Recollections of William I. Huffstetler

              RECOLLECTIONS OF WILLIAM I. HUFFSTETLER

obtained in an interview by Dr. F. L. Lewton

A day pupil at Rollins. From about 1889, Orlando via the Dinky Line to the College Station.

He left Orlando in 1925 and did not come back for 35 years. He made a million dollars but lost it in 1923 when the real estate boom broke.

The family lived in a large home on Pine Street next to their present home in the 3rd story of an office building. The old home was taken down as sold as a parking lot.

He suffered a paralytic stroke - sits in a wheel chair. He is entirely dependent on his sister, Mrs. Daisy Muir. She has always kept a store, and now deals in antiques, mostly their own relics. She has a hobby of decorating many objects with cheap costume jewellery.

Pranks of Huffstetler and his gang of four boys who rode to Rollins from Orlando every day on ponies: (Dick Marks was one.)

The boys would tease the old negro, Billings, who took care of the campus before Wm. Ingraham, by throwing waste paper around to make more work.
They cut the sharp points off the yuccas to prevent piercing old-fashioned football.

He remembers the pitcher, Walter? Donovan, with his cork leg.

Arthur Benjamin from Tampa, an adopted son, was given 168 acres left by the father. Benjamin could not sell this land for five dollars per acre, and had to leave Rollins.

Carrie Price lived at Formosa, the last stop on the Dinky Line before reaching the College. The train always stopped for her. Her mother kept chickens and the boys on the train would throw out fishing lines with a grain of corn threaded at the end. The hens swallowed it, and the boys dragged them in to be roasted and eaten at night at Dubsdread.

As a child, Huffstetler saw Grover Cleveland, and promised to vote for Cleveland when he grew up. He did cast his first vote for Cleveland. At the circus in Orlando, he saw Tom Thumb and his wife.

The Clyde Line steamer that was wrecked when Dr. Hooker was nearly drowned was sold for salvage. The furniture was badly water-soaked. It was sold by Boone in Orlando for thirty-five dollars for a full set of beds, sofas, chairs, etc.