Columbia County
Columbia County

Author: Laura J. Cleveland Mlis

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 130

ISBN-13: 0738598704

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Columbia County, located along the southern border of Arkansas and resting just above Louisiana, was created in 1852 from portions of four surrounding counties. Blessed with abundant natural resources--including timber, petroleum, natural gas, and bromine--and teeming with wildlife, the county's roots of ancestry and industry run deep. The Cotton Belt Railroad once distributed the superior long-staple cotton produced locally, which was used to weave the finest broadcloth west of the Mississippi. Columbia County is also known for the healing mineral waters of Magnesia Springs, which are now part of Logoly State Park. Today, the thriving Southern Arkansas University offers more than 60 degrees in four distinct colleges and is the only school in the world with a Mulerider as a mascot. Columbia County is surrounded by a tremendous expanse of great natural beauty and has produced a cornucopia of characters and storytellers; the authors hope to introduce them in these pages.

Cracker Times and Pioneer Lives
Cracker Times and Pioneer Lives

Author: James M. Denham

Publisher: Univ of South Carolina Press

Published: 2023-06-30

Total Pages: 245

ISBN-13: 1643364294

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Wild and wooly recollections from the Florida frontier Cracker Times and Pioneer Lives brings together the reminiscences of two pioneers who came of age in antebellum Florida's Columbia County and the nearby Suwannee River Valley. Though they held markedly different positions in society, they shared the adventure, thrill, hardship, and tragedy that characterized Florida's pioneer era. With sensitivity, poignancy, and humor, George Gillett Keen and Sarah Pamela Williams record anecdotes and memories that touch upon important themes of frontier life and reveal the remarkable diversity of Florida's settlers. Keen's story typifies that of many "Cracker" families. Born in Georgia, he moved with his parents to the Florida Territory in 1830 in search of a better life. He grew up in a dangerous yet exciting setting, and as an old man at the turn of the twentieth century recorded his colorful memories with a verve and vernacular reminiscent of the Georgia humorist, Augustus Baldwin Longstreet. Keen writes about subsistence farming, cattle grazing, the Seminole wars, marriage customs, medical practices, politics, the abundance of wildlife, and the paucity of educational opportunities. Admittedly not a Cracker, Sarah Pamela Williams was the daughter of a nationally recognized man of letters. In 1847 she moved to Columbia County's seat of Alligator (Lake City) and later married into one of northeast Florida's prominent planter families. She recorder her recollections of a life brightened by social functions, travel, and cultural endeavors. Offering a rare glimpse into Florida's Civil War homefront, Williams tells of making clothes of homespun, tithing crops to the Confederacy, fearing hostilities just thirteen miles from her home, and surviving as a widow in the lean postwar era. Cracker Times and Pioneer Lives features biographical sketches of more than 280 persons mentioned by Keen and Williams in their writings, many of whom subsequently pioneered settlement in the Florida peninsula.

Some Descendants of John Thomas of Jamestown, Rhode Island
Some Descendants of John Thomas of Jamestown, Rhode Island

Author: Hollis A. Thomas, MD

Publisher: iUniverse

Published: 2013-01-24

Total Pages: 441

ISBN-13: 1475965710

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In 1636, Roger Williams, recently banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony because of his religious beliefs, established a settlement at the head of Narragansett Bay that he named “Providence.” This small colony soon became a sanctuary for those seeking to escape religious persecution. Within a few years, a royal land patent and charter resulted in the formation of the “Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations,” which incorporated Williams’ original settlement and espoused his tenets of freedom of religion and separation of church and state. During the ensuing decades, thousands of Baptists, Quakers, Jews, and Huguenots relocated to Rhode Island from other New England colonies, the British Islands, and Europe in search of religious freedom. One such individual, John Thomas, an immigrant from Wales, made significant contributions to early settlements at Jamestown on Conanicut Island and at Wickford on the nearby mainland of Rhode Island. He was the first town constable of Jamestown in 1679, and later owned hundreds of acres of land in the towns of North and South Kingstown. This fully indexed work traces and sketches the lives of his descendants, many of whom were at the forefront of the great American westward migration, and represents the most comprehensive compilation of them to date. It is the result of twenty years of extensive research and includes detailed information from military pension archives, will and estate records, agricultural data, county histories, and migration patterns that far exceeds the standard for genealogical works of this scope and magnitude. It is important for us to remember those who helped shape our nation. This work provides valuable information for those who are interested in this family and its evolution in America.

Florida's Black Public Officials, 1867-1924
Florida's Black Public Officials, 1867-1924

Author: Canter Brown (Jr.)

Publisher: University of Alabama Press

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 9780817309152

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A ground-breaking study revealing the magnitude and impact of African American leadership in Florida during the post-Civil War era. This work also includes an extensive biographical directory of more than 600 officeholders, an appendix of officials by political subdivision, and more.