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| Orlando Apartment Locator Services : Orlando Apartments |  | Contents | |
| History |
| Some historians date Orlando's
name to around 1836 when a soldier named Orlando Reeves allegedly died in the
area, during the war against the Seminole Indian tribe. It seems, however, that
Orlando Reeves (sometimes Rees) operated a sugar mill and plantation about thirty
miles to the north at Spring Garden in Volusia County, and pioneer settlers simply
found his name carved into a tree and assumed it was a marker for a grave site.
They thus referred to the area as "Orlando's grave" and later simply
"Orlando." | During the
Second Seminole War, the U.S. Army established an outpost at Fort Gatlin, a few
miles south of the modern downtown, in 1838. But, it was quickly abandoned when
the war came to an end. | | The
first permanent settler was cattleman Aaron Jernigan, who acquired land along
Lake Holden by the terms of the Armed Occupation Act of 1842. But, most pioneers
did not arrive until after the Third Seminole War in the 1850s. |
| Orlando remained a rural backwater during the Civil
War, and suffered greatly during the Federal Blockade. And, most of the early
residents made their living by cattle ranching. But, the Reconstruction Era brought
a population explosion. This led to the city's incorporation in 1875. |
| The period from 1875 to 1895 is remembered as
Orlando's "Gilded Era," when it became the hub of Florida's citrus industry.
But, a great freeze in the latter year forced many owners to give up their independent
groves, thus consolidating holdings in the hands of a few "citrus barons"
which shifted operations south, primarily around Lake Wales in Polk County. The
years between the Spanish American War and World War I saw Orlando become a popular
resort, as Florida's largest inland city. | | During
World War II, a number of Army personnel were stationed at the Pine Castle AAF,
now the site of Orlando International Airport. Some of these servicemen stayed
in Orlando to settle and raise families. In 1956 the aerospace/defense company
Martin Marietta (now Lockheed Martin) established a plant in Orlando. |
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