Slavia Historical TrailSlavia Historical Trail

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 stamed 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.

Slavia Historical Trail

Copyright 2008 by Steve Rajtar

(From SR 50 (Colonial Dr.), drive north on SR 436 (Semoran Blvd.) and east on SR 426 (Aloma Ave.) to Chapman Rd. Turn east on Chapman and south on Church St. to park along the fence on the western edge of the cemetery. Walk into the cemetery through the gate and located the following headstones.)(0.0 miles so far)

Second section south of the gate, row closest to the grass walkway to the east

1....Dusan A. Lukas headstone

In the early 1900s, the American Slovak slogan was Spat ku gazdovstvu, or "Back to the farm." A number of immigrants from Slovakia felt uncomfortable in their occupations as workers in an industrial society. They wanted their children to grow up on farms where there would be less temptation and wickedness of the large cities.

In 1911, members of the Holy Trinity Slovak Lutheran Church in Cleveland, Ohio, chose two individuals to investigate Florida's claims of a healthy climate and productive soil. In August of that year, they reported suitable sites near Bartow, Taft and Oviedo. They formed the Slavia Colony Company, headquartered in Cleveland. In October, they began the purchase of 1,200 acres near Oviedo from D.W. Currie and others for $22,271.13.

(Same section, row closest to the fence.)(0.0)

Same section, row closest to the fence.)

2....Paul Lukas (9/25/1886-1/28/1939)

Paul and his family settled in Slavia during 1912. He obtained permission to cut timber which had already been exhausted for turpentine purposes, and managed the colony's lumber operation. That was the family's first venture involving plants other than farming, and that is continued today by Paul's descendants and their nursery business.

(Same section and row, to the north.)(0.0)

Same section and row, to the north.

3....Martin Stanko (1880-1950)

Stanko and Rev. Leopold Alexander Jarosi were the two that the Holy Trinity congregation chose to investigate sites in Florida. He was also one of the five incorporators of the Slavia Colony Company. He served as the President of the congregation of St. Luke's from 1929 until 1934, after serving a year as one of its two trustees.

(Same section and row, to the north.)(0.0)

Same section and row, to the north

4....George Jakubcin, Sr. (6/14/1887-6/5/1978)

He and his wife arrived in Slavia in 1912. Jakubcin started the colony's first orange grove, but it had to be destroyed because of citrus canker. He traveled around Florida raising funds to help support the colony. He invented a means of quickly traveling between Slavia and Winter Park. He took a bicycle, removed the tires and added a third tireless wheel off to the side. He place the wheels on the train rails and was able to go much faster than he could on the rutted dirt roads.

(Next section to the north, row closest to the fence.)(0.0)

Next section to the north, row closest to the fence

5....Andrew Duda (11/9/1873-1/20/1958)

Duda moved to the U.S. from Czechoslovakia in 1909 and was joined by his wife and four children in 1912. They moved to Slavia and may have tried growing celery by 1913, but if they did it wasn't successful. By 1915, he was transporting the colony's children to school in Oviedo. In 1916, after concluding that Slavia was undercapitalized, he gave up and moved back to Cleveland, but returned to Slavia ten years later.

(Same section, row to the east closest to the wide grass walkway.)(0.0)

Same section, row to the east closest to the wide grass walkway

6....Josef Mikler (1880-1963)

Mikler was one of the group who, as soon as the land was purchased, immediately wanted to move to Florida. He sold his Cleveland house and boarded the train with his wife and three children. However, they were kicked off the train at the next stop because in their haste they had forgotten to buy tickets. He was still the first to arrive, and in February of 1912 found it cold and wet. He had been expecting warm weather and orange groves. They moved into a shack on the west side of the railroad tracks. In the mid-1920s, he began growing celery, a crop then grown by several families. It was carried to Oviedo, where it was transported by train to Atlanta and Savannah.

(Walk south on the grass walkway to the small wooden building just south of the last headstones.)(0.1)

Southern edge of St. Jude's Cemetery

7....First Church

On March 17, 1912, in Cleveland, eight men organized the congregation of St. Luke the Evangelizer, with Andrew Duda, Sr. as its president. The early church services in Slavia were held in one of the shacks which had been erected in the area for turpentine workers before the Slavia settlers arrived. They had wooden shutters and no glass in the windows. The one used for the church, now located within the cemetery, has been modified several times over the years. It was covered with aluminum siding and for decades was used for storage and allowed to deteriorate.

(Re-enter the cemetery, taking the grass walkway to the section at the northeast corner of the cemetery.)(0.1)

Northeasternmost section of the cemetery, row closest to the grass walkway to the west

8....Michael J. Dinda, Jr. (1895-1978)

Dinda moved to Slavia with his father in 1913 and for a few years was the only teenager in the colony. He was one of a group of settlers who, in 1920, brought suit to eliminate land claims within Slavia in favor of 34 people, including the men who sold the land to the company. The conflicting claims were resolved in favor of the settlers because by that time, they had fenced the land, cut the timber, and planted crops. Six years later, another similar suit cleared the title to another 850 acres of disputed lands, with the court finding in favor of the settlers.

(Walk west to the westernmost row of the cemetery section due east of the gate.)(0.1)

North central section, row closest to the gate

9....Steven Miroslav Tuhy (10/14/1909-12/26/1967)

In the early years, the settlers had to conduct their own religious services. On rare occasions, a visiting clergyman would baptize, confirm, or distribute communion. Rev. Tuhy was installed as the first permanent pastor of St. Luke's in 1934. He had initially been assigned to St. Luke's for only six months, but the congregation obtained him on a permanent basis once they offered a monthly salary of $65 plus housing.

(Continue west to the cemetery gate.)(0.2)

Southeast corner of Chapman Rd. and Church St.

10....St. Luke's Cemetery

For seven years, the colonists asked the Slavia Colony Company for a deed to cemetery land, then discovered that the plt they were requesting was too far away and had no good access road. They then selected these two acres at the corner of the ten-acre church property. The first burial occurred here on February 9, 1933, when they buried John Mikler, the son of Joseph and Katarina Mikler.

(Walk north on the west side of SR 426 to the intersection with Slavia Rd.)0.9)

Northwest corner of SR 426 and Slavia Rd.

11....Site of Railroad Depot

Some men worked in Henry Overstreet's shingle mill in Oviedo. Others worked at the citrus packing plant, which by the 1920s employed most of the Slavia residents. Crops which were shipped from Slavia went by train, loaded at the depot located here. It was little more than a small elevated platform with a roof supported by a back wall.

(Walk north on SR 426 to the intersection with Mitchell Hammock Rd.)(1.4)

Vicinity of Mitchell Hammock Rd.

12....Slavia Drainage District

Here is located what is left of Lightwood Knox Creek, and Simon W. Taylor operated a sawmill along it as early as 1875. He dammed the creek to create a large swamp below Mitchell Hammock so he could float his logs to the mill. Mitchell Hammock and Mitchell Hammock Rd. are named for Batts N. Mitchell, a Georgia dentist who homesteaded 160 acres near here in 1875. He and his son planted a new variety of citrus, the African orange, which we now call the tangerine.

In the 1930s, the Slavia Drainage District, including lands outside of Slavia, was formed to bring 4,500 acres of nearby low-lying mucklands under cultivation. The non-Slavia landowners failed to pay their share of the cost of digging canals, and the operation went bankrupt. Later, the project was revived and completed with Martin Stanko and Andrew Duda, Jr. obtained a $31,000 loan from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation.

(Walk southwest on SR 426 to the large yellow and stone sign.)(1.7)

Northeast corner of SR 426 and Duda Tr.

13....A. Duda and Sons

When Andrew Duda, Sr. returned from Cleveland in 1926, he founded a partnership with his three sons. This time, he was successful in growing celery. The family farm business grew into one of the nation's largest. In 1967, the farm switched from celery to sod as its main crop.

(Continue southwest on SR 426 to the intersection with E. Red Bug Rd.)(1.9)

Southeast corner of SR 426 and E. Red Bug Rd. (1945 W. SR 426)

14....Stanko Store

Martin Stanko, one of the pair who did the original investigating of the site, didn't move here until 1926. When he did, he opened this store and sold soft drinks, candy, tobacco and groceries. A gas pump stood right beneath the first "A" in the painted sign.

In the 1930s, mail was no longer kept in Maitland for the residents to come and pick up. Unfortunately, their mailboxes were in Gabriella, so they still had to travel two miles to the southwest to get it. Also in the 1930s, electric power lines reached Slavia.

(Continue southwest on SR 426 to the unmarked intersection with Church St. - it looks like a driveway for the church.)(2.2)

East side of SR 426, between Slavia and Chapman Rds. (2021 W. SR 426)

15....Second Church

The Slavia Colony Company dissolved in 1928, and its four remaining stockholders divided up the remaining acreage. By then, the real organization uniting the residents was St. Luke's Slovak Evangelical Luthersn Church. Residents constructed a brick church, completing it in 1939. Additions were made over the years, including the late 1990s construction of a new sanctuary which dwarfs the original section which now serves as its entryway.

(Continue southwest on Church St. until it ends.)(2.5)

Northeast corner of SR 426 and Chapman Rd.

16....Lutheran Haven

This facility for Lutherans was chartered as a non-profit home for children and the elderly on May 30, 1948. In the earliest days of Slavia, the residents complained that they rarely ever saw a Lutheran minister, either sent by their home church in Cleveland or the one in downtown Orlando. After the opening of Lutheran Haven, they had a least a dozen who resided here.

(Walk southwest on SR 426, east on Chapman Rd. and south on Church St. to the point of beginning.)(2.7)

Bibliography

Like a Mustard Seed, by Paul Wehr (Mickler House 1982)

Click here for a copy of the trail rules.

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