148 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
He retired from active service in 1896 
spending summers in New England and 
winters in Florida. Was prominent in 
Masonic circles being a K. T. in the order. 
Was a staunch Republican and director 
and vice-president of the Aspinook Com¬ 
pany of Jewett City, Conn. 
MAHLON GORE 
On June 26th, 1916, there passed away 
at Orlando one of our members whose loss 
will ever be deeply felt. I refer to the 
late Mahlon Gore. 
Born in Michigan in 1837, he was in¬ 
ured from birth to the joys and hardships 
of pioneering. It is stated that he was the 
first American citizen to homestead under 
the Andrew Johnson law. He moved 
from Michigan to Yankton, Dakota, and 
in the year 1864, having lost his entire 
crop through the grashopper devastation 
was anxious for something else than 
farming as an outlet for his energies. At 
that time he learned that the Sioux 
City Journal was for sale and went to 
Iowa where he concluded arrangements 
for the editorial management of the paper. 
In a year or so he bought it and became a 
prominent figure in the ranks of the Re¬ 
publican editors of the Middle West. 
In May, 1869, he sold the paper to the 
late Geo. D. Perkins. Subsequently, from 
1880 to 1884 he lived in Colorado, coming 
to Florida in the latter year. 
Florida at that time had not even prom¬ 
ised to become a state of world-wide 
prominence in any of its present devel¬ 
opments. It was practically a wilder- 
nes when Mr. Gore arrived here. 
But the pioneer spirit was in his blood 
and he ached with the spirit of hoped-for 
achievement. For thirty-five years he 
labored with his tongue, with his pen, 
with the utmost of his magnetic person¬ 
ality to make known to the rest of the 
world the glories of the land he had cho¬ 
sen as his permanent home. 
Those who knew him have, to a man, 
stated that he had a way of reaching 
any man’s heart at once. The hearty 
hand clasp, the genial smile, the logical 
enthusiasm with which he presented any 
proposition, won him friends and ad¬ 
mirers on every side. For several years 
he edited a paper at what is now Orlando, 
but turned it over to other capable hands, 
realizing that the real estate business was 
a better field for him and that he could 
do more real good to those who desired 
to make Florida their home, in that call¬ 
ing. 
The beauty and the development of that 
section of the country will ever be a mon¬ 
ument to his memory. He mastered all 
the things that a Floridian should know. 
He studied nature both in the raw and 
from the text book and laboratory, and 
could advise any of his friends and 
neighbors as to just what to do and when 
to do it in any of the problems that wor¬ 
ried them as citrus growers or truckers. 
And like all big men he was glad to see 
others succeed when their success meant 
increased prosperity for Florida. In the 
words of his widow which I take the lib¬ 
erty of quoting: “Mr. Gore loved Flor¬ 
ida and everything that was done for 
its benefit. I was rather happy that he 
did not live to see the disaster which the 
freeze of February 2nd brought to the 
State.” 
