Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Rufus King Sewall Letter #3108-z, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Purchased from W. H. Lowdermilk & Company, Washington, D.C., in 1955.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: Manuscripts Department Staff, 1960s

Encoded by: Roslyn Holdzkom, January 2007

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Botany--Florida--History--19th century.
• Dearborn, H. A. S. (Henry Alexander Scammell), 1783-1851.
• Florida--Description and travel.
• Indians of North America--Florida.
• Medicine--Practice--History--19th century.
• Mitchell, Augustus.
• Plants--Florida--History--19th century.
• Sewall, Rufus King, 1814-1903.
• St. Lucie Inlet--Description and travel.
• Zoology--Florida--History--19th century.

Rufus King Sewall wrote articles concerned chiefly with historical events in the state of Maine. His Sketches of St. Augustine with a View of its History and Advantages as a Resort for Invalids was published in 1848 and surpressed; a second edition was published in 1849.

Augustus Mitchell was a physician and natural scientist who was living in Portland, Me., in 1850. He published "Antiquities of Florida" in the Smithsonian Institution's annual report of 1874.

H. A. S. Dearborn, son of Henry Dearborn, was a soldier, state legislator, member of the United States House of Representatives 1831-1833, author, and horticulturalist, who practiced law in Salem, Mass., and Portland, Me.

The collection is a letter, 24 April 1850, from author Rufus King Sewall in Saint Mary's, Ga., to August Mitchell in Portland, Me., that is enclosed in a letter from Mitchell to H. A. S. Dearborn, author, lawyer, legislator, and horticulturalist of Salem, Mass., and Portland, Me. In his letter to Mitchell, Sewall wrote about a voyage down the east coast of Florida, passing through Saint Lucie Inlet. Sewall described in detail the sound west of Hutchinsons Island and the region between the sound and Lake Okeechobee to the west and discussed vegetation, aminals, and the area as a terminal for traffic from three directions. The region he described includes the present Port Sewall and Sewall's Point. In his letter to Dearborn, 11 June 1850, Mitchell requested that Dearborn have Sewall's letter published in the Boston Courier or another newspaper. Mitchell also discussed his medical practice in Florida, where he had tried to establish a "sanitary retreat," studied natural history and Indian mounds, and looked for a site for a national botanical garden. He also included some observations on crania and teeth of Indian skeletons.