[Andrew Jackson] John Coffee Papers Relating to the Sale of Property Lots in Florence, Alabama. Two documents: one, an early...

Description

(1)  "Plan of Florence" Handwritten Map with lots numbered 1-276 located between Tuscaloosa and Spring Streets. (Other streets listed are Mobile, Tennessee, College Alabama, Sweet Water, Limestone, Chestnut, Cherry, Poplar, Walnut, Market, Seminary, Court, Pine, Cedar, and Cypress; some of the streets have since been renamed.) Lots 277-294 are placed on the northern banks of the Tennessee River. One page, 12" x 15.5", 1818. With docketing reading, "Plan of Florence & Memo of Sales of Lots 1818". This document has some separation at the folds.

(2) "Purchases of fractions, 21 & 22, near the Millatery ferry on the port of Florence". One page, 8" x 10", n.d. [ca. 1818], [Florence, Alabama]. With a list of twenty men and the amounts they paid (most are also marked, "paid to J. Coffee") under the heading, "We the undersigned mutually bind ourselves to pay our proportionable part for the purchase of Fractions 21 & 22". Included in the list are James Madison (not the fourth president), Andrew Jackson, John Coffee, James Jackson, and John McKinley. This document has an uneven left edge and is weak at the folds; some dampstaining.

The Cypress Land Company was formed in March 1818 by Andrew Jackson, John Coffee, James Jackson, John McKinley, James Madison (not the fourth president), and others. The company surveyed the future town of Florence in 1818; the town was incorporated in 1826. John Coffee (1772-1833) settled near Nashville, Tennessee, in 1798. He soon met Andrew Jackson (1767-1845), who had arrived in the state ten years earlier. Coffee quickly became Jackson's business partner, military associate, confidant, adviser, and fearless friend. Coffee, Jackson, and others formed a business partnership in 1804. Among other ventures of the business was the purchase of land in Alabama. When the War of 1812 started, Coffee served under Jackson in the Creek War and at the Battle of New Orleans. After the war, Coffee served as surveyor general of public lands in Alabama from 1817 until his death in 1833. In 1819, he purchased land in Lauderdale and Limestone Counties in northern Alabama. He soon moved his family to Lauderdale County, near modern day Florence, from Tennessee.