T. W. Lawton graduated from Rollins College in 1903. He later received his master's degree from Andover Newton College in Boston, Massachusetts. Following college, Lawton returned to Oviedo, where he married Charlotte "Lottie" Lee (1887-1984) and served as the principal of the Oviedo School from 1905 to 1907. In 1916, he became the first elected Superintendent of Schools of Seminole County. He held that post until 1952 and passed away 11 years later in 1963. Lawton Elementary School is named in his honor.

W. J. Lawton, Sr. served as a trustee of the First Baptist Church of Oviedo, as well as a secretary and treasurer for the church's Sunday school. He graduated from Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, in 1900. Lawton married Lillian Della Lee (ca. 1883-1977) and had four children: Elizabeth Lawton Laney, Kathryn Lawton, John. K. Lawton, and Winborn Joseph Lawton, Jr. Lawton was in the mercantile business, worked as an insurance agent, and grew citrus.]]>
Lawton's Store. 1998: Private Collection of Bettye Reagan.]]> Lawton's Store. 1998.]]> Oviedo Historical Society Collection, Oviedo Collection, Seminole County Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.]]> RICHES of Central Florida for educational purposes only.]]>
The Maitland News was a local newspaper originally published by the Maitland Realty Company (and later by the Maitland News Company) which began circulation in April 1926. This edition features articles on topics such as the opening of a new cash grocery, Christmas events, an engineering inspection, the Ku Klux Klan providing Christmas gifts, a Chamber of Commerce meeting, a cabinet shop opened by the Maitland Lumber Company, the fire department's fundraising efforts, a record yield of grapefruit, the housing arrangements of local residents, and a local events calendar. Also featured is a legal notice and several advertisements for local businesses.]]> The Maitland News, Vol. 02, No. 1, January 5, 1927: Newspaper Collection, accession number 2014.002.020V, room 2, case 2, shelf 10, box GV, Maitland Historical Museum, Art & History Museums - Maitland, Maitland, Florida.]]> The Maitland News, Vol. 02, No. 1, January 5, 1927. ]]> Maitland Historical Museum, Art & History Museums - Maitland, Maitland, Florida.]]> The Maitland News Collection, Maitland Historical Museum Collection, Maitland Collection, Orange County Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.]]> Adobe Acrobat Reader]]> RICHES of Central Florida for educational purposes only.]]>
W. J. Lawton, Sr. served as a trustee of the First Baptist Church of Oviedo, as well as a secretary and treasurer for the church's Sunday school. He graduated from Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, in 1900. Lawton married Lillian Della Lee (ca. 1883-1977) and had four children: Elizabeth Lawton Laney, Kathryn Lawton, John. K. Lawton, and Winborn Joseph Lawton, Jr. Lawton was in the mercantile business, worked as an insurance agent, and grew citrus.]]>
Oviedo Historical Society Collection, Oviedo Collection, Seminole County Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.]]> RICHES of Central Florida for educational purposes only.]]>
The Evening Herald, May 13, 1975: Private Collection of Beatrice Gestrich.]]> Oviedo Woman's Club]]> The Evening Herald, May 13, 1975.]]> Sanford Collection, Seminole County Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.]]> The Evening Herald.]]> The Evening Herald and is provided here by RICHES of Central Florida for educational purposes only.]]>
W. J. Lawton, Sr. served as a trustee of the First Baptist Church of Oviedo, as well as a secretary and treasurer for the church's Sunday school. He graduated from Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, in 1900. Lawton married Lillian Della Lee (ca. 1883-1977) and had four children: Elizabeth Lawton Laney, Kathryn Lawton, John. K. Lawton, and Winborn Joseph Lawton, Jr. Lawton was in the mercantile business, worked as an insurance agent, and grew citrus.]]>
Oviedo Historical Society, Oviedo, Florida.]]> Oviedo Historical Society, Oviedo, Florida.]]> Oviedo Historical Society Collection, Oviedo Collection, Seminole County Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.]]> Adobe Acrobat Reader]]> Oviedo Historical Society and is provided here by RICHES of Central Florida for educational purposes only.]]>
Oviedo Historical Society, Oviedo, Florida.]]> Oviedo Historical Society, Oviedo, Florida.]]> Oviedo Historical Society Collection, Oviedo Collection, Seminole County Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.]]> Adobe Acrobat Reader]]> Oviedo Historical Society and is provided here by RICHES of Central Florida for educational purposes only.]]> Oviedo Historical Society, Oviedo, Florida.]]> Oviedo Historical Society, Oviedo, Florida.]]> Oviedo Historical Society Collection, Oviedo Collection, Seminole County Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.]]> Adobe Acrobat Reader]]> Oviedo Historical Society and is provided here by RICHES of Central Florida for educational purposes only.]]> Oviedo Historical Society, Oviedo, Florida.]]> Oviedo Historical Society, Oviedo, Florida.]]> Oviedo Historical Society Collection, Oviedo Collection, Seminole County Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.]]> Adobe Acrobat Reader]]> Oviedo Historical Society and is provided here by RICHES of Central Florida for educational purposes only.]]> Oviedo Historical Society, Downtown Oviedo, Florida.]]> Oviedo Historical Society, Downtown Oviedo, Florida.]]> Oviedo Historical Society Collection, Oviedo Collection, Seminole County Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.]]> Oviedo Historical Society and is provided here by RICHES of Central Florida for educational purposes only.]]> Oviedo Historical Society, Downtown Oviedo, Florida.]]> Oviedo Historical Society, Downtown Oviedo, Florida.]]> Oviedo Historical Society Collection, Oviedo Collection, Seminole County Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.]]> Oviedo Historical Society and is provided here by RICHES of Central Florida for educational purposes only.]]> The Maitland News was a local newspaper originally published by the Maitland Realty Company (and later by The Maitland News Company) which began circulation in April 1926. This edition features articles on topics such as a Chamber of Commerce meeting, a clean-up week, the closure of a restaurant for repairs, a new bank in Longwood, the explosion of a gasoline stove, the new municipal building, electrical laws, building permits, a new retail store, the housing arrangements of local residents, and a local events calendar. Also featured are several advertisements for local businesses.]]> The Maitland News, Vol. 01, No. 16, August 21, 1926: Newspaper Collection, accession number 2014.002.020V, room 2, case 2, shelf 10, box GV, Maitland Historical Museum, Art & History Museums - Maitland, Maitland, Florida.]]> The Maitland News, Vol. 01, No. 16, August 21, 1926. ]]> Maitland Historical Museum, Art & History Museums - Maitland, Maitland, Florida.]]> The Maitland News Collection, Maitland Historical Museum Collection, Maitland Collection, Orange County Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.]]> Adobe Acrobat Reader]]> The Maitland News Company.]]> The Maitland News Company and is provided here by RICHES of Central Florida for educational purposes only.]]> The Maitland News was a local newspaper originally published by the Maitland Realty Company (and later by The Maitland News Company) which began circulation in April 1926. This edition features articles on topics such as the organization of the fire department, modern retail stores, waterworks bonds, a new contracting firm, highway construction, Bible school, a duplex apartment building, Chamber of Commerce meetings, economic development across the southeast United States, the housing arrangements of local residents, and a local events calendar. Also featured are several advertisements for local businesses.]]> The Maitland News, Vol. 01, No. 11, July 17, 1926: Newspaper Collection, accession number 2014.002.020V, room 2, case 2, shelf 10, box GV, Maitland Historical Museum, Art & History Museums - Maitland, Maitland, Florida.]]> The Maitland News, Vol. 01, No. 11, July 17, 1926. ]]> Maitland Historical Museum, Art & History Museums - Maitland, Maitland, Florida.]]> The Maitland News Collection, Maitland Historical Museum Collection, Maitland Collection, Orange County Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.]]> Adobe Acrobat Reader]]> The Maitland News Company.]]> The Maitland News Company and is provided here by RICHES of Central Florida for educational purposes only.]]>
Marie Jones Francis, the "midwife of Sanford," left behind a successful hotel and restaurant she owned in Sarasota in 1942 to return to Sanford and become a midwife. World War II caused a shortage in doctors and nurses, so Florida's Children's Bureau sent Francis to Florida A & M to acquire her practical nursing license in 1945. She specialized in premature babies and returned to Sanford to aid her mother, Carrie Jones, at Fernald-Laughton Memorial Hospital before they opened the ward in their home. "When her health starting failing," she recollects in a newspaper article, "I took over." Francis converted her house at 621 East Sixth Street to also serve as a maternity ward, where she delivered over 40,000 babies over her 32 year career. She became a midwife in the same vein as her mother, Carrie Jones, and together they ran the Jones-Francis Maternity Hall in Georgetown.

Francis served her community in several ways. She delivered babies for both white and black families from Seminole County, primarily patrons who either preferred natural births or could not afford deliveries at a hospital. In the 1950s, it cost $70 to stay nine days where soon-to-be mothers were taken care of. Francis was assisted by her sister, Annie Walker, who did the cooking. The house and ward also served as a school, where Marie Francis taught nurses the art of midwifery. Nurses would come from across the state to learn how to delivery infants naturally. A heavy burden on a single working mother, Marie Francis had three daughters, Cassandra Clayton, Daphne Humphrey, and Barbara Torre. Clayton and Humphrey became school teachers and Torre became a purchaser at Seminole Memorial Hospital.]]>
0:00:23 Growing up in Sanford
0:01:12 Interaction between black and white community
0:02:12 Layout of Georgetown
0:03:25 Sanford Avenue
0:12:04 East Sixth Street
0:13:00 Locust Avenue
0:14:37 Hickory Avenue
0:15:06 Goose Hollow
0:34:42 Marie Jones Francis and Carrie Jones
0:16:45 Students trained by Francis
0:19:15 Memories of her mother and her childhood
0:26:56 Experience as a teacher
0:30:01 African-American businesses and people in Georgetown
0:39:53 Parents
0:47:52 Age and mental retention
00:51:26 Education, employment, and siblings
0:53:38 Childhood neighborhood
0:57:31 Reflections on life
0:59:53 Growing up in Sarasota
1:02:46 How children have changed over time
1:04:26 Friends and family
1:11:24 Working at a health food store
1:12:18 Former students
1:15:11 Importance of being polite and respectful
1:16:16 Importance of reading
1:18:08 Daily plans and the RICHES project
1:19:39 Goldsboro
1:23:58 Childhood neighborhood
1:29:40 Closing remarks]]>
RICHES of Central Florida.]]> RICHES of Central Florida]]> Marie Jones Francis Collection, Georgetown Collection, Sanford Collection, Seminole County Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.]]> QuickTime.]]> RICHES of Central Florida.]]> RICHES of Central Florida]]>
Remade - Not Bought to symbolize the Baggs' grocery store. This store was part of the community for decades and has served as a de facto meeting place for residents of Sanford, Florida.

Remade - Not Bought was a Celery Soup: Florida's Folk Life Play and Creative Sanford, Inc. play performed from October 18 through November 3, 2013. The play was written by Peter Newman, Brian Casey, Trish Thompson, Annye Refoe, and Laura Donaldson. Remade - Not Bought was directed by Nicholas Murphy, the artistic director of Cornerstone Theatre in Orlando, and includes original music by Ruth King. The play features stories real-life stories based on oral histories of Sanford residents.]]>
Princess Theater, Sanford, Florida.]]> Celery Soup: Florida’s Folk Life Play Collection, Sanford Collection, Seminole County Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.]]> RICHES of Central Florida]]>
Patricia Black Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.]]> RICHES of Central Florida for educational purposes only.]]>
Episode 44 examines the controversy over the construction of Interstate Highway 4 through and around Orlando and the unequal amount of influence exerted on the building of the road by different interest groups and parties involved. I-4 was one of the first Interstate Highways constructed in Florida, with its first section opening between Plant City and Lakeland in 1959. By 1962, the segment of I-4 connecting Tampa and Orlando was completed and the entire highway was completed by the late 1960s.]]>
RICHES Podcast Documentaries, Orlando, Florida.]]> RICHES of Central Florida]]> RICHES Podcast Documentaries, Orlando, Florida.]]> RICHES Podcast Documentaries Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.]]> QuickTime.]]> RICHES of Central Florida.]]> RICHES of Central Florida]]>

Aside from his diplomatic career, Sanford was also a businessman and investor. He made several real estate investments in Florida in the late 1860s and early 1870s, the most notable being the purchase of the "Sanford Grant" in May 1870. The grant encompassed over 20 square miles and provided the basis for the town that eventually bore Sanford's name. Sanford was convinced that Florida would prove a profitable place to invest. Anticipating significant traffic and commerce by waterway, Sanford bought a land grant positioned on Lake Monroe along the St. Johns River. The city of Sanford thus became deemed the "Gate City of South Florida" - the southernmost stop along the river. During the 1870s, Sanford invested significant amounts of money to the development of his city - he built a wharf, several hotels, a general store, and a sawmill - all of which he hoped would spur investment and growth in the city. Sanford also developed several experimental citrus groves in his Florida city. The first was St. Gertrude's Grove. The second and more successful grove was Belair, developed in the early 1870s. Though Sanford never lived in Florida, he did visit occasionally from the late 1860s until his death in 1891. His diplomatic and business duties kept him preoccupied abroad, and most of his development in Florida was undertaken by representatives and confidants. Following the "Great Freeze" of 1888, Sanford's Belair grove was destroyed. Sanford was committed to rebuilding the grove and, in the late stages of his life, he committed his energies to his Florida investments. He died several years later though, and his wife Gertrude, in an effort to settle debts owed in Europe and elsewhere following his death, sold many of Sanford's properties in Florida.]]>
Sanford Museum, Sanford, Florida.]]> The Seminole Herald]]> Sanford Museum, Sanford, Florida.]]> The Seminole Herald. Sanford: Our First 125 Years. [Sanford, FL]: The Herald, 2002, page 58.]]> The Seminole Herald.]]> Sanford Museum and is provided here by RICHES of Central Florida for educational purposes only.]]>

In 1924, the current brick building was constructed by the J. C. Hanner Construction Company. The originally pressed metal ceiling, the mezzanine, and the tile awning of the second floor fade have been preserved from the original Orlando Hotel. The building was briefly occupied by a clothing store owned by Nat and Pauline Berman, who later sold it to Ben and Sam Arstein. In 1950, the building was purchased by the Belk-Lindsey Company. In 1973, Steve Fuller and Bob Snow purchased the property to begin the development of Church Street Station. The following year, it was transformed into the Rosie O'Grady's Goodtime Emporium.]]>
RICHES of Central Florida]]> Thomas Cook Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.]]> RICHES of Central Florida.]]> RICHES of Central Florida for educational purposes only.]]>

The Art Moderne-style structure in Downtown Orlando, with parts from an 1888 building, was constructed in 1942 by the J. G. Stores Corporation. McCrory operated its store and headquarters at this location until 1989. In 2003, the building was demolished.]]>
RICHES of Central Florida]]> Thomas Cook Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.]]> RICHES of Central Florida.]]> RICHES of Central Florida for educational purposes only.]]>
RICHES of Central Florida]]> Thomas Cook Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.]]> RICHES of Central Florida.]]> RICHES of Central Florida for educational purposes only.]]> RICHES of Central Florida]]> Thomas Cook Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.]]> RICHES of Central Florida.]]> RICHES of Central Florida for educational purposes only.]]> RICHES of Central Florida]]> Thomas Cook Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.]]> RICHES of Central Florida.]]> RICHES of Central Florida for educational purposes only.]]> Special and Area Studies Collections, George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida.]]> Special and Area Studies Collections, George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida.]]> Sanford Collection, Chase Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.]]> http://web.uflib.ufl.edu/spec/pkyonge/chase.htm.]]> 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.]]> 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.]]>