Digital Commons Network^™

Indian Presents: To Give Or Not To Give: Governor Whites's Quandary, Richard K. Murdoch

Florida Historical Quarterly

At the close of the Eighteenth Century the use of presents to obtain loyalty, friendship, neutrality or allegiance was an old story to the nations of Western Europe, dating back to the days of the Greeks and Romans. Later presents were employed for the same purpose in the feudal period and in the campaigns of the Crusaders in the Holy Land. In the early years of the modern era the Portugese used presents to obtain peaceful entry into African ports as prelude to the slave trade. And finally presents were employed in the Americas by all the colonizing powers as …

The Early Sugar Industry In Florida, Wilbur H. Siebert

Florida Historical Quarterly

During the score of years of British occupation little sugar was produced in Florida. The cultivation of sugar-cane was tried only experimentally and was practically limited to small plots of land on the plantations of Lieutenant Governor John Moultrie and Richard Oswald, Esq. In 1776 only one hogshead of sugar and another of molasses were exported, although the number of barrels, casks, and puncheons of rum shipped totaled seventy-eight.

Florida's Overseas Railroad, David L. Willing

Florida Historical Quarterly

Soon after leaving the village of Florida City, the midtwentieth century auto traveler driving to the Florida Keys rounds a curve and comes on to the roadbed of the Overseas Highway. If he looks quickly, the driver may see mile post 397 of the Florida East Coast Railway, a few rods west of the highway. This lonely sentinel of the Everglades sawgrass, standing literally “at the end of the line,” marks the beginning of what was the Overseas Extension of the Florida East Coast Railway - a marvelous work of construction which ranks among the wonders of the world as …

News And Notes, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

Gifts, news of the Society, local and regional historical societies

Surveyors’ Field Notes As A Source Of Historical Information, Wilfred T. Neill

Florida Historical Quarterly

No doubt many historians are aware of the information to be gleaned from surveyors’ field notes. However, it seems desirable to call further attention to these documents; they should be of special interest to the student of local history, and to the archeologist who wishes to find sites of the Seminole period in Florida.

News And Notes, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

Notes about the Editor Emeritus, local and regional historical societies around Florida, and new members

The Railroads And The Public Lands Of Florida, 1879-1905, J. E. Dovell

Florida Historical Quarterly

Opportunities for profitable economic enterprise in Florida, capitalizing on the resources of the mild climate and millions of acres of unsettled land, had intrigued Northern investors long before the Civil War when Yankee visitors built the state’s first tourist industry. During the war, Northern investors moved into the federally occupied areas and planned continued and accelerated economic invasion of Florida. In the years of Reconstruction the state was “full of northern men looking for a proposition” for profitable investment. The visitation of Northerners increased from 1870 to 1890 as the United States enjoyed the new industrial expansion resulting from the …

The Struggle For Control Of The Florida Central Railroad, 1867-1882, Paul E. Fenlon

Florida Historical Quarterly

A golden age of laissez-faire capitalism began throughout the United States within a few years after Appomattox. This was an age of economic expansion which, led by railroad developments, transformed the United States within a generation, changing this country from an essentially agricultural nation into one of the most powerful industrial nations in the world. This era of transformation is sometimes called the period of the greatest industrial revolution in the history of mankind, but it was also a time when skillful financial manipulators fleeced thousands of investors and when there was widespread corruption of many local, state and federal …

Book Reviews, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

Includes reviews of P. G. T. Beauregard, Napoleon in Gray, History of Banking in Florida, and The Caribbean: Its Economy. The Research Council of Florida State University issues a series of Studies under an Editorial Committee of which Dr. George Yost Jr. is chairman. Number Fifteen of the series, with Dr. Victor S. Mamatey as editor, is Education in Florida, Past and Present (182 p.). As the title indicates, this is partly historical, five of the papers in the volume being based on historical research.

Florida Historical Society, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

Notes from the Annual Meeting, new members, Junior Historian Essay Contest winner, contributors

University Of Kentucky Student Life, Ruth E. Bryan

Library Presentations

This presentation by University Archivist Ruth E. Bryan for the University of Kentucky's Family Weekend 2.0--organized by the University of Kentucky Student Transitions and Family Program unit from April 9-11, 2021--provides an overview of the development of the University of Kentucky from its founding in 1865 through 2021. It then describes and illustrates student life and traditions from the 100th anniversary of the university in 1916 through the 150th anniversary in 2015. Topics include registration, residence life, commencement, and student body-wide events such as Arbor Day, May Day, the Little Kentucky Derby, building tagging, the freshman-sophomore flag rush and tug …

A Massachusetts Mechanic In Florida And Mexico, 1847, Arthur W. Thompson

Florida Historical Quarterly

The growing tension between the United States and Mexico during the early part of 1846 found Florida singularly unenthusiastic for war. For one thing, she had only achieved statehood the year before. Then, too, she still felt the adverse impact not only of the 1837-43 depression, but also - more important - the devastation of the Seminole War. Despite these feelings, when Congress actually declared war on May 13, 1846, there was general support for the cause throughout the state. Ultimately, five Florida companies were called into service and three saw action in Mexico.

Plantation Economy In Leon County 1830-1840, Julia Hering

Florida Historical Quarterly

The area of cotton culture in Florida during the ante-bellum period was located mainly between the Apalachicola and Suwannee rivers, and in 1840 comprised the counties of Leon, Madison, Jefferson, Hamilton and Gadsden. It is significant that this area constituted then more or less an island in northern Florida whose economy, social structure, and soil type differed from that in the remainder of the state. In this comparatively small and isolated region there came into being, between 1830 and 1840, a cotton economy which compared favorably with that of the Georgia Piedmont or the Black Belt of Alabama. The emphasis …

Tequesta Vol. Xiii, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

The 1953 issue of Tequesta appeared after the last number of this Quarterly went to press and contains three articles of unusual historical interest. Together they make this the most valuable issue of the thirteen which have been published-in fact, perhaps no other one issue of any Florida historical periodical has included three articles of equal importance.

The Occupation Of Jacksonville, 1864 And The Battle Of Olustee, Letters Of Lt. C. M. Duren, C. M. Duren

Florida Historical Quarterly

Charles M. Duren of Bangor, Maine, enlisted in 1861 in the 24th Massachusetts Regiment and saw much service, including the battles of New Bern, the noteworthy attack on Fort Wagner, and others in that area. He was promoted to 2nd. Lieutenant (1863) in the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry (a Negro regiment with white officers) and commanded Company D of that regiment in the battle of Olustee, the only major engagement of the War in Florida. This brought a promotion to 1st. Lieutenant. Some time later he was shot in the knee and thrown from his horse, breaking his leg. He …

David Betton Macomb, Frontiersman, Andrew Forest Muir

Florida Historical Quarterly

Well known in American history is the peripatetic hunter and trapper, farmer and stockholder who at the head of the westward movement pushed into new areas only to abandon them when joined by too close neighbors. These folk were the vanguard of American civilization. Conspicuous among them are Daniel Boone and David Crockett. Less well known are the equally peripatetic professional men - lawyers, teachers, ministers, and physicians - who were largely instrumental in transmitting to the frontier the typical institutions of American life. Like the early group they too abandoned an area when it became stable and settled to …

Salmon P. Chase And Civil War Politics In Florida, Ovid L. Futch

Florida Historical Quarterly

When Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase was seeking the 1864 Republican presidential nomination, he endeavored to build political fences wherever fortune beckoned. One such state was Florida.

Book Reviews, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

Reviews of The Story of the Florida Railroads, 1834-1903. By George W. Pettengill, Jr.; Mandarin on the St. Johns. By Mary G. Graff; Sugar Country: The Cane Sugar Industry of the South, 1753-1950. By J. Carlyle Sitterson; The Caribbean: Peoples, Problems, and Prospects. Edited by A. Curtis Wilgus; Handbook of Latin American Studies: 1949. No. 15, Francisco Aguilera (Ed.); Indian River History

The Florida, Atlantic And Gulf Central Railroad, Paul E. Fenlon

Florida Historical Quarterly

Though the factors responsible for the failure of Florida to experience the rapid economic development which took place in the vast western areas of the United States during the latter half of the nineteenth century are numerous and diverse, lack of adequate railroad transportation, certainly until the 1880’s, stands out as one of the most important.

The South Florida Military Institute (Bartow), Samuel Proctor

Florida Historical Quarterly

As was true of most of the institutions of higher learning taken over by the State at one time or another, the South Florida Military and Educational Institution had operated first as a private school. In 1894 Major General Evander McIver Law, a teacher of long and varied experience, and a Confederate veteran of distinguished service, founded a military school in Bartow, which eventually became one of the constituent parents of the University of Florida

Relations With The Indians In West Florida, 1770-1781, George C. Osborn

Florida Historical Quarterly

As governor of the English Province of West Florida, Peter Chester had many vexing problems to tax his executive abilities and his diplomatic skill. None was more difficult nor more intriguing than that of dealing with the Indians. Even before his arrival in the colony the Indians must have begun to realize that, regardless of which European imperialistic rival eventually won out in the struggle for supremacy in southeastern North America, they were the losers. Friendship proffered by the Spanish, and by the English after 1763 when the Treaty of Paris gave Florida to them and still later by the …

An Educator Looks At Florida In 1884, A Letter Of Ashley D. Hurt To His Wife, Samuel Proctor

Florida Historical Quarterly

Ashley Davis Hurt, first president of the Florida Agricultural College, was a native of Petersburg, Virginia (1834). He was educated at the University of Virginia, the University of Bonn, and received a Ph.D. degree from the University of Berlin. After serving in the Confederate Navy he became principal of the Louisville, Kentucky, high school. In the summer of 1884 he was appointed president of the newly established Florida Agricultural College at Lake City. Later he held the chair of Greek in Tulane University. Dr. Hurt died March 10, 1898. The original of the following letter was presented to the University …

The Railroad Background Of The Florida Senatorial Election Of 1851, Arthur W. Thompson

Florida Historical Quarterly

The national schism concerning the state of the Union following the Mexican War affected the character and intensity of political debate on the Florida scene no less than it did that of other areas throughout the nation. In Congress, Jefferson Davis and other eminent defenders of the Southern position gained the ardent support of Florida’s Democratic senior Senator, David L. Yulee. In his advocacy of the principle of the concurrent majority, as applied to the bicameral nature of the national legislature, Yulee was dealt a devastating blow by Webster and Clay. By late July of 1850, the proponents of the …

Fort Pupo: A Spanish Frontier Outpost, John M. Goggin

Florida Historical Quarterly

From the viewpoint of anthropological analysis one of the most interesting aspects of the study of man is what happens when two cultures meet. When is there an integration of elements, and when an overwhelming of one culture by the other? Precisely what happened when the Spanish and Indians came together has been a fascinating subject of study by many archaeologists in Florida in recent years. It was exactly this problem which turned us from our study of the missions where Spanish priests and Indians came together to a consideration of the similar meeting of Spanish soldiers and Indians. Fort …

Fort Tonyn And The Campaign Of 1778, Ripley P. Bullen

Florida Historical Quarterly

Fort Tonyn, a small British fort during the American Revolution, is believed by some to have been located on Amelia Island at the site now occupied by Fort Clinch. The probable reason for this tradition is the fact that it is so located on a map prepared by W. G. F. Wallace, Esq., and included by Burton Barrs in his East Florida in the American Revolution. No substantiating evidence for this location is given by Barrs and it may be stated categorically that Wallace’s map is incorrect in this respect.

A Political Rally Of 1884: A Letter Of L. D. Huston, L. D. Huston

Florida Historical Quarterly

The original of this letter is in the possession.of Mrs. Maria D. Pope of Daytona Beach to whom grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to publish it. The notes are by Mrs. Pope and Edward C. Williamson.

Miranda’S Diary Of The Siege Of Pensacola, 1781, Donald E. Worcester

Florida Historical Quarterly

The siege and capture of the British forts at Pensacola in April and May of 1781 brought to a climax Spanish participation in the American Revolution. The project was begun by Bernardo de GaIvez, the young governor of Louisiana who had already conquered the British posts in the Mississippi Valley and at Mobile Bay. The British still held out at Pensacola, their principal establishment in the Gulf of Mexico. Galvez landed there on March 18, and his force was soon augmented by troops from Mobile and New Orleans. It was not until the French and Spanish troops from Havana arrived …

The Federal Campaign Of 1864 In East Florida, Mark F. Boyd

Florida Historical Quarterly

At this distance in time from the events of 1864 it is not possible to prepare a satisfactorily complete picture of the 1864 Federal campaign in East Florida. Basic for such a study is the extended series of orders and reports of Federal and Confederate general officers and unit commanders preserved in the War of the Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume XXXV, Parts 1 and 2,1891 (page numbers in these volumes are hereafter cited in parentheses). A careful consideration of these leads to the conclusion that many gaps exist in the series.

The Tide Is Coming In: Fort Pulaski's Historical Relationship With Water, Sadie Ingram

Honors College Theses

Savannah, Georgia is the fourth busiest port in the United States, processing approximately 4.35 million standard shipping containers every year. The port’s protector Fort Pulaski towers among the coastal marshlands and estuaries of the Savannah River. Located on Cockspur Island at the mouth of the Savannah River, this strategic location allowed the fort to protect Savannah’s vital harbor. Built as part of the United States’ Third System plan to build fortifications along the eastern seaboard, construction of Fort Pulaski began in 1827 and finished twenty years later.

Water has played a pivotal role in the history of Fort Pulaski and …

Reactions And Responses To The American Chestnut Blight In The Twentieth Century, Sarah Heavren

Undergraduate Craft of Research Prize Papers

Chapter from The Perfect Tree: The American Chestnut Tree in American Culture, Economics, and Science in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

The tale of the American chestnut tree offers incredible insight on Americans’ changing relationship with their environment and the complications added by economic motivations and scientific advancements. The American chestnut tree was known for its favorable timber and delectable nuts, which allowed the tree to assume a level of economic and cultural significance in twentieth century America. The timber was versatile and durable, and picking chestnuts and roasting them during the holidays were common seasonal traditions. However, the arrival …