Moore and Bardo Family Letters

This collection contains correspondence and transcriptions written by a northern family who came to Florida at the peak of the 1925-1926 Land Boom, but left when they discovered that work and good pay was hard to find. Most of the letters and penny postcards are from Ralph and Mary Moore and Obediah and Sylvia Bardo, addressed to each other or to their children. Obediah's letters include routine descriptions of life in Florida at a time when many people were moving there: as he notes "10,000 a day" (Oct. 10, 1925). One letter refers to mid-1920s prices of produce and products, comparing Florida's prices to those in Ohio (Oct. 16, Nov. 2, Nov. 20, 1925). In another letter, addressed to niece Ruth Moore McPeak on December 11, 1925, Obediah mocked the promotion of Florida, saying northerners are easily deceived into buying land without considering whether or not it will produce crops. He goes on to describe the Florida Boom - miles of signs advertising towns under development, where nothing had been built. In the Moore correspondence, Mary Moore writes to her daughter about a baseball game held between African American teams, refers to her husband's work in construction, and draws up a small diagram of a house they were renting for $10 a week, stating the one room house was much less comfortable than their eight-bedroom home in Ohio (March 1, 1926). Besides the letters from the 1920s, there are postcards (addressed and unaddressed) from the 1920s, and two postcards from the 1950s, sent by Obediah's brother, Clyde.