February 10, 1903 Dr. F.C. Wilson’s Home Chipley, Florida I’m in Chipley for a few days visiting my father, stepmother, and Grandfather Maxwell. He now lives with my father; Grandfather Maxwell is frail these days. Although Grandfather has been living with my uncle Evelyn Maxwell in Pensacola, Grandfather prefers to […]
January 9, 1901 Tallahassee, Florida The Leon Hotel I woke alone in the hotel room — panicked, I sat up and looked at Cephas’ pocket watch on the table — almost 8:30 in the morning. I felt like hell. I didn’t sleep well last night; Cephas came in around 3 […]
January 7, 1901 The Leon Hotel Tallahassee, Florida Cephas and I met his friend and former law partner, Walter Kehoe, in the lobby of The Leon Hotel right before supper. Walter had come to Tallahassee ahead of us by a day or so. “Legal business with the Governor-elect,” he said […]
September 10, 2016University of Maryland Research CarrelCollege Park, Maryland Before I move on with Emmett’s story post-WFS, one thing that popped out at me when I was looking through Emmett’s old college yearbook was this: The Jennings inauguration ceremonies ran from January 6-9, 1901 — and by this account, Emmett […]
Christmas Day, 1900 The Wilson Home,Chipley, Florida Have you ever seen pictures of seated royalty on their thrones? The ones featuring a king, with princes and other members of the royal family seated around a central authority figure in descending order of power? If you stood Father’s front yard that […]
December 22, 1900Dr. Francis C. Wilson’s Office, Downtown Chipley Continued from here. === I climbed the stairs and paused at the top; my heart was pounding. I closed my eyes, and counted to ten; rubbed the center of my chest. Touched the liquor flask hidden in my coat pocket. After […]
What I love about Katie’s narrative about her family’s years in British Honduras are the anecdotes. She’s a wonderful storyteller, sharing family experiences in detail. I wish she were still alive — I would love to interview her. Here’s the fourth page of Katie Wilson Meade’s story: We had a […]
As far as I know, most of my friends in the Florida panhandle survived Hurricane Michael. I’ve heard from almost everyone — thank goodness, all seem to have fared pretty well, given the severity of the storm. Friends in Pensacola tell me they were lucky; Hurricane Michael didn’t affect them […]
I’ve been thinking about the vocational/educational breakdown of Emmett’s immediate family: Two physicians; one on-the-job training, one college-educated (Dr. Francis Wilson and his second eldest son, Percy Brockenbrough Wilson) Two lawyers; one on-the-job training, one college-educated (Cephas Love Wilson and Emmett Wilson) Four railroad professionals; high school diploma only, mostly […]
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, […]
