Fort Maitland was built in November 1838 by Lt. Col. Alexander C. W. Fanning, U.S.A. (1788-1848) on the military road connecting Fort Melon in Sanford with Fort Gatlin in Orlando, and it served as a stockade in the war between the United States and the Seminole Indians. The fort was named for William Seton Maitland (1798-1837), a native of New York and a graduate of West Point whom President Andrew Jackson commissioned Brevet Captain for gallantry and good conduct at Withlacoochee on 31 December 1835 and at Welika on 19 July 1836. Maitland was severely wounded at Wahoo Swamp on 21 November 1836 and was later drowned in the Ashley River, S.C. The boundaries of the fort were definitely marked as late as 1872, when the settlement was officially designated Maitland. A nearby lake, which the Seminoles called Fumecheliga, meaning Muskmelon Place, also bears Captain Maitland’s name as Lake Maitland.