Judge Wimberly House

History

This beautiful home in Interlachen, Fla., was built in 1884 by Judge Jared Irvin Wimberly, a prominent justice of the peace and farmer. Wimberly was born in Augusta, Ga., on April 4, 1842, and moved to Orange Springs, Fla., sometime in the 1850s. Having sat vacant for several years, the property was put on the market in 2026 and sold for $125,000.

Brief History of Orange Springs, Florida

Orange Springs, at the time, was a small settlement established by business partners State Senator David Levy Yulee and Spanish War veteran John William Pearson. In 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed settlers in those territories to decide the legality of slavery by popular vote, leading to the violent period known as “Bleeding Kansas.” With rising hostilities between the North and the South and his position in government, Yulee sold his holdings to Pearson. He, in turn, developed the area into a mineral springs health resort. By the 1850s, Pearson had become a successful businessman, owning an inn, gristmill, sawmill, furniture shop, and a machine shop.

It was during this development that the Wimberly clan moved down from Georgia, where the patriarchal Isaac C. Wimberly worked as a farmer until he died in 1880. Although Jared Wimberly would eventually move to Interlachen, much of the Wimberly clan remained in Orange Springs.

The Oklawaha Rangers and the Civil War

Pearson was a supporter of slavery, and while on a visit to Charleston, South Carolina, he became emotionally stirred by the Southern “Fire-Eaters.” It was here that he purchased 125 smoothbore muskets and 100 Colt revolvers. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Pearson organized a militia known as the Ocklawaha Rangers and outfitted them with these weapons and uniforms he made in his shops in Orange Springs. The Rangers were an unofficial guerrilla unit until they were officially mustered into the Confederate Army as a company in the Sixth Florida Battalion in May 1962.

The Rangers participated in the defense of Tampa in June 1862 and in Olustee in February 1864. The Battle of Olustee was the largest fought in Florida during the war. Soldiers on both sides were veterans of the great battles in the eastern and western theaters of the war, but many of them remarked in letters and diaries that they had never undergone such terrible fighting. Pearson’s Oklawaha Rangers were on the extreme right flank, causing severe damage to the United States Colored Troops.

Following the Confederate victory at the Battle of Olustee, Captain Pearson’s company patrolled North Florida before settling back in Orange Springs. Jared Wimberly, still a young man at this time, fought with the Ocklawaha Rangers until April 1864, having been wounded twice in battle.

The Rangers were later reorganized into the Ninth Florida Infantry Regiment, in which Pearson retained his position as captain. The Ninth Florida Regiment under Pearson was ordered to Virginia to join Robert E. Lee’s Army, where they saw the most intense fighting of the Civil War at the Battle of Cold Harbor. The Confederates were once again victorious.

The Oklawaha Rangers later participated in the Battle of Weldon Railroad, and although federal casualties far exceeded those of the Confederates, the Union succeeded in cutting off a vital supply line. It was here that Pearson was wounded, having been struck by shrapnel while leading a charge across a cornfield. Bedridden, he was given leave and made his way back to Orange Springs. He never made it home, though, and died in Augusta, Georgia, on September 30, 1964.

Judge Jared Wimberly, the “Democratic Warhorse”

Jared Wimberly returned to Orange Springs, where he married Mary Margaret Woods in 1867. Following his death, Pearson’s resort was transferred to his widow and later sold to James Walter Townsend and his brother. While cotton was the cash crop in the area, Jared Wimberly became a prolific orange farmer, shipping carloads of citrus as far as California. Like his father before him, he dedicated his life to farming.

In 1883, he and his wife moved to Interlachen, where he built this home. Wimberly served as his district’s justice of the peace for years and represented the Interlachen precinct on the County Democratic Committee for more than a quarter-century. Yet despite his prominent standing in the community, he was consistently recorded simply as a ‘farmer’ in the federal census.

Wimberly became known as the county’s “Democratic warhorse” and was a strong proponent of white Democrats regaining control of the state legislature from ‘carpetbag rule.’ In a 1906 publication of The Weekly True Democrat, criticizing Senator John P. Wall of being unsupportive of the county Democratic ticket, Wimberly is mentioned as one of the men “working tooth and nail to secure Democratic ascendancy, and a return to white supremacy…” during the days of “Republican and negro domination.”

In 1913, The Tampa Tribune published a personal story involving Judge Wimberly. The author met with Wimberly in the pine woods. While there, an elderly, frail Black man, who had been old enough to remember Abraham Lincoln’s 1860 election, approached them. Despite his age, his mind was sharp, and he asked for updates on the situation in Mexico. Before leaving on his mule, the man asked Judge Wimberly how he would get his Christmas oranges. The Judge warmly invited him over, promising him plenty of oranges and a nice pig for the holiday. The author concluded by praising this generous Christmas spirit, noting how proud it makes him of Florida and its people.

Wimberly passed away on June 13, 1920, followed by his wife in 1923. Ownership of the home changed hands, but it remains unclear exactly how long this grand estate sat vacant in the decades that followed. The historic property eventually returned to the market. In June 2026, the home found a new chapter when it sold for $125,000.

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