During the second Seminole war there was an area called Fort Reid which in 1840 Colonel William Harney named it this. It as to honor Robert Raymond Reid who was the fourth territorial Governor of Florida. Between the times of 1840 and 1841 was the headquarters of Colonel Twiggs of the second Dragoons, including the commands of the St. Johns District, Army of the South, and the District of South South Of New Smyrna under Col. Harney himself.

In the year of 1840 Fort Reid reached a force of 417 troops and temporarily replaced Fort Mellon a mile and half of here supposedly due to health reasons. If you recall we even investigated Fort Mellon which is a river front park at the Port of Sanford. However Fort Reid sits south of this site a little bit. 

In 1875 developers created a housing subdivision in this area changing the name slightly to Fort Reed.  Also nearby in 1886 a railroad station was called Fort Reed which took travelers in the area from Sanford to Oviedo.

When the war was over the fort closed down and others started to move in on the land surrounding it. One of those people who did just that  was Algernon S. Speer who arrived from Georgia with his family and slaves in 1844. By 1845 he planted orange grove trees on this parks very spot. He also had desecrated an Indian mound a few miles away which we investigated later on nearby.

He was also known to have named the first St. Johns River steamer called the "Hancock" which ran between Fort Mellon to Palatka. Eventually he purchased a second steamer and was joined by Capt. Brock's "Darlington" coming from Jacksonville. In 1941 the DAR placed a marker within the park to honor Speer. 

So as  you can see this little park has quite a history. The trees here are very old and just walking around you can feel its rich history. The park is no bigger then a few acres with a few grills, benches, playground and plaques. Its hard to believe that it was however the site of  a fort and a plantation at one point in time.

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Rick-AngelOfThyNight