In writing of her hopes and plans to her
brother Charles Beecher, in 1866, she says:--
"My plan of going to Florida, as it lies in my mind, is not in any
sense a mere worldly enterprise. I have for many years had a longing
to be more immediately doing Christ's work on earth. My heart is with
that poor people whose cause in words I have tried to plead, and who
now, ignorant and docile, are just in that formative stage in which
whoever seizes has them.
"Corrupt politicians are already beginning to speculate on them as
possible capital for their schemes, and to fill their poor heads with
all sorts of vagaries. Florida is the State into which they have, more
than anywhere else, been pouring. Emigration is positively and
decidedly setting that way; but as yet it is mere worldly emigration,
with the hope of making money, nothing more.
"The Episcopal Church is, however, undertaking, under direction of the
future Bishop of Florida, a wide-embracing scheme of Christian
activity for the whole State. In this work I desire to be associated,
and my plan is to locate at some salient point on the St. John's
River, where I can form the nucleus of a Christian neighborhood, whose
influence shall be felt far beyond its own limits."
During this year Mrs. Stowe partially carried her plan into execution
by hiring an old plantation called "Laurel Grove," on the west side of
the St.
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