Hello everyone! Hopefully, your week is going well! Mine has been fantastic. I have been helping the students in my student-teaching class learn about the Islamic Caliphates, a subject I am greatly interested in. I also had my first ROTC tactics lab today that went pretty well.
The latest essay I have been working on for the Greenwood Cemetery internship covers Francis Wayles Eppes. Born to Maria Jefferson Eppes, daughter of President Thomas Jefferson, on September 20, 1801, at Monticello, Francis Wayles Eppes was the only one of his two siblings to survive until adulthood. Francis and President Jefferson became incredibly close after his mother’s death on April 17, 1804, as his father, John Wayles Eppes, spent nearly all his time working as a senator for the state of Virginia in Congress. One of his caretakers was a slave named Betsy Hemmings, daughter of Thomas Jefferson. Francis was educated at a multitude of private schools, and later attended Georgetown College and South Carolina College where he studied law, but never finished his degree. He returned to Virginia in 1822, because he had fallen in love with his third cousin, Marly Elizabeth Cleland Randolph. On November 28, 1822, Francis and Mary married and for a wedding gift, Jefferson gave them the plantation of Poplar Forest, where Francis took some of Besty Hemming’s children (causing great distress to the mother). Francis moved to Leon county, Florida in 1827. Founding a new plantation called L’eau Noir, meaning Black Creek, Francis became a successful plantation owner selling cotton picked through slave labor and had over six children with his wife, Mary, who died during their sixth child’s birth. Francis quickly involved himself in the business of his community, founding St. John’s Episcopal Church in 1829 and serving as the diocese secretary for many years. In 1833, Governor of Florida William P. DuVal selected Francis to be a justice of the peace, an office he held for over six years, helping bring order and peace to the frontier. His wife’s death in 1835 shook him greatly, and Francis sold L’eau Noir and bought another plantation on Lake Lafayette, as well as built a house in Tallahassee. He married Susan Margaret Ware Crouch in 1837 and eventually had seven more children. In 1841, Francis became mayor of Tallahassee, serving for four one-year terms as well as holding the office in 1856-7 and 1866. However, Francis Eppes is most known for his work to further education in Florida. In 1851, the Florida Legislature passed an act authorizing the establishment of two learning institutes, with one being west of the Suwanee River. After a failed proposal in 1854, Francis presented a second proposal in 1856 to the Florida Legislature that included, ”a new building, ten thousand dollars in cash, and an annual endowment of two thousand dollars a year to the school.” Francis also served for eleven years, eight as the president, in the institute’s Board of Education. This institute eventually became what is known as Florida State University. While the American Civil War raged in the 1860s, Francis wholeheartedly supported the Confederate effort to secede from the Union over the matter of slavery, going so far as to sell his plantation and slaves to fund the war effort towards its twilight. After another term as the mayor of Tallahassee in 1866, during Reconstruction, Francis was destitute and moved to Orange County to become a citrus farmer in 1869. He continued his role as a leader in this new community, reforming the Episcopalians in the area and forming the foundation for the Cathedral Church of St. Luke in Orlando. Francis later died on May 30, 1881. While he helped improve Florida’s higher education, Francis’ legacy is plagued by his slave-owning actions and support for the Confederacy.
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