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Edward Stark Burleigh
File contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Nancy Rayburn (naev@earthlink.net)
Transcribed from: The History of Florida: Past & Present, The Lewis Publishing Co., Vol.
II, page 287, 1923.
It would be almost impossible to speak too highly of the value to his community of the efforts of EDWARD STARK BURLEIGH of Tavares, for his has been a constructive force back of practically every public movement since Lake County was organized, and he has
been actively interested in the leading commercial, industrial and financial concerns of the city. While he has achieved a most remarkable material success, his wealth is not all he has accumulated. Today he stands firmly entrenched in the confidence of his fellow citizens, all of whom regard him with respectful esteem because of what he has accomplished and the example he sets for the rising generation.
Mr. BURLEIGH was born in Strafford County, New Hampshire, September 2, 1855, a son of MICHAIAH C. and MARY FRANCES (RUSSELL) BURLEIGH, natives of South Berwick, Maine, and Wakefield, NewHampshire, respectively, both of whom are deceased. For thirty years of his life the father was a deep-sea sailor, and traveled all over the world. A well-educated man, with a splendid memory, he observed and remembered much of interest in his travels and was a very entertaining
conversationalist. When he retired from the sea he was rated as a mate, and settling on shore, embarked in a manufacturing business at Somersworth, New Hampshire, operating under the name of the Somersworth Machine Company, and producing stoves, ranges and furnaces. Very prominent in the local republican party, he served in the New Hampshire State Senate. Both as a Baptist and Mason he lived up to the highest ideals of Christian manhood. During the war between the
two sections of the country he served as captain of the Home Guards. From the time he left the sea until his death Somersworth continued to be his home. Ten children were born to him and his wife, and of them EDWARD STARK BURLEIGH was the sixth in order of birth.
Reared by careful parents, EDWARD STARK BURLEIGH was given excellent educational advantages and was sent to the public schools, Exeter Academy and Dartmouth College, and was graduated from the latter in 1878, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and as a member of a Greek letter college fraternity. Too close application to his books, however, had impaired his health, and it was deemed better for him not to enter at once after his graduation into a confining business, so he traveled for four years in western states to reestablish his health. In 1881 he bought lands near Orlando in Orange County. The railroad had just been built. Orlando was a small town, the county was poorly developed, but Mr. BURLEIGH had the foresight to see the possibilities of the region, and decided to go into the citrus industry, of which he became a pioneer in this part of Florida. In 1885 he branched out, and, coming to Tavares, established a machine shop under the name of Burleigh & Gardner, and did a general business in that line,
somewhat specializing in sawmill work. When Lake County was formed from Orange County Mr. BURLEIGH established the Lake Abstract Company, with himself as president, and continued to manage its affairs until 1920, when he retired from active participation in it, although he continues its president.
His business ability and organizing powers being by this time fully recognized, Mr. BURLEIGH's assistance was sought by many of his associates in different projects, and he was one of the organizers of the Citizens Bank of Eustis, and also of its two branches, the Bank of Tavares and the Bank of Mount Dora, and he is a director and vice president of the first named institution. Mr. BURLEIGH has never relinquished his citrus holdings, which now are very extensive, and he was one of the organizers of the Florida Citrus Exchange, and also of the Tavares Citrus Growers' Association, and is a director of the Lake Region Packing Association and treasurer of the Tavares Development Company, an association organized for the purpose of developing groves in Lake County. For some years Mr. BURLEIGH was active in republican politics in his city and county, and has served as mayor of Tavares and as a member of its City Council. He is a member of the Tavares Board of Trade and the Lake County Chamber of Commerce, and he is keenly interested in the further expansion of the various interests of this region. He was father of the beautiful idea of preserving for posterity the natural loveliness of different spots of the county, and is a director of
the Lake County Park Commission, which was organized to carry out this idea. For a number of years he has been an enthusiast with relation to good roads and similar improvements, and has worked hard to secure them. Mr. BURLEIGH was one of the original stockholders of the Tavares, Atlantic & Gulf Railroad, the forerunner of the present Tavares & Gulf Railroad. In educational matters he is very modern in his ideas, and seeks to give the children of the county the best possible advantages. Rollins College has made him one of its Board of Trustees. The really remarkable success which has attended Mr. BURLEIGH is all of his own earning, for he came here a young man broken in health and with but very small capital, but he knew how to grasp the opportunities as they were presented, and at the same time never lost sight of the public welfare. A Congregationalist, Mr. BURLEIGH helped to organize the church of his faith at Tavares, has long been one of its deacons, and for twenty-six years, has been superintendent of its Sunday School. During the late war he belonged to the Lake County Council of Defense, and was effectively active in Red Cross work.
On July 6, 1882 Mr. BURLEIGH married at South Berwick, Maine, Miss ANNIE A. BURLEIGH, who was born and reared at that place. She is a daughter of Capt. JOHN H. BURLEIGH, a sea captain during his early years, but later on in life, after he had settled on shore, he was the organizer of the Newichawanick Company of South Berwick, Maine, manufacturers of woolen blankets, and he served as president of the company until his death. Mrs. BURLEIGH is a prominent member of the Woman's Club, which she has served as president, and she has been active in all of the civic, social and church movements since coming to Tavares, and has been particularly zealous in behalf of all uplift work. Mr. and Mrs. BURLEIGH have had the following children born to them: ELIZABETH DAVIDSON BURLEIGH, who graduated from Simmons College, Boston, Massachusetts, was for a time a teacher of domestic science at Rollins College, but is now living with her parents; MARGARET L., who graduated from Rollins College, has been county
demonstration agent for Bradford and Lee counties; FRANCES B., who is the wife of GEORGE H. FERNALD, of West Newton, Massachusetts, is a graduate of Wellesley College; and EDWARD I., who is engaged in the real estate business at Tavares under the firm name of Huntley & Burleigh, graduated from the Worcester, Massachusetts, Polytechnic Institute, volunteered in April, 1917, served during the World war as a sergeant of the Signal Corps, and as such was sent overseas
with the American Expeditionary Forces; and AUSTIN HOLMES, the youngest, is now attending the Montverde School.
Robert Lee Collins
File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Nancy Rayburn Naev@earthlink.net February 25, 2008
Author: The History of Florida: Past & Present, The Lewis Publishing Co., 1923, Vol. II pg.286
The success of ROBERT LEE COLLINS, of Umatilla, has not been won in a moment, nor has he arrived at his present prosperity over any royal road to fortune. Before he was able to make any appreciable advance he went through several disastrous experiences that might have discouraged anyone less persistent, or one who did not cherish a firm faith in the future of the citrus industry. It is through this industry that he has achieved the most success, although, of course, his prominence in it has led
to his engaging in other enterprises. Through all, reverses and successes alike, he has preserved his high sense of honor, and his determination to discharge his civic duties while attending to his personal affairs. For this
reason he has been a constructive factor in Lake County, and is recognized as one of the representative citizens of the region. Mr. COLLINS was born near Johnson City, Tennessee, November 27, 1866, a son of SAMUEL and MARY (CASH) COLLINS, both of whom were born near Johnson City. The father, who died in the infancy of his son, was a farmer and a veteran of the Confederate service. The youngest of the four children of his parents, and left fatherless at so tender an age, ROBERT LEE COLLINS received
but limited educational advantages.
November 27, 1884, marks the date of Mr. COLLINS’ arrival in Florida, on which day he and his benefactor landed at Umatilla. Young Collins had a suit of clothes and five dollars in currency as his sole possessions. Today, less than thirty years later he is the second largest tax payer in Lake County. His initial work was that of a teamster, and he also was employed in saw mills and at other tasks, and as soon as he could he acquired a small tract of land, which he cleared and stocked. Expanding his teaming, he engaged in hauling and freighting oranges, and had built up an excellent connection when his business was wiped out by the disastrous freeze of 1895. Leaving Umatilla for Daytona, he was there engaged in hauling and teaming, and
then went to Miami and was engaged in truck farming for two years, but as they were very poor ones he made no money. Mr. COLLINS had always had faith in the eventual success of the citrus industry, and so, returning to Umatilla, invested the few hundreds of dollars he had managed to save and began buying up and rehabilitating the groves which had been frozen in 1895, but which were beginning to come back. From this humble start he has steadily advanced until he has handled, bought and sold
and started more groves than any other man in Lake County. At present he has several of the finest groves in this region, and is raising Pineapples and Parson Brown oranges and tangerines. However, Mr. COLLINS has not confined his efforts entirely to the
handling and conduct of orange groves, profitable as this has proven, but he has invested in the Bank of Umatilla, of which he is now a director; he is a director of the Lake County Citrus Growers Association and of the Lake County,
Florida Citrus Exchange.
Some of the most desirable apartment property at Chicago, Illinois, is owned by him. It was Mr. COLLINS who erected the first buildings of consequence at Umatilla, and he has also purchased from other owners some more valuable holdings in Umatilla. He started the citrus packing house at Umatilla, which he subsequently sold to the Citrus Growers Association. Another venture of his which is proving a successful one is the Umatilla Orange & Grapefruit Land Company, which he is serving as president,
an organization which has for its object the development of citrus lands. Not only has he accomplished so much in a material way, but he has assisted in organizing the town, and has given an effective support to all of its public-spirited movements. A consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, he is one of the trustees of the local body, and was on the building committee when the present handsome new church edifice was erected. His wonderful success in Lake County has come, as may be readily seen from the above statement of facts, through hard work and a clear vision. Hunting is Mr. COLLINS’ only diversion. After returning to Umatilla, Mr. COLLINS married in this town Miss DRUCILLA TROWELL, a native, and a daughter of N. J. TROWELL, the pioneer
merchant and owner of the property on which the town is built. He was its first postmaster, and for some years was agent for the Saint John & Lake Eustis Railroad, then a narrow gauge road, but now a part of the Atlantic Coast Line System. Mr. TROWELL is now deceased. Mrs. COLLINS is active in behalf of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. and Mrs. COLLINS have six children: HARRY L., who is a citrus grower of Umatilla, Lake County, Florida, is married and has four children; BENA, who is the wife of J. S. ALLEN, architect and engineer; and PAUL, ROBERT, EVELYN and WILLIAM DE VAULT, all of whom are at home.
Robert McNamee
File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Nancy Rayburn
Source: Vol. II pg.68 The Lewis Publishing Co. 1923Author: History of Florida, Past and Present
Hon. ROBERT McNAMEE. A resident of Florida upwards of forty years, Hon.ROBERT McNAMEE was admitted to the bar thirty years ago and has gained enviable success in his profession and in public affairs. He is a former speaker of the House in the State Legislature, and for some years also conducted a successful publication in Jacksonville. He was born at Easton, Pennsylvania, October 16, 1862, son of CORNELIUS and EMMA McNAMEE. His father, a native of Ireland, as a young man located in Pennsylvania. He became a merchant, and died in 1865. After his death his widow and her son Robert removed to Pottsville, Pennsylvania, where her people lived. ROBERT McNAMEE grew up at Pottsville, had a public school education, and attended La Fayette College there. He began his apprenticeship to the trade of machinist in the shops of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad at Pottsville, but found the occupation too confining and arduous for his health. While recuperating he came to Florida, and in 1885 planted an orange grove in Lake County. His trees were frozen out two years later. During the next five years while serving as a telegraph operator with the Florida Southern Railroad he studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1892, and from that year until 1897practiced at Leesburg in Lake County. He also spent one year at Jacksonville during that period of his life. For about ten years Mr. McNamee was an active member of the Tampa bar, and had a large practice as a lawyer there from 1900 until 1911.
His interest in public affairs, his abilities as an orator and public leader, brought him attention in politics, and in 1898 he was elected a member of the State Legislature from Lake County. He was chosen speaker of the Houseof Representatives in 1899, and it is probable that he was the youngest man ever to hold this position. In 1903 he was again elected a member of the General Assembly from Hillsboro County. Mr. McNamee is a democrat, casting his first vote for Cleveland in 1884, and for a number of years attended as a delegate nearly all the State and Congressional Conventions. He served as chairman of the Lake County Executive Committee and as a member of the State Executive Committee. Mr. McNamee was owner and publisher of the Dixie, a weekly magazine and a newspaper, from 1913 to 1918. Fraternally he is a member of the Masonic Order, Knights of Pythias, Woodmen of the World, Elks and Odd Fellows and the College fraternity Delta Kappa Epsilon. On November 17, 1888, at New Orleans,
Louisiana, he married Miss ALICE SAUVE, of an old French Creole family of that city. They have one son, WILLIAM HOCKER
Gustavus Adolphus Petteway
File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher
From: Florida Edition, Makers Of America: An Historical And Biographican Work By An Able Corps Of Writers Vol. 2
Published under the patronage of The Florida Historical Society, Jacksonville, Florida
Although he was denied the educational advantages that are ordinarly enjoyed by the youth of today, Gustavus Adolphus Petteway was born of Christian parents, and in his home the influences were the best. His father was a poor man
and unable to give his children the advantages that he would have liked to, but he taught them energy, honesty, sobriety and veracity, four principles which Mr.Petteway declares have been the greatest help he has found in his business. Mr.
Petteway has been engaged in the manufacture and handling of naval stores all his life, and although he began work at a small salary, only a few years ago, by industry, economy and enterprise he made rapid advancement, when opportunity
availed, and he is now in charge of the Tampa office of the Peninsula Naval Stores Company, a corporation with $1,000,000 capital stock, of which he is second vice-president, and in which his now large interests are centered.
Mr. Petteway was born at Tar Landing, N. C., August 6, 1873. His father was Louis S. Petteway, a carpenter who worked at his trade, and his mother, Sarah Catherine (Williams) Petteway. Mr. Petteway was the fourth son in a family of
fourteen children. The only educational advantages he enjoyed were those offered by the country free schools of North Carolina. He was taught to work, however, and to live uprightly, and there were in the home training other compensations
for what was lacking in the school facilities.
Mr. Petteway removed to Colquitt county, Ga., in September, 1894, and secured a position at a nominal salary with K. W. Horne, a naval stores operator at Obe, now Norman's Fork. After working here three years his employer sent him to Sorrento, Fla., to work for a firm in which he was interested. After two years of work in Florida, Mr. Petteway left Sorrento, and having accumulated some means, bought an interest in a turpentine farm at Leroy, Fla. As managing partner, he successfully conducted the business until 1906, when he purchased stock in the Peninsula Naval Stores Company, and was made a vice-president of that corporation, with general charge of the Tampa office. Mr. Petteway has, during his business life, been interested in several naval stores concerns, and the principal factor in some of them. In 1907, however, he disposed of all his holdings in other concerns and his interests are now centered in the one industry. Mr. Petteway has five brothers, all engaged in the naval stores business in Florida. Three brothers and two sisters are still in North Carolina, the two sisters living at the old home place, two of the three brothers and one of the sisters are in college, through the appreciation which Mr. Petteway and two of
his brothers have of the advantages of education, and their laudable determination to give their younger brothers the facilities which they did not enjoy. Mr. Petteway is taking an especial interest in his youngest brother, and expects to have him take the law course in Harvard. The father of this large and exemplary family died in 1907, but the mother is still living and being tenderly cared for by her loving and appreciative children.
Mr. Petteway was married February 5, 1902, to Louise V. Hone, a daughter of Henry K. and Sarah J. Hone. They have had three children, of whom one, Oscar Earle, survives. Mr. Petteway is a Democrat, and while not connected with any church
organization, he has a partiality for the primitive Baptist faith. He is a member of the Masonic order, the Knights of Pythias, and the Elks, and believes that in education and morality lie the safety, prosperity and happiness of the nation.
O A Stempel
File Contributed For Use By: Denise Wells
From Florida 1513-1913, Past, Present and Future, Four Hundred Years of Wars and Peace and Industrial Development Vol II, 1914 by George M. Chapin pgs. 104-105
Inventor, merchant, manufacturer and fruit-raiser — these four lines of activity cover the fields in which O. A. Stempel has labored, bringing him a wide acquaintance in business circles in various sections of the country and gaining for him a substantial measure of success. He now makes his home near Clearwater, having purchased his present farm in 1912. He was born in Berlin, Prussia, August 9, 1845, and is a son of William and Louise (Grof) Stempel, also natives of Berlin. The father came to the United States with Carl Schurz. He brought with him considerable money and, settling at Fort Madison, Iowa, purchased a large farm. He had been a surgeon in the Prussian army and was a finely educated man, who spoke six different languages. Although he took up agricultural pursuits in America he was nevertheless induced to take charge of some difficult surgical cases while in Iowa. Remov- ing from that state to the south he purchased twenty- four hundred acres of fine Mississippi bottom land and there spent his remaining days.
In 1849, the year after he crossed the Atlantic to the new world, he brought his family. A few years later he passed away and his wife, who survived him, died in Missouri. He was married twice and had twenty children by the two unions, of whom eight are now living, O. A. Stempel being the youngest child. Upon the home farm in Iowa, O. A. Stempel spent the first ten years of his life and during that period attended the country schools. He then went to St. Louis where he learned the confectionery and bakery trades and also mastered the jewelry trade. Subsequently he turned his attention to the patent right business and he now controls thirty-seven patents upon his own inventions, making considerable money out of these. At one time he was vice president of the
F. Meyrose Lamp & Lantern Manufacturing Company of St. Louis, filling that position for ten years, during which period he traveled, making all of the jobbing cities of the United States on a salary of twenty-five hundred dollars a year and expenses. In
1892 he resigned that position and began business on his own account in St. Louis as a manufacturer of fire extinguishers, organizing the Stempel Fire Extinguishing Company, of which he was president and which is still conducting in St. Louis the largest manufacturing business of that character in the United States. Mr. Stempel was actively connected therewith until 1897, when he sold out and came to Florida.
Here he made investment in citrus groves and was largely engaged in the cultivation of his groves in Lake county, but lost ten thousand dollars through a freeze. He then went to Lakeland, where he purchased some groves but also lost part of that orchard the following year through frost. In 1902 he came to Pinellas county and took up his abode at Clearwater, where for a time he conducted a livery business. In 1912 he came to his present farm, comprising forty acres, upon which he has a fine grove covering about twelve acres. He also carries on gardening, raising vegetables of all kinds, and he has taken out a patent upon a method of producing vegetables in the summer time. Mr. Stempel also has some fine clay land and expects to develop a large brickyard, his clay being of superior quality. Moreover, he has extensive interests in Texas and at one time was the owner of over ten thousand acres in Iowa, Texas and Florida.
In 1872 was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Stempel and Miss Elmira Rosson, a native of Missouri and a daughter of Washington Rosson, who was a large slaveholder of Missouri. However, he had two sons who served in the Union army. In 1909 Mr. Stempel
was called upon to mourn the loss of his wife. They had but two children and the daughter, Louise, is also deceased. The son, G. A. Stempel, of Clearwater, is now married and has two children, Louise and Dorris. Mr. Stempel has faith in the future of Florida as is indicated by his investments here. His inventive genius and natural talents have enabled him to do work upon his place that is fast making it one of the well improved properties of the section. Moreover, he has studied the question of growing citrus fruits and his knowledge is not only of a theoretical but also of a practical character. His determined and resolute spirit enables him to carry forward to successful completion whatever he undertakes and he has now made for himself a creditable position among the leading and energetic business men of Pinellas county.
His enthusiastic faith in and his loyalty to Clearwater is clearly reflected by the following article which appeared above his name in the Quincy (Illinois) Optic and is addressed to his friends in that state: “Your kind letter of recent date received. The roses are now in full bloom in my yard and I would like very much for you to see them. But because you can’t I will write you a little sketch of the country at the present time. It is healthful, picturesque, historical. We imagine that Irving must have visited this or some similar place when he wrote the lullaby story of Rip’s twenty-year slumber. The bluff on which this beautiful town is situated is nearly fifty feet above the level of the sea and Clearwater Bay is one and three-fourths miles wide, enclosed from the Gulf of Mexico by a chain of long, narrow islands of sand as white as snow. The roll of the surf on these islands cannot be equaled for bathing even by that on the Atlantic beach. Thousands of varieties of fish teem these waters and the
fishermen with their nets and sharpies are constantly bringing carloads of them into the market, whence they are shipped as far north as New York. Occasionally a party wishing more strenuous fishing than is afforded by these placid waters of the bay take larger boats and go out into the Gulf for several miles, where they fish for snapper, grouper, kingfish and such varieties, often coming in at evening with a ton or more of fish caught entirely with hook and line. It is no infrequent occurrence to see the flat, monster kingfish spring twenty feet from the water with the decoy bait and hook in his mouth, where he shakes himself in a vain effort to gain his freedom. You might with the aid of an eye glass observe about twenty miles off the shore
a fleet of sail boats apparently lying still. These are the sponge boats with their Greek divers aboard, who are risking their lives many fathoms under the heavy waters, surrounded with reefs of glittering coral and exposed to the dangers of sharks, devil fish, etc., while obtaining wealth from the very depths of the sea. The sponges from these waters are found in the markets of every city in the country. We have all heard fish stories but after living on this coast for years, as the writer has, the old fish stories seem quite mild in comparison with what is true of these southern waters. But it is useless to attempt to give in so short a space even a synopsis of the thousands of curious and interesting freaks of nature as found here. So I will go ashore and climb the Clearwater Bluff, at the very spot where General Jackson built Fort Harrison on the bluff of Clearwater Bay, and which the records at Washington, D. C., show to be the most healthful place or camping ground in the United States. I find
myself surrounded by large seedling orange trees, now laden with the noted orange, the ‘Florida Seedling,’ the best in the world. These trees are over forty years old, no frost has ever yet blighted them and they are now laden with golden fruit, firm, sweet and juicy. Then there are trees bearing great clusters of tangerines, mandarines, kumquats, grapefruit and lemons. From six to ten carloads of fruit leave this little village daily and there are numbers of instances where growers realize from six hundred to one thousand dollars per acre from the sale of citrus fruits. In the mid-winter season the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad cannot handle the crop fast enough but soon they will be getting scarce and then again you will see the trees burst forth into full bloom. Who has not enjoyed the fragrance of the orange blossom, let him come to Clearwater during the months of February and March. We have in our garden from November to June strawberries, peas, beans, beets, cabbage, tomatoes, roasting ears, Irish potatoes, etc. We have only a population of one thousand, no one has ever written much about us, but we are gradually coming to the front as a winter resort and I understand that we have some of your Quincy people stopping here at present.”
Frank H. Wharton
File Contributed For Use By: Denise Wells
From Florida 1513-1913, Past, Present and Future, Four Hundred Years of Wars and Peace and Industrial Development Vol II, 1914 by George M. Chapin pgs. 181-182
>Frank H. Wharton, who has the distinction of being one of the earliest settlers in Miami, has throughout the sixteen years of his residence here been prominently connected with its commercial and political life. He has been mayor of the city and
otherwise active in public affairs, while as president of the Afagnolia Grocery Company he occupies a deservedly high place in business circles. He was born in Rockbridge, Hocking county, Ohio, April 11, 1870, and is a son of William A. Wharton, a native of Virginia, who removed with his parents to Ohio when he was still a young man. The father followed agricultural pursuits in Hocking county for a number of years, dying upon his homestead in 1900. Flis wife, who was in her maidenhood Martha Jane Stewart, was also a native of Virginia. She now makes her home in Rockbridge, Ohio, and has reached the age of eighty-four.
On his father’s farm in Hocking county, Ohio, Frank H. Wharton grew to manhood, acquiring his education in the public schools. He is essentially a self-made man, for he has been dependent upon his own resources from an early age and the success
which is his today is entirely the result of his own unremitting efforts and unflagging determination. He remained at home until he was sixteen years of age and then bade his father and mother good-by and with their full consent set out to seek his fortune. He
came immediately to Florida, where lie located in Lake county and obtained a position as teacher in the public schools, doing able work in this capacity for seven years. While thus engaged he planted an orange grove and became also active in the business
life of Mascotte. There he obtained a position as clerk in a store and by unremitting industry, enterprise and diligence worked his way upward until he became a partner in the concern. The cold weather of the year 1895 destroyed his orange crop
and influenced his determination to move to Crescent City, where for some time he worked as a cross tie contractor, moving in 1897 to Altoona. He spent one year in that city engaged in his former line of work and then went to Daytona, whence in Novem-
ber, 1897, he came to Miami, where he has since resided, a period of sixteen years. He is, therefore, numbered among the oldest residents here and his energy ability and personality have been powerful elements in the community's growth and upbuilding.
He worked at various employments in Miami, when the city was still a hamlet, his occupations including work on a dredge boat and as a clerk in a local grocery store. In 1903, however, he engaged in business for himself, establishing a retail grocery store,
with the conduct of which he is still connected. He is president and principal stockholder in the Magnolia Grocery Company, Incorporated, controlling a profitable and growing business located at the corner of Fourth street and Avenue D. Much of the credit
for the rapid expansion and continued growth of this enterprise is due to Mr. Wharton’s splendid business and executive ability, his careful management and his supervision of details, and the business is now considered one of the most important of Miami’s
commercial resources. Mr. Wharton is a progressive and wide-awake business man, capable of forming plans readily and of carrying them forward to successful completion, and today he occupies a high place among the substantial and representative men
of this community.
On the 15th of June, 1897, in Lake county, Florida, Mr. Wharton married Miss Ola B. Hinson, a native of that section, and they are the parents of four children: Florence Estelle, aged fourteen; Floy Ruth, twelve; Frankie Fay, ten; and Fannette Ola, aged
three. Fraternally Mr. Wharton is connected with the Masonic order, belonging to the Knights Templar, and he is a member also of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Improved Order of Red Men. He
gives his political allegiance to the democratic party and is a force in local politics, his public spirit being of the progressive kind which evidences itself in personal service. He was for six years on the city council and was president of that body for two years, his influence during that time being always on the side of advancement and progress in community affairs. In 1907 he was elected mayor of Miami and was reelected in 1909, serving in all four years and giving to the city a straightforward, businesslike and constructive administration. Elis interests are thoroughly identified with those of Miami, where he has so long resided, and he is ever ready to lend his aid and cooperation to any movement calculated to promote municipal growth or to advance the general development.
Warren C. Jackson
File Contributed For Use By: Denise Wells
From Florida 1513-1913, Past, Present and Future, Four Hundred Years of Wars and Peace and Industrial Development Vol II, 1914 by George M. Chapin pg 242
Various business and corporate interests in De Land and vicinity owe their foundation to Warren C. Jackson’s initiative spirit and enterprise and their continued growth to his industry and ability, for he is well known as an organizer and promoter, his activities affecting many phases of business and general development. He was born in Robeson county, North Carolina, June 7, 1862, and is a son of Allan and Kate (McCall) Jackson, the former of whom engaged in farming. Warren C. Jackson acquired his education in the public schools of North Carolina and then went to Oliver, Georgia, where for three years he was in the employ of R. II. McMillan and for two years in the employ of W. L. Powell. At the end of that time he removed to Irwin county, Georgia, where he spent
one year, and from there went to Bulloch county, that state, where he formed a partnership with R. FI. and D. H. McMillan under the firm name of McMilan & Jackson Company. In 1888 they removed to Pembroke, Georgia, where R. FI. McMillan died in 1892 and the remaining partners bought his interest in the business, the firm name being changed to McMillan & Jackson and continuing as such until Mr. Jackson resigned in 1897.
He then came to Florida, settling in Altoona, Lake county, where he again purchased land. Here he organized D. H. McMillan & Company and W. C. Jackson & Company, the latter being now in control of large turpentine interests here. It distills annually from fifteen hundred to two thousand barrels of spirits of turpentine and about five thousand barrels of rosin. In addition to this Mr. Jackson is a director in the First National Bank of De Land and in the People’s State Bank at Daytona. He is president of the Hastings Operating Company, controlling naval stores, a director in the Florida Fire & Casualty Company of Jacksonville; in the Council Tool Company at Wananish, North Carolina, in the Tomoca Land Company, and is connected as a partner with various other important enterprises. All of his business interests are carefully conducted along progressive lines and their success and prosperity have not only added to Mr. Jackson’s individual prominence but have increased the business resources of his section of Florida.
In 1892 Mr. Jackson married Miss Sallie McMillan, of Robeson county, North Carolina, and they became the parents of five children: Tom Lawrence, Neill Spurgeon, Ruby Hector, Katie Lee and Warren Cobb. Mrs. Jackson passed away in 1905. Fraternally Mr. Jackson is connected with the Masonic order, holding membership in the commandery, and he also belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellow's and the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. He is a devout adherent of the Baptist church and holds the office of trustee in that organization. For a number of years he has through his well directed labors been closely associated with the public welfare and with general business progress. He is much interested in all that pertains to progressive public movements and in citizenship and in private life has manifested the sterling traits of character which everywhere command respect and regard.
Daniel Hector McMillan
File Contributed For Use By: Denise Wells
From Florida 1513-1913, Past, Present and Future, Four Hundred Years of Wars and Peace and Industrial Development Vol II, 1914 by George M. Chapin pgs 433-434
A history of present-day enterprise in Jacksonville would be incomplete were there failure to make mention of Daniel Hector McMillan, the vice president of the Consolidated Naval Stores Company and the individual owner and manager of many turpentine
farms. His interests have for many years been of owing importance and have constituted an element in the industrial activity of his section of the state. He was born July 12, 1865, in Robeson county, North Carolina, a representative of one of the old families
of that state, his ancestors, of Scotch birth, having emigrated from the land of hills and heather to become residents of North Carolina when it was still num- bered among the colonial possessions of Great Britain. Another biographer has written : “The traditions with reference to the origin of the McMillan clan are conflicting. Their known possessions were on both sides of Loch Arkaig. Another branch, supposed to have been driven from Strath Tay, began to flourish in Knapdale in the sixteenth century. Through the marriage of a chieftain with the heiress of the chief of the MacNeils they became possessors of the Castle Sweyn. One of the towers of this stronghold is called ‘McMillan’s Tower. One branch went to Argyle and settled in the southern part, where the chief was distinguished from his residence as McMillan of Cnop, the name of the property which had been obtained from the Lord of the Isles ; and it is said that, he had the charter engraved on the top of a rock at the boundary of his land in the Gaelic language and letter. One of the southern branch distinguished himself as a preacher and a leader of the ‘Cameramans,’ who were also called MacMillanites. His bible is pre- served among the descendants of the Covenanters. The McMillan Tartan is red and yellow. Led by the great possibilities offered by the new world and especially that part to which his fellow countrymen were coming in large numbers, this ancestor of our subject left his native highlands to make America his home. Other branches of the family came over and now the name is a familiar one in every part of the country.”
Through succeeding generations members of the family continued residents of North Carolina, prospered in their business undertakings and took active part in the work of general development and improvement, One of the name, Archibald S. McMillan, was united in marriage to Miss Katherine McLean, also of Scotch lineage, and their home was established in Robeson county, where their son, Daniel H. McMillan, spent his boyhood and youth upon his father’s farm. His experiences were those which usually fall
to the lot of the farm lad who enjoys country life in its different phases, who assists in the work of the fields and spends some time in the acquirement of a public-school education. He was about seventeen years of age when he started out in the business world, ambitious for advancement and willing to pay the price of success — that price of close application, unfaltering perseverance and unabating energy. Attention was then being attracted to the Georgia pine belt and it was this which led Mr. McMillan to make his way to the Empire state of the south. The year 1888 found him at Pembrooke, Georgia, where he began operating in turpentine and naval stores in a section where his energy and application brought him deserved success. He there continued for seven years and extended the scope of his activities, becoming interested in merchandising as a partner in the firm of W. H. Hughes & Company.
In 1895, however, he disposed of his business affairs in Georgia and removed to Lake county, Florida, where he established a still larger turpentine plant. This venture proved profitable and made it possible for him to enter still more actively in the important business operations resulting in 1899 in the organization of The Mutual Naval Stores Company at Jacksonville. The business was conducted under that name until it was merged with another enterprise of similar character under the style of the Consolidated Naval Stores Company, with Mr. McMillan as the vice president of what is now one of the most extensive concerns of the kind in existence. He owns and manages about a dozen turpentine farms and his success, placing him with the leading business men
of the city, is attributable directly to his employment of progressive methods, to his unabating energy and his thorough reliability.
Mr. McMillan married Miss Mary E. Roach, a daughter of Charles Roach, of Bullock county, Georgia, and they have eight children, Robert H., Beulah, John D., Warren J., Montague, Spurgeon, Farley and Ralph. Mr. McMillan’s interests center in his family and their
welfare. They attend the Baptist church to which he belongs and in the work of which he is much interested. He is a prominent Mason, being a Master Mason, belonging to the Royal Arch Chapter and holding the thirty-second degree in the Scottish Rite; he is also a Knight Templar and a Noble of the Mystic Shrine. He holds membership with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. His political allegiance is given to the Democratic party but he is not desirous of holding office. He concentrates his energies upon
his business affairs, and in everything has been emi- nently practical. While he has reached the goal of prosperity his genuine worth, broad mind and public spirit have also made him a director of public thought and action.
Marcus A. Milan
File Contributed For Use By: Denise Wells
From Florida 1513-1913, Past, Present and Future, Four Hundred Years of Wars and Peace and Industrial Development Vol II, 1914 by George M. Chapin pgs 468-469
One of the most straightforward, energetic and successful business men of Miami is Marcus A. Milam, president of the Railey-Milam Hardware Company, secretary of the Drake Lumber Company and connected through investment or official service with a great many of the most important business concerns of the city. He was born in Paris, Tennessee, March 8, 1876, and is a son of Judge James B. Milam, a prominent lawyer of Lake county, Florida, and at one time county judge. He was captain of a company in the FifthTennessee Regiment during the Civil war and served four years, being twice wounded and once taken prisoner. He died at Tavares, Lake county, Florida, September 22, 1910. He also was a native of Paris, Tennessee, his birth having occurred February 5, 1838. His wife, who was in her maidenhood Miss Mary Ellen Alexander, was born in Paris, Tennessee, and died at Leesburg, Florida, when Marcus A. Milam was still a small child.
Marcus A. Milam was only six years of age when he came with his parents to Florida. The family located at Leesburg, where his youth was spent, his early education having been acquired in the public schools of that city. There he afterward attended the Florida Conference College and in 1899 was graduated from the Massey Business College of Jacksonville. In the following year he came to Miami, where he entered the employ of Gaston Drake in the produce business. Advancement came rapidly, for Mr. Milam soon proved his business ability and sound judgment and he rose to be bookkeeper and confidential clerk to Mr. Drake, positions which he has held ever since, although he is now secretary of the company and one of the most prominent business factors in Miami. Various business and corporate interests in the city owe a great deal of their growth and progress to his connection with them, for he possesses the power to carry forward to successful completion whatever he undertakes and an energy, resourcefulness and foresight which make him a capable executive. He is president of the Railey- Milam Hardware Company, one of the leading retail concerns in Miami, secretary of the Drake Lumber Company, vice president of the Art Stone Construction Company and a partner with Gaston Drake in the Drake Produce Company.
On the 18th of September, 1907, Mr. Milam married Miss Omega Wigginton, of Miami, a daughter of Silas T. Wigginton and twin sister of Mrs. Alpha Railey, wife of F. G. Railey. The two marriages took place upon the same day, the ceremonies having been performed by Rev. F. G. Railey. Mr. and Mrs. Milam have two children: Alpha Railey, born July 22, 1910; and Marcus A., Jr., born on the 9th of January, 1913. Mr. Milam is a member of the Methodist church and fraternally is connected with the Knights of Pythias. Throughout his life he has made good use of his time and opportunities, advancing by consecutive steps to the prominent position he now occupies in business circles of Miami.
Pent W. Daniel
File Contributed For Use By: Denise Wells
From Florida 1513-1913, Past, Present and Future, Four Hundred Years of Wars and Peace and Industrial Development Vol II, 1914 by George M. Chapin pg 656
During a residence of over a quarter of a century in Bartow, Pent W. Daniel has given practically his entire time to the abstract business, becoming identifield with the first enterprise of this character in Polk county and being today connected with a business which is the outgrowth of the original concern and which is conducted under the name of the Polk County Abstract Company. He has become an expert in his special line and in the city where he has so long resided and where he is so intimately known, he is recognized as an able, far-sighted and discriminating business man, whose success is entirely the result of the spirit of enterprise and initiative which has actuated him in all the relations of his life.
Mr. Daniel is a native of Kentucky and in that state acquired his education, beginning his independent career as clerk in the office of the county clerk of Caldwell county. He came to Bartow in 1886 and in the same year became connected with the abstract business, in which he has continued since that time, being today one of the most expert abstract men in this section of the state. The first abstract company in Polk county was organized in 1884 by Steward, Hanson & Johnson, who later sold the enterprise to
B. F. Holland. The latter conducted it for twenty two years, making it a profitable and well managed enterprise and a force in the general business growth of Bartow. He sold his interests to the Polk County Abstract Company upon its organization in 1910 and
this corporation is the present owner of the concern. Mr. Daniel has been connected with the business since 1886, two years after the organization of the original company and he has remained an important element in the continued expansion of the enterprise, its remarkable growth and development being largely due to his energy, initiative and progressive spirit. He largely aided in the organization of the Polk County Abstract Company in 1910, which was founded with a capital of twenty thousand dollars and with the
following officers : E. C. Stuart, president ; E. L. Mack, secretary ; and P. W. Daniel, treasurer and manager. These gentlemen control the only abstract business in Polk county and they are conducting it along modern, constructive and progressive lines, being far-sighted, resourceful and able business men In the management of the important duties connected with his office Mr. Daniel has proved his ability and worth and his opinions are today recognized as standard authority on everything relating to his special line. He has not, however, allowed his interests to settle in a narrow groove, but is intelligently interested in practically every phase of community life, keeping in touch with the trend of general business advancement through his membership in the Board of Trade.
Mr. Daniel married Miss Alice Hicks of Reynolds, Georgia, and they have become the parents of a daughter, Mary E. Mr. Daniel is a member of the Presbyterian church, in which he serves as elder, and he has always taken a lively interest in movements for the
spread of its doctrines. Although not an office seeker he has held some positions of responsibility and trust, having served as supervisor of registration and as city tax collector. Although he is a specialist he is nevertheless a man of wide and varied interests and he possesses the faculty of making each a separate force in advancement. A man of upright character and honorable principles, his dealings with his fellowmen have ever conformed to the highest standards of commercial ethics, and he is honored and respected by all with whom he has come in contact.
Benjamin E. McLin
File Contributed For Use By: Denise Wells
From Florida 1513-1913, Past, Present and Future, Four Hundred Years of Wars and Peace and Industrial Development Vol II, 1914 by George M. Chapin pgs 658-659
Benjamin E. McLin, deceased, was for many years well known in legal, business and political circles of Tallahassee and Leon county and the qualities of his manhood, aside from his marked characteristics as a business man, were such as to merit for him the respect and friendship of those with whom he came in contact. In both his official and business career he had won success and was honored by reason of the straightforward methods which he ever followed. Mr. McLin was born in Greene county, Tennessee, in 1851 and at the opening of the Civil war, when his father entered the Confederate army, was sent to his uncle’s farm, where he worked for some time, also attending the public schools. At the close of the Civil war he entered King’s College at Bristol, of which institution his uncle was the president, and he was later a student at the Volstein Institute, at Jonesboro. In 1871 he entered the Hampden-Sidney College of Virginia, remaining until 1873 and winning high honors in scholarship as well as the speaker’s medal. After his graduation he read law with his father and was admitted to the bar in 1875, practicing in his native state for ten years thereafter.
In 1885 he removed to Florida, locating in Umatilla, Lake county. Here he turned his attention to other pursuits, becoming interested in the milling business and also in the cultivation and shipment of oranges. At one time he owned the largest crate factory in the state and operated it successfully until it was entirely destroyed by fire. Shortly after that misfortune the great frost of the winter of 1894-5 destroyed all of Mr. McLin’s orange groves and he was left practically penniless to again begin his business career at the bottom of the ladder. He was, however, once more successful and at the time of his death was one of the substantial and representative citizens of Tallahassee. He was well and favorably known in public life, having served in the state senate for three terms, accomplishing during that time much far-sighted, beneficial and constructive work. In 1900 he was elected commissioner of agriculture of Florida and so efficient were his services in this connection that he was twice reelected to the office and was in his third term at the time of his death.
Mr. McLin had many friends in Leon county and enjoyed in large measure their respect and esteem. His death was widely regretted, for his life had been straightforward, honorable and upright, and in his passing Tallahassee lost one of her most valued and representative citizens. Mr. McLin was twice married. In 1876 he wedded Miss Linnie Peak, who passed away ten years later, leaving three sons, of whom W. S., the second in order of birth, is assistant commissioner of agriculture. After the death of his first wife Mr. McLin married Miss Josephine Glidewell, who survives him and makes her home in Tallahassee, where she has an extensive circle of friends.
John Cocke Abernethy
File Contributed For Use By: Denise Wells
From Florida 1513-1913, Past, Present and Future, Four Hundred Years of Wars and Peace and Industrial Development Vol II, 1914 by George M. Chapin pg 690
John Cocke Abernethy is one of the most able pharmacists in southern Florida and is making his ability effective in an important way through his work in the conduct of the Biscayne Drug Store, of which he is the proprietor, and through his able service as president and general manager of the Abernethy Chemical Company, Incorporated. He was born in Greensboro, Alabama, May 27, 1875, and is a son of Dr. Burwell Gideon Abernethy, also a native of Alabama, born in Spring Hill. The father was a veteran of the Civil
war, having served in the Confederate army as a private until he was wounded and afterward as a member of the commissary department with the rank of captain. He came to Florida in 1887, locating in Lake county, whence after the great freeze of 1895 he moved
to Tampa, where he practiced medicine until his death, which occurred in 1906. His wife, who was in her maidenhood Miss Elizabeth Ruffin Cocke, was born in Demopolis, Alabama, but her parents were natives of Virginia. She survives her husband and makes her
home in Orlando. Of the children born to Dr. and Mrs. Abernethy three still survive besides the subject of this review. They are: Benjamin Cheney and Thomas Smith, both of Orlando; and Mary Josephine, the wife of Emil V. Whittaker, a lawyer in Tampa, now serving as county judge of Hillsboro county.
John C. Abernethy was twelve years of age when his parents moved to Florida and he remained in the state until he was eighteen, when he returned to Alabama, becoming a student in the Alabama Polytechnic Institute at Auburn. Fie completed a full pharmaceutical course, graduating in 1898 as a member of the first class in pharmacy to leave the institution. For four years thereafter he was prescription clerk in a drug store in Tampa and in January, 1902, came to Miami as manager of the Biscayne Drug Company,
then a corporation. In December of the same year he purchased a one-third interest in the concern, con- tinuing in his office as manager until December, 1908, when he became sole proprietor of the business by purchasing the remaining two-thirds interests from
the stockholders. The corporation was then dissolved and the name changed from the Biscayne Drug Company to the Biscayne Drug Store, under which title it still continues. This enterprise, located at the corner of Twelfth street and Avenue D, is one of the largest and best drug stores in Miami and the credit for its growth and expansion is largely due to Mr. Abernethy, who is not only a master of the science of pharmacy but a discriminating and far-sighted business man as well. He has devoted twenty years of earnest and exhaustive work to the development of a formula for a cure for colds and in 1912 organized the Abernethy Chemical Company for the purpose of manufacturing what is known as Abernethy’s Creoso-Pepsin, a remedy for coughs, colds and bronchial and tubercular affections. He has been very successful in this ven- ture, the excellence of the remedy having gained for it a wide sale.
On the 25th of November, 1902, Mr. Abernethy married Miss Maud Obenchain, of Wytheville, Virginia, and they have an adopted son, John Francis Abernethy, who is now eleven years of age. Mr. Abernethy is a member of the Florida Pharmaceutical Association, of which he is an ex-president, and he belongs also to the Florida Rexall Club. Fraternally he is connected with the Masonic order, holding membership in the commandery and shrine, is a past exalted ruler in the local lodge of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias. He is a member of the Miami and the Tarpon Clubs, the Miami Merchants Association and the Board of Trade and is active in the promotion of all projects for the general business advancement of the community. In the direction of his own business he has proven judicious, energetic and far-sighted and is numbered among Miami's representative and substantial men.
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