This week in West Orange County history

OLD TIMES

85 years ago

Over the teacups: “A bridge party was given in Orlando by the Druggists’ Wives Auxiliary. Billie Davis was in charge of selling tickets in Winter Garden. … It’s smart to be comfortable, and that’s why the culotte has taken the fashion world by storm. Margaret Story had on the first one we have seen in Winter Garden, and we hear that Evelyn Tilden has one, too. … Am very sorry but I can’t give you the name of the new addition to the H. Durant Howard household, but as to date, the parents haven’t been able to think of an appropriate name — anyway, it’s a little girl.”

77 years ago

Chief of Police Johns requests that all dog owners watch for dates to be published in this paper of an animal inoculation of dogs in July, when a veterinarian will be in Winter Garden to do the work.

67 years ago

Georgianna and Jimmy Hendrix are in the mental state of ecstasy over the beginning of their long hope for a home in Showalter Park.

40 years ago

Amy Walls and Maggie Cuddy were mascots of the Ocoee Junior High cheerleading squad.

Big winners from Dillard Street Elementary in the county’s Math Fair held at the Winter Park Mall were Johnathon Rees, Andy Jackson, Randy Chancey, Michael Griffith, Andy Crabtree, Jeni Quesinberry, Robin Dunaway, Mark Beltram, Stephanie Tinch, Kim Johnson, Camilla Garza and Edgar Noble.

Among the costumed revelers at the Medieval Fair banquet at Ocoee Elementary were Doug Anderson as Robin Hood, Joey Lester as a monk, John Heath Alexander as a pope and Matt Swickerath as Richard the Lion-Hearted.

THROWBACK THURSDAY

June 2, 1944

Patriotism was at an all-time high during World War II, and The West Orange News offered its residents a three- by five-foot American flag “made of fine, durable cotton bunting, with individually sewed stripes.”

For only $1.19, Old Glory was sent postpaid directly to readers’ homes so they could show their neighbors they were “true blue ‘and proud of it.’”

FROM THE WINTER GARDEN HERITAGE FOUNDATION ARCHIVES

Before there was Winter Garden, there was Beulah — and before there was Beulah, the rural neighborhood two miles southeast of Winter Garden was known as “the Reaves settlement.”

The bucolic Beulah Cemetery serves as the final resting place for members of the Reaves family, who settled in the region in 1867. The cemetery is located on land donated by the family.

Pictured at their 50th wedding anniversary in June 1934 are James Alexander Reaves (1861-1939) and Jimmie Donie Letson Reaves (1864-1951).

Family members are invited to share history of Beulah with the Winter Garden Heritage Foundation. Call (407) 656-3244.