WHITE'S WHARF (Clifton Springs)
Posted by: 
overrover
N 28° 42.018 W 081° 14.279
17R E 476753 N 3174805
In the 1870’s W.G. White built a store, bringing goods by steamboat and trading with buyers from all over Central Florida. The wharf at Lake Jesup was built to accommodate the ships coming from the St. Johns River.
Waymark Code: WMH53
Location: Florida, United States
Date Posted: 07/12/2006
Views: 59
North of this marker on Lake Jesup are warm sulphur springs, near which John and William Bartram camped during their excursion up the St Johns River in 1765-1766.
In the late 1870's W.G. White built a store here, bringing goods by steamboat and trading with buyers who came by wagon and ox cart from all over Central Florida; as far away as Fort Christmas. William White moved here from Macon, Georgia, built a home and a store here in 1879, and stocked everything settlers needed, so his wharf near the warm, sulphurous Clifton Springs made him one of the most successful merchants of the area.
In the 1880's, after the coming of the railroad, White moved his business to Orlando. The site also became known as Clifton Springs, in honor of the hometown of Dr. Henry Foster, a wealthy grower who spent winters at Lake Charm in Oviedo.
Henry Gee, a wealthy landowner and slave driver, and his son, John Henry Gee, persuaded the territorial governor part of the old land grant along Lake Jesup.
The lake's wharves were as far down as steamboats could land freight for wagons to haul to Maitland and Orlando. Many farmers brought their crops to the lake's wharves. W.W. White, whose wharf near Clifton Springs had everything the settlers needed, was one of the most successful merchants at Lake Jesup. Soon, lumbering crews, sawmills, and turpentine stills moved were being built in the south, as well as the movement of cattle along the spring-fed lakes.
Oviedo residents used the springs for their annual May picnics beginning in 1880, with one Saturday for whites, another for blacks. They were planned and held by a joint committee from the Baptist and Methodist churches.
Marker Number: none
Date: unknown
County: Seminole
Marker Type: Roadside
Sponsored or placed by: Seminole County Historical Commission
Website: [Web Link]
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