1924-05-13: ​​~TOUR STOPS~---images---audio---transcript---notes---links---site navigation
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1924-05-13​: ​tour stops---~IMAGES~---audio---transcript---notes---links---site navigation
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1924-05-13: ​tour stops---images---audio---~TRANSCRIPT~---notes---links---site navigation
Savannah Ga
May 13, 1924

My dear Bobs,

I want to tender to Will my sympathies in his recent experiences.  He has parted from a good mother whose works will live while she has passed from mortal view: this age is not one particularly given to producing good mothers, observers say they belonged to the last generation, which is rather hard on the present race -- but we have to deal with facts as we find them + rejoice when we can participate in blessings.  I did not know Uncle Jim personally: was he much younger than his sister?  While not unheard of it is singular for a brother + sister to pass practically together.

I read your last letter to your mother + have renewed the $5000 loan maturing tomorrow for another 90 days @6% - Money is cheap today but hard to procure except for a quid seeker with plenty of quo.

​Murphy of the Citizens is very strong in his recommendation of the Florida Railway project - besides being secured by the S.A.L. he indicates that the 10 land shares that go with each bond will be paying satisfactory dividends before very long.

He has made several trips to East Florida where wonderful developments have been made by rich capitalists, one in particular named Fisher has literally made land on a beach front where there are a dozen or more million dollar hotels + where a lot for a home sells for $5000.  It is a rich mans paradise.  The taxing laws, particularly the inheritance features is causing millionaires to flock there + establish legal residences.  Murphy said they are moving in shoals from Illinois which you know contains Chicago.

I am very much inclined to sell your $650 Liberty Bonds + purchase a $1000 of the Railway for you - please send me a short wire if you have not already written you can phone it from the house - send it collect to the office - just yes or no.

I shall ring up 510 before mailing this - I am not going home to lunch these days.

Lovingly,
Daddy

You know Libertys are selling over par, don't you
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1924-05-13​: ​​​tour stops---images---audio---transcript---~NOTES~---links---site navigation
1.
I want to tender to Will my sympathies in his recent experiences.  He has parted from a good mother whose works will live while she has passed from mortal view
Mama Margaret had died 5 days before.  WJ and Will had a very good relationship, but apparently not good enough for WJ to write directly to Will, I guess.

2.
​I did not know Uncle Jim personally: was he much younger than his sister?  While not unheard of it is singular for a brother + sister to pass practically together.
Uncle Jim was Mama Margaret's younger brother, 6/26/1851- May 1924.  Mama Margaret was on her way to his funeral when she became ill and died.  Mama Margaret was born in 1844, so Jim was about seven years younger than she.  He was well known to the Five Stokey Siblings, so it's not surprising that Kathleen mentioned his death to her father.

3.
I read your last letter to your mother + have renewed the $5000 loan maturing tomorrow for another 90 days @6% - Money is cheap today but hard to procure except for a quid seeker with plenty of quo.
About the business half of the letter: I don't know the ins and outs of the Farmer family finances, but it seems apparent that WJ made sure his kids were OK, and that he knew Kathleen took an intelligent interest in what he did.

​4.
Murphy of the Citizens is very strong in his recommendation of the Florida Railway project - besides being secured by the S.A.L. he indicates that the 10 land shares that go with each bond will be paying satisfactory dividends before very long.
The Florida Railway project might be the Florida Central and Peninsular Railroad.  I found something in: ​The Fellsmere Railroad name only lasted until June 2nd, 1924, when the Trans Florida Central (TFC) Railroad took over operations. The TFC was incorporated earlier in the year back on February 18th with 10,000 shares issued, 9,000 shares of which was owned by the Standard Agricultural Chemical Corporation. SACC in its turn was reorganized as the Ammoniates Products Corporation which in turn spelled the end for the Fellsmere operations as the company may have become over extended. None the less the 1924 fiscal year showed 1,063 tons of peat hauled.

The S.A.L. was the Seaboard Air Line Railway.  Wikipedia says:
The Seaboard Air Line Railroad (reporting mark SAL), known colloquially as the Seaboard Railroad during its time, was an American railroad that existed from April 14, 1900, until July 1, 1967, when it merged with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, its longtime rival, to form the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad. 
I have this vague memory that Florida in the 1920s was a great place for corruption and financial shenanigans, but I've never read up on it.

5.
I shall ring up 510 before mailing this - I am not going home to lunch these days.
The Farmers lived at 510 Bolton St. East, Savannah, Georgia.
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