The Online Catalog allows searching and browsing of information about the Florida State Archives’ holdings of over 48,000 cubic feet of state and local government records and historical manuscripts. The catalog provides descriptions of over 3,400 collections and lists the contents of containers and folders in many of those collections. For assistance with accessing and using State Archives collections, call our Reference Staff at 850.245.6719 or email us at archives@dos.myflorida.com.
Subdivided into (1) Photographs, separated by size and arranged numerically; (2) Papers, arranged alphabetically by type, and then chronologically; and (3) Books, unarranged.
Restrictions:
Terms Governing Use:
Biographical/Historical:
In 1874, Charles A. Knowlton and his wife, Mary Jennie Cook Knowlton, moved to Putnam County, Florida from Nashua, New Hampshire. Accompanying the Knowltons were her parents, John M. and Emeline Cook, and his parents, Andrew Benjamin and Mary Elizabeth Blake Knowlton. There were also four other Nashua families involved in settling the area, which they called Woodland. The families cleared land, built houses, and, though none of them had any farming experience, planted orange groves. By 1880, there were fifteen families living in Pomona on the shores of Lake Broward.
In successive years, Woodland would go by many names. In autograph books of this period (1878), it was called Crystal Lake. In 1879, one writer called it Lake Broward, but by 1880 it was agreed to call it Pomona. Its current name is Pomona Park.
Summary:
The collection is composed primarily of the photographs and books of the Knowlton family, though there are also some papers dealing with the business of Charles A. Knowlton in the late 19th century. These documents comprise of correspondence to C. A. Knowlton from absentee landowners who were striving to improve their holdings through Knowlton; an abundance of bills and receipts that reflect both Mr. Knowlton's role as general storekeeper and the costs involved in planting and maintaining the surrounding orange groves; and other financial records. Knowlton served as agent for the Jacksonville, Tampa, and Key West Railroads, postmaster and telegrapher.
The collection is particularly rich in photographs of Pomona and its inhabitants that represent all aspects of life in the area along the St. Johns River, called the Fruitland Peninsula. Although photographers and dates of some of the photographs are not known, Mrs. C. A. Knowlton took the photographs in Folder 45 through Folder 92 in 1901.
The remainder of the collection consists of books from the Knowlton family library. Included are bibles, textbooks, some music books and numerous histories.
Finding Aids:
Item listing is available for the photographs; folder listing available for the papers. 0
Additional Physical Form:
Some of the photographs in this collection have been digitized and are available on the Florida Memory website: https://www.floridamemory.com/discover/photographs/
for detailed listing.