Jana Grubbs
Aucilla Research Institute
Contributor
Local author Cindy Roe Littlejohn will sign copies of her novel, Palmetto Pioneers, The Emigrants, at the Jefferson County Courthouse in the Courtroom, on Monday, Oct. 3, beginning at 7 p.m., in Monticello. The event is free to attend, and books will be available for purchase.
This book signing, held by the Jefferson County Historical Association, the Aucilla Research Institute and the Monticello-Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce, kicks off a series of events to showcase the early families who settled Jefferson County.
Between now and 2027, the bicentennial birthdays of both the city of Monticello and the county, a series of events entitled “Who We Were” will be held quarterly, showcasing two different family groups each quarter, families who arrived by 1830. Using the 1830 United States Census for the county, a committee identified 86 different families who arrived in the 1820s, and many of their descendants still live in the county today.
Early in the summer, Littlejohn released the first book of her series, Palmetto Pioneers. Her narrative nonfiction work tells the story of the Walker family, who moved into Jefferson County in 1829, two years after the county and town was founded. Using journals and diaries, her setting paints a picture of what the village of Monticello and its surrounding county was like when they arrived.
Littlejohn grew up in Monticello and attended Jefferson County High School in the school building described in her second book of the series, which should be released sometime in 2023. While she mostly used old maps, diaries, journals and newspapers to describe the setting for Palmetto Pioneers, she also used local family lore.
Littlejohn has studied her family’s local genealogy for more than forty years. She is the eighth generation to live in Jefferson County on her mother’s side. Her mother’s lineage for this book is her mother Johnelle Hamrick Roe, grandfather Lester Hamrick, great grandmother Hattie Lightsey Hamrick, 2nd great grandmother Laura Andrews Lightsey, 3rd great grandmother Mary Walker Andrews, 4th great grandfather Jesse Walker, and 5th great grandfather Joel Walker, the elder.
The story follows Mary Walker from the time she is seven and moved to territorial Florida through 1845 when Florida becomes a state. Her grandparents moved down a few years later. Littlejohn plans a three-book series that follows Mary’s life until after the Civil War, including descriptions of life in Jefferson County during Reconstruction.
In addition to signing books at the Oct. 3 “Who We Were” event, the author will be describing the Walker, Carter, Howell and Goodman families as well as Monticello and Jefferson County in 1829.
For more information about Littlejohn's works, visit her website at www.palmettopioneers. com. Her book is available for purchase at the book signing, by writing to cindyroelittlejohn. author@gmail.com and from Amazon.
For more information about the book signing event or the “Who We Were” series, contact Jack Carswell of the Jefferson County Historical Association at (850) 997-1980.
You must be logged in to post a comment.