Who is Skip Morgan Anyway?

     There seems to be quite a few people in Lake Helen who enjoy chatting about history and genealogy so sometimes I find myself in some very interesting conversations.

     One of these conversations was with Skip Morgan who has been living in the Lake Helen area for 22 years. For those of you who are new to Lake Helen, Skip Morgan and his wife Joanie are the proprietors of the Gas-N-Shop (commonly called “Skip and Joanie’s”) at the corner of New York and Summit.

     Well, one day the three of us got into a discussion about my visit to the Prevatt Settlement Cemetery. It was during this discussion that Skip told me that he was the great, great, great grandson of one of the founding fathers of Lake Helen by the name of Redding Long.

     You’ll see Redding Long mentioned in Dorothy Schneider’s book “Lake Helen, The Gem of Florida.” If you look at the map in the book you’ll see his name which is misspelled as “Redden” and notice that his son John lived next door.

     For those of you who don’t know about Redding Long, a short history was given to me by Bill Morgan who submitted the paper work to the Florida State Genealogical Society that resulted in Redding being registered as a Florida Pioneer.

     Redding Long who became a farmer was born in1813 in South Carolina and was married in 1836 to Fanny Susanna Overstreet. She was born in 1816 in South Carolina, also. Both Redding and Fanny died in Lake Helen and it is suspected that they were buried in the old Prevatt Settlement Cemetery. One of the clues to this is that Mary’s (their daughter-in-law) headstone is still in that location.

     The family believes that the couple moved to Florida in1840.

     Redding is listed in the Florida Indian War Muster Rolls dated November 29, 1840. He served in the Florida Militia under Captain A. A. Stewarts in the 2nd Regiment between 1840 and 1841.

     Since Fanny paid the land tax in March 1902 but not listed in the 1902 year-end tax, it is assumed that she had died that year.

     Redding and Fanny were members of the Providence Baptist Church. On January 8, 1859 Redding asked for and received a dismissal from the Providence Baptist Church so that he and his wife could move to Enterprise in Volusia County.

     Redding and Fanny Long had a total of fourteen children that were noted in Redding’s probate records. Three were born in South Carolina and the remaining eleven were born in Columbia County, Florida. They were named: Sarah, Jane C., Mary, Eliza, William Redding, Amanda Melvina, Martha A., Elbert M., John M., Fanny Susanna, Henry Paul Colsen, Esther Ann and one name that is unknown at this time. Nine of these children can be found in the 1860 Volusia County Census. Click here.

     Their daughter Fanny Susanna Long was born in 1853 in Columbia County, Florida and in 1869 she married a farmer named Jordan Middleton Driggers in DeLand. Jordan was born 1841 in Darian, Georgia, died in1914 in Umatilla, Florida and is buried in the Dreggors Cemetery in Lake Tracy, Florida near Paisley. Fanny Susanna is buried in the Deep Creek Cemetery near Lake Ashby which is noted on her death certificate.

     Jordan Middleton Driggers was a Private in Company “K” which was the 5th Company Regiment of Georgia and in 1862 he was serving under Captain O.C. Hopkins. Jordan and Fanny had eight children named: Maley F., Eugenia S., Sarah, Melinda R., Eliza Lenora, Osceola, Margaretta, and Daniel Webster. (It is at this point the spelling of Driggers changed to Dreggors.)

     Their daughter Eugenia S. Dreggors who was born 1870 in Lake Tracey, Florida, died in 1958 in Port Orange and is buried Ceder Mills Memorial Gardens in Daytona Beach. She married Van Buren Morgan, who was a farmer, in1884 in Orange County, Florida. He was born in 1865 in Alachua County, Florida.

     Eugenia Dreggors and Van Buren had a son named Robert Manning Morgan, Sr. who was born in 1898 in Crows Bluff, Florida. He became a railroad conductor instead of a farmer like his father. Robert married a woman by the name of Mae Elizabeth Mann who was born in 1901 Chattanooga, Tennessee. Robert and Mae were married in 1918 in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

     They had a son by the name of Van Neil Morgan, Sr. who was born in 1925 in New Smyrna Beach. Van Neil, Sr. stayed in the same field as his father and became a railroad engineer. He married a lady named Louise Marie DeFrancisco from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1943 in Elkton, Maryland. Louise worked at the Naval Air Supply Depot.

     Van and Louise had a son who was named after his father – Van Neil Morgan, Jr. Van, Jr. married Tawny Fernandez in New Smyrna beach and had two children before they were divorced.

     Then in 1986 Van Neil Morgan, Jr. – alias “Skip” Morgan married Joan Marie Bottiglieri – alias “Joanie.” Skip and Joanie were married in Lake Helen and operate the well-known Gas-N-Shop!

     If you are interested in learning more about the Florida Pioneers, you’ll be able to find additional information at: rootsweb.ancestry.com/~flsgs/pioneer_program.htm