JENNIE of Florida's INDIAN RIVER

The conclusion to my Nine Part Fall Blog Series: 

Florida's Forgotten Frontierswomen: 

Florida history has wrongfully identified this intriguing woman as Jennie of the Anheuser beer family, an error illustrating how women all too often became lost or muddled in recorded historical events. The story of a duke and his Duchess living for a time on Florida’s East Coast is indeed true, although the real identity of these high profile individuals had remained, until now, unclear.

Florida's Dummitt a/k/a Dummett Castle along the Indian River 

Jennie was not the daughter of Eberhard Anheuser, founder of Anheuser Busch. Florida’s ‘Duchess of Castelluccia’, as this fascinating lady was most often referred to, was not in any related to the Anheuser family. In fact, Jennie was born in New York before the beer brewer ever arrived on America’s shore.

There is ample compelling evidence as to the true identity of both the duke and duchess, evidence documented in detail in my EBook, ‘Florida’s Indian River Duchess’. Only vague references to a duke and duchess exist in Florida’s history, but the couple did receive extensive notoriety elsewhere in the USA and abroad.

The duke and duchess had purchased historic Florida land along the Indian River in 1881, but then sold their land in 1886. The duke never returned to Florida. His duchess however did return briefly, to wed a final time.

I emphasize the word final in her marriage because of varying accounts as to exactly how often this “strikingly beautiful lady” was said to have walked down the aisle. Early court records pertaining to her estate ‘suggests’ Jennie had been married four times, but the record also  sarcastically added the duchess had, “a special predilection for matrimony and for the making of wills.”

The Duchess of Castelluccia appears to have married only three times. Even the court record suggesting otherwise names only three husbands. Of each of her marriages, the third and final was, by any measure, the weirdest. Jennie’s third and final wedding took place south of her earlier Florida homestead she had owned with the Duke.

On January 29, 1895, the Duchess of Castelluccia married at Hotel Indian River in Rockledge, Florida. Four months following this third wedding, Jennie, Florida’s infamous Indian River Duchess, died in New York.

Newspapers in the North fell in love with America’s Duchess of Castelluccia. They wrote of her and her Italian duke often, published stories that in turn preserved in print a history of Florida’s earliest economic engine, the Florida Orange!

The historic Dummitt (Dummett) Grove appears on early Florida maps

It’s true! A captivating story of a young New York girl who made it BIG actually served to record the history of Florida’s Indian River orange. The Duchess, so it turns out, was rich! Her money, combined with the experience of an Italian duke, acquired what had been one of Florida’s original orange groves. The Dummett (a/k/a Dummitt) Grove south of New Smyrna and northeast of Titusville has long been known as one of the earliest groves, but it was the notoriety of a duke and duchess that helped preserve the grove’s real history.  

The press never tired of passing along stories of America’s adopted royalty – an Italian duke and his American born duchess. From her native New York to an island of granite off the coast of Maine, Jennie had become a millionaire by the time of her second marriage to the duke. Interviewed in the Hawaiian Islands, a Marine, Jennie’s third husband, half her age, told of their short-lived marriage, and of how he lost much of the fortune Jennie had accumulated.

Florida’s Indian River Duchess is available in EBook for $3.79 or FREE to Kindle Unlimited members. Visit: https://www.amazon.com/Floridas-Indian-River-Duchess-Castelluccia-ebook/dp/B01G42CK4G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1482932963&sr=8-1&keywords=Florida%27s+Indian+River+Duchess

The role of women in history is not easily found, but it’s a challenge gladly undertaken by the author of CitrusLAND books. Our true-life American story, including the story of early Florida, can only be told through the lineal descendants of its earliest pioneers, men and women alike. Telling the story of early Florida through its people is an integral part of all CitrusLAND books. Visit my website www.croninbooks.com for further information.

CitrusLAND books are available at BOOKMARKIT ORLANDO bookstores, Amazon.com and FREE to Kindle Unlimited members!

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This concludes Ricks 9 Part FALL 2016 Blog Series

Coming to Rick's Blog in 2017:

The First Families of Florida’s Highlands