"It seems to me almost every one North wants to come to Florida."
-- Lucy Mead Parce, Spring 1881Source: "The Parce Letters, Voices From the Past"
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| 19 century view of citrus groves is from the front porch of Frederick deBary's house, now DeBary Hall Historic Site .(Florida Memory photo) |
And come they did. Florida in the 19th century was like the Wild West, with towns springing up from the sand seemingly overnight.
My avocational fascination lies in the minutiae of pioneers' everyday life. I read social history and 19th century diaries and memoirs for fun, when I'm not writing short stories, biographies or Catholic romance novels. My novels and novella set in frontier Florida. You can learn more about them on this blog's Persimmon Hollow Novels books page.
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| 2004 Parce Letters |
Other pages in the blog focus on domestic history and home life in late 19th and early 20th century Florida, including the lives and times of early Catholic settlers. I post once a month and try to group similar topics in lists on these pages. Always, I try to find topics that usually didn't or don't make it into regular history books.
The blog's page header quotes are from a slim volume of letters and reminiscences by members of the J.Y. Parce family. The relatives of city founder Henry DeLand settled in the then-new town in the 1870s. The letters and supplemental historical information are in The Parce Letters, Voices From the Past, a slim book I compiled, edited, and designed for the West Volusia Historical Society. The nonprofit society published the book in 2004 as a fundraiser.
The (very) limited edition printing long ago sold out. Some copies are floating around, including at duPont-Ball Library at Stetson University and in the genealogical section (not for loan) of the DeLand Area Public Library. The book also can be ordered from the historical society via their gift shop at the Henry A. DeLand House Museum.
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