Henry Addison DeLand
(1834-1908)

Died aged c. 74

Henry Addison DeLand was born in 1834 and visited the area that is now DeLand in 1876. He became interested in establishing a community that could become the "Athens of Florida"-‑ an educational, spiritual and cultural center and began to acquire real estate. He encouraged friends and family to the area to enter the citrus business. He gave land for streets running north and south and for a school and a church. In 1883 he established the DeLand Academy which in 1889 became Stetson University. He also founded the city of Lake Helen, naming it for his daughter. Henry DeLand died in 1908.

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Henry Addison Deland (October 25, 1834 — March 13, 1908) was a baking soda manufacturer from Fairport, New York who first visited Persimmon Hollow, Florida March 1876. The community where his brother-in-law, O.P. Terry had purchased property to raise oranges intrigued him. So did the name chosen thus for the persimmon trees abundant in the area. On DeLand's first visit to the hollow he and his brother-in-law traveled from the north by rail to Jacksonville, then took a steamboat up the St. Johns River to Enterprise. As their rig headed to the hollow DeLand was unenthusiastic during his bumpy ride from Enterprise but as the flat terrain transitioned from swamp to rolling acreage it was reported that DeLand exclaimed, "This looks like the West. Here is snap and push. I am willing to go on." And he did. High noon, February 8, 1882, the town known as Persimmon Hollow, Florida was incorporated by a unanimous vote of its 23 townspeople. Persimmon Hollow's name change took place after the generous donation of acreage for a school, church, and main thoroughfare by DeLand. DeLand took great interest and pride in his new Florida enterprise and intended to make it the Athens of Florida as he dubbed it. DeLand founded the DeLand Academy which soon became known as John B. Stetson University, after he persuaded his friend, the millionaire hat maker John B. Stetson, to come to DeLand and invest in the institution. Around this same time Henry DeLand suffered a severe financial loss in the freeze. He'd promised that anyone who moved to the area and planted oranges and then lost their crop to a freeze would have their financial investment covered by him. But as time passed the city he founded continued to develop and thrive. It has remained the county seat of Volusia County since 1887 and today has an estimated population of around 37,000 persons.

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