Editor’s note:  The following comes mainly from The First Hundred Years of Avon Park, Florida, by Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell Guyton.
 

     Oliver Crosby, founder of Avon Park, describes the famous “big Freeze” of 1894 and 1895:  “Christmas Day the air was balmy as June. … on the morning of Dec. 27 … it was growing cold fast.  A gale blowing from the northwest, temperature going down.  A bitter cold night for Florida followed.
 

     “Water was frozen in the bedroom pitchers; and the nest morning the mercury was 17 degrees below freezing.  Deep Lake Verona steamed like a teakettle.  The steam drifted south which resulted that the Beston’s oranges were not harmed; other trees lost their leaves.  The young citrus trees were all killed; also the 500,000 pineapple plants.  It was a dreadful blow, but the larger trees showed life the following month when the mild, beautiful weather continued, so we felt all was not lost.
 

     “Six weeks later, Feb. 14 1896, to be exact, came another blast, even worse than the first because the trees were full of sap.  The sun rose the next morning bright on the frozen trees and the bark split on the east side of the trees from top to root, often with a big bang.  The 600 acres of groves were killed to the ground.
 

     “Plantations of pineapples, grape vineyards and gardens were all lost.  Settlers drew money from the bank and left; houses were deserted, many destroyed by wild woods’ fires.”
 

     The population of Avon Park dropped from an estimated 500 in 1895 to 241 by 1896.  It’s reported Crosby left Avon Park for New York “with only $10 in his pocket, a broken man, physically an spiritually.”
 

     Avon Park almost turned into a ghost town.  A general desolation prevailed the following years.  On March 2, 1899. The Common Council of the town voted to surrender the town charter.  But in spite of the disaster, a few brave people remained to begin the upward struggle.