Keystone Genealogical Library

05/28/2026

Here is what we know about the War of 1812 and our first Jefferson County settlers. We only found one to date, but I’m sure there are more.

A good War of 1812 road trip is a visit to the USS Constitution in Boston, which was involved in this war. Click below for major events for this war.

Also, here is our list of one of Jefferson County residents. He is buried here in our county.

Capt Daniel Bird 1784-1867
US Army
War of 1812

Explore the War of 1812 overview at the USS Constitution Museum—causes, major battles, and the ship that earned the name “Old Ironsides.”

05/20/2026

Here is what we know about Jefferson County and the Revolutionary War.

Several descendants of Revolutionary heroes moved to Jefferson County in the 1820s and 1830s, such as the Gamble brothers who created Waukeenah and Welaunee Plantations. In my first book of the Palmetto Pioneers series I wrote about William Andrews who moved to Monticello in the early 1840s. Here is an excerpt.

“…many nights, thinking about his revolutionary ancestor and what they did for later generations. His upbringing instilled in him a sense of duty to his cause and country.” Book 3, “Yankees in the Courthouse.” William’s father fought and his widow William’s mother was awarded his pension.

Martin Palmer’s father was a sargeant in the Revolutionary War. Dr. Benjamin Johnson’s wife was Sarah, a descendant of Colonel James Johnson of Revolutionary War fame. Palmer’s house is still standing on Palmer Mill Road,

A more current resident Mary Budd Holmes was related to the Sloans. She said they were from Ireland, and the first Sloan, who came over, fought in the American Revolution at the age of 16 or 17. One can find his descendants in the old and new town cemeteries.

According to “Pension Records of the Revolution Who Removed to Florida” by Jessie Robinson Fritot, which was published in 1946 by the Jacksonville Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, there were five American Revolution soldiers who moved to Jefferson County when it was first settled.

This doesn’t mean they were the only ones. These are only those who lived long enough to file for a pension. The pension was federal but the money was allotted through the county.

John Brown, who was born in 1763, in 1833 applied for a pension and was approved. William H. Mathers, another American Revolutionary soldier, testified for him, as well as Abram Bellamy who vouched for his character and veracity.

William H. Mathers, born 1761, applied, but he died in 1835, so his wife Sarah received the pension.

Dempsey Wood, Sr., who was born in 1737, applied and received a pension. Vouching for him were William Connell, a clergyman, and Lenie Smith.

The next two applied in Jefferson County but moved away.

Solomon Yeoman, born in 1760, applied and received a pension, but he later moved to Emanuel County, Georgia.

William Goff, applied for a pension but was denied. William Goff was kin to William Andrew’s first wife. William Andrews is the husband of the main character (his 2nd wife) in the “Palmetto Pioneer’s” series. William Goff moved away, too.

So right now we have confirmed by documents four Revolutionary soldiers who lived in Jefferson County, possibly five. But we had many descendants of the Revolution who moved here when we were first created.

05/13/2026

Just lately, we realized that we do not have a list of veterans who fought in the various wars throughout Monticello’s history.

 I know that Max Bilinski was working on a list of World War II veterans from the county, but what about the other wars.

We will begin a list here online through this Facebook site and we will check with the American Legion and VFW as well.

 But first, let’s make a list of all the wars. I’ll start it below in the comments.

05/06/2026

Since word is just getting around about the death one of our esteemed plantation owners, here is a very good 2004 article about him and his land here in Jefferson County, which he bought from Mrs. mcKay’s family in the 1980s.

The media mogul‘s Avalon Plantation is located just outside of Tallahassee, Florida

05/06/2026

A few weeks ago, we were asked if we had the original of the oral history of Matilda Brooks. The caller said that he found her name in the collection called: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1938.

We did not have it, but we did find it. It is located at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. Below is volume iii of this collection, which we found online. It is a transcript.

Look specifically for Matilda Brooks, who lived in Monticello in Roostertown during the depression, when her oral history was recorded.

Mrs. Brooks was born in 1857 or 1858 in Edgefield, S.C. Her parents were Hawkins and Harriet Knox, and at the time of the birth of their daughter were slaves on a large plantation belonging to Governor Frank Pickens. On this plantation were raised cotton, corn, potatoes, to***co, peas, wheat and tru...

04/15/2026

This post is personal.

This house was once a filling station/home, and it was owned by my grandparents, Tom and Lucy Roe. They bought it in 1926. My family owned it until about six years ago. It sits east of Monticello at the edge of the city limits.

An Ohio family bought it, and they are renovating it. They restored the original dog trot that my grandmother had enclosed to make a breezeway.

My Dad did some work on it about forty years ago and discovered that there was a two-room planed wood cabin within the house. It appears the house was built around the cabin.

In my grandmother’s kitchen sat a Little Joe stove, like the one pictured. She burned coal in the stove, and it always kept her kitchen toasty.

It appears the stove had been in their smokehouse, which sat behind the garage. I think the stove was once used in the smokehouse because I recently learned it was a No 28 Little Joe Cast Iron Laundry Stove.

The stove was manufactured by the Columbus Iron Works Co. in Georgia over 100 years ago. These were used on laundry days to heat water and flat irons, often standing about 20 inches tall and burning coal or wood. It could accommodate a large tub of water.

My grandmother and uncle both reminisced about wash day which for them was always on a Monday. Grandmother did her laundry in the smokehouse. Uncle James said that in the winter this is where he as a little boy got his baths.

The smokehouse was ideal for laundry because in the summer it did not heat up the main house, and in the winter, it was a comfortable place to spend the day. Uncle James said they spent most of Monday in the smokehouse.

04/08/2026

We spent much of this afternoon trying to find a photo of Otto Walker, to whom Monticello’s American Legion Post was named after. Otto Walker was some of my kin, but because he died in World War II in 1919, I knew very little about him.

We didn’t find a photo but we did find some newspaper articles about why he was honored. It appears he was the first American killed in action in World War I. Below are some articles written in our local papers, but they were written years after the fact. We could not find any papers from 1918. This will be the first of three Facebook posts about his life and family.

The first article below, a screenshot, shows him and a group of young people going to Cherry Lake. The Charles Walker with him was a cousin.

On the same page as this outing, it shows a column about the men from Jefferson and Madison Counties who were drafted and who will be sent to boot camp soon. I wondered if the outing to Cherry Lake was because of where he was to be sent immediately soon after.

The third screenshot names him and other Jefferson County men who were sent to boot camp in South Carolina. This article was from 27 years earlier, long after he was killed.

03/18/2026

The Old Magnolia Road

I just spent time researching an old road that I had tried to find before I wrote the “Palmetto Pioneers” series. Wrongly in the book, I suggested that the old road may have passed Metcalf, Georgia, on its east side before it crossed into Florida.

A few weeks ago, I found a document buried in the Keystone Genealogical Library files in Monticello, Florida. Its author, unknown, suggested that this road runs west of Metcalf. So Chuck and I spent last Sunday afternoon trying to find it, using directions given in this document. We were successful.

We started our grand tour in Thomasville where Magnolia Street crosses South Hansel Street. Magnolia Street is the Old Magnolia Road. We followed it south out of Thomasville into the Red Hills.

For those who do not know, the Red Hills is a triangle south of Thomasville and north of Monticello and Tallahassee, FL. It is known for its red clay hills and its historical plantations.

The drive is beautiful and scenic, but it runs into the Metcalf Road not too far south of Thomasville. We took a left on the Metcalf Road, which I thought was built on top of the Old Magnolia Road. I was wrong. The old road proceeds into the woods on the other side and turns south to parallel the Metcalf Road.

Because the land it crosses into is privately owned, one cannot see the old road again until it crosses the Beachton Road west of Metcalf.

Do make the trip to see this crossing. It is about a little more than a mile west of Metcalf. You can see where it crosses the road.

I’ll pick up here next week and describe how the Old Magnolia Road intersects the Old Coffee Road. Both roads were built in the 1820s and they intersect just below the Florida state line. And both roads played a role in how the first European settlers came to the Florida territory.

03/11/2026

We had a recent donation to the library, and this time the family donation strikes close to my genealogy. My great grandmother‘s name is Hattie Augusta Lightsey Hamrick. She was born a Lightsey in Jefferson County somewhere near Elizabeth Baptist Church.

The donation was a drawing of the Lightsey home which still sits on Bassett’s Dairy Road. Here is why it is significant.

On the back of the drawing was a photograph of which I had seen before. we have another copy of that photograph here in the Genealogy library, but the people in it are unknown. On the back of the donated drawing this photograph lists who these people are.

In the photo are Clarence Lightsey and his wife Mary Ann Hampton Lightsey, plus their children Allen Lightsey, Laura Lightsey, and Mack Lightsey. Behind them is the house in the drawing. Clarence is my great uncle, my great grandmother Hattie’s brother.

Also significant is the land this house still sits upon. The photo says the house was built in 1906, and the photo taken in February or March of 1907. The land was bought from the US government by our Lightsey ancestor, George Lightsey, in the 1830s. It is still owned by a Lightsey today, a cousin who lives in south Florida.

Finally, a 97-year-old cousin in Vero Beach has a painting of the house, and I have been interviewing him for a new series I’m writing on the Hamrick’s and the Lightseys. I am thrilled to have this new information for my story which begins in this area in 1896.

03/04/2026

Sometimes our genealogy research takes us to different cities and different states. Mine recently took me to the Northern Neck of Virginia, a cradle for America’s independence.

Here is a post I wrote about what I found and how it ties to Monticello, FL. It also ties to our nation’s 250th birthday.

A Journey to Virginia’s Northern Neck — and a Walk Through Our Family’s History

The author reflects on a recent trip to the Northern Neck of Virginia, a historically rich and rural region known as the birthplace of prominent figures like George Washington. The journey also con…

02/18/2026

We have a request for information on the establishment of Roostertown, but there seems to be nothing written about it that I can find. Roostertown is an African American settlement on the southeast side of Monticello, Florida, south of US 90.

I remember going there with my father and asking how it got its name. He said it was self-named by its residents, probably because of all the roosters that crowed there in the early mornings. Several friends who grew up there said the same.

Judy Hall says that she heard the land was once owned by the owner of Jumpie Run plantation, but I know that the land underneath the Projects was bought and later sold before 1861 by William and Mary Andrews, my third great grandparents. They were certainly never prosperous enough to own Jumpie Run. Though William Andrews, we know, worked from time to time for Congressman Cabell who once owned Jumpie Run.

This is all I know about Roostertown. Does anyone else know more? Please share in the comments below. A family from Pennsylvania, whose ancestors once lived there, is seeking information.