Frontierswomen
of Central Florida
A
Women’s History Month Tribute
By
Richard Lee Cronin, CroninBooks.com
14
March 2022
Day 14
CitrusLAND is observing Women’s History Month by
honoring extraordinary Central Florida frontierswomen. And as we celebrate
Women’s History Month throughout March, we are also featuring each day a
History Museum, listing their days and hours of operation.
See
our History Museum of the day in this Post
Minnie #Iverson Randolph, interviewed at Atlanta, Georgia on 3 August
1947, said her husband had been “William Beverly Randolph, a wealthy Floridian,
who was a spoiled scion” adding that, “when her son, William Beverly
Randolph II, was 12, the elder Randolph died and left her with a frozen orange
grove, no money, and a growing son.”
Hoffner Avenue of
present-day Pine Castle heads east from Hansel Avenue to wind through that one-time
frozen orange grove Minnie (Iverson) Randolph spoke of in 1947. Better known
for its third owner, Charles H. Hoffner, who bought the abandoned
homestead after Florida’s Great Freeze of 1894-95, this land had originally
been the homestead of William Beverly Randolph I.
1870 Homestead of William B. Randolph I, now Belle Isle
Platted by J. H. Livingston in 1886
Mary Caroline “Minnie”
Iverson, daughter of pioneer Alfred Holt Iverson of the Shingle Creek
area, was the second wife of William Beverly Randolph. The only son
of William & Mary (Pitts) Randolph, two pioneers who settled at Fort
Gatlin in 1870, were also the in-laws of Pine Castle's very own founder, Will
Wallace Harney.
Widow Minnie (Iverson)
Randolph was 89 years old when interviewed a second time on August
3, 1947. At that time, she was still a fulltime employee, President
of Randolph Beauty Shop of Atlanta, Georgia. She had also been
interviewed thirty-two years prior, in 1912, at which time the Georgia
newspaper proclaimed Minnie Iverson Randolph as “one of the most successful of
Atlanta’s women in business.”
As a young girl in the late 1870s, Minnie came to Orange County, living first near Maitland with her father and stepmother. The family then moved farther south to Shingle Creek, in what is now Osceola County.
Always interested in
business, Miss Minnie had begun investing in land in the 1880s, buying, for
example, a town parcel at Central Avenue and Gertrude Street in
downtown Orlando. Minnie then married William B. Randolph on June
10, 1884, and their first and only child, William B. Randolph II, was born
at Pine Castle, Florida in 1892.
Minnie traveled to
Atlanta in 1895 for her singing debut, and there she was proclaimed “one
of Florida’s most-delightful sopranos.” The great freeze of 1894-95 struck
central Florida that year, and so Minnie decided to stay in Atlanta. She soon
after went to work in advertising, but by the early 20th century,
had changed careers again, entering the beauty business.
“I simply had to do it,”
said Minnie in 1947 of entering the beauty trade, a career change
that led to her training the first-ever class of beauty operators
at Atlanta Opportunity School. Ms. Doris Lockerman, 1947 Woman’s News
Editor for the Atlanta Constitution, described Minnie at age 89 as
keeping a “doll-size little body straight as a ramrod, her blue eyes
mischievous and clear.” Minne told the reporter that she read every night,” and
also said she thinks “children ought to be taught family backgrounds, for it
would give all youngsters a feeling of confidence.”
Although Minnie spent
only a brief time as a Pine Castle resident, her upbringing in 19th
century Orange County had no doubt implanted – as Will Wallace Harney himself
described his fellow neighbors – “as having the pluck and energy” necessary to
face adversities head on, tackle every challenge life presented – and, in the
case of Minnie (Iverson) Randolph, rise to success at a time in our history
when few women ever entered the business world.
In May 2018, a
follower emailed this author stating, “I am a direct descendant of William
Beverly Randolph, Sr (my father is his grandson) and was completely awed
by your (family) tree. I spoke my great-great grandparent’s names for the first
time today! My father’s Randolph lineage was always mysterious. My father was
raised an only child by his mother and never spoke of Randolph relations other
than Minnie.” Apparently, Minnie was not convinced all children needed to be
taught their family backgrounds.
Mary Caroline ‘Minnie’ (Iverson)
Randolph died at Dekalb, Georgia on July 2, 1953.
[Further reading:
Regarding the Randolph property at Pine Castle, Beyond Gatlin: A History of
South Orange County.]
Mary #Jackson Speer was
the second wife of James G. Speer of Oakland. To accurately tell of the
founding of the town of Oakland in West Orange County a minimum of two parts is
required, one for contributions of each of two wives of Judge Speer. His first
wife, Isaphoenia (Ellington) Speer, featured in an earlier post, died in 1867
at Dunedin, Florida. Her death occurred after the Speer’s had sold nearly 700
acres which is presently the town of Oakland.
The land that is now Oakland was deeded to Isaphoenia
in 1858. At the end of the Civil War, the Speer’s sold this property to James
& Sansparilla (Dusenberry) Jackson. And the Speer’s moved to the Gulf Coast,
where Isaphoenia died. Widower Speer returned to Central Florida to find that
in his absence, James & Sansparilla Jackson had both died.
On February 7, 1869, James G. Speer married Mary
Elizabeth Jackson, the daughter of the two deceased Jackson’s who had purchased
the Oakland property. Judge James G. Speer was again living at the Lake Apopka
estate that his first wife purchased in 1858.
Mary (Jackson) and James Speer had two sons, Robert
Gamble Speer and Edward Vernon Speer.
In 1886, as Orange Belt Railway made its
approach to the land owned by James G. & Mary, the Speer’s subdivided their
acreage to form the town of Oakland. (Very little of the original town of
Oakland remains today).
Judge James Gamble Speer, four decades after first
coming to Orange County, died in 1893, at the age of 73. He was survived by his
second wife, Mary (Jackson) Speer, who passed at age 61 in the year 1900.
[Further reading: CitrusLAND: Ghost Towns &
Phantom Trains; First Road to Orlando; and CitrusLAND: Curse of
Florida’s Paradise].
Lucinda and Martha #Jernigan, daughters of one of Central Florida’s earliest settlers, Aaron Jernigan, each earned their way into our 100 amazing frontierswomen for different reasons.
Martha authored a memoir, painting a descriptive picture of how challenging life had been for the earliest settlers. Her sister Lucinda’s life was cut-short, paying the ultimate price for being a young woman in the rugged wilderness of Orange County.
Martha (Jernigan) Tyler
(1924) Courtesy Orange County History Center
Lucinda married in 1858 to George Hughey. Her father Aaron Jernigan, on his way out of town after being indicted for murder, deeded Lucinda 160 acres near the newly established village of Orlando. “In consideration of the sum,” wrote her father in the deed to Lucinda, “of the mutual love and affection which I have and bear toward my daughter.”
About the time Aaron was leaving the State, George Hughey died, leaving his wife Lucinda on the 160 lakeside acres with two infants, ages 2 and 3. Lucinda remarried in 1859, to merchant George W. Terrell, but within a year, at age 27, Lucinda (Jernigan) Hughey-Terrell died, very possibly of childbirth or soon after.
The lake on which Lucinda’s gifted property was located came to be known as Lake Lucindy, although we know it today as Lake Lucerne. John P. Hughey lived at the west side of the same lake, and he took in the two orphan children of Lucinda and George Hughey.
Lake Lucerne, named for
Lucinda Jernigan
Martha (Jernigan) Tyler was also given lakefront property by her father, but her parcel fronted Lake Conway on the eastern shore. Martha’s central Florida’s legacy remains her memoirs, a history about the difficult times early settlers of central Florida were forced to endure. At age nine, for example, she and her family, including Lucinda, “fortified” themselves at Fort Gatlin. That year was 1849, and the concern of the residents was a possible third Indian War.
Martha’s detailed account of being “hold up at the fort” listed 67 individuals, representing the entire South Orange County population at the time. Her memoir named names, and matched the census taken the following year. Her eyewitness information of many of the earliest settlers in south Orange County being verified by the U S census taker.
[Further reading: Beyond Gatlin: A History of South
Orange County by Richard Lee Cronin].
Our
History Museum/Society of the Day
Steve
Patrick sharing Jernigan/Patrick family history
Pine
Castle Historical Society History Tent (2022)
Pine
Castle’s Annual Pioneer Days Celebration
Although
technically not a museum, Pine Castle Pioneer Days is a great organization for anyone
desiring to interest themselves in preserving central Florida history. This
group meets throughout the year, planning and organizing an annual two-day event
to celebrate Pioneer Days. Volunteers are welcome.
P,
O, Box 583175
Orlando,
Florida 32859-3175
407-427-9692
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