Exhaustive Search for the Original Avon Park Plat and Founder Identity

The Search for the Original Plat

An exhaustive search of the HathiTrust catalog for the “Avon Park” Florida plat, the “DeSoto County” plat book, and “F. E. Crosby” returned no results. Direct scraping via an automated browser confirmed the absence of these documents in the database.

According to the State Archives of Florida’s “Brief Sketch of the Creation and History of Highlands County,” when Highlands County was created out of DeSoto County in 1921, “no records pertinent to Highlands County except plat books were transcribed from the records of old DeSoto County.” Therefore, the original plat books should theoretically have been transferred to Highlands County, though they are not located in HathiTrust.

Identification of the Founder

The search term “F. E. Crosby” appears to be an error in early research or a misidentification. Extensive historical records, including the published volume Florida Facts, Both Bright and Blue (1887), identify Oliver Marvin Crosby (O. M. Crosby) as the primary founder and president of the Florida Development Company responsible for recruiting settlers and platting the area in the 1880s [crosby-1887-book]. There is no evidence of an F. E. Crosby associated with the founding of Avon Park.

Identified Visual Assets

During the archival search, a 1924 map of the W.J. Conners Highway was identified. This map documents the route connecting Florida’s Gulf and Atlantic coasts, prominently featuring Avon Park. It has been recorded as a candidate visual asset for the collection [florida-memory-299285].

References

florida-memory-299285 — State Library of Florida. Map of the W.J. Conners Highway and connecting roads, ca. 1924. http://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/299285
crosby-1887-book — Oliver Marvin Crosby. Florida Facts, Both Bright and Blue. https://archive.org/details/floridafactsbot00crosgoog

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

State Library of Florida, Map of the W.J. Conners Highway and connecting roads, ca. 1924 · archival
Oliver Marvin Crosby, Florida Facts, Both Bright and Blue · book

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