Frontierswomen
of Central Florida
A
Women’s History Month Tribute
By
Richard Lee Cronin, CroninBooks.com
10
March 2022
Day 10
CitrusLAND is celebrating Women’s History Month by
honoring extraordinary Central Florida frontierswomen. And as we celebrate
Women’s History Month throughout March, we are also promoting each day a
History Museum, listing its days and hours of operations.
See HISTORY MUSEUM of the day in this Post
Nancy #Galloway Woodruff - Beck was
born 1841 in
North Carolina, then came to central Florida as a teenager with her father,
Francis Galloway, a Widower. Galloway homesteaded on the Wekiva River, near
where SR 46 now crosses west of Sanford, only back in 1860, this was a desolate
river crossing called Rutland’s Ferry. At that time this was Orange
County, but the west shore became Lake County in 1887, while the east shore
became Seminole County in 1913.
At age 19 in 1860, Nancy married William W.
Woodruff of Fort Reid (now part of Sanford), and as Mrs. Woodruff, settled at Woodruff
Place, a cottage on the historic Woodruff Grove. A year before her marriage
to Woodruff, William had gone to Tallahassee with Isaac N. Rutland, of
Rutland’s Ferry, where both served as Orange County delegates at Florida’s Secession
Convention. After convention delegates finalized a new State Constitution in
April of 1861, both men enlisted with the Home Guard at the start of the Civil
War.
Nancy watched over Woodruff Place, home to one
of the earliest central Florida citrus groves, planted in 1843 by Elias
Woodruff, William’s father. Caring for the Woodruff home and grove “depended
largely upon his wife,” says a biography of William woodruff, because when not
at Tallahassee, “he was serving in the Civil War as a Home Guard”. William died
in 1872, leaving Nancy to raise two sons while tending to the Woodruff
Grove.
Nancy ‘Nannie’ #Galloway
Woodruff Beck
It was said that no one ever felt a “stranger in a strange land” at the Woodruff home, and of the lady of that cottage, one historian wrote: “Being well educated and gifted with unusual personal ability, she gathered the remnants of property left and so planned, worked and lived to enjoy the income of one of the finest orange groves in Orange County.”
Nancy married a second time in 1877, to Charles H. Beck, a Florida native, and together they continued as citrus growers until the freeze of 1894-95, when most every Sanford grove was lost.
Determined to solve his financial crisis, Charles H. Beck departed Florida for the gold mines of Alaska, where he perished during the historic Easter avalanche of 4 April 1898.
Nannie (Galloway) Woodruff – Beck died June 11, 1909, “in the home she had made, where her last days were spent in the quiet enjoyment of her children.”
[Further reading: Nannie, husbands William and
Charles, together with Isaac N. Rutland, are all featured as true-life
characters and a real-life Civil-War coverup history Novel, The Rutland Mule
Matter, by Richard Lee Cronin].
Christiania #Ginn Speer
of Sanford’s historic River Grove has yet to receive proper credit as being one
of the most amazing central Florida Frontierswoman ever. So, let’s set the
record straight here and now!
“Whereas
Christiania has simultaneously purchased from the said parties of the second
part the STEAMER Sarah Spaulding,” is the precise wording found in an 1854 recorded
deed describing a November 27, 1852, mortgage secured by 200 head of cattle
owned by Christiania Speer. The content of this deed is so important is deserves
clarification. A woman, in 1854, used her 200 head of cattle as collateral to
purchase a steamboat!
The
1852 mortgage on Christiania (Ginn) Speer’s boat was being settled in the 1854 deed
above, debt being resolved by her spouse, Dr. Algernon S. Speer of Mellonville,
Florida, and her father, Arthur Ginn. (Records of the Florida House of
Representatives mentions the steamer “Sarah Spalding as docking at Fort Mellon
on March 27, 1852).
Dr.
Speer and Arthur Ginn had paid off Christiania’s mortgage in 1854 because she
had died.
The River Grove on St. Johns River
(1846), East of present day Sanford
Born at Culloden, Georgia, Christiania was the
daughter of Irish immigrants Arthur & Mary Ginn. After marrying Dr. Speer,
Christiania came to Lake Valdez in then Mosquito County, a body of water soon
to be renamed Lake Monroe, and a county soon to be renamed Orange. As best as
can be determined, Algernon and Christiana arrived in 1843.
The first actual evidence of Christiania in Orange County
is found in 1847, when she purchased, at auction for $32.11, a “mule, ox
wagon and cattle” from Sheriff John Simpson. Later, at 31 years of age in
1852, then a mother of five, she used 200 head of cattle as collateral to
acquire a used steamboat, “Sarah
Spaulding,” a tattered paddleboat fitted with overnight cabins to sleep
eight. (Historians would later record that the boat belonged to her husband and
father, which it did, after the two purchased the vessel following her death,
at age 32).
Christiania (Ginn) Speer is said to have died while
giving birth to her sixth child, 2 June 1853.
Jane #Green Hendricks
legacy is Jane Green Creek in Osceola and Brevard Counties, Jane
Green Swamp in Brevard County, and the claim by some that Jane Green caused
the infamous Barber–Mizell Feud of 1870.
Born in Georgia as Jane Green circa 1834, she died
Jane Green, according to her grave marker, in 1918 (Her tombstone gives a
controversial year of birth as 1819). In the book Florida’s Frontier, The
Way Hit Wuz by Mary Ida Bass Barber Shearhart, the author describes Jane
Green as “one of his (Mose Barber) infamous lady friends who would get him and
little Mose into a peck of trouble.” That peck of trouble being the “feud”.
Jane was not exactly your average central Florida
frontierswoman, so it stands to reason any information regarding this infamous
lady of the wilderness would not be exact either. Although born Jane Green, she
married, and in 1860 and 1870 her name was Hendricks (aka Hendrix). Jane, a
colorful central Florida pioneer of the 19th century, is easily
traced today by following her and her children throughout the years.
Jane Hendrix (age 25) and daughters Emily (age 3) and
Roxanne (age 7/12) appear at Fort Reid (now Sanford) in the 1860 Orange County
census, living with the Peterson family. Jane next appears in 1870 as Jane
Hendricks (age 35), with Emily (age 13), Roxanne (age 11), and Sarah Ann (age
9). In 1880, Jane (age 45) is listed with Emily (age 20), Roxanna (age 18), and
Sarah Ann (age 16).
Jane Green, courtesy Find-A-Grave Memorial
13254063
Jane Green, likely born in circa 1834-35 since her age
remained consistent in 1860, 1870, 1880, and again in the year 1900. In the
latter, Jane was age 66, residing with Emma Tiner, her married daughter.
Also, as the Barber-Mizell feud erupted in 1870, an “infamous
lady” visiting cow-boy camps at night in the 1870s would more likely be in her
30s rather than 50s.
[Further reading: Florida's Frontier, The Way Hit Wuz, by Mary Ida Bass Barber Shearhart, available at Amazon.com]
Our History Museum of the Day
Osceola County Welcome Center & Historical Society
4155
W. Vine Street, Kissimmee
407-396-8644
Rated
4.5 out of 5 Stars by Tripadvisor, Osceola Welcome Center features exhibits
showcasing the historical and natural environment of the region.
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