Astor Chamber of Commerce, Inc. Florida

It's no wonder that Astor has earned the nickname, "The Jewel of the St. John's River" Nestled among the trees of the Ocala National Forest and bordered by the St. Johns River on the east. Astor is truly a lovely community. The Astor area is home to approximately 1500 residents who like boating, fishing, hunting and nature at its finest. Most of the businesses are family owned and operated. Astor is located on State Rd. 40, 35 miles west of Ormond Beach and about 35 miles east of Ocala in Lake County, Florida. Just a few miles north of Astor you will find Lake George, the second largest fresh water lake in Florida, and just south of Astor is Lake Dexter and Lake Woodruff, home to some of the best bass fishing in the world. Astor is located in Lake County Florida.

Calvary Full Gospel Church 352.759.3073

First Baptist Church 352.759.2135

St. Hubert's Forest Mission 352.759.3983

Clubs and Organizations: All of the Clubs & Organizations, who are not a member of
the Chamber, are Honorary Members (no voting rights).

Astor Area Chamber of Commerce 1-352-759-2679
P.O. Box 329, Astor, FL 32102

Astor Garden Club

Astor Forest Property Owners Association
1-352-759-4081
P. O. Box 114, Astor, Fl. 32102

Lake County became a legal entity on July 27, 1887. It was carved out of portions of Orange and Sumter counties. The first County Commission meeting was held in Yalaha at Mendenhall's store and the board rented a two story house as a courthouse in Bloomfield on the south side of Lake Harris.
It was named Lake County because there were over 1,400 lakes within its proposed boundaries. Tavares became the county seat after 3 elections that included political maneuvering and outright corruption.
As a part of his effort to have Tavares named as County Seat, Major St. Clair Abrams, who founded Tavares, borrowed $10,000 and built a courthouse, which later was known as the Pioneer Building. In 1922 the county floated a $250,000 Bond Issue and built a new courthouse which is now known as the Historic Courthouse.
The first Post Office was established in Okahumpka on January 2, 1845 when Florida was still a territory. Chetwynd, north of Fruitland Park, was the first Post Office after the county was formed but was discontinued in 1891 and taken over by Fruitland Park.
In 1890, the first census was formed and there were 8,034 people in the county. As of the 1990 census, there were approximately 140,000 people.
Agriculture was the main industry until the freezes of 1983, 1985, and 1989. The agriculture business figure reached $101 Million dollars.
Walt Disney's parents were married in a small town named Kismet, which no longer exists, on December 27, 1887. As a child, Walt used to spend vacations visiting his Aunt Jessie Perkins in Paisley.
The region of Lake County, Florida has been inhabited for thousands of years. Mild weather, excellent growing conditions, and an abundance of fish and game is why the Timucuan Indians called this region home many years ago.
Evidence of their presence is throughout Lake County. In fact, there are more than 1000 identified archeological sites in Lake County, as recognized by the state.
In 1562 a French Huguenot colony was established at the present site of Astor on the St. Johns River. The entire colony was wiped out by the Spanish is 1566.

During the late 1560's the Spanish established a system of missions throughout the Lake County area with the goal of converting the Indians to Catholicism. What they accomplished, instead was to massacre uncooperative villages and spread European diseases to the rest.
By 1763 when James Spalding established a trading post at Astor, there were few Indians left in the area.
British Royal botanist, William Bartram came to the area to study the "flora and fauna." He made the first sighting of a royal palm tree in North America in Lake County in 1774.

During the Revolutionary War all of Florida belonged to the British and residents were loyal to that country. A few white hunters and traders lived in Lake County, along with runaway slaves and Freedmen who found hiding in the scrub to be very effective means of evading the Slave Hunters.
In 1782, Spain reoccupied Florida and began awarding large tracts of land to reward favors. In 1819 Moses Levy received such a land grant from the Spanish. He established a plantation along the St. Johns River in Lake County, which was to be a settlement for oppressed European Jews. He was the father of David Levy, who later changed his name to "Yulee." Mr. Yulee was Florida's first senator after it acquired its statehood. During the first Seminole Indian War, the Seminole Indians burned the plantation to the ground.
Forts were built throughout the county, known then as Mosquito County, to defend the settlers against the Seminole Indians. In 1823, at the Treaty of Moultie Creek, the Seminoles were ordered to live in a reservation, most of which was in Lake County.
At the close of the Seminole War in 1842, Congress passed the Armed Occupation Act. It offered 160 acres to any man who would bear arms to protect the area against potential renewed hostilities, if he would build a habitable dwelling, live on the property for five years and cultivate at least five acres of his homestead. Many men accepted the challenge and joined the blacks already engaged in farming here.
Towns grew and vanished. Other towns took their places. When the Civil War started in 1861, there were several large plantations and many small farms in Lake County. Florida became one of the states to secede from the Union. The Statute of April 1862 forced most white males between the ages of 18 and 35 into involuntary service to the Confederacy. By September of that year the age limit was increased to 45 and soon 17-year-old young men were conscripted. This left only women and their slaves to run the plantations and farms. Even at that, Lake County has able to provide beef and other provisions to the army. The people left at home simply "went without."
By the end of the Civil War in 1865, another homesteading act was in place, again offering 160 acres of land to settlers who would live on the land for five years and improve it. Soldiers, both Rebel and Yankee were eager to get on with their lives. The attractive Homesteading Act offered a fresh start and many men took advantage of the opportunity and came to Lake County to make their homes.
In July 1887, Lake County became a county. It was carved from Orange and Sumter counties.
The courthouse, known as the Pioneer Building was dedicated in 1889.

Contracts were let for the construction of the first hard surface roads in Lake County in 1915. Prior to that most transportation was on the waterways with special hybrid steam/paddlewheel boats. An elaborate system of railroads was also developed.
A militia group was established during the Spanish-American War. It was called the 'Leesburg Rifles" and were ready to bravely defend our country.
Many young Lake County men enlisted in the Armed Services of this and other countries during the First World War. Others stayed at home and served in the Home Guard.
World War II took many Lake County men to war. Again, a Home Guard was established which combed the evening skies for enemy planes. The civilian effort was strong in support of the war. Lake County was famous for the number of war bonds sold here and scrap metal collected. In fact, the first war bond sold in the United States was sold in Leesburg.
Lake County was the site of a Prisoner of War camp during the Second World War, as well.
Early industry consisted of reliance on the land: farming, citrus growing, lumber, turpentine, etc. All of this to some degree or another relied on the weather and time and time again big freezes killed not only crops and citrus, but also hopes and dreams. Back-to-back freezes in 1894 and 1895 devastated large and small farms alike. Some farmers replanted and others settled here, making their living at farming. Lake County was known worldwide for its record crops of peaches, tomatoes, watermelon, ferns, and, of course, citrus.
Other industries moved into Lake County and the economy grew.
Lake County's history is rich and diverse. It sparkles with the ingenuity of its' people. Colorful stories abound. Today, as in the past, Lake County is a pleasant place to live and work.

While Exploring the St. John's River in early 1596, Don Pedro Menendez made the following notes into his diary: "We found the third village of the savages on the West bank, halfway between a very big lake and a smaller one farther up stream on a likable spot in the shade of formidable trees. The river seems to be full of goodly fish, and the forest inhabited by all kinds of birds and beasts, the meat of which is quite tasty."
The royal botanist John Bartram and his son visited the same spot in 1765 to study the flora and the fauna of the St. John's. Upon discovering a trading post named Spalding's Upper Store, they decided to stay several weeks. In his subsequent book "TRAVELS", William Bartram devoted 72 pages to describing the area in vivid and colorful detail, such as "this blessed land where the gods have amassed into one heap all the flowering plants, birds, fish and other wildlife of two continents in order to turn the rushing streams, the silent lake shores and the awe-abiding woodlands of this mysterious land into a true garden of eden."
This "likable spot of goodly fish", this "garden of Eden" is today called ASTOR and is still here for those who thirst for the unspoiled wilderness. The water of the St. John's rolling relentlessly along the evergreen shores of silent hammocks dotted with dreamy ponds and spellbound creeks are still harboring the famous prize-winning fish, the cautious bobcats, playful otters, clumsy black bears, shy wild turkeys and the rare Florida panthers. The slender osprey is Astor's mascot bird, but standing on the shoreline you can see hundreds of egret's, herons and water turkeys. You can watch the majestic flight of the bald eagle and enjoy flowers of many colors year round.

Surrounded by the huge Ocala National Forest, and settled into the restless onyx-band of our great river, Astor is indeed the precious jewel of Central Florida one has to see just once never to forget it again.

The Presbyterian Church of Astor was formed on September 10, 1916, and the congregation had their early meetings in the schoolhouse. A foundation for a church building was laid in 1917, but construction was delayed because of a materials shortage caused by World War I. It was finally dedicated on April 20, 1919. The congregation dissolved in 1950.
A Baptist mission was started in Astor in 1948 by Stetson ministry student, Earl Joiner. The congregation bought the old building in 1953 for $500 and became a separate church in 1963. The present sanctuary was built in 1982.
On the east bank was a fort known as Ft. Barnwell, Ft. Columbia and Ft. Call, near the settlement of Volusia. This was the county seat of Mosquito County from 1824 until 1843. Near here passed the William Bartram Trail, the route taken by the famed naturalist in May and June of 1774 while he classified flora and fauna of the area.
Near here was the Volusia Military Cemetery, situated near Forts Volusia and Call. Next to this site was the Methodist Episcopal Church, built with pine poles in 1845 within the enclosure of Fort Call.

Union army veteran E.E. Ropes of Milton, Massachusetts, moved to Florida and served as postmaster of Volusia from 1868 to 1870. He bought this landing and erected a log cabin on it. He served as the first Worshipful Master of the Volusia Lodge #77 in 1874, the oldest Masonic lodge in Volusia County.
Barney Dillard, Sr., came to Salt Springs in 1866, and later moved to Astor with his family. He is reputed to have told stories to Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, which she used as the basis of her book, The Yearling. He discovered the early Spanish mission on the east side of the river known as San Salvador de Mayaca built in 1657, and the fort Antonio de Anacape built in 1680.
Dillard also traced the routes of the Spanish trails that covered the state from east to west: One that connected St. Augustine, DeLeon Springs and Titusville, the Black Bear Trail to Pensacola, and the Dragoon Trail south through Lake County.

The Volusia Museum was the property of Lillian Dillard Gibson, local historian and one of fifteen Dillard children who drew lots to determine which portion of the land on the east bank of the river they would inherit from their father. On hers, she established not only a home but also a museum containing artifacts found in local Indian mounds, early documents and photographs, and memorabilia from pioneer life along the St. Johns River.
The first bridge across the St. Johns River was opened in 1926. At the same time, the road was paved from Ocala to Astor to Barberville.It was a draw bridge with a covered part and a house for a bridge tender on the west bank. The first tender was the former ferry operator, McQueen Johnson. While he was on duty in the middle of the bridge he was shot in the back, and fell across the very middle of the bridge, with his head in Lake County and his feet in Volusia County. Both counties refused to claim jurisdiction and the murder was never investigated. The new bridge was built in 1978. The bridge house was moved away in 1980.
In 1763, James Spalding and Roger Kelsell established two trading posts on the St. Johns River. Their "upper store" was located in Astor, with the "lower store" south of Palatka. Spalding chose the Astor site because it was at the crossing of three Indian trails coming here from the southwest, west and northwest. The location was also used by several Indian villages for launching their canoes when fishing or hunting parties wanted to explore the river. In 1769, Gov. James Grant promised Spalding to make a town out of his upper store. He didn't keep that promise. In 1774, Indians ransacked the store and the storekeepers fled to Shell Isle. When Spalding closed the store, the chiefs agreed to pay for the damage. By 1776, William Panton was in business with Spalding. Later, Mr. Forbes succeeded Panton and Mr. Leslie succeeded Spalding in the business. The site was later the location of Fort Butler, a crude log stockade and barracks erected in 1838. It was designed to protect the river. A post office was established at the fort in 1839. The fort was abandoned in 1843 for health reasons.

William Astor, the grandson of John Jacob Astor, bought 12,905.93 acres on the river from the Moses Levy estate. With his partners, William S. Boyd and Richard McLaughlin, a 12,000-acre town site was laid out and named Manhattan. Lots were 20 acres and square, surrounded by roads on all sides. The downtown section had normal size city lots. Buildings included a nondenominational church, schoolhouse, and free cemetery. William Astor built the Astor Hotel in 1878. It included a post office and Clyde Line steamship agency office. The town was renamed Astor in 1884.
William Astor died in 1884, and John Jacob Astor IV inherited the land. When he died on April 15, 1912, on the Titanic, the land became the property of son William Vincent Astor, who was not interested in it. He sold it in 1916 to the Duluth Land Company and it was marketed largely to Finnish immigrants in Minnesota.
In 1928, the Astor Hotel burned, and the town declined as a commercial center. Although most sources claim that the Spalding store was located here on the west side of the river, Barney Dillard remembered it as being on the east side, near the store he bought in 1866. There is no conclusive evidence supporting either contention.

In 1878, a railroad was built from Astor Landing to Lake Eustis, and Manhattan became a booming town. J.H. Caldwell was the station master. The dock adjoined the railroad depot. The railroad was liquidated in 1931, and the depot was replaced by the Boat House.
Martin Hendrickson, a real estate broker for the Duluth Land Company, and his wife, Saimi, built the Manhattan Hotel here. It was later called the Railroad Hotel. It burned down in 1925.
The town's second landing dock was located up river, next the packing house. This was the previous location of Moses Levy's sugar processing plant, and before that the Huertas estate.
In 1819, Moses E. Levy purchased a huge tract of land from Spain. He became a citizen of the U.S. on March 23, 1822, and the U.S. courts recognized his purchases. He established two settlements - Pilgrimage, south of today's Gainesville, and Hope Hill. Levy established plantations at both locations, and cleared a road to connect the two, crossing the Oklawaha River by ferry at Orange Springs. He had hoped to create a new Israel for the persecuted Jews of Europe.
Here, he raised oranges and indigo, and had a mansion on a hill which later became Astor Park. In 1838, the mansion was burned down by Indians. Moses Levy moved to Virginia, where he died in 1854.
The first permanent residents in this community were William Stokes Boyd, James P. Doss, J.H. Caldwell, and A.L. Smith. Doss had come here in 1882 to manage the Astor estate, and built his two-story frame home here. It has been modernized in later years and became the home of the Wass de Czege family in 1952.

Lake Schermerhorn was named in 1875 after William Astor's wife, Caroline Schermerhorn Astor.

The Shelley family had their house here, before Mr. Komula built the Forst Tavern. This later became the Forest Tavern.
The cemetery was established in 1885 when William B. Astor donated the land for it. The oldest gravestone is that of H.B. Sanders, who died in 1886.
Charles and Anna Gustafson arrived in Astor in 1917 and settled in this house, later owned by son Albert.

A post office was established at Ft. Butler on June 23, 1847, and renamed Volusia on January 2, 1858. In 1923, a development known as National Gardens sprang up, and the post office was renamed that on August 30, 1924. That post office was discontinued on March 31, 1956.The Astor post office moved into this building in 1975, having previously been located in what is now a real estate office, and before that in a corner of the grocery store.

The first school in Astor opened on September 7, 1885. A two-story schoolhouse was built a half block south of here in about 1918 of heart pine, painted white with black trim around the windows. It had two classrooms downstairs and an auditorium upstairs. It served grades one through eight.The school closed in 1943, and since then children on the west bank are bused to Paisley and Umatilla. The schoolhouse was sold to the Baptists, who utilized it as a mission with DeLand ministerial students conducting the services. The Astor Community Club was organized in 1952, and used the schoolhouse as a community center. The club folded about four years later. The building has also been used as a private residence and business office.