TIME WAS

A History of Conway

By K.J. Ursic

April 05
One of my first memories of the Conway area was the day nearly 30 years ago, I arrived in the Orlando area and began driving around in search of a home for my family who would be relocating soon. As I drove south on Conway Road I came upon a sign that read “Conway” almost in the same location as the one in the photo on page one.

At that time the surrounding area was totally covered by orange groves. I remember thinking where is this Conway? What is it? Why the name Conway?

Those questions have remained in the back of my mind ever since. And it is those questions and more I will attempt to answer with each future issue of the Conway News.

While much has been written about the history of Orange County, Orlando, Pine Castle, Belle Isle etc., almost nothing has been written specifically about the history of the Conway area. My research has provided a wealth of information about the area. I hope you will enjoy the journey into the past as much as I have.

The earliest document about our area, dated in 1843, was found in the field notes of B. F. Whitner, Deputy Surveyor for the territory of Florida. Whitner was contracted to survey parts of Central Florida. His notes indicated that he surveyed the area around Lake Conway between May 10 and May 19, 1843.

Next month: First settlers to the area, where did the name “Conway” come from and who is responsible for naming the area?

May 05

In the spring of 1843 Benjamin F. Whitner Jr., Deputy Surveyor for the territory of Florida, came upon an unnamed lake. His field notes recorded the event as “28.43 chains (Surveyor talk) to clear open lake, (which being unnamed, I have called Lake Conway).

Why Whitner decided to name the lake “Conway” is not known. Some historians have made the assumption that Whitner named the lake after his boss Valentine Y. Conway who was the Surveyor General of Florida at the time. His field notes included a contract with V. Y. Conway which read:

I hereby certify that in pursuance of a contract entered into with V. Y. Conway, Surveyor General of the Territory of Florida, being the ____day of ____184_, and in strict uniformity to the laws of the United States instructions of said land, I have surveyed and subdivided into Sections Township 23 South Range 30 East, in the Territory of Florida. And I do further certify that the forgoing and this true and original field notes of this said survey and subdivisions examined aforesaid. Certified this_____day of July, 1843.

Benj. F. Whitner Jr. Dep. Surveyor *

It is left to our imaginations to determine who Conway was actually named after. Research has not indicated that anyone named Conway had any thing to do with the early years of our area nor did anyone by that name live in the region.

So it seems plausible to accept the assumption that B. F. Whitner, a contract surveyor named the lake after his boss, a man who may have never even been to the area.

Between 1843 and 1881 settlers trickled into the area. It appears that the area was originally known as Prospect. A name that was given to the first church in the area. The Prospect Methodist Episcopal Church South was organized in 1874 (now known as Conway United Methodist Church). Church minutes support the use of the name Prospect. For example the minutes of May 12, 1880 read:

It was moved and seconded that ...a committee of three to act as a building committee of the Church at Prospect.

The church further influenced the naming of the area as indicated in their minutes of September 13, 1884 which read:

On motion by Dr. Enders, the name of the church was changed from Prospect to Conway, a name which would not only identify the church but the community that grew up around it.

In the early day the heart of Conway centered around the Church which stands in the same place as it did in 1885 at the corner of Anderson and Conway Roads. However the term Conway area, region or district were all used to describe a much larger area- one that would encompass everything from Lake Underhill to Narcoossee.

*It should be noted that B. F. Whitner’s contract is a verbatim re-type of the original, blank spaces and all. It appears that Deputy Surveyors would need to have a Judge certify that the contract had actually been completed before payment requests could be submitted. The nearest Judge was in Sanford, a trip that would take several hours by horseback. It is reasonable to assume that the surveyors intentionally left the blank spaces to be filled in when they had a opportunity to have a judge sign off on the document. Whitner mentions in his notes taking trips to Sanford for just that purpose.

Fort Gatlin, established in November of 1838, was the first settlement in our area. It was one among a series of forts built to assist pioneers in settling areas still inhabited by Seminole Indians.

June 05
The earliest settlers located near the safety of the fort giving the Lake Conway Area bragging rights as the first area to be settled in the Central Florida Area.

In 1843 Aaron Jernigan drove over 700 head of cattle from Georgia to the Fort Gatlin area. He let the cattle roam free as he returned to Georgia to bring his family to their new home. A year later Jernigan and his family arrived back in the Fort Gatlin area.

Life was primitive for the early settlers. The following correspondence between Jernigan’s daughter, Martha Jernigan Tyler, gives a good picture of what life was like in the early days.

March 27th, 1924

Mrs. Martha Tyler,
Orlando, Florida.

Dear Madam :

I was very much interested in reading in this morning’s “Times Union” an account of the marking of the site of Fort Gatlin, near Orlando, by the Daughters of the American Revolution of that city. The account states that you, then Martha Jernigan, were in the stockade during the trouble with the Indians.

The reading of the article recalled to my mind an incident told me many years ago by my father, Marcellus A. Williams, who was for years a Government Surveyor in Florida. During one of the Indian uprisings, he was visiting the home of Mr. Jernigan. A day or two before his arrival, Mr. Jernigan and others had captured an Indian Chief named Enihaw, his wife, a baby, and Enihaw’s mother. While marching the captives to the Jernigan home, Enihaw, while passing through a dense swamp, suddenly picked up his wife and made good his escape. The baby and Enihaw’s mother were left in the hands of Mr. Jernigan. During the night my father spent in the Jernigan home, the mother of Enihaw hanged herself under the table in the “smoke house” where she was confined.

The above is my recollection of the incident as told me by my father. If you are the daughter of the above mentioned Mr. Jernigan and remember the incident, I would appreciate it greatly if you would write an account of it for the Florida Historical Society for publication in our quarterly magazine. Such an article from you would be of very great interest and would be very greatly appreciated by the members of the Society and the citizens of Florida generally. Won’t you please do this for us?

Very respectfully,

ARTHUR T. WILLIAMS
President, Florida Historical Society
Orlando, Florida

April 7th, 1924.

MR. ARTHUR T. WILLIAMS
Jacksonville, Florida

Dear Mr. Williams :

Your letter received a few days ago, and in reply will say:

The Indians were fussing and killing people around Tampa and Pease Creek, so father thought it best to build a fort. When it was finished everybody went into it - altogether about 80 people besides the negroes. We all stayed there about a year. The regular soldiers were forted about a mile west of us, altogether about three hundred of them. They left before we went home from the fort.

Living was difficult in those days and not very safe. Father planted corn on the Tohopakaliga Island and when he gathered it he had to bring it five miles across the water in a boat. This boat was made out of a cypress tree, 4 feet wide and 30 feet long. After it was brought across the water he had to haul the corn 15 miles in a wagon. One day uncle Wright Patrick had a load of corn and a large pumpkin on it. He met an Indian who asked him if he could have the pumpkin. He told him “yes.” He said afterwards he would have given him the pony and cart if he had asked for it. A year or so before that, Uncle Isaac Jernigan was at Tohopakaliga Lake late one evening between sunset and dark, when the Indians began shooting at him. They shot four times. He said to himself, “It won’t do for me to be made a target out of,” so he took after them and said, “D-, I will have one of you.” They ran and he after them. After a bit he ran into a hammock nearby, where he could hear them yelling across the creek. It sounded like about five hundred of them about a mile away. When he went to look for his pony she was gone. (He hasn’t found her yet). He took a beeline for home through the woods, because he was afraid to go by the road for fear the Indians would waylay him. He didn’t get home till about daylight the next morning. He had lost his shoes off his feet, and they were scratched and cut up with briars. He could hardly walk for a week. Father went out and hunted the Indians, but could not find them.

A year or two afterwards he captured Enihaw, his wife, mother, and baby, and left them with Tat Kendrick. They were looking for others when Enihaw picked his wife up and made his escape, leaving his mother and the baby. We kept them two or three weeks, when she hung herself, as stated in your letter.

On one occasion when father was hunting his cattle he met an Indian and asked him if he had seen any cows. He told him “yes, about 8 miles east of here.” He went as directed and found one of his choicest heifers cut in pieces and thrown in an alligator hole.

Your father was a good friend of ours. We were always glad to have him with us. I remember him quite well. He had a watch - gold, like himself - and we children would all gather around him like blackbirds to look at it and hear him talk.

I have not been able to write since I fell and broke my right arm about two years ago, but I can furnish you with any information you ask for, and will be glad to do so.

I am Aaron Jernigan’s daughter.

Your friend,

MARTHA TYLER
Orlando, Florida

May lst, 1924.

MR. ARTHUR T. WILLIAMS
Jacksonville, Florida.

Dear Friend :

I have thought of a few more things which might be interesting to you.

Father let your father have his boat to go across Tohopakaliga Lake, as it was six or eight miles nearer to cross the lake that way. Your father left one man to carry the mules, and when he got in sight of the rest of the crew they commenced waving at him, and he, thinking they were Indians, turned and went back to father, which was about 25 or 30 miles, and reported seeing Indians. One of the men (Sherman), took the boat and went back - had to walk 15 miles, but got there a few hours after Ohery did. The name of the boat was “Black Hawk.” It was 30 feet long and 4 feet wide with two sets of oarlocks to it.

Your sincere friend,

MARTHA TYLER
Orlando, Florida

May 11th, 1924

MR. ARTHUR T. WILLIAMS
Jacksonville, Florida.

Dear Friend:

Your letter of the 9th received. You are welcome to publish my letters.

My father’s name was Aaron Jernigan and my mother’s maiden name was Mary Hogans. My father first came to this country in 1843, and brought his cattle, five or six hundred head of them, and left them here. Then in about a year he moved mother and us children here in January. I remember they killed one tiger that measured nine feet long from the end of his nose to the end of his tail. The beef was fat and nice, the tallow was soft like lard and about 7 or 8 gallons to the beef. Fish was also very plentiful.

Father’s father was named Aaron and his mother was named Martha. Her maiden name was Deas. My mother’s father was James Hogan and her mother, Frances. That’s as far back as I can remember. I have great grand-children married who have children.

If there is any more information I can give you, I will be pleased to do so.

Your sincere friend,

MARTHA TYLER

May 11th, 1924

MR. ARTHUR T. WILLIAMS
Jacksonville, Florida

Dear Friend:

Your letter of the 9th received. You are welcome to publish my letters.

If there is any more information I can give you, I will be pleased to do so.

Your sincere friend,

MARTHA TYLER

July 05
The Early Years, Fort Gatlin & The Seminole Indians

After years of alternating Spanish, French, and British rule, the territory of Florida was ceded (by Spain) to the United States in 1821. Lost in the international shuffle were the Seminole Indians. After migrating from Georgia and the Carolinas in the late 18th century to some of Florida’s richest farmlands, they were viewed by the new Americans as an obstacle to white settlement. A series of compromise treaties and violent clashes between settlers and the Seminoles continued through 1832, when a young warrior named Osceola strode up to the bargaining table, slammed his knife into the papers on it, and, pointing to the quivering blade, proclaimed, “The only treaty I will ever make is this!”

With that dramatic statement, the hostilities worsened. The Seminoles’ guerrilla-style warfare thwarted the U.S. Army’s attempt to remove them for almost 8 years, during which time many of the resisters drifted south into the interior of central Florida. In what is today the Central Florida area, the United States Army built Fort Gatlin in 1838 to offer protection to pioneer homesteaders. The Seminoles kept up a fierce rebellion until 1842, when, undefeated, they accepted a treaty whereby their remaining numbers (about 300) were given land and promised peace. The same year, the Armed Occupation Act offered 160 acres to any pioneer willing to settle here for a minimum of 5 years. A small population concentrated around Fort Gatlin as a result of the Act. The land was fertile: wild turkeys and deer abounded in the woods, grazing land for cattle was equally plentiful, and dozens of lakes provided fish for settlers and water for livestock. In 1843, what had been Mosquito County was more invitingly renamed Orange County. And with the Seminoles more or less out of the picture (though sporadic uprisings still occurred), the Territorial General Legislature petitioned Congress for statehood. On March 3, 1845, President John Tyler signed a bill making Florida the 27th state.

Settlements and statehood notwithstanding, at the middle of the 19th century, the Orlando area (then named Jernigan for one of its first settlers) consisted largely of pristine lakes and pine-forested wilderness. There were no roads, and you could ride all day (if you could find a trail) without meeting a soul. The Jernigans successfully raised cattle, and their homestead was given a post office in 1850. It became a way stop for travelers and the seat of future development.