John Sears Francis
John Sears Francis was an Avon Park businessman, proprietor of the Highlands Coca-Cola Bottling Company, and a prominent lay leader in the Episcopal Church.[wingmann-history]
Serving as senior warden of the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, Francis and his wife gave the Episcopal Diocese of South Florida the property on Trout Lake outside the townsite. According to secondary historical accounts, this land historically formed part of the Pabor Lake colony and was situated near the former homesteads of early settlers N. T. Plummer and John DeHoff.[florida-history-blog-pabor-lake] The donation enabled Bishop John Durham Wing to establish a permanent diocesan summer youth facility, Camp Wingmann, in 1939.[wingmann-history]
Although noted by local tradition and diocesan histories as the benefactors of the Camp Wingmann tract, extensive searches of digitized visual archives, newspaper databases, and county repositories have not yet located photographs of the couple or the original deed for the Trout Lake land.
References
- wingmann-history — Camp Wingmann, Inc. Our History, Camp Wingmann, Avon Park, Florida. 31 August 2026. https://www.campwingmann.org/our-history
- florida-history-blog-pabor-lake — Jason Byrne. The Lost Colony of Pabor Lake. 22 March 2016. https://floridahistoryblog.com/the-lost-colony-of-pabor-lake/
Related
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
- public-domain
Sources
- Camp Wingmann, Inc., Our History, Camp Wingmann, Avon Park, Florida (2026)
- Jason Byrne, The Lost Colony of Pabor Lake (2016)
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