Newspaper Clippings for
October, 1880
from a loose clipping, source unknown 20 October 1880Florida Letter
Daytona, Fla., Oct 20, 1880.
Editors Gazette: - We are here in Daytona at last. We did not
have a very pleasant time in coming from the fact that our trains
failed to connect twice on the route. As we were to be met at
Volusia by friends who were to come forty miles with teams, this
being behind time, made it very unfortunate. To remedy the evil,
I went into the telegraph office at Montgomery to send word of
our delay, and while so engaged the train went off and left me,
taking wife and children with it. The conductor of the train
from Nashville to Montgomery told us we had twenty minutes for
breakfast. I was gone about ten minutes and was left. Moral,
don't take the word of the conductor of the incoming train as to
the length of the stop before you inquire of the conductor of the
outgoing train before you go into the telegraph office. I caught
up with my family at Eufaula, where they stopped and waited for
me, but the accident put us back twenty-four hours more. So
instead of being with the people here on the Sabbath we stopped
at Volusia and came across to Daytona on Monday. We made two
mistakes. I say it for the benefit of future travelers. 1st. We
took the Kokomo route which failed twice to connect; and 2nd , I
took the word of the conductor as to length of stoppage. If we
had avoided these errors we should no doubt have had a pleasant
journey. However we are here and the prospect is encouraging.
The people received us very cordially and seem very glad to see
us. I held my first service on Sabbath last. The village
numbers about three hundred people. They are almost entirely
from the North and are intelligent and enterprising. The church
numbers about eighteen members but there are about forty others
who have expressed their desire to join with us as soon as we
should get a minister. We worship in the public school house
which will seat about a hundred and can be made to accommodate
fifty more. The house was built with a view to religious
services as well as for a school. In time we shall probably have
a church building. The occupation of the people here, aside from
merchants and mechanics, is that of fruit culture; mainly
oranges, lemons, figs, bananas, and pineapples. The orange is
the main dependence. The groves are just beginning to come into
bearing, and the owners are hopefully and anxiously looking
forward to the time when their groves will come into full
bearing, and then the crisis will have been passed. Daytona is
comparatively a new place as most of the oldest settlers have
been here only about eight or ten years. On the 13th of this
month occurred the opening, with appropriate services of "The
Daytona Institute for Young Women." It opened with three
teachers and twenty pupils in attendance and offers to all
students a full course of study in the classics and in the
natural sciences. Miss Lucy A. Cross, a graduate of Oberlin, is
the principal and she is to be aided by a full faculty of
teachers as the school advances. The moral, social, and
religious atmosphere of Daytona is all that any one can desire in
a place to educate their children. Boys and young men are
admitted into the Institute as day scholars. The climate of this
coast is very good indeed, being remarkably free from malarious
disease. Daytona is practically on the sea coast and has the
advantage of the sea breeze. The great need of this region is
facilities for transportation. A movement is now on foot, and
with almost a certainty of success, for putting on a steamer
between this coast and Jacksonville thus assuring access and
egress for people as well as for produce. In order to connect
the Halifax and Indian rivers so as to be navigable it will be
necessary to dredge a channel through water now too shallow, of a
few hundred yards. The work has been surveyed and the cost
estimated at about $3,000. This work has will open up about two
hundred miles of coast to navigation. The productive interests
involved will assure its success. On the whole I think that the
East coast of Florida, for pleasantness of situation, for the
intelligence and culture of its inhabitants, for its social and
religious influence, for variety and abundance of production and
for healthness of climate offers to the settler more and better
inducements than any other part of Florida. As our household
goods have not yet arrived we are not keeping house. We expect
soon to be in our new home, when we would be very glad indeed to
welcome our Northern as well as Southern friends. We have
oranges and lemons growing though not in great abundance. We
have several hundred orange trees growing which we hope will, one
of these days, bear enough to more than support the family. We
are as yet comparatively strangers but I think we shall like it
her more and more the better we become acquainted.
As to our old friends in Lake we remember them affectionately.
We are glad to have such pleasant memories of the past. Often do
our thoughts go back to beautiful Waukegan and to warm-hearted
Millburn. In imagination we often return to the scenes we so
lately left. But we find warm hearts here in Daytona, and we
hope to make a pleasant home here, where we may spend our old age
and welcome our dear friends to the best the house affords. I
have come here under commission from the "Home Missionary
Society." I hope to be the instrument in God's hands of great
good to the people of this village and vicinity. If the Gazette
will publish my letters, our friends in Lake county shall hear
from me now and then. I must apologize for the length of this
letter. C. M. Bingham.
