Our Ladies
While the builder of our house museum was a man, Andres Ximenez, women have played an iatrical part of the business operated within over our 223-year history. Historically women have been the silent partners of the men who built our communities, but here at the Ximenez-Fatio House Museum, the women have been the entrepreneurs and the face of their businesses. Below, learn more about the women who held their own, supported their families, and created legacies through hardships unimaginable in our modern times.
Juana Teresa Pellicer
1776 – 1802
St. Augustine, April 10, 1806
Juana Teresa Pellicer was born at the New Smyrna colony of Andrew Turnbull as the child of Menorcan indentured servants Francisco Pellicer and Margarita Femanias on December 16, 1776. Francisco was one of the Menorcan’s who fled the colony for St. Augustine in hopes of convincing the Spanish government of Turnbull’s horrors to save their families. After securing the freedom of the colony, Francisco settled on St. George Street in St. Augustine and went to work as a carpenter becoming successful enough to purchase local farmland and moving to a plantation on the Matanzas River south of town. At the age of seven, Juana’s mother passed away and her father quickly remarried, having nine additional children with his new wife.
At the young age of 15, whether to escape her crowded household or as part of a business transaction by her father, as it is not known, Juana met and married Don Andrés Ximenez (Hi-men-ez), 25 years her senior, in 1791 in St. Augustine. Despite this age difference, by all accounts the marriage was a happy one and produced five children. Ximenez, a native of Ronda, Spain, was a successful merchant in St. Augustine. The couple first settled on property where the Casa de Solana is now located but purchased the lot across the street as it became available in 1797 and built the large three-story coquina home still standing today. Juana was a businesswoman in her own right and was responsible for the tavern portion of the home on the first floor. A local establishment, not unlike the kind found on nearly every street corner in the business district today, served as a neighborhood quick-stop of sorts for residents. After a long day fishing or working at the Castillo, one may stop at the Ximenez store for a sip of madeira, to pick up a wedge of cheese for the Dona, choose their numbers for the week’s lotteria, play a round of billiards, and, of course, catch up on the neighborhood gossip. Andrés and Juana ran the family business as well as the household. This story unfortunately has a tragic end, however. In 1802 at just 26 years old, Juana succumbed to the ever-worrisome yellow fever. Two of the young children, Francisco and Antonio, just three and one years old, contracted the disease and passed in 1803. Andrés, now a widower with three small children, remained in the home until 1806 and his death at the age of 55. The remaining children would go on to live with their mother’s parents until their removal to Key West and Cuba in the early 1820’s along with many of the Spanish townspeople. Unfortunately, with their parents dead and the United States taking possession of Florida in 1821, not much is known about the lives of the Ximenez children from this point onward.
Margaret Cook & Eliza Whitehurst
1800 – 1829 & 1786 – 1838
Note: This is the only known remembrance of Margaret Cook or Eliza Whitehurst other than gravesite photo.
Florida became a United States Territory in 1821, bringing more and more people to see this exoIn 1830, Margaret Cook completed the purchase of the property from the Ximenez heirs and converted it into a boarding house. Margaret Cook was a well-to-do widow from Charleston, South Carolina who was married, became a mother, widowed, married again, and widowed again by the age of 20!
Owning a boarding house was considered an acceptable and respectable career for a widowed woman in 19th century America. Afterall, this is a time when unmarried women were not permitted to manage their own finances and were “given” to their brother or brother-in-law to manage their finances and cared for after the death of their father until they married or their death. Having escaped being passed from one male family member to another, Margaret was fortunate enough to have had both of her husband’s leave their real estate interests to her in their will and she was able to claim and retain her inheritance after their deaths. After arriving in St. Augustine, she purchased the home and began extensive renovations to convert it into a boarding house. She enclosed two warehouses Ximenez built previously built on the property to make four guest rooms on the ground floor and a large guest parlor. The billiards room was converted into a grand dining room and the tavern into the guest lobby.
Margaret hired Eliza Whitehurst, also a widow from Charleston, to be the live-in manager of the boarding house. Many historians believe Eliza was Margaret’s sister, although genealogical evidence has yet to prove this. Eliza managed the boarding house for nine years and raised two children in the home – son Daniel and daughter Anna Elizabeth. Not much is known about the tenure of Margaret and Eliza’s day to day lives at the house. We do know that Eliza often had money troubles and even borrowed money from the esteemed Dr. Seth Peck on more than one occasion. After more than a year of ill health, Eliza passed away in the home on June 3, 1838. She is buried at Huguenot Cemetery in St. Augustine with a beautiful grave marker dedicated to her by her children.
Sarah Petty Anderson
1782 – 1869
Sarah Petty Anderson is perhaps the most un-discussed member of our ladies, but also the one to have the most interesting story. Sarah was born in Salisbury, North Carolina on June 4, 1782 as Sarah Petty Dunn but spent the majority of her adolescent years in the Bahamas. She married wealthy plantation owner George Anderson on August 22, 1800. After many years at their Turk Island, Bahamas plantation, the couple moved to Florida and purchased Mt. Oswald Plantation on the Halifax and Tomoka rivers in Mosquito County (present-day Volusia County). The death of Sarah’s mother left George the owner of the Dunn family’s Tomoka Plantation, just west of Mt. Oswald. The management of both plantations proved to be too stressful for George and he passed away in 1830, leaving yet another one of our ladies a widow. A very wealthy widow. Sarah sold Mt. Oswald and purchased a sugar plantation just to the west, in present-day Port Orange, in 1832. She named the plantation Dunlawton, combing her maiden name and the name of the previous owner. Her sons and brother-in-law ran the plantation while Sarah lived in the safety and comfort of fortified St. Augustine. With the sugar mill in the capable hands of her family, Sarah made another real estate purchase, the great house on Hospital Street. Rough times were ahead, however, and on December 24, 1835, Dunlawton was burned by marauding Seminoles along with 25 other plantations throughout the state of Florida.
As a result, St. Augustine was crowded with the rich and poor alike. Soldiers, farmers, plantation barons, traders, trappers, and free blacks – families emerged from the swamps and forests and flocked to St. Augustine in search of safety and respite from the rampaging Seminoles. John Hammond Moore, a lawyer from Charleston, South Carolina, wrote: “The society in this place is good. Mrs. Anderson has two very agreeable daughters, Mrs. Shaw and Miss William… I spent the evening at Mrs. Anderson’s – where I had the pleasure of being made acquainted with General Hernandez”. (1837) A South Carolina Lawyer Visits St. Augustine. (pp. 36)
Boarding houses were sorely needed in 1830’s St. Augustine and those with enough business sense and money could make a nice respectable living as an unmarried woman owning and operating one. Sarah Petty Anderson was one of these women. She purchased the boarding house in 1837 and went to work right away sprucing up the property with new paint and furnishings. The famed Cheval mirror still seen today at the Ximenez-Fatio House Museum is a piece originally owned by Sarah. In 1850 Sarah met Louisa Fatio in St. Augustine and offered her the job of a lifetime… Manager of Mrs. Anderson’s Boarding House.
Louisa Fatio
1797 – 1875
c. 1817, Ximenez-Fatio House Museum
New Switzerland Plantation.
(Miss Fatio is looking out the bottom window)
Louisa Fatio (Fay-she-oh) – the Grande Dame of the Ximenez-Fatio House Museum was a woman of elegance and a “most estimable and popular lady” as noted by author Charles Lanman in his book (1856) Adventures in Wilds of the United States and British American Provinces. (pp. 116 – 117). Louisa was born Luisa Phelipa Patricia Fatio on March 17, 1797 at St. John’s County, Spanish Florida. Louisa was the first child born to Francis Philip Fatio Jr. and Susan Hunter. Susan Hunter died early, leaving one son and three daughters. Louis would marry again having another three children with Mary Ledbetter.
The Fatio’s were an influential family 18th and 19th century Northeast Florida. The patriarch of the family, Francis Philip Fatio Sr. was a native of Switzerland attaining the title of Viscount before moving his family to British East Florida in 1771. Fatio made vast land purchases along the St. Johns River in the area aptly named New Switzerland. By the time of his death in 1811 he owned 10,000 acres of land with 12 miles of riverfront where he grew oranges, indigo, and turpentine. William Bartram visited the Fatio plantation, and was most impressed, on his trip southward scouting the waterways of Florida.
Although Louisa lived a life of privilege for 19th century St. Augustine, as many here were very unprivileged, it is safe to say her life was one of constant uncertainty and fear. After the death of her mother, her childhood home was burned to the ground during the Patriot Wars of 1812. The family narrowly escaped in a small boat tucked in a cove along the river. They retreated to a small family home in what is now Old Fernandina. The Fernandina home was heavily damaged by a hurricane and the family again had to move – this time to St. Augustine. After a time, the family decided to rebuild New Switzerland and moved back to the plantation in 1824. Tensions between the Seminoles and settlers increased, however, and the plantation, along with 25 others (including Dunlawton), was again burned to the ground on December 24th, 1835. The family moved to St. Augustine permanently and did not rebuild. Although rumors of a British Office fiancé still persist today, there is no name or written evidence of this suitor and Louisa remained unmarried her entire life. Due to her unmarried status, it was socially expected she would continue to live with her family in the family home until the death of her father and stepmother where she should go on to live with another married sister or brother. Louisa had other plans, however. Big plans.
Louisa was fortunate enough to inherit a vast number of acres of her father’s land in a time where women were generally not permitted to own their own property or control their own finances. After receiving her inheritance, and her independence, she set up a small boarding house on St. George Street in St. Augustine and began her life as a businesswoman. In 1851, at the age of 54, she came to Mrs. Anderson’s to work as the boarding house manager. In 1855 she purchased the building and property from Mrs. Anderson for $3,000.00. Louisa added a second story to the west wing of the house adding an additional four rooms to rent. Folks from all over the United States came to St. Augustine for the fresh air, delightful food, and famed southern hospitality. Author Constance Fenimore Woolson, another famously single lady, spent several winters here and lived at Miss Fatio’s while in residence. The house today is a representation of how the home looked after Louisa’s renovations.
In addition to her keen business sense, Louisa was an accomplished woman. She spoke English, French, Spanish and always Italian at meals. She travelled extensively, most notably to Central and South America. The table at Miss Fatio’s was a culinary dream. Meals of venison, turtle soup, oysters, wild turkey, sour orange pie, curlew stew, and champagne punch were favorites of her guests. Imagine having Christmas or Thanksgiving dinner every single day! You may also imagine the unseen hands behind the preparation, serving, and cleanup of these daily elaborate meals.
Louisa was a beloved aunt to her many nieces and nephews and godmother to thirteen children. After the untimely death of her sister Leonora Colt in 1848, she took in her young five children adopting them as her own and they lived in the boarding house. Her half-sister Sophia also lived in the house and helped to care for the children and the management of the business.
After twenty years of ownership Louisa passed away in the house in 1875 at the age of 78. By all accounts her life in St. Augustine was one of happiness surrounded by her family and her loved ones managing her business as a fearless woman entrepreneur.
The Dames
1939 – Today
After the death of Louisa in 1875 the future of the house fell into uncertainty. Nephew David Dunham was the first male owner in 45 years as Louisa left the home to him in her will. It was rented by a Mrs. Foster who ran it as a boarding house for a time, but with the newly constructed Hotel Ponce de Leon just a few blocks away with its electric lights and indoor plumbing, the boarding house lifestyle soon fell out of favor with travelers. Various businesses were operated from the building with artist housing in the upper floors. The structure soon fell into disrepair.
Enter: The ladies of the National Society of Colonial Dames of America in the State of Florida (NSCDA-FL). After some members took part in successfully saving the Old City Gates, members of the NSCDA-FL set their eyes on the Old Fatio House. The structure and property were purchased in 1939 at the height of the Great Depression and repairs and restoration work set about immediately thereafter. For almost 10 years, weekends were spent in St. Augustine scrubbing windows, cleaning debris, restoring fireplace mantles, re-limewashing walls and ceilings, researching and purchasing antiques, restoring the grand staircase, and planting historically appropriate gardens. In 1946 the Dames opened the house to the public as the Ximenez-Fatio House Museum. For over 75 years the house museum has served the community as an education center for students and adults alike teaching women’s history, Florida state history, and African American history, among other programs. The museum is managed by women (mostly!), just as the boarding house was for over 50 years and is still owned by the NSCDA-FL today.