Gone but not forgotten: Minorville

The name Minorville might not sound familiar to most of today’s youngest generations, but longtime West Orange County residents know it well. It’s the name of a long-ago train stop that predates the city of Ocoee by about 25 years.

William J. “Jack” Minor arrived by boat via the St. Johns River and settled in the area north of West Colonial Drive and east of Bluford Avenue in Ocoee in 1882. He built a home for his wife, Lide, and their family with lumber harvested from the property and milled at the sawmill they constructed on the site, according to “A History of Ocoee and its Pioneers,” by Nancy Lillian Maguire.

The Florida Midland Railway snaked through from Apopka to Kissimmee, and when a station was built in the Ocoee area, Minor was named depot agent and asked to name it. To honor the family, he called it Minorville. The station existed for about 50 years — although there is some question as to the exact location.

Some history documents place it near the southwest corner of Colonial and Bluford, where Thrift Mart (and before that, Scotty’s) is located. Others say it likely was further south on Bluford Avenue closer to Old Winter Garden Road.

Minorville was never incorporated and had, at most, eight families living there — but it was considered a community to the few people who lived there. The train depot was demolished in the late 1930s. Maguire wrote that when the station was torn down, the sign remained, and it eventually made its way to the northeast corner of the intersection.

The sign was maintained for years by Washie Hudson in memory of her father, Jack Minor. She reportedly removed the original sign periodically to repaint it. She later had a new metal sign painted and erected.

At some point the sign disappeared.

Malba Hudson, Jack Minor’s grandson, was said to have placed a Minorville sign, as well, on the Minor estate on Lake Pritchard (now Lake Bennet). Hudson lived across from the station where his parents and grandparents had houses, which are now long gone.

THE MINORS

Multiple generations of Minors played a prominent role in Ocoee’s history. Americus Miles Minor and his wife, Sarah Edney Maguire, moved to Ocoee in 1885 after the birth of their sixth child and built a two-story home at the corner of Bluford Avenue and Delaware Street. Americus was a farmer and ran a store with his brother, Tyranus Judson “T.J.” Minor, in Ocoee.

Thomas Linton Minor, the second son of Americus and Sarah, was a flagman for the railroad at the Minorville depot. He and his wife, Susan “Sudie” Hennes Minor, had five children: David “Elmer,” Lloyd B., Mary “Edna,” Miles “Tell,” and John Thomas “Tiger.” Tiger played with the St. Louis Cardinals’ farm team, was a charter member of the Ocoee Lions Club and a district governor, and was an Ocoee mayor and commissioner. Tiger Minor Park, on East Geneva Street near Minorville, is named for him.

The Minor and Hawthorne families were merged when Eliza Griffin “Lide” Hawthorne married William J. “Jack” Minor, and Mary “Lucy” Farmer (whose mother was Daisy Minor) married Thomas “Claude” Hawthorne.

THE HAWTHORNES

James Patterson Hawthorne bought land along Maine Street east of Bluford Avenue, and he and his wife, Emma Maguire Hawthorne, lived in a home there by 1889. He planted citrus groves on the land along Maine, once a historic brick road that was the original route to Orlando.

According to James Hawthorne’s great-great-grandson, Winter Garden resident Will Hawthorne, the family amassed close to 40 acres of land in the Minorville area.

In the 1940s, the Hawthorne family donated about 10 acres to the city of Ocoee for a cemetery. The remaining land was in the Hawthorne family for more than 75 years.

The firstborn child of James and Emma was Thomas “Claude” Hawthorne, in 1891. He was an original member of the Ocoee Citrus Growers Association. Thomas Claude and Lucy’s home was at Maine Street and Chicago Avenue. The original house built in 1919 was destroyed in a fire and replaced around 1924.

Thomas Claude’s son was William “Billy” Hawthorne, and Billy’s son was Milton “Claude” Hawthorne, all of whom have lived on the family property. Another home was built in 1983 for Milton Claude and his wife, Jan, and their family. The last Hawthorne to live there was Milton Claude, the great-grandson of James and Emma, who remained there until his death in 2016. His son, Will Hawthorne, also was a resident of Minorville.

THE PROPERTY

Multiple branches of the two families have lived as neighbors in the area. Many purchased land next to their parents or siblings, so the properties belonged to Minor and Hawthorne descendants for generations.

The farm soil was rich and produced both fruit and vegetables. Thomas Claude and Lucy — and subsequent generations — operated Tomahawk Nurseries and Pepper Hill Farms for decades on the property.

Developers now own the Hawthorne property and are planning City Center West Orange, a 14-acre project that calls for retail, restaurants, office and medical office space, a hotel and convention center. Already built are a gas station and restaurant at the northeast corner of Bluford and Colonial and apartments to the north.

City Center West Orange will be located between Bluford and Lake Bennet, right where generations of Minors and Hawthornes called home.