Frontierswomen
of Central Florida
A
Women’s History Month Tribute
By
Richard Lee Cronin, CroninBooks.com
6 March 2022
Day 6
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 promoting each day a local History
Museum, listing their days and hours of operation.
Our Featured
History Museum is at the end of this blog
Laura Jane #Delano Gibbs
(1837-1925) was the first owner of a parcel known today as Cranes Roost,
a popular Altamonte Springs Park. Although not part of the original town of
Altamonte Springs, the origins of this Seminole County city today can be traced
to the lady who first owned Cranes Roost, a woman by the name of Laura Jane
(Delano) Gibbs.
Mrs. Gibbs owned 158 acres in what was in Orange County
back in 1877, property that included the west half of Cranes Roost Lake.
Altamonte Springs did not yet exist then, although there was a start-up town
called Altamont (no ‘e’) about a mile north of the “Gibbs Homestead.”
Altamont Post Office, opened 30 December 1874, was located about where Hwy 434 now
passes under I-4. In 1877, the Laura Gibbs parcel was already known as “Gibbs
Grove”.
Not until 1882 did “Boston Capitalists” arrive on the
scene to begin development of Altamonte Springs, a community east of Gibbs
Grove. Laura, a resident of Newton, Massachusetts, sold ten of her 158 acres on
7 November 1877, describing the land sale as, “Gibbs Grove, situated
in Altamont, Orange County, Florida.” The buyers were three investors from
Bangor, Maine.
Born at Baltimore, Maryland on 11 November 1836, Laura
Jane Delano was the fourth child of Henry D. Delano (1798-1888), a “Master
Mariner,” and second wife, Laura Allen (1803-1886). Laura Delano was raised
near Plymouth Rock, and at age 20, married Oliver C. Gibbs, a native of
Massachusetts.
By 1870, Oliver & Laura Gibbs were living at
Newton, Massachusetts, outside Boston, where Oliver was a merchant. He
continued as a merchant until his death, March 14, 1875, a pivotal moment for
the origins of Florida’s town of Altamonte Springs. During the summer of 1875,
three individuals were appointed by the Judge of Probate to appraise the estate
of Oliver C. Gibbs. The three selected were Josiah B. Chase; Stiles Frost; and
George Frost. George was an older brother of Stiles, and this George Frost was
also one of the “Boston Capitalists” to establish Altamonte Springs, Florida in
1883.
Cranes Roost, Orange County,
Florida, circa 1890 Orange County map
[Further
reading, CitrusLAND: Altamonte Springs of Florida, and Rick’s Blog of February
28, 2019].
Dr. Susan #Downer Short
and daughter Josephine are featured in my book, Mount Dora: The Lure. The
Founding. The Founders. The following excerpt is borrowed from page 194 of
that book:
Chosen Days in Scotland
arrived on bookshelves nationwide during 1911, no doubt written, at least in
part, while author Josephine Short gazed upon Lake Dora for literary
inspiration. Author Josephine Short lived with her mother, a distinguished New
York physician who, after retiring from her medical practice, became a Lake
County resident and land developer.
Dr. Susan D. Short and
her daughter Josephine lived on Seminole Avenue, a Mount Dora roadway known
today as Ninth Avenue. Their home, at the southeast corner of Helen and Ninth,
has since been replaced, but back in its day, the residence overlooked Coliseum
Way and came complete with an unobstructed view of Lake Dora.
In 1910, Josephine and
her mother, Dr. Susan (Downer) Short were Mount Dora family #162 in the census.
John Donnelly and the grandchildren of Annie (McDonald), his deceased wife, was
listed as family #163. Dr. Short, at age 75, purchased nearly three city blocks
of Mount Dora (see red outlined area below), allocating part for a residence
plus a portion for a town “plat of Mrs. S. D. Short’s Subdivision.” Susan Short
named her subdivision, Mt. Dora Highlands.”
“Mrs. S. D. Short’s Subdivision at
Mount Dora outlined above in red
Bowman Realty, in 1914,
was hired as sales agent for “Mt. Dora Highlands,” a tract east of Helen
Street, south of Tavares Road (Eleventh Avenue), and west of Donnelly Street.
The plat included all of Blocks 20 and 21, plus a portion of Blocks 29 &
30, town blocks first laid out as part of the 1881 Village of Glencoe – aka –
Mount Dora. But “Mt. Dora Highlands” had not been the doctors first Lake County
development. Dr. Short first subdivided a parcel “close to the Ocklawaha Hotel,”
in historic downtown Eustis, Florida. St. Mary of the Lakes Church at Eustis
occupies today much of the town block first platted in the 1880s by “Dr. S. D.
Short.”
St. Mary of the Lakes Church, Block
122, Eustis, FL, Platted 1903 by Dr. S. D. Short
A graduate of Boston
University, Dr. Susan (Downer) Short (1834-1926) was a native of Vermont. Her
daughter Josephine (1866-1927) was born in Illinois.
[Further
reading: Mount Dora: The Lure. The Founding. The Founders by Richard Lee
Cronin].
Gertrude #Dupuy
was born at
Philadelphia in 1841. Living in Paris with her Widowed aunt at age
23, Gertrude met and married Henry S. Sanford. Henry, a United States
diplomatic in 1864, retired five years later, and a year after retiring, found
his way back to the States and to Central Florida. Henry Sanford invested a
sizeable sum of money to acquire 12,000 wilderness acres on the south shore of
Lake Monroe.
Inland three miles from his planned lakeside town of
Sanford, he reportedly developed an estate known as Belair. “I sometimes
feel the 18th day of December at Belair was a
delicious dream,” wrote a journalist who visited General Sanford’s estate
in 1882. The reporter added, “having dismounted at the rustic Belair
Station, on the South Florida Railroad line, carriages transported our party
through a broad gateway into a shady avenue. The pure fresh air is ambrosial.”
Ten rail minutes south of
Sanford, Belair was the first stop on South Florida
Railroad’s 1880 train to Orlando. “The grove and residence of H. S.
Sanford,” wrote another reporter in 1889, viewing Sanford’s estate from
his train, “had Crystal Lake on one side and Belair Station on the
other. On 145 acres were all the principal varieties of oranges grown
in Florida.”
Early write-ups reference Belair as dating
to 1870, but during 1875 and 1876, Henry Sanford and wife
Gertrude were signing deeds for land sales as, “residents of Jacksonville,
Duval County, FL.” Belair was part of the 12,000 acres included in
Sanford’s 1870 purchase, but an 1878 deed raises an interesting
question as to who really owned the Belair Estate.
An early Orange County deed include the following
wording: “Reverend Charles Du Puy, of the City of Philadelphia, PA,
did give and bequeath to Gertrude E. Sanford, his niece, certain property,
real and personal.” This parcel was transferred to Gertrude in 1878 in exchange
for $18,000 and was described as 400 acres “known
as Belair, bounded on the south by Crystal Lake.”
Since Belair had been part of the 12,000
acres Sanford purchased in 1870 for $18,200, why did
Reverend DuPuy bequeath 400 of the 12,000 acres in 1878 to
Gertrude Sanford for $18,000?
Reverend Charles Meredith Du Puy, a brother
of Gertrude’s father, died November 26, 1875, at Philadelphia. At the
time of the Reverend’s death, Belair, at Sanford, Florida, in fact
belonged to a member of the Gertrude (DuPuy) Sanford family. It appears
likely that Henry Sanford bought the 12,000 acres by borrowing at least some of
the money from Gertrude’s family.
But Gertrude’s family not only assisted Henry in
buying the land her family likely assisted in naming Belair too. As Henry
Sanford was buying the Levy Grant in 1870, Gertrude’s brother, also a Charles
Meredith Du Puy, was President of a railroad venture constructing a line
between New York and Philadelphia.
The DuPuy family of Philadelphia
predates William Penn by five years, that according to a detailed
history of the family. “DuPuy’s Rock,” says that history, appears on
early Philadelphia maps, while nearby was Bellaire Manor, “a building
known by all variations of Bell Air,” as stated in the building’s historic
preservation records, dating to the early 1700s. So, the DuPuy family had long
been associated with the name Belair.
Henry S. Sanford is remembered as founder and
developer of Sanford, Florida, but as is often the case with Central Florida
history, a frontierswoman is nearly always involved as well. Presently the
County Seat of Seminole County, Sanford, it appears, truly owes its existence
not only to Henry Shelton Sanford, but to his lovely wife, Gertrude Ellen
(Du Puy) (1841-1902) as well.
Mary #Dyer MacDonald
was the rarely mentioned influence behind land agent and marketeer of the 1880s
Great Lake Region of Orange County, John A. MacDonald. As husband and wife,
they founded Eustis, after first enticing Augustus Pendry to build the
Ocklawaha Hotel, and there is considerable reason to state that Mary MacDonald
greatly influenced the founding of Mount Dora as well.
John A. MacDonald, a Civil Engineer and surveyor,
arrived at Fort Reid from Wisconsin in 1867, coming to the wilderness of
central Florida in search of a means of making money so he could bring his wife
and son to Florida as well. Assisting others who wanted to acquire land in
Orange County was the career he chose, and by 1870, the MacDonald family was
reunited and living at Fort Reid. A decade later, after relocating to Eustis
where John continued working as a land agent and surveyor, his wife Mary took
over the business, says John in his writings, for a two-year period while he
went to New York to become a lawyer. During the two years, Mary (Dyer)
MacDonald began buying and selling parcels at another new West Orange County
town, Mount Dora. It was also during that time that the MacDonald’s became
involved in building the historic Lakeside Inn at Mount Dora.
Born at Penobscot, Maine in 1849, Mary’s family had
moved west to Wisconsin by 1860 where, in 1865, Mary A. Dyer married Jahn A.
MacDonald. They thrived in Orange and Lake County until the great freeze of
1894-95, when like most area landowners, the MacDonald’s lost much of their
wealth. But rather than giving up entirely, the MacDonald’s relocated further
south to Coral Gables and the developing Miami area. John died in 1917, Mary in
1849.
MacDonald Street in Eustis, Florida was named for one
– or perhaps both – of the real founders of that city.
[Further
reading: Tavares: Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County,
by Richard Lee Cronin.]
Our History Museum of the Day
The
Clifford House, Eustis, Florida
352-483-0046
Built
around 1910, the 4,500 square foot Clifford House has 18 rooms and currently
houses the Eustis Historical Museum. The home was built by Eustis pioneer Guilford
D. Clifford. Published hours of the museum are Friday & Saturday, 1 PM to 5
PM.
