The camp built by the group provided a base of operations from which to commute during the day to work the fields near Lake Apopka and rest at night.

The city's population increased further after the American Civil War as Confederate soldiers and their families settled into the area, including Captain Bluford Sims and General William Temple Withers who wintered at the location.

[1] Captain Sims received a land grant for a 74-acre parcel to the west of Starke Lake in what is now the downtown portion of Ocoee on October 5, 1883.

[2] In 1886, Captain Sims, along with a group of original settlers, led an effort to have the town platted and changed the name to Ocoee, after a river he grew up near in Tennessee.

[2] Ocoee is a Cherokee Indian word anglicized from uwagahi, meaning "apricot vine place"[3] and this inspired the choice of the city's flower.

[4] Bluford Sims began groundbreaking work in budding wild orange trees while in Ocoee.

[3] The construction of the Florida Midland Railroad in the 1880s spurred growth in the area and many more settlers moved in.

On the night of the massacre, white World War I veterans from throughout Orange County murdered dozens of African-American residents.

[12][13] In 2018, the city commission issued a proclamation formally acknowledging the massacre and declaring that Ocoee is no longer a sundown town.

State Road 50 (SR 50) was constructed south of downtown Ocoee in 1959 and provided a direct east-west connection between the City and a growing Orlando.

[4] In 2000, the completion of Florida State Road 429 (the Western Expressway) linked Ocoee with Walt Disney World to the south.