(side 1)
The area containing present day Floral City has been inhabited by
humans for thousands of years. When Hernando De Soto came through
the area in 1539, he found the Indian village of Tocaste. From the late
17O0s until the Second Seminole War (1835-1842), the Seminole village
of Cho-illy-hadjo (meaning Crazy Deer's Foot) was located here. The
Armed occupation Act of 1842 and statehood in 1845 brought American
settlers who took advantage of the abundant timber, natural waterways,
and rich farmland. By the 1860s, the area was part of the vast land
holdings of John Paul Formy- Duval, a Confederate veteran and son of
a French physician who had fled Napoleon's rule in the early 19th century
Duval's house still stands and is the oldest home in Citrus County. Floral
City was surveyed and platted in 1883 by Senator Austin Mann and
Surveyor W. H. Havron. They named the town for the many wildflowers
and blooming trees. In the 1880s, Floral City's commercial center was
located along Aroostook Way, with the New England Hotel at the south
end (on Orange Avenue) and Lake Tsala Apopka at the north end. The
Orange State Canal, dug in 1884, provided for steamboat transportation
to the Withlacoochee River and beyond.
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(side 2)
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When
the Plant System railway tracks were laid near the western
edge of town in1893, fast steam-powered trains quickly out-paced
slower water vessels, which diminished the popularity of steamboat
travel. The town's commercial center shifted from Aroostook Way to an
uptown location at the rail line. The Florida Phosphate Boom also
began in the1890s, and a dozen mines soon dotted the area.
Mine workers swelled the village population to nearly 10,000 people
making it larger than the city of Miami at that time. The local
phosphate ore was shipped primarily to markets in Germany, until
World War I brought a sudden halt to trade in 1914. With the
collapse of the phosphate industry, Floral City reverted to its
agrarian roots as a small, rural community as one of the oldest
and most distinct settlements in Citrus County, the Floral City
Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic
Places in 1993. The oak tree canopy along orange Avenue and
Aroostook Way that contributed to the character of the district was
planted by community residents in 1884, a year after the town
was founded.
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