Instructions:
1....Print this file.
2....At its end, click on "rules" to see a copy of the trail rules, print it, and then click where indicated at the end of the 3-page rules and patch order form to get back to the list of Florida trails.
3....If you want a hand-drawn map showing the locations of all of the sites, send a self-addressed stamped envelope to Steve Rajtar, 1614 Bimini Dr., Orlando, FL 32806.
4....Hike the trail and order whatever patches you like (optional).
WARNING - This trail may pass through one or more neighborhoods which, although full of history, may now be unsafe for individuals on foot, or which may make you feel unsafe there. Hikers have been approached by individuals who have asked for handouts or who have inquired (not always in a friendly manner) why the hikers are in their neighborhood. Drugs and other inappropriate items have been found by hikers in some neighborhoods. It is suggested that you drive the hike routes first to see if you will feel comfortable walking them and, if you don't think it's a good place for you walk, you might want to consider (1) traveling with a large group, (2) doing the route on bicycles, or (3) choosing another hike route. The degree of comfort will vary with the individual and with the time and season of the hike, so you need to make the determination using your best judgment. If you hike the trail, you accept all risks involved.
The Presbyterian Church of Astor was formed on September 10, 1916, and the congregation had their early meetings in the schoolhouse. A foundation for a church building was laid in 1917, but construction was delayed because of a materials shortage caused by World War I. It was finally dedicated on April 20, 1919. The congregation dissolved in 1950.
A Baptist mission was started in Astor in 1948 by Stetson ministry student, Earl Joiner. The congregation bought the old building in 1953 for $500 and became a separate church in 1963. The present sanctuary was built in 1982.
On the east bank was a fort known as Ft. Barnwell, Ft. Columbia and Ft. Call, near the settlement of Volusia. This was the county seat of Mosquito County from 1824 until 1843. Near here passed the William Bartram Trail, the route taken by the famed naturalist in May and June of 1774 while he classified flora and fauna of the area.
Near here was the Volusia Military Cemetery, situated near Forts Volusia and Call. Next to this site was the Methodist Episcopal Church, built with pine poles in 1845 within the enclosure of Fort Call.
Union army veteran E.E. Ropes of Milton, Massachusetts, moved to Florida and served as postmaster of Volusia from 1868 to 1870. He bought this landing and erected a log cabin on it. He served as the first Worshipful Master of the Volusia Lodge #77 in 1874, the oldest Masonic lodge in Volusia County.
This road is named for Alice Dillard.
This street is named for Barney Dillard, Sr., who in 1866 came to Salt Springs, and later moved to Astor with his family. He is reputed to have told stories to Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, which she used as the basis of her book, The Yearling. He discovered the early Spanish mission on the east side of the river known as San Salvador de Mayaca built in 1657, and the fort Antonio de Anacape built in 1680.
Dillard also traced the routes of the Spanish trails that covered the state from east to west: One that connected St. Augustine, DeLeon Springs and Titusville, the Black Bear Trail to Pensacola, and the Dragoon Trail south through Lake County.
This was the property of Lillian Dillard Gibson, local historian and one of fifteen Dillard children who drew lots to determine which portion of the land on the east bank of the river they would inherit from their father. On hers, she established not only a home but also a museum containing artifacts found in local Indian mounds, early documents and photographs, and memorabilia from pioneer life along the St. Johns River.
This was built as a home and store in 1927 by Barney Dillard, to replace the one lost to fire earlier that year.
A store located here was already standing when Barney Dillard purchased it in 1866. It also included living quarters, and nearby was a warehouse used for storing cotton awaiting loading onto river steamers. The store burned down in 1927.
The first bridge across the St. Johns River at this point was opened in 1926. At the same time, the road was paved from Ocala to Astor to Barberville.
It was a draw bridge with a covered part and a house for a bridge tender on the west bank. The first tender was the former ferry operator, McQueen Johnson. While he was on duty in the middle of the bridge he was shot in the back, and fell across the very middle of the bridge, with his head in Lake County and his feet in Volusia County. Both counties refused to claim jurisdiction and the murder was never investigated.
The new bridge was built in 1978. The bridge house was moved away in 1980.
In 1763, James Spalding and Roger Kelsell established two trading posts on the St. Johns River. Their "upper store" was located here, with the "lower store" south of Palatka. Spalding chose the Astor site because it was at the crossing of three Indian trails coming here from the southwest, west and northwest. The location was also used by several Indian villages for launching their canoes when fishing or hunting parties wanted to explore the river.
In 1769, Gov. James Grant promised Spalding to make a town out of his upper store. He didn't keep that promise. In 1774, Indians ransacked the store and the storekeepers fled to Shell Isle. When Spalding closed the store, the chiefs agreed to pay for the damage. By 1776, William Panton was in business with Spalding. Later, Mr. Forbes succeeded Panton and Mr. Leslie succeeded Spalding in the business.
The site was later the location of Fort Butler, a crude log stockade and barracks erected in 1838. It was designed to protect the river. A post office was established at the fort in 1839. The fort was abandoned in 1843 for health reasons.
William Astor, the grandson of John Jacob Astor, bought 12,905.93 acres on the river from the Moses Levy estate. With his partners, William S. Boyd and Richard McLaughlin, a 12,000-acre town site was laid out and named Manhattan. Lots were 20 acres and square, surrounded by roads on all sides.
The downtown section had normal size city lots. Buildings included a nondenominational church, schoolhouse, and free cemetery. William Astor built the Astor Hotel in 1878. It included a post office and Clyde Line steamship agency office. The town was renamed Astor in 1884.
William Astor died in 1884, and John Jacob Astor IV inherited the land. When he died on April 15, 1912, on the Titanic, the land became the property of son William Vincent Astor, who was not interested in it. He sold it in 1916 to the Duluth Land Company and it was marketed largely to Finnish immigrants in Minnesota.
In 1928, the Astor Hotel burned, and the town declined as a commercial center.
Although most sources claim that the Spalding store was located here on the west side of the river, Barney Dillard remembered it as being on the east side, near the store he bought in 1866. There is no conclusive evidence supporting either contention.
In 1878, a railroad was built from Astor Landing to Lake Eustis, and Manhattan became a booming town. J.H. Caldwell was the station master. The dock adjoined the railroad depot. The railroad was liquidated in 1931, and the depot was replaced by the Boat House.
Martin Hendrickson, a real estate broker for the Duluth Land Company, and his wife, Saimi, built the Manhattan Hotel here. It was later called the Railroad Hotel. It burned down in 1925.
The town's second landing dock was located up river, next the packing house. This was the previous location of Moses Levy's sugar processing plant, and before that the Huertas estate.
In 1819, Moses E. Levy purchased a huge tract of land from Spain. He became a citizen of the U.S. on March 23, 1822, and the U.S. courts recognized his purchases. He established two settlements - Pilgrimage, south of today's Gainesville, and Hope Hill, near this site.
Levy established plantations at both locations, and cleared a road to connect the two, crossing the Oklawaha River by ferry at Orange Springs. He had hoped to create a new Israel for the persecuted Jews of Europe.
Here, he raised oranges and indigo, and had a mansion on a hill which later became Astor Park. In 1838, the mansion was burned down by Indians. Moses Levy moved to Virginia, where he died in 1854.
The first permanent residents in this community were William Stokes Boyd, James P. Doss, J.H. Caldwell, and A.L. Smith. Doss had come here in 1882 to manage the Astor estate, and built his two-story frame home here. It has been modernized in later years and became the home of the Wass de Czege family in 1952.
This lake was named in 1875 after William Astor's wife, Caroline Schermerhorn Astor.
The Shelley family had their house here, before Mr. Komula built the Forst Tavern. This later became Frankie D's Sportsmen's Eatery & Tavern.
This cemetery was established in 1885 when William B. Astor donated the land for it. The oldest gravestone is that of H.B. Sanders, who died in 1886.
Charles and Anna Gustafson arrived in Astor in 1917 and settled in this house, later owned by son Albert.
A post office was established at Ft. Butler on June 23, 1847, and renamed Volusia on January 2, 1858. In 1923, a development known as National Gardens sprang up, and the post office was renamed that on August 30, 1924. That post office was discontinued on March 31, 1956.
The Astor post office moved into this building in 1975, having previously been located in what is now a real estate office, and before that in a corner of the grocery store.
The first school in Astor opened on September 7, 1885. A two-story schoolhouse was built a half block south of here in about 1918 of heart pine, painted white with black trim around the windows. It had two classrooms downstairs and an auditorium upstairs. It served grades one through eight.
The school closed in 1943, and since then children on the west bank are bused to Altoona and Umatilla. Those on the east bank go to Pierson. The schoolhouse was sold to the Baptists, who utilized it as a mission with DeLand ministerial students conducting the services. The Astor Community Club was organized in 1952, and used the schoolhouse as a community center. The club folded about four years later. The building has also been used as a private residence and business office.
Annals of Volusia 1558-1978: Birthplace of Volusia County, by Lillian Dillard Gibson (R. Alex Gibson 1978)
Florida Historical Markers & Sites, by Floyd E. Boone (Gulf Publishing Company 1988)
The History of Astor on the St. Johns, Astor Park, and the Surrounding Area, by A. Wass de Czege (Danubian press, Inc. 1982)
Lake County, Florida: A Pictorial History, by Emmett Peter, Jr. (The Donning Company 1994)
Memories of Mount Dora and Lake County, by David Edgerton (1983)
Side Roads of Florida, by James R. Warnke (Star Publishing Co. 1973)
Through Schoolhouse Doors: A History of Lake County Schools, by The Lake County Retired Teachers Association (Rose Printing Co., Inc. 1982)
To Hell 'N Blazes, by Lillian Dillard Gibson (R. Alex Gibson 1981)
Volusia: The West Side, by Arthur E. Francke, Jr., Alyce Hockaday Gillingham, and Maxine Carey Turner (West Volusia Historical Society 1986)