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Courtesy of Cherie Nelson Register. A map of Putnam County in 1890 with "ghost towns" outlined in red boxes.
Perusing Putnam County historical records paints a picture of early Florida, where communities formed around families that began new lives here.
These settlements popped up along railroad lines and the St. Johns River, a county map from 1890 shows. And by 1895, the county had at least 30 populated communities, not counting the numerous railroad stations, such as Buena Vista and Penial, according to “Our Place in Time: A Chronology of Putnam County” published in 1995 and written by Nancy Alvers and Janice Mahaffey.
Today, there’s still plenty of history standing in Putnam, but remnants of smaller settlements are preserved only in photographs, written records or not at all.
Cherie Nelson Register, who runs the Fruitland Peninsula Historical Society, displays some of South Putnam’s “ghost towns” at the society museum in Crescent City. She compiled the history from her late mother Margary Neal Jones Nelson, who spent her life collecting pieces of local history.
This story does not include every single “ghost town” that once thrived in Putnam County, but here is a look into some of them:
Beecher Springs:
Although the town itself was named Beecher, locals may remember the area more for Beecher Springs.
The springs sat at the center of the town, according to the historical society’s archives, but are now on the grounds of the Welaka National Fish Hatchery.
According to the historical society, the town of Beecher spanned 2,000 acres wide and was named after Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. Records state Beecher was the neighbor and friend of town founder Edwin Studwell, who chose the site for its “valuable mineral springs” and “healthfulness” that he said. residents could benefit from.
Records from the historical archives and “Our Place in Time” did not mention the town's exact establishment date, but Palatka Daily News records stated that meetings in the town began in the late 1890s. Beecher is not listed on the Putnam County map of 1890.
Today, people may remember Beecher as a place to cool off in the springs. Register said Monday she remembers going to Beecher Springs as a child when it was open to the public.
“In 1956, the Fish and Wildlife Service began work to clean Beecher Springs and make it a recreation park with a walk around the springs, a sandy beach and future picnic area,” the Daily News reported in its “Today in History” section.
According to “Our Place in Time,” the springs closed in 1977 due to “public abuse.”
Denver:
Not much is known about the Denver area because historical society records state historians lost much knowledge about the area when Denver family members died.
However, documents state the settlement was around in the late 1860s and was originally known as the Braddock settlement and also referred to as Mason.
Nelson’s records state Denver was “originally a small settlement on the Jacksonville, Tampa and Key West Railroad located southwest of Crescent City.”
On Jan. 29, 1869, a feud between the Braddock and Turner families in Denver left three people dead and caused state officials to ban dueling, according to Alvers and Mahaffey.
The authors reported that by 1895 Denver had 50 residents living in the area.
Denver Road in Crescent City is presently a reminder of the former community. According to the Putnam County Florida Cemetery Project, the Braddock Cemetery, also known as the Mason-Denver Cemetery, sits on privately-owned land. A nonprofit organization, the Florida Confederation for the Preservation of Historic Sites, chose to preserve the cemetery in 1995, according to Nelson’s records, because it was the site of the “Battle of Braddock’s Farm.”
The cemetery project archives state the battle involved 100 Union soldiers against 57 “southern soldiers.”
A bronze marker was reportedly placed near the site of the battle in 1998.
Huntington:
Founded around 1883, Nelson’s records state “there is nothing left of this early settlement now.”
The town’s population reached 265 by 1889, according to Alvers and Mahaffey, but reduced to 100 people by 1895.
The town reportedly had a hotel, a school, a church and a one-room mill.
Huntington completely vanished by 1953, but the town post office remained active through December of that year, according to historical society records.
Nelson reported that the post office opened in 1885 under the name “Grovesdale” but changed to “Huntington” in February 1887. As of 2019, the building still existed but family members of a former postmaster moved the building to one of their homes in the 1980s. In 1996, the family donated the Huntington Post Office to the Barberville Pioneer Settlement, which is 22 miles from Crescent City in Volusia County.
Norwalk:
The small community dates back to 1876 when people from Maine and New York settled the land. According to Nelson’s archives, the land was named after a group of people from Norwalk, Connecticut. The site is located in the present-day Ocala National Forest, across the St. Johns River from Mount Royal, Daily News archives state.
People could reach the community by ferry across the river near Welaka.
Norwalk housed a hunting and fishing retreat, which historians said was once attended by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, a Pulitzer Prize winning author most known for writing “The Yearling.”
At one time, about 500 people called Norwalk home, but the frigid weather from 1894-1899 killed many citrus plants in Putnam County.
“Many homes and businesses were abandoned since the owners were completely wiped out of their livelihoods,” Alvers and Mahaffey wrote about the repeated freezes.
In Norwalk, Nelson said people left their “beautiful” homes to move elsewhere after the freezing weather that caused temperatures to reach 14, and even six, degrees.
The Putnam County Florida Cemetery Project reported remnants of a Norwalk cemetery located in Palatka. Photos from 2010 showed small gravestones from the 1890s and early 1900s still sitting on the county-owned property.
One grave marker, according to the project website, honors a three-week-old child born in 1909. That is the most-recent grave in Norwalk cemetery reported in the project database.
Sisco:
This once-thriving town got its name from a woman Claire Sisco, who founded the town in 1884. Sisco was known to be an avid animal-lover and, upon her death, donated more than $47,000 to an animal hospital in Boston, where she was born.
Sisco lived the town until the 1890s when she decided to travel. Sisco traveled across the world, according to Nelson’s archives.
She became the editor of the Shanghai Times in China in 1902, wrote for newspapers in Paris and New York and volunteered her time helping others following the 1908 Messina earthquake in Italy.
Sisco later settled in Miami where she died in 1950.
According to “Our Place in Time,” the town of Sisco had 100 people populating it by 1886. Orange groves took up 111 acres of the town, the book states, and at least 39 acres of vegetables had been planted that year.
By 1925, Sisco’s population had dwindled to just 60 people and the town’s post office had been discontinued. Mail was sent to Pomona, Alvers and Mahaffey wrote.
Just like Norwalk residents, Sisco farmers took a big blow to business with the freeze of 1894 that destroyed a record crop of oranges, Nelson’s records show. Although some Sisco-area groves had been saved, another freeze hit the community in February 1899.
“Temperatures dropped to six degrees, damaging all of the orange groves, which were just reaching bearing age after the freezes of 1894-1895,” according to Alvers and Mahaffey.
Today, people might recognize Sisco because of the street names Sisco and Sisco Dirt Road near Pomona Park.