This document was transcribed to appear as closely as
possible as it does in the Territorial Papers of Florida. The section
in parentheses indicates words that were struck out in the document.
Transcribed by Gail Vickrey.
We the undersigned citizens of County of Leon and
Territory of Florida represent with the greatest respect to your
Excellency that Middle Florida in general is distinguished by a paucity
of streams of running water of a volume and permanency of supply
suitable to mills and other machinary propelled by water. This is
eminently and peculiarly the character of the County in which your
petitioners reside, and the consequence is a great scarcity of lumber.
The few streams of the requisite size and seats for mills, in a County
forty miles in length by thirty in breadth, are with two exceptions
found only within the limits of the Forbes purchase, On this purchase
and at points accessible to the citizens of Tallahassee and its
vicinity, exist seats which have been improved for the purpose of
supplying, the necessities of the public. They are uniformly surrounded
by large tracts of sterile land, covered with a growth of pine which
cannot be destroyed for ages, and the use of which can in no manner
lessen the value of the land. Your petitioners beg permission, most
respectfully to state to your Excellency. that the District Attorney of
the United States, for the District of Middle Florida has obtained from
the Judge of the said District a writ of injunction directed to certain
proprietors of saw mills, in Forbes purchase suspending their
opperrations indefinitely-and forbidding them to use pine timber,
growing on any of the public lands -Your petitioners believe there is
no law of the General Government, prohibiting the use of such timber
for purposes solely of domestick application They understand in the
neighbouring state of Alabama the practice is universally tolerated,
That no citizen or community, has been denied a similar accommodation
when the object has been confined to domestic supply and they solemnly
declare their belief that no lumber within the said County of Leon has
ever been sawed for any other purpose, that none has ever been exported
nor was any ever prepared with that view, To inform your Excellency,
that the use of these seats- and the pine timber in their vicinity are
essential to their accommodation and convenience; that they are
indispensible to the wants of this youthful community still struggling
with most of the hardships incident to the first settlement of a new
country, will be sufficient to procure a revocation of the orders under
which the District Attorney has acted. They are willing even to go
father, and pronounce the measure impolitic even if the Government act,
with a view singly to the value of their own property supposing them to
be proprietors of said purchase; for they entertain no doubt, that
these mills add decidedly to the value of the lands included within its
limits, Your petitioners believing that your Excellency is guided by a
liberal and enlighted'd policy- [without the smallest stain or
tinture of the sinister consideration of politics which usually mingles
so much in the measures of a Territory] - appeal with the
greatest confidence to you generosity, and solicit the interposition of
their respected chief magistrate to grant them the necessary relief.
TALLAHASSEE 1st February 1830
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Names |
Edmd Doyle |
David Burdoe |
W. Wyatt |
John Y. Garey |
Henry, C, Ashton |
Thos John |
Pelatiah Whitehurst |
John McIvor |
Wm A, Carr |
G Philip Kling |
John Sanders |
I G Searcy |
Saml Parkhill |
William Hall |
Jos. D. Davenport |
John L. Vickers |
W. Cameron |
Levy Dunn |
Bryan Dunn |
Nicholas Lloyd |
D. McRaeny |
William taylor |
J. W. Ogilvie |
Andrew Callender Senr |
J B. Bull |
James G. Hard |
Richard. B. Bull |
W W Witherington |
John Cook |
Willm Witherington |
John Green |
Alfred Evans |
James Vanhorn |
Ivy Catton |
Richd C. Parish |
A McRobie |
G. F. Ward |
William ONiell |
Saml Henry DuVal |
William P. Monroe |
Isaac W. Mitchell |
W Price |
Wm Tonard |
James Barbar |
H. P. Brandin |
Will B. Nuttall |
John H. Twineer |
B G Thornton |
Lemuel Bruce |
Hugh L Campbell |
Willeden Childress |
Robt A. Lacey |
Charles B Wirt. |
John V Santas |
Jno S Taylor |
Charles Pindar |
Wm Collins |
Peter Ulrick |
Leslie A. Thompson |
Rob: J. Hackley |
James Bryan Jr. |
Thomas Harvey |
C Bronaugh |
Tho: Brown |
Eli Lester |
John Landaman |
Henry Washington- |
George Moor |
Absolem Presnall |
David B Macomb |
John P DuVal |
William Kerr |
F Weedon |
Patrick Kerr |
Allen W. Coleman |
Charles Austin |
John H. Parker |
Chas E. Sherman |
Jno S Myrick |
Henry Carr |
Nathan Vickers |
John W. Reaves |
George Johnston |
Geo Fisher Jr |
Jas Hughes |
Wm N. Ritchie |
Philip M. Courtney |
John T. Pitman |
James Williams |
Richard Hayward |
James Addison |
Darius Williams |
James Booth |
Taylor & Forman |
Wm. Rogers |
H. R. W. Andrews |
A. W. Crews |
Wm Wilson |
David Thomas |
Christopher C. Williams |
James F. Trotte |
Robt W. Williams |
D. M. Sheffield |
Robert B. Oliver |
Wm M. Smith |
Justn F. Davis |
L. C. Fort |
Turbutt R. Betton |
D McPherson |
Betton & Emory |
William E. Cooksy |
R. C. Allen |
John Endeman |
M. G. Wikoff |
Loockerman & Craig |
George E. Tingle |
Jno Craig |
Davis Floyd |
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