Tree Removal in Rubonia, FL

The land where Rubonia was laid out was part of an 80-acre plot that Albert Stonelake, a United States Union Army surgeon, purchased in 1868. Stonelake sold the undeveloped land to Marcus DeVoursney in 1881. DeVoursney died in 1904 and his estate sold the land in 1911 to William and Nellie Smith, who platted the area in 1913 with plans to develop it as a neighborhood known as East Terra Ceia. The area was planned as housing for African Americans working in the area as migrant farmers.

Within a few years, Atlantic Coast Line Railroad officials requested that East Terra Ceia’s name be changed due to frequent mix-ups between it and adjacent Terra Ceia. William Smith renamed the area based on a list of available names provided by the railroad company. Although unconfirmed, Rube Allyn, Sarasota Sun newspaperman and humorist, claimed to be the source of the name Rubonia. Allyn claimed that his friend, Charles R. Capp, vice-president of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad, selected the name in his honor. This story does not mesh with most tellings of the story, which attribute the name to the other rail company operating at Rubonia, Atlantic Coast, and may just be another example of Allyn’s humorous tales.

Although the community was planned as a segregated neighborhood, the 1920 census for Rubonia shows that the neighborhood was racially mixed, with some white families also living in the community. The community has remained small throughout the decades and most residents worked in the agricultural and manufacturing industries.