Lake Jesup

Lake Jesup. . , The Oviedo area was first referred to as the Lake Jesup Settlement. Lake Jesup's first store was built on the southern shore in 1870 by John F. Mitchell. Antonio Solary, a Jacksonville merchant, built another store with a larger wharf west of Mitchell's about two years later. , During this time Solary's Wharf was the site of the Lake Jesup post office, and mail and passengers came weekly from Sanford on the Steamboat Volusia. , Solary's Wharf served the Central Florida area until the railroad was built from Sanford in 1886, at which time the Oviedo post office, established in 1879, became the only post office for the community. , The Lake Jesup Steamboat company was incorporated in 1882 by lake area fruit growers by acquiring the steamboat Isis. This shallow-draft flat-bottomed boat sank that same year north of here in Lake George, a part of the St. Johns River. , George H. Browne, the storekeeper at Solary's Wharf, was speaker of the Florida House of Representatives in 1887. , In 1888, Oviedo orange growers formed the Oviedo , Lake Charm and Lake Jessup Railroad, with the proposed rails to end at Solary's Wharf. This line never operated, but it did serve as a ploy in forcing the South Florida Railroad to lower unfair rates for hauling fruit.