THE WETUMPKA FRUIT COMPANY

SIDE ONE: The Wetumpka Fruit Company, founded and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, became one of the largest agricultural businesses to plant citrus groves in St. Johns County. In 1881, George Waterman Leonard and his wife, Emma Jeanette Billings Leonard, left Plymouth County, Massachusetts, and moved to Lowell, a settlement in Marion County, Florida. Raised in the farming business tradition, Leonard developed some of the first holdings of the Wetumpka Fruit Company and served as manager of its Florida operations. In the aftermath of devastating freezes in December 1894 and February 1895, the Leonard family moved to Hastings. Soon after, Leonard purchased stock in the Wetumpka Fruit Company and urged its directors to open new fields and groves in the area. Under his leadership, the company built a 1,300-acre farm where he served as manager. Leonard directed the acquisition of property, planted forty acres in citrus, and cleared and planted several hundred acres in vegetables. In 1895, George W. Leonard completed his two-and-one-half-story wood-frame family home at 8650 Hastings Boulevard. George W. Leonard died in 1905, followed by his wife, Emma Jeanette, five years later. SIDE TWO: In the early 1900s, the Leonard family’s oldest son, George V. Leonard, took over management and operation of the farm. By 1913, he increased the cultivation to 260 acres planted in grapefruit, oranges, and tangerines. Eventually, George V. Leonard became President, General Manager, and a major shareholder in the company. Although the Wetumpka Fruit Company sold some of its Hastings real estate to farmers and settlers, they planted much of what remained in citrus and vegetables, primarily potatoes. The company marketed its products under the nationally distributed "Prairie Garden" and "Prairie Flower" brands. Beyond the efforts of the Wetumpka Fruit Company and other citrus growers, potatoes became the crop of choice for many local farmers, partly due to the 1890s freezes and partly because of increased demand for early potatoes throughout the nation. By 1950, the Wetumpka Fruit Company farm shipped more than 350 rail carloads of produce annually – over 200 carloads of oranges and 150 carloads of potatoes. All of Wetumpka’s citrus trees were destroyed in January 1983 by a severe freeze, which eliminated all commercial citrus production north of Orlando.