Jane (BROWN), wife of Dr. PHILIP of Philipsburg

Part Three: Philip, Philips & Phillips of Florida

Jane (Brown), wife of Dr. PHILIP of Philipsburg

1884 Philipsburg, Orange County, Florida

On a rural stretch of County Road 44A in Lake County, five miles east of Eustis, is an out-of-place 4^th street, a lone numbered road that is little more than a city block long. First laid out 134 years ago as an Orange County street, 4^th is today one of only few surviving roads of a Ghost Town: PHILIPSBURG. The 19^th century city is identified as PHILLIPSBURG (two Ls) at Lake County’s Property Appraisers Office, but Lake County deeds, as well as the plat, confirm the town’s name had but one ‘L’.

But folks always misspelled Philip, Philips and Phillips in 19^th century central Florida.

Surveyed as a 640 acre, one-square mile city in 1884, the town planners were Dr. Jacob PHILIP & wife Jane Elizabeth (BROWN), both natives of and life-long residents of the State of New York. Buying this land June 26, 1883, Jacob & Jane Philip subdivided their land into a town, having seven east-west roadways: North, Orange, Washington, Iowa, Maine, Burlington (now CR 44A), and Magnolia; and seven north-south cross streets, First thru Seventh.

Sarah F. Loughridge, a Professor of Latin at University of Iowa, was first to purchase a lot at Philipsburg, closing on her parcel, at the corner of 7^th and Burlington, August 4, 1884. The professor wasn’t the only Iowan to buy a lot at Philipsburg. Jacob Alter, a farmer from Des Moines, Merchant Cicero P. Norton of Jasper, and Dr. Frederick Josiah Mansfield of Burlington, a Dentist, each purchased a town lot in August of 1884, likely explaining why the New York town planners named two of their streets Iowa and Burlington Avenue

What attracted Iowans to buy in the Sunshine State in 1884? A Burlington Hawkeye newspaper reporter had toured central Florida in late 1883, enjoying Thanksgiving in Orlando before returning home. He then wrote an extensive article about central Florida, filling one entire newspaper page under the heading: “Eureka – America’s Italy – Orange County in Southern Florida – ‘tis Summer Always; There’s Fruit, Health, Wealth and Beautiful Scenery.”

Neither the Iowans nor Dr. Philips and his wife ever relocated to America’s Italy. The Orange County planned town of Philipsburg faltered, becoming, in May 1887, a rural part of Lake County.

Philipsburg, Then and Now

Jacob S. Philip and Jane Elizabeth Brown were each a native of Columbia County, New York. After marrying in 1849, they moved a distance of 25 miles from home, to Catskill, in Greene County, New York. The couple remained Catskill residents for the remainder of their lives. Dr. Philip died at Catskill on the 25^th of April, 1887, one month after his Florida town had become part of Lake County.

Dr. Phillips of Orlando is where I began this four part blog, attempting to fill in a few gaps in that individual’s early years. Dr. Philip Phillips married in 1901, to Della Wolf of Forest, Mississippi. Their marriage is documented by a license, and then newspaper accounts tell of Dr. P. Phillips driving a herd of 200 Herefords from Texas to Florida in 1903. But this Orlando citrus grower was also said to have lost a Satsuma Grove in the freeze of 1895.

My search for Dr. Phillips in 19^th century central Florida turned up two such men but, by researching wives of each, neither doctor was Dr. Phillips of Orlando. Dr. Albert E. Philips of Sanford, a Putnam County, Florida native, married Miss Louise Tucker at Sanford in 1890, whereas Dr. J. Philip of Philipsburg had married Jane Brown in the Catskill Mountains of New York.

I established in part two that the first Postmaster for the 1884 Putnam County town of Satsuma was Henry B. Phillips, but this Henry had no Known lineal relationship to Dr. Phillips of Orlando. Henry was related though to Dr. Philips of Sanford. By 1894, Putnam County had become a major citrus producer. The Great Freeze of 1895 wiped out many a citrus farming dream, but was one such lost dream a grove belonging to Dr. Phillips of Orlando? Did Philip Phillips lose everything in 1895, only to return and start anew in 1903?

The conclusion to this series will be posted Wednesday, February 28, 2918: Dr. Philip, Philips and Phillips: The Satsuma Grove!

 Bibliography is available upon request to Rick@CroninBooks.com

VISIT CroninBooks.com Booth A-7 February 24 & 25, 2018

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BEYOND GATLIN, A History of South Orange County

Orange County Library South, 1702 Deerfield Blvd

March 18, 2018; 2 to 3 PM

ORLANDO REEVES, Fact or Fiction

Orange County Library Downtown Orlando

March 25, 2018; 2 – 3 PM

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