Louise (TUCKER), wife of Dr. PHILIPS

Philip, Philips & Phillips of Florida

Discovering central Florida families through Spouses

A CitrusLAND Four Part History Blog Series

Part Two: Philips & Phillips of Florida

Louise (Tucker), wife of Dr. PHILIPS of Sanford

Louise (Tucker) Philips

Philips or Phillips?

What’s one ‘L’ between friends? With regard to some central prominent surnames, the difference actually means setting history right.

Consider, for example, the biography of Dr. Phillips of Orlando, which states the man first came to Florida during the 1880s, but left the state after losing his SATSUMA grove during the Great Freeze of 1895. Dr. Phillips returned, we are told, to start anew in the new century.

Not much is known of the early years of Dr. Philips of Orlando, although as evidenced in Part one of this series, pieces of the man’s earlier years comes into focus by learning of his wife, Della (Wolf). They married January 20, 1901 at Scott County, Mississippi.

What about the Satsuma Grove? Did a 20 year old Dr. Phillips own a grove of Satsuma in 1894? Or was the young man’s grove located AT Sutsuma? Reference to such a grove in the biography of Dr. Phillips of Orlando becomes especially interesting considering a historical fact that the first Postmaster of the Florida town of Satsuma was Henry B. PHILLIPS. The grave of Judge Henry Bethune PHILIPS is located at Jacksonville.

In 2016, as Jacksonville was completing an expansion of Interstate 95, travelers on that new highway were teased by new exit signs for the historic road paralleling I-95. At one end of the highway signposts pointed the way to PHILIPS Highway, while signs at the opposite end directed traffic to the PHILLIPS Highway.

Jacksonville’s Philips Highway and gravesite pays tribute to the same person, Henry B. Philips, a native of Florida who began his career as the first Postmaster for the town of Satsuma, Florida. Misspelling of surnames runs rampant through Florida archives. Reed often meant Reid; Tiner varied as Tyner; and it was a decision of whoever wrote down the name at the time to write Philips or Phillips.

Tracking pioneers can at times be challenging, a lessen I learned early on while looking for the Orlando Reeves, only to discover a Reaves family and the legend of Orlando Rees. All too often, the best way to verify research is by looking into the pioneer’s “other half.”

Floridian Philips:

Dr. Phillips of Orlando consistently gave his birthplace as Tennessee. A biography of Dr. Philips of Sanford, published while he was still living at Sanford, states that: “Dr. Philips is a native Floridian and a Confederate soldier who returned to his father’s farm in Putnam County after the war.” The Sanford Chronicle published this account of the man’s life in the autumn of 1908. Sanford was then part of Orange County.

Jacksonville’s Henry B. Philips, Postmaster in 1884 of SATSUMA, Florida, was a son of Alfred G. Philips, a brother of Dr. Albert E. Philips. Dr. Albert E. Philips of Sanford therefore had lineal ties to Satsuma, in Putnam County.

The 1921 passport application filled out by Dr. Phillips of Orlando gives his birth date and place as January 27, 1874, at Memphis, Tennessee. The passport application also states that his father was Herman Phillips, and that his father was born in France.

Miss Louise Tucker:

Ten (10) years before Della Wolf married Dr. P. Phillips at Mississippi. Miss Louise Tucker, in 1890, became the second wife of Dr. Albert Edwin Philips, the man referred to in this blog as Dr. Philips of Sanford. Albert’s father was a Georgia native.

Dr. Albert Edwin Philips of Sanford

Life in Florida’s 19^th century wilderness was terribly challenging for men, but all too often life-threatening for woman. Dr. Philips of Sanford had married Eugenia Rawls first. Married in 1884, the next year they welcomed their first only child. Following the birth of their daughter Alma Eugenia, the mother died, possibly from complications of childbirth, a serious danger confronted by every pregnant frontierswoman.

Fondly remembered today as an accomplished musician and lover of the arts, Della, wife of Dr. Phillips of Orlando, had given birth in 1905 to her second child. In May of 1908, the 31 year old Della was “adjudged a lunatic,” and a guardian was appointed with full power of attorney to sign her name. Della (Wolf) Phillips obviously recovered from that which ailed her in 1908.   

The St. Louis Boat-Burner:

I came across Dr. Philips of Sanford while researching the man’s second spouse. This Dr. Philips remarried in 1890 to Sanford resident Louise Tucker. She was a native of Spartanburg, South Carolina, but her father, John Wofford Tucker, relocated first to St. Louis, Missouri, where by 1860, he had become a prosperous Attorney. His daughter Louise turned 14 the year America’s War of Rebellion broke out. (A younger sibling was listed in the 1900 Sanford census as being born after War’s end in “Bermuda.”)

The father of Louise peaked my curiosity first because of his middle name. ‘Wofford’ was one and the same as that of the maiden name of Narcissus Wofford (1832-1897), spouse of the prominent central Florida pioneer, William Allen Lovell.

A post-War Sanford Attorney and later Judge, John W. Tucker departed St. Louis after the Civil War, fled first to the Islands, and then settled at Sanford, Florida. But Tucker’s tenure at St. Louis, it turns out, had earned him the infamous title as the Confederate Boat Burner, a story deserving of its very own blog at a future date.

By 1903, as the future Dr. Philips of Orlando was ushering 200 Texas Herefords in the direction of Ocala, Florida, soon thereafter settling at Kissimmee and the Orlando, Dr. Philips of Sanford was settled in at Sanford, having married at Sanford in 1890. Along with two brothers he operated a drug store at Sanford.

Satsuma: The town or the fruit?

Central Florida had at least three Dr. Philips aka Phillips aka Philip in the 19^th century and first decade of the 20^th. Dr. Phillips of Orlando is said to have lost a Satsuma grove during the freeze of 1895. Dr. Philips of Sanford had lineal ties to Putnam, location of a town established in the 1880s named Satsuma. Dr. Philip of Philipsburg, founder of yet another Orange County 1880s Ghost Town, along with his wife, Jane (Brown), are the subjects of Part 3 of this blog series, to be published February 17, 2018.

As for Satsuma, the question remains this: “the town or the fruit?” And that question I’ll be exploring in Part 4, the conclusion of this series. Stay tuned, there’s much more to come!

Bibliography is available upon request to Rick@CroninBooks.com

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

PINE CASTLE PIONEER DAYS

Two upcoming speaking engagements include:

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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