Letters to Floride L. Fleming. Originals, 1888

The majority of the documents in the Fleming Papers are correspondence to and from various members of the family. Most of the letters date around 1888, before Francis P. Fleming was elected governor. There are no gubernatorial papers included in the collection. The correspondence primarily covers day-to-day family concerns. Subjects include marriages, health, traveling, property, birthdays, and causal greetings between family members. A few of the correspondents and names mentioned frequently in the collection are Francis P. Fleming, Lydia Pearson Fleming, Francis P. Fleming, Jr., Charles Seton Fleming, Louis Fleming, Tilly (Francis P. Fleming's aunt), Matilda (F.P. Fleming's sister), James J. Daniel (partner in the law firm Fleming and Daniel).

Of particular interest are those letters that pertain to the yellow-fever epidemic of 1888. There are many references throughout the year to family and friends who are sick with fever, and the letters also described the quarantines. Included are thirteen letters from Fleming to his sons Seton and Frank, written from various Florida locations during the 1888 gubernatorial campaign. The sons were in South Carolina during a yellow fever epidemic in Florida. Additional letters to Mrs. Lydia Fleming describe the yellow fever epidemic in Jacksonville.

In addition to the family correspondence, the collection also includes the original manuscript for A Memoir of Captain C. Seton Fleming, Francis P. Fleming's account of his brother who died during the Civil War. It is very similar to the final, published version of the memoir. Three other miscellaneous items in the collection include: a deed for ten dollars worth of land, a brochure of famous Confederate men, and a typed copy of a letter of Perry's Brigade for May 9, 1863. The letter is not directly related to the family.