FRANCIE MABEL of Sarasota & Venice

Part 5: FRANCIE M of Sarasota & Venice

FLORIDA'S FORGOTTEN FGRONTIERSWOMEN

Sarasota historians fondly recall pioneer Joseph H. Lord. He is remembered as a major Sarasota County landowner and town developer. The Sarasota County History Center says Lord owned, by 1904, four corners of their town’s historic Five Points intersection. Lord reportedly built First Bank and Trust Company, Sarasota’s first ever ‘skyscraper,’ and eventually owned 70,000 acres throughout Sarasota County. Said to have first visited Sarasota in 1890, little of the man’s pre-Gulf Coast story has been recorded prior to now.

Three years before visiting Sarasota, Attorney Joseph H. Lord, in 1887, was an attorney residing near Lake Ivanhoe in Orlando. Certainly worthy of credit for his many Florida development accomplishments, to fully appreciate the Maine native one must also learn of the remarkable woman behind the Sarasota developer. Mrs. Lord, it turns out, was already selling Florida real estate when she married Joseph. As single gal in central Florida, Francie Mabel Webber resided on a parcel platted by her father.

Frank R. and Sarah O. Webber, parents of Francie, began acquiring Orange County property in 1884. Within a year, at age 22, their daughter Francie was also investing in land, nearly 50 acres to be exact. Her parcels were scattered throughout the county.

1886 Survey of Orlando & Winter Park Railway
South shore of Lake Ivanhoe, west of Lake Highland 

In 1886, a survey for the Orlando & Winter Park Railway (see photo) showed adjoining lots in FAIR OAKS subdivision north of the city of Orlando. One lot was owned by Mrs. F. W. Lord (circled in red), while the adjacent lot owned by her parents, Frank & Sarah Webber (also circled in red). Francie Mabel Webber had married at the time of the 1886 railroad plat, and she then took the name Francie Webber Lord.

Francie, daughter of Frank R. and Sarah O. Webber, had been born at St. Albans, Maine August 28, 1862. She married Joseph Lord August 22, 1885. Joseph, born December 8, 1859, was a native of Wells, York County, Maine.

Francie’s parents had become Florida snowbirds. Her father started buying Orange County property in 1884. Orange County Gazetteer of 1887 listed Frank Webber as an Orange Grower, and identified Joseph Lord as an Attorney, residing at Lake Ivanhoe. Frank R. Webber platted his land on the south shore of Lake Ivanhoe as a subdivision, naming the 1886 community, FAIR OAKS.

Then came Florida’s freeze in the winter of 1894-95. Like most every Orange County resident, the Lord’s lost their land. The final land sale by Mrs. Lord was recorded in late 1893. Francie’s mother, Widow Sarah Webber, relocated with her daughter and son-in-law further south, to the Sarasota-Bradenton area, arriving in 1897. A son, Joseph H. Lord, Jr., was born in the Sarasota region September 1, 1898.

Francie Mabel (Webber) Lord had participated in central Florida’s development in the mid-1880s and early 1890s. Following a devastating freeze in1895, her family moved further south, where her Attorney husband evolved as a major developer during the first days of Sarasota County.

By 1912, the Lord’s had become snowbirds as well. By then residents of Evanston, ILL, headquarters of the Sarasota-Venice Land Company, a company Joseph H. Lord managed, the Lord’s maintained homes in Florida and Illinois.

Francie (Webber) Lord died at Chicago, on the 9^th day of April, 1936. Joseph died eight months later, December 24, 1936. Both were buried at Manasota Memorial Park in Bradenton.

Grave marker at Manasota Memorial Park, Bradenton, FL

Florida history remembers Joseph H. Lord, but fact is, the Lord’s work in Florida, (pun intended) should really be remembered as a husband/wife team effort.

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, including the story of Florida, can only be told through the lineal descendants of the earliest pioneers, men and women alike. Each of twelve chapters in my CitrusLAND: Curse of Florida’s Paradise, Second Edition, begins with a dedication and brief biography of a central Florida Frontierswoman. The people of Florida are an important and integral part of all my Florida books.

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

CitrusLAND books are available at BOOKMARKIT ORLANDO bookstores; Winter Garden Heritage Foundation, and Central Florida Railroad Museum in Winter Garden, FL.

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Ricks Blog resumes November 16, 2016

Part 6: Catherine of Tallahassee

References available upon request to Rick@CroninBooks.com