Papers, 1796-1887.

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Papers, 1796-1887.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/77893558

The John Coffee Papers, 1796-1887, consist of business, legal, and family letters and limited correspondence, as well as an account book, legal and fiscal documents, diaries, surveyor's notebooks, copied printed material, memorandum books, and transcriptions of a limited number of letters and diary passages. Series I, which is nearly half of the collection, consists of letters to John Coffee (and copies of a few he wrote) mainly concerning business matters, especially in conjunction with surveying the lands of the northern district of the Miss. Territory which, in 1819, became the northern part of Ala. Coffee was deeply involved in the early settlement of Huntsville, Ala. and Florence, Ala. as well as the "running the lines" of the Indian nations and Ala.-Miss. boundary. The letters reflect the preparations for and execution of the surveying projects, the formation of land sales companies, and, by 1821, when Coffee's plantation was beginning to produce, the cotton market. Other topics include the expansion of the postal route, economic conditions, Choctaw, Cherokee, and Creek Indian negotiations, river boat activity, Ala. politics, Andrew Jackson, slavery, University of Ala., and the nullification issue in the early 1830s. Principal correspondents include New Orleans (La.) cotton brokers Bedford and Mackey, John Brahan, Benjamin A. Clements, William Cocke, Alexander D. Coffee, Robert M. Cunningham, James W. Exum, Thomas Freeman, Benjamin Hawkins, Andrew Jackson Hutchings, Andrew Jackson, James Jackson, John M. McKinley, Israel Pickens, Benjamin F. Reynolds, Charles L. Savage, John H. Weakley, and Maunsel White of New Orleans. Letters to John Coffee from Andrew Jackson, 1816-1828, are transcripts made from the Jackson papers in the Library of Congress. Topics discussed include surveying projects, the buying and selling of Indian lands, national politics, Henry Clay, and requirements for land settlement. The letters to John Coffee from James H. Weakley, who was the manager of Coffee's Huntsville (Ala.) Surveyor's Office, are dated from 1817-1833. Weakley discusses office matters, including land sales, surveyors' assignments, and the Indian lands. A small collection of miscellaneous and undated letters and papers include receipts, invoices, and a bill of lading. Topics include medical advice, slavery, taxes, and cotton trading. Correspondents include J.H. Eaton, Bedford and Mackey, Charles S. Savage, James Jackson, Samuel Hogg, and B.W. Mahan. Series II is Coffee's diaries which span the dates 1815-1828. They contain entries describing some of his surveying trips including the one initiating the survey of the Ala. and Miss. line. He notes expenses, the weather, health problems, and, occasionally, Indian matters. Transcripts accompany some of the diaries. The Coffee memorandum books (1818-1828) include a surveyor's book which contains an undated confidential land report. The memorandum books contain notes about surveyors and their districts, work schedules, money loaned, and list of accounts with James Jackson. Series III is the collection of primarily unbound business records, 1796-1866, documenting many of Coffee's financial interests (1796-1833) and, after his death, those of his family's (1834-1866). The papers include invoices and receipts for goods and services used in running Coffee's plantation, including the medical attention given to both family members and slaves. An account book, spanning the years 1811-1825, is from a Coffee's mercantile business. The substantial financial records documenting the Coffee family's cotton production, 1820-1866, include receipts, bills of lading, and letters from cotton brokers discussing the cotton market. Principal correspondents include Maunsel White, Andrew J. Hutchings, Alexander D. Coffee, and Fearn and Donegan and Co. The collection of land company accounts, 1796-1829, include prospectuses advertising the land companies Coffee was involved in, an occasional plat map, and share certificates. The companies are Cotton Port, Cypress Land Company, Marion Land Company, Muscle Shoal Land Company, and York Bluff Company. The group of miscellaneous papers contains records of Coffee land purchases, for himself as well as others, contracts, surveying costs, deeds, promissory notes, and an occasional plat drawing. Many documents are undated. The collection of tax receipts, 1820-1832, document John Coffee's tax payments on property and goods he owned in Lauderdale Co., Ala. The financial records, dated 1817-1861, document the personal and business affairs of Andrew Jackson Hutchings, the orphaned son of James H. Hutchings. They include invoices and receipts for goods, services, taxes, tuition, cotton sales and other matters dealing with the operation of a substantial estate. Series IV is the nine surveyor's notebooks that belonged to Coffee's son, Andrew. They contain surveyor's notations and plat drawings of land in Dallas Co., Ala. and Autauga Co., Ala. in 1844. Series V, the Coffee family papers, 1834-1887, includes letters written to Coffee's son John Donelson Coffee (who was working for the postal service) and Andrew Jackson Hutchings. Topics discussed include the postal service, land deals, and, to a very limited degree, family matters. Series VI is a collection of material copied from 1818-1845 newspapers. Topics discussed include public land sales and the history of many towns in northern Ala., proposed road improvement between Nashville, Tenn. and Grindstone Ford, Miss. Territory, and the building of the Tuscumbia, Courtland, and Decatur Railroad (1832), and the Cypress Creek (Ala.) Armory (1823).

2 cubic ft. (6 archives boxes).

Alabama Department of Archives and History

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 8205087

Alabama Department of Archives and History

Related Entities

There are 28 Entities related to this resource.

Jackson, Andrew, 1767-1845

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6f29rp1 (person)

Andrew Jackson, 7th President of the United States. Born on March 15, 1767 in the Waxhaw Settlement in South Carolina; though just a boy, participated in the battle of Hanging Rock during the Revolution, captured by the British and imprisoned. He worked for a time in a saddler's shop and afterward taught school before studying law in Salisbury, N.C. In 1788 he was appointed solicitor of the western district of North Carolina, comprising what is now the State of Tennessee. Upon the admission of T...

Hawkins, Benjamin, 1754-1816

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w68b1z89 (person)

Benjamin Hawkins (August 15, 1754 – June 6, 1816) was an American planter, statesman and a U.S. Indian agent He was a delegate to the Continental Congress and a United States Senator from North Carolina, having grown up among the planter elite. Appointed by George Washington in 1796 as one of three commissioners to the Creeks, in 1801 President Jefferson named him "principal agent for Indian affairs south of the Ohio [River]", and was principal Indian agent to the Creek Indians. Born on his f...

King, William R. (William Rufus), 1786-1853

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William Rufus DeVane King (April 7, 1786 – April 18, 1853) was an American politician and diplomat. He was the 13th vice president of the United States for six weeks in 1853 before his death. Earlier he had been elected as a U.S. representative from North Carolina and a senator from Alabama. He also served as minister to France during the reign of King Louis Philippe I. A Democrat, he was a Unionist and his contemporaries considered him to be a moderate on the issues of sectionalism, slavery ...

Exum, James W.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6xw59pr (person)

Barnett, William, 1761-1830.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6w09xjn (person)

Marion Town Land Company (Ala.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6bc8rxz (corporateBody)

Hutchings, Andrew Jackson.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6fn1xtq (person)

Cunningham, Robert M., 1760-1839.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6pg2h7z (person)

Clements, Benjamin A.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6xp7wfb (person)

Pickens, Israel, 1780-1827

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6g44q9s (person)

U.S. representative from North Carolina, public official of North Carolina and Alabama, governor of Alabama, and U.S. senator from Alabama. From the description of Letters of Israel Pickens, 1812-1825. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 79450084 ...

White, Maunsel.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6tq6s43 (person)

Coffee, John Donelson.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6bv87bz (person)

Coffee, John, 1772-1833

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6bk1h45 (person)

Army officer and surveyor-general of Alabama. Coffee (Coffey) family. From the description of John Coffee family papers, 1781-circa 1883. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 79453531 Frontier merchant, Indian fighter, land agent, surveyor, and speculator of Tennessee and Alabama. From the description of John Coffee order books, 1812-1815 [manuscript]. WorldCat record id: 24111763 John Coffee was a frontier merchant, Indian fighter, land agent, surveyor, and s...

Bedford and Mackey.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w65n10f4 (corporateBody)

Jackson, James, 1782-1840.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6q24qxb (person)

James Jackson was a pioneer settler, planter, and member of the Ala. state legislature. He was a major landowner in Lauderdale Co. and helped found Florence, Ala. He was a close friend of Andrew Jackson for many years. From the description of Papers, 1814-1863. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122582448 ...

Coffee, Mary.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6hq4qhn (person)

Brahan, John, 1774-1834

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6qv4c58 (person)

Reynolds, Benjamin Franklin, 1788-1843.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6cn7vfm (person)

McKinley, John, 1780-1852

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6697vkd (person)

Cotton Port Land Company (Ala.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6c58dj4 (corporateBody)

York Bluff Land Company (Ala.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w69w586g (corporateBody)

Peel, Hunter.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w69k539n (person)

Cypress Land Company (Ala.)

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Coffee, Alexander Donelson, 1821 or 1822-1901

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w67665pc (person)

Alexander Donelson Coffee, born in 1821 or 1822, was a planter in Florence, Ala. He died in 1901. From the description of Alexander Donelson Coffee papers, 1817-1901 (bulk 1844-1848) [manuscript]. WorldCat record id: 24342029 Alexander Donelson Coffee, born in 1821 or 1822, of Florence, Ala., was the son of General John Coffee (1772-1833), and a planter and Confederate captain in the 16th Alabama Infantry Regiment. He died in 1901. From the guide to the Alexander...

Weakley, John H., 1798-1856.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6gt6d0p (person)

Freeman, Thomas, -1821

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6nw08rv (person)

Engineer and explorer. From the description of Thomas Freeman papers, 1796-1807. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 79450339 Thomas Freeman was a civil engineer and astronomer. From the description of An account of the Red River, in Louisiana, drawn up from the returns of Messrs. Freeman and Custis, to the War Office of the United States, who explored the same, in the year 1806, 1806. (American Philosophical Society Library). WorldCat record id: 122417052 Fr...

Cocke, William, of Add MS 32484

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6bk243j (person)

Epithet: of Add MS 32484 British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000000174.0x000341 ...

Savage, Charles H.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6f19q9b (person)