Editing Sanford, Florida (section)

===Early years as Sanford===
In 1870, "General" [[Henry Shelton Sanford]] bought {{convert|12548|acre|km2}} to the west of Mellonville and laid out the community of Sanford.  Believing it would become a transportation hub, he called it "The Gateway City to South Florida." Sanford imported two colonies of [[Swedish people|Swedes]] (totaling about 150 adults) as [[indentured servants]] <!-- indentured servitude had been abolished in 1865, in a minor and obscure incident in American history! **Really? So the 1864 "Act to Encourage Immigration" was repealed in 1865?  Then why was there an act to repeal it in 1868?  And why was there an act to end indentured servitude, the Alien Contract Labor Law (or, Foran Act) passed in 1885?  Because indentured servitude thrived in the postbellum period.  --> to labor a year for their travel
expenses.<ref>[https://www.seminole.wateratlas.usf.edu/upload/documents/317_earlydays.pdf Early days] seminole.wateratlas.usf.edu {{dead link|date=September 2023}}</ref> The Swedes would do the back-breaking work of establishing a new town and clearing the sub-tropical wilderness in advance of creating a citrus empire, arriving by [[steamboat]] in 1871.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VVcoAQAAIAAJ&q=%27A+Decidedly+Mutinous+Spirit%27:+The+%27Labor+Problem%27+in+the+Postbellum+South+as+an+Exercise+of+Free+Labor%22+in+%27%27Florida%27s+Working-Class+Past%27%27
 |access-date=2012-03-22
 |first=Mark Howard |last=Long
 |chapter=A Decidedly Mutinous Spirit: The Labor Problem in the Postbellum South as an Exercise of Free Labor
 |title=Florida's working-class past: current perspectives on labor, race, and gender from Spanish Florida to the new immigration
 |editor1-first=Robert  |editor1-last=Cassanello
 |editor2-first=Melanie |editor2-last=Shell-Weiss
 |year=2008 |pages=86 & seq
 |publisher=[[University Press of Florida]]
 |isbn=978-0813032832
 |location=[[Gainesville, Florida|Gainesville]]
 |others=foreword by Richard Greenwald and Timothy Minchin
 |lccn=2008025022}}</ref>

Incorporated in 1877 with a population of 100, Sanford absorbed Mellonville in 1883. In April of that year, President [[Chester A. Arthur]] arrived by steamer to vacation for a week at the Sanford House, a lakeside hotel built in 1875 and expanded in 1882.

Meanwhile, Sanford was becoming a hub of rail transportation. The [[South Florida Railroad]] opened a [[Narrow-gauge railway|narrow-gauge]] route from Sanford to Orlando in 1880, and eventually built a connection to the [[Port of Tampa]] by the end of 1883.<ref name="TBT">{{cite web |title=First Railroads in Tampa |url=http://tampabaytrains.com/firstRailroadsInTampa.htm |website=Tampa Bay Trains |access-date=2 October 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210615141631/http://tampabaytrains.com/firstRailroadsInTampa.htm |archive-date=June 15, 2021 |url-status=dead}}</ref> The [[Standard-gauge railway|standard-gauge]] [[Jacksonville, Tampa and Key West Railroad]] opened a route from Sanford to [[Jacksonville, Florida|Jacksonville]] in 1886, completing a rail link across the peninsula.<ref name=Pettengill>{{Cite book|last=Pettengill|first=George W. Jr.|title=The Story of the Florida Railroads 1834–1903|publisher=The Southeast Chapter of The Railway & Locomotive Historical Society, Inc.|year=1998|series=Bulletin of the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society, Inc.|volume=86|location=Jacksonville, Florida|edition=Reprint|pages=80–82|orig-date=1952}}</ref> The [[Orange Belt Railway]], another narrow-gauge line, was established in 1885 and reached [[St. Petersburg, Florida|St. Petersburg]] in 1888.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Hensley |first1=Don |title=History of the Orange Line |url=http://trn.trains.com/en/Railroad%20Reference/Ask%20Trains/2011/04/History%20of%20the%20Orange%20Line.aspx |website=Trains.com |publisher=Kalmbach Publishing Co. |access-date=2 October 2024 |ref=HOLtrains |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140715114732/http://trn.trains.com/en/Railroad%20Reference/Ask%20Trains/2011/04/History%20of%20the%20Orange%20Line.aspx |archive-date=July 15, 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref> (All three of these railroads would become part of the [[Plant System]] in the 1890s, and the narrow-gauge lines were standardized.) Easy access to transportation soon made the area the largest shipper of oranges in the world.

In 1887, the city suffered a devastating fire, followed the next year by a statewide epidemic of [[yellow fever]].  When the [[Great Freeze]] of 1894 and 1895 ruined the citrus industry, farmers diversified by growing vegetables as well. [[Celery]] was first planted in 1896, and because of this Sanford is nicknamed the "Celery City."

On December 1, 1891, merchant William Clark and registered African American voters of [[Goldsboro, Florida|Goldsboro]] incorporated as a town just to the southwest of Sanford.<ref name=Bentley>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JAvgrZ8XMA0C | title=Seminole County | publisher=Arcadia Publishing | author=Bentley, Altermese Smith | year=2000 | page=57 | isbn=978-0738506340}}</ref><ref name=Brown>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_1iRfGqI2LAC&q=Goldsboro | title=Florida's Black Public Officials, 1867-1924 | publisher=University Alabama Press | author=Brown, Canter | year=1998 | pages=40, 74, 80, 94, 100, 126, 140, 171, 176–177 | isbn=0817309152}}</ref>

In 1878, Mrs. Henry Sanford created the first library for public use in Sanford. A room was provided with a few books and a paid librarian. The initial library failed. In 1889, Mrs. Thrasher and Mrs. A.M. Deforest attempted to revive the library project with the aid of the Wednesday Club, the president, Mrs. Brown encouraged the women to begin fundraising efforts. The effort's fundraising progress was slow and sporadic. A Subscription library was established in a storefront on First Street. Mrs. Duver was the librarian at this location. The library later moved to Magnolia Avenue next to the theatre at this location the library was run by volunteers.<ref>Sanford Herald, DeForrest, A.M..(January 21, 1924, republished March 31, 2002)"'Sanford people did not want to read:' An early history of the city's library". p. 12A</ref> The library grew at this location, until it moved in 1914 to the Women's Club on Oak Avenue.<ref>Sanford Herald. "Library is Moving".v.VI #37 p. 1. December 29, 1914</ref> An official Public Library was built and opened in 1924 on 5th Street. This library was supported by the City of Sanford.