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Dr. James Hall Collection, 1972-1984

 

Summary

Extent:
0.50 Linear Feet One (1) flip-top document box
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

Dr. James Hall Collection, Thomas G. Carpenter Library, University of North Florida, Jacksonville, Florida.

Background

Scope and content:

The collection includes documents pertaining to the biographical research about Dr. James Hall, and the efforts of several Jacksonville residents to recognized Dr. Hall and to publicize the historical importance of his burial site. The collection includes biographical materials, correspondence, newspaper clippings, research notes, minutes of meetings, maps, periodicals, presentationsand speeches by Dr. G. Dekle Taylor, and photographs. The majority of the correspondence, presentations, and documents pertain to Dr. Taylor's role and activities from 1972 to 1984, principal among them a 1974 co-authored article about Hall in the Journal of the Florida Medical Association.

The collection consists of six series:

Series 1: Article about Dr. James Hall, including edits and research.

Series 2: Duval County Medical Society information.

Series 3: Information about the Dr. James Hall Memorial and historic marker, including correspondence, committee minutes, information about the gravesite, invitation to the dedication, and newspaper articles about the dedication.

Series 4: Photographs including those of the Dr. James Hall memorial site and of Dr. G. Dekle Taylor speaking at the Civitan Club.

Series 5: Research materials including hand-drawn maps and genealogical research of Dr. James Hall.

Series 6: Speeches and other written materials.

Biographical / historical:

Dr. James Hall was the first known physician to practice in Duval County, Florida, and the first physician to practice in Florida following its annexation from Spain by the United States. Prior to this period, there were a number of physicians, mainly associated with the military, during the Spanish and British occupations of Florida.

James Hall was born October 8, 1760, in Keene, New Hampshire. After enlisting as a teenager with the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, he fought to the end in Yorktown in 1781. The next known record reveals he received a Spanish land grant in East Florida in 1790 and settled near Cow Ford (now Jacksonville), Florida. His medical education is not known, but he played an active role in both medical and community affairs in the region and accumulated large parcels of land via grants and through his marriage to Eleanor Pritchard.

In 1810, for his participation in the Florida-Georgia Rebellion, Hall was exiled from East Florida by the Spanish and retreated to St. Marys, Georgia. He returned to Florida in 1813, and continued to practice medicine until his death at LaGrange, East Florida (now Mandarin, Florida) on December 25, 1837.

His grave, located on Scott Mill Road in Mandarin, Florida, is the only one in Duval County positively identified as that of a Revolutionary War Soldier. It was rediscovered in 1924, but the marker was later lost. Through the efforts of Dr. Webster Merritt and the Jacksonville Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the grave site was located again in 1944. On October 15, 1972, the Duval County Medical Society dedicated a restored tombstone in his memory. The Dr. James Hall Memorial site was relocated by the Society in 1978.

Acquisition information:
The collection was acquired through donation from Dr. G. Dekle Taylor, a second generation Jacksonville physician and a leading participant in the effort to memorialize Dr. Hall.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

The collection is open for research by appointment only. Please contact lib-special@unf.edu to schedule an appointment.

Terms of access:

Materials in the collection may be subject to copyright and are to be used for private study, scholarship, or research in accordance with the copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code). Use of reproductions of copyrighted works in excess of " fair use," may result in the user's liability for copyright infringement and be subject to the civil and criminal penalties of federal law. Visit the United States Copyright Office's website at http://www.copyright.gov/ for further information.

Preferred citation:

Dr. James Hall Collection, Thomas G. Carpenter Library, University of North Florida, Jacksonville, Florida.

Location of this collection:
Thomas G. Carpenter Library
1 UNF Drive
Jacksonville
FL
32224
USA