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noble gobbler, started from a fence corner right by us, & was unfortunately for me, not on my side -- I picked up my gun & gave it to Dr W. & ordered him to "shoot -- shoot it in the head-; which he did-; as it was not over 10 steps off he could not fail to get it -- It was a magnificient specimen-; weighed 21 lbs after it was dressed for the table --
On the 12th of December I got a first rate call-; the best paying visit, for only one visit, that I ever had paid -- me -- I was called to go to [Riccoe's?] Bluff-; 50 miles down the Apalachicola River, to see Mr Thos D. Nixon, who was suffering from a fistula in ano -- Dr Carson was his physician-; a vey poor chance for an M. D-; full of gas, & chat-; of so foolish a quality that once when I was staying all night at his house, with Col. Gibbes along, -- after we retired to our room for the night, the first remark the Col. made as we got in bed-, with a chuckle -- was -- "Well -- it is a good thing for Dr Carson that the fool killer does not pass down this way" --
Mr Nixon's fistula was a very slight one-; very easy to operate on -- but he was very nervous and scary, & thought his case was very critical -- I had only to make a very trifling out with a lancet to relieve him -- I sustained the dignity of the profession though, by making a good fat bill-; I charged $75.00 for the journey & the operation, and was paid cash without a grumble --
Honey was plentiful in 1866 -- Cotton was selling at
25cts; and many had cotton that was saved during the war -- I made many handsome collections -- Judge DuFont paid me $265.00 in Feb-; (and he never after could pay me a $10.00 [acct?]). Forman & Muse paid me $211.00-; and in December the sons of old Squire John McMillan paid me for attending their father in his last long lingering sickness -- (& he living 16 miles from town0 $269.00 -- My collections were good the year around --
On Dec. 15th I received a letter from Dr Keyes, telling me that he had made up his mind to move to Brazil -- Since the surrender there had been a general feeling throughout the defeated South , of restless desire to seek some foreign shore -- A large grant of land had been given by Don Pedro, to a Col. [Gemeter?] of Alabama, to all who would move out there and settle on it-; it was far up in the interior -- several hundred miles in the centre of the Wilderness -- Dr Keyes' was going out with this Colony -- in the ensuing [1867] Spring -- I continued to live in Mrs Harris' large 2 story house, which I was now renting for $200.00 per year-; had been paying $300.00. I rented Dr Munroe's office, and moved there early in January -- at $150.00 per annum --
Mrs Harris' lovely daughter [Mollie?] Sibley married Will Poole of Tallahassee on Jan. 16th; we were all present at the wedding-; just across the street -- I was doing a large practice -- I was driving a splendid grey mare that I bought of Albert [Mc Elvey], which was one of the last animals I ever
owned -- I had a fine garden-; attended to it personally-; usually worked hard in it every morning, when at home-; digging hard until breakfast time --
Drs Gee and Telfair were both practising;- besides other physicians -- I did as large a practice as any of them -- I had a restless desire thoug, to go into the business of market gardening and orange growing -- It was this that took me on that trip to Manatee that I have described-; it was a hobby that had been long occupying my mind -- I was longing for East or South Florida --
Dr Keyes, with his large family -- (I think he went out with two children & his wife) left for Brazil on the 16th of April of this year -- They embarked from New Orleans on the Steamer [Marmion], with a large number of other Colonists, mostly from Alabama (they was then going from Montgomery0 -- who were going to occupy lends there in [Cemeter] Colony --
In March of this year, a serious calamity befel us, in the shape of a small pox visitation -- It came about in the is way -- Fred Gilbert -- a delicate, consumptive son of Eli Gilbert, also built the Gilbert, also built the Gilbert house in the outskirts of Quincy ( He had himself died of consumption there during the War) -- was putting up a steam saw mill at Bristol, on Mrs Booth's plantation, on the Apalachicola River -- He had money at his comman, and was under the influence of [Jas] Evans, whose Judgement was not to be trusted-; neither of them were fitted for such a risky business, and they sank a great lot of money
There quickly enough-; and after getting out a large quantity of valuable machinery, and a lot of hands &c. they made a miserable failure -- Fred had come from the North to go into the business -- and in travelling in the cars he must have come near some one who had recently had the small pox, or varioloid -- He rode up from Bristol to Quincy in a buggy, on the 19th of January-; he was sick on the road, with fever & vomiting &c. On the 26th I went out to see them -- at the old Gilbert place on the suburbs of town-, which place Jim Evans was renting -- Fred, who was feeling better, came into the parlor, very languid-, & with his face all garnished with pustules -- I told him at once -- "Why Fred, you have Varioloid"-; "No", he replied -- "I have had that -- this is chicken pox" -- Strange to say I took his word for it, & did not take the alarm -- Mrs Booth was then staying there, and had a little negro Margaret, who made up the beds every morning; she made up Fred's --
On Tuesday the 29th Mrs Booth moved to my house, and took a room up stairs-; bringing her little servant Margaret with her -- Jim Evans at the same time, moved with his family to Apalachicola -- Mrs Booth, soon after getting to our house, was taken sick, with one of her desperate, alarming spells, and I paid little attention to the little negro girl, who had an attack of varioloid -- thinking that she had been sufficiently protested by vaccination, I presumed that she had chicken pox -- A grown servant, named Adeline, who was with us, also had it -- All of our children had been successfully vaccinated but Bexie, then 16 months old -- I had vaccinated her twice unsuccessfully
during the past year -- Willie and Sallie Lee both had it very lightly, with only a slight pustule or so -- And on Feb 23d little Bexie was taken sick -- After several days of high fever the eruption came out and became so general that I was alarmed-; I called in Dr Telfair to help me decide if it was small pox-; there was soon no room for doubt -- She had it in a very severe type-; the eruption was universal all over her-; on the bottom of one of one of her little feet-, which was as clear as any part of her, I counted over 40 pustules-, and on her face the eruption was confluent-; all run into one sore -- She was very good about scratching-; she never did anything but rub her face with the back of her wrist -- It was a dreadful predicament to be in -- I had to quarantine my family from the rest of the community-; tied my gates up-; had my mail thrown over the fence daily, -- our negro servants stuck to us faithfully -- our cook Mary Ingraham nursed Bexie in her arms a large part of the time-; the case progressed favorably-; but I felt that I had best send my family away some where, to break the spell -- And as the disease had gone to Apalachicola with Jim Evans family, from the same source, I concluded to send wife & children down there for a while --
On March 8th I went out for the first time; after thorough disinfection with Durley's Propleylectic -- ( I bought a box of it) -- on the 9th I attended Mrs Tenie Curtis in her first confinement, out on his plantation at Rocky Comfort -- her son Charlie was born -- now July (1892) in his 26th year