1885 Longwood, Florida, USA
The Central Florida we call home today was first established in the latter half of the 19th century by a cast of amazing individuals, several of whom you are about to meet in this blog series, Central Florida: America’s True Melting Pot. This series begins in Longwood, Florida, a vibrant community in Seminole County today which was originally founded in Orange County of the 1870s by Edward W. Henck.
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1846, Edward Warren Henck, a Veteran of the Civil War, came to Florida in 1875 to claim homestead land earned from his military service. Walking from Lake Monroe southbound that year, Henck selected 160 acres a mile west of the well-established dirt trail that had for two decades previously served as a main trail to the county seat at Orlando.
Upon his death in 1930, Edward W. Henck’s obituary stated that he had the distinction of being the last surviving member of The Guard of Honor at the funeral of President Abraham Lincoln.
Left: Edward W. Henck; Right: Pyotr Alexeyevitch Dementyev (aka Peter A. Demens).
Within five years of his arrival in what was then Orange County, Edward Henck laid out his town of Longwood, Florida and organized several local pioneers to establish a railroad to connect Lake Monroe with Orlando. Serving as the first President of the South Florida Railroad, Henck’s train to Orlando, which began daily service in November 1880, was routed through his town of Longwood.
"The Herald" Locomotive of The South Florida Railroad
Financing for the South Florida Railroad came from Edwin B. Haskell and Royal M. Pulsifer, owners of the Boston Herald newspaper. Dr. Clement C. Haskell, Edwin Haskell’s brother and a Maitland, Florida pioneer, had made the introduction and served as the new railroad venture’s Treasurer. The South Florida Railroad also passed through Maitland on its way south to Orlando.
A Portion of the April 1886 Plat of Longwood, Florida
A portion of Henck’s 1886 Plat of Longwood (see above) details the alignment of South Florida Railroad as it passes through historic Longwood on a route used today by Sunrail. Note also on the above 1886 Plat that a second railroad, Orange Belt Railway, began in downtown Longwood, crossed the South Florida Railroad tracks, and continued west.
The Orange Belt Railroad was founded by a Russian immigrant, Pyotr Alexeyevitch Dementyev, who upon arriving in America in 1881, shortened his name to Peter A. Demens (see photo above right of Edward W. Henck). After finding his way to Longwood and seeing that railroad building was all the rage in Central Florida, Demens established a sawmill operation on land he acquired from Henck and began selling wood cross ties. The Demens sawmill is visible in the 1885 sketch above of Longwood. Peter A. Demens, by 1886, was building his very own railroad, connecting Lake Monroe with West Orange County, a railroad that eventually connected Lake Monroe with St. Petersburg, Florida.
Longwood of 1886, as the plat above shows, included Church, Warren, Bay, Pine and Molner Streets. All except the latter are avenues of the same name today, while Molner is today Highway 434. Molner began as an addition to Henck’s Town of Longwood, a subdivision platted by a Julius A. Molnar, an immigrant from Hungary, who arrived in Orange County, Florida prior to 1880 and platted the addition to Longwood in 1886.
The red triangle on the Plat of Longwood above, at the "southwest corner of the S. F. R. R. tracks and Warren Avenue," was the location of the James R. Poole store, where locals could purchase "staple and fancy groceries, cigars and tobacco, and Mapes' Fertilizer." James Poole was also the Postmaster for a time, and by 1886, had relocated his family home from the nearby Orange County town of GLEN ETHEL, west end of Longwood’.
A native of Iowa, James R. Poole had followed his father-in-law, Sylvester Root, from Kentland, Indiana to GLEN ETHEL, a small start-up community north of Hoosier Springs (later known as Palm Springs and Sanlando Springs). The Root family, including James Poole's wife Mary, were "Hoosiers," like that of the Indianapolis, Indiana banker who founded "Hoosier Springs."
Glen Ethel, Florida, one Orange Belt Railway towns of Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains by yours truly.
James R. Poole likely turned his interest to Longwood after trains of the South Florida Railroad began operating in 1880, although by 1886, the Orange Belt Railway would be providing rail service to Glen Ethel, a community at Mile 14 of the Orange Belt Railway. Glen Ethel was a town laid out in 1886 by Mary (Root) Poole's brother, Lt. Colonel Edwin R. Root.
Today, Glen Ethel Lane still exists, running east off Markham Woods Road a bit north of E. E. Williamson Road. The Orange Belt depot that once stood at the end of Glen Ethel Lane, however, is long gone, as are the families of Root and Poole.
October 2024 In-Person Book Events by Rick Cronin
October 9: William Pope Duval Winter Park Chapter NSDAR
October 12: Ocklawaha Lake County Chapter NSDAR
October 18 & 19, 6PM to 10PM: Haunted Ethel, Ethel State Park
October 27, 3PM to 5PM: Florida House Fund Raiser
Email Rick@CroninBooks.com for details
Glen Ethel is today a Ghost Town, as is the nearby Lake County Town of Ethel. The latter, now a state park, is being transformed as we speak into a Pioneer Village, where on the evenings of October 18 and 19, the park will be hosting "Historic Ethel, from 6PM to 10PM." If you would like to discuss Central Florida's fascinating history of Ghost Towns and Phantom Railroads, visit Ethel State Park during the Historic Ethel event and look me up. My Central Florida Railroad Museum booth will be near the main entrance. (The entrance is off Wekiva River Road south of State Road 46 and State Highway 429.) If you can attend the event, email me your questions or comments using the email address above.
As for James R. Poole, he relocated west soon after, and with his brother, they established the Denver Soap Company in Colorado. I'll have more on the Root's of Glen Ethel in my next installment of Central Florida: America's True Melting Pot.
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