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.