Chase & Company Celery Field, 1965

Chase & Company Celery Field, 1965

Chase Celery Field

Chase and Company (Sanford, Fla.)

Celery

Celery industry

Sanford (Fla.)

A Chase celery field, most likely in Sanford, Florida, in 1965. The origins of Sanford's connection to celery farming began on December 26, 1894, when a freeze damaged the area's citrus groves. They began to recover during a warm and wet January which promoted new shoots, but a second freeze hit on February 7, 1895, practically wiping them out. The 24 degree temperature was the coldest known in Florida to that point. The freeze was so intense that the sap froze inside the trunks, many of which split open, sounding like gunshots, and crashed to the ground. The population quickly dropped from five thousand to two thousand, as the groves were abandoned. I. H. Terwilliger stayed after the freezes and is believed to have planted the first celery grown in Sanford in 1896. J. N. Whitner and B. F. Whitner, Sr. planted 3/4 acre in 1897 with celery imported from Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Chase & Company also converted to celery cultivation and by 1898, celery became the crop synonymous to Sanford. Chase & Co. was established in 1884 by brothers Sydney Octavius Chase and Joshua Coffin Chase. The company sold insurance and later invested in storage facilities and fertilizer sales. Chase & Company was known mainly for its agricultural interests and maintained a series of citrus groves throughout Central Florida. The company was based out of Sanford and became one of the city's largest employers into the early twentieth century.

Original color photographs, May 18, 1965: Chase Collection (MS 14), box 215, Special and Area Studies Collections, George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida.

1965-05-18

Digital reproduction of original color photographs, May 18, 1965.

Chase Collection (MS 14), box 215, Special and Area Studies Collections, George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida.

Celery Collection, Chase Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.

Folder referenced in Chase Collection finding guide, http://web.uflib.ufl.edu/spec/pkyonge/chase.htm.

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4 color photographs

eng

Still Image

Sanford, Florida

Donation

History Teacher

Economics Teacher

Geography Teacher

Entire Chase Collection is comprised of four separate accessions from various donors, including Cecilia Johnson, the granddaughter of Joshua Coffin Chase and the children of Randall Chase.

The displayed collection item is housed at Special and Area Studies Collections at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. Rights to this item belong to the said institution, and therefore inquiries about the item should be directed there. RICHES of Central Florida has obtained permission from Special and Area Studies Collections at the University of Florida to display this item for educational purposes only.

Special and Area Studies Collections, University of Florida

Digital Collections (UFDC), University of Florida

Cepero, Laura

University of Florida, Special and Area Studies Collections

Warner, S.C. "Development of Marketing Citrus Fruits in Florida." Florida State Horticultural Society vol. 36 (1923): 198-200.

Hopkins, James T. Fifty Years of Citrus, the Florida Citrus Exchange: 1909-1959. Gainesville, Florida: University of Florida Press: 1960.

"Sydney Chase Sr. (1860-1941)." Florida Citrus Hall of Fame. Copyright 2012. http://floridacitrushalloffame.com/index.php/inductees/inductee-name/?ref_cID=89&bID=0&dd_asId=600.

"Franklin Chase, 'Towering Figure in Citrus Industry.'" The Orlando Sentinel, September 30, 1986. http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1986-09-30/news/0260060057_1_chase-isleworth-golf-florida-citrus.

Sanford Historical Society (Fla.). Sanford. Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2003.

Mills, Jerry W., and F. Blair Reeves. A Chronology of the Development of the City of Sanford, Florida: With Major Emphasis on Early Growth, 1975.

4 color photographs