This week I continued research on the fires of early Orlando and the destroyed wooden grave markers of early Greenwood cemetery using ancestry.com, newspapers, and in-person interviews.
In the early 1880s, when Orlando was still a small frontier town, a devastating fire swept through, bringing new changes to the growing city and its fire department. On January 12, 1884, when the city was only the size of one square mile, a fire destroyed four buildings, which was a devastating loss at the time. The “Great Fire” as it was known, destroyed the Orange County Reporter newspaper plant along with DeLaneys Grocery Store, Bassett Millinery Store, and Drs. RJ Gillam, Ketcham & Gillam Drug Store. This disaster prompted changes to Orlando’s building codes, as from this point onward there were no wooden first floors in new construction. Before the Great Fire, Orlando’s volunteer fire department consisted of six members, a hose, a bucket brigade, and a painter’s ladder on a wagon hauled around by hand. It would not be until 1885 that Orlando’s volunteer department was officially established, with John Weeks appointed the first official fire chief. Orlando’s fire department has a fascinating history, and if you want to learn more, visit the Orlando Fire Department Museum.
The Greenwood Cemetery fire of 1891 was a catastrophe that decimated the cemetery and led to its purchase by Orlando. The Orlando Fire Department believes that the fire started from something nearby spreading into the cemetery. Nearly all grave markers before the fire were made of cypress wood as headstones were too expensive before the railroads and mass-market catalog companies made them affordable for Orlandoans. The 1891 fire decimated the cemetery, destroying all but two of the original cypress wood markers. This fire also prompted the city of Orlando to purchase the Orlando Cemetery Company in 1892, in addition to the city reburying as many graves as possible spread throughout the city in Greenwood Cemetery.
Not much is known of the woman of the first surviving wooden marker, Harriet A. Adams. Harriet was born on August 14, 1846, in Sullivan, Maine. There is unfortunately no information on her childhood or her maiden name. She married Benjamin Adams on March 28, 1864, in Beverly, Massachusetts where he worked as a farm laborer and Harriet kept house. They had no children. Sometime between 1870 and 1900 the Adams family moved to Coconut Grove in Dade, Florida. Harriet Adams died on September 3, 1909, where she is currently buried in section H in Greenwood Cemetery.
The subject of the second surviving wooden grave marker is Elizabeth Renfro Bazemore. Elizabeth was born on March 14, 1823, in Georgia. She married Madison Turner Bazemore (sometimes referred to as Turner Madison), a farmer, on December 28, 1843, in Jones, Georgia. Over the next twenty years, they had nine children, four boys and five girls. As late as 1870 the Bazemore family resided in Jones, Georgia, with no date available for when they moved to Orlando, Florida. Elizabeth passed away on November 25, 1890, and she is currently buried alongside her original cypress wood marker alongside a metal marker in section H of Greenwood Cemetery.
It is truly devastating to consider how much history was lost by the Greenwood Cemetery fire, as much of Section H, where the wooden grave markers were most prevalent, remains empty as little can be ascertained to who is buried there.
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