1869 - Carter's Island

1869 - Allen and Adeline Carter's Island

   Around 1869, Allen and Adeline Carter arrived at what would be called Carter's Island. Allen was a farmer and cattleman.

   Allen and Adeline Carter's son, Thomas, and daughter, Julia, would go on to marry James Lee's (from Monte Vista) daughter, Amanda, and son, John Henry.
   Both couples were married on the same day at Carter's Island on February 9, 1881 or 1882.

   Allen and Adeline's other son, Stephen Carter, became a Lake County Commissioner.

   Other early arrivals, that came around 1871, were the Tomlinson Family and family of Jesse Lee, brother of James Lee mentioned above.

Carters Island, FL - Homestead of Allen Thomas Carter and wife Adeline Crosby Carter

c. 1890 - Carter Family:
Joseph (missing from photo), Ollie, Bessie, James, Curtis,
Stephen (father), Matilda (mother).
Rear - Pete Sheffield a hired hand.


   Carter's Island had its own schoolhouse.
   Early writings tell of the cattle that roamed through the area and how the children on their way to school would have to climb trees to escape the occasional ill tempered cow.

    The school closed in 1922 and the students were transferred to Mascotte School.

[Contributors: Cyleta Lee Austin, Mary Helen Myers, Jason Brown]

Next Article: 1870s - Cherry Lake

1870-1899 - Browns, Dukes, and Daniels and The Brown's Ford Schoolhouse (Groveland's First School and Church)

1870 - The Brown Family and Brown's Ford

[Simon Thomas Brown]

   Simon Thomas Brown came from Alligator City (now Lake City) with his wife, Polly Ann (Manning), and his widowed mother, Ellender B (Summerall), to the area south of Yalaha by 1870. Census records show them as living near Yalaha, because Taylorville and Howey-in-the-Hills did not yet exist at the time.
   Ellender's nephew, and Simon's 1st cousin, is the famed General Charles Pelott Summerall, after whom Summerall Park in Tavares is named.
   Ellender was also the great-granddaughter of the famed Samuel Nunez, who was the private physician to the King of Portugal and close friends with John Wesley, founder of the Methodist Church. It is documented that Wesley learned Spanish in order to communicate with Samuel Nunez. Nunez had helped to establish the early Jewish community in the Georgia colony after he and his remaining family escaped their planned executions by the Catholic Inquisition.
   Ellender is buried at Dukes Cemetary (See below).

[Wagons would have crossed Brown's Ford
similarly to this photograph from a ford in Fort Myers.]

   Brown's Ford was the site of a crossing on the wagon and cattle trail that crossed over the lowest part of the Palatlakaha Creek. The trail ran along what is today HWY 19. It was well traveled as early as the mid 1800s.
   Brown's Ford was named for Simon Thomas Brown (the first of three namesakes) who owned all the land, in that area, along the north side of the river.
   For travelers from Yahala or Tavares, the nearest towns to the north at the time, the only other point shallow enough to cross the Palatlakaha south into Taylorville or Mascotte was at Villa City. So most people would have driven through Simon's property to reach Taylorville.

1874 - The Daniels and Dukes Families

   George Washington Dukes, who married Sarah Ann Lastinger, arrived to the area in 1874. c. Late 1800s - Sarah Ann (Lastinger) Dukes

   George and Sarah's daughter, Cassidina, married John Wesley Daniels. John Daniels and Cassidina (Dukes) had squatter's rites to property west of Lake David which he sold to E. E. Edge, after Edge's arrival in 1899.
   John Daniels and his wife, Cassidina (Dukes) Daniels, then purchased property on Villa City Road, which at the time was only a horse trail. Old land deeds show both marking an "X" for their signatures.
   They had also owned other property, which they had purchased in 1892 from William A. McQuaig, who lived in Mascotte.
   They had 10 children.
   When Cassidina's father, George Washington Dukes, died, in 1887, he was buried on the Daniels family property in what is known today as Dukes Cemetery. It is believed that he was the first one buried in the cemetary.
   The nearby Dukes Lake was also named after the Dukes family.

c. Early 1900s - Cassadina (Dukes Daniels, her daughter Mary (Daniels) Holley, her granddaughter Minnie Marie (Holley) Booth, and great-granddaughter Carmen Booth

---

1899 - Families Unite to Build Area's First Schoolhouse and Church

   Churches and schoolhouses were among the first public structures that pioneers built when homesteading and settling an area. Oftentimes, one structure would serve as both church and schoolhouse.

   The families would provide a salary for the teachers and took turns housing and feeding them.

   The school year was tailored for the farming communities, as it often lasted for just a few months , so the children could still provide the much needed labor for the family farm. Grades 1-8 were in session for six months.

   

   Some small one-room schools that were known to be located in what would become the Groveland area around this time:
       Bay Lake,
       Carter's Island,
       Mascotte,
       Near Lake Sumner in Monte Vista and later in the Clergrove area,
       Slone Ridge,
       Tuscanooga,
       and Villa City.

   However, there were no public schools in the Brown's Ford/Taylorville area in the late 1800s. So the area's settlers united to provide a school for the education of their children.
   Wanting an education for their children, Mrs. Daniels worked to establish Brown's Ford School, the first in Taylorville. As mentioned above, both John and Cassidina could not even sign their names, so they likely understood the importance of their children receiveing a proper education. Some of their children would actually go on to become school teachers.

   In 1899, John Daniels and his wife Cassidina (Dukes), assisted by Brooker T. Dukes and Homer Dukes, were instrumental in petitioning for a school.
   A one-room board school was built around 1899-1900. Taylorville's first school was located on the Daniels' family property, somewhere between the Dukes' Cemetary and Brown's Ford. Since the Daniels' property on the south side of Brown's Ford was accessible to children on both sides of the Palatlakaha River, Groveland's first school was built here.
   It was aptly named "Brown's Ford School" after the popular nearby landmark.

   Simon Thomas Brown built the first "bridge" for the children living on the north side, mainly the girls, to be able to cross the ford without getting wet on their way to school. This first "bridge" was a series of posts that he buried in the river, so that they could step from one post to the next in order to get across.
   Mother's of the students kept a hoed clear path to the school for the children.
   Students carried their lunches in little tin buckets and water, dipped from Graveyard Lake (now called Lake Catherine), was passed from student to student as they drank from the dipper.
   In modern times the trees at the Dukes Cemetary were known to grow crooked and bent over. Legend says that they grew this way, because the children would leave the school at recess or lunch and throw their clothes on the trees as they ran to go swimming in Graveyard Lake (Lake Catherine). The weight of all their clothes would weigh down the trees and over time would bend them over. The trees could still be seen well after 2010, until they were recently cut down.

1899 - Early Teachers

   Teachers often boarded with local families and the parents contributed towards a salary for the teacher.
   The school's first teacher was R. B. Ervin. Ervin was the grandfather of Richard Ervin Jr., Florida's Attorney General and Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court, and Robert Ervin, a prominent lawyer in Tallahassee.

Richard Ervin Jr.

   He was also the great grandfather of Judge Richard Ervin III.
   As school teacher, R. B. Ervin boarded with the Daniels family. Through his influence, one of the Daniels' sons became a minister and three of their daughters became school teachers. One of the daughters was Groveland's well known Nellie (Mrs. Fletcher) Smith.
   Another teacher was Alva Knight who went on to become Dr. Alva Knight, a prominent Chicago surgeon.

The Early Church

   The Brown's Ford Schoolhouse was also used as the first church in what would become Groveland. For most of the early churches, a circuit-riding preacher would come to the area once a month on horseback. He would take turns preaching at a different rural church on his "circuit".

Memories of the Early One-Room Schoolhouse

"We had a blackboard made out of wood painted black. It worked pretty good with chalk. We had no paper or tablet to write on. We used a slate. We'd spit on our slate to erase the writing.
   The men in the community made our desks.
   The teacher was paid a little from the parents. The teacher boarded around, staying a week at one fella's house and another week at another place.
   We all drank out of the same gourd dipper from a bucket of water and washed our hands out of the same little tub and dried them on the same towel.
   'Drop the Handkerchief' was one of our favorite games."
   - From the writings of an area elderly man reflecting on his boyhood school days.

1943 - The Brown's Ford Dam and Palatlakaha River Rapids

   In 1943, the Lake County Board of County Commissioners agreed to build two small dams on the Palatlakaha River, one of which was here at Brown's Ford.
   A small run of rapids was produced on the down side of the dam. It was great sport for boaters to race over top of the dam and through the rapids.

Brown's Ford Becomes a Lake County Historic Site

   Brown's Ford was made a Lake County Historic Site around the year 2000.
   In attendence at the dedication ceremony, were Simon Thomas Brown's descendents: Simon Thomas Brown, Sr. (grandson), Simon Thomas Brown, Jr. (great grandson), James Alligood (great grandson), David Brown (2nd great grandson), and Jason Brown (2nd great grandson).

[Contributors: Simon Thomas Brown, Jr.; Mary Helen Myers; Jason Brown]

Next Article: 1867 - The Lost City of Eva - John Judy

1874 - Cherry Lake

1874 - Cherry Lake

   The earliest known settlers to the Cherry Lake area were the Stewart families. Newton Stewart, Sr. arrived here about 1874 from Georgia. He was a surveyor and school teacher. While living in Georgia, he had owned cotton mills and perhaps a plantation. Newton's great granddaughter, Katie Stewart, was one of the four members of the first graduating class of Groveland High School in 1922.

Next Article: 1871 - Empire and the First Church of South Lake - James Knight

1871 - Empire and the First Church of South Lake - James Knight

1871 - Empire

   The area known as Empire is located four miles south of Mascotte.
   During the 1800s there were few established roads. Houses were built in isolated areas, sometimes several miles apart. This sometimes makes it difficult to establish definite boundaries for settlements and to place certain families in specifically named areas.

   It is known that James Henry Knight settled south of what is now Mascotte, about 1871, in an area that would be called Empire.

   In 1871, a church was established there with Rev. Joel Swain as the first pastor. It is known that land was purchased from the government by James Henry Knight and would later be deeded for the erecting of a church building and for a graveyard. It is recorded that people came from miles around to attend service at this Primitive Baptist Church. People arrived in ox carts, wagons, on horse back, or walked. The Empire graveyard is one of the oldest in this area.

   The charter members and their families of this congregation came from various communities, including:
       George W. Dukes (Taylorville),
       Jesse Lee (Carter's Island),
       Simeon Tison (Bay Lake).

   Although not charter members, others who joined during the 1800s were the families of:
       Stephen Carlton,
              John Douglas,
       John Goff,
       John Story (Bay Lake),
       Aaron and Moses Tomlinson,
       Jake Varn (from east of Taylorville),
along with others.

   Around 1874, the family of James and Lavina Lee arrived in Monte Vista. James was the brother of Jesse Lee who had already come to Monte Vista or Carter's Island around 1871. James was a medic during the War of Northern Agression (Civil War). Since there were no doctors in Empire, James offered medical help to the locals.
   Milton Lee, one of their six children, married Idaho Swain, the granddaughter of Joel Swain, who was the first pastor of Empire Church.

   The Empire graveyard, being one of the oldest in this area, has many early settlers and veterens of the War of Norther Agression (Civil War) buried there, including:
       Aaron Tomlinson, buried 1886
       James Henry Knight, buried 1888,
       Newton Stewart, buried 1895.
   Other Confederate veterans buried there are:
       Stephen S. Carlton,
       Hezekiah Drawdy,
       James Lee,
       Jesse Lee,
       John Story,
       Simeon Tison.

[Contributors: Mary Helen Myers, Jason Brown]

Next Article: 1874-1888 - The Forgotten Town of Monte Vista

1874-1888 - The Forgotten Town of Monte Vista

1874 - Monte Vista

    Monte Vista was a town located South of HWY 50 between Sumner Lake, Groveland (then Taylorville) and Lake Minnehaha, Clermont.

   Around 1874, the family of James and Lavina Lee arrived in the area of Monte Vista from South Carolina. They homesteaded on 160 acres. James was the brother of Jesse Lee who had already come to Monte Vista or Carter's Island around 1871. James was a medic during the War of Northern Agression (Civil War). Since there were no doctors in Empire, James offered medical help to the locals. James Lee became well known for his citrus trees.
   Milton Lee, one of their six children, married Idaho Swain, the granddaughter of Joel Swain, who was the first pastor of Empire Church.
   James and Lavina's other son, Joseph, continued to live in the family's log cabin home. Joseph daughter, Cyleta Lee Austin, also lived in the family home, which still stands in Monte Vista, as did her daughters. While the home's exterior has been remodeled over the years, the interior remains the same. Much of the original acreage is still used as today as a working 148-year-old farm, raising primarily cattle and hay.
   Cyleta Austin went on to became Groveland's historian emeritus and was a source for much of the information that you will find on our website and in our museum.

   Monte Vista had its own schoolhouse. The teacher commuted to the school by boat through the Chain-O-Lakes.

   Monte Vista was a popular spot for hunters.
   Loram P. Brown, son of Simon Thomas Brown, was a popular hunting guide in the area.

Famed Hunter, Loram P. Brown

1888 - Hattie Daggett's Log House

   The early history of the town really began in 1888 with the arrival of Hattie Daggett.

1896 - Hattie Daggett

   Hattie eventually built what became known as the Log House (Log House Road) on 27 acres overlooking Lake Crescent, in present day Clermont.
   Hattie's plan was to build a home for her and her parents to visit in the winter months.
   While Hattie remained in Philidelphia working as a nurse to famous doctors, she hired her brother, James A. Daggett, as master builder to build the house, while she continued to work.

Location of the Log House south of Crescent Lake.

   Construction began in 1896. The logs from the house were chosen and brought to the location from the many surrounding virgin forests. Most of the log work was done by Thomas Locke, Doc Driggers, and Jesse Breedlove. One side of each log was scored with a broad ax. A sawmill was moved from Mascotte to size the logs down to 5 inches in thickness and whatever the depth the solid heart would square.. The house was constructed using 7/8 inch iron rods running through the logs from top to bottom of each story with additional 4x4s bolted in to support the walls. Between the joists, from side to side, were truss rods with turnbuckles on each side of each window. The logs were lifted and placed by hand. James Felter, at his mill on Felter's Lake, made the 47,000 twenty-inch shingles, from Lake Louisa cypress, that were used for the roof and gables. These were used until they were covered with Belgian shingles 34 years later. Felter also furnished the solid heart pine flooring for the house at $16 per thousand boards delivered. The floor boards were one and a half inches thick, matched and beaded.
   When completed in 1906, the masterpiece of a house had a frontage of 75 feet.

Log House Front

   It was a fulfillment of Hattie's long time wish of having a rambling old fashioned log house with a big fireplace.

Log House - Living Room

   However, the wish was not completed as expected. While the ground floor was built according to her plan, to Hattie's disappointment, James changed the plans for the rest of the house. What was supposed to be a one and a half story cabin with part of the roof to be fitted for windows in the ustairs bedrooms, became a three story lodge with a different style roof.
   Ms. Daggett eventually left Philadelphia and moved into the Log House as a permanent Monte Vista resident where she operated it as a lodge.
   Later in 1901, she married Capt. Robert Millholland and he came to live with her at the lodge.
   Hattie was also influential in the digging of the Monte Vista Canal, which connected Lake Crescent to Lake Minnehaha.

   Around this time, Mr. and Mrs. Millholland began using the lodge to host visitors and potential land buyers in the area.
   One such guest, Stuart Bowman, described Hattie as, “a charming and attractive lady” who he felt could “be entirely at home in any drawing room or social group.”
   It was Hattie who actually “called my attention to a tract of approximately 14,000 acres,” which Bowman eventually purchased.

1947 - Hattie Daggett

   After the deaths of Hattie and Robert, the Log House was purchased by James M. Harris, of Tulsa Oklahoma, for use as a sanitorium for a brief time.
   It was also used as a dance hall, owned by the Clermont Fruit and Land company.
   It was later purchase by Fred W. Brown to be used as a private residence.
   During WWII it was leased by Fred W. Brown to the Army Signal Corps Ground Signal Services for radar experimental work. They had a staff of 75 and hired many civilian employees, including 15 or 20 local guards. Several sheet metal buildings were built and The Log House was revamped to suit their purposes. The base closed in 1946.
   It was then purchased by Leonard Baird who used the government metal buildings for a poultry business.
   It was finally purchased by a Mr. and Mrs. O. J. Priebe (Priebe Rd.) in 1958. It suffered a fire in 1959 and the Preibe's had it demolished and turned the property into the Crestview Subdivision, one of Clermont's first subdivisions.

[Contributors: Mary Helen Myers, Jason Brown]

Next Article: 1870s - The Turpentine Industry Comes to South Lake

1870s - The Turpentine Industry Comes to South Lake

The Early Turpentine Industry

   The process of making turpentine began in America as far back as the Colonial Era. Turpentine was extremely important for the wooden shipping vessels, so the term "naval stores" began to be used to refer to the creation and selling of turpentine, rosin, tar, pitch, and other such products. These products were used to preserve the wood and ropes of the ships, as well as waterproofing of the vessels.

   Turpentine was also used for medicines, cleaning products, and painting.

The Turpentine Process

   Turpentine and Rosin are both created from the sap of pine trees.
   The process begins when a tree is selected and scoured with marks known as chevrons. This causes the tree to "bleed out" as the sap flows from these cuts in order to help heal the tree.
   Metal sleeves are then inserted into the tree beneath the chevron cuts in order to direct the sap into a terra cotta pot that is nailed to the tree.
   After enough time has passed to allow enough sap to collect in the pot, the sap is poured into wooden barrels, which are loaded onto wagons and transported to the nearest still.

   From March to October, one tree could yield eight or nine quarts of sap.

Examples of early Florida Turpentine Stills

   At the still, the sap is poured into a large metal "pot" and boiled. This "refining" process causes the liquid turpentine to separate from the solid waxy rosin. Both are collected and then sent to the local Naval Store.
   Over time, the cuts would damage the tree to the point where it would no longer produce sap. At this point, the harvesters would move on to a new area and leave the trees to be cut down and sent to the local sawmill to be used for lumber.
   This is why many stills would have a sawmill in the area. The Arnold Sawmill of Groveland became the largest sawmill in the Southeast United States.

1860s-1870s - The Turpentine Industry in the South

   Following the end of the War of Northern Agression (Civil War), the turpentine industry began to reshape the economy of the South. With the fall of the great agricultural plantations, the South had to turn to other means. The processing of pine sap in backwood stills became one of Florida's major industries in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
   The industry also provided much needed jobs for the hundreds of thousands of former Southern slaves, who were left without a home or any means of income, as a result of the Emancipation Proclamation.
   Many of the owners of the stills, brought crews of these former slaves with them to Florida, where together they began to carve out a new life. The owners would build homes for the workers and a commissary that would be stocked with food and other supplies.
   The Watson Camp in Eva, south of Groveland, was known to have a commissary and about 40 homes for the workers.
   Groveland's E. E. Edge, would eventually create communities, like Stuckey, for the workers to be able to purchase land and build their own homes.

   It is beleived that, in the 1880s, Florida had 23 million acres of pine trees.
   Still all a part of Sumter County at the time, the area of Clermont to Brookesville was thick with long-leaf yellow pine. This particular type of pine was sought after, not only for its sap, but also for its lumber, since the species was highly resistant to insects. This feature made it highly valuable for the construction of homes and other structures.
   Many Florida communities and towns formed around these early turpentine stills or camps. Taylorville (early Groveland), Mascotte, Stuckey, and Bay Root (now Bay Lake) are all examples of such. Another turpentine camp was built by E. E. Edge and located near the Lake Emma area.

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[Contributors: Mary Helen Myers and Jason Brown]

Next Article: 1875-1885 - Mascotte - J. W. Payne 

1875-1885 - A Tale of Two Cities - Mascotte and J. W. Payne

1875 - Early Settlers

   The settlement, that eventually became known as Mascotte, was known to have residents as early as 1875, though perhaps even earlier as there were known settlers already in the surrounding areas of Slone Ridge, Tuscanooga, and Brown's Ford.
   These early settlers went by horseback and wagon to Leesburg in order to obtain supplies and food that they were unable to grow or make themselves. The trip to Leesburg being a two or three day trip, they were known to camp overnight at Bugg Spring, near today's Okahumpka. (Read more about Bugg Spring and Okahumpka.)

1885 - How Mascotte Got Its Name

   In 1885, the steamship SS Mascotte was built by Henry Plant. It was named for the operetta La Mascotte by French composer Achille Edmond Audran. The name comes from the French spelling of the word 'mascot' and means, an animal or thing supposed to bring good luck.
   It is thought that J. W. Payne had a financial interest in the ship which made winter runs, among other trips, bringing tobacco from Cuba to Tampa.
   The ship also had a role in bringing refugees to the U. S. during the Spanish-American War in 1898.
   Many Cuban immigrants arrived in Tampa from Havanna aboard the SS Mascotte.
   The S.S. Mascotte also made regular trips from Boston to St. Petersburg.

   In 1885, J. W. Payne, who was originally from Baltimore and then St. Petersburg, moved to the area and named the already forming settlement Mascotte.
   A picture of the SS Mascotte also became part of the official seals of the cities of Tampa and Mascotte.

   Unfortunately, the ship was not as lucky as its name would imply. It was mined and sunk off the coast of Southwold, England, in 1916, during WW I.

1885 - More Settlers

   Also arriving in 1885 were:
      Dr. John Rosenburg;
      Theodore Ruff;
      Charles, Frank, and William Tidd;
      R. H. Whitnall.
   All were unmarried men arriving from Ohio.
   R. H. Whitnall became the first railroad station agent and Theodore Ruff became the first postmaster on March 30, 1886, and also had the first store in Mascotte.

   Prior to 1887 and the completion of the Orang Belt Railway, mail had been carried by horseback to and from Leesburg by Mr. William Woods.    On one such trip, Mr. Woods mailed a letter to Washington D.C. petitioning that a Post Office be established in Mascotte.

Mascotte General Store

   Around 1889, the Taylor Brothers and their workers arrived in Mascotte, with hopes of establishing a turpentine business. However, they did not receive a warm welcome from Mr. Ruff. Thus, they moved further down the tracks, toward the East, and started what would become known as Taylorville.

   Other early settlers to Mascotte were:
      A man known as Judge Albert
      Mr. and Mrs. Tom Bradenbaker
      Henry Cram, a blacksmith, who became postmaster in 1897
            Martin Grimes from New York and his brother (first name unknown)
      Frank Horton and his brother
      The Langley family (first name unknown)
      Ebenezer McDonald who took over the postmaster position March 1898
         Mr. and Mrs. Rabb - arrived around 1898
   Several other names were discovered, however, it could not be determined if they arrived in the 1800s or early 1900s and if they lived in Mascotte or one of the nearby areas.

   The oldest bulding and church in Mascotte was built in 1904 and is the same building now occupied by the Mascotte Methodist Church (corner of West Myers Boulevard and North Bay Lake Ave). King David Jones was the original pastor of the church. The congregation was already meeting for Sunday School prior to the construction of the church building. Gabriel Watkins' name appears on a Sunday School roll dated to 1896.

   A one room schoolhouse was built, opposite the cemetery. A Professor Osterhout taught in the school until the late 1890s when a new two-story schoolhouse was built.
   One of the first teachers in this schoolhouse was William Tidd (listed earlier).

   Gabriel Watkins had a store, which housed the post office. While his store and post office were later torn down, his house still stands between Stuckey and Slone's Ridge.

   Mascotte's first physician was Dr. John Rosenberg (listed earlier).

   Dr. Herman Watson was born on a farm in Georgia and graduated from the University of Georgia School of Medicine in 1912. He continued with various postgraduate studies throughout the United States, including Johns Hopkins University, and, after serving in World War I, stayed on in France for a year to further his studies. In 1919, Dr. Herman Watson came to Mascotte to begin his first medical practice.

   He was in practice with Dr. DeVane until he moved to Lakeland in 1920.
   He would later become the founder of the Watson Clinic in Lakeland, Florida, which developed into one of the largest and most respected clinics in the Southeast.

1925 - City of Mascotte Officially Chartered

   The City of Mascotte was officially chartered by the State Legislature on November 23, 1925. Thus Mascotte became the only community in the area to join Groveland in becoming an official town.

   In 1925, there were three prosperous fruit and vegetable packing houses in Mascotte.

   The first Mayor of Mascotte was George M. Myers.
   The first Council consisted of:
      Council President O. F. May,
      Councilmen: H. H. Mallard,
      A. J. Drawdy,
      C. S. Bragg,
         and K. Hankins.
      The first Town Clerk was E. C. John
      and the first Town Marshall was C. C. Drawdy.

   Through the years, there has been a close connection between the towns of Mascotte and Groveland. Many of the early settling familes in the area would marry to form strong familial bonds between the two towns and their rural communities. Since Mascotte did not have a high school, the students of Mascotte would attend Groveland High School. Many of the residents would go to Groveland to do their shopping. Even Groveland's Puryear Building was named after former Mascotte mayor (1941-1945) and resident, Elmer L. Puryear, who later moved to Groveland and served there as mayor. For a time, Mascotte even rented the use of Groveland's jail.

   List of Mascotte's Mayors:
      1925-1926 - George M. Myers
      1927-1928 - Unknown
      1929 - G.L. O'Brian
      1929-1934 - Unknown
      1935 - Dirk Hankins
      1936-1940 - Dee Udell
      1941-1945 - Elmer L. Puryear (He later purchased the Groveland Auditorium and had it demolished in order to build the current Puryear Building, so that he would have a building with his name on it.)
      1946-1949 - C.W. Porterfield
      1950-1951 - Robert L. Whilhite
      1952 - Sam Tulk and Edwin Mattson Jr.
      1953-1957 - Edwin Mattson Jr.
      1958-1963 - Fred Thomas
      1964 - Fred Thomas and R.E.Beekman
      1965 - Fred Thomas and Kenneth Waters
      1966-1970 - Fred Thomas
      1971 - Wayland Divine
      1972-1979 - Fred Thomas
      1980-1987 - William Harb
      1988-1995 - Josh Thomas
      1996-2005 - Stanley Sloan
      2005-2007 - Jeff Krull
      2007-2009 - Feliciano Felix Ramirez
      2009-2011 - Jeff Krull
      2011-2014 - Tony Rosado

[Contributors: Ila Mae Jones, Mary Helen Myers, Jason Brown]

Next Article: 1884 - The King of Villa City 

1884 - The King of Villa City

Before 1880s - Native American Artifacts

   The remains of early Florida inhabitants, possibly the Timucua tribes, were found all around the river in Villa City. The area had several Native American mounds which yielded animal bones and pottery chards. This shows a group of men excavating one of the many mounds Villa City. The man in the broad rimmed hat has been identified as C.C. Boyd.

Early 1880s - Archibald Gano's Millford

   The area that would become Villa City, was first named "Millford" (with 2 "L"s), because of the ford across the river at the location of a local saw mill owned by Archibald Gano.

1886 - Rail Service into Sumter (Lake) County.
Notice the town of Millford north of the area of modern day Groveland.

   Archibald Gano, already in the area, had built a dam on the Palatlakaha Creek to provide water power for his sawmill which provided the lumber for the early buildings in Millford and other settlements throughout what would become South Lake County.

c. 1880 - Archibald and Sallie Gano



Gano Home



Gano Sawmill

1884 - The King of Villa City

   George Thomas King, of Baltimore, Maryland, had served in the Union Navy aboard the USS Nipsic, and traveled up and down the east coast chasing Confederate blockade runners. (A history of George T. King's family is located at the bottom of this page.)

1863 - George T. King, at 17 years old, while serving for the Union Navy.

The USS Nipsic

1860s - Emma Desire Parlow - Wife of Gerorge T. King

   After the war he worked as a salesman for the Colgate Soap Company, and again traveled from New York to Cuba.
   In 1884, at the age of 38, George Thomas King was in need of a warmer place to live that would help relieve his rheumatism.

c. 1880 - George T. King, Colgate Company Agent

   Colgate suggested that he work his southern sales territory from a central area, so he connected up with a government surveyor named H.P. Smith, in Palatka, Florida, and scouted out a suitable location to build a home.
   The Palatlakaha Creek to the south was just what he was looking for.
   It had an easily navigable river which led to several fresh spring water lakes.
   The vast pine timberland forests were filled with wild game and Native American artifacts.
   Overall, the area was attractive enough to bring in tourists and investors that were willing to take a chance at making money in the fruit business.

   George T. King began buying up property all around the area. George King purchased 900 acres in Millford.
   "He bought acreage then for $1.50."
   - George Morgan King.
   The people living in the area were friendly and helpful, and there was already Gano's sawmill operating on the creek.
   George T. King platted out an area of 1 1/2 sq. miles in streets and blocks and lots, and named the five main lakes after his family members.

   George stood on highest hill with a surveyor from Jacksonville and named the local lakes. He named the largest lake in front of him for Lucy, his sister-in-law who passed away just before the move from Baltimore to Florida. He named Lake Emma for his wife, Lake Desire for his daughter, and Lakes Morgan and Arthur for his sons. Other lakes in the area were later named for other settlers, including Lake Spencer and Hart Lake.

A Town by Any Other Name

   One of the most important aspects of life in the Florida frontier was the ability to communicate with the outside world. Unfortunately, much of the mail for Millford ended up in one of the other dozen or so Milfords (with one "L") in the country, even though the Florida Millford was the only one spelled with 2 L's.
   Gano suggested that King rename the town. Since George T. King envisioned a city with elegant homes and gardens rivaling the villas on the Mediterranean, he selected the new name Villa City.

Map from an 1890 Promotional Booklet for Villa City: "A Florida Home"

1885 - Building a City

   In 1885, George and his family moved to Villa City from Baltimore, Maryland. They had been living in Jacksonville for six months, while awaiting construction of their home. His home became the first "villa", with barns and lavish gardens with pineapples galore.

House of George T. King


Desire King in front of King House


1880s - George T. King and Family Sitting on Porch
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King House and Gardens over looking Lake Emma


1889 - King, Emma D. (Mother); Emma Desire (Daughter), Arthur Wight(Son); and George Morgan (Son) standing in King's Garden.


1889 - King, Emma D. (Mother); Emma Desire (Daughter), George Morgan (Son), Arthur Wight (Son). Sitting in King's Garden while reading a letter from George T. while he was on a sales trip for the Colgate Compnay.

   Most of King's 20 acre home site was tilled and irrigated.

King laid out lavish gardens and fish ponds with their own fountains. The walkways in the gardens were lined with pineapples, which was the universal icon of hospitality. The pineapple would not become a commercially grown crop in Hawaii until at least 1886.

   George planted lots of different crops, with a large selection of fruits, including: bananas, grapes, guavas, pineapples, prickly pear, and strawberries. He brought in "muck", from a swampy area on the other side of Lake Emma, and planted bananas on top of the hill by the barn. No one thought they would survive up on a hill, but they flourished in the rich soil. There is still a banana patch on the river that are believed to be descendants of those original plants.
   "My father (George T. King) knew little about agriculture, but he constantly experimented with existing soils and irrigation just to prove to himself those fruits would grow here... and we had beautiful roses around our home."
   George Morgan King

   King hired some of the local people to work in his gardens. However, he soon ended up bringing in fifteen negro workers instead. George complained that the local workers were "unsatisfactory" and required too much supervision.
   Later his barn was mysteriously burned to the ground and the culprit turned out to be an ex-employee who was upset about being let go and replaced by a black man.

1885-1895 - Other Residents

   By March of 1886, King had brought in master carpenter, William Washington Hart, who had been living in Polk City, to build most of the 35 homes which allured the affluent members of society from the North.
   William W. Hart brought his wife, Henrietta Monette Raulerson, and their four children along and settled on what is now the northwest corner of Villa City Road and Simon Brown Road (named after his grand daughter, Daisy's, husband). He also brought along his father, William Isaiah Hart. His homestead included the south shore of what is still known as Hart Lake. They had four more children while living in Villa City.

   A post office was opened in 1886 under the new name of Villa City and residents finally began receiving their mail directly. Emma Parlow King's brother, Franklin Parlow, acted as the first postmaster. His wife Lucy Sears Parlow, was the namesake of Lake Lucy. The post office was located in a room at Parlow's house.

Franklin Parlow sitting in the doorway of the Post Office room attached to his house.


A Letter addressed to (George) Morgan King, while attending Rollins College in Winter Park. The letter bears the stamp of Villa City.

   In 1888, King hired his cousin F. A. Park, to draw a map which showed the boundaries and buildings of that year. Though he had no formal training as a draftsmen at the time, Park later graduated from MIT and became a first vice president and general manager of Singer Sewing Machine Company.

   Arriving later was George T. King's mother-in-law Anne Lowe Parlow.

Anne Parlow sitting on the porch of her house that was located down the street from George and Emma's.


Anne Parlow at the King house with her granddaughter Desire.

   During winter months of 1888, a Methodist Episcopal Church was built on Indiana Ave. Seven denominations rotated worship at this church.

   Around 1890, Emma's brother and well known photographer, George Parlow, of Rhode Island, moved to Villa City.

1872 - George Parlow's photograph of his sister Emma Parlow King.

Two of his most famous portraits were of President Lincoln and Henry David Thoreau.

   This is the home of the first doctor in the area, Dr. Hood, his wife, and two young sons. They became instant friends of the King boys, and are written about many times in the diaries that have survived the years. The Hoods only stayed a year, until their son died of appendicitis.

Hood House

   This gentleman was Ambrose Spencer, a resident on a neighboring lake that was later named for him.

Ambrose Spencer

   "Another story that my grandfather told was that Mr. Spencer was quite a drinking man, and his father sent him to Florida to sober up, which he did fairly well. However the Villa City kids found out about his past and made sure everyone knew. He fell off the wagon several times but finally dried out after the King boys went away to school in Winter Park."
      - Howard King

   The town grew quickly thanks to aggressive advertising and promises of fortunes to be made in fruit cultivation and mining of valuable minerals. Professor Richards, a geologist from MIT, came to Villa City to evaluate the local deposits of yellow ochre iron and the fine quality kaolin clay found on the river banks.

Professor Richards

   The tea cup below was made from kaolin taken from Villa City and sent to Europe for firing.

   Reverend J. E. Round was one of the world's leading authorities on dead languages.

   Henry Loy and Lancelot Loy were two English brothers who were brought to Villa City by William Newton. Henry became a very successful lawyer.
   "Lancelot received permission from my father (George T. King) to 'practice' his early sermons in the Villa City church and I was at the first one he ever preached."
   - George Morgan King
   Lancelot later returned to England and became an Episcopal minister.
   In 1929, while in England, George M. King also saw Lancelot Loy preach his last sermon before retiring.

   According to Morgan King, other familes that moved to Villa City were:
      Carroll
      Dobler
      Griffin
      Hill
      Shive
      Smith
      Warren
      Wright

A Gator Story

   "Before the dams were in place, it was possible to navigate the Palatlakaha from Lake Louise to Lake Harris. The King boys decided that exploring the length of this river would be an undertaking worthy of proper equipment, and set about building a steamboat. This allowed the boys to carry passengers around and maybe shoot an occasional squirrel or turtle.
   "No story about Florida pioneers is complete without a gator story. The children were fascinated with the reptiles. One of the letters sent from my grandfather at the time includes a cute story.

   'Uncle Geo. has been having a fever for shooting 'gators' and has hit the one (that stays over to the muck bed most of the time now) on the head with a rifle ball several times but hasn't succeeded in killing it yet.
   A week ago Mr. Westbrook set a hook with a bird on it but the bird disappeared and the 'gator' wasn't caught.
   Yesterday Uncle Geo. went around the lake to the muck bed with papa's rifle but didn't see the gator but he saw a couple of skunks so he shot them and put one on the hook.'

   "(The letter leaves off at probably the most memorable part of this story.)

"This sequence of pictures documents a memorable afternoon on the Palatlakaha. It begins with the two boys bravely defending themselves against a vicious gator big enough to swallow them whole.

   "I wonder how the gator stayed in one place long enough for them to run home to get their Uncle George and his camera, bring him back to a place on the other side of the river for a good shot, set up the camera and bellows, get back in the boat and resume their attack.

   "And with the victory comes the spoils, in this case a chance to get your picture taken riding on the back of a gator big enough to eat your little sister."
- Howard King

1890 - The Gano Mill Incident

   Sometime around 1890, the residents of Villa City had grievence against Gano and his Sawmill.
   Mr. Gano had dammed up the river to create a higher water level for his mill wheel.
   The story goes that local residents upstream blamed Gano's dam for an unusually high water level that summer. So the neighbors gathered together, found some dynamite, and blew up the sawmill.
   A couple of the men were arrested and tried for the crime, but were found not guilty. It turned out that several men on the jury had been part of the blasting crew.
   The act may have all been for naught, as some claimed that the water level seemed higher after the dam was destroyed.

   In 1891, after the incident, Archibald and his wife Sallie moved to Clermont, where they built a home and a tomato packing plant. Their Clermont home still stands today and is a shelter for women and children.

Archibald and Sallie Gano

1894-1895 - The Great Freeze

   The winter of 1894 brought big changes to Villa City. With its agriculture flourishing, the residents prepared for a typical Florida winter of occasional cold snaps and mild freezes, which helped sweeten the fruit and kill the pests in the groves.
   What happened in the evening of Decemver 29, 1894 took them all by surprise. The temperatures dropped into the teens and stayed there all night. In the week following, the trees became stripped of their leaves. However, the damage was not bad enough to kill the trees.
   In January, the temperatures rose back into the 70s and 80s for most of the month. The trees began to fill with sap when spring seemed to be at hand.

   Then, on February 7, 1895, a massive "arctic express" from the north interrupted the warm humid weather. The air quickly dipped down to a freezing 12 degrees. The freezing temperatures started early in the day before the rain clouds had cleared, thus causing snow to fall quite hard and accumulate to depths of up to a quarter of an inch. The presence of snow was a very rare sight in the area and has never been repeated.
   The temperatures dropped into the low teens at sunset and remained there all night, solidly freezing the sap in the trees.

   This event in itself might not have been as disastrous as it seemed and spared the hardier trees, if they could have warmed slowly the next day. However, when the morning came with a bright sunshine, the temperature quickly rose up to 85 degrees and warmed the trees. The rapid thaw of the frozen sap caused the trunks of the trees to burst wide open with loud explosions.

   Almost all of the citrus trees in the entire state were destroyed, as well as the vegetable crops and many farm animals. The devastation was agonizing to look upon. Ten years of hard labor were gone in a single day.

Dead Citrus Tree with Oranges scattered on the ground after a freeze.

   Villa City quckly became one of Florida's many ghost towns. Within a year, the population dropped from about 150 to only a few. Some of its citizens returned to the North to remake their fortunes and others moved closer to nearby settlements. The King family, with the exception of, Anne Parlow, George King's mother-in-law, picked up their things and moved back to Boston and New Bedford. Those few who were determined enough to stay in Villa City survived mostly on wild game, fish, and their own gardens. The experience encouraged what were already tight knit communities to continue to turn to each other for support.
   The abandoned property of those who left to the North, were eventually seized by the state for delinquent taxes and the local people moved into the vacant houses. They took possession of the abandoned contents and eventually disassembled the houses and the lumber was repurposed for other homes and buildings in the area.
   The last remaining building was the Gano house, a popular site for high school couples into the 1960s. It was torn down in 1968, making Villa City a true ghost town.

1962 - Gano House

   Since the long leaf pine trees were not affected by the freeze, turpentine production became popular until the agricultural climate improved.

This is a turpentine still built on the shore of Lake Emma.

1930s-1940s - A Partial Comeback

   During the 1930's and 1940's Villa City became known as a hunting and fishing paradise. The freshwater fishing was considered outstanding and the hunting exotic, which attracted people from all over America, Canada, and Europe on safaris to enjoy the abundant wildlife. Some purchased villas, while others preferred camping.

1995 - The Villa City Marker

   The residents of Villa City erected this marker in 1995 on Lake Emma Road at the site of the King property to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Great Freeze and the rise and fall of the little town of Villa City.

Descendents of Villa City Founders: Howard King (second from right)

1620 - King Family Origins
by Howard King

   "Family history has been a fascination for the King family for many generations. Most of the information I will present here was recorded by my great grandfather, Geo. Thomas King, the founder of Villa City, and my grandfather Geo. Morgan King.
   We begin with John King and the pilgrims. As most of you know, the pilgrims sailed to America to escape religious persecution in 1620. These brave outcasts secured passage to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the New World aboard one of the many ships sailing the Atlantic at the time, the Mayflower. They agreed to send back anything of value they found to the ship's owner, a trader named Thomas Weston.
   When they landed in Plymouth, they found a cold and meager existence constantly threatened by Indians. Half the pilgrims died in the first year. As a result, the returning ships brought nothing of value back to Weston.
   Weston thought the pilgrims were self-serving and lazy, and so he sent his brother-in-law and a group of 60 men described as "the most rude and profane of the London waterfront" to Plymouth in 1622 aboard the Charity and the Swan, to motivate the pilgrims. These enforcers trampled the corn, ate the stored provisions, and created general havoc until the Pilgrim Council chased them away. They retreated north about 18 miles and settled in a village they named Wessagussett, which was later named Weymouth.
   John King was not a pilgrim, but rather one of the Thomas Weston's enforcers, now known as John King of Weymouth. He was my 8th great-grandfather.

   Later Kings on the family tree shared a passion of establishing new towns, including: Mt. Washington, Mass.; Cambridge, New York; Sharon, Conn.; and Villa City, Florida.
   Geo. Thomas King was John King's 5th great grandson."
- Howard King

   In 1898, George Thomas King and Emma (Parlow) King's son, George Morgan King, enlisted in the U.S. Army as a private and rose to command a regiment with the rank of Colonel during WW I. He was also an early student of Rollins College, which was established in 1885.

1890 - Excerpts from Villa City Promotional Booklet: "A Florida Home"

   "Prof. J. Dorman Steele, the author of the well-known series of scientific text books, says: There are physically speaking, five Floridas, each unlike the others, ... When one is asked, 'How do you like Florida?' the cautious answer would be prefixed by another query, 'Which one?'"
   "... We may either say there are three Floridas... or make a score of divisions, of which each would be found to differ from every other as much as one of the States of our Union usually differs from the adjoining ones."
   "There are immense plains of irreclaimable swamp; ... rich hammocks whose vegetable growth is as dense as that of an East Indian jungle; ... 'flatwoods', valuable now only for the timber and grazing; there are, in the centre of the peninsula, hills five hundred feet high; ... there are large tracts of gently rolling land, ... which, with comparitively little cost, can be made the Paradise of fruit grower, as the hammock is the Paradise of the gardener."
   "If one should say he had explored Florida, without having beheld the antiquated relics ... of St. Augustine, he would be laughed at. Let me whisper to the reader as a secret what every immigrant and tourist will soon know, that he who thinks he has seen the State without looking upon the natural beauties of the Palatlakaha Valley, makes a blunder vastly greater."

   "As a specimen of this region, the reader is directed to Villa City, its central point of attraction, by the following letter from Rev. J. Emory Round, D.D., to a friend in Baltimore (May 10, 1888):
   'Two months ago I reached this familiar spot, having stepped out of mid-winter weather in Baltimore into all the delights of a perfect spring. During the first two days of my visit, you were suffering all the discomforts of the unexampled blizzard, but your invalid friend, who was supposed last December to be in a rapid consumption, and whose life was thought to be measured by hours if not by minutes, was dividing the day between this porch and the surrounding garden, enjoying the open fire in the evening and early morning, more for its blaze than its warmth.
   'I would I had the pen of a Scott or the brush of a Rembrandt, that I might paint for your eyes the scene now before me. If out mutual friend, H. Boltonn Jones [a famous Baltimore artist], would try his skill upon it, he would find a landscape worthy of his powers, and the millionaires of his native city would vie with each other in offering their thousands to secure the prize. As neither Scott, Rembrandt nor Jones is here, the pen of the amateur must do its best to supply the lack. He has one advantage to cheer him. He knows the picture cannot be overdrawn.
   'Before me is a smooth downward slope, perhaps 800 feet long, extending from the porch where I write, to the waters of Lake Emma, 70 feet below the point of view. It is a beautiful, clear sheet of water. Its form is that of an ellipse, seven-eights of a mile long by three-fourths broad, though the perspective makes it seem much more eccentric than this.
   'Beyond Lake Emma is Lake Lucy, much larger, ... From this porch it seems to have the form of a secong ellipse ... This is not its real shape at all, for the eye is deceived, partly by the perspective, and partly by two islands that are not at first recognized as such. The two lakes are separated by a narrow strip of green, through which the connecting channel flows, and by two sharp, triangular points of land on the right and left resoectively. The shape of these lakes, and their banks, seems as perfect as that of the artificial lakes that adorn our city parks, and when a closer view discloses slight irregularities, the favorable impression is deepened by the absence of everything like the stiffness of mathematical precision.
   'The land is smoothly undualating, no sudden elevations nor depressions, as gentle in its rise and fall 'as if God's finger touched but did not press in making it,' sloping quite to the water's edge with not a sign of swamp...
   'Excepting a few spots that have been cleared to make room for gardens and orange groves, the land is covered with a thin growth of pine, with a more or less liberal mixture of black oak, willow, oak, sweet gum, hickory, live oak, and other hard wood trees. As the latter are of a much lighter color than the pines that overtop them, especially in the freshness of early spring, and as the diffrence in hue between the various hardwood trees themselves is very marked, the contrast forms one of the indescribable glories of a Florida spring.
   'All this is spread out before me at a single glance. Photographers have given us views of it wondrously beautiful, but they lack the coloring. H. Bolton Jones, if he were here, could supply this want, but he could only give one or two views, and they would be but approximate ones; while the scene now before me is only one of the countless changes of the Palatlakaha kaleidoscope.

[Contributors: Rev. J. Emory Round, Barbara Wyckoff, George Morgan King, Howard King, Simon Thomas Brown Jr., Jason Brown]

Next Article: 1885 - A. L. Stuckey