Orange County, Florida

Orange County FLGenWeb: Biographies: Jerry M. Sullivan

Source: "History of Florida: Past and Present, Historical and Biographical," Volume 2, Harry Gardner Cutler, Lewis publishing Company, 1923, Florida.

Jerry M. Sullivan

Jerry M. Sullivan, present postmaster of Winter Garden, has been a permanent orange grower in this section of Florida for a number of years. He was active head of the local citrus association and one of the best known of Orange County's men of affairs.

He was born on a farm near Hodges, Alabama, August 11, 1873, son of John R. and Lucy (Williams) Sullivan, both natives of Franklin County, Alabama, where they spent all their lives as farmers and planters. The Sullivan family is of Irish ancestry, and the great-grandfather of Jerry M. Sulllvan was Jerry Sullivan who came from Ireland. The grandfather, William L. Sullivan, was born in North Carolina, moved from that state to Maury County, Tennessee, and subsequently became a pioneer in Franklin County, Alabama, locating there before the Indians were removed. He died at the age of sixty-seven. The Williams 'family were also pioneers of Alabama. The Sullivans were staunch Union people in sentiment during the Civil war.

One of a family of five children, two of whom died in childhood, Jerry M. Sullivan grew up on the home farm in Alabama. He acquired a common school education, and from the age of twenty-one for several years was actively associated with his father in the mercantile and milling business. Mr. Sullivan came to Florida in 1914, and engaged in the grove and truck business. He has since given up the production of vegetables, and now concentrates his entire attention upon his fine citrus grove of sixty-five acres. Being one of the large individual producers he is president of the Winter Garden Citrus Growers Association, which has recently completed a modern packing house at Winter Garden, the largest in the community, costing $36,000.

Mr. Sullivan was appointed postmaster of Winter Garden in January, 1922, and took charge of the office in March of the same year. He is a republican in politics. In 1902, at the age of twentyeight, Mr. Sullivan married Miss Laura Hardin, a native of Franklin County, Alabama. They have two children, Hardy Alexander and Jerreline.