The Historical Society of Avon ParkAVON PARK, FL · EST. 1886
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The Florida Home Seeker, Avon Park’s own newspaper, 1889–1890s

Summary

Avon Park had a newspaper of its own within four years of its founding, and it was the town’s chief advertisement to the world. The Florida Home Seeker was owned and published by the Florida Development Company and edited by Oliver M. Crosby, the town’s founder, who used it to sell land in Township 33 South and to say, at length and repeatedly, what kind of people he wanted to buy it.[darsey-1937] No copy of it is catalogued in any library. What it printed survives because a writer for the Federal Writers’ Project borrowed an 1895 issue from Mrs. William King, the first settler’s wife, in 1937, and copied several columns of it into her typescript.[darsey-1937]

What it was

The paper was established in 1889, with the Florida Development Company as owner and publisher and Crosby as editor.[darsey-1937] It went out to “many people throughout the United States and foreign countries in an effort to interest settlers in this new land,” and carried scientific notes on the state’s climate and agriculture beside its local items.[darsey-1937] Two of the issues cited in the typescript’s bibliography are labeled a monthly publication.[darsey-1937]

It was printed at Fort Meade, twenty miles up the ridge, and the arrangement is on record. In January 1891 the Savannah paper reported: “O. M. Crosby of Avon Park has purchased the South Florida Progress at Fort Meade. Judge E. W. Dawson, formerly of California, will edit and publish the Progress, and also publish the Florida Homeseeker, the latter edited by Mr. Crosby.”[savannah-1891-01-27] Crosby, in other words, bought a printing office at the railhead and put a working newspaperman in charge of it, keeping the editorship of his own paper for himself.

It moved to Avon Park in 1893. The Pabor Lake Pineapple of May that year reported that the paper’s printing had only then been removed to the town “from Fort Meade, as heretofore,” although an Avon Park address had been advertised on it since the previous autumn — the office and the press had been in two places for a while.[plp-1893-05] Earlier that year, the Home Seeker had printed a geographic claim that drew a public rebuke: its February 1893 issue claimed W. E. Pabor’s and H. G. Burnet’s Pabor Lake homes as part of Avon Park, prompting the Pineapple to insist in print that Pabor Lake “has no connection with the town of Avon Park.”[plp-1893-05]

That it was going out as a monthly by the middle of 1894 is confirmed from an unexpected direction. When Charles C. Chollar came home to Redwood Falls, Minnesota, that June after taking the post of cashier at the Bank of Avon Park, his home-town paper reported that “he brought home a number of Homeseekers, a monthly paper published in the interest of this Excelsior lake region, which he will gladly mail to any one desirous of receiving the same.”[redwood-1894-06-21]

It had agents. In July 1890 a Florida correspondent introduced himself as “W. W. Breese, M.D. of Waldo Florida, State Agent for Florida Home Seeker a newspaper devoted to all parts of the State.”[breese-1890-07-28] It advertised in the northern press: the Florida Development Company ran a standing classified headed “THE FLORIDA HOME SEEKER” in The Sun of New York.[sun-1892-11-13] It advertised in the Florida farm press too, over Crosby’s own name at Avon Park.[fa-1893-11-08]

Crosby also started a second paper, the Avon Park Idea, about 1894, meant for circulation through New England; it carried editorials on the town’s needs and “frequently enlivened its columns with humorous accounts of the settlers and their problems.” Both papers were discontinued within a few years, after which Avon Park’s news appeared as a page in the De Soto County News at Arcadia.[darsey-1937]

What an issue looked like

One first-hand description of an actual issue survives, from a Minnesota weekly whose editor had been sent a copy by Charles C. Chollar, cashier of the Bank of Avon Park. On 13 December 1894 the Redwood Gazette printed this:

We are indebted to Mr. Charles C. Chollar for a copy of the Florida Home Seeker, a boom paper published at Avon Park, Florida, where Mr. Chollar is cashier of the bank. The first article is under the caption of “Sketches of Prominent Citizens.” It is No. 1 of the kind, and is of Mr. Chollar, with a handsome half-tone portrait of that gentleman. The biographical sketch is on the line of those published in this paper under the caption of “Our Business Men.” The Home Seeker has many references to Mr. Chollar and his bank, and also a bird’s eye view of Avon Park. The town is platted for a million people but a census at the present time would come a long way from that figure.[redwood-1894-12-13]

So the paper of late 1894 ran a portrait series, printed half-tone photographs, and carried a bird’s-eye view of the town — the kind of engraved panorama that land companies of the period commissioned. No such view of Avon Park is known to survive.[redwood-1894-12-13]

What survives

No library, archive or union catalogue records a physical copy. Exhaustive sweeps of WorldCat, HathiTrust, the American Antiquarian Society, Chronicling America, and the National Archives return zero hits.[api-sweep-2026] The United States Newspaper Directory, which lists American newspapers whether or not any file of them survives, has no entry for the title under any spelling, and none for the Avon Park Idea either.[loc-newspaper-directory]

A single bibliographic trace of its publication run survives in the List of the Agricultural Periodicals of the United States and Canada Published During the Century July 1810 to July 1910, which records the Florida Home-Seeker as a monthly publication running from approximately 1890 to 1891, associated with New York and Florida, specifically Avon Park and Fort Meade.[ag-periodicals-list] (As shown by the 1895 excerpts below, the publication run continued later than 1891.) A privately held 1891 issue — designated the “Second World’s Fair Edition” — survives in the collectors’ market; the eight-page newspaper, printed at Avon Park, contains articles such as “Avon Park at Chicago” and “The Florida Development Company,” alongside a nearly full-page detailed map of Avon Park tracts.[amazon-1891]

A different newspaper of nearly the same name should not be mistaken for it: the Florida home-seeker, a monthly published at Hampton in Bradford County by P. W. Corr, is digitized for February and April 1895 and has no connection with Avon Park.[ufdc-hampton-home-seeker]

Copies were still in the town in 1937. Barbara Berry Darsey, writing the Avon Park Guide for the Federal Writers’ Project, cited three issues by date — December 1891, an 1892 “Standard Edition” with no month given, and June 1894 — and against one long passage she wrote the note that says where it came from:

(Rewritten from an article in “THE FLORIDA HOME SEEKER”, 1895, loaned to writer by Mrs. Wm. King, earliest pioneer.)[darsey-1937]

Mary Ann King died in Avon Park on 25 August 1938, a year after she lent it.[maxwell-1976]

What the paper said

Evidence: single-source. Every passage below survives only in Barbara Berry Darsey’s 1937 typescript; no copy of the newspaper itself has been found against which to check her transcription.

Why Crosby chose the site

Quoted in the typescript from “an early issue,” as Crosby’s own reasons for choosing the township:

The natural beauty of the open pine forest studded with fresh clear-water lakes gleaming like jewels; the abundance of fish and game; the high altitude; freedom from swamps, malaria, mosquitoes, and negroes.[darsey-1937]

The terms

$25.00 per acre tract, terms $1.00 down, $1.00 per month, no interest on deferred payments, title guaranteed.[darsey-1937]

The town’s own growth table

The paper printed its own account of what the settlement had done, year by year:

Year The paper’s entry
1886 1 log cabin
1887 6 families
1888 Post Office and Saw Mill
1889 Hotel Verona built; Home Seeker established
1890 Many new settlers; Brick Kiln
1891 1 mile of plank sidewalk; Sargeant Hall and Masonic Hall built
1892 Union Evangelical Church; 400 acres of Citrus
1893 80 new homes; 200 new settlers; new school house
1894 500 estates sold

[darsey-1937]

“Features of Avon Park’s success”

Printed, the typescript says, in a mood of delight, before the freeze:

Features of Avon Park’s success: no frost, no whiskey, no negroes, nor malaria; low priced land, a solid township to select from; progressive people — no idlers; daily mail, telephone, stores, school, Union Evangelical Church, good society, freedom from lawlessness.

Future hopes and expectations: standard gauge railroad, bank planned by October ’94; population doubled and everybody happy, making money shipping pineapples, grapes, tomatoes, and citrus fruit. The “Avon Park Idea” embracing the whole forty miles of this Excelsior Lake Region.[darsey-1937]

The editorial of 1895

The longest recovered passage is a run of paragraphs copied under the heading “THE FLORIDA HOME SEEKER — 1895.” The rows of dots are the typescript’s own marks for material left out; nothing records how much was cut at each.[darsey-1937]

Out of the hundreds of new investors in Avon Park will come a multitude of settlers who will do well to ponder these words:

Do not come expecting an easy berth, or that oranges will grow without effort to drop in your lap in golden showers.

Do not come if you expect to earn a living without hard labor. This is a poor place for you or any who hate hard work.

Do not come expecting to find clerical work, office writing or genteel occupations. Only hard workers are needed at building houses and fences, chopping trees, ploughing, planting, etc.

If you are able to hire all your work done you are blessed. The above words to that numerous class without capital — a great majority. We wish we had a few more “handy men,” i.e. those who could fit into odd jobs — painting, trucking, repairing, or anything that needs doing.

Above all do not come to stand around, loaf or gossip. We are a community of hustlers, intent on building up a model community. Mischief makers or what Paul describes as “Busy bodies” are not welcome.

Of course you know we have no “Race problem”, no cheap negro labor to compete with, no outrages, profanings, or lynchings; no need for sheriff, judge, or jury; because no “liquor” so no loafers or lawlessness. Yet this is not Utopia, only Avon Park, which we aim to make a place of model homes.

But come! — if you are in hearty sympathy with all the above ideas, or have ability to earn a living or create a position. COME! We will heartily welcome you, regardless of creeds or politics.

Still they come — the queries from the incredulous, “How about your summers?”, and if this paper can correct the impression in the north, that they are unbearable or our chief drawback, our paper shall not have been published in vain.

Ask any resident of two years or more whose name frequently appears in our locals, what he thinks of our summer climate, and ten to one he will reply: “I like it better summer here than even our winters”. How can this be true?

Look at your map. Note our position far down in the trade winds, on the narrow Florida peninsula, between gulf and ocean, on its highest part fanned by the perpetual breezes.

In the sun, true, you feel the heat, for the sun gives more heat overhead as you go south, winter and summer, and if it were not for the trade winds on this narrow peninsula, we might well complain of the heat.

The northern papers have been furnished as usual with rare reading from the Florida tourist, who of course “knows it all”. He as usual writes: “The soil is all sand”, regardless of the chemist’s analysis: the trees and other crops that he sees will not grow in clear sand. He still avers that snakes, alligators, and venomous insects and reptiles abound, although probably he never sees them, but such is the state’s reputation and northern papers demand such reports from their correspondents.

Every spring hundreds of letters come asking if our summers are bearable. We find our veracity questioned more on this point than almost any other.

Herein lies the whole matter. It does not seem as hot in summer as it is. In winter also it feels far colder than the mercury shows. If the glass proves it to be 40 degrees you will declare by your feelings it must be near zero; it is the peculiarity of the climate.

Do not come with uplifted nose, or scorning the methods of the settlers, who will save you many a blunder if you take their advice. You have much to learn. You will save yourself a world of misery by locating in a community of people of congenial tastes, a unit on the temperance, moral and religious questions, and where public spirit is required.

If the church services do not suit you, help make them better. If some crops do not grow and pay as you thought they would, try others. The sand will appall you as it does all, but you will learn it is better than it looks.

Your life here will not be made a burden by importunities to buy land. You will have to ask to be shown tracts for sale.

Do not write for positions, but come and create your own positions — be an employer rather than an employee here.

We wish no one to come who is not fitted to enjoy life here, and we will not willingly misrepresent to secure settlers and sales. Please then read all these words, which in substance have been often written by us before.

Do not come to Avon Park if you must have strong drink. Do not come here if you must have questionable amusements. Do not come here if you enjoy cold weather rather than warm. Do not come if you cannot live agreeably with your neighbors, or are fond of gossip. Do not let your parents send you here to sober up or reform. Do not come if you are of a restless or discontented disposition. You can find any amount of things to grumble over if you are so disposed, here as elsewhere, but to build up “A Model Community” none of the above classes are necessary.

But come! if you are temperate, fond of quiet social moral pleasures; if you abhor gossip and are of a contented mind. If added to the above you are capable, self reliant, energetic, and not easily discouraged, you will achieve success regardless of age or condition.

Hotel Verona will make you comfortable and happy, while you locate your land or build a home, at $1.50 per day which is below cost; all branches being secondary to the development of this township.

How will this do for an Avon Park advertising motto, on the “You press the button, we do the rest” order: “Nature has done her part, we’ll do the rest”. Nature has surely done her part in giving us such a climate, such beautiful lakes, and rolling healthful lands. No[w] we will do the rest in making the wilderness to blossom as the rose.[darsey-1937]

The Hotel Verona’s rates, advertised in the same year

We are compelled to discriminate in favor of our investors, to accommodate whom the Hotel was built. All others will be charged $1.50 per day or $8.00 per week. Parties visiting for the purpose of investing, who conclude their purchase may enjoy the same rate as old investors, viz: $1.00 per day, $6.00 per week. Our enterprise is fast getting beyond the infant stage, and must assume a more independent attitude. We honestly believe that no hotel can offer as much to its guests as Hotel Verona at the above rates.[darsey-1937]

References

Where this comes from

Evidence
corroborated — More than one independent source agrees.
Review
unverified — Drafted from sources but not yet checked by a volunteer.
Rights
society

Sources

  1. W. E. Pabor, editor and publisher, The Pabor Lake Pineapple, May 1893: the Florida Home Seeker's printing removed to Avon Park from Fort Meade (references/pabor-lake-pineapple.md) (1893) · newspaper
  2. The Morning News (Savannah, Ga.), The Morning News, Savannah, Georgia, 27 January 1891, page 6, Florida column: O. M. Crosby purchases the South Florida Progress at Fort Meade (1891) · newspaper
  3. The Redwood Gazette (Redwood Falls, Minn.), The Redwood Gazette, Redwood Falls, Minnesota, 21 June 1894, page 5: C. C. Chollar engaged as cashier of the Bank of Avon Park, and the Homeseekers he brought home (1894) · newspaper
  4. Barbara Berry Darsey, Avon Park Guide, typescript for the Federal Writers' Project, pages 22, 26, 27–31, 36, 121, 190–192 and 199–206 (references/avon-park-guide-federal-writers-project-1937.md) (1938) · archival
  5. The Redwood Gazette, The Redwood Gazette, Redwood Falls, Minnesota, 13 December 1894, page 5: notice of a copy of the Florida Home Seeker sent by Charles C. Chollar (1894) · newspaper
  6. Florida Development Company, in The Sun (New York), The Sun, New York, 13 November 1892, page 11: classified advertisement headed The Florida Home Seeker, for the Florida Development Company (1892) · newspaper
  7. O. M. Crosby, in The Florida Agriculturist (DeLand, Fla.), The Florida Agriculturist, 8 November 1893, page 6: advertisement for The Florida Homeseeker (1893) · newspaper
  8. Fairhope Single Tax Corporation, W. W. Breese, M.D., of Waldo, Florida, State Agent for the Florida Home Seeker, to E. B. Gaston, 28 July 1890, Fairhope Single Tax Corporation archive, item i.1.45-48 (1890) · archival
  9. Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell, The First Hundred Years of Avon Park, Florida: the death of Mrs. Mary Ann King, 25 August 1938 (references/the-first-hundred-years-of-avon-park_leoma-bradshaw-maxwell_1976.md) (1976) · book
  10. Library of Congress, United States Newspaper Directory, 1690–present: searches for Florida Home Seeker, Florida Homeseeker, Home-Seeker and Avon Park Idea (2026) · official
  11. University of Florida Digital Collections, Florida home-seeker, Hampton, Florida, P. W. Corr editor, February and April 1895, University of Florida Digital Collections bib. AA00020308 (1895) · archival
  12. Avon Park Historical Society Research Agent, Library and Archive Database Sweep Log: WorldCat, HathiTrust, American Antiquarian Society, Chronicling America, and National Archives (2026) · secondary
  13. Stephen Conrad Stuntz, List of the Agricultural Periodicals of the United States and Canada Published During the Century July 1810 to July 1910 (1910) · book
  14. Amazon marketplace, Rare AVON PARK Highlands County FLORIDA Founding Development 1891 Old Newspaper THE FLORIDA HOME SEEKER, Avon Park, Florida, 1891 (2026) · secondary

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