[Manuscript Letter Describing the Environs and Various Local Events in Antebellum Jacksonville]

Jacksonville, Fl: March 15, 1858. Very good plus.. [4]pp., on a single folded sheet. Old mailing folds. An informative dispatch from antebellum Florida from A.C Scranton to "Friend Barton" in 1858. In his letter, Scranton reports that despite some problems, he is enjoying southern people and general life in Florida: "The people generally in the south are very kind & hospitibal, but I need hardly to tell you that Florida has got some hard times as every new state or Territory has but thare is a more healthy Emigration coming in every year I have been fortunate anough to find some Northern people here which makes it seam a little more like home to me. I am boarding with a family from Georgia whome I like first rate & I do just as I would at home so that things are quite pleasant here considering I am amongst strangers."

He then provides information on Jacksonville and then two disasters that hit his adopted hometown: "Jacksonville is the largest place in Florida & had at one time about 3,000 inhabitants it is not as large as it was once some three years ago it was visited by a very destructive fire & burned nearly half of the town. Last summer there was some kind of Fever here that almost prostrated the place some called it the Yellow Fever & some the African but none could tell for certin...about a hundred & fifteen or twenty that died here in 3 months & a grate many left the town nearly all the stors wer closed, not a sound of a hammer was to be heard. When cold weather came it stoped the sickness [and] it seams quite lively now. It has been for many years a grate resort in the winter season for invaleds but on account of the sickness last summer thare are but few this winter if it continus healthy this summer the place will revive but if not it will kill it entirely."

Scranton also discusses the transportation system that served Jacksonville, and the recent winding down of the Seminole Wars: "It is situated on the Johns River about 23 miles from the mouth and is connected with Charleston & Savana by a regular line of steamers that runs up the river a hundred miles to a place called Platka whare Emigrants land & then travel by land to the interior to settle the country, thare is a railroad building from this place to Tallahasse the capital of the state a distance of a hundred & eighty miles which wen completed will be a little help to this place. There is also another in progress from Fernandina a new town that lays in the North East corner of the state to a place called cedar keys on the gulf side whare they intend to carry the US mail direct from New Orleans to New York insted of going round by Key west & will shorten the time considerable.... Florida has cost Uncle Sam a large some of money...the government...will make a treaty with them & send them into the Indian Territory & then close the Indian war in Florida." Almost all of the Seminoles remaining in Florida relocated to Indian Territory in the year this letter was written.

A wonderfully-detailed firsthand account of Jacksonville and its development and challenges during the late 1850s. A printed transcription accompanies the letter.