The Historical Society of Avon ParkAVON PARK, FL · EST. 1886
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Mary Emma (Miller) Crosby

Summary

Avon Park’s founder is widely known; his first wife played a central role in the town’s survival. Mary Emma Crosby drove the ceremonial first spike of the town’s wooden tram railroad in January 1895[savannah-1895-01-20]. After the Great Freeze of 1894–1895 ruined the citrus economy and forced the Florida Development Company into liquidation, she remained in Avon Park for nearly two years, personally resolving conflicting claims and securing warranty deeds for pioneer families who had purchased parcels under installment contracts[tampa-tribune-1923-03-11][tampa-tribune-1923-03-15].

Early Life and Family

She was born in Danbury, Fairfield County, Connecticut, on 10 July 1853, the daughter of Nathan Skinner Miller and Sarah Crofut (Ambler) Miller[findagrave-mary-emma]. On 30 December 1874, she married Oliver Marvin Crosby in Danbury[findagrave-mary-emma].

The couple had two daughters:

  • Sara Marvin Crosby (1876–1935), who married David A. Findlay and settled in Bellevue, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.
  • Catherine Ambler “Katie” Crosby (1877–1882), who died in Connecticut at the age of five[findagrave-mary-emma].

When Crosby began developing Avon Park in 1886, she joined him on the ridge, managing the household and aiding in hosting homeseekers and prospective settlers at the Hotel Verona[tampa-tribune-1923-03-11].

The First Spike (January 1895)

On 12 January 1895, the citizens of Avon Park assembled to construct a forty-mile wooden-railed tramway north toward Haines City to break their isolation from standard rail lines. A contemporary dispatch recorded the day’s event:

Avon Park people are building a tram railroad to Haines City. On Jan. 12 over 200 stalwart, earnest men, with axes and shovels, cleared up about three miles of the right of way through pine and palmetto for the road. The first spike was, that day, driven by Mrs. O. M. Crosby.[savannah-1895-01-20]

Untangling Land Titles (1897–1898)

Following the back-to-back freezes of December 1894 and February 1895, the town collapsed financially. The Bank of Avon Park failed, and in January 1897 the unsold lands of the Florida Development Company were sold under sheriff’s execution in Arcadia to judgment creditor Abbie R. Dodge of Jacksonville. Crosby departed that summer for New York to seek employment.

Mary Emma Crosby remained behind in Avon Park for twenty months throughout 1897 and 1898[tampa-tribune-1923-03-11][tampa-tribune-1923-03-15]. In August 1897, the neighboring Pabor Lake Pineapple reported on her work:

Those left in authority over the affairs of the Florida Development Co. at Avon Park — or, at least the representative of O. M. Crosby at that point — seem to be making an effort to straighten out land tangles… the attempts now being made to meet the many cases where titles are in question at Avon Park deserves to be commended.[plp-1897-08]

Ernest B. Simmons of Frostproof, who observed her efforts firsthand, described her role in detail in a 1923 letter to the Tampa Tribune:

Deprived of her beloved husband’s society, and in a critical and unfriendly neighborhood, this splendid woman spent nearly two years, writing letters to contract holders, dealing with the land company, and by tact, persuasion, persistence, and sustained by splendid will power and Christian purpose to see that the faith was kept with all the investors, managed to straighten out and give titles to all the contract holders who paid up.

Meantime she kept to her own house, except when called out on business, worked all day and into the night, day after day. During this time Mrs. Crosby was seen very little in public for she felt deeply the unjust criticism of Mr. Crosby by the people of Avon Park. While she was working away to save the investments of hundreds of people of moderate means who had invested in Avon Park lands on the installment-payment plan, Mr. Crosby was selling life insurance in the north and out of this living was sending his wife money for her expenses in Avon Park… The town of Avon Park could do herself no higher honor than to erect a library, monument or some public structure in the name of this noble woman.[tampa-tribune-1923-03-15]

Later Life in Pennsylvania

After completing the land title work in late 1898, Mary Emma Crosby left Florida and joined her surviving daughter Sara in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. She lived in Bellevue for four decades, surviving her husband by six years. She died at Bellevue on 15 June 1938 at the age of 84 and was interred in Mount Royal Cemetery in Glenshaw, Pennsylvania[findagrave-mary-emma].

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. The Morning News (Savannah, Ga.), The Morning News, Savannah, Georgia, 20 January 1895, page 16, Georgia and Florida column: the first day's work on the Avon Park tram railroad (1895) · newspaper
  2. The Tampa Tribune, The Tampa Tribune, 11 March 1923, page 47: Oliver Crosby Relates Story of Rise of Avon Park and First Fall (1923) · newspaper
  3. Ernest B. Simmons / The Tampa Tribune, The Tampa Tribune, 15 March 1923, page 15: Crosby's Return to Avon Park Inspires Laudatory Comments (1923) · newspaper
  4. Find a Grave contributors, Mary Emma Miller Crosby (1853–1938), Mount Royal Cemetery, Glenshaw, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Find a Grave memorial 140375422 (2026) · secondary
  5. W. E. Pabor and E. A. Pabor, The Pabor Lake Pineapple, volume V number 8, August 1897: the representative of O. M. Crosby and the land tangles at Avon Park (references/pabor-lake-pineapple.md) (1897) · newspaper

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