Christiania GINN Speer of Mellonville

“Whereas Christiania has simultaneously purchased from the said parties of the second part the STEAMER Sarah Spaulding.” This statement appears in an 1854 document describing a November 27, 1852 mortgage secured by 200 head of cattle owned by Christiania SPEER. Mortgaged by Christiania (GINN) Speer in 1852, the debt was being settled in 1854 by her surviving spouse, Mellonville’s very own, Dr. Algernon S. Speer.

A woman operating a steamboat in 1852 #cflParadise? The image seems so out of place with the times, but no one ever claimed Christiania represented a typical 19^th century woman. Born 1818 in Georgia, she was the daughter of Irish immigrants, Arthur & Mary GINN. Arthur had developed a reputation in Georgia for growing apples, but history recalls the man more for planting central Florida’s first, or arguably second, ‘commercial’ citrus grove. Ginn-Speer Grove, planted in 1842 on the St. Johns River, was planted about the very same time as the Dummett Grove on the Indian River. (See our March 2, 2018 tribute in this series: Jennie A. CORNWALL.)

Christiana was the first wife of Algernon Speer. A mother of five, this couple is believed to have been the first to settle along Lake Monroe’s south shore, arriving in thiat area around 1843. Their homestead was along the lower St. Johns River, between Lakes Monroe and Jesup. In addition to assisting her father and husband in planting 120 acres of trees, Christiana also took time to purchase, at a March 14, 1848 auction, “one Dark Mule, Ox Wagon, two Steers, five cows and their calves”. She paid $32.11 for the entire lot. Four years later, this stock was likely part of the 200 head of cattle Christiania pledged as collateral to buy the Steamer Sarah Spaulding, aka Spalding.

Florida House of Representatives records mention the Steamer Spalding docking at old Fort Mellon on 27 March, 1852, eight months prior to Christiania starting up her own business of transporting people and freight up and down the river. Central Florida history credits Algernon and Arthur Ginn as running this steamboat business, but now, we all know the facts!

Christiania (Ginn) Speer died at age 35, a little over a year after starting her riverboat business, and four months after giving birth to her fifth child, on the 2^nd of June, 1853.

Tomorrow: Foremother of Altamonte Springs