Meant as a memorial to a unique resident of a hundred plus years ago, Jack’s Lake in Clermont fails to accomplish its intended purpose if we forget who the lake was named for. The same holds true, of course, for countless named lakes and waterways throughout Central Florida. Clues to our past, the meanings and namesakes of our lakes have all too often been forgotten.
One hundred and twelve years ago a revised Town Plat for a portion of the original Town of Clermont was recorded at the county seat in Tavares. The 13 December 1913 Plat, upon which a named Jack’s Lake first appears, suggests the individual, who is still memorialized today by the name of this historic sheet of water, had some degree of influence in the city as of the year 1913.
Central Florida in 1913 was finally beginning to show signs of recovery after destructive back-to-back freezes of 1894-95. Prior to these freezes, land speculators had been selling parcels of Central Florida to northerners – land investments that for the most part became worthless in 1895 after Florida’s Citrus Industry was all but wiped out. Railroads that once served a thriving citrus industry had likewise been all but eliminated, with many shuttered while others were sold at auction for next to nothing.
By the dawn of the 20th century, acreage considered a valuable investment before 1894 was being sold for pennies on the dollar to the few speculators willing to take a chance. A few of the bravest of the brave settlers had stayed, determined to begin anew, while many of their neighbors simply up and left area.
Among the many who departed Clermont after the freeze was George W. Hull, one of three original founders of the town of Mineola and the landowner who had named Lake Afton on his homestead (See Part One), the very lake that became known as Jack’s Lake.
George Hull had relocated to Tampa by 1913 just as a new generation of land speculators began to take interest in Florida’s reviving Citrus Belt. Among the newcomer developers was Lake Highlands Company of Huntington, West Virginia. One of the Lake Highlands investors was Ulysses Simpson Grant Anderson (1867-1950), a native of Ohio who had made it good selling Life Insurance in Cabell, West Virginia. Anderson was also among the first of his group to start acquiring property in the Clermont, Florida area.
“Secure a winter home in beautiful Lake Highlands,” teased one Clarksburg, West Virginia ad of 20 November 1913, “in the big lake district of Lake County, Florida. Best northern people have purchased. Write for a large map and booklet free. Lake Highlands Co., Huntington, W. VA.”
Yet another West Virginia ad of 19 October 1914 told of the “magnificent club house” where visitors interested in buying land were entertained. The clubhouse above, was south of Lake Sunny Side, overlooking Lake Minnehaha. Along the east shore of Lake Sunny Side, as you can see on the Plat below, was a small orange grove beside the “Nursery and Experimental Farm.”
The Lake Highlands Company investors were serious about developing a large subdivision on acreage east of Lake Sunny Side in downtown Clermont, land that included Lake Wilma and Jack’s Lake. To show how serious their intentions were, the developer held a banquet in their newly completed Lake Highlands Clubhouse for Clermont’s Board of Trade, a delightful evening event for nearly a hundred guests that was reported in the Tampa Times of 23 March 1914.
Among the guest speakers for this event was Attorney Harry C. Duncan of Tavares, “who spoke on the important topic, Lake County and Good Roads,” said the Times, while another speaker was “Jack Peters, as is familiarly called by the entire county, made one of the hits of the evening in his talk about the possibilities of the soil in Lake County.” So, about the question who was Jack? The Times offered this about John Seburn Peters. “Mr. Peters is the first appointed official spiritual adviser of the farmers in the south and serves Lake County in this capacity. He has made a deep study of soil and conditions and declares that anything on earth that you want to raise can be raised in Lake County.”
Jack Peters was hired as Lake County Agricultural Adviser in June of 1913. Formerly holding the same position in Tampa, Lake County doubled Jack’s salary so as to convince him to leave Hillsborough County and relocate to Tavares. Jack Peters arrived in Lake County just in time to assist the West Virginians in planning the Lake Highlands Nursery and Experimental Farm at Lake Sunny Side, and just in time to witness the return of a vibrant citrus industry in Central Florida.
Jack’s Lake should be a historical marker for us all, a reminder of Central Florida’s rebirth after the devastating freeze that crushed the hopes and dreams of settlers here in America’s Paradise of the 19th century.
And tragically, Jack’s Lake should also be a historical marker reminding us all of the difficult challenges those who came before us endured, challenges that our brave founders oftentimes were not able to overcome.
“John Seburn Peters,” said the Tampa Times six years after the Lake Highlands Company dinner in Clermont, “better known to his friends as “Jack” Peters, was born in Naylor, Georgia. He was forty-three years of age and had resided in Florida since he was four years of age.” The Times had printed the obituary of a man Lake County new only briefly.
Within only a few months of arriving in Lake County as Agricultural Advisor, Jack was told he had contracted Tuberculosis. Advised to go west, Jack resigned, and before the end of the year 1914, he had become a resident of Arizona. His health, however, only worsened. Jack's last two years, reported the Times, “had rendered him increasingly despondent.” By April of 1919, Jack Peters, after being confined to bed for two years, ended his own life.
Hundreds of Central Florida lakes were named during 100 years between 1820 and 1920. Many of the named lakes are still known by the same name today. Each had been named for different reasons, but each also had one thing in common – they all provide a clue into the fascinating history of Central Florida.
Jack’s Lake is but one snippet of history you will find in my new book, Historic Florida Lakes & Waterways, an encyclopedia of 415 Citrus Belt Lakes, Rivers, Springs & Streams. My book is available now at Amazon, plus, I'll have signed copies available for purchase as well at Pine Castle Pioneers Days (February 22 & 23), and Ethel State Park Heritage Day (March 22).
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