In the center of the county, in the section where Orange City and DeLand are now located, settlers began to arrive from the northern states in 1873. In that year Captain John Rich took up a homestead upon the site of the present city of DeLand and built the first house. Vincent Kirk came to Enterprise in May, 1874, and walked north to Alexander's Landing, now Beresford, looked over the country and took up a homestead the same year east of Rich's on what is now East New York Avenue, DeLand. In 1875 Benjamin F. Colcord, in partnership with David Felt, opened a store at Alexander's Landing, also J. B. Jordan of Kentucky, Henry B. Austin of Indiana and John Cannon during the same year, which were the first stores between Volusia and Enterprise. Beresford on the St. Johns River was the post office and trading post for the settlement which rapidly built up on the high rolling lands that lay a few miles to the east.

J. B. Owen, J. B. Jordan, Captain J. B. Wood, Dr. G. V. Lancaster and B. F. Finical, all of Kentucky, and Henry B. Austin of Indiana, took up homesteads in 1875 and built log cabins in the pine woods, near Captain Rich's. Other early settlers in the vicinity were Dr. Voorhis, Frank Buckner, John Camp, Hugh Wheeler, H. Canfield, 0. P. Terry, Samuel Swing, E. R. Dean, E. Scott Brown, John Cannon, Hiram Waters, J. S. Craig, Judge C. H. Wright, J. J. Banta, Mr. Hampson and N. J. Scovil, who either took up homesteads or bought land. In March, 1876, Henry A. DeLand, a baking powder manufacturer of Fairport, N. Y., came with his brother-in-law, 0. P. Terry, to visit this new country. Writing in 1895 of this visit Mr. DeLand says: We went up the St. Johns River to Enterprise. The trip was delightful but the country on each side of the river didn't captivate me, or even interest me. We stayed over Sunday at Enterprise. Monday, leaving my family at Enterprise, Mr. Terry and I started out in a one-horse rig to visit his homestead, and those of others, near where DeLand now is. For two or three miles after leaving Enterprise the ride was far from enjoyable. The sand was so deep, the country so desolate, that I begged Mr. Terry time and again to turn around and go back. He kept saying: "Better country beyond."

It was not long before we reached the high rolling pine lands, and I was then willing to go on. A short distance further on I saw new houses being built and land being cleared and I said: "This looks like the west. Here is nap and push. I am willing to go on." This was the Wisconsin settlement, called Orange City.

We drove on. I saw only one house between there and Alexander’s Landing at Beresford. Thence to Capt. Rich's cabin, a ten acre enclosure with good solid fence, some orange trees and lots of chickens. This was the only house, the only improvement that there was in what is now the City of DeLand.

I enjoyed my ride through the pines, over the high rolling lands with no underbrush, where one could gaze for a long distance through the pine woods. The face of the country reminded me of my own loved Western New York. We passed one orange grove in the pine woods and I saw that the orange trees would grow on the high pine land. I thought what a charming country this would be if settled like Western New York, or the southern States, with pleasant homes here and there among the pines and orange groves clotted here and there and no standing water near. I thought it would make a healthful home for the year around. I met some eight or ten settlers and their wives, who then lived out among the pines, their homes scattered in all directions from the little log cabin of Captain Rich. 

Except from, History of Volusia County, Florida 

By, Pleasant Daniel Gold