In 1874, Captain John Rich became the first white settler to arrive in the present-day DeLand, which was then known as Persimmon Hollow. After arriving in 1876, Henry Addison DeLand (1834-1908) began developing the area. The city was officially incorporated in 1882 and became the county seat of Volusia County in 1887. DeLand Academy, the first private college in Florida, was established by Henry DeLand in 1883. After a devastating freeze in 1885, many orange growers migrated away from the city, as did DeLand himself, leaving John Batterson Stetson (1830-1906) in charge of the academy, which was renamed John B. Stetson University (now Stetson University) in 1889. Stetson University was also the home of the first law school in Florida. DeLand flourished during the Florida Land Boom of the 1920s, but faced trouble during the land bust and the Great Depression.
