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A BRIEF HISTORY OF SORRENTO,
FLORIDA
By Miss Hattie Allen
Sorrento is located nineteen miles west of Sanford and five miles
east of Mount Dora. The country is high and rolling and before
the turpentine stills and lumber mills took their toll, was covered
with forests and stately pines.
When the first white settlers came in 1875, this was part of
Orange County and Orlando was the County Seat. In 1887, Lake County
was created from parts of Orange and Sumter Counties and Tavares
became the County Seat.
The first white man to settle in this section was a Mr. Lyons
in 1875. Information about him is lacking.
Later the same year, Mr. William Buts with his wife, two sons
and two daughters, came from Missouri. They drove in from Melonville
which they had presumably reached by boat on the St. John’s
River. Mr. Butts took up a homestead a mile and one-half west
of the present Sorrento post office and he and each of his sons,
Calvin and Warren, built cabins and planted orange groves.
About this time, five young men came from Ohio. They were Ed
Averill, Charles Adams, and his brother Joe, A.S. Matlack and
H.B. Paxton, all bachelors. Some took up homesteads and others
bought smaller parcels of land. All built cabins and planted groves
and three of them became permanent Florida citizens.
These first white settlers found several colored families living
about a mile north of Sorrento. They were slaves and children
of slaves from the plantation of Mr. Delk at Rock Springs. When
freed at the beginning of the Civil War, some joined the Union
Army, but at the close of the war they returned to settle near
the home of their mother, Aunt Hettie Weir, from whom many of
the early settlers bought their first orange trees. Two other
colored families lived on the Rock Springs road - Uncle Pete and
Aunt Mary Frazier and their children and Joe Jenkins and his family.
Their descendants still live in this section.
Wild game was plentiful. Bear, wolves and panther traveled from
the Big Scrub at the north to the hammocks along the Wekiva River
and Rock Springs Creek. Deer were common as late as 1884.
Mr. Gill, who homesteaded on Lake Beauclaire, south of Sorrento,
sold his property to Mr. Dudley Adams and bought mules and a wagon
to establish a route from Mount Dora to Melonville. There were
seven families along the way. As some of them lived at a distance
from the road, Mr. Gill carried a cow horn which he blew when
approaching a home. The residents would then bring their out-going
mail and grocery lists to him and on his return trip he would
deliver their orders and incoming mail. He made one round-trip
each week.
A regular boat line from Jacksonville to Astor on the St. Johns
River brought in passengers and freight. A narrow gauge railroad
connected with Fort Mason. From there, travel was by horse and
wagon.
About 1880, Mr. and Mrs. J.P. Kerr and family arrived from Indiana,
Mr. and Mrs. A. K. Reeve and son from Brooklyn, and Mr. and Mrs.
Miner and daughter from Milford, Connecticut. All built homes
here.
By this time, a mill at Seminole Springs was supplying lumber
and also, Mr. William Summerville had a mill on Wolfe Branch Road.
Mr. Butts established a brick mill on his homestead. He was joined
in business by Mr. Edward Budgeon in connection with the large
lumber mill of Mr. Lovejoy.
A name was needed for the little settlement and as the residents
had been reading a new book called, “Agnes of Sorrento”,
and as the fruits and flowers of Italy’s Sorrento were so
much like what they wanted for their Florida homes, the majority
voted to name the new town, Sorrento.
Mr. Averill built a hotel and a small store building which he
stocked with groceries. Later, he sold the property to Dr. Thomas,
a retired physician from Ohio, who operated the hotel from 1882.
The store was sold to A.S. Matlack and C. G. Adams. This firm
was later joined by A. E. Allen and the store, in a larger building,
served the community and surrounding country for more than sixty
years.
In 1881-82, Mr. William Allen and his son, Arthur Allen, from
Ohio, had bought land and before the year was out, had built houses,
planted groves and brought their families.
Later, William Allen built a store on his property about a mile
south of the Sorrento Post Office. At this time, Arthur Allen
clerked in his father’s store and a younger brother hauled
the supplies from Fort Mason, leaving before daylight and returning
after dark from the ten-mile trip over deep sandy roads.
About 1885, Mr. and Mrs. A. L. Emerson and their three children
came from Cleveland, having bought a grove near the Allens. Mrs.
Emerson was a sister of William Allen.
The next year, Mr. and Mrs. George Dowler came from Ohio. Mrs.
Dowler and Mrs. A E. Allen were twin sisters.
Other families who were here in the early days but whose dates
of arrival we do not know, include:
Mr. and Mrs. Summerville from Massachusetts, whose daughter,
Flora, was the first child born in the new town.
Mr. and Mrs. Alf Woodcock of Massachusetts. Mr. Woodcock was
Mrs. Summerville’s brother.
Mr. and Mrs. McCauley and daughter from Ohio. Mrs. Brown and
daughter, Mabel. Mr. and Mrs. Howard and family from Wisconsin.
The Gillettes, the Needhams, the Registers, the Daughterys, the
Brooks, the Mitchells, the Revels and Dr; Hause, a dentist.
One of the first buildings for the use of the public was a Town
Hall built by a stock company of early citizens. One of the first
organizations was the Sorrento Literary Society, which had a monthly
program and business meeting in the Town Hall. This society owned
its own organ, had several excellent musicians and staged home-talent
plays, arranged basket suppers, ice cream socials, dances, etc.
and on the Sabbath, a community Sunday School was conducted and
ministers of different denominations preached the sermons.
In 1883, the Presbyterian
Church was organized and in 1884, the Ladies Aid Society began
its work which has continued to the present day.
In 1886, the church
building was opened with Rev. C M. Livingston of New York City
as its first pastor.
Mr. Livingston and
his wife and daughter, Grace, then a charming young lady, lived
at the Averill house. Grace Livingston later became a well -known
novelist, writing as Grace Livingston Hill.
The hotel in the pine
woods had some quite famous guests. Among them were Miss Rose
Cleveland, sister of President Cleveland; Miss Boise, sister of
Senator Boise of Idaho; Dr. and Mrs. Alden and the latter being
a well-known author, using the pen name of “Pansy”.
The Sorrento Improvement
Society was organized quite early in the history of the village.
The men and boys gave a day of work in laying out streets and
clearing them, while the women prepared a big dinner which was
served at noon in the Town Hall. The giant oak trees of today
are a monument to the workers of those early years who set them
out as saplings along the highways. The Field Days were happy
community affairs.
Land for a cemetery
was given from the homestead of Mr. Calvin Butts and was cleared
by this same organization. It was laid out in lots and blocks,
numbered and a large plat was made by Mr. A. S. Matlack. He also
made a plat of the village, all free service for the place he
loved.
The Town Hall was used
as a public schoolhouse and the early teachers were of the community:
Prof. A .K. Beam from Ohio, Miss Brooks from Ohio, Mrs. Henry
Reeve, a former teacher in Brooklyn, Prof. Dodson from Iowa and
Mrs. Thomas, a teacher of languages in Wooster College, Ohio before
coming to Florida. She also taught advanced pupils in private
school.
The Jacksonville, Tampa
and Key West Railroad was completed and a branch line from Sanford
to Tavares through Sorrento brought more people into this section.
The first trains were
running for passengers and freight in 1886. Groves were coming
into bearing, packing houses were built, a drugstore was opened
by Dr. Bliss from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and a newspaper, “The
Florida Highland Press” with Phillip Isaacs as editor and
Frank Horton , his assistant, was published in a new printing
office. The ladies organized a Chautauqua Reading Circle. All
these activities increased the village’s usefulness and
it became an important shopping and shipping point for the surrounding
country.
In the early days,
one of the pleasures was community or family picnics to the Springs.
Seminole, Rock and Clay, now called Wekiwa, were all in driving
distance even though good roads had not been heard of and transportation
was by horse and wagon.
The wagon drawn by
the little donkeys, brought from Michigan by Mr. Burmann and the
big mule team driven by Mr. Woodcock, were ready to start early
in the morning. They were loaded to capacity, children on the
laps of their parents and well-filled baskets in the center of
the wagons. These were important and long anticipated occasions
and everyone was happy.
The day was spent in
bathing, boating, fishing and the all-important dinner at noon.
If the picnic was at Wekiwa, Rock Springs was the stopping place
on the way home, for rest and more good eats from the baskets
which were still far from empty. Then on again toward home, a
tired but happy group, singing, talking, discussing the affairs
of the village and of the world.
Another summer enjoyment
was the ice cream social held by the Ladies Aid Society at the
Town Hall. Ice was brought in by train after the railroad came
through but before that, it was hauled by horse and wagon for
these special occasions. The ten gallon freezers were turned by
hand and the children waited for a taste of the cream when the
dashers were removed and the cream was packed to harden. The ice
cream and homemade cakes were sold to all comers and the money
cleared was used for the church or community projects.
Birthdays and anniversaries
were celebrated with surprise parties, each guest bringing a cup
of sugar and later receiving a saucer of taffy to be pulled until
it was white and creamy.
Thanksgiving meant
a community dinner at the Town Hall and Christmas was celebrated
at the Church with a great Christmas tree, a program of music
and recitations and presents for everyone. Santa Claus never failed
to appear and he never overlooked anyone when he distributed the
gifts.
The hour was late when
the festivities were over, the calls of a Merry Christmas were
heard, as in wagons, buckboards or walking, the happy, friendly
people returned to their homes in the village or on their groves
among the pine woods.
This writer can still
see in memory, the twinkling lanterns moving off in all directions
and hear the children saying, “There go the Allens”,
or “That must be the Registers”, and “The Emersons
are just starting up the hill”.
* * * * * * * * * * *
This material which
covers Sorrento history up to about 1894 and the BIG FREEZE, was
compiled by Miss Hattie Allen, daughter of Arthur E. Allen and
granddaughter of William Allen. She is the only one of those who
came to Sorrento in 1882 who still resides here.
The FREEZE was
a major catastrophe, not only destroying the crop, but killing
the trees to the ground. Many gave up and returned to their former
homes, but those who stuck it out, finally saw their trees once
more bearing the luscious golden fruit.
Later came big
packing houses, a prosperous turpentine still and a large sawmill
operated by George and Frank Battle. These things, with the coming
of good roads and automobiles, brought in many new settlers, many
of them retired people. A large hotel and golf course, with many
attractive residences, was built at Mt. Plymouth, about two miles
to the southeast. The town itself has not grown much in size as
Mt. Dora is only five miles away, but it is, as in the early days,
a settlement of cultured, musical and artistic people and a quiet
but happy community.
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