Nehrling Gardens

The Henry Nehrling Society

Early Years

An 1885 pamphlet entitled "Traveller's Criticism on our Health Resorts, their Scenery, Climatic Peculiarities and Curative Influence" published in Boston listed places in Florida "for the invalid to go in search of health."

After weighing the relative merits of Jacksonville, St. Augustine, and resorts along the St. Johns River, the pamphlet ultimately concludes its description of the Southeast with a prediction: "In our judgment, the time is not far distant when all persons who visit Florida in search of health will pass all the health resorts which we have mentioned, and locate somewhere on the broad plateau of rolling pine lands, between Sanford on the the St. John's and Tampa on the Gulf. No swamps, but a dry soil, clear atmosphere, good water, every day a trade wind from the Gulf to the Atlantic, and no malaria."

The Florida Land Company also praised Florida in its advertisement from the same period as the "Land of Oranges, Tropical Scenery and Health." In addition to the good climate the ad paints life in Florida not only as healthy but also as affordable with a quote from the Atlanta Constitution: "Indeed, it is hard to conceive of a pleasanter lot than falls to the man who, on twenty snug acres, has a grove of 1,000 good trees, in a glorious climate, and an income of $7,500 per anum."

tropi
illustration from Florida Land Company
hempel
Henry A. Hempel




Henry A. Hempel

Such visions must have danced in his head in 1878 when Henry A. Hempel, originally from the eastern German city of Gotha, moved from Buffalo, NY, to central Florida insearch of just those things, good climate and soil. He was born in 1836, the son of a poor weaver. He was apprenticed to a printer in Gotha and was released as a journeyman in 1861. In 1866 he came to the United States and established himself in the printing trade in Buffalo. After inventing an adjustable printer's quoin, he sought to establish himself in a warmer climate to safeguard his health. He was so impressed with the area west of Orlando that he purchased an extensive acreage. He planted citrus trees and started a saw mill. This mill supplied lumber for houses in Maitland, Winter Park and Altamonte Springs, towns that were experiencing a building boom during this period. On April 30, 1885, Hempel named the town that sprang up around the orchards and the saw mill after his Thuringian birthplace, Gotha.

To win more settlers for his new town, Mr. Hempel advertised in northern newspapers, seemingly favoring those places such as Milwaukee, Chicago, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, and Buffalo where people of German descent had immigrated. As a result of these efforts many of the early settlers had been born in Germany or were of German descent. Ludwig F. Hartmann (1855-1940), whose grave can still be found in the Zion Lutheran Church Cemetery on Morton Jones Rd., was a former Prussian officer in an elite military regiment. H.A. Regener was born in Bremen and came to Philadelphia in 1880. After four years as a shoemaker in that city he came to Gotha in 1884 and planted a citrus grove and participated in the activities of the community. Mr. H.P. Belknap of Cincinnati came to Florida around 1880 and taught school near Orlando until moving to Gotha in 1885. These men and others of German extraction organized a Turnverein with thirty members in 1886. Accounts remain of the pleasurable moments locals enjoyed drinking beer, playing cards, and listening to concerts organized by this gymnasts club. The members erected a Turners owned both the school house [built in 1885] and the Turner Hall [built in 1886] and sought to build a home for disabled members of the German Gymnastic Organization in Gotha. In 1887 a Lutheran church was constructed. As new settlers arrived, Mr. Hempel expanded his activities to include a grocery store.