Scope and Contents

Correspondence. This collection is comprised of various groups of letters about Florida, dating between 1837 and 1891 most of which deal primarily with land issues.

Scope and Contents The Allen Morris Papers consist of personal and professional records and research materials accumulated by Mr. Morris over a period of about forty-one years. The papers consist of correspondence; biographical sketches of Florida officials and other famous Floridians; photographs, programs, and other materials related to the Allen Morris Legislative Awards; historical data concerning place names, historical houses, rivers and river boats. Also included is a complete file of "Cracker Politics," the column that Allen Morris was responsible for writing for so many years, as well as notes and materials compiled and used in the creation of the Florida Handbook. A large...

Scope and Contents

Typed autobiographical sketch of Bob Taggart, addressed to "My Dear Jerry." Contains reminiscences of Florida during the 1920s and his acquaintance with Jerry Willams Carter. Letter also covers his life in Texas as a boy and his many adventures throughout his varied careers as a telegraph operator, sailor, soldier, farmer and salesman. Taggart also goes in depth about his experiences serving in both World Wars. 61 pages.

Scope and Contents Documents in manuscript and three printed forms filled out in manuscript originating in British East and West Florida, Territorial Florida, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Mississippi, dating from 1773 to 1868. Included in this collection are materials related to territorial Florida, William Garesche, Hermitage, Tennessee, silk and silkworms, biographical materials about Andrew Jackson, British West Florida, John Stephenson, Robert Farmar Esq. and his estate, Edmund Rush Wegg, Rev. William Gordon of Mobile, King George III, Peter Chester (Governor of British West Florida), British East Florida, debt, court orders, William Drayton (Chief Justice for British East...

Scope and Contents This item is a letter from Captain John Rogers Vinton at Fort New Smyrna, Florida and dated 1840. Addressed to his mother, it was written on his birthday and he wrote: "Since my last birthday, another year has passed over my head, and brought me to that period when it is my wont to make a retrospect of the past and pour out my thoughts to you. It has been a year of exile from civilized life - but not altogether profitless, and by no means an unhappy one..." His letter is highly religious and rather contradictory, as he wrote of having found "in the wilderness of Florida" many things pleasing to him. As Captain Vinton was at Fort Mellon and Fort Taylor in 1837 and...

Scope and Contents The Dorothy Dodd Gifts, dated from 1903 to 1907, include three letters to H. Clay Crawford, Florida Secretary of State, from Albert W. Gilchrist, Claude L'Engle, and W.G. Robinson. Also included in the collection are printed copies of addresses given by W.W. Finley of Southern Railway Company; four items pertaining to the Florida Vegetal Development Company of South Dakota; and a statement of exports and imports through Port Inglis on the Withlacooche River, Florida. Among the persons included in the Dorothy Dodd Gifts are Albert W. Gilchrist, Governor of Florida 1909-1913; Claude L'Engle, periodical editor; W.G. Robinson, member of Florida Republican State Central...

Scope and Contents Personal, family, and business correspondence, land deeds, letter of testamentary, papers of the administrator of the estate of Dr. F.A. Byrd. Business and personal papers, certificates of membership, licenses to practice as Physician and Surgeon, 13 early envelopes (some with stamps attached); business correspondence, statements, invoices, and one bound account book. Orders and invoices for marble slabs and headstones for family graves (with names, etc.); declaration of taxable property, tax receipts, note payable to Harrison Reed, Governor of Florida; certificate of "Amnesty Oath;" codicil to a Last Will, letter testamentary. Sales of land, land deeds, bill of...

Scope and Contents

The papers of Dr. James A. Leitch Wright, Jr., noted historian who taught at Florida State University from 1968 to 1986. Wright received acclaim for his Colonial American research. His papers include correspondence, research materials, and manuscripts for his publications related to Southern Indian tribes.

Includes MSS 88-1, 86-26 and 92-19.

Scope and Contents

This addition to the Dr. Mark F. Boyd Collection consists chiefly of items relating to the duties and activities of Don Juan Joseph de la Puente, St. Augustine, Florida, who, in 1772, was appointed Auditor of Accounts of the Royal Coffers for the Windward Islands, Province of Florida, Louisiana, Yucatan, Campeche, etc., but as other subjects are embraced, the papers have been separated and filed according to main subjects and envelopes and packages are labeled as such.

Scope and Contents The collection consists of materials of the E.H. Tomlinson and Son Real Estate Company from 1893-1958. The series include client records, correspondence, day books, maps, blueprints, and scrapbooks. Contained in these series are family correspondence, financial records, legal documents, deeds, contracts, reports, photographs, newspaper clippings, postcards, and pamphlets. The collection documents the activities of the E.H. Tomlinson and Son Real Estate Company during the last decade of the Nineteenth Century and the first half of the Twentieth Century. The collection contains considerable business and family correspondence that gives a first hand account of Florida real estate...

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of two scrapbooks covering Tallahassee and Florida history for over a century, 1861-1961. The first scrapbook, "Chronology of Tallahassee and Florida History," consists of newspaper clippings and original documents including an aerial photograph of the Florida Capitol, the by-laws of the United Confederate Veterans, photographs of St. Johns Episcopal Church, and a pen and ink drawing of Wakulla Springs. The second scrapbook contains newspaper clippings and original documents such as inaugural programs. This second scrapbook deals with Florida governors, U.S. Presidents, and local Tallahassee history.

Scope and Contents Personal, business and family correspondence, books, business records (account books), and writing materials of George R. Fairbanks. This collection contains 1473 original material items, as well as 567 items which are copies of original materials. The collection contains biographical sketches of George Rainsford Fairbanks and his family history, his will, papers about personal matters, the Civil War, St. Augustine before and during the war, sale of slaves, photographs of Fairbanks, Charles Locke Beard, Charles Massey, and sketches of places such as a church in Palatka, Florida. There is a great deal of Civil War correspondence, including persons such as Senator David Levy Yulee and...

Scope and Contents The materials in this collection are related to the life and work of Fenton McArthur Prewitt. There is a fifty-page typescript entitled, "Chronological facts pertaining to the fifty years and after fifty years of the life of Fenton McArthur Prewitt, discussing his life, family genealogy, and career. There are a number of newspapers in the collection from the following cities in Florida: Tavares, Gainesville, Waldo, Starke, Jacksonville, Wauchula, Tampa, and Plant City. There are two holograph letters, dated March 14, 1897, and September 6, 1911, and one post card dated September 13, 1911. These include a clipping about yellow fever in Florida. A clipping from Gainesville's Daily...

Scope and Contents This collection contains a selection of business letters that serve as examples of early business letterheads from various places in Florida. They are quite elaborate and contain pictures, maps and extensive advertising. They are from different towns and cities in Florida and date from 1879-1896. The letters are mostly to W.D. Bloxham and W.D. Barnes, both comptrollers for the state of Florida. Barnes was comptroller from 1881-1890 and Bloxham from 1890-1897. The letters concern the following Florida towns: Elleville, Brooklyn, Jacksonville, Apalachicola, Deland, Bluff Springs, Key West, Arcadia, Bronson, Wewahitchka, Grove Park, Starke, Pensacola, Lake City, Sumterville,...

Scope and Contents

Press releases, correspondence, and promotional publications issued by the Florida Commissions for the World's Fairs of 1933 (Chicago) and 1939 (New York City).

Scope and Contents

The materials included in this collection appear to be class papers done by students at the Florida State College for Women around 1922. Among the counties covered are Alachua, Clermont Lake, Manatee, Sarasota, Sumter, Suwanee, Taylor, Walton, Jefferson, Lake, Osceola, Washington, Columbia, and Dade Counties. Among the cities covered are Miami, Jacksonville, Pensacola, Madison, Orlando, Wildwood, Live Oak, De Funiak Springs, Monticello, and West Palm Beach.

Scope and Contents

Advertisements for land, goods, and services in Florida. Specific locations include Duval, Flagler, Leon, Manatee, Marion, and Putnam Counties. Also known as MSS 0-113

Online Copies Available

Majority of materials from this collection have been digitized and are available through the FSU Digital Library.

Scope and Contents The Florida Railroad Company Papers document the early history of this company during its period of construction from Fernandina to Cedar Key, FL., and includes articles of agreement, articles of copartnership, deeds, and a resolution. It is significant to researchers studying the history of Florida's 19th Century railroads. The collection consists of 8 manuscript documents signed by various officials: the charter of the company, certificates of agreements for financing and constructing the railroad from Fernandina to Cedar Key; David L. Yulee was president, Joseph Finegan & Co. were to build and equip the railroad with certain cars; papers also include land deeds along the...

Scope and Contents

These papers contain early Florida county voting registration data for primary and general elections from 1914 to 1962. They were used in connection with a voting study done by Elston Roady and Annie Mary Hartsfield of the Florida State University Institute for Social Research. There are 46 individual county lists of numbers of Florida registered voters and 18 county summary lists of numbers of registered voters.

Scope and Contents

Payroll of a Corps of Engineers in service at Fort Taylor, Key West, Florida. Complete in detail and shows 278 signatures of members of the Corps who acknowledged having received the amounts listed from Captain Walter McFarland.

Also known as MSS 0-121.

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of a broadside regarding the secession of Florida from the Union and a duplicate of that broadside. The broadside was issued by George T. Ward before the State Convention at Montgomery, Alabama in January 1861. It is addressed "To the People of Leon County," and begins "My name has been suggested as a candidate for the State Convention, from your county..."

Also known as MSS 0-256.

Scope and Contents

Includes background research, manuscripts, correspondence, photographs, newspaper articles, and other publications documenting the personal life and professional career of author and Florida historian Gloria Jahoda. Significant topics include genealogy, ecology, northwest Florida, publishing rights, classical music, WFSU-FM radio programs, the Muscogee Creek Nation, and Jahoda’s book The Road to Samarkand, a biography of English composer Frederick Delius.

Includes materials previously described as MSS 79-2, MSS 80-3, MSS 83-2, MSS 83-2, MSS 84-01, and MSS 2004-007.

Scope and Contents Manuscript letter by Governor Thomas Brown, Executive Department of Florida, Tallahassee, Florida, January 31, 1853, to Captain Wm. B. Cone. Cone was a former member of Legislature from Camden County, Georgia, but at the time of Brown's letter was a Captain of a Company of Calvary in the State of Georgia. The letter was in reply to Captain Cone's letters of January 21 and 24, 1853, in which Captain Cone had offered him the service of "a Company of Calvary in the event of Indian hostilities." Governor Brown's explanations as the reasons why he was unable to accept Captain Cone's offer affords a picture of political and military affairs of that period. The letter was...

Scope and Contents

Photostat of a letter by H. Bradford dated March 20, 1864 to "Sister Mary," that was written at Johnsons Island and refers to the battle of Olustee.

The second item is a document dated May 1862 by Lt. F.L. Villepigue, Recruiting Officer, certifying that Jesse T. Bernard "has enlisted in Captain R.H. Gamble's Light Artillery Company for the war, and is ordered to report at camp on the 6th day of May 1862."

Also known as MSS 0-26.

Scope and Contents

This item is a holograph letter of Henry Oxdel, of St. Augustine, Florida, to Hugh White, Esq., of Cohores, Albany County, New York. The letter indicates that Oxdel was handling Florida real estate matters for White, and that they might have been old friends. Oxdel informs White of a shortage of orange seeds and asked, "Can you contrive to send me all your spare orange seeds. There is quite a race & rage to get orange seeds here..." Names mentioned in the letter were, G. L. Phillips, Esq., P. S. Smith, Esq. "who is considered here the best counsellor in such matters," and T. Brown.

Scope and Contents This collection consists of nine letters from Henry T. Wright to his sister, Laura (Mrs. A. F. Yniestra of Greenville, Alabama). Two were written prior to the outbreak of the Civil War, six were dated during the conflict, and the last one after the war ended. The letters are written from the following locations: Knox Hill, Florida; Tullahoma, Tennessee; Camp near Fairfield; Jackson, Mississippi; Camp near Chickamauga; Pensacola, Florida. Also, included in the last letter is a clipping with no source or date, with an obituary poem for H. T. Wright from P. H. W. Wright writes short but informative letters of people and events he experienced. Most letters are fairly clear and...

Scope and Contents

The Leon County Commissioners passed a resolution in 1958 to see what could be done to restore historic homes and buildings in Tallahassee, Florida. Governor Millard Caldwell served as Chairman of the Historic Homes Preservation Committee.

Scope and Contents

The collection's two major groupings of papers are Antebellum and Civil War newspapers in OS Box 1 and Gilded Age, Progressive, and 20th century newspapers in OS Box 2. The majority of the papers are from the southern states in the United States. OS Box 3 is photostat copies of its contents.

Online Copies Available

Portions of this collection have been digitized can be found online in the FSU Digital Library.

Scope and Contents Photostats of Civil War letters by James M. Nixon (d. 1863), 8th Fla. Regt., (1861-1863) to his wife, Louise A. Nixon, Mt. Pleasant, Gadsden County, Florida. 1. Apalachicola, Florida. September 9, 1861 to February 24, 1862. Family letters with instructions about the farm. 6 items. 2. Camp Retrieve, Florida. December, 1861. Family letters with instructions about the farm. 3 items. 3. Camp Milton, Florida. February, 1862. Nixon was apparently with recruiting officer, Major R. "going by Marianna and will probably be home Saturday night, as he is going to make the rounds in Gadsden..." This letter also refers to the clearing of land and the planting of crops. 1 item. 4....

Scope and Contents

This item is a letter in manuscript by J. M. Williams of Tallahassee, Florida, dated October 18, 1846, to Messers, Hopkins & Allen of New York. The letter refers to a shortage of Sugar Kettles shipped by Blackwell & Burr and insured by Hopkins & Allen. In this letter, Williams sets forth a claim of $98.78 for a shortage of six Sugar Kettles.