04/27/2023
Happy 145th Birthday, Umatilla! On April 26, 1878, Nathan Trowell rode on horseback to the U.S. Land Grant office in Gainseville to register the settlement's name as Umatilla, still a part of Orange County, until Lake County was formed in 1887.
Pictured below is Nathan Johnston Trowell c. early 1890s. Trowell was the early merchant, grower and owner of the land on which Umatilla is built. Trowell and his first wife, Rebecca, homesteaded on the shore of what we know as Lake Umatilla and built a log home. Tragically Rebecca died in 1861, leaving Nathan with four young boys, one an infant. Later Nathan married Sevenah Hart and together they had nine more children and raised all 13 children to adulthood! Trowell built a grist mill and cotton gin behind the present day City Hall and a General Store where Collins Tires stands today. Trowell is seen standing in one of his orange groves. Because Florida was a free roaming state for cattle, orange trees in the early days were trimmed high to keep the cows from eating the foliage and fruit.
Blessedly, Trowell passed away a few months before the devastating 1895 freeze that killed all the orange groves in Umatilla and beyond. It is hard to imagine the suffering of the pioneers, who carved out a living in a wild and undeveloped Florida, see their life's work destroyed in one night.
