SW153 Thespian Recalls Louisa Fatio, St Augustine Proprietor and Survivor of Seminole Wars

In 1812, during the East Florida Patriot War incursion against Spanish territorial rule, 15-year-old Louisa Fatio barely escaped when Seminole attacked and partially burned her family's beautiful New Switzerland plantation on the St. Johns River. Louisa was the granddaughter of Francis Philip Fatio, co-founder and later sole owner of the 10,000-acre New Switzerland plantation, west of St. Augustine.

Frantically searching for safety throughout the wilderness of Florida, her family first endured the bloody Patriots’ War only to see their new house destroyed by a hurricane. Next, they sought haven in Fernandina until invading pirates burned that property to the ground. Fleeing once more, the Fatios returned and rebuilt New Switzerland Plantation between 1822 and 1824, where Louisa becomes its charming hostess.

The New Switzerland plantation was torched a second time by Seminole during the Second Seminole War, which began in 1835. The next year, 1836, Louisa Fatio moved to St. Augustine, where she remained for the rest of her life. The city was filled with military personnel and refugees from the war, and she found work managing boarding houses with her sister Eliza. There, she used her keen business sense and hospitality to create a career as an innkeeper - one of the few respectable occupations available to a woman of her standing in her day. 

Under her management, the house on Aviles Street became known as Miss Fatio's. Soon Miss Fatio’s lovely and famous boarding house began to offer the best lodging and the finest table in tropical Florida. The establishment was a fixture in St. Augustine until her death in 1875.

Louisa Fatio is the subject of a one-woman performance by Florida thespian, Dianne Thompson Jacoby.  In this episode, Dianne slips into her impression of Louisa to tell the story of East Florida in the St. Augustine vicinity during the Seminole Wars period.

Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Fla. 

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Louisa Fatio (in first floor window) with guests at her St. Augustine boarding house. Below, an artist rendering of a younger Louisa. 

 

 

   

She managed New Switzerland Plantation, where she was born, after her father died. 

 

St. Augustine thespian Dianne Thompson Jacoby portrays Louisa Fatio in one-woman performances around Florida. Photo screen capture courtesy St. Augustine Record.

 

 

Dianne Thompson Jacoby also portrays a Cracker lady, Martha Jane, at various venues. Martha Jane makes an uncredited visit in this episode. 

 

One can learn more about Diane and the characters she portrays by visiting her webpage at www.mrsflagler.weebly.com or by her Facebook page: Diane Thompson Jacoby. 

 

She performs with Double Trouble Theatre Company.