The Lanier family, like many others, migrated from another state to the wild frontier of Florida. The patriarch, John Lanier, came from Georgia where he was born in 1805. The exact date when John came to Florida is unknown. However, we do know that it was after his first wife’s passing and preceding his marriage to Margaret Hogan in 1839. It was during his time in Florida that he made a name for himself and his family in the cattle industry.
Topics: Osceola History, Around Osceola, Pioneer Family, The Pioneer Village, Shingle Creek, History, Educational, Osceola County History, Pioneer Village, Around Osceola County, City of Kissimmee, Pioneer Village at Shingle Creek, Osceola County, Oscoela County Historical Society, Kissimmee
James Kinchen Hilliard was born in Coffee County, Georgia on December 17, 1852. He lost his father in 1863 during the War Between the States. Perhaps to ease the burden of his mother, who was left to rear some of his eleven siblings, James headed to Texas at the age of fourteen. For nine years he roamed the central west encountering Indians and buffalo and gathering tales of his experiences.
Topics: Pioneer Family, History, Dine with the Departed, Osceola County Historical Society
This month has been a big one for the Osceola County Historical Society and the construction of the new Pioneer Village at Shingle Creek. While work is being done to reconstruct and restore the buildings that have already moved to the new site, the remaining buildings have finally been making the move to their new home.
Topics: Osceola History, Pioneer Family, Historic Buildings
How the Cadman family of Yorkshire, England, came to reside in Narcoossee is a story that illustrates a major theme of 19thcentury Florida history: how Hamilton Disston’s drainage projects in Central Florida led to real estate speculation, expansion of agriculture and other enterprises, a population and building boom, and construction of new roads, canals and railroads to facilitate commerce in this former backwater area.
When the Cadman’s arrived in New York by ship in 1888 on their way to Florida, they became part of a larger trend: investors – many of them wealthy – attracted to Florida by promises of natural bounty and beauty, temperate climate and commercial opportunity. For the Cadmans, the enticement came by way of family patriarch, Lt. Col. William Edwin Cadman’s younger brother, John Heaton Cadman, Esq., who was involved in a Florida land development project.
Topics: Osceola History, Pioneer Family, Historic Buildings, The Pioneer Village
