Scarborough Papers

Collection — Multiple Containers

Identifier: MSS 0-216

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Scarborough Papers include correspondence pertaining to mercantile business, land plats and deeds, a journal of mercantile business and plantation records. These materials about Scarborough's business afford a clear picture of early Florida merchandising and farming and contain many names of citizens of West Florida and of South Georgia. There are printed materials such as Hazeltine's almanac, The delineator and Literary digest. The 1907 Christmas issue of The delineator contains a number of Christmas songs, recipes and any amount of "styles of the month." The newspapers in the collection include six issues of The Sun, a Tallahassee, Florida, newspaper. These issues contain articles about the proposed project of draining the Everglades, and tobacco growing in Leon County.

Dates

created: 1868-1945
Other: Date acquired: 06/13/1966

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open to all researchers.

Conditions Governing Use

All requests for permission to quote, publish, broadcast or otherwise reproduce from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Associate Dean for Special Collections & Archives. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Florida State University Libraries as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the researcher.

Biographical or Historical Information

Edgar William Scarborough was born in 1855 in Gadsden county, Florida, and died there November 1, 1914. He was brought up on a farm near Chattahoochee and shortly after the Civil War established a mercantile business at Chattahoochee and called it Scarborough & Company; later the name was changed to Scarborough & Blout. One of the oldest mercantile firms in that section of the state, it has continued to operate since without interruption under a partnership which includes his son, Edgar Warren Scarborough, who became a partner in the business in 1925 after after graduated with a degree of B.S.A. at the University of Florida.

Edgar William Scarborough was a figure in his community, and was active in church work, the Masonic Order, and the Democratic Party. He married three times, with no issue by the first two marriages. His third wife, Annie May McDonald, was the daughter of Beverley A. and Elizabeth (Bacon) McDonald. There were four other children in the Scarborough family besides Edgar Warren: Martha Elizabeth, who married Charles R. Frazier; Raburn, deceased; Susie May, and Elise, who married Fred M. Condo.