Editing Ocoee, Florida (section)

===Founding and early history===
In the mid-1850s, Dr. J.D. Starke, stricken with [[malaria]], took a group of slaves, similarly stricken, to the north side of an open pine wooded lake that provided clear and clean water to avoid further malaria outbreaks. The camp built by the group provided a base of operations from which to commute during the day to work the fields near [[Lake Apopka]] and rest at night. 

As the camp grew into a village, it took the name Starke Lake, a name the lake upon which the group settled bears to this day. The city's population increased further after the [[American Civil War]] as Confederate soldiers and their families settled into the area, including Captain [[Bluford Sims]] and General [[William Temple Withers]] who wintered at the location.<ref name=OcoSet>{{cite news|last=Maguire|first=Nancy|date=September 17, 1998|title=Ocoee House Is Gateway To Past|url=https://www.orlandosentinel.com/1998/09/17/ocoee-house-is-gateway-to-past/|newspaper=Orlando Sentinel|location=Orlando|publisher=Tribune|access-date=March 24, 2014|archive-date=March 24, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140324223704/http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1998-09-17/features/9809120576_1_nancy-maguire-ocoee-toured-the-house|url-status=live}}</ref> Captain Sims received a land grant for a 74-acre parcel to the west of Starke Lake in what is now the downtown portion of Ocoee on October 5, 1883.<ref name="Historic Orange County">{{cite book|last=Fyotek|first=Cassandra|date=2009|title=Historic Orange County:The Story of Orlando and Orange County|publisher=Historical Publishing Network|pages=144|isbn=978-1893619999}}</ref> In 1886, Captain Sims, along with a group of original settlers, led an effort to have the town [[plat]]ted and changed the name to Ocoee, after a river he grew up near in Tennessee.<ref name="Historic Orange County"/> ''Ocoee'' is a [[Cherokee language|Cherokee]] Indian word anglicized from ''uwagahi'', meaning "[[Passiflora incarnata|apricot vine]] place"<ref name="FLOC">[http://www.floridaleagueofcities.com/Directory.aspx?iID=363 "City of Ocoee"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130626205324/http://www.floridaleagueofcities.com/Directory.aspx?iID=363 |date=2013-06-26 }} at Florida League of Cities municipal directory. Retrieved 15 September 2016.</ref> and this inspired the choice of the city's flower.<ref name="COO">[http://www.ocoee.org/728/City-History "City History"] at City of Ocoee official website. Retrieved September 15, 2016.</ref>

Bluford Sims began groundbreaking work in budding wild orange trees while in Ocoee.  His commercial citrus nursery was the first in the United States in Ocoee, supplying many other groves in Florida with their first trees as well as shipping young citrus trees to California.<ref name="FLOC"/>  The construction of the [[Florida Midland Railway (defunct)|Florida Midland Railroad]] in the 1880s spurred growth in the area and many more settlers moved in.<ref name="COO"/>