Oviedo ( ) is a city in Seminole County, Florida, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 33,342, representing an increase of 7,026 (26.7%) from the 26,316 counted in the 2000 Census. It is part of the Orlando–Kissimmee–Sanford Metropolitan Statistical Area. Oviedo is known for its historic houses and buildings, as well as its population of chickens that roam the downtown area. Although the city has historically been rural, in recent years it has had an influx of new developments to support its rapid growth, due to its proximity to the University of Central Florida and the Central Florida Research Park.
History
Up through the early 19th century, the area encompassing Oviedo was sparsely populated save for a few Seminoles and African-American Freemen who associated with the Seminole tribe, known as Black Seminoles, in what was then Spanish Florida. The Seminole tribe had larger clusters of population in other areas of Central Florida, such as nearby Lake Jesup.
The population remained sparse until after the American Civil War, when people devastated by war started moving South to begin a new life. One mile to the southeast side of Lake Jesup, a small hamlet of settlers established the "Lake Jesup Settlement" in 1875. Letters from that era showcased a difficult life for the Florida Cracker settlers: cooking outdoors with wood stoves, sleeping under mosquito nets, and burning rags to keep the insects away. Wildlife was plentiful, however. Initially, this settlement had around 40 families, but quickly evolved into a thriving trading port. The settlement was named "Oviedo" by Andrew Aulin when the first post office was established to honor the state's Spanish heritage.
In the late 1870s, individuals living a few miles south of Lake Jesup needed an easily accessible post office in the Florida back country. Andrew Aulin, an early settler and shop-owner, decided to file paperwork for a post office, and in his first site location report, needed a name that was different from any other post office in Florida. Aulin liked having a Spanish name, "to honor the Spanish heritage of the state," and decided to name his post office location "Oviedo" after the city of Oviedo in northern Spain (the capital city of the Principality of Asturias) and the University of Oviedo. Some say he visited the university, while others say he just liked the sound of it, but most agree that he likely pronounced the name correctly rather than the Americanized way of . A recent campaign advocates for honoring Aulin's original concept for the town's moniker by returning to the correct Spanish pronunciation ).
Several people played a prominent role in establishing Oviedo's history. George Powell was an early settler who ran a large tract of land, referred to as the "Powell Settlement", which today encompasses most of the northern part of the city—including the downtown area. One of Powell's sons, Lewis Powell, (alias Lewis Payne), became infamous for being John Wilkes Booth's primary accomplice in the plot to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln.
George Powell's friend, Henry Foster, was instrumental in transforming Oviedo's citrus and celery industry from obscurity to prominence by giving Oviedo reliable transportation to deliver its goods. He paid for a railway link to Oviedo and founded the Lake Jesup Steamboat Company. Agriculture was Oviedo's primary industry all the way through the 1940s. Foster was also responsible for establishing the Lake Charm area as a resort to entice visitors from the North to vacation in the winter. Foster encouraged settlers to begin attending regular church services on a site of the "Powell Settlement" that would become the First Methodist Church of Oviedo.