his earliest memory of Groveland when on a Saturday afternoon, he went to the Groveland Theatre and watched "Sink the Bismarck", with his brother and Frank Farr, Jr., his first friend in Groveland.

   His parents, Mrs. Morgan taught at Davis Elementary and Mr. Morgan taught at Mascotte Elementary.

   At the time, the community of Groveland was about 1,200 people. "It was small so you knew most everyone."

   The family's life revolved around school, work, and church. The Y-ette was the local hangout for the children. They would meet there after school and football games.

   Almost everyone either worked at the Edge's Store, B & W, or picked fruit in the groves. You could get almost anything you wanted from the Edge's stores. The only thing you needed to go somewhere else for was to buy a car. Clermont was considered a long distance trip.



   As a child, Morgan remembered standing outside the First Baptist Church on Wednesday nights, seeing the earlier volunteers would meet down at Lake David on Wednesday nights, to train.

College and Work

   Morgan went to Lake Sumter Junior College and Florida Technilogical University. After graduating, he planned to leave Groveland permanently and moved to Miami.
   However, he soon realized how much better life and the people were in Groveland and quickly moved back.
   Willie worked for Jim Payne Insurance as an insurance agent. Payne sold the business to Bill Irely Insurance and Morgan continued to work for him.
   Morgan met his future wife at church around this time. In October of 1975 they were married.

The Early Volunteer Fire Department


   Early volunteers:
   Fred Bremer,
   Floyd Carlson,
   Lester Harvill,
   Charlie Holbrook,
      Nick Mateo,
   Scotty McCalley,
   Bill Prashun,
   Alton Story,
   Gilbert Vickers,
   Dick Willard,
   Rex Winn.

A New group

   Around 1975, the Groveland Volunteer Fire Department was being "rejuvenated" and were looking for new firefighters.
   Buck(?) Tomlinson was the new Fire Chief.
   Willie Morgan, along with a new group of volunteers, graduated training class in November of 1975.
   Chief Jim Griner was the instructor.

   The Fire Department was located in a garage at the back of the City Hall building still located on the northwest corner of HWY 50 and N Lake Ave. The Police would receive the calls and the dispatcher would set off a siren. Then all the volunteers would leave their jobs or whatever they were doing and gather at the station, where a police officer would direct them to the fire.
   They had to ride on the tailboard of an old 1951 firetruck, which the city had bought new in 1951, sometimes in 40 degree weather. They also had a tanker truck with a pump that was built by Bruce Ogden at his shop.
   Their uniform was a plastic fire helmet, three-quarter length turnout coat, rubber boots, and blue jeans. They had two self contained breathing apparatus that were shared among them.
   There was a call box on a pole in front of Hank's Electric (Hunter Building), which was across from the Chevron Station that was managed by Al Story, who was the fire chief at the time it was installed. Someone would pull a lever at the call box, which would set off a siren, and would stay by the box, so when Al Story or the fire truck would arrive they could tell them where the fire was.

Willie Morgan, Fire Chief

   Chief Tomlinson moved to a job at Cape Canaveral. Willie Morgan was the only one interested in the newly opened job and fulfilled one of the only job requirements: living in Groveland.

   Morgan recalled an early wreck when four men went airborne, while heading south on S.R. 19 and crashed into the side of Edge's Feed Store. Citizens had stopped to try to get the men out, but three of them had already died.

   In the 1980s, the Groveland High School was set on fire. A supposed theif broke in to one of the classrooms on a Saturday in order to steal the proceeds from the Friday night football game the night before. The fire department thought they had the fire under control, but they found the fire had gone under the floor into the wooden support beams and spread through the crawl space. Other departments from the county had to come to assist in getting the expanding fire under control. The building was able to be saved and repaired.
   In 1988, the Florida Regional EMS and South Lake Hospital made an agreement to provide the Department with a jaws-of-life, if they would respond to emergency calls. Groveland Fire Department agreed and was the first department in South Lake County to become First Responders. They soon did an accident call in Clermont. After that Clermont created their own response unit.
   Groveland was also the first in the Lake County to upgrade from low pressure SCBA (self contained breathing apparatus) to high pressure SCBA equipment, which required a 6,000 PSI air compressor that no one else in the county had at the time. This allowed them to have more air in smaller containers.

   July 4th became a family day for the department, where they would gather and celebrate, before the fireworks and festivities.

   Around mid 1990s, GFD was the first in South Lake County to start running medical calls also.
   Discussions began to take Groveland from a volunteer fire department to a full time department.
   In 1999, Morgan approached Lake County to get help funding one man to work 40 hours a week, since Groveland had been responding to county calls. The County came back with a counter offer of funding three full time firemen, if they would be on 24 hours. So Morgan took one position and two men took the remaining spots.


   By 2020, the GFD had up to 34 firefighters, which made them 3rd highest in the county.


    After settling down and getting married, Morgan had no plans of ever leaving Groveland and planned to live out their lives in the house that they built. However, after retiring, they decided they wanted to live on a river, so Willie and his wife moved to Alabama.



[Contributors: Willie Morgan, Jason Brown]

Next Article: 1984-1994 - The Return of the Freezes 






1984-1994 - The Return of the Freezes

1984 - The Return of the Freezes

   Groveland's economy was highly dependent upon the citrus industry. The devasting freezes of the eighties caused an economic downturn, as many long time citrus growers lost their groves and were unable to recover.
   As the citrus industry began to move farther south to a warmer climate, many citrus growers begin to sell out the land to housing developers, while some began to use the land for raising cattle.

   Developers used annexations to increase the city of Groveland to 350 acres, approximately increasing the city limits by 20% in size.
   This was the first major addition to the city limits since it was founded in 1922.
   Despite the citrus industry decline, the cities' population increased to approximately 1,992.

1994 - First Female Mayor

   In November of 1994, a landmark was achieved with the election of Groveland Council Member and first female Mayor, Doris Thompson, a descendent of early 1867 settler, Simon Thomas Brown.

2000s - Uncontrolled Growth

   Sixteen separate annexations, involving several developers, increased the city limits by another 165 acres (over 50%) by the turn of the 21st century. Population within the city limits increased by 15% by the year 2000 to an approximate total of 2,300 citizens.

[Contributors: Jason Brown, Richard Helfst]

Next Article: 1993 - The End of an Era - South Lake High School






2001 - September 11th and the Watson Brothers

Did You Know About Groveland's Connection to 9/11

   Brothers Dale Watson and Jimmy Watson (both Groveland High School alumni) were leaders in the events following the September 11th attacks.

Dale Watson

   Dale Watson (GHS Class of 1968) served as the first Assistant Director for the newly formed Counterterrorism Division of the FBI and he led the organization's investigation following the September 11th tragedy.
      He was in charge of counterterrorism for the United States and, as such, was an advisor to two U.S. presidents.
   Prior to the attacks, Dale had advocated for the country to focus more on terrorism.
   He requested more agents and resources, but was turned down.
   He is the first person to have served in the FBI and CIA, yet he is humble about his extremely significant role overseeing our safety before and after the attack.
   He had previously overseen the investigations of terrorist attacks on the U.S.S. Cole and the East Africa embassy bombing.
   Dale also had a significant role in helping to solve the Oklahoma City bombing.
   He was recently interviewed for a five-part Netflix documentary series titled, "Turning Point: 9/11 and the War on Terror" that aired in September of 2021 for the 20th anniversary of the attack.

Dale Watson - Wikipedia

Turning Point: 9/11 and the War on Terror

Brigadier General Jimmy Watson

   While Dale was overseeing counterterrorism and involved in the country's response to the September 11th attacks, his brother, Brigadier General Jimmy Ray Watson (GHS Class of 1964), was serving over the Florida National Guard.
   In the wake of the attacks, Jimmy oversaw the largest deployment of the National Guard in the history of Florida, when 45% of those troops were sent to Iraq.

National Guard Bureau - Brigadier General Jimmy Watson

Orlando Sentinal - LAKE NATIVE BECAME STATE GUARD'S NO. 2

[Contributors: Mary Helen Myers, Jason Brown]

Next Article: 2002 - Hope International Church