Meares/ Leach/ Brumby

• Brothers Albert and Stuart Meares came from Wales, settling in the Seminole area in 1872.
• They purchased the very land you are standing on in 1872 for $1.25 an acre. Albert opened the first post office in the area and called it St. John’s Mainland.
• Albert married Adela Krewson. There is a drawing of the house they lived in, and where all 10 of their children were born. Vance Meares ( son of Albert and Adela Meares) built by Maurice Meares, the home that you see on the wall, pictured above the counter near the entrance of the museum.
• The Meares brothers had a sister in England named Bell. Their children wrote to her describing the oak trees and the unusual Spanish moss. Bell suggested calling the area Oakhurst. This is the name of one of our subdivisions in the Seminole area.
• Vance Meares had a successful fruit shipping business utilizing the railroad which is now the Pinellas Trail. The home stood near the spring-fed lake which you see just outside the museum.
• The Meares home was located in Seminole Park. It had fallen into disrepair and was known by the children in the area as the “haunted house”. City purchased the property in 1974 for $200,000. The house was taken down and the 10.8 acres was turned into the Seminole City Park as it is now.
• In 1887 Robert Leach came to the Seminole area and purchased land. Robert created a successful business selling oranges and grapefruit. He married Katherine Brumby. The Brumby family business was handmade rockers and still does today. A genuine Brumby rocker was donated to the museum because of this connection to Seminole.
• R.M. Brumby also had a shipping business. He used a boat to travel to Mobile, Alabama where he would barter for grain. R.M. Brumby and James R. Brumby invented the Brumby rocking chair which is still built today in Marrietta, Ga.
• Robert persuaded his brother Harry Leach to come to Seminole. He did and married
• The Meares, Leaches and the Brumbys owned many acres of citrus land. They were a close knit family who shared “high tea” every day.