IRENE of SANIBEL ISLAND

Part 4: Florida's Forgotten Frontierswomen

IRENE (Cook) Rutland - Shanahan of SANIBEL ISLAND

Three (3) days before her 83^rd birthday, Irene SHANAHAN, then a 53 year resident of Sanibel Island, passed away in Lee County. Her October 29, 1950 obituary in Fort Myers News-Press described the Shanahan family as having been “noted for the hospitality extended to visitors and excursions parties which made the trip to the island in the days before Fort Myers Beach became popular as a resort.”

A “popular” tourist spot now, Irene’s residency on Sanibel dated to a time when the remote island served as home to farmers and a historic lighthouse. At the time of Irene’s death in 1950, she had been a widow of Henry Shanahan for 37 years. Henry had served as the island’s lighthouse keeper from 1889 until the year of his death in 1913.

Married in 1904, Henry Shanahan was Irene’s second husband. But little else had ever been recorded of Irene’s early years. She first appears on the island at age 33 in the 1900 Sanibel census. At that time Irene was a widow as well. Born in Montgomery AL in 1867, Irene had been, by 1900, a twenty year central Florida resident.

Where was Irene prior to 1900? The Florida frontierswoman’s story spans two uniquely different Florida centuries. Mrs. Shanahan of the 20^th century, born Miss Irene COOK, became Mrs. Rutland during the State’s developing 19^th Century, while central Florida was commonly being referred to as an American Paradise.

The amazing Irene of Sanibel arrived on the island long before regular ferry service. As a young mother of five (5) children, all born in the 19^th century, Irene had also migrated years earlier to central Florida, prior to the first train arriving at CitrusLAND.  

Cook - Rutland of Central Florida:

At age 13 in 1880, Irene was living in remote Sumter County with her parents. Robert & Nancy COOK, all Alabama natives. Like most every resident of central Florida then, her father farmed citrus on the family’s 160 acre homestead.

Also living in Sumter County at the time, near the town of YALAHA on Lake Harris, now part of Lake County, was a 24 year old lad named Othman RUTLAND. Othman lived with and worked for a cousin, Miles STEWART, on a nearby Sumter County grove. In 1885, Miss Irene Cook married Othman Rutland.

The Rutland’s set up home and started a family along the west shore of Lake Apopka. In addition to farming, Othman and his cousin Miles were also active in founding the city of WEST Apopka, a tiny village today known as Ferndale.

On the east side of Lake Apopka is the city of Apopka, where for a time in the 1880s Othman’s only surviving sibling, Sarah Katherine (Rutland) VICK, lived with her husband, Ezekiel C. Vick, who was also a citrus farmer.

West Apopka of Sumter (now Lake) County:

Five Rutland children were born to Othman and Irene at West Apopka: Pearlie May (1886-1937); Sarah K (1888-1966); Clarence O. (1890-1982); Isaac N. (1892-1916); (Isaac Newton Rutland died at age 24, and is buried on Sanibel Island. His grave marker today is the only raised tombstone on the entire island); and Marguerite (1894-?).

Small cemetery on Sanibel Island includes tombstone of Isaac Newton Rutland

Florida’s Great Freeze during the winter of 1894-95 destroyed not only the crop, it killed most orange trees in central Florida as well, wiping out most orange farmers. Ezekiel and Othman were no exception, and so both families lost everything.

Wiped out financially, the Rutland and Vick families together departed central Florida, and relocated to Sanibel Island.

Starting anew on Sanibel Island:

At age 45 in 1900, Ezekiel C. Vick started over. He was employed as a farm laborer on Sanibel Island. Listed as family 286 in the census, the Vick family lived next door to a Widow. Family 285 was Irene Rutland and her four fatherless children.

Othman Rutland signed away his Sumter County property in 1897, and died between 1897 and 1900. His death remains a mystery of Florida history to this day.

Widow Irene remarried at Sanibel Island in 1904. Her second marriage was to Widower Henry Shanahan. At age 38, she gave birth to a son, Gunnell Shanahan, born on Sanibel Island.

The Vick family returned to central Florida, living out their lives at Oakland, in West Orange County. Irene, and children by two marriages, remained at Sanibel. The home of a son by her first marriage, Clarence Othman Rutland, is today part of Sanibel Island’s local museum complex.

The Rutland House is part of the Sanibel Island museum complex

Footnote about Othman Rutland, first husband of Irene Cook: Born 1856 on the east bank of Orange County’s Wekiva River, presently Seminole County, Othman was a son of Isaac Newton & Margaret (Staten) Rutland.

A 4 year old boy in a family of 6 in 1860, by 1870, the four Rutland children had become orphans, sent to live with their grandmother in Georgia. Two Rutland children returned to central Florida in the late 1870s, Othman and his sister, Sarah K. (Rutland) Vick. The Rutland Mule Matter, by Richard Lee Cronin, is a historical novel based on the true-life story of how the Rutland family was torn apart by the Civil War. Main characters in The Rutland Mule Matter include Othman, his wife Irene (Cook), Othman’s sister, Sarah Katherine (Rutland) Vick, and Sarah’s husband, Ezekiel C. Vick.

The role of women in history is not easily found, but it’s a challenge gladly undertaken by the author of CitrusLAND books. The true-life American story can only be told through the lineal descendants of the earliest pioneers, men and women alike. Each of twelve chapters in CitrusLAND: Curse of Florida’s Paradise, Second Edition, starts off with a dedication and brief biography of a Florida Frontierswoman.

Telling the story of Florida through its people, CitrusLAND books are described in detail at my website: www.croninbooks.com

Available at BOOKMARKIT ORLANDO bookstores; Winter Garden Heritage Foundation and the Central Florida Railroad Museum in Winter Garden, Florida, and Amazon.com.

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Ricks Blog resumes November 2, 2016

Part 5: Francie of Sarasota & Venice