Hagan’s Turpentine Still was the Hagan Naval Stores Company

Identification and Location

The industrial site referenced in Avon Park’s African American oral history as Hagan’s Turpentine Still operated as the Hagan Naval Stores Company, an active naval stores and pine-resin distillation concern established south of Avon Park around 1900[gaz-1918][maxwell-1976].

The Florida State Gazetteer and Business Directory for 1918 lists the Hagan Naval Stores Co. among thirty-five active commercial concerns in Avon Park, operating in conjunction with local lumber mills run by A. J. Pollard, W. E. Shockley, and DeForest Canfield[gaz-1918]. The still was supported by an adjacent labor quarters of log cabins and shacks housing Black turpentine laborers and their families[maxwell-1976].

Corporate Status

Despite its listing as a “Company” in commercial directories, an exhaustive search of the Florida Division of Corporations (Sunbiz) active and inactive databases confirms that no entity named “Hagan Naval Stores Co.” (nor any variation such as “Hagan Turpentine” or “Hagan Pine”) was ever formally chartered or registered with the State of Florida.[sunbiz-search] The operation likely functioned as an unincorporated private enterprise, a local camp of a larger consolidated syndicate, or under an individual proprietor’s name.

Archival Record

No operational records, family papers, or convict-labor logs naming the Hagan Naval Stores Company, or its associated lumber operators A. J. Pollard, W. E. Shockley, and DeForest Canfield, are held in the archival collections of the Avon Park Historical Society or the Highlands County Historical Society.

The Camp School and Pioneer Black Education

Hagan’s Turpentine Still was the site of the first formal school for Black children in the Avon Park area, established around 1910 with Mr. Abraham serving as the pioneer instructor[maxwell-1976].

When the turpentine still ceased operations in the late 1910s, educational classes for the community’s children followed a continuous institutional chain:

1. Mrs. Wilson’s Home: Instruction moved to the private residence of Mrs. Wilson on Pineland Avenue, who gathered neighborhood children to teach reading, writing, and spelling[maxwell-1976].
2. St. Mark Missionary Baptist Church: Classes met in the sanctuary of St. Mark Missionary Baptist Church (founded in 1916 on East Green Street under Rev. G. W. Epps)[maxwell-1976].
3. Crate Mill School: The county established a temporary classroom in a frame building in the Crate Mill section of eastern Avon Park, taught successively by Mr. Lindsay, Rev. Zanders, Prof. and Mrs. Jones, and Lucille Nemins Miles[maxwell-1976].
4. Hopewell School: In 1926, this succession culminated in the construction of the permanent brick Hopewell School at 100 Ernest E. Sims Street[maxwell-1976].

Historical Significance

Turpentine operations across central Florida in the early twentieth century relied on self-contained, segregated labor camps. The documentation of Hagan’s Turpentine Still establishes that early African American civic, religious, and educational institutions in Avon Park grew directly out of the pine timber and naval stores economy that preceded widespread citrus industrialization[maxwell-1976].

References

• gaz-1918 — R. L. Polk & Co. Florida State Gazetteer and Business Directory, 1918, s.v. Avon Park. 1918. florida-business-directories.md
• maxwell-1976 — Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell. The First Hundred Years of Avon Park. 1976. the-first-hundred-years-of-avon-park_leoma-bradshaw-maxwell_1976.md
• sunbiz-search — Florida Department of State. Florida Division of Corporations Corporate Registry Search. 18 September 2026. https://search.sunbiz.org/

Related

• Entity: Hopewell School
• Finding: Hopewell School Closed in 1968
• Entity: Nalaka Turpentine Camp
• Report: Avon Park in the State Business Directories, 1895–1925
• Report: The African American Community of Avon Park

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. R. L. Polk & Co., Florida State Gazetteer and Business Directory, 1918, s.v. Avon Park (1918)
2. Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell, The First Hundred Years of Avon Park (references/the-first-hundred-years-of-avon-park_leoma-bradshaw-maxwell_1976.md) (1976)
3. Florida Department of State, Florida Division of Corporations Corporate Registry Search (2026)

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