St. Mary's Missionary Baptist Church/Datson Dairy
Posted by: 
Markerman62
N 28° 29.164 W 081° 19.837
17R E 467639 N 3151092
One of several markers along Conway Rd.
Waymark Code: WMK5DJ
Location: Florida, United States
Date Posted: 02/15/2014
Views: 5
Side 1
St. Mary's Missionary Baptist Church was built on land donated by Mary Walker in 1915. It was a small frame building with a steeple to the side of the main entrance The small African American community surrounding the church developed when E.B. Conoley opened a turpentine still in the area and brought workers to Conway from as far away as Georgia to work in the piney woods. A one-room school behind the church served all of the African American children in grades one through eight. After the end of the turpentine industry in the area, the men turned to picking citrus in the groves.
Side 2
The Datson Dairy was founded by Berton Clarence Datson in 1916 and was the first commercial dairy in Orlando. The original dairy was located on Hourglass Lake at the corner of Cloverlawn Avenue and Curry Ford Rd. Its processing plant was on West South Street in Orlando. The pastures were located between Conway Road and Lake Conway. The dairy began with 9 cows and grew to over 900- by 1937. In 1926, the dairy's founder died in an automobile accident, and the dairy operations were taken over by his four sones and son-in-law: Clarence, Theodore, Glenn, and Ricahrd and Robert B. Dawson. The dairy was sold in 1951.
Marker Number: 0
Date: None
County: Orange
Marker Type: Roadside
Sponsored or placed by: Richard T. Crotty, Mayor-Linda A. Stewart, Commissioner District 4-Orange County Board of County Commissioners
Website: Not listed
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