[John Coffee] Archive Related to Cotton Port Venture Company. Contains near twelve land documents, many signed by John Coffe...

Description

The archive contains lists of "Tracts of Land Purchased by the Cottonport Company", registers of individuals and land prices, and other land transaction documents, including one hand-drawn map. Four documents are signed by John Coffee and several by James Jackson. (Jackson was an Alabama politician and founder of Florence, Alabama.)

John Coffee (1772-1833) settled near Nashville, Tennessee, in 1798. He soon met Andrew Jackson, who had arrived in the state ten years earlier. Coffee quickly became Jackson's business partner, military associate, confidant, adviser, and fearless friend. During the War of 1812, Coffee served under Jackson in the Creek War and at the Battle of New Orleans. He was promoted to brigadier general in October 1813. After the war, Coffee served as surveyor general of public lands in Alabama from 1817 until his death in 1833. Coffee, Jackson, James Jackson, and others partnered in a land company which purchased most of its land in the northern part of the Alabama Territory. Seeing opportunities in Alabama, Coffee moved his family from Tennessee to modern day Florence in Lauderdale County.