The Historical Society of Avon ParkAVON PARK, FL · EST. 1886
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State Archives records of the Internal Improvement Fund and Disston Purchase

Summary

The documentary link connecting Oliver Marvin Crosby’s 1886–1887 Avon Park land acquisitions to the State of Florida rests on the records of the Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund (TIIF). Catalog records at the State Archives of Florida designate Series S 194, Volume 3, and Series S 914, Box 74, Folder 16, as the specific minute volumes and administrative correspondence files documenting the four-million-acre Hamilton Disston purchase through which the Lake Wales Ridge passed into private development.[fl-state-archives-s194][fl-state-archives-s914]

The archival series at Tallahassee

The land now comprising Avon Park (Township 33 South, Range 28 East) was granted to the State of Florida by the federal government under the Swamp and Overflowed Lands Act of September 28, 1850. Because the state held title rather than the federal General Land Office, no federal homestead patents were issued for the townsite core in Section 22.

The State Archives of Florida in Tallahassee maintains the permanent administrative records of this transfer:

  1. Series S 194, Volume 3 (Archive No. 000593/.S 194-00003): Minutes of the Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund, August 9, 1879 – January 14, 1889. This volume contains the official board proceedings, negotiations, and formal conveyance orders approving the June 1, 1881 agreement between Governor William D. Bloxham and Philadelphia industrialist Hamilton Disston, selling four million acres of state internal improvement lands at twenty-five cents per acre to clear the fund’s debts.[fl-state-archives-s194][davis-1939-disston]
  2. Series S 914, File Unit 00074.00016 (Archive No. 000593/.S 914-00074.00016): Secretaries Correspondence, General Administrative Records: Hamilton Disston – Florida Land and Improvement Company, 1870s–1880s. This file unit preserves the operative administrative correspondence, agency reports, and selection lists submitted by Disston’s land agents as acreage was surveyed and selected across the central ridge.[fl-state-archives-s914]
  3. Series L 188, Reel MF043 (Archive No. 800000/.L 188-MF043): Deed Record Book X: 1883–1910 (Florida Land and Improvement Company, “Disston Purchase”), Tenth Judicial Circuit (Polk County). This transcribed ledger carries recorded deeds documenting Disston’s corporate transfers in the Peace River and Lake Wales Ridge corridors prior to the creation of DeSoto County in May 1887.

Connection to the Avon Park townsite

Oliver Marvin Crosby’s Florida Development Company acquired its initial townsite acreage directly from Disston’s corporate vehicle, the Florida Land and Improvement Company, and Disston’s chief drainage engineer and agent, Captain Archibald Adams. These state series identify the exact archival repositories and volume numbers that preserve the sovereign chain of title under which Crosby subdivided the town.

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. Florida Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund, Series S 194: Minutes of the Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund, 1855–1973 (Volume 3: August 9, 1879 – January 14, 1889, Archive No. 000593/.S 194-00003) (1889) · official
  2. Florida Trustees of the Internal Improvement Fund, Series S 914: Secretaries Correspondence, General Administrative Records, 1847–1911 (File Unit 00074.00016: Hamilton Disston - Florida Land and Improvement Company, 1870s–1880s) (1889) · official
  3. T. Frederick Davis, The Hamilton Disston Land Purchase (1939) · secondary

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