CENTRAL FLORIDA'S FASCINATING HISTORY: Women's History Month

Frontierswomen of Central Florida

Eliza (Turner) Stewart

A Women’s History Month Tribute

By Richard Lee Cronin, CroninBooks.com

29 March 2022

Day 29

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 also our featured History Museum in this Post

Martha Jefferson #Trist Burke of South Orlando

Union soldiers searched the Burke residence at Alexandria, Virginia during the Civil War. They were looking for assets belonging to John W. Burke’s bank, but while soldiers rummaged, John’s wife, Martha Jefferson (Trist) Burke, stood steadfast refusing to move away from of a closet in which she claimed contained only her personal undergarments. Her undergarments were indeed in that closet, but so too were gold bars from John Burke’s Bank. Martha had stashed the treasure Union soldiers were looking for in between each of her undergarments.

Burke’s bank survived the ravages of the Civil War, and largely because Martha prevented the soldiers from taking the bank’s gold. Burke & Herbert Bank, first established in 1852, is today still serving customers, and proudly proclaiming to be the oldest bank in the State of Virginia.

Martha Burke, a great-granddaughter of President Thomas Jefferson, was also an Orlando land speculator. Her property holdings stretched south from Orlando Regional Hospital to the north shore of Lake Jennis Jewel, with a portion of her land bordering the historic Frances W. Eppes homestead on Lake Pineloch. Eppes was a grandson of President Thomas Jefferson.

A portion of Martha’s land had been conveyed to her from the estate of her parents, Virginia (Randolph) and Nicholas Trist, while the rest Martha purchased in 1884.

One of three “Jno W. Burke” Orlando Subdivisions

Virginia Randolph and Frances Eppes were born within months of one another at Monticello, the Virgina estate of Thomas Jefferson. As young adults, they attended each other’s wedding while each was residing at Monticello, and decades later, the descendants of Virginia Randolph and Francis Eppes became heirs to adjacent land south of downtown Orlando, acreage that became the property of Virginia and Francis by Attorney William M. Randolph.

Three separate subdivisions south of Orlando were recorded in the mid-1880s as plats of “Jno W. Burke,” but John owned this land as the spouse of Martha Jefferson (Trist) Burke (1826-1915).

[Further reading: Beyond Gatlin: A History of South Orange County, by Richard Lee Cronin.]

Eliza #Turner Stewart of Clay Springs

A friend and fellow Central Florida history fan suggested I consider Eliza (Turner) Stewart as one of 100 remarkable frontierswomen featured in this Women’s History Month series. Eliza was truly an amazing frontierswoman, a perfect fit for this series about extraordinary women.

Born 1825 in Georgia, Eliza Turner’s family migrated to Florida before Statehood, and here she married her childhood sweetheart, Jonathan Clay Stewart. Family legend tells us the bride and groom settled at Clay Springs on Christmas Day of 1853, and there is no reason to doubt such a legend, although we should point out that Clay Springs is now called Wekiwa Springs. It is also worth mentioning that Shadrick Clay (Jonathan’s middle name) had also settled at Clay Springs in the early 1850s, prior to moving further south into Sumter County.

Eliza (Turner) & Jonathan Clay Stewart

Eliza and Jonathan had eight children ranging in ages from 2 to 15 when he went off to fight in the Civil War. Jonathan died on a Virginia battlefield, leaving Eliza (Tucker) Stewart with land to cultivate, an orange grove, and eight hungry mouths to feed.

Never remarrying, Eliza subdivided “Stewart’s Homestead” of 220 acres into parcels for each of her married children in 1879. She sold her own parcel to a grandson on 15 November 1894, five weeks before the first of two devastating freezes of the winter of 1894-95. After the freeze, Eliza returned to Marion County, where she died in 1901 at the age of 76.

Women of Central Florida’s 19^th century wilderness became every bit as tough as their male counterparts. Perhaps a few even became tougher!

Louise #Tucker Philips of Sanford

A word of caution when writing about any Phillips (aka Philips) family of Central Florida; there were at least three prominent but unrelated families. One family of course is the well-known Dr. Phillips of Orlando and South Orange County fame, an orange grower of the early 1900s who is memorialized today with the Dr. Phillips Performing Art Center is named for. The featured lady of this article is not about that family.

Thirteen years before orange grower Dr. Phillip Phillips arrived in Florida in 1903 guiding 200 Texas Herefords overland toward Ocala, a Miss Louise Tucker of Sanford married Doctor Albert E. Philips. Note that the Sanford doctor used only one L when spelling his last name. (This is not the Dr. Philips of 1880s Orange County who platted Philipsburg. I will leave that Dr. Philips out of this post before it gets too confusing).

Now then, back to Louise (Tucker) Philips of Sanford. She was a daughter of the infamous St. Louis “Boat Burner”. Born at Spartanburg, South Carolina in 1845, Louise was 16 when Civil War erupted between the North and South. During the War her father was said to have burned more than 100 boats on the Mississippi River. By age 22, Louise and her family were residents of Bermuda, hiding out there after the South had lost the War.

During the early 1870s, Louise returned to the States with her family and settled at the new town of Sanford, Florida, where her father became a prominent Attorney, and where, in 1890, Louise married Widower Dr. Edwin Philips (1845-1920). Louise (Tucker) Philips found her peace at Sanford, where she lived a long happy life. She died in 1934 at the age of 88.

Caroline Florence #Vance Beeks of Orlando

Reverend Greenberry C. Beeks was a Methodist Minister travelling the preacher circuit in Indiana prior to moving to central Florida in the 1880s. The Reverend then settled at Orange County, where his son, John T. Beeks married Caroline Florence (Vance)., namesake of Lake Florence in East Orange County

Beeks homestead, southeast of Lake Howell, is where one will also find the erroneously named Lake Deeks. Lake Deeks began as Lake Beeks! Another named lake on the Beeks Homestead is Garden Lake, mentioned by that name in several 1880s land sales, and still known as Garden Lake today. Orange County’s 1890 map identifies Lake Beeks as Beck’s Lake, closer - to the correct, but still wrong!

John T. Beeks was Superintendent of Orange County Schools from 1879 until 1896. After Florida’s Great Freeze of 1894-95, he and wife Caroline moved to Georgia, where John died in 1904, and Caroline Florence (Vance) Beeks died in 1910.

John Beeks legacy at Orange County, Florida is his role as Superintendent of Schools. His wife’s legacy is Lake Florence.

Follow Author & Historian Richard Lee Cronin

https://www.amazon.com/author/richardcronin

Our History Museum of the Day