Nov 23 1867
Lieut
Allen H. Jackson
A.A.A.G., B.R.F. & A.
L.
Sir:
Your communication of Sept 30th, in reply to a previous one of
mine, and calling for a report is but just received. I have the honor to submit the
following. During the month of
July, August, September and part of October, the whole county was flooded by the
incessant heavy rains, which, in connection with continued ill, health,
prevented my travelling to locate land or inspect any locations already
made. The rains and the presence of
the Yellow Fever in town prevented persons from coming in to enter land. The great difficulty of doing any
business with the U.S. Land Office at
I visited Brooksville before the Election and found the Freedmen anxious
to enter land. I could only remain
there a few days, and was unfortunately suffering from a severe attack of chills
and fever. But I took three
applications, and did a little surveying.
I shall visit the place again as soon as possible, and locate all who
wish land. There is a considerable
quantity of public land of the best quality near Brooksville. I do not find the freedmen of this place
generally desirous of entering homesteads & probably because there is no
valuable public land in this vicinity.
I enclose a list of Applications forewarded and Entries
received.
Very
respectfully
Your obs
Servt
Wm Lee
Arthorp
Locating
Agent
** Agent Arthorp was a locating agent whose job was simply to locate people who were waiting to apply for homesteads or land through the Freedmen’s Bureau. He would travel to the various Freedmen Offices to collect applications from both freedmen and destitute whites. There was no list of the applications for which he spoke of in the letter. It seems some agents report there are many freedmen at Brooksville wanting to apply for land while others reported not many at all, perhaps this was because the freedmen wanting to apply were not in downtown Brookville but rather the surrounding areas. As the reports for the year 1867 are coming to an end so is the rainy season so that the agents will soon be able to make more travels during the upcoming year. The reports that follow this one begin to show more freedmen applying for land.
