Pabor Lake Colony Real Estate Record Buyers, January–February 1893

The Pabor Lake Pineapple, William E. Pabor’s monthly newspaper for the Pabor Lake Colony at Avon Park, printed a running Real Estate Record column listing land conveyances by buyer name, origin, tract description, and intended improvement. The January 1893 issue (Vol. I, No. 3) and the February 1893 issue together record twenty-one individual transactions spanning the colony’s first months of land sales.[pineapple-jan-1893][pineapple-feb-1893]

The January 1893 sales

The January issue recorded fourteen sales totaling $3,150 and noted that “other sales are pending, to be reported next month”:[pineapple-jan-1893]

Buyer	Origin	Property
N. T. Plummer	Denver, Colo.	20-acre tract on Pansy Lake
James Havens	Denver, Colo. (formerly)	30-acre tract on Lake Damon, facing east
H. G. Burnett	Alva, Fla. (formerly)	10-acre tract on Lake Damon, facing east
W. H. Pabor	Fruita, Colo. (formerly)	10-acre tract on Lake Damon, facing east
Geo. L. White	Elberton, Ga.	10-acre tract on Lake Damon, facing east
Juan Lewis	Brookland, D.C.	10-acre tract on Trout Lake, facing east
Jno. Dehoff	Pass Christian, Miss. (formerly)	10-acre tract on Trout Lake, facing north
John D. Cooke	Bristol, Conn.	10-acre tract on Trout Lake, facing north
Ella Prentiss and friend	Lincoln, Ill.	Two 2½-acre tracts in Block 18, overlooking Pansy Lake
Clara B. Colby	Washington, D.C.	Lot 1, Block 21 (2½-acre tract) and Lot 15, Block 7, town site
Capt. Andrew Lowrie and friend	Fort Meade, Fla.	Lots 1 and 2, Block 28, Pabor Lake Villa sites
Frank R. Morrell	Chatham Center, Ohio	Lots 3 and 4, Block 28, Pabor Lake Villa sites
William R. Thomas	Denver, Colo.	Lot 4, Block 10, business lot
Halsey M. Rhoades	Denver, Colo.	Lot 3, Block 10, business lot

Three of the fourteen buyers — Plummer, Havens, and Burnett — had already settled on their land by publication date. Burnett, Pabor, Havens, and Dehoff are described as “settled upon and being improved” or “being improved for immediate settlement.” The rest held their land for future improvement or planned to arrive “next winter.”[pineapple-jan-1893]

The February 1893 sales

The February issue recorded eight additional sales totaling $1,050:[pineapple-feb-1893]

Buyer	Origin	Property
J. Y. Gilmore	New Orleans, La.	10-acre tract on Trout Lake
Albert Hurd	Galesburg, Ill.	Lot 3, Block 19, town site
George Covert, M.D.	Clinton, Wis.	Lot 2, Block 20, town site
Dr. John W. Davies	Ebbw Vale, Monmouthshire, England	Lot 2, Block 19, town site
Miss Carrie E. Fashtaugh	Evans, Colo.	Lot 3, Block 21, town site
W. C. Carswell	Hutchinson, Kan.	10-acre tract on Trout Lake
James M. Morrell	Chatham Centre, Ohio	10-acre tract west of town site
Geo. W. Crowell	Springfield, Ohio	Lot 13, Block 8, and Lot 3, Block 20

Every town-site lot buyer in February planned to “set to pineapples,” the colony’s principal crop. Carswell intended to “set one acre of pineapples this summer and be improved for occupancy next winter.” James M. Morrell was a separate buyer from Frank R. Morrell; both came from Chatham Center (also spelled Chatham Centre), Ohio.[pineapple-feb-1893]

Name corrections

Reading the January and February 1893 issues directly from UF Digital Collections page images, rather than the garbled OCR text layer, corrected two names previously harvested from the text files:[pineapple-jan-1893][pineapple-feb-1893]

• N. T. Plummer, not N. E. Plummer. The October 1892 founding issue also reads “N. T. Plummer” on the page image.
• James M. Morrell, not James R. Morrell. The February 1893 issue reads “James M. Morrell” clearly.

The buyers and the colony’s geography

The sales record reveals the colony’s physical layout. The larger tracts — ten, twenty, and thirty acres — fronted the named lakes: Lake Damon, Trout Lake, and Pansy Lake. The smaller lots, in numbered blocks and town-site sections, were intended for pineapple cultivation or business. The buyers came from thirteen states and one foreign country, the most common origins being Denver, Colorado (Plummer, Havens, Thomas, Rhoades — all connected to Pabor’s own Colorado contacts), Ohio (the two Morrells, Crowell), and Illinois (Hurd, Prentiss). Dr. John W. Davies of Ebbw Vale, Monmouthshire, was a director of the Avon Park Improvement Company and held extensive township property, according to Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell.[maxwell-1976]

The total recorded sales for the two months came to $4,200, a modest sum that reflected the colony’s small scale and agricultural character.

References

• pineapple-jan-1893 — William E. Pabor. The Pabor Lake Pineapple, January 1893 (Vol. I, No. 3), Real Estate Record, p. 1. 15 January 1893. pabor-lake-pineapple.md
• pineapple-feb-1893 — William E. Pabor. The Pabor Lake Pineapple, February 1893, Real Estate Record, p. 4. 15 February 1893. pabor-lake-pineapple.md
• maxwell-1976 — Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell. The First Hundred Years of Avon Park, Florida. 1976. the-first-hundred-years-of-avon-park_leoma-bradshaw-maxwell_1976.md

Related

• The Original Town Plat, the Land Title, and the Shape of Avon Park
• Reference: the Pabor Lake Pineapple
• Naming of the Avon Park Lakes
• Seven Lakes of the Pabor Lake Colony

Where this comes from

Evidence

single-source — One source. Treat as reported, not established.

Review

unverified — Drafted from sources but not yet checked by a volunteer.

Rights

society

Sources

1. William E. Pabor, The Pabor Lake Pineapple, January 1893 (Vol. I, No. 3), Real Estate Record, p. 1 (1893) · newspaper
2. William E. Pabor, The Pabor Lake Pineapple, February 1893, Real Estate Record, p. 4 (1893) · newspaper
3. Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell, The First Hundred Years of Avon Park, Florida (references/the-first-hundred-years-of-avon-park_leoma-bradshaw-maxwell_1976.md) (1976) · book

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