The Historical Society of Avon ParkAVON PARK, FL · EST. 1886
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This is a draft. It is published so it can be read and corrected, not because it is finished.

C. E. Lanier

The name appears across thirty-two years of Avon Park’s records, always near the center of things, though almost nothing personal about the man is known.

What the record shows

1913 — the town’s first tax collector. Section 47 of Chapter 6662, the act that incorporated the Town of Avon Park, appoints the town’s first officers outright, to serve until the regular election of 1913. Among them: “C. E. Lanier, Tax Collector.”[lof-1913-6662]

1918 — cashier of the First National Bank. The Florida State Gazetteer and Business Directory for 1918 gives Avon Park a First National Bank with $25,000 of capital, C. A. Skipper president and C. E. Lanier cashier.[gaz-1918]

1919 and 1920 — “banker of Avon Park.” The Punta Gorda Herald’s “Local Items” column, which tracked visitors from across DeSoto County, records “C. E. Lanier, banker of Avon Park,” at Punta Gorda in August 1919 and December 1920.[pgh-1920-12-16]

1924 — a director of the Mutual Crate Company. The Tampa Tribune of 15 June 1924, reporting the crate mill’s best year, lists C. E. Lanier of Avon Park among its directors, with J. A. Caldwell of Avon Park and secretary-treasurer A. V. Anderson.[taplines-mutual]

1927 — the Highway Beautification Board. Chapter 12839 of 1927 authorized Highlands County to issue up to $50,000 of Highway Beautification Bonds for the ornamentation of State Highway No. 8 through Avon Park, Sebring, DeSoto City, Lake Placid, Lake Annie and Brighton, and named the five-member board in the act itself. C. E. Lanier of Avon Park is the Avon Park member.[lof-1927-12839]

1941 and 1945 — the Florida House of Representatives. Every volume of the Laws of Florida opens with its membership lists, and the list of the House is arranged by county. The 1941 volume reads “Highlands — C. E. Lanier, Avon Park,” and the 1945 volume carries the same entry.[lof-1941-house]

Not 1943, and not 1947 — and now we know who was. The Secretary of State’s own biennial rosters of the Legislature confirm the pattern and fill the gap: Highlands County’s seat was held by C. E. Lanier of Avon Park in the 1941 session, by Howard Livingston of Sebring in 1943, and by Lanier again in 1945; Livingston held it again in 1959, and Morris Adams of Avon Park from 1961.[sos-reports]

One man, probably

Whether there was one C. E. Lanier or a father and son has a likely answer. Charles Everett Lanier, born 3 December 1889, died 25 May 1975, lies at Bougainvillea Cemetery, Avon Park, with his wife Mattie Claire Sheffield Lanier (1891-1949); his parents were William Augustus Lanier (1869-1962) and Sophia J. Locklar Lanier.[findagrave-lanier] A man born in 1889 was twenty-three when the 1913 act made him tax collector, twenty-eight when he was the bank’s cashier, thirty-four on the crate mill’s board, and fifty-one and fifty-five in the House — one life, comfortably. No single document yet ties this grave to the tax collector, the cashier and the legislator by name, so the identification is by name, place and dates rather than by proof.

The same rosters show a David F. Lanier of Avon Park commissioned Judge of the Small Claims Court for Highlands County in April 1957 and serving into the 1960s — very probably a son, since the 1940 census index puts a David, born about 1928, in an Avon Park Lanier household headed by a “Cleve” of about the right age.[sos-reports]

Why he matters

The town’s first tax collector became its banker, then a county officer of the boom, then its member of the state Legislature during the Second World War, spanning Avon Park’s institutional history from 1913 to 1945.

In the 1945 session the Legislature repealed the 1943 act establishing a state venereal hospital at Avon Park and, by Chapter 22696, voted the South Florida State Hospital to Highlands County instead, on land the county and the city bought and gave away. Avon Park’s own representative sat in that session.

References

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. Florida Office of the Secretary of State, Report of the Secretary of State of the State of Florida 1939-1940 (1941)
  2. Legislature of the State of Florida, Chapter 6662 (No. 242), Laws of Florida 1913, Special Laws: An Act to Establish and Constitute a Municipality in DeSoto County, Florida, To Be Known and Designated as the Town of Avon Park (1913)
  3. R. L. Polk & Co., Florida State Gazetteer and Business Directory, 1918, s.v. Avon Park (1918)
  4. The Punta Gorda Herald (Punta Gorda, Fla.), Local Items, The Punta Gorda Herald, 16 December 1920, page 5 (1920)
  5. Legislature of the State of Florida, Chapter 12839 (No. 1034), Laws of Florida 1927: Highlands County Highway Beautification Bonds (1927)
  6. Donald R. Hensley, Jr., taplines.net, Mutual Crate Company, Avon Park — reproducing the Tampa Tribune of 15 June 1924, 'Mutual Crate Co. Enjoys Great Year' (2026)
  7. Florida Secretary of State, Report of the Secretary of State of the State of Florida, biennial editions 1939-40 to 1959-60: rosters of the Legislature and of county officers (1961)
  8. Find a Grave contributors, Find a Grave memorial 34651376, Charles Everett Lanier (3 December 1889 – 25 May 1975), Bougainvillea Cemetery, Avon Park (2026)
  9. Legislature of the State of Florida, Members of the House of Representatives, in Laws of Florida 1941, General Acts and Resolutions, Volume 1 (1941)

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