Avon Park on Rand McNally’s Map of Florida, 1892

Avon Park is printed as a named place on the map of Florida that Rand, McNally & Co. copyrighted in 1892. The sheet’s imprint reads “Rand, McNally & Co.’s New Business Atlas Map of Florida. Copyright, 1892, by Rand, McNally & Co.,” and its running head, “Rand, McNally & Company’s Indexed Atlas of the World,” places it on pages 310 and 311 of that atlas. The State Library of Florida’s copy is a colored sheet 55 by 73 centimeters at a scale of about 1:1,141,000.[fm-fmc0221] A second copy of the exact same sheet, appearing in the 1897 edition of the atlas but carrying the 1892 copyright date, is held in the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection (List No. 3565.095), corroborating its appearance on the 1892 plate.[david-rumsey-3565-095]

Detail of Rand, McNally & Co.’s New Business Atlas Map of Florida, 1892, showing DeSoto County and southern Polk County. Avon Park is right of center, just below the county line. State Library of Florida, Florida Map Collection, via Florida Memory, fmc0221. Public domain.[fm-fmc0221]

Where the map puts the town

The name sits in the northern part of an undivided DeSoto County, a short way south of the dashed line that separates it from Polk County, with a small circle marking the place. A scatter of unnamed lakes lies below it. Across the county line to the north the map names Pabor Lake, Lake Livingston and Frostproof; to the east it names Fort Kissimmee on the Kissimmee River; to the southeast, Lake Istokpoga and Fort Bassinger. The nearest railroad on the sheet runs down the Peace River valley through Bowling Green, Wauchula and Arcadia, well to the west, and no line reaches Avon Park.[fm-fmc0221]

What the map can date

A map copyrighted in 1892 shows that the name Avon Park was current enough by then for a Chicago map publisher to print it. It is the earliest confirmed appearance of the name in commercial cartography; a search of 1886 to 1891 map editions from Rand McNally, George F. Cram, and Colton yielded no instances of Avon Park, likely because the settlement was omitted due to its small size or still known under its original name, Lake Forest.

The map cannot show when the town was platted. According to the Post Office Department’s register of appointments, the place was already a post office in 1888, when William King was appointed its first postmaster on 22 May.[nara-m841-desoto] The town’s plat filings are dated differently by the two accounts that list them: Barbara Berry Darsey’s 1937 typescript for the Federal Writers’ Project records a Manatee County filing of 1886 and a DeSoto County filing of 1889, while the 1990 National Register nomination lists Manatee County in 1887 and DeSoto County in 1887 and on 1 January 1892, and calls the town “originally platted in 1892.”[darsey-1937][nrhp-avon-park-district] The 1892 map is equally consistent with every one of those dates.

Related

• The original town plat and land title
• The Avon Park plat entries read in 1937
• Postal service and postmasters of Avon Park

References

• fm-fmc0221 — Rand McNally and Company; State Library of Florida, Florida Map Collection. Rand McNally’s Florida, 1892 (Rand, McNally & Co.’s New Business Atlas Map of Florida), map number fmc0221. 1892. https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/323210
• nara-m841-desoto — United States Post Office Department, Records of the Post Office Department (Record Group 28), National Archives. Record of Appointment of Postmasters, 1832–1971, Postmaster Appointments for DeSoto County, Florida (Microfilm Publication M841), pages 196 and 54–55, Avon Park entries 1888–1922. 11 September 1922. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/78731856
• darsey-1937 — Barbara Berry Darsey. Avon Park Guide, typescript for the Federal Writers’ Project, pages 190 and 192: Bibliography of Chronology. 31 December 1938. avon-park-guide-federal-writers-project-1937.md
• nrhp-avon-park-district — Florida Bureau of Historic Preservation / National Park Service. National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, Avon Park Historic District (ref. 90000486), bibliography. 22 March 1990. https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NRHP/90000486_text
• david-rumsey-3565-095 — Rand McNally and Company; David Rumsey Historical Map Collection. Rand, McNally & Co.’s New business atlas map of Florida (List No. 3565.095). 1897. https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~23075~790073

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. Rand McNally and Company; State Library of Florida, Florida Map Collection, Rand McNally's Florida, 1892 (Rand, McNally & Co.'s New Business Atlas Map of Florida), map number fmc0221 (1892) · archival
2. United States Post Office Department, Records of the Post Office Department (Record Group 28), National Archives, Record of Appointment of Postmasters, 1832–1971, Postmaster Appointments for DeSoto County, Florida (Microfilm Publication M841), pages 196 and 54–55, Avon Park entries 1888–1922 (1922) · official
3. Barbara Berry Darsey, Avon Park Guide, typescript for the Federal Writers' Project, pages 190 and 192: Bibliography of Chronology (references/avon-park-guide-federal-writers-project-1937.md) (1938) · archival
4. Florida Bureau of Historic Preservation / National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, Avon Park Historic District (ref. 90000486), bibliography (1990) · official
5. Rand McNally and Company; David Rumsey Historical Map Collection, Rand, McNally & Co.'s New business atlas map of Florida (List No. 3565.095) (1897) · archival

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