[Florida]. [Land Development]

Barnes & Porter Land Attorneys, Gainesville, Florida. With an Experience of Seven Years in the U.S. Land Office at Gainesville...[caption title]

Gainesville, Fl. Daily Advocate Job Print, ca. 1884-1890]. [4]pp., on a single folded sheet. Mild soiling, minor toning, old folds. Very good. Item #3620

A seemingly unrecorded real estate promotional leaflet issued by Louis A. Barnes and Watson Porter, local land attorneys working in and around Gainesville, Florida. The pair is seeking prospective purchasers for "much valuable" homestead lands now available for settlement again after being abandoned "under the homestead or pre-emption laws." They also offer services for claims on "Spanish Grants," land warrants, soldiers' homestead rights, and more. Interestingly, one of the two lawyers here, Watson Porter previously served as a surgeon in the Third U.S. Colored Troops. In Florida, Porter and his wife Olivia established O.A. Porter's Addition to Gainesville, selling lots exclusively to African-American people who did not have ready access to land or financing; the neighborhood survives today in Gainesville as Porters Quarters. Porter also served as the Principal of the Union Academy ( a freedman's school) and was a strong supporter of Josiah T. Walls, the only African-American man from Gainesville to be elected and seated twice to the U.S. House of Representatives. Some of the land and services in question in the present pamphlet were almost certainly provided to African-American settlers. The pamphlet was printed by the Gainesville-area Daily Advocate, which operated in the area between 1884 and 1890. No copies located in OCLC.

Price: $475.00