COMMUNICATING NEWS OF SOCIETY AND EVENTS IN TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA TERRITORY, IN THREE AUTOGRAPH LETTERS, SIGNED 13 JUNE [1832], 24 OCTOBER & 17 DECEMBER 1832, TO A LADY FRIEND IN WATERFORD, VIRGINIA
Author: Hixon, F[leming]
Title: COMMUNICATING NEWS OF SOCIETY AND EVENTS IN TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA TERRITORY, IN THREE AUTOGRAPH LETTERS, SIGNED 13 JUNE [1832], 24 OCTOBER & 17 DECEMBER 1832, TO A LADY FRIEND IN WATERFORD, VIRGINIA
Description: 8vo. 9pp. total, approx. 2500 words. All folded for mailing, addressed on an outer integral leaf, with "Tallahassee, Fla." postmarks. Splitting along some folds, affecting a few words, but all legible. Hixon writes to Miss. Ellin J. Harris of Waterford, Virginia and asks to be remembered to all their mutual circle of friends back in Virginia. He reports that Tallahassee has changed as it has grown: "I find two years have changed the aspect of this little village. The enthusiasm which pervaded every bosom a short time since has given way to the soberness of reflection and the experience of a few years has taught those who came to gather riches from the trees, that ‘tis only to be found as it is everywhere else, in industry, and frugality..." He also mentions that Florida was not exempt from the sickness that affected the rest of the country [presumably he is referring to the cholera epidemic of 1832]. In his October letter he says his law partner Col. Nuttall has recently married a lady "represented to have been the Belle of Savannah." By December Nuttall has returned, and Hixon is considering coming north to Washington for the winter. He says his initial thoughts of traveling to New Orleans have been put aside "by the alarming sickness that has prevailed in that quarter...." Hixon's letters carry reports on casual life and society in Tallahassee, mention people he has met at balls and dancing parties, and reflect fondly on the friends he left behind.
Fleming Hixon and his partner William B. Nuttall announced the formation of their Tallahassee Law Partnership, with an office near the Planters Hotel, in "The Floridian" newspaper of Nov. 6, 1832. Nuttall owned the El Destino Plantation near Tallahassee and was a speculator in Florida lands and bank stocks, according to the archives of the plantation. Hixon, who evidently left family behind in Waterford, succumbed to the "sickness at St. Joseph" [Florida] in the summer of 1841, presumably a reference to the yellow fever epidemic that decimated that city. [see: New York Tribune, 9 Aug. 1841].
Seller ID: 63148
Subject: Americana
