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 stamped 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.
There are two versions of this trail, the long one (11.9 miles) and the short one (5.8 miles). The longer one has a few more historical sites and a longer "in the woods" section. Both cover all of downtown Paisley.
Ellison H. Crow and his family lived for a time at Crows Bluff, a settlement east of here on the west bank of the St. Johns River, and then homesteaded land in Ponceannah. Both Crow and Rev. Louis Ballard have been given credit for starting Ponceannah, which grew up around the sawmill of Robert L. Kirkland. Crow and Kirkland formed a partnership and had a general store.
Crow donated land for the cemetery in 1860, called the Crow Burial Grounds. It eventually was called the Ponceannah Cemetery, chartered by trustees on November 6, 1891. Newman Brantley was the first adult buried here, in 1861. There may have been a child buried here in 1860, but there are no records to prove it.
In 1918, the cemetery association exchanged tracts of land with the Crow family, to give the cemetery frontage on the main trail, which later became CR 42. In 1923, Jessie Perkins raised money to construct the present hexagonal shelter, used as a chapel, meeting place, and rest area for workers on the twice-yearly cleanup days.
In the cemetery are the graves of Walt Disney's maternal grandparents, Charles and Henrietta Call. Charles was buried in 1890 in Maple Grove Cemetery, located a short distance northeast of Kismet. When his widow, Henrietta Call, died in 1910, their daughter Jessie Call Perkins had Mr. Call exhumed and buried beside Mrs. Call in Ponceannah Cemetery. They are buried near the back of the cemetery beneath a stone monument that is carved to resemble a tree stump.
There is also a well dug in the mid-1950s by Maceo and Ruth Kirkland. Although it has been sealed and is no longer in use, it was left standing as a tribute to the Kirklands for their years of community service.
Also included in the cemetery are the graves of the Fullers, a family who moved here from Saskatchewan in 1920 and settled about five miles east of Paisley. About ten days after they arrived, daughter Thelma died and they purchased a block of lots here. The Fullers built a general store with gasoline pumps, with living quarters in the back. Niles Fuller named the area Fullerville, served by the general store until 1946.
This forest road follows an old trail which may be the one used in 1865 by Elbert Duncan Dykes to get to Ponceannah. Dykes, a Confederate soldier, was released from a prisoner of war camp in Waldo on May 20, 1865, and traveled here on the trail.
On the way, he saw a young woman plowing in a field and told her that he would finish the plowing if she would prepare him some food. They did, and he married her on September 6, 1865. She was Jane Elizabeth Kirland, daughter of pioneers Robert L. Kirkland and Martha B. Conner Kirkland.
A settlement here had its beginnings during the 1850s. Descendants of the pioneers still lived in the original homes into the 1930s. Its early settlers included Ellison H. Crow, who settled about a mile southeast of Lightwood Camp, and William Stokes and J.J. McEwan who lived about two miles southeast of the camp.
Rev. Louis Ballard had a church in Ponceannah during the 1880s, but there are no records regarding its location.
Here was located the settlement of Bayview, settled in the 1850s. Its early residents included Tom Lee, Robert L. Kirkland, Elbert Duncan Dykes, and the Brantley family. This section of CR 42 probably evolved from the main trail that ran here from the Ponceannah homes of William Stokes and J.J. McEwan.
The first pioneers in the area settled at Lightwood Camp in 1854. The remains of an unnamed settlement found near here are believed to be Lightwood Camp.
The early settlers included Ansil Walker, Clara Rogers and Tom DuPree and their families. They traveled here from the Carolinas, Georgia and Alabama. James J. Rutherford settled to the west of the camp.
The settlement known as Kismet was platted about two miles north of here in 1884 by the Kismet Land Development Company. It was once a thriving town populated primarily by people from Ohio, Kentucky, Missouri and Virginia. Land sold for only $15 to $20 per acre. The post office was established in 1884 and the town had a hotel, sawmill, tavern, school, and many small but comfortable homes.
The St. Johns and Eustis Railroad had planned a spur railroad track in the late 1880s, but a hard freeze in the winter of 1889 doomed the town. The hotel was torn down and rebuilt as the Grand View Hotel in Eustis. The sawmill burned down the following year, leaving few reasons to live in Kismet.
North of Kismet was the Kismet Cemetery, established in the 1880s. It included the tomb of Duke Alexander, the land baron for whom Alexander Springs is named. The red bricks which formed his tomb had been scattered by vandals, but some could still be found in the weeds in the early 1970s.
The precise site of the cemetery is difficult to find, and is a secret closely guarded by the local residents to prevent further vandalism. Some believe it was the one located in what is now the Shockley Heights subdivision, on the north side of SR 445 just west of Kismet Rd., about three miles north of the site of Kismet.
At the top of the embankment near SR 445 was a small cemetery until the 1990s, when the land was acquired by an individual who wanted it for his homesite. Since no living descendant of any of those buried there could be found, he was allowed to remove the gravestones and forever eliminate all evidence of the old cemetery.
This tower was first erected in 1939 by the Civilian Conservation Corps. On the grounds was also constructed a residence for the forest ranger aide assigned to be the lookout for the tower. In 1943, that aide was Myrle Shockley, who lived here with his wife, Lorene Collins Shockley, and their five children. He served as lookout for 26 years.
The Shockleys had a telephone and electrical generator for lights and a water pump, unlike most of the Paisley residents. Unfortunately, the generator produced only direct current so it could not run other appliances. Electrical service come to the area in 1947. Telephones became generally available in 1957.
Kepple Disney and his son, Elias, accompanied the Calls southward from their hometown of Ellis, Kansas, and acquired land just south of their former neighbors. Kepple eventually returned to Kansas, but Elias remained.
Lake County as formed on May 27, 1887, and issued its first marriage license exactly seven months later to Elias, and he married Flora Call in Kismet on January 1, 1888. They moved to Daytona, where sons Herbert and Raymond were born. They then moved to Chicago, where they had Roy in 1892, Walt in 1900 and Ruth in 1902. When Walt and Roy were teenagers, they frequently visited their aunt Jessie Perkins in Paisley, and fished and hunted in the Ocala National Forest.
Charles and Henrietta Call moved here in 1884 from Ellis, Kansas, to find warmer weather. They homesteaded 80 acres here. At first, they thought that Kismet was the closest town, and the ladies became active in The Ladies Society of Kismet and the family attended church there. Later, they found that they were actually closer to Acron.
The Call children were educated to be teachers. Mr. Call was also a teacher until he died in 1890 in a tree-felling accident on his land.
During the early 1880s, 40 acres north of the Call property were settled by Hinkley and Anne Shockley and their children. They had moved here from Milan, Indiana, upon the advice of Mrs. Shockley's doctor. They acquired more land and became successful at farming, growing citrus, and raising cattle.
In the forest near the original homestead is the Shockley family cemetery. It is tended by the Shockley descendants and is not accessible by the public.
In the early days, this was the main trail east to the St. Johns River. It connected Crows Bluff Ferry on the river with Altoona to the west. It was first paved and somewhat straightened by the county in 1923, while it was known as SR 100.
The settlement of Acron was established here in the 1860s. It was also spelled Ackron and Akron.
John Campbell moved his family here in the late 1860s from Edington, Illinois, and built a house on the north shore of the lake. Around it grew a settlement which included a sawmill, gristmills, vegetable farms and citrus groves. The Campbell house was used to accommodate visitors, sort of as a community hotel. They usually traveled here by mule and wagon after taking a 12-hour boat ride for $6 from Jacksonville to Hawkinsville on the St. Johns River.
The Acron Post Office was established on September 14, 1877, and opened in the Campbell house with John C. Campbell as the first postmaster. At the time, the mail route ran from Hawkinsville through Acron to Fort Mason, later to became Eustis.
Other settlers in the late 1870s included the George Lever family from New York, the O.M. Perkins family from Connecticut, and the Rev. Charles Jarvis Clark family from Indiana. Acron had a population of about 30 in the mid-1870s, and later grew to 300. A Presbyterian church was founded on November 5, 1879.
The Campbell property was acquired by Frank and Eula Blecha of Kansas in the late 1910s. The original Campbell house was dismantled and the lumber was used to build a new home for the Blechas. That house later was acquired by the Watts family, owners of the Swiss Haven Dairy.
A two-story log schoolhouse was built here in about 1875. Sara Campbell was its first teacher, and Flora Call was the second. The schoolhouse was also used for church services, Sunday school, Masons meetings and other social and community activities. It was the polling place for residents of the area stretching west to Altoona and Umatilla.
The Paisley Community Association was formed in 1964 and purchased the home of Iva Hight, located here, and used it as a clubhouse. In 1975, it was replaced by the present structure. The flag and flagpole were donated by the children of Charlie and Elsie Seager, two of the residents who were active in establishing the association. The association donated a portion of its property in 1980 for the construction of a fire house.
In 1903, Albert S. Perkins became the postmaster and moved the post office to the property of himself and his wife, Jessie. When their large home burned down during the 1920s, they moved into the store building, located here. Mrs. Perkins replaced her husband as the postmaster, and she served until 1945.
An organizational meeting was held in 1960 in the home of William and Estelle Salts, with Rev. Simmons of Dona Vista as their speaker. That started a series of weekly prayer meetings in private homes, and in August of that year they started meeting in the schoolhouse. On September 4, 1960, the 28-member Paisley Baptist Mission held its first service in the schoolhouse.
The mission bought the schoolhouse by 1971 and repaired it for use as their sanctuary. In September of that year, the mission became the First Baptist Church of Paisley. They later built the present sanctuary, which hosted its first service on September 4, 1977.
This congregation organized in 1869 or 1870. In 1886, Russell B. and Sarah J. Camp sold two acres of land to the church trustees for $40, and on it they built the Mount Zion Methodist Episcopal Church, commonly called The Paisley Church. Its first pastor was Brother Steinmeyer, who covered the circuit including Altoona. Next was Rev. G.W. Sellers, who lived in a parsonage behind the church.
In 1896, the Methodist Epworth League was formed to provide weekly worship services and social activities for the youth of the area. Adult services took place about once a month, but Sunday school was every week.
A new sanctuary was begun in January of 1982 a few feet to the west of the original church building, which was left intact for meetings and a fellowship hall. The new sanctuary was consecrated on March 6, 1983.
A store was built near here in 1885 and operated by J.C. Hethcox and Jennie Gardiner. The post office was included in the store, with Hethcox as the postmaster. It later did business under the name of G.H. Gardiner & Co. until 1903. This is now the site of the municipal library and a park.
J.C. Hethcox acquired property about a mile southwest of Acron and built a home in the late 1870s or early 1880s for his mother and stepfather, Rev. and Mrs. Charles Jarvis Clark. He built his own home a little to the west and lived there with his wife, Gertrude Jones.
In 1939, Euclid and Grace Parker moved to Paisley with their six children. After a time, they bought property from the Hethcox family, including this house. They first used it as an office, then as a home and post office, then added the office of the Parkers Realty Company. Mrs. Parker became the postmaster in 1945 and held that post for 25 years.
The mail in the earliest days was brought by boat to Hawkinsville, a settlement on the west bank of the St. Johns River. A carrier on horseback took the mail to Adamsville, Ponceannah and Bayview, a fifty-mile round trip from Hawkinsville which took three days. In 1859, the carrier was W.C.G. Kilgore, and later Mr. Jackson used that route. Fishermans Rd. now follows much of that early mail trail.
A post office was established in Ponceannah in 1877 with E.H. Crow as its postmaster. It was closed in 1887 and the mail then was handled in Altoona and then Paisley. The Acron and Kismet post offices closed in 1890, leaving Paisley with the only one in the area.
The present name of the town probably came from Capt. Cole, whose birthplace was in Paisley, Scotland. In Scottish, the word means "green pasture".
William and Estelle Salts moved to Paisley in 1953 and constructed two buildings. One was their home, which they sold to the Parkers and which later housed the Paisley Beauty Shoppe, and the other was a grocery store, also sold to the Parkers, and later was the Paisley Inn.
A wooden one-room schoolhouse was located here by the early 1900s, until it burned in the summer of 1923. Using the insurance proceeds, three acres were bought in 1925 for $300 and a new school was built about a mile north of here. The school served grades one through eight, and high school students went to Umatilla High School. There were two classrooms and a large utility room, with outside plumbing.
The first teacher in the new school was Beaulah Schockley. Her mother, Maude Schockley, was the last to teach in the old school.
The Paisley school closed in 1954 because of low attendance, and all children were then bused to Umatilla. The school building was rented for a few years as a Community Center, and is now part of the Baptist Church property.
In the early 1920s, when this curve was more of a corner, the Johnson family lived here and operated a small store at this location.
Seventy acres around this intersection was platted in 1926 by Mr. Quinn, who set out 540-foot lots. Few lots were sold and the Depression essentially killed the project.
George and Martha Reedy moved here in 1921 from Kentucky with five children and four grandchildren. The mother of the grandchildren, Maggie Reedy Keel, later moved down to the family home in Bayview. Maggie taught in area schools for more than thirty years and served as the principal of the Paisley School. In 1928, she married Edward Jones, and she is buried in Poinciana Cemetery. This road was named after her.
About Some Lakes and More in Lake County, by Walter Sime (1995)
Ghost Towns of Florida, by James R. Warnke (Star Publishing Co. 1973)
History of Lake County, Florida, by William T. Kennedy (Lake County Historical Society 1988)
History of Paisley, by Paisley Extension Homemakers (1989)
Lake County, Florida: A Pictorial History, by Emmett Peter, Jr. (The Donning Company 1994)
Through Schoolhouse Doors: A History of Lake County Schools, by The Lake County Retired Teachers Association (Rose Printing Co., Inc. 1982)
Click here for a copy of the trail rules.