When I first started gathering research on Emmett, I remember thinking: I wanted to get as much information as I could get my hands on, as quickly as possible, so that I could jump right in and write this complex man’s comprehensive story…. And looking back in my research journals, […]
Here’s something new that turned up in Emmett Wilson research: A page honoring The Platonic Debating Society, which was the founding body of today’s Florida State University Debate Team. The photos come from the first yearbook published by the Florida Seminary West of the Suwannee River (which was FSU when […]
When I first started blogging about the Emmett Wilson research project, my goal was to put his name back out into the public discussion forum, in the hopes that distant relatives or descendants (who were also doing genealogical research) would find me/him, and exchange information. I knew that by itself, […]
In 1923, Harry Gardner Cutler published a ginormous compendium of Florida biographies, complete with similarly sized title History of Florida: Past and Present, Historical and Biographical. Three volumes complete the set, and today, it is available via Google Books at this link. It’s an interesting and informative resource; in fact, […]
When I last visited Florida in 2015, I spent most of the time going through courthouse archives in search of testimony and notes for the cases Emmett was prosecuting. Although I didn’t find much in the way of notes, I did uncover a load of paperwork with Emmett’s signature, which […]
I’ve been writing, editing, and submitting essays on Emmett and my research to several literary journals. Also, my writing partner and I have been submitting proposals to speak about our work at writing conferences. I’m not anywhere near an official publication date for Emmett’s book, but a longitudinal academic research […]
Nellie Browning Mills (1876-1964) was never Emmett’s official secretary, but she did work for Emmett as she was the main stenographer and typist at the San Carlos Hotel in Pensacola, Florida from 1910 to at least 1917. Emmett used Nellie’s shorthand and typing services when he stayed at the San […]
When I started tracking down Emmett’s secretaries, I didn’t know what to expect. Mostly I started looking for Emmett’s secretaries because I hit a brick wall with Emmett himself (there’s very little primary information from him). At present, I’ve found as much as I can about and from Emmett’s siblings […]
Did you know that Emmett got his professional start texting (of sorts) for a living? True. And if you think about it, telegraph operators were early ‘texters.’ (Here’s a great history of telegraphing — see the first half of the article for details about the importance of the telegraph in […]
Continuing our story about Cephas Love Wilson, Jr. from here: We next find Cephas Jr. and his father, Cephas Love Wilson Sr., visiting Emmett in Pensacola: Cephas Jr., age 17, should still be enrolled at Marianna High School, but he appears to be clerking in his father’s law firm. It’s […]
Tell my story. 