Royal Palm Nurseries Papers

Most of the collection concerns the creation and development of Royal Palm Nurseries in Florida. Pliny Reasoner’s correspondence with his family is extensive. An engaging writer, he describes living conditions, setting up the business, early endeavors and setbacks, and horticulture. An 1882 letter describes plagues of mosquitoes. Other letters written from Florida include one by his mother, during a family visit, and several by his brother Egbert after he moved to Florida in 1885. Printed versions of some letters, which appeared in newspapers, are included. Other items related to the nursery are a price and order list from 1886, two ledgers, and a journal Pliny kept during 1881-1882. Finally, the collection contains a near complete run of the catalogs of the nursery from 1890 to 1929 (see list of years below). With the catalogs are three price lists (1925-1927) and a small notebook of landscaping renderings for various Florida locations by Carroll Towne dated 1923-1926. Pliny’s journal and letters recount in great detail his daily experiences in Florida. He describes his train trip from Chicago to Florida and his stops at Jacksonville, Palatka, San Mateo, St. Augustine, Cedar Key, and Bradenton. There is a hand-drawn map of the Gulf Coast of Florida including Long Key, Clearwater Harbor, and other places he saw when he took the steamship from Cedar Key to Bradenton. He settled near Bradenton, bought 40 acres of pineland for $250, and began his nursery business.

Also included are daily logbooks from Henry C. Reasoner concerning his activities and weather in Illinois from 1859 to 1881.