Whitfield Brooks travel diary, 1845 Nov. 14-1846 Jan.

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Brooks, Whitfield, 1790-1851. Whitfield Brooks travel diary, 1845 Nov. 14-1846 Jan.

Whitfield Brooks travel diary, 1845 Nov. 14-1846 Jan.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/154690576

This volume is entitled "A book for entry of daily occurrences in the form of a diary by Whitfield Brooks, commencing on the 14th of November 1845." The entries, which always note the day's weather, run through Jan. 1846. Brooks describes a winter trip to Florida for the "restoration of my health." He leaves from Aiken, S.C., and passes through Charleston, S.C., and then Savannah, Ga., where he describes social activities, mostly in the company of Judge John MacPherson Berrien and family of Savannah. Brooks travels down the Georgia coast by boat to Jacksonville, Fla., and describes the town, its people, and environs. Other Florida places he describes include St. Augustine; Palatka ("a dirty place"); Volusia; and Blue Springs (a place of "transparent" waters). Brooks also makes observations on the climate, wildlife, and agriculture (including cotton growing) of east Florida. Traveling down the St. Johns River, he arrives at the inn of Major Taylor (Cornelius Taylor, a first cousin of Zachary Taylor) on Lake Monroe (Enterprise, Fla.), where his health temporarily improves. On one of Brooks' excursions on the lake he sees Fort Mellon. In December he begins a return trip home on the St. Marys River. By Jan. 1846 he is travelling back up the Georgia coast, and after a brief stop in Beaufort, S.C., he arrives in Charleston.

1 v.

South Carolina Historical Society