Women's History Month - Day 29

 

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

Oviedo Preservation Society

An organization of volunteers working to preserve the history of Oviedo

info@oviedotraditions.org

MUSEUMS AND HISTORY ORGANIZATIONS NEED YOU!

 

 

Women's History Month - Day 28

 

Frontierswomen of Central Florida

Remembering Miss Gertrude Thorne

A Women’s History Month Tribute

By Richard Lee Cronin, CroninBooks.com

28 March 2022

 

Day 28

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

 

Lena #Tester Richardson of Mount Dora

Lena (Tester) Richardson, a Registered Nurse, founded Mount Dora Hospital with her husband, and continued managing the hospital long after his death in 1944.

“Mount Dora Hospital on Fourth Avenue,” said Mount Dora Topic of May 18, 1936, “which has now been established for nearly seven years, is now an incorporated institution. Dr. Gerald A. Richardson, who has successfully managed the hospital during this time is the President of the corporation; Lena T. Richardson, R. N., is Vice-President. Plans are now in the making for alterations which will make the institution a 40-room hospital.”

By 1937, Mount Dora Hospital had a total of 13 rooms in a “fire-proof building,” a later article by Mount Dora Topic reported, adding, “many of Mount Dora’s most prominent babies have been born in this institution.”

Contractor Lewis J. Drawdy was hired in 1938 to expand the hospital to 40 rooms, adding to the front as well as a second floor. By 1940, neighbor Emma J. (Little) Tallant (see prior Post) joined the hospital as a Nurse.

Mount Dora Hospital (1937) Dr. Gerald & Nurse Lena (Tester) Richardson

Dr. Gerald A. Richardson, born April 30, 1891, at Brookly, New York, died March 23, 1944. His 1929 arrival in Mount Dora had been proved a blessing in disguise for the community, for the much-loved Dr. Callahan had died suddenly in an auto accident. Arrival of the Richardson’s not only helped fill the physician vacancy, but a hospital also opened the same year, offering both a quality surgical center and maternity ward for Mount Dorans.

Dr. Richardson had married Lena (Tester), of Patterson, New Jersey, in 1917. A Registered Nurse, she and her husband lived at the hospital, and she kept the hospital open after her husband’s death. The 1960 Mount Dora directory listed Mount Dora Hospital, 142 E. 4^th Fourth Avenue, Mrs. Lena T. Richardson, Nurse.

 

Nurse Lena (Tester) Richardson died at her Fourth Avenue residence on 14 September 1970. She was 84 years young at the time of her death. Nurse Emma Jane (Little) Tallant died four months later, 19 January 1971, at her home around the corner at Third Avenue and Donnelly Street. Emma (Little) Tallant was 81 years young.

The curious might wonder if Lena and Emma ever met for lunch at Garden Gate Restaurant, a popular dining establishment on Alexander Street, across from the railway depot. Popular during the 1960s and 1970s, the restaurant closed in the late 70s. Years later however, the Garden Gate Tea Room was re-opened at 142 E. 4^th Avenue, the one-time location of Mount Dora Hospital.

[Further reading: Mount Dora. The Lure. The Founding, The Founders., by Richard Lee Cronin.]

 

Gertrude #Thorne of Mount Dora

A lone grave marker in Mount Dora’s Pine Forest Cemetery says the woman buried beneath it was Gertrude Thorne. But neither a year of birth nor death is given, only the lady’s name. And in far off Toronto, Canada, a detailed family tree lists seven of eight children born to Richard and Grace (Edgar) Thorne. The eldest child however, Grace C. Thorne, gives only a year of birth as 1865.

Founder of one of Mount Dora’s three most beloved hotels of old, it is time to fill in the blanks on the life of one amazing Central Florida frontierswoman – Miss Gertrude Thorne.

 “She was nursing in Brooksville, Ontario,” reported Mount Dora Topic in a June 19, 1947, article, “miles from her hometown of Thornhill, named after her grandfather, where she was born in 1865.” English merchant Benjamin Thorne (1794-1848), Gertrude’s grandfather, was in fact the founder of the village of Thornhill, Canada. “But she had a name to make for herself in the Mount Dora business world,” said that Topic article, and there is little doubt now that Gertrude’s grandfather would be very proud of the notable accomplishments his granddaughter made on her own, in the faraway village of Mount Dora, Florida.

 

View of Lake Dora from Miss Thorne’s Villa Dora Hotel

Gertrude Thorne first came to Mount Dora as the personal nurse of Zelle (Adams) Oviett in 1905. “Mrs. Oviatt stayed here,” reported Mount Dora Topic, “with her parents, which is directly back of the site of what is now Villa Dora.” Gertrude relocated permanently to Mount Dora in 1910, and she purchased an existing residence which she converted, in 1914, into the Hotel Villa Dora.

The home of Zelle (Adams) Oviett in 1905 was one and the same as the parcel acquired in March 1882 by Frank Adams of Akron, Ohio. Frank was Zelle’s father, and as explained in Chapter 4 of my book, Mount Dora: The Lure. The Founding. The Founders., he purchased Block 44, one of the earliest lot sales on “Mrs. Annie E. Donnelly’s homestead.

 

In 1968, long after Gertrude Thorne had sold Hotel Villa Dora, yet another article in the October 24^th issue of Mount Dora Topic explained that Miss Nan Thorne increased the building size, making it into “a hotel with accommodations for about 45 guests. Particularly admired about the Villa Dora were the “beautiful proportions of the lounge, wide, with low-ceiling, and gracious. Miss Thorne insisted on a cottage supported with long steel beams, the first ever built in this area. Yet the workmen did such a fine job that the building settled only slightly. She also insisted on a large picture window at the end of the lounge overlooking the beautiful view of Lake Dora. In 1910, this also was an unusual innovation.”

Gertrude Thorne never married. Her success was entirely her own doing. She was an active member of the King’s Daughters, a Mount Dora group that did much for needy families during the Great Depression of the 1930s. She had been an active member as well of the Woman’s Club and Mount Dora Yacht Club.

“Gertrude Thorne, one of Mount Dora’s early residents”, reported the Topic of September 17, 1953, “celebrated her 90^th birthday at her home on Fourth Avenue. Illness has prevented her from being out for some weeks.” Within a month after turning 90, Miss Thorne died at her residence.

[Further reading: Mount Dora. The Lure. The Founding, The Founders., by Richard Lee Cronin.]

 

Ozella #Topp Champney of Apopka

Ozella (Topp) and husband John Tunno Champneys arrived in Central Florida just as the farming of citrus was being introduced to inland Orange County in the 1870s. Prior to their arrival, citrus groves were located on homesteads lining the shoreline of the St. Johns River. But by the 1870s, smaller steamers were traversing the Wekiva River to Clay Springs (now Wekiwa State Park), and so the Champneys selected a homestead and planted citrus trees in the vicinity of Apopka.

John & Ozella Champneys expanded the 1850s village of Apopka considerably in 1885, so that today, many Apopkan landowners will find their land as part of “Champneys Add to Apopka.” Three corners of the busy intersection of US 441 and Park Avenue are part of the Champneys expansion of Apopka.

John Tunno Champneys, a Civil War Ordinance Officer for the Confederacy, was also a Civil Engineer. He married Ozella K. Topp of Lowndes County, Mississippi in April of 1864. John died in 1891, and Widow Ozella (Topp) Champney, along with John Tunno, Jr., continued the family’s civic and religious leadership in Apopka until her death April 3, 1917.  

 

Follow Author & Historian Richard Lee Cronin

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Our History Museum of the Day

Tavares History Museum

Located in the Tavares Union Depot Replica

Ruby Street at St. Clair-Abrams Avenue

Open 10 AM to 2 PM Tuesday, Thursday & Friday

Women's History Month - Day 27

 

Frontierswomen of Central Florida

 

Gertrude of Orlando’s Gertrude Walk

A Women’s History Month Tribute

By Richard Lee Cronin, CroninBooks.com

27 March 2022

 

Day 27

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

 

Ruby #Summerlin of Orlando and Tavares

Two partners in the 1882 creation of the city of Tavares named four of nearly two-dozen streets in the new town for their children. Ruby Street in downtown Tavares was one such street, named for the daughter of Robert L. & Texas B. (Parker) Summerlin. Ruby Lee Summerlin had been born at Orlando on March 17, 1877.

 

Ruby Lee (Summerlin) Burrows

Ruby’s father, eldest son of Jacob Summerlin, was an Attorney and partner in the formation of the town of Tavares, but when she was 5 years old, the town partnership was dissolved. Ruby’s mother moved to Bartow with her two daughters. Robert Summerlin departed Florida, and the future of Tavares was left in the hands of ex-partner, Alexander St. Clair-Abrams.

St. Clair-Abrams changed only the name of one town artery in the aftermath of the partners split. Summerlin Avenue became Park Avenue, then changed again to Rockingham Avenue. The streets named for the wife and children of Robert Summerlin remained unchanged.

Ruby Street was mentioned in September 1884 newspapers when the Commissioners of Sumter and Orange Counties met to select the location of a railroad drawbridge across Dora Canal, then considered part of the Ocklawaha River. Ruby Street was selected as a possible crossing point.

“On Saturday last, W. N. Jackson, and J. P. Poe, Commissioners for Sumter County, and Alexander St. Clair Abrams, Commissioner for Orange County, met to consider the immediate construction of a drawbridge across the Ocklawaha River at Tavares, and for which the two counties have appropriated $500. The Commissioners, after an exchange of views, proceeded to the run and selected a point at the foot of West Ruby Street for the location of the bridge.”

Savannah Morning News, September 16, 1884

 

Ruby Lee Summerlin married John Tilden Burrows at Polk County, where she continued to reside until her death, December 18, 1944. Ruby Street still exists today on each side of Lake County’s Courthouse in downtown Tavares, but the $500 drawbridge crossing Dora Canal is long gone.

 

Gertrude #Sweet Newell of Orlando

Voted “the most beautiful woman in Orange County,” Gertrude (Sweet) Newell’s Find-A-Grave memorial describes Gertrude’s Walk namesake as a talented blue-eyed musician. Born at New Orleans, Louisiana on 17 July 1862, Gertrude followed older brother Charles to Orlando in the 1870s. Another brother, William, and sister Ida, likewise relocated to Orlando.

Gertrude (Sweet) and Husband Harry Newell

 

By 1885, Charles and William, employed as Real Estate agents, were living with their sister Ida. Gertrude had married in 1883 to music teacher Harry A. Newell, and the Newell’s settled at 215 East Robinson Street, Gertrude’s home for the next 44 years.

So, how then did Gertrude’s Walk come about? Gertrude Street was one of the first named north-south arteries of Robert R. Reid’s 1880 expanded town of Orlando. Charles D. Sweet served as Mayor of Orlando in 1881, and an east-west road named Sweet Avenue was changed later to Colonial Drive (Highway 50). Charles reportedly wanted Gertrude Street (named for his sister) as the main street of Orlando, but South Florida Railroad arrived in late 1880 and wiped out most of Gertrude Street.

Gertrude Street practically vanished – eventually becoming a short Gertrude’s Walk alongside Rosie O’Grady’s entertainment complex.

Identified by some history records as the daughter of Charles D. Sweet, Gertrude can be found in 1870 New Orleans with Sister Ida and brothers William and Charles D, all listed as children of Charles L. and Ann M. Sweat (sic). The father, Louisiana’s State Tax Collector, died in 1874.

According to historian E. H. Gore, Mr. Harry A. Newton, Gertrude’s husband, was both a music teacher in the 1880s and the organizer of an Orlando Orchestra. Gertrude was band’s pianist.

Gertrude (Sweet) Newell died at Orlando in 1946.

 

Mary Arabella #Taylor of Enterprise

Mary Arabella Taylor, “Polly” as her father lovingly referred to his little girl, had been a Florida native who traveled down the St. Johns River with her family when only 12 years old. The year was 1841 when this family arrived at the newly renamed Lake Monroe.

First known as Lake Valdez before being changed to Lake Monroe, U. S. Army troops were still stationed across the lake at Fort Mellon. On the north shore of the lake, Mary’s father, Cornelius Taylor, established a small settlement that he called Enterprise. (Note: for the younger reader I should clarify that this Lake Monroe settlement was not the Starship.) 

Mary Polly’s role in preserving central Florida history is a heartbreaking role, for Mary Arabella ‘Polly’ Taylor died of Typhoid Fever when only 14 years old. Her tombstone is now a memorial to the original site of old Enterprise, described by Historian Daniel Gold (1927) as located one (1) mile east of today’s town of Enterprise.  

 

Grave marker of Mary Polly Taylor, Enterprise, FL

 

The Taylor family is believed to be the first family to homestead on Lake Monroe. An Enterprise Post Office opened at this location June 2, 1842, three (3) years before Florida became the 27^th State. Living in early Mosquito (Orange) County was a difficult challenge for males, and all too often, it was deadly for the frontierswomen. 

We should never forget Little Polly Taylor, the little girl’s tombstone marking the original site of central Florida’s first settlement.

[Further reading: Polly’s memory is preserved in Chapter 3 of CitrusLAND: Curse of Florida’s Paradise, by Richard Lee Cronin].

 

Follow Author & Historian Richard Lee Cronin

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

 

OUR HISTORY MUSEUM OF THE DAY

ENTERPRISE MUSEUM

360 Main Street

Enterprise, FL 32725

Located in a relocated 1936 schoolhouse, Enterprise Museum preserves the history of this early Lake Monroe settlement

Open Thursday, Friday & Saturday 10 AM to 2 PM

386-804-6987

 

Questions? Comments? Email Rick@CroninBooks.com

 

 

Women's History Month - Day 26

 

 Frontierswomen of Central Florida

Lake Sophia, aka, Lake Lotus of Altamonte Springs

A Women’s History Month Tribute

By Richard Lee Cronin, CroninBooks.com

26 March 2022

Day 26

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

 

Sophia Charlotte #Sjoeborg of Altamonte Springs

Unless you found mention of her in Orlando Lakes: Homesteaders & Namesakes, my popular encyclopedia of 19^th century pioneers who settled 300 plus central Florida lakes, you may not have heard of this extremely courageous frontierswoman. Sophia was a Swedish immigrant who came to America in 1870 with Josef Henschen. Henry Sanford had employed Josef to encourage many fellow Swedes to relocate to Sanford, Florida, where they could find work with him.

Most immigrants arriving in 1870-71 with Josef Henschen settled near Sanford at Upsala, a new town established for the Swedish immigrants near Sanford. But not Sophia Charlotte Sjoeborg, as she applied for a homestead, miles from Sanford, in the wilderness of Orange County.

Sophia applied for her homestead of 160 acres on June 9, 1875. Her land, located on the west of present-day Lake Lotus in Seminole County, was originally called Lake Sophia as per a survey done in 1890 (below), completed when this area was part of Orange County.

 

Lake Sophia as identified in 1890; Present-day Lake Lotus

 

By 1887, when John G. Hower of Cleveland designed his town of Forest City in West Orange County, the largest of lakes on his town’s southern border was by then named Lake Lotus.

Sophia Charlotte Sjoeborg, born 1805 in Upsala, Sweden, prepared a Last Will and Testament in Orange County which provides a Florida history of a brave female pioneer who dared to settle in a remote wilderness of Orange County. Upon her death in 1882, she willed portions of her property to Josef Henschen, and another portion to Reverend Dr. William Henschen of Evanston, Illinois. A biography of Reverend Henschen says he was a Methodist preacher and newspaper editor and had settled briefly in Florida around 1884 (Likely came to check out Lake Sophia).

Sophia was 77 years of age when she died here in Orange County, Florida. Her lake was renamed soon after, and Lake Lotus Park occupies a portion of the land first owned by Miss Sophia Sjoeborg of Upsala, Sweden. The park is accessed via Maitland Boulevard west of Forest City Road.

 

[Further reading: CitrusLAND: Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains and Orlando Lakes: Homesteaders & Namesakes, each by Richard Lee Cronin]

 

Beatrice #Smyth

Beatrice Smyth died at her birthplace of England at the of age of 101 in 1968. After a long-distance courtship lasting nearly six years, Beatrice had married an American cousin, Arthur W. C. Smyth, in 1893. Beatrice (Smyth) Smyth then relocated to Orlando, Florida, living at the Orange County seat of government until shortly after the death of her husband in 1905.

American born Arthur W. Catesby Smyth became known to his family as ‘the traveler’, a fitting moniker he earned beginning in 1888. While visiting family at Nottinghamshire, England, Arthur and English cousin, Allan MacDowell Smyth, devised a business plan to sell Florida oranges in England as well as neighboring European countries France and Germany.

In the fall of 1888, the Smyth cousins set sail from England, and according to the ship’s registry, their destination was listed as Orlando, Florida.

Within a year the Smyth partners acquired land for a packing house at Thomas E. Wilson’s, Town of Sylvan Lake. In 1890, the cousins added a second packing house at Gertrude and Church Streets in downtown Orlando, adjacent to the South Florida Railroad terminal. A third packing house at Palm Springs (now the intersection of SR 434 & Markham Woods Road), was established months prior to a tragedy striking the Smyth Orange Brokerage Company. Allan McDowell Smyth, only 34 years of age, died suddenly in July of 1891.

 

Smyth & Barnaby Orange Packers, Orlando, Florida

 

While the Smyth cousins had been building their business, Arthur W. C. Smyth had been in a long- distance courtship with Allan Smyth’s younger sister, Beatrice Alice. The lovebirds communicated often, and as most any young girl deeply in love often does, she saved every letter her American cousin had written. The couple exchanged letters for two years prior to marrying over the summer of 1893, letters providing an extraordinary insight into the Smyth’s and Orlando history.

Arthur’s duties multiplied following the death of his partner, so when it came time to pack fruit, Arthur W. C. Smyth could be found in Orange County, a hands-on packer, rotating between one of his three packing houses. Once the final box of citrus left the County via train, so too did Arthur. With all current season orders filled, Smyth went in search of orders for the next season.

In the summer and early fall of 1892, Arthur traveled to Strasburg, Germany; Paris, France; and Glasgow, England. While in England, he divided his time between courting Beatrice Alice Smyth and selling citrus to such local firms as L&H Williams of Glasgow. Then, in late August 1892, Arthur boarded the ‘City of Rome’ steamboat for a return trip to New York, where, after a layover at Richmond, Virginia to visit his own family, he was off again, this time to Indiana, closing on a sale of 1,500 boxes of citrus at Evanston, Illinois.

Arthur slept aboard the train and worked days hopscotching through the midwestern States on his way to Chicago, timing his arrival in the Windy City to attend the opening ceremony of Chicago’s World’s Fair. The fall 1892 event coincided with the 400^th Anniversary of Christopher Columbus landing in North America. Orange County was represented at the Florida Pavilion of that World’s Fair.

Arthur’s busy travels were always timed to have him back in Orange County once the citrus was again ripe for picking. Now you know why his family nicknamed him, ‘the traveler’.

Beatrice Alice Smyth married Arthur W. C. Smyth and settled at Orlando after Arthur was able to build them a home. “The $5,000 I put aside last summer for your house and furniture,” he wrote in an 1893 letter to Beatrice, “is entirely independent of the business.” By the year 1900, Arthur, Beatrice, and three Smyth children lived on Main Street in downtown Orlando, walking distance from the Smyth Packing House on Gertrude Street.

Beatrice, after becoming a widow in 1905, returned to England with her three children, where she lived until her death in 1968 at the age of 101.

[Further reading: Citrusland: Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains by Richard Lee Cronin]

 

Sarah #Stanaland Sellers of Emeralda Island

The historic Sellers residence is said to be the oldest house in Lake County, but the home is also the oldest house in original Orange County. The land upon which it was built in 1863 was, until 1887, Orange County. Towns Eustis, Mount Dora, Sanford, Tavares and nearly every other town in Orange and Lake Counties, did not even exist yet when the Seller family built their home.

Even the distant county seat of Orlando was but a tiny village of four acres only six years young. Fewer than 1,500 citizens lived in ALL of Orange County, and travel was at that time limited to “real” horsepower. Also, when the Sellers’ moved into the house after it was first built, travel to Ocala was more convenient than to the county seat of Orlando.

Fourteen (14) years before this home was built, Reverend Willets D. Sellers purchased the land on which the house now stands. Ten (10) years after the home was built, Widow Sarah Sellers, in 1874, sold the property. Widow Sellers therefore was the head of household in this remote corner of Orange County for a decade.

Reverend and Sarah Sellers came to Florida from Brunswick, North Carolina, where generations of Sellers had lived dating to before America’s Revolution.

Reverend Willetts died May 16, 1858, and by 1860, Widow Sarah (Stanaland) Sellers was living with her son Daniel (1828-1884) in Orange County. The home shown with this blog was built three years later, in 1863, on land Widow Sarah Sellers owned until 1874. Sarah died in 1886.

Truly a courageous frontierswoman, Sarah Sellers homestead was so close to the Marion County border that her family was listed in the 1860 Marion County census rather than Orange County’s. Her land deeds for a residence that is today in Emeralda Island however were properly recorded at Orlando.

 

1863 Sellers residence at curve on Emeralda Island Road

[Further reading: River Gateway, Chapter 27, “Tavares: Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County by Richard Lee Cronin].

 

History Museum of the Day

Museum of the Apopkans

The Apopka Historical Society was organized in 1968 and incorporated in 1971. The Apopka Historical Society are the caretakers of the artifacts representing the history of Apopka and Northwest Orange County. The Museum of the Apopkans is the physical building that houses these artifacts and is owned by the city of Apopka. The city provides support for the museum in maintaining the building and grounds and utilities.

122 E. 5^th Street, Apopka, Florida

407-703-1707

Tuesday thru Friday 12 PM to 5 PM

 

Questions or Comments: Email Rick@CroninBooks.com

 

Women's History Month - Day 25

Frontierswomen of Central Florida

Maitland Park Lake Hotel

A Women’s History Month Tribute

By Richard Lee Cronin, CroninBooks.com

25 March 2022

 

Day 25

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

 

Maria #St-Cyr Harney of Rutledge & Orlando

The young lady from St. Louis, Missouri was 19 years old when she arrived in Orange County to purchase twenty (20) wilderness acres, on November 16, 1888, in the town of Rutledge. The land however was not exactly for her use. Instead, the young lady, Marie St. Cyr, acquired the acreage for her mother and stepfather. Marie’s stepfather had traveled this way before, but that was 50 years earlier, during the Seminole Indian War, when a Lake Harney, not far from Rutledge, had been named in his honor.

The Orlando Sentinel of 12 September 1917 reported her death: “Orlando as a town is bereft, for few of its residents could work more zealously for civic advancement, and to few is due the gratitude which Orlando owes for improvements along various lines, accomplished through Mrs. Beeman’s personal thought and labor.”

Identified only as “Mrs. Harry Leland Beeman,” the newspaper writeup identified her as a native of “St. Louis, Missouri, born in 1869, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Paschal St. Cyr of that city,” and having moved “to Orlando in early girlhood with her mother, and in 1891 became the bride of Harry L. Beeman.” Although all is true, here is the rest of Marie’s untold story.

Another published obituary, appearing in various newspapers nationwide in 1889, was that of General William S. Harney, an uncle of Pine Castle’s Will Wallace Harney. “Some 3 years ago,” said the General’s obituary, “he married his housekeeper. His marriage was strenuously opposed by his children, and they attempted to have it set aside and a guardian appointed for him. In this they failed.” A long-time St. Louis resident, General Harney died at Orlando, Florida on 9 May 1889. The aging general had in fact married his housekeeper, and the general’s estate had indeed been contested by children of his first marriage.

Mary Cromwell was born 24 January 1826 at Frederick County, MD. She relocated to St. Louis with her widowed mother and siblings, and in 1866, at age 40, she married Paschal St. Cyr, a widower and father of eight. By 1880, Mary (Cromwell) St. Cyr had become a Widow, living on her own with one child, Marie, 11 years old. Having no means of supporting herself, the mother turned to housekeeping, - hired by General Harney’s family to care for their aging father.

Mary and her daughter moved into the general’s home in 1880, residing both at the main home in St. Louis and the historic “Harney Mansion” at Sullivan, Missouri (Now a Historical Museum).

On the 12 November 1884, General William S. Harney, 84 years old, married his 58 years old “housekeeper.” His family had fit, and it’s entirely possible that the infighting led to a decision to relocate, which in turn led to a young lady the general considered his stepdaughter arriving in Orange County to acquire the new residence.

1888 General William S. Harney parcel, Rutledge (South of Sanford), Florida

 

In 1888, a half century after first stepping upon the wilds of Mosquito County, a retired General William S. Harney returned to Orange County, living briefly in the town of Rutledge, a ghost town today, founded by Florida’s General Joseph Finegan. Rutledge was 20 miles west of Lake Harney, the lake named during the Seminole Indian War for William S. Harney.

One year after arriving in Florida, General Harney died, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Marie (St. Cyr) Beeman, the general’s stepdaughter, married Harry L. Beeman, of Orlando’s San Juan Hotel fame. Orlando historian E. H. Gore said Mrs. Beeman built a bandstand on a vacant lot near the hotel, and historian C. E. Howard, author of Early Settlers of Orange County, wrote that Gotha’s Horticulturalist Henry Nehrling named one of his exceptional hybrid Caladium’s, “Mrs. H. L. Beeman,” in honor of a local resident who never tired of involving herself in charity work.

“Mrs. Beeman was one of the few women who recognized the urgent need that charity work in Orlando be united in one organization, and was a prime mover in this, serving as Treasurer of the Charities throughout its first year and later on its board of governors.

 

Catherine #Sharples Willcox of Maitland (not Wilcox)

“Mrs. Catharine Willcox,” was a headline of a brief obituary in the Philadelphia Inquirer of May 12, 1915, which went on to state: “Mrs. Katharine Willcox, widow of the late James M. Willcox, a former paper manufacturer at Glenn Mills, died yesterday in her apartment at the Gladstone, she was 70 years of age.” Finding variations in spelling of Catherine are not uncommon when researching yesteryear, but the same holds true of this Central Florida frontierswoman’s married name. Willcox, the proper spellings, often appears as Wilcox.

Katherine Helen (Sharples) Willcox was the second wife of James M. Willcox, a manufacturer of paper for making money, and in the 1880s, a large central Florida landowner in Maitland, Mount Dora, and Orlando. The Willcox Addition to Orlando at Lake Ivanhoe was developed by James & Katherine, and James was not alone in buying property. Katherine purchased an entire square mile (640 acres) to the east of present-day Eatonville in 1881.

Orange County legal documents show her name as Catherine and Katherine, but the lake named for her is and always has been, Lake Catherine. On their Maitland property, James & Catherine Willcox built Park Lake Hotel, and named Park Lake, Lake Eulalie, and Lake Catherine.  

 

1890 Maitland map showing Hotel plus Lakes Park and Catherine

James & Catherine Willcox had named Lake Eulalie for a daughter born in 1858 to James’ first wife. That daughter became sister Eulalia Amelia of the Holy child of Jesus Society. In 1881, James & Catherine conveyed a parcel of land on Lake Eulalia to the Roman Catholic Church.

James M. Willcox died in 1895, and Catherine remained a widow until her death in 1915.

[Further reading: Orlando Lakes: Homesteaders & Namesakes, plus First Road to Orlando, each by Richard Lee Cronin].

 

Lena #Short Lovell of Orlando

Born December 1880 in Kansas, Lena SHORT and her family moved to Orange County about the time she turned five. At the young age of 15, Lena was given a contract to teach in Orange County Schools for a seven (7) month period. Her teaching assignment was in a remote corner of South Orange County, so out of a $25 monthly salary, she had to pay room and board of $8 per month to live in the home of a family of six, four of whom were the young teacher’s students.

To begin her teaching career, Lena left her Orlando home in October 1895 aboard a horse drawn wagon. Her first teaching assignment was seven (7) miles south of Pine Castle. Lena personally described her teaching assignment and living quarters, and we are indebted to a descendant who passed her memoirs along to this historian, so that we can all appreciate this very special Central Florida frontierswoman:

“I was shown my room. It was what is known as a ‘shed room’. That is, one end of a porch had been boarded up. It had a stationary, one pane glass window with a nice scrap of lace curtain over it, a homemade bed with native moss mattress and a pillow, and a small table once known as a washstand with a towel bar at each end. The floor, of course, was far from water or airtight – being a porch – and the cracks between the boards were wide enough to run a lead pencil through. If I dropped any small article woe to me – for that was the last of it. I was soon fast asleep – how long I do not know – for I was awakened by bumping and scraping under the low floor and squeals and grunts of a mother hog coming home to her lair to feed her babies in the bed she made for them and herself under my room. These hogs are infested with ‘hog fleas’ which are very large and can leap incredible distances and heights. Many a time I was obliged to get up in the dead of night that winter and shake the fleas out of my bed so that I, a tired and weary fifteen (15) year old, could sleep. It was some time before there was a rain. When it came it was in the middle of the night, and I was awakened by splashes in my face. I was obliged to get my huge umbrella and open and sit under it while the rest of the bed got a soaking.”

As an adult, Myra “Lena” Short married Frederick Charles Lovell, son of central Florida pioneer and Orange County’s first school Superintendent, William A. Lovell. Education, it seems, ran in Lovell’s family bloodlines, for the excerpt above is from a memoir submitted to me by another of the long line of Lovell schoolteachers, a retired teacher of 50 years himself.

 

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Josephine #Short of Mount Dora

Josephine Short (1862-1926) was the daughter of Dr. Susan (Downer) Short of Eustis and Mount Dora (see Post of March 6, 2022). A published author, Josephine lived at Eustis and Mount Dora with her mother during winter months, then returned to New York City for the summer went not traveling. One of her well-reviewed books was Chosen Days in Scotland, published in 1911 by Thomas Crowell Company.

 

Chosen Days in Scotland by Josephine H. Short

“It is a well-made book. She has compressed into so small a space so much wild and romantic scenery, so much stormy history, and such fascinating romance.”

[Further reading: Mount Dora: The Lure. The Founding, The Founders by Richard Lee Cronin. Chosen Days in Scotland by Josephine H. Short can be found online as a rare book.]

 

History Museum of the Day

 

Davenport Historical Society

Named for Fort Davenport, the 1880s railroad town of Davenport grew up along the South Florida Railroad route from Kissimmee to Tampa. This historical society works to preserve the history of this historic town. “Fort Davenport Lateral” is also Chapter 9 in this author’s book, Beyond Gatlin: A History of South Orange County. The town of Davenport is today in Polk County.

  

1838 Fort Davenport Trail from Beyond Gatlin

 

Questions? Comments? Rick@CroninBooks.com