2014 History of Marion County

SUNDAY , OCTOBER 19 , 2014

The people, events and near misses that shaped modern life here

Confessions of a writer of local historical subjectsM

y fascination with history developed at a very young age — preschool,

in fact — when my father began taking me with him when he called on custom-ers throughout Central Florida selling fruit for a fruit company with ware-houses in Jacksonville and Tampa.

So many of the stores were located in old, remote communities, most of which have disappeared today.

Although I was only 5 or 6 at the time, I absorbed just about everything I saw and heard. There seemed to be no end to my curiosity about people and places.

When I started school at age 6, at Ocala Primary School (now school district headquarters), I may have been the only kid who could tell you how to get to Umatilla, Waca-hootie or Pedro or Danks Corner. Yes, I knew where Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings lived and worked at Cross Creek, and how to get

there by way of Citra and Island Grove. She was “the writing lady,” I was told.

I wanted to know

more. I always wanted to know more.

As the years passed, what started as a fascina-tion became more of an obsession — an obsession that still grips me today because you can never tell the stories of all the communities and the people in them fully or completely, if at all. There is always more to fi nd out, more to tell about.

When asked when my history of Ocala and Marion County will end, I can only answer “never” because it continues to unfold every day and will never be complete. So much of this area’s rich history and the people who made it have been lost, but parts of it keep

turning up.Even before I learned to

read, I was fascinated by the words in books and in the balloons over the heads of the characters in newspaper comic strips. My fi rst book — which I couldn’t read — was about a comic strip character, Tailspin Tommy, who was involved in all kinds of adventures involving fl ying airplanes.

I fell totally in love with the history of our country when I began reading about the Revolutionary War in a fourth-grade textbook. Comic strip characters were replaced by Minutemen carrying muskets and fi ghting those awful Hessians hired by evil King George to kill Americans.

In my imagination, I was at Bunker Hill when the muskets began fi ring. It was so real to me, I could smell powder, hear the yells of the wounded and laugh as the Redcoats slunk away in defeat.

Well, it was years later before I discovered it didn’t really happen the way our textbook told us back in the mid-1930s. We got a lot of myths about the beginnings of our country.

I swallowed the story of George Washington cutting down the cherry tree hook, line and sinker.

Even the story of the midnight ride of Paul Revere had been rewritten to make him a hero, but as a kid, I believed it. What I later found was that history was the subject to the views of the writer, altered at times to prove a point or to make some-body look good.

I even began to doubt the tales about the Indians who populated this area before the arrival of the Spaniards. Was it possible those marvelous Indian tales told by the guys operating the glass-bot-tom boats at Silver Springs weren’t true?

What about the story of the beautiful young Indian maiden who died with her lover in the grotto that used to be a feature of Tuscawilla Park, opposite the VFW headquarters? Did someone make it up?

My desire to know more and more about our history became a fl ame, consuming my grade school years, college and much of the time I should have spent on behalf of my employer. There were

endless books and articles to be read and often copied for later use.

As a child I was mesmer-ized by the Western movies shown each Saturday. I loved the heroic cowboys and their horses. Most of my Saturday afternoons were spent at the Ritz Theater on Silver Springs Boule-vard. I had a desire to retain my memories of these shows. So I went home and wrote out the stories in a notebook.

Soon I began to make up my own stories, but fi rst I had to learn about the West and the people who made it what it was. The amazing thing is that I found I liked to write, as long as I had good infor-mation. By the seventh grade I was ready to write a novel. I wrote it during lulls in my classes. What I learned was you had better know your subject before you put words on paper.

By my sophomore year in high school, I was ready to try my hand at newspaper writing, encouraged by my journalism teacher, Dora Byron. In newspaper work, research came before writing, a lesson I

had already learned, so journalism was a perfect fi t for me.

To aid my adventures in historical writing, I became something of a junk collector. I learned how to fi le interesting stuff. Today my fi les are about to overtake me. There is no more room in my house for books. The research I’ve done over the years is at my fi ngertips — except for the thousands of newspaper articles not yet fi led correctly so they can be found.

New information about Ocala and Marion County turns up almost every day. New people with a thirst for knowledge arrive to make this area home. Many want to know more about this area. How did we get the way we are? My hope is they fi nd a little something interesting from my weekly columns, as I try to uncover more and more facts.

David Cook, an avid Marion County historian, is a retired editor of the Star-Banner. His column, “The Way It Was,” ap-pears in the Star-Banner on Sundays. He may be contacted at 237-2535.Mossy Oaks

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DAVID COOK

Marion County HistoryContributing writers: David Cook, Bill Thompson, Joe

Callahan, Marian Rizzo, Andy Fillmore, Richard Burton, Darrell G. Riley, Carlos E. Medina, Richard Anguiano, Dave SchlenkerContributing photographers: Bruce Ackerman, Doug

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Circus town? State capital? Theme park mecca? Oh, what might have beenBy Bill ThompsonStaff writer

Hindsight is always 20/20, of course, so it is probably not worth pondering

how different the local landscape would look if all, or perhaps some, of the corporate and cultural tycoons that considered making Marion County home had actually stayed.

Still, Ocala’s brushes with greatness do give one pause.

For instance, Marion County could have been the location for the Greatest Show on Earth.

Realtor George Albright Jr. recalled his father sharing the story of how the Ringling Brothers Circus once eyed Lake Weir as a winter head-quarters.

As the story goes, according to Albright, the circus thought the then-crystal clear lake would be an ideal water source for its big animals. There also was a railroad line that ran through Weirsdale near the site, which would have made it easy for the circus to pack up and go.

Lakeside landowners, however, were not en-thused.

“One guy told them, ‘I don’t want any damn elephant tromping around in my lake,’ ” Albright recalled. “Of course, as we all know, they went to Sarasota and developed a huge operation there.”

The Sarasota location the Ringlings set up in 1927 has evolved into a

signifi cant cultural center on Sarasota Bay, featuring a museum, theater, botanical gardens and the 36,000-square-foot mansion built by John and Mable Ringling that would cost $20 million in today’s dollars.

In 2013, according to its website, the whole facility had a record-breaking year, welcoming almost 400,000 visitors.

Local anti-sprawl activists lament that each new residential or com-mercial project threatens to turn Ocala into Orlan-do.

But a brief sentence in a March 2007 National Geographic profi le of Theme-park Town USA showed how at one time that worry could have been stood on its head.

“If it weren’t for (Walt) Disney, the local saying goes,” T.D. Allman wrote in that issue, “the Orlando region would be called Ocala, a rival town up the road.”

The piece recalled the famous anecdote of Disney, using an alias, chartering a plane for an aerial reconnaissance of the swamps southwest of Orlando, on the day John F. Kennedy was assassi-nated.

Last year, in commemo-rating the 50th anniver-sary of Disney’s fl ight into history, the Orlando Sentinel noted, “As early as 1959, Disney had considered a handful of proposals for creating something tourism- or

entertainment-driven here in the Sunshine State. Ocala was a potential site spoken of often in the highest offi ces in the company.”

The newspaper also had reported in 2000 how Disney came to settle on the eventual site.

Citing research by Rollins College professor Richard Foglesong, the Sentinel pointed out that Disney, during another scouting mission from the sky, knew his spot when he saw how Interstate 4, then under construction,

would intersect with the Florida Turnpike.

Disney and his top lieutenants “had just elimi-nated Ocala from consid-eration because it lacked good highway links,” the Sentinel reported.

While Disney and Ringling reportedly took a pass , other would-be Ocala corporate residents from the amusement park industry apparently never made it here.

The operators of Six Flags and Busch Gardens in Tampa were rumored to have looked at Ocala as a

possible site for their projects.

David Cook, former Star-Banner editor and local historian, recalled in a 2007 column for the paper that a local real estate agent had called him in 1966 to assure him Six Flags had gone as far as buying property south of Belleview.

The claim unraveled after a quick check of county property records, Cook recalled.

“Whenever something big went to Tampa or Orlando the ne’er do wells

claimed it was Ocala’s bankers, businessmen, city council or county commissioners (who) killed it,” said Paul Ferguson, an Ocala resident for more than 50 years and former journal-ist and print-shop owner. “They are all interesting tales without a word of truth.”

Yet what can be verifi ed is that in more recent years corporate power-houses such as Wal-Mart, Sysco and Remington Arms looked at Ocala and

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Ringling Museum on Sarasota Bay features a museum, theater, botanical gardens and the 36,000-square-foot mansion built by John and Mable Ringling. Ringling Brothers Circus once eyed Lake Weir as a winter headquarters.

MISSES on Page 5

N E A R M I S S E S


decided to keep going.In the case of the fi rst

two, it was popular opposition to the location. Critics believed the Fortune 500 duo of Wal-Mart and Sysco, both of which chose to settle in Alachua County, would spoil, respectively, a horse farm and a city golf course with their distribution cen-ters.

Remington reportedly opted for Huntsville, Alabama, because Ocala’s workforce lacked the proper educational footing.

The New York Yankees also wanted a spot in town.

The most famous franchise in baseball proposed moving its minor-league affi liate in Tampa to Marion County, where the team’s re-nowned, albeit now departed owner, George Steinbrenner, had owned a

horse farm.That project struck out

when the public, led by some local politicians, balked at implementing a new tax to fund a $60 million stadium.

While the self-pro-claimed Horse Capital of the World might have missed a chance to become America’s theme park capital, the commu-nity, decades before Disney’s famous fl ight, also missed an opportu-nity to become the actual capital of Florida.

Yet it appears that did not happen for a lack of trying.

At the turn of the 20th century, Ocala was frequently pushed as an alternative to Tallahassee, which evolved into the headquarters of state government during the pre-statehood years of the 1830s because it sat halfway between Florida’s main population centers, Pensacola and St. Augus-tine.

In the November 1900 elections, voters went to the polls to confi rm Tallahassee as the spot or to choose a new capital from among Ocala, Jacksonville and St. Augustine.

According to the state’s offi cial history of the Capitol building, Tallahas-see was retained by a “wide margin.”

In September 1956, the Sarasota Journal briefl y recounted how residents of Ocala and Gainesville continued the “tremen-dous” effort during the early 20th century to relocate not just the state capital but the University of Florida, as well.

“The two cities tried to get together to swing the university to Gainesville (from Lake City) and the capital to Ocala,” the Journal reported. “The university was located in Gainesville, but the capital did not budge.”

The Journal’s account

added that Nathan Mayo of Summerfi eld, who began serving in the Legislature in 1921 and then became a legendary state agriculture secre-tary, serving for 37 years, was the primary advocate for a renewed effort to move the capital, the Journal added. He eventually gave up, noting, “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.”

The effort did not die easily.

In 1935, the Palm Beach Post reported that a state constitutional amendment was proposed to relocate the capital from Tallahas-see to 2,000 acres located “approximately at the center of the state.”

The bill was fi led by Reps. A.B. Folks and John Rogers, both of Marion County. The amendment, obviously, never passed.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/FILE

In this March 19, 2009, fi le photo, a Disney World monorail passes Spaceship Earth at Walt Disney World’s Epcot Center in Lake Buena Vista. Walt Disney considered making Ocala the home for his theme park before selecting Orlando.

MISSES: City considered as possible capital siteContinued from 4

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www.ocala.com | OCALA STAR-BANNER MARION COUNTY HISTORY SUNDAY , OCTOBER 19 , 2014 | 5

By Joe CallahanStaff writer

From preschool to adult education, kindergarten to col-lege, International

Baccalaureate programs to vocational study tracks, Marion County’s education community has grown over the years to meet the changing needs of its residents.

It also has a history both proud and turbulent.

The following are just a few of many signifi cant moments in Marion County education:

DesegregationIn 1978, the federal

government fi led a lawsuit that placed Marion County under a desegregation order because local education offi cials refused to bus students.

It wasn’t until 2007 when a U.S. District Court judge ruled that Marion County had fi nally reached unitary status, or racial balance within its schools, ending the desegregation lawsuit.

Forest High secret

Mack Dunwoody, who died early this year, was the superintendent of schools who ushered in desegregation in 1968.

Back then, there was Ocala High School for whites and Howard High for blacks.

Because of the contro-versy over desegregation, Dunwoody disbanded the original high school names.

He then let black stu-dents name one school and whites the other.

Dunwoody refused to

submit to the demands of black and white students to keep their historic names.

The black students named one school Van-guard.

The whites chose the name Forest.

Until 2007, Dunwoody never shared that the white students originally chose the name Forrest High, named for Confed-erate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, the leader of the Ku Klux Klan after the Civil War.

Dunwoody simply dropped one “r” and decided the name was in tribute to the Ocala National Forest, he said.

James, BoyntonIn 2008, School Board

Chairman Bobby James became the fi rst African-

American in Marion County history to be elected to a county-wide board since Recon-struction.

James spent three decades in education, rising from a teacher and coach to the

principal of Dunnellon High School by the time he retired in 2006.

James was soon followed in 2010 by Vice-Chair-woman Angie Boynton, who became the fi rst African-American woman to be elected to a county-wide board since the 1800s.

Boynton owns Tax

Group & Associates. She attended the Univer-

sity of Florida for three years and was a 1976 Forest High School graduate.

State educationThree Marion County

educators have held the state’s top K-12 education position in the last

century.Colin English won the

1936 election for what was known as the state school superintendent, which is now called education commissioner.

In 1948, Marion County’s Thomas D. Bailey was

elected as state school superinten-dent.

The current education commis-sioner — now an appointed post — is Pam Stewart, who spent 23 years in Marion County working as a teacher and a school administrator in Marion County.

Her journey to the top began escalating just after she became principal at Reddick-Collier Elemen-tary School in 1996 and Vanguard High in 1999.

It is the second time she has been in Tallahassee.

Education community has grown with MarionEDUCAT ION

SUBMITTED PHOTOS

ABOVE: A postcard of Ocala High School from the early 1900s. When desegregation began in 1968, Ocala High was the school for white students.LEFT: Howard High School girls pose for a photo by the sign at Paradise Park. Before desegregation, Howard High was the school for black students.

EDUCATION on Page 7


Stewart

Boynton

James

In 2004, she was named deputy K-12 chancellor of education quality at the Department of Education.

College of Central Florida

Central Florida Junior College was established in 1957 and has served Citrus, Levy and Marion counties.

In 1958, it opened with 320 students, and classes were held at the Marion County Vocational School.

In 1966, the school merged with Hampton Junior College, which originally opened in 1958 — one of the fi rst black, two-year colleges in the state.

In 1971, the school changed its name to Central Florida Commu-nity College. And in 2010, CFCC offi cially changed its name to College of Central Florida (CF).

AppletonThe Appleton Museum of

Art was founded in 1982, a gift from Arthur I. Apple-ton. After the city of Ocala donated the 44-acre site for the museum, construc-tion began in 1984, opening three years later.

It now boasts 16,000 artifacts, including European, American, Asian, African, contempo-rary and pre-Columbian art. It also features a series of temporary traveling exhibitions.

It may seem like a stretch that the immaculate 81,000-square-foot facility on Silver Springs Boule-

vard is on the education highlights list, but it is operated by College of Central Florida.

Nearly a decade ago, the CF Foundation took over the operation of the facility. In recent years, the Appleton earned a prestigious accreditation that only 6 percent of museums nationwide have obtained.

Eighth StreetEighth Street Elemen-

tary School is the longest continuously operating school in Florida.

A few weeks ago, offi cials gathered to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the building.

The building was built in 1914, and served as Ocala High School for a decade. It became Ocala Grammar School in 1925 and Ocala Junior High in 1942. It has been known as Eighth Street Elementary since 1965.

Many school buildings were built before Eighth Street, but they have since been shuttered for good or closed and reopened.

FessendenKnown for its coquina

rock walls, Fessenden Elementary School fi rst opened its doors in 1868 as a private academy to serve black students from across the country.

The school, then known as Fessenden Academy, existed through the efforts of many people in the com-munity. Ferdinand Fessenden, a traveler to Marion County, discov-ered the school and

decided to help transform it.

In 1890, after Fessenden raised money, a new two-story building replaced a very small structure.

When the school was sold to the School District in 1953, it was renamed Fessenden High School and became an elemen-tary school in about 1971.

West PortWest Port High School

has risen from a founder-ing high school to one of the best in the area, featur-

ing several magnet programs and the only K-12 college campus in Marion County.

West Port is home to the Marion County Center of the Arts magnet program and the Early College Center, an offi cial offsite CF campus.

Fifty-one of West Port’s 2014 seniors — 10 percent of its graduates — earned associate’s degrees at CF in May, a month before actually graduating from high school.

With an enrollment of about 2,700 students, it is Marion’s largest school. Principal Jayne Ellsper-mann, who has been principal since just after it opened, was named the state’s top principal in June by the Florida Association of School Administrators, and was recently named the national principal of the year.

MTIMarion Technical

Institute opened its doors in fall 2005 and has since been recognized as a model facility that educa-tors from around the coun-try visit to get ideas for their community.

The technical school offers specialties in eight academies — including automotive, law and robotics — that lead students to internships and employment right out of high school.

A brainchild of Steve Hering, a former School Board member, and Ron Crawford, outgoing from the current board, the school has led many students to jobs after school.

In 2006, MTI received national recognition for working with the business community to establish a cutting-edge school aimed at getting more students prepared for the work-force.

EDUCATION: Eighth Street Elementary the longest continuously operating school in FloridaContinued from 6

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EllspermannFILE PHOTO

This is an undated Ocala Star-Banner fi le photo of Eighth Street Elementary School. Eighth Street, which is the longest continuously operating school in Florida, just celebrated the 100th anniversary of the building.


By Marian RizzoCorrespondent

Marion County’s religious land-scape dates back to the 1800s, when

early settlers gathered for services in each other’s homes and circuit riding preachers visited the area.

As congregations grew, they began to build churches, and they brought in resident preachers to lead their fl ocks.

In time, a growing potpourri of cultures and religious faiths blended into the tapestry until today, when more than 300 places of worship make up the religious climate of Marion County.

The following is a list of Marion County’s oldest religious congregations, with the years of their founding, addresses of their current locations, and current leaders, among other information:

Fellowship Baptist Church, 184410500 N. U.S. 27, OCALA, 629-5379PASTOR JOHN OUTLAW

First called Little Creek Baptist Church, the name was changed to Fellowship Baptist in 1885.

After fi res destroyed their fi rst two buildings, members constructed the present sanctuary in the 1940s.

Church secretary Dianna Read chuckled over early church minutes

that spoke of a problem with squealing hogs on Sunday mornings.

“They would rub their backs on the beams under-neath and carry on so bad the pastor asked someone to go out and take care of the hogs,” she said.

St. John’s United Methodist Church, 184412390 W. COUNTY ROAD 328, COTTON PLANT, 237-5777PASTOR WILLIAM KENNEDY

Shelley Dunn, church historian, said the congre-gation fi rst gathered in a log cabin in 1852.

In the beginning, people came to church on horseback, in ox carts and on foot.

Some traveled long distances on Saturday eve-ning and camped out on the grounds.

First Baptist Church of Ocala, 18502801 SE MARICAMP ROAD, OCALA, 629-5683DR. DARREN GADDIS

Organized by fi ve members in 1850, First Baptist relocated several times, but the most signifi cant move was in 1991 after the sanctuary on Southeast Third Street burned down and the congregation moved to its current location.

Don DePew, pastor of worship and media, said from 1868 to 1873 the membership actually

declined to only one person.

“Her name was Fannie Gary,” DePew said. “It wasn’t until 1882 that they called another pastor, so for 14 years there was a gap. If she had left, there would be no First Baptist Church.”

Grace Episcopal Church of Ocala, 1853510 SE BROADWAY ST., OCALA, 622-7881

THE REV. JONATHAN FRENCHThe congregation met in

homes and built their fi rst sanctuary in 1880 on the corner of Orange Avenue and Washington Street.

Their fi rst service was on Christmas Day.

Martha Slemmer, parish administrator, said the church moved to its current location in 1905.

“A skilled crew of fi ve carpenters dismantled the frame building, board-by-board, and put it on horse-drawn wagons that took it past the square and

onto the grounds,” Slemmer said.

She also quoted an Ocala Banner comment, “It is as if the Lord picked Grace church up and set it down at its new location without a mark or blemish of transport.”

Ocklawaha Bridge Baptist Church, 185414100 NE STATE ROAD 40, SILVER SPRINGS, 625-2492THE REV. JAMES SNELL

The church archives note that the sanctuary was built out of rived up cypress boards and with the help of neighbors.

Its earliest members were pioneers who had come to the area “by crude boat up the river or overland by oxcart or covered wagon, bringing with them the family milk cow and several hound dogs, some furniture, cooking utensils and muskets.”

First Presbyterian Church of Ocala, 1857511 SE THIRD ST., OCALA, 629-7561PASTOR RAYMOND GUTERMAN

The church organized in 1857 with 11 charter members.

In 1885, 40 members built a 300-seat sanctuary on the corner of Fort King Street and Watula Avenue, and in 1929, First Pres relocated to a 400-seat sanctuary and complex at its present location.

The Rev. Raymond Guterman said today’s roll has 900 members.

Mount Zion AME Church, 1866623 S. MAGNOLIA AVE., 622-5500THE REV. RHELLA MURDAUGH

According to the church website, the current building was built in 1891 by African-American architect Levi Alexander.

The site also states that Mount Zion is the only surviving 19th century religious structure in Ocala.

Mount Moriah Missionary Baptist Church, 186755 SW THIRD AVE., OCALA, 629-3782THE REV. LORENZO S. EDWARDS

Margaret Scott, recep-tionist, said the church still stands on its original site.

Expansion projects began in 1996.

Over the years, members branched off and started other congregations throughout Marion County, Scott said.

“We were called the mother church,” she said.

The Rev. Lorenzo S. Edwards has served as pastor for 46 years.

Mount Pelier Baptist Church, 186813175 SE U.S. 301, BELLEVIEW, 653-9459PASTOR JEROME GANT

Tyrone Piner, church historian, said Mount Pelier had some upgrades in the 1970s but went through hard times in the

Local religious traditions are longstanding and diverseCHURCHES

SUBMITTED PHOTO

First Baptist Church of Ocala around 1880. The church, which was organized by fi ve members in 1850, moved several times until it settled in its current location on Maricamp Road.

CHURCHES on Page 9

A potpourri of religious faiths have grown to more than 300 places of worship around Marion County.


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1980s. Though attendance diminished in recent years, Piner is hoping the church will continue to stand.

“My great-great-grandfa-ther built that church,” Piner said. “I feel like I’m an heir. And, the cemetery — my ancestors who had that property are buried out there. Mostly everyone in that graveyard is like a family.”

Blessed Trinity Catholic Church, 18835 SE 17TH ST., OCALA, 629-8092FATHER PATRICK SHEEDY

Longtime parishioner Barbara Saalfeld said BT started on Magnolia Avenue as a small mission chapel called St. Phillip Neri.

It had a frame construc-tion with cypress shingles and simple stained glass windows, and was served by visiting priests who rode in on horseback.

In 1891, they called their fi rst pastor, and by 1959, the church had settled on its current site.

Blessed Trinity has started several mission churches throughout Marion County, Saalfeld said.

Anthony First Baptist Church, 18852551 NE 98TH ST., ANTHONY, 732-5600SENIOR PASTOR JAMES JOHNSON

First established in 1885 as a union church that served all faiths, Anthony First Baptist Church met in a log structure nestled in a hickory grove.

After several moves, a new sanctuary and

educational building were constructed at its current location.

United Hebrews of Ocala/Temple B’nai Darom, 188849 BANYAN COURSE, OCALA, 624-0380

One of the fi rst Jewish synagogues in Florida, United Hebrews had its beginning on Second

Street. In the mid-1900s, the group adopted the name Temple B’nai Darom (“Children of the South”). The Reform congregation moved in 1976 to its present location.

Rabbi Harold S. Jaye said the historic signifi cance also centers around an old cemetery off Magnolia Avenue and 14th Street.

“Anybody who goes into the old cemetery can see that the tombstones go back to the 19th century,” he said.

Islamic Association of North Central Florida, 20001410 NE 14TH ST., OCALA, 671-7817IMAM IS ZAFER SABAWI; PRESIDENT IS DR. RIADH FAKHOURY

Built in 2000, the Islamic Center hosts Jummah prayer meetings on Friday, the faith’s holy day.

“After more than 10 years, we’ve actually outgrown our space,” said former board member Manal Fakhoury. “We’re

talking about expanding our center, and the reason we call it a center is because it is used for community cultural events.”

Pushtidham Haveli Ocala, 201114080 SW 20TH AVE. ROAD, OCALA, 307-0065P.P. DWARKESHBAVA, SPIRITUAL LEADER

A sect of the Hindu religion, Pushtimarg, the “Path of Grace,’”built on 17 acres in 2011 and is currently expanding the facility.

CHURCHES: Blessed Trinity started as a small mission chapelContinued from 8

STAFF PHOTOS BY BRUCE ACKERMAN

ABOVE: The Ocklawaha Bridge Baptist Church is shown in a historic photo of the building that was built in 1925. The church was founded in 1854 and is one of the oldest churches in Marion County.LEFT: Pastor Jimmy Snell, right, and Celeste Viale, the church historian, look over historic photos of the Ocklawaha Bridge Baptist Church at the church in Silver Springs.


Museums tell the stories of Marion CountyBy Andy FillmoreCorrespondent

Longtime residents and newcomers alike will enjoy visiting Marion County’s museums and

historical sites.The interactive Silver River

Museum and Education Center, part of the Marion County Public Schools System, is a teaching museum featuring environmental and historic artifact displays covering the Ice Age era to contemporary times.

A Florida Cracker homestead on the property with real and replica buildings of the late 1800s and early 1900s provides a realistic, hands-on taste of the lifestyles of local settlers.

Some 15,000 adults and students visit the complex annually, according to museum literature.

Kaelee Anderson and her fellow fourth-graders from Sunrise Elementary recently got a look at the diffi cult pioneer lifestyle, but found they also enjoyed an occasional treat.

“They made rock candy on the kettle when they made cane syrup. It was the only candy they had,” Kaelee said, showing how the pioneers made the sweet treat on the sides of the syrup pot.

The mock settlement includes the Godwin House, a donated cracker cabin, a circa 1930 schoolhouse formerly located north of Silver Springs attrac-tion that was used until about 1963 and moved to the museum property in recent years, a blacksmith and forge shop, combination one-room school and church, syrup kettle and mule-drawn mill, the Hinton Family House donated by the McAteer family and other period buildings.

The annual Ocali Days Festival is held on the grounds each fall with displays of living history, music and crafts.

Meanwhile, the Marion County Black History Museum is located within the historic Howard Academy Community Center in northwest Ocala, part of the Marion County Public Schools System.

The displays at the museum cover history of the African-American community in Marion County over at least a century, and leaders who made an impact on the area.

Photographs and biographical information lining two hall-ways chronicle the wealth of contributions by African-Amer-icans in nearly all professional and religious endeavors to improve the lives of the people of Marion County.

Reginald Landers Jr., pro-gram manager at the center, provided a tour through its hallways, artifact room and library.

Trailblazers, community leaders, educators, physicians,

athletes and other people who had an impact on the commu-nity are pictured on the walls.

Among the many notables pictured are Dr. R.S. Hughes (1882-1943), physician and founder of the only local hospital for blacks in its day; Mary Sue Rich, current Ocala City Council member; and Sam Williams, chief of the Ocala Police Department from 2003 to 2011.

“We are trying to show the youth there are more profes-sions besides music like Jay-Z

and Beyoncé and athletics,” Landers said. “We have a rich history of all professions represented here. Why not become the physician the athletes go to see?”

Landers invites anyone with information on black history in Marion County or additional family histories to call or visit him at the museum.

In the McPherson Govern-mental Complex, the Marion County Museum of History and Archaeology houses displays and artifacts representing 13,000 years of area history from the Paleo-Indian Era to the present with displays, artifacts and mementoes.

But for many local residents, like museum volunteer coordi-nator Janelle Sherouse, the museum houses more personal displays.

“That’s my husband’s family,” Sherouse said as she indicated

STAFF PHOTOS BY DOUG ENGLE

ABOVE: Kathrine Jakob, publicity secretary for the Marion County Museum of History and Archaeology, holds a plate from Six Gun Territory from one of the exhibits in the museum. BELOW: Marion County’s Walter Miles Parket’s confederate cap is on display at the museum.

MUSEUMS on Page 11

MUSEUMS


Historical museumsSILVER RIVER MUSEUM AND ENVIRONMENTAL CENTERAddress: 1445 NE 58th Ave.Phone: 236-5401Hours: Open to the public week-

ends and most holidays 9 a.m.-5 p.m.Cost: Admission to the museum is

$2; free for children 6 and younger. Admission to Silver Springs State Park, in which the museum is housed, ranges from $2 for a pe-destrian to $8 per vehicle with two to eight occupants.Website: www.silverrivermu-

seum.com

HOWARD ACADEMY COMMUNITY CENTER/MARION COUNTY BLACK HISTORY MUSEUMAddress: 306 NW Seventh Ave.Phone: For more information,

contact Reginald E. Landers Jr., program manager, at 671-4176

MARION COUNTY MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGYAddress: 307 SE 26th Terrace

(in the McPherson Governmental Complex)Phone: 236-5245Hours: Museum open 10 a.m.-4

p.m. daily, except for Wednesday, when it is closed, and Sunday, when it is open 1-4 p.m.Cost: Admission is $3; free for

children 13 and youngerWebsite: www.marioncountyar-

chaeology.com

FORT KING HISTORICAL LANDMARKAddress: 3925 E. Fort King St.Phone: 368-5535Hours: Park is open from sunrise

to sunset. Heritage Center open noon-5 p.m. on Fridays and Satur-days.Website: www.fkha.org

the name John C. Sherouse on a list of names of early Marion County-area settlers, which is adjacent to a map showing the property each family settled upon.

The museum is housed in the old East Hall, a Public Works Administration project in 1936 built in “classical style” to disguise its purpose as an isolation and detention facility for the Florida Industrial School for Girls.

The school was established in 1917, according to museum literature and a plaque at the building’s entrance.

When Marion County pur-chased the property from the state of Florida in 1986, it was agreed the building, on the National Register of Historic Places, would be used as a county museum.

The multi-room museum traces periods of regional and local history, including the “pre-contact” period, from 13,000 years ago to 1539; the Colonial Period, from 1539 to 1821; and the American Historic Period, from 1821 to the present.

The Marquee Exhibit Area includes a fully intact, centuries-old pottery bowl from the Henderson Collection. Many of the items were found at Silver Glen Springs in the 1930s.

Additional displays cover information and artifacts from the Civil War era and the Marion County area from 1865 to 1929, which highlights the local turpentine, phosphate and citrus industries.

Photos and information are given on the fl at-bottom paddle-wheel boats that plied the waters from Jacksonville and Palatka to Silver Springs, like those of the Hart Line.

The recent additional displays include a World War II exhibit and Silver Springs/Seminole Village and Six Gun Territory displays.

Sherouse said the museum is starting a research library with books on history, anthropology,

genealogy and local land records, which can be used in-house.

A fi le is being built on family histories. Sherouse said families are invited to bring in their historical information.

About 5 miles east of down-town Ocala on Fort King Street is the Fort King National

Historic Landmark and Heri-tage Museum.

The site was named a land-mark in 2004, and now includes an onsite museum and roughly 1-mile interpretive trail with 23 informational signs on the path.

Henry Sheldon, president of the nonprofi t Fort King Heritage Association, explained in a phone conversation that he has had an interest in the location since the 1990s when he “saw a ‘for sale’ sign on the property.”

Sheldon, a Vietnam War veteran, said he had an interest in the “guerilla warfare” history of the Seminole Wars, and began an initiative to keep the property as a historic site and stop proposed condominium development there.

According to the Fort King Heritage Association website, www.fkha.org, the property surrounding the 10-foot-plus National Landmark monument and former McCall family house, which serves as a museum and Visitor’s Center, is owned jointly by the city of Ocala and Marion County.

The Fort King Heritage Association continues to work closely with both the city and county in development of the site as a museum, and the development of a longer-range goal — a replica of the original fort.

The fort was fi rst constructed on the site in 1827, burned by Seminoles in 1836, rebuilt by the Army and continued to serve as an Army fort through 1842, when it was made into the Marion County Courthouse, according to literature from the museum and Visitor’s Center.

“Standing on the hilltop at Fort King puts us in the very foot-steps of the Indians and soldiers who roamed our city and county before we arrived. It is how we got here, it is our story and in our very midst it is the exact spot where it all happened,” reads the pamphlet “Ocala’s His-toric Birthplace,” distributed by the Fort King Heritage Associa-tion.

About a block west of the National Landmark site is a marker established by the Ocala Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. The commemorative plaque on the memorial is dated 1933.

“It was on this site soldiers and settlers were buried during the Seminole Wars and after the Seminole Wars the bodies were removed … and placed in the National Cemetery in Saint Augustine,” the DAR informa-tion reads.

MUSEUMS: Fort King site named historic landmark in 2004Continued from 10

STAFF PHOTOS BY DOUG ENGLE

TOP: Kathrine Jakob talks about the Timucua Indians and the shells they used to weigh down their fi shing nets.ABOVE: The museum is located in the East Hall building in the McPherson Governmental Complex.LEFT: Jakob holds a sling shot from Six Gun Territory.


By Richard BurtonCorrespondent

Through the years, there have been many moments de-fi ning the excellence

of athletics in Marion County.

Numerous teams have won state championships, and during those runs certain plays have defi ned those moments, but the best plays didn’t always occur when the lights shined the brightest.

The following is a look at the 10 biggest moments in Marion County prep sports history based on the impact they had on the state and across the country.1. TRINITY CATHOLIC WINS MARION COUNTY’S FIRST-EVER STATE BASEBALL TITLE, 2014: With social media now a huge part of American society, it’s only fi tting that the catch made last May by Trinity Catholic outfi elder Sam Atwell occupies the top spot.

Marion County had never had a state baseball champion, but thanks to Atwell’s catch in the Class 3A state semifi nals against Fort Myers Bishop Verot, the Celtics had the opportunity, which they seized with a win over nationally ranked/two-time defending state champion Pensacola Catholic.

To get there, Atwell made a tremendous play on a ball hit to right-center with

his team clinging to a 2-1 lead with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning that clinched the win for TCHS.

Atwell’s catch took place at 1:15 a.m., but despite the late ending to the game, the catch was all over the Web and helped pace the Celtics to their fi rst state title.2. FOREST FOOTBALL WINS ITS SECOND STATE TITLE, 1975: Trailing Milton 10-0 in the fourth quarter on the road, the Wildcats battled back and took the lead for good on Thomas Jefferson’s 66-yard scoring reception from Tyrone Young with 7:47 left.

Forest’s defense did the rest behind Scot Brantley and Russell Kirk in a 13-10 win, which was followed up by a 14-9 win over Delray Beach Atlantic the following week for the

Class 3A state champion-ship.

The Wildcats are the only team in state history to win three straight games in as many weeks on the road in the playoffs and win a state champion-ship.

Three other programs have won three road games in a row over ranked teams in the postseason, but none of them earned state champi-onships, leaving the ’75 Wildcats as the only team to ever accomplish the feat. 3. FOREST FOOTBALL WINS MARION COUNTY’S FIRST-EVER STATE FOOTBALL TITLE, 1974: It took just fi ve years for Forest to win a state championship after opening its doors. The Wildcats outscored their opponents 399-46 on their way to a 13-0 record.

Prior to a 46-6 rout of Hollywood Chaminade in the Class 3A champion-ship game, signature wins included a 30-3 rout of No. 2 Leesburg, a 41-0 of No. 3 Gainesville Buchholz and an 18-16 win at Booster Stadium over rival Vanguard, before a packed house on Thanks-giving Day.4. VANGUARD BOYS BASKETBALL FINISHES AS THE BEST IN THE STATE, 1977-78 SEASON: With wins over the Class 4A state champion (Miami Central) and all three of the teams that made the fi nal four in their classifi -cation (Marianna, Bartow and West Palm Beach North Shore), the Knights clearly were the best team in the state and fi nished ranked No. 17 nationally with a 33-2 record for coach Jim Haley.

VHS, the Class 3A state

champs, also won the Kingdom of the Sun for the fi rst time ever, and started a trend where it earned a state title each of the three times it claimed a Kingdom crown.5. DUNNELLON SOFTBALL WINS MYTHICAL NATIONAL CHAMPION-SHIP, 2010: The Tigers capped off their second straight state champion-ship with a 3-2 win over Naples in nine innings in the Class 4A state champi-onship game in a game between the top two teams in the country in the ESPN Rise National Poll.

DHS, ranked No. 2 in the national poll, fi nished 32-1 and took the lead for good on a sacrifi ce fl y by Dallas Towns, which scored Kasey Fagan, who went the distance to pick up the win.

Marion schools have produced championship momentsH I G H S C H O O L S P O R T S

FILE PHOTO

Trinity Catholic’s Sam Atwell makes an incredible game-saving catch for the third out against Bishop Verot in the state semifi nals at Jet Blue Park in Fort Myers on May 14, 2014.

The biggest wins for our high school teams have had a big impact across the country.

SPORTS on Page 13


Marion County team state championsBOYS TRACK1926: Ocala High1960: Lake Weir

BOYS BASKETBALL1975: Lake Weir1978: Vanguard1979: Vanguard1982: Vanguard

GIRLS BASKETBALL1982: Vanguard1983: Vanguard1986: Dunnellon

FOOTBALL1974: Forest1975: Forest1978: Dunnellon1979: Dunnellon2005: Trinity Cathoilc2010: Trinity Catholic

BASEBALL2014: Trinity Catholic

VOLLEYBALL2012: Vanguard2013: Vanguard

BOYS GOLF1971: Forest1992: Forest1994: Forest

SOFTBALL2009: Dunnellon2010: Dunnellon

GIRLS SOCCER2013: Trinity Catholic

Editor’s Note: This list is only FHSAA-recognized state champions. Invita-tional winners and bowl

game champions who declared themselves

state champions are not included. Compiled by

Richard Burton.

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6. TRINITY CATHOLIC FOOTBALL WINS STATE CHAMPIONSHIP, 2005: After seeing a 23-point lead dissolve in the Class 2B state champi-onship game against defending champion Pahokee, Rudell Small’s 64-yard scoring run with fi ve minutes left pushed the Celtics to a 37-30 win.

TCHS became the fi rst Marion County football program to win a state championship in 26 years, and the victory was part of a 27-game winning streak surpassed only by Dunnel-lon from 1977-80.7. MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL MARION COUNTY STYLE, 1997: Vanguard, Belleview and Forest competed in the county’s fi rst-ever three-way tiebreaker for the District 5A-7 champion-ship, three nights after the Rattlers ended the Knights’ bid for a perfect regular season and a 22-game regular winning streak.

Before perhaps the largest crowd ever at Booster Stadium, VHS earned revenge with a 13-7 triple-overtime win over BHS, which scored on a

fourth-and-goal play with 3.4 seconds left to win the regular season matchup.

This time, the Rattlers knocked off Forest 14-0 in the fi rst quarter, but couldn’t repeat their magic against the Knights as a fourth-down pass fell incomplete in the end zone. 8. TRINITY CATHOLIC FOOTBALL WINS STATE CHAMPIONSHIP, 2010: The Celtics won their second state champion-ship, as they polished off three straight ranked teams in order to get there.

TCHS downed Univer-sity School 56-55 in triple overtime in the Class 2B state title game, one week after going on the road and downing Pensacola Catholic.

The Celtics also knocked off Jacksonville Bolles in the regional fi nals, making them one of three county teams to ever earn a win over a team ranked No. 1 in the state, and ended a 32-year drought for county teams against schools ranked No. 1 in their classifi cation. 9. DUNNELLON FOOTBALL WINS CLASS 2A STATE CHAMPIONSHIP, 1978: Two years removed from a 0-10 season, the

Tigers fi nished 14-0 and claimed the Class 2A state championship under coach Richard Kennedy.

To get there, DHS had to win on the road in the state championship game against Crawfordville Wakulla, but its 20-14 overtime win over top-ranked Williston early in a No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup, propelled it to state glory.10. VANGUARD VOLLEYBALL WINS ITS SECOND STATE CHAMPION-SHIP, 2013: Today, Marion County is known as a haven for some of the best volleyball talent in the state, but before the consecutive champion-ships by VHS, the county had never won a state title in the sport.

Only St. John (2006) had played for a state title from Marion County in volley-ball, but the Knights’ fi ve-set thriller over St. Augustine gave the county its fi rst state champion. From there, VHS, coached by Jason Morris, swept Jensen Bench last season and is now tied with Orlando Bishop Moore for the most consecutive current state champion-ships in the state.

SPORTS: Vanguard High puts county on the map for volleyballContinued from 12

FILE PHOTOS

ABOVE: John Brantley (12) looks for running room as Vanguard’s Gregg Daniel (14) applies pressure on Thanksgiving morning, Nov. 28, 1974. Forest won the game 18-16, and won the Class 3A state title that year.LEFT: The Vanguard bench empties onto the court after Vanguard defeated Jensen Beach in three straight sets, 25-21, 25-23 and 29-27, to win the Class 6A State High School Volleyball Championship on Nov. 14, 2013.

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Editor’s Note: This is an excerpt from an article that originally was published in 1997 as part of the Star-Banner’s “Marion County History” special section.

By Darrell G. RileyCorrespondent

The United States Congress passed the Armed Occupa-tion act at the end of

the Second Seminole War in 1842. This legislation was meant to help entice settlers into the newly opened frontier areas of Central Florida.

Marion County’s white and black pioneers were those people who came to the area in response to the offer of free land under the AOA during the 1840s, although some plantations had been established around Orange Lake during the fi rst two decades of the 1800s.

Once the Seminoles were force to resettle on an Oklahoma reservation or were driven deep into the Everglades, hundreds of land-hungry settlers hurried into the Marion County area.

Many made applications for land under the provi-sions of the AOA, which permitted the head of a family or a single man capable of armed defense to claim 160 acres of land for free in the region south of Gainesville and north of the Peace River on the acreage that made up the former Seminole reserva-tion.

During the eight months the offer was in effect, 300 permits were issued for acreage located within a radius of 20 miles east of Fort King, according to “Ocali Country” by Eloise

Ott and Louis Chazal.Other early settlers

claimed “bounty grants” as rewards for service in the military during the war against the Semi-noles.

And still others took advantage of pre-emption

privileges under which individuals could buy up to 160 acres from the United States for $1.25 an acre.

James Rogers of Baldwin County, Georgia, used pre-emption to lay claim to the lands around Silver

Springs on Feb. 24, 1845. This patent was contest-

ed by F.C. Humphrey, who claimed he fi led for the property under the AOA in 1842.

Rogers eventually won the case and became the fi rst legal owner of this

renowned area.Because six military

roads converged on Fort King, it became a natural meeting place, and soon a store, a post offi ce, the county’s fi rst courthouse and a Methodist church sprang up near the fort.

There were no homes, however, because a provision of the AOA

outlawed any personal dwellings within 2 miles of the fort. As a result, log cabins were scattered throughout the dense, uncleared woodlands.

Between 1842 and 1844, the county was still a part of Alachua, Mosquito (Orange) and Hillsbor-ough counties. The closest county seat was at Newnansville (later Alachua), a tortuous 50 miles over heavy sand trails from Fort King. This is why early settlers began to agitate for a new county, as well as statehood for the territory of Florida.

Marion was chosen as the name for the new county at a meeting held at Fort King in early 1844. The name honored the memory of Gen. Francis Marion, the Revolutionary War hero from South Carolina known as the “Swamp Fox.” Many of the county’s fi rst settlers hailed from the Palmetto State.

I N T H E B E G I N N I N G

Early settlers make Marion County home in mid-1800s

SUBMITTED PHOTOS

ABOVE: This lithograph shows troops fording Lake Ocklawaha in 1835.RIGHT: Marion County was named in honor of Gen. Francis Marion, the Revolutionary War hero from South Carolina known as the “Swamp Fox.”LEFT: A map of Marion County in 1839 by the United States Army Engineers shows military outposts and settlements.


Marion County’s fi rst ...

Postmaster: John Gary ■

ReardonClerk of court: Alexan- ■

der McLeodSheriff: Edmund Davis ■

HowseTreasurer: John Reardon ■

County commissioners: ■

Thomas Barnes, Abraham Geiger, John Morrison, Solomon P. Halliday

Judge of the probate: ■

John McIver McIntosh Tax assessor: Samuel ■

MattlerCounty seat: Fort King ■

Law has colorful, occasionally tragic historyBy Carlos E. MedinaCorrespondent

Historically, one of the fi rst things new societies do is establish a way to

enforce laws and protect people and property.

Marion County was no different. When estab-lished in 1844, William Strifel was named sheriff. Not much is known about him or the sheriffs who succeeded him for the next several decades. Most were farmers who served part time and were mostly called upon to resolve disputes and round up the odd drunk or rowdy resident.

Thanks to a massive fi re on Thanksgiving Day, 1883, a good portion of the county’s records, both public and private, were destroyed. In the fi re, most of the city center, includ-ing the courthouse and the Ocala Banner offi ces, were destroyed.

While the nuances of those early law enforce-ment offi cers are lost, the stories of a few survived through oral histories. Whether or not they have a solid paper trail, some of the county’s offi cers have become part of the community’s fabric either for their great sacrifi ces or for falling short of their oaths.

Burrell Dawkins is believed to be the fi rst law enforcement offi cer killed in the line of duty in Marion County. He was shot to death while trying to arrest Richard R. Russell on March 9, 1881.

Dawkins was fi rst elected Ocala marshal in 1869 by the city council. Dawkins, who was black, was elected during

Reconstruction after the Civil War. Many newly freed black residents, who outnumbered whites in the county, were elected to local and state offi ces during that time.

Russell, who was white, was later acquitted of the killing.

Nine other local offi cers also have been shot to death while on duty, including three in one incident.

On May 28, 1955, Marion County Sheriff’s Offi ce deputies Robert Wooten and Curtis Youngblood were shot and killed by Edward Lindley. Lindley opened fi re on the men as soon as they got out of their car. The offi cers were called to the scene to investigate shots being fi red.

Soon, more offi cers surrounded the home and Lindley began to fi re again. This time he struck and killed Assistant Ocala Police Chief Mahlon Otis Tuck. Lindley was eventu-ally arrested and confi ned

to a mental hospital, where he died several years later.

That shooting came only four years after Marion County Sheriff Ed Porter Jr. was murdered on April 13, 1951.

Porter picked up Orion Nathaniel Johnson, 16, on suspicion he forged a check to buy a white dinner jacket. The sheriff drove the boy home, where he retrieved the jacket. However, Johnson picked up an ice pick and later

attacked Porter, stabbing him at least six times. Johnson was able to get Porter’s gun and then shoot him fi ve times.

Johnson was convicted of the murder, and executed in the electric chair on Sept. 28, 1954.

The last offi cer killed while on duty was sheriff’s deputy Brian Litz, who was shot on Feb. 7, 2004, by Ivan Gotham. Litz was performing a well-being check on the elderly Gotham when he was shot. Offi cers later shot and killed Gotham when they stormed the house.

But one local offi cer’s murder is still shrouded in mystery.

Perry Eugene Bostick, an assistant Ocala Police chief, was shot and killed in an alley on Oct. 20, 1924. Bostick, who was promoted to assistant chief in April of that year, was investigating a noise near a downtown busi-ness. His killer was never caught.

More recently, it was

scandal that brought down two top law enforcement offi cers.

Sheriff Ken Ergle was one of the most popular and powerful offi cials in Marion County in the mid-1990s. His no-frills jail philosophy and aggressive use of military surplus garnered national media attention.

But it all came crashing down on Oct. 16, 1998, when he was arrested and charged with embezzling more than $160,000 in sheriff’s offi ce funds.

He was convicted and sentenced to two years of house arrest and 18 years of probation in 1999.

“I can’t apologize enough to the citizens of Marion County,” he said after his sentencing.

In 2012, it was another popular sheriff’s offi cial, seemingly on his way to an easy election to become the next sheriff, who got caught up in a scandal.

Undersheriff Dan Kuhn did nothing illegal, but revelations by his former mistress of trysts in the sheriff’s offi ce caused Kuhn to resign both from his job and his candidacy for sheriff.

His place on the ballot was fi lled by the current sheriff, Chris Blair. The two had fought a bitter primary battle, which Kuhn won.

The county also has been the fi nal stop for some infamous characters, as well as the home for several others in the area’s prisons.

In 1935, Arizona “Ma” Barker and her son Fred were tracked down to a small lake house on the shores of Lake Weir in Ocklawaha.

FBI agents surrounded the house on Jan. 16, 1935, and soon one of the agency’s most storied shootouts would unfold.

The pair, part of the notorious Barker-Karpis gang, were killed in the hail of bullets. The home still stands, and has been kept much like it was before the shootout. Most of the furniture that was in the home during the 1935 shootout remains, some with bullets still imbed-ded.

The county is home to two state prisons, includ-ing Florida’s fi rst women’s prison.

Opened in April 1956, Lowell Correctional Institution is located on County Road 25A near the community of Lowell.

It houses all levels of inmates, including the state’s female death row inmates.

Among its residents was serial killer Aileen Carol Wuornos, who was convicted of killing six men in Florida between 1989 and 1990.

She was executed on Oct. 9, 2002.

One of the newest additions to death row is a local named Emilia Carr.

She was sentenced to death on Feb. 22, 2011, for the kidnapping and murder of Heather Strong. Carr and Strong’s es-tranged husband, Joshua Fulgham, lured Strong into a storage trailer behind Carr’s mother’s home near McIntosh.

There Strong was duct-taped to a chair and suffocated with a plastic bag over her head.

Fulgham also was found guilty but was sentenced to life in prison.

SUBMITTED PHOTO

This postcard from the 1930s shows the house in Ocklawaha where “Ma” Barker and her son were killed during a shootout with FBI agents.

L A W E N F O R C E M E N T

FILE PHOTO

This is the badge of Burrell Dawkins, who is believed to be the fi rst law enforcement offi cer killed in the line of duty in Marion County.


Marion has held allure for entrepreneursBy Richard AnguianoBusiness editor

Marion County’s location, natural resources and climate — along

with a series of population shifts — have attracted industry and commerce from its earliest days.

A look through the Star-Banner’s fi les turns up these notable moments from Marion County’s business history:FROM THE ASHES: Fire on Thanksgiving 1883 destroys fi ve blocks of downtown Ocala’s business district, mostly built of wood. In less than fi ve years, townspeople rebuild the district, which they dub “The Brick City” after the primary building material used.PHOSPHATE FRENZY: Albertus Vogt, a Dunnellon-area farmer, discovers phos-phate while digging a well in 1889. The discovery draws investors and mining companies to southwest Marion County from throughout the United States and Europe.BIG CITRUS: Large-scale citrus growing begins in 1871 at Orange Lake, so named by early settlers because of the abundance of wild trees nearby. Marion County plays a key role in the development of citrus as a signature Florida product, until a series of freezes in the 1980s claim most of Marion County’s groves.HARD LABOR: The production of turpentine becomes Florida’s second-largest industry in the late 19th century. In Marion County, it thrives largely through clear-cutting of trees and horrifi c treat-ment of workers, many of

whom are convicts. MARTI CITY: Artisans, many from Cuba, hand-roll cigars in 20 factories in what is now west Ocala. The community named for Jose Marti, a Cuban patriot, employs an estimated 2,000 people before a freeze in 1895 triggers a local economic depression and puts many local tobacco farmers out of business.SILVER SPRINGS: Carl Ray and Shorty Davidson lease Silver Springs attraction from owner Ed Carmi-chael in 1924. With Ray and Davidson at the helm, Silver Springs becomes a major tourist attraction famed for its glass-bottom boat rides and Ross Allen’s Reptile Institute. These days, the state operates the aging attraction.THEY’RE OFF!: In the 1930s, Carl Rose, a road builder, notices similarities between Marion County and Kentucky in the limestone-rich makeup of their soils. Rose establish-es Rosemere Farm along State Road 200, which he buys for $10 an acre. It is Marion County’s fi rst thor-oughbred farm, and ushers in an industry that has produced — among other champions — Af-fi rmed, the last horse to win racing’s Triple Crown in 1978. Marion also attracts the equestrian disciplines and later becomes a stop on the Horse Shows In the Sun winter circuit, and sees the building of the Florida Horse Park.HOT WHEELS: Robert Worm-ser, retired to Marion County from a career manufacturing play-ground equipment in Michigan, designs an

aluminum truck body and establishes Emergency One in 1974. The company becomes a major player in the worldwide fi re and rescue vehicle market and spawns a local fi re service sector in Marion County’s manufacturing commu-nity.TBW’S FALL: Federal agents raid Taylor Bean & Whitaker, an Ocala-based mortgage giant, on Aug. 3, 2009. Within days, the business closes and 1,000 people lose their jobs. A judge later sends Lee Farkas, CEO, to 30 years in prison for his part in a $2.9 billion fraud that brought down the compa-

ny. The loss of Taylor Bean & Whitaker is a further jolt to a county already reeling from the economic collapse that began two years earlier. ADVOCATES COMBINE EFFORTS: Late 2012 brings a merger of the Ocala/Marion Coun-ty Chamber of Commerce, which dates back to the Ocala Board of Trade in 1887, and the Ocala/Marion County Economic Development Corp, which has its roots in the Com-mittee of 100 dating back to 1955. The new CEP focuses on business attraction, retention, creation, advocacy and services.

SUBMITTED PHOTOS

ABOVE: Phosphate mining had its beginning in Florida in 1889, in shallow mines where hand labor could be used to remove the mineral. This photo was taken in Dunnellon in the 1890s.RIGHT: Workers pack oranges at Bishop, Hoyt & Company’s Citra plant in the 1890s.

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Editor’s Note: This is an excerpt from an article that originally was published in 1997 as part of the Star-Banner’s “Marion County History” special section.

By David Cook and Darrel G. RileyCorrespondents

As Marion County looked to the 1920s, its political and business leaders

began to understand iso-lation was not the key to progress.

Railroads had pushed farther south of Marion County during the years since the turn of the century, and interest in the county from outside businesses was waning. Businessmen realized something had to be done to counteract the fl ow of

new settlers, visitors and money to what was quickly becoming Flori-da’s Gold Coast.

The original Ocala Board of Trade, founded in 1887, was diligent in seeking new industry through the early 1900s. Records from 1915 show the board was active in building three boats to ship freight on the Ocklawaha River to Ocala. Charges were made that the railroads were retard-ing growth by charging excessive rates.

The route of the pro-posed Dixie Highway (presently U.S. 441) caused considerable agitation until Marion County was included in the planning. The building of this major north-south road would help boost the economy of the area during the early 1920s.

The need for a local meat-packing plant and cotton warehouse were discussed in 1917, but then the board became dor-mant because of World War I.

In 1919, the board was re-organized and became the Marion County Chamber of Commerce in 1920. Lou-is Chazal was the secre-tary of the chamber from 1919 to 1924, when he resigned to join the staff of the Ocala Evening Star. It was Chazal who coined the county’s slogan, “Kingdom of the Sun,” in a chamber publication in 1925. He later joined forces with Eloise Ott to work on the 30-year history of Marion County project sponsored by the chamber, which resulted in the publication of “Ocali Country” in 1966.

T H E B I R T H O F A M A R K E T I N G S L O G A N

Where did ‘Kingdom of the Sun’ start?


By Dave SchlenkerEntertainment Editor

Marion County has a rich, diverse and sometimes surprising entertain-ment history. Here are

some of the county’s biggest entertainment milestones.

Glass-bottom boats start ■

running in Silver Springs park for the fi rst time in the late 1890s.

Silver Springs becomes a ■

popular spot to fi lm underwater scenes for TV and movies. Notable examples: “Tarzan” in the late 1930s and ’40s with Johnny Weissmuller, 1954’s “Creature From the Black Lagoon,” 1955’s “Underwater” starring Jane Russell, “I Spy” (TV) starring Robert Culp and Bill Cosby in the mid-1960s, “Sea Hunt” (TV) with Lloyd Bridges in the late 1950s, and 1985’s “Legend” starring Tom Cruise.

Underwater photographer ■

Bruce Mozert’s picture of a then-unknown, bathing suit-clad Jayne Mansfi eld in Silver Springs created a stir in the mid-1950s. The photo is consid-ered a turning point in her career.

Elvis Presley performed at ■

Ocala’s Southeastern Livestock Pavilion in 1955 on a bill headlined by Hank Snow.

The Boston Pops with Arthur ■

Fiedler performed at Ocala’s City Auditorium in 1955 and 1965; Buddy Holly performed there in 1957.

Elvis Presley fi lms parts of the ■

movie “Follow That Dream” in downtown Ocala in 1961.

The Royal Guardsman hit No. ■

2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1966 with their novelty pop hit “Snoopy vs. The Red Baron.”

Fine Arts for Ocala holds its ■

fi rst art festival in 1967 in a bank parking lot in downtown Ocala. Now called the Ocala Arts Festival, the annual event attracts tens of thousands each October.

Silver Springs launches its ■

concert series in the early 1990s. Acts have included Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, George Jones, REO Speedwagon, STYX and Loretta Lynn.

John Travolta, Kelly Preston ■

and their family move to Anthony in 2003.

Rock band A Day to Remem- ■

ber forms in Ocala in 2003.The city of Ocala’s Feel ■

Downtown Live series starts in 2013. Acts have included Eddie

Money, Sister Hazel, NEEDTO-BREATHE, Diamond Rio, Edwin McCain and Brett Eldredge.

The inaugural Silver Springs ■

International Film Festival debuts in April 2014, attracting thousands of fi lms fans and movie makers to downtown Ocala. Travolta and Preston kick the festival off at the Marion Theatre with a champagne toast.

County hosts famous movies, concerts, art showsENTERTA INMENT

FILE PHOTOS

ABOVE: Johnny Weissmuller, Johnny Sheffi eld and Newt Perry during fi lming of a Tarzan movie in the late 1930s.BOTTOM: Artist Sky Campbell of Gainesville stands among his glass-blown art while hundreds of people attend Fine Arts for Ocala in October 2013.CENTER: Television series “Seahunt” star Lloyd Bridges poses at the edge of the spring during fi lming in the late 1950s.FAR LEFT: Ginger Stanley in the grip of the “Creature From the Black Lagoon,” which was fi lmed at Silver Springs in 1954.TOP LEFT: People ride the glass-bottom boats at Silver Springs in the early 1900s.


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2014 History of Marion County

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Transcript of 2014 History of Marion County