“Her form could be seen floating among the orange trees.”
There is a sad tale of an Orlando girl, a young bride we were told, a story first shared by an Orlando author and historian. Miss Kena FRIES published her story in 1938, saying the actual event had occurred many years earlier:
“A jolly Christmas party” wrote Miss Fries, “the guests leaving long after midnight, in the darkened house the hosts slept peacefully. In the early morning the wife awoke, a choking sensation in her throat. The room was filled with smoke, and lurid flames leaped about the building. Frantic efforts failing to arouse her husband, she ran to the nearby water plant, clad only in her night robes.”
The tragedy of a young Central Florida bride did not end there, for Miss Fries continued: “After that, for many years, just before sunrise on the morning of December 27th, her form could be seen floating among the orange trees, from the charred remains of the old house to the water plant, where it dissolved into thin air and vanished.”
Did this incident really happen? Miss Fries had begun her story stating: “In the early eighties,” meaning of course 1880’s, “the Webbers built a house in a large orange grove.” They later sold, said Kena, “to a young Englishman, who had the house beautifully ‘interior decorated’ and furnished. His bride, a handsome English girl, entertained their friends lavishly.”
The FRIES legend provided a few noteworthy clues. There was the family name Webber, and an intriguing reference to a water plant, both of which seemed to be a logical place to begin the search for truth.
The Frank R. Webber family:
Frank R. Webber, a native of St. Albans, Maine, began buying Orange County property in 1884. His land fronted both Lake Ivanhoe to the north, and Lake Highland on the east. Today, Orange Avenue and Sun Rail cross land once owned by Mr. Webber.
Orange County’s 1887 Gazetteer listed Frank Webber as an Orange Grower, and gave his residence as Lake Ivanhoe. Frank R. Webber also platted his land that very same year as a subdivision, naming his new community, FAIR OAKS.
During 1886 a new railroad had been organized to run from Orlando to Winter Park, and planners prepared a detailed survey of land along the intended route. The track was to run alongside the existing railroad track belonging to South Florida Railroad.
Their railroad survey included Webbers subdivision, showing Frank Webber’s home on Lot 24 of his subdivision. The railroad survey also showed a property owner adjoining Webber’s land, to their north, alongside the railroad track, fronting Lake Highland.
I decided I needed to pay a visit to the site about this time, and as I stood at the south side of Sun Rail’s existing track, where today the track crosses Highland Avenue, I looked north to view Lake Ivanhoe. To my east was Lake Highland, and to the south Lake Highland Preparatory School, on the east side of Highland Avenue. This was the land once owned by Frank R. Webber.
Webber’s land includes a vacant fenced lot today, a parcel alongside the railroad track, the same lot shown on the 1886 railroad survey as owned by Mrs. F. W. Lord. Had I found evidence to support the FRIES’ Ghost story? Had this vacant lot, to the south of an ever-developing town of Orlando, been vacant for the past 130 years?
Could solving the mystery of a beautiful English bride named Lord really be that easy? That, I reasoned, might depend on a water plant!
The Orlando Water Company:
The original town of Orlando did not have an adequate source of water. Despite the town center being within a stone’s throw of Lake Eola, during the 1880s, that lake was a muddy watering hole for the local free range cattle. In 1887, Orlando Water Company was organized to resolve the drinking water need. The new company decided to build a pump house, and the site it chose was, as you might have guessed, Lake Highland! In April 1887, Mr. and Mrs. Lord signed an agreement allowing Orlando Water Co. to cross their land, to pump out of Lake Highland, to allow the City of Orlando, the signed agreement stipulated, to build a water plant.
Between 1887 and 1893, numerous land sales were recorded by Mrs. Lord. Even prior to her marriage in April 1885, the young lady had been active in selling real estate, often working alongside her father. Mrs. F. W. Lord, it turns out, was in fact Francie (Webber) Lord, the daughter of Frank R. Webber of Fair Oaks Subdivision.
The last recorded Orange County transaction found for Mrs. Lord occurred in 1893. She was at that time 29 years old. So, could Francie be the young bride who died after a Christmas house fire. Was she the young girl who ran to Orlando’s new water plant?
But not so fast!
It seemed as though I might have found the answer, until that is, I stumbled upon the death certificate of Francie W. Lord. Francie died in Chicago, on the 9th day of April, 1936!
The Lord family had become snowbirds. By 1912, they were residents of Evanston, Illinois, where the land company owned by Francie’s husband, Joseph H. Lord, the Sarasota-Venice Company, was headquartered. Not only was the Lord couple alive and well into the 1930s, they had become prominent Gulf Coast developers.
My Lord theory had gone up in smoke, and so it was back to the drawing board.
As the water plant was built in 1887, the legend itself, if it was true, had to have occurred around that year or later. The Webber home, Kena FRIES had said was sold to a, “a young Englishman, who had the house: “interior decorated and furnished.” Miss Fries stressed the man’s wife was a “bride, a handsome English girl, who entertained their friends lavishly.”
Despite the Lord / Webber family fitting nicely into Kena’s legend, more so than J. W. Anderson, the one and only other neighbor, I decided to investigate further. Anderson, I found, owned five acres on the east side of present day Highland Avenue, land that is presently part of the Lake Highland Preparatory School grounds.
Anderson too was also orange grower, but he and his wife also lived well into the 20th century. That’s why I originally discounted the couple, but knew I now needed to take another look.
Orlando’s Ice Man:
John W. Anderson would have been a popular guy in 1880s Orlando, if for no other reason than his business - he managed the Orlando Ice House. During hot summer months before the advent of refrigerators and air-conditioners, John W. Anderson would have been everybody’s friend.
Born in Indiana, John lived out his youth in Iowa, and there enlisted with the Union Army, spending much of his Civil War service in Arkansas. John had come face to face with the enemy there, an enemy that would one day become his neighbors. Serving at the Battle of Jenkins Ferry, nearly a thousand men, half Union - half Confederate, had died on the battle field. After War’s end, Anderson returned to Iowa, where, in 1874, he married Adeth Bell Gibson.
Five days after the birth of a second son to John and Adeth Anderson in 1877, the mother, Adeth Anderson, died of childbirth complications. John W. Anderson next married Adeth’s sister, Emily. The family relocated in 1881 to Orlando, Florida, where their first parcel, east of the city, became Greenwood Cemetery during the early 1880s.
By 1886, John W. Anderson had moved his family again, to Lake Highland. There is no record however of John buying the land. Instead, a land deed was issued to, “Emily Gibson Anderson, sole heir at law of Peter Gibson, deceased.”
Emily of Orlando’s Lake Highland:
Peter Gibson of Ryegate, Vermont purchased, in 1881, five acres upon which Lake Highland Preparatory School now sits. Peter died at his hometown in 1892, and is buried beneath a handsome gravestone at Ryegate’s Hillside Cemetery.
On one side of Peter Gibson’s headstone, there for all to read, is found a bone chilling inscription, a story that was later replicated in the annals of Ryegate history.
Peter Gibson had married Emily Low in 1846. They became parents of two girls, Adeth and Emily, both of whom, states the Vermont town’s history, had been married to John W. Anderson. The history goes on to say that Peter’s wife, Emily (Low) Gibson, died first.
“The husband was rescued unhurt,” says Miss Kena FRIES tragic legend, a death that occurred one night following a jolly Christmas party, while “the house burned to the ground.” Miss FRIES wrote, “The wife never recovered.”
The inscription on one side of Peter Gibson’s Ryegate, Vermont tombstone states that his wife, Emily Low Gibson, died, at Orlando, Florida, on December 23, 1883.
Age 62 in 1883, married 37 years, New Englander Emily Low Gibson could hardly be described as a young English bride. Still, Emily and husband Peter were snowbirds, lived on the shore of Lake Highland, and were within a stone’s throw of where an Orlando water plant would be built a few years later.
Miss FRIES stated in her legend: “perfectly trustworthy persons, returning from night duty or going to begin the new day’s work firmly believe in this vision.” Is it possible a vision of Emily Low Gibson can be seen floating through the air near Lake Highland on the mornings of December 27th?
Legends seem to have a way of evolving, often hiding tidbits of true-life history, stories begging to be revealed, provided we choose to go in search of the truth. Is it possible Emily is the Ghost of Orlando’s past? You now know the historical facts. I will allow you to decide for yourself.
I love history, but even more so, I love the true-life stories of the many courageous men and women of history. My Florida History group is currently running a series called 'Florida's Forgotten Frontierswomen', and so if you enjoy Florida stories such as Emily's, I invite you to check it out.
“Her form could be seen floating among the orange trees.”
There is a sad tale of an Orlando girl, a young bride we were told, a story first shared by an Orlando author and historian. Miss Kena FRIES published her story in 1938, saying the actual event had occurred many years earlier:
“A jolly Christmas party” wrote Miss Fries, “the guests leaving long after midnight, in the darkened house the hosts slept peacefully. In the early morning the wife awoke, a choking sensation in her throat. The room was filled with smoke, and lurid flames leaped about the building. Frantic efforts failing to arouse her husband, she ran to the nearby water plant, clad only in her night robes.”
The tragedy of a young Central Florida bride did not end there, for Miss Fries continued: “After that, for many years, just before sunrise on the morning of December 27th, her form could be seen floating among the orange trees, from the charred remains of the old house to the water plant, where it dissolved into thin air and vanished.”
Did this incident really happen? Miss Fries had begun her story stating: “In the early eighties,” meaning of course 1880’s, “the Webbers built a house in a large orange grove.” They later sold, said Kena, “to a young Englishman, who had the house beautifully ‘interior decorated’ and furnished. His bride, a handsome English girl, entertained their friends lavishly.”
The FRIES legend provided a few noteworthy clues. There was the family name Webber, and an intriguing reference to a water plant, both of which seemed to be a logical place to begin the search for truth.
The Frank R. Webber family:
Frank R. Webber, a native of St. Albans, Maine, began buying Orange County property in 1884. His land fronted both Lake Ivanhoe to the north, and Lake Highland on the east. Today, Orange Avenue and Sun Rail cross land once owned by Mr. Webber.
Orange County’s 1887 Gazetteer listed Frank Webber as an Orange Grower, and gave his residence as Lake Ivanhoe. Frank R. Webber also platted his land that very same year as a subdivision, naming his new community, FAIR OAKS.
During 1886 a new railroad had been organized to run from Orlando to Winter Park, and planners prepared a detailed survey of land along the intended route. The track was to run alongside the existing railroad track belonging to South Florida Railroad.
Their railroad survey included Webbers subdivision, showing Frank Webber’s home on Lot 24 of his subdivision. The railroad survey also showed a property owner adjoining Webber’s land, to their north, alongside the railroad track, fronting Lake Highland.
I decided I needed to pay a visit to the site about this time, and as I stood at the south side of Sun Rail’s existing track, where today the track crosses Highland Avenue, I looked north to view Lake Ivanhoe. To my east was Lake Highland, and to the south Lake Highland Preparatory School, on the east side of Highland Avenue. This was the land once owned by Frank R. Webber.
Webber’s land includes a vacant fenced lot today, a parcel alongside the railroad track, the same lot shown on the 1886 railroad survey as owned by Mrs. F. W. Lord. Had I found evidence to support the FRIES’ Ghost story? Had this vacant lot, to the south of an ever-developing town of Orlando, been vacant for the past 130 years?
Could solving the mystery of a beautiful English bride named Lord really be that easy? That, I reasoned, might depend on a water plant!
The Orlando Water Company:
The original town of Orlando did not have an adequate source of water. Despite the town center being within a stone’s throw of Lake Eola, during the 1880s, that lake was a muddy watering hole for the local free range cattle. In 1887, Orlando Water Company was organized to resolve the drinking water need. The new company decided to build a pump house, and the site it chose was, as you might have guessed, Lake Highland!
In April 1887, Mr. and Mrs. Lord signed an agreement allowing Orlando Water Co. to cross their land, to pump out of Lake Highland, to allow the City of Orlando, the signed agreement stipulated, to build a water plant.
Between 1887 and 1893, numerous land sales were recorded by Mrs. Lord. Even prior to her marriage in April 1885, the young lady had been active in selling real estate, often working alongside her father. Mrs. F. W. Lord, it turns out, was in fact Francie (Webber) Lord, the daughter of Frank R. Webber of Fair Oaks Subdivision.
The last recorded Orange County transaction found for Mrs. Lord occurred in 1893. She was at that time 29 years old. So, could Francie be the young bride who died after a Christmas house fire. Was she the young girl who ran to Orlando’s new water plant?
But not so fast!
It seemed as though I might have found the answer, until that is, I stumbled upon the death certificate of Francie W. Lord. Francie died in Chicago, on the 9th day of April, 1936!
The Lord family had become snowbirds. By 1912, they were residents of Evanston, Illinois, where the land company owned by Francie’s husband, Joseph H. Lord, the Sarasota-Venice Company, was headquartered. Not only was the Lord couple alive and well into the 1930s, they had become prominent Gulf Coast developers.
My Lord theory had gone up in smoke, and so it was back to the drawing board.
As the water plant was built in 1887, the legend itself, if it was true, had to have occurred around that year or later. The Webber home, Kena FRIES had said was sold to a, “a young Englishman, who had the house: “interior decorated and furnished.” Miss Fries stressed the man’s wife was a “bride, a handsome English girl, who entertained their friends lavishly.”
Despite the Lord / Webber family fitting nicely into Kena’s legend, more so than J. W. Anderson, the one and only other neighbor, I decided to investigate further. Anderson, I found, owned five acres on the east side of present day Highland Avenue, land that is presently part of the Lake Highland Preparatory School grounds.
Anderson too was also orange grower, but he and his wife also lived well into the 20th century. That’s why I originally discounted the couple, but knew I now needed to take another look.
Orlando’s Ice Man:
John W. Anderson would have been a popular guy in 1880s Orlando, if for no other reason than his business - he managed the Orlando Ice House. During hot summer months before the advent of refrigerators and air-conditioners, John W. Anderson would have been everybody’s friend.
Born in Indiana, John lived out his youth in Iowa, and there enlisted with the Union Army, spending much of his Civil War service in Arkansas. John had come face to face with the enemy there, an enemy that would one day become his neighbors. Serving at the Battle of Jenkins Ferry, nearly a thousand men, half Union - half Confederate, had died on the battle field. After War’s end, Anderson returned to Iowa, where, in 1874, he married Adeth Bell Gibson.
Five days after the birth of a second son to John and Adeth Anderson in 1877, the mother, Adeth Anderson, died of childbirth complications. John W. Anderson next married Adeth’s sister, Emily. The family relocated in 1881 to Orlando, Florida, where their first parcel, east of the city, became Greenwood Cemetery during the early 1880s.
By 1886, John W. Anderson had moved his family again, to Lake Highland. There is no record however of John buying the land. Instead, a land deed was issued to, “Emily Gibson Anderson, sole heir at law of Peter Gibson, deceased.”
Emily of Orlando’s Lake Highland:
Peter Gibson of Ryegate, Vermont purchased, in 1881, five acres upon which Lake Highland Preparatory School now sits. Peter died at his hometown in 1892, and is buried beneath a handsome gravestone at Ryegate’s Hillside Cemetery.
On one side of Peter Gibson’s headstone, there for all to read, is found a bone chilling inscription, a story that was later replicated in the annals of Ryegate history.
Peter Gibson had married Emily Low in 1846. They became parents of two girls, Adeth and Emily, both of whom, states the Vermont town’s history, had been married to John W. Anderson. The history goes on to say that Peter’s wife, Emily (Low) Gibson, died first.
“The husband was rescued unhurt,” says Miss Kena FRIES tragic legend, a death that occurred one night following a jolly Christmas party, while “the house burned to the ground.” Miss FRIES wrote, “The wife never recovered.”
The inscription on one side of Peter Gibson’s Ryegate, Vermont tombstone states that his wife, Emily Low Gibson, died, at Orlando, Florida, on December 23, 1883.
Age 62 in 1883, married 37 years, New Englander Emily Low Gibson could hardly be described as a young English bride. Still, Emily and husband Peter were snowbirds, lived on the shore of Lake Highland, and were within a stone’s throw of where an Orlando water plant would be built a few years later.
Miss FRIES stated in her legend: “perfectly trustworthy persons, returning from night duty or going to begin the new day’s work firmly believe in this vision.” Is it possible a vision of Emily Low Gibson can be seen floating through the air near Lake Highland on the mornings of December 27th?
Legends seem to have a way of evolving, often hiding tidbits of true-life history, stories begging to be revealed, provided we choose to go in search of the truth. Is it possible Emily is the Ghost of Orlando’s past?
You now know the historical facts. I will allow you to decide for yourself.
I love history, but even more so, I love the true-life stories of the many courageous men and women of history. My Florida History group is currently running a series called 'Florida's Forgotten Frontierswomen', and so if you enjoy Florida stories such as Emily's, I invite you to check it out.
Thank you, Richard Lee Cronin, Author