Pine Castle Pioneer Days, 1974

Taft: The Town Named for a President

Just south of Pine Castle on the Old Dixie Highway lies a sleepy little community known as "Taft." Taft wasn't always so placid. In the early 1900s it was very much alive. But, it wasn't called "Taft" then.

Actually, Taft has had a number of names. Back in 1884, it was first called "Newelton" after Mr. Lester Newelton of Ashtabula, Ohio, who settled there. He had ambitions of going into the citrus business, but after experimenting found the soil to be unsuitable. He sold out to a real estate firm and moved to the Lake Conway area.

By 1900, the name changed again. This time to "Smithville" in honor of Mr. Michael McKenzy Smith. Mr. Smith was in real estate, selling large tracts of land for fifty-cents per acre.

In 1903, Mr. E.L. Sphaler moved to Smithville and bought out the general store. He rant it for four years, finally selling out to his brother Dave. Dave Sphaler was the one who built the Taft Hotel, but all the Sphaler brothers gave land for the Taft school and the Baptist Church. Three of the brothers ran a turpentine still. They paid their workers in cash or by token which could be used as cash at the Sphaler stores. Mrs. Carol Banton of Tafthas one of these tokens.

By 1909, the Prosper Colony was started by Mr. Braxton Beacham of Orlando and Mr. W.L. Van Duzer of Kissimmee. They planned to divided the area into five and ten-acre farms. In addition to the farmland, each buyer was to get a lot in the town site.

The Saturday Evening Post ran an advertizement of the Colony, and people were asked to propose names for the new town. The name of "Taft" was suggested in honor of the then-President of the United States. It was adopted.

Among the early pioneers in the Taft area were Mr. and Mrs. J.F. Harrington, who arrived in 1909 from Colorado. Mr. Harringotn's widow, now Mrs. Wilson Naylor, lives in Edgewood. When the Harringtons first arrived, the only shelter they could find was a turpentine cabin. This was merely a palmetto hut with a mud floor. They stayed there until they could send back to Colorado for a tent.

The tent, when it arrived, was thirteen by forty feet in measurement. Mr. Harrington built a wooden floor and side walls. There was a door at each end, making it a snug little house. The Harringtons lived in the tent until the hurricane of 1910 blew the top off of it.

Undaunted, Mr. Harrington rebuilt it again--floor, walls, and this time a wooden top. This became the second oldest house in Taft and still stands on 4th Street.

Taft possessed a beautiful park, which was much admired by travelers along the Dixie Highway. The park was the site for the Fourth of July picnic each year. Mr. Harrington would furnish the lemonade and each family would bring their own food. Some of the larger families brought theirs in wash tubs.

Snakes were one of the problems in early Taft. Mrs. Naylor recalls that one day while some people were swimming in the creek with their clothes on, as was the custom, a snake swam between a man and his bib overalls.

For a while, Taft prospered. By 1910, the post office had been established. The depot and the schoolhouse on 4th Street were built in the same year. The town was incorporated in 1912. Mr. Nicholas Dennis was the first mayor.

The draining of the Beacham Swamp was one of the successes of those year. It was, however, slow in starting. In October of 1910, the promised drainage system had not been constructed. A severe storm flooded the district, resulting in many settlers abandoning the area.

The Taft Drainage District was established by state law in 1913-14, and bonds were issued and sold for financing the project. Some 54,000 acres were included in the district and more than 67 miles of ditches dug. This network of canals has been highly successful. The entire area was satisfactorily drained and rendered safe for cultivation.

In its heyday, Taft had electric lights on every corner. The city employed a motor cop to patrol the Dixie Highway. They kept a tractor and grader, and also had a jail.

With the Depression, however, the city fell on hard times. There was no way to support the city government. It became mandatory to break the city's charter. On August 1st, 1933, the City of Taft went out of business.