Instructions:
1....Print this file.
2....At its end, click on "rules" to see a copy of the trail rules, print it, and then click where indicated at the end of the 3-page rules and patch order form to get back to the list of Florida trails.
3....If you want a hand-drawn map showing the locations of all of the sites, send a self-addressed envelope to Steve Rajtar, 1614 Bimini Dr., Orlando, FL 32806.
4....Hike the trail and order whatever patches you like (optional).
WARNING - This trail may pass through one or more neighborhoods which, although full of history, may now be unsafe for individuals on foot, or which may make you feel unsafe there. Hikers have been approached by individuals who have asked for handouts or who have inquired (not always in a friendly manner) why the hikers are in their neighborhood. Drugs and other inappropriate items have been found by hikers in some neighborhoods. It is suggested that you drive the hike routes first to see if you will feel comfortable walking them and, if you don't think it's a good place for you walk, you might want to consider (1) traveling with a large group, (2) doing the route on bicycles, or (3) choosing another hike route. The degree of comfort will vary with the individual and with the time and season of the hike, so you need to make the determination using your best judgment. If you hike the trail, you accept all risks involved.
(From Interstate 4, drive east on SR 46 to 1st St. in Geneva (at the intersection with CR 426). Drive north on 1st St. to the second building on your right and park.)(0.0 miles walked so far, 0.0 miles total)
The Geneva Historical and Genealogical Society was founded in 1952, and one of its first projects was a museum to house artifacts and information about the early days of this area. Two charter members donated a parcel of land in 1965, and the museum was built that summer. The official dedication took place in May of 1966.
The museum is open to the public from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. on Sundays from October through April, or by appointment.
On January 22, 1881, Joseph Garron donated land to the village for the construction of a town hall. It was built on an east-west axis with a single story in 1887, and was later increased to two stories to provide a meeting place for Geneva Grove No. 107 of the Woodmen of the World, chartered on February 19, 1913. This second town hall, using some of the original exterior wood, was built on a north-south axis in the early 1930s by the Works Progress Administration. Lumber for the interior came from the Osceola Cypress Company.
Early Geneva was nearly an island surrounded by wetlands, Lakes Jesup and Harney, and the St. Johns and Econlockhatchee Rivers. During the land boom of the early 1900s, northern newspapers carried advertisements urging those looking for a tropical paradise to "Visit the island of Geneva".
This narrow strip of dry land connected it to Oviedo.
This land was donated by Progar and Adelaide Deborgary from Russia. They were part of the many families who came here in the 1860s to the 1890s from Georgia, North and South Carolina, Russia, France and Scotland. They came to fish, plant citrus, raise cattle, build packing houses and work at the turpentine works or the cypress mill.
The church building was erected here, and moved in 1926 to its present location just east of the present brick school on Main St. Rev. Robert W. Lawton of Oviedo was the pastor from September 20, 1880, until 1883, and again became pastor on February 18, 1888.
The Lake Harney Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church South was organized on November 17, 1877, and had a building on the north shore of Lake Geneva. It first held services in the log schoolhouse west of the cemetery and later had a building on the northeast shore of Lake Geneva.
The first services were held at this location in 1912. Formal dedication, with Rev. A.L. Hope presiding, took place in 1913.
Originally called the Lake Harney Baptist Church, this is one of several founded by George Cader Powell. He moved from Live Oak to what is now downtown Oviedo in December of 1867.
Powell and his family feared freed slaves after his son deserted the Confederate army in 1865 and joined a band of conspirators led by John Wilkes Booth. They assaulted Lincoln's presidential carriage in an unsuccessful kidnapping attempt in March of that year. The following month, while Booth was at Ford's Theater, Powell's son appeared at the home of Secretary of State William Seward and assaulted him and others. The son was convicted of conspiracy and assault, and was executed. Powell moved to Geneva in 1880 and died the following year.
The church was built near the cemetery in 1875 and dedicated on June 17, 1882, with a membership of 10. It was later moved to Main St. east of the present brick school. The educational building to the rear was built in 1966, and in 1985, a new building to house the church was built across the street at 325 1st St.
In 1903, Ed Quigg and W.A. Tillis built a one-room schoolhouse here just east of the present brick school building. Ten years later, it was consolidated with the school in the community of Buda, located to the south. The wooden building was replaced in 1923 by the brick building still standing at this corner.
This church began in 1926 under the leadership of Rev. A.J. Muller. They began holding services near the present church site under a brush arbor, and built a church on land donated by Rev. McMillan. The building was finished on April 27, 1926. After the church burned in 1926, the present block church was erected.
Emma Van Brunt Wilcox had a home built at Harney Cove in the late 1870s near this site. She is credited with bringing about the name change to "Geneva", likely after her home town of New Geneva, New York. Later, ownership of the property changed hands and it was known as the Wakefield Place.
In 1880, A.J. "Uncle Jack" Holder donated land near this site for construction of a church building. It was later converted into a residence.
At approximately this site, the Pattishall Store (including the post office) and house were built about 1907.
In the early days, Mills M. Lord brought the mail from Mellonville in a rowboat and left it at the Coefield General Store near this site. Herbert A. Coefield was officially appointed postmaster in 1880, and the mail came after that time from Orlando, carried by Adolph Speer and Adolph Dexter. After the railroad came through in 1886, the mail was brought by buckboard driven by Tom Gilmore.
This building was erected in 1950, while J.P. Lowrey was the minister.
This site has seen a succession of stores, beginning with Flynt and Rehbinder's, which opened in February of 1912. It was later owned by Louis Hughey and Cader Hart. The wooden store, which housed the post office, burned down in 1926. Two years later, the present rusticated block and stucco building was erected and now houses the Geneva Grocery and Feed Store.
In 1990, a national Coca Cola TV commercial was filmed here. A Coca Cola bottling plant was operated by Endor Curlett from 1912 to 1915, west of where Old Mims Rd. intersects with SR 46.
To the north was Flynt Inn. To the west was Brown's Garage. Across the street (from east to west) were the Blue Goose Packing House, Wick's Store and post office, and Harrison's Store.
Beginning in 1912, the Florida East Coast Railroad ran through Geneva. The railroad station was approximately here, on the south side of the tracks. Adjacent to the southeast was the Chase Packing House, and nearby to the southwest was Logan's Store. The railroad went out of business in 1930 and the tracks were taken up in 1940.
This church was established in 1910. The first church building was replaced with the present structure in 1988, as a result of the efforts of Rev. L.C. Dorsey, Rt. Rev. P.R. Cousin Bishop, and Rev. H.E. Green.
The first road to Sanford was built in 1910, and was bricked in 1917. Using this route, the 30-mile trip from Sanford via Cook's Ferry began at 4:00 a.m. and took all day. Until the road was built, the Sanford-to-Cook's Ferry section was traveled by boat. The ferry was later replaced by a turnbridge. This state route, constructed of a mixture of sand and oil, was completed in 1946.
The new post office building was dedicated here in November of 1961. It replaced the post office located in what is now the Geneva Grocery and Feed Store.
(Walk east on Osceola Fish Camp Rd. to its end, then turn to the right and walk toward the lake to the wooden historic marker.)(6.1, 12.0)
In 1836-37, before the attack on Ft. Mellon (the predecessor of Sanford), this was the site of a Seminole settlement. The leader was Emaltha (King Philip), and the settlement was known to the white settlers by his name. He and his son, Coacoochee (Wildcat), led about 200 Indians and blacks against the soldiers at Ft. Mellon, touching off an army offensive which drove most of them to the south of here.
The marker was placed here in 1985 with a great deal of ceremony, including a dance by Cherokee Chief H.A. Rhoden (Red Eagle). Before the Seminole Wars, this area was known by some as "The Gap".
Nearby is a mound resulting from discarded shells of the early Indian settlers. Among the noted anthropologists who have examined the mound were Daniel Britton (1850s), Jeffries Wyman (1860s) and Clarence B. Moore (1890s). they found evidence of both the Orange (2000-500 B.C.) and the St. Johns (500 B.C.-1500 A.D.) cultures.
In the 1850s, after the days of King Philip and the Seminoles, this area was known as Cook's Ferry because Mr. Cook operated a ferry crossing at this site. The ferry, one of four on this stretch of river, was guided by submerged fixed wire cables and the settlers' citrus and produce was hand-poled across to reach markets in Sanford. The poles were grooved to slide on and grip the cables when pulling pressure was applied by the ferry operators. This location was served by 39 steamboats.
Pine trees like these were the source of a major industry, important from 1899 to 1927. At its high point, about 300 individuals were employed in 80 buildings, with 27 mules and horses. Woodcutting activity was generally confined to the sawmills, but one enterprise cut and floated logs to Jacksonville around 1900. The turpentine still was located south of SR 46, two miles east of Geneva.
The area located near Cook's Ferry was known as Bridge End beginning in 1911, when the Florida East Coast Railroad crossed the St. Johns River. This farm was established in 1913, and was named after that area.
Osceola Cypress Company, originally from the Cedar Key area, built the town about a mile below Lake Harney in 1916-18, including a self-sufficent mill and housing and support for 200 people. the mill was located to the northeast on the lakeshore, and most of the stores and offices were on the other side of the main road.
The company cut trees in the Lake Okeechobee area and hauled them here by railroad. Large cypress trees also came from Bithlo, 18 miles to the south. At its peak, the mill cut from 55,000 to 60,000 board feet per day.
This cypress mill town prospered from about 1916 into the 1940s. During the 1920s, it was expected to eventually become the biggest town in Seminole County.
The presence of the mill provided benefits not found in most other settlements. The mill's generator provided electricity for every home until 9:00 p.m., and the sidewalks were made of cypress. The row of fine mahogany homes had indoor toilets.
The company phased out the operation by 1939 and moved some of its equipment to Port Everglades.
All that remains of the settlement of Osceola is this vault, which was used by the Osceola Cypress Company from 1916 to 1940. The steel door was removed and taken to the company's offices in Fort Lauderdale.
To the southwest at the present site of the Seminole County Landfill was Osceola Field, an airfield with four runways to serve this community. It served as an auxilliary field of the Sanford Naval Air Station during World War II. Runways may still be seen there.
Looking south from here on the west side of this road were a school, two-story boarding house, post office, barber shop, general store, grocery store, bank and a doctor's ofice.
(Drive southwest 1.5 miles on Osceola Rd., south and west 1.0 mile on Settlers Loop E., south 1.4 miles on Winona Rd., east 0.3 mile on Lake Harney Rd., south 1.0 mile on Whitcomb Rd., and east on Fort Lane Rd. through the entrance to Fort Lane Park.)(8.5, 19.9)
Fort Lane became a military post on December 18, 1837, and was occupied by Companies F and K of the 2nd U.S. Infantry, commanded by Brevet Maj. Greenleaf Dearborn. Following March 16, 1838, it was not garrisoned on a regular basis.
This site is owned by the Geneva Historical and Genealogical Society.
The lake was named by Lt. Col. William Harney, the army officer who "discovered" it on November 10, 1837, while aboard the steamship "Santee". The prior name of Geneva was Harney Cove, a name it kept until the late 1870s. Until after the turn of the century, commercial fishing on Lakes Jesup, Harney and Monroe, plus the St. Johns River, generated more money for what is now Seminole County than all other businesses combined.
This church was founded on July 4, 1909, by Deacon Henry Detreville, Sr. He had arrived here in 1905 and named the community "Snow Hill".
After about seven months worshipping under a brush arbor, the congregation purchased land from Preston Flowers. Rev. W.M. McMillan was chosen as the first pastor, and the church was erected. During the tenure of Rev. E.J. Peacock from 1921 to 1924, the highway was changed and the church became accessible by a paved road. Deacon Detreville donated the present site and a new building was erected.
The church was remodeled while Rev. A.J. Shaw was pastor, from 1931 to 1940. The choir stand was enlarged and several other areas were added or enlarged from 1944 to 1957, while Rev. C.J. Jackson was the pastor.
For many years, while there was a smaller bridge here, this was a popular place to park at night. With the car's lights off, an eerie glow would appear, sometimes described as blue and gaseous, or white with a yellow glow. It would appear on the shore beyond the bridge, or sometimes on the bridge itself, or over the river's surface.
The new bridge was completed in 1996.
Shortly after the Civil War, nine families from Whiteville, North Carolina, traveled by oxcart to this area to establish a new community. W.C. Jacobs was the patriarch of the new settlement, and the other pioneer families were named Harrell, Roberts, Long, Simmons, Mizelle, Taylor, and Jacobs (G.M. and P.J.).
In the Creek language, "Chuluota" means "pine island". This may have been the name of the original Seminole village which predated the 1880s community developed by Robert A. Mills. Mills chose to use the name "Chuluota". In 1892, Henry Flagler created the Chuluota Land Company for the purpose of selling land acquired by the Florida East Coast Railroad.
One of Chuluota's most famous residents was Herbert L. Stoddard, Sr., who spent his boyhood here from 1893 to 1900. He describes those years in Memoirs of a Naturalist, written in 1969. He is also known for his book The Bobwhite Quail and his contributions to forestry management, ornithology, ecology, and wildlife research.
Chuluota was the center of a major land development project in 1914, initiated by the Model Land Company, a Flagler System enterprise. It was intended to attract settlers to Florida and make business for the Florida East Coast Railway. Thousands of acres were cut up into ten-acre grove sites, but few came to buy. After the trains stopped running in the 1930s, the tracks were taken up and the depots were sold.
This building, erected in the early 1900s, was built as a school during the railroad era. It later served as a library and community house.
The company located here until the late 1990s dealt in rare and out of print books on Florida subjects. A successor company operated Mickler's Floridiana in Oviedo, which dealt in new books.
This building was erected in 1913 as a home for Charles D. Brumley, a land agent of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad.
This is the last surviving "old" lodging establishment, having been built in 1914. It was built during the time that Chuluota, about a mile west and north of Lake Mills, was drawing the focus of activity away from the lake. The Lake Mills settlement had begun in 1870 when Robert Mills moved there from Orlando.
The first service of this church was held on October 19, 1958, and the charter was formalized in 1960. The individuals who were instrumental in establishing it were Rev. Billy McDaniels, George Boulden, Edward Richardson, Edward Kuhlman, Robert Meyers and Joe Armstrong.
The congregation initially met in the Chuluota schoolhouse, later called the Chuluota Community Building, then the Fire Station, and now the VFW Post Building.
The land on which the church building is located was purchased in April of 1959, and construction of the west wing began in 1962. The sanctuary was begun in 1965, using plans drawn up by Fred Stumpf.
This house was built in 1919 to house the stationmaster for the Florida East Coast Railway. It has three bedrooms and two bathrooms, as well as a pool which was added later.
(To return to Interstate 4, drive west on Seventh St., south on CR 419, and west on SR 50 to Orlando.)
A Sightseeing Tour of Seminole County Historic Sites, (Seminole County Historical Commission 1991)
Early Days of Seminole County, Florida, by Arthur E. Franke, Jr. (Seminole County Historical Commission 1988)
Flashbacks: The Story of Central Florida's Past, by Jim Robison and Mark Andrews (The Orlando Sentinel 1995)
Gathering Clusters of Goldenrod, by Mary E. Johnston (Goldenrod Historical Society, Inc. 1992)
History of the First South Florida Missionary Baptist Association, by Altermese Smith Bentley (The Mickler House 1988)
Slovaks in Florida, by Andrew F. Hudak, Jr. (DaK Grafik Print 1991)
Webb's Historical, Industrial and Biographical Florida, by Wanton S. Webb (W.S. Webb & Co. 1885)
Click here for a copy of the trail rules.