I finally found a message about the Bolling Hall family that Jimmy Hall sent me about a year ago. There's some interesting stuff. >From a newspapaer article in the Bradford Co Telegraph 3-17-1977: "Bolen Hall Came to Bradford County in 1861 Driving Ox Cart With Wife and Sixteen Children" Most families came in the "large economy size" a hundred years ago, when food was cheap, most of it grown on the farm, and the more "hands" a man had around the house, the more help he had in planting and harvesting his crops. Such was the case of Bolen Hall who came here in 1861 - the first year of the Civil War - driving an ox cart down from Georgia with his wife and sixteen children. It is believed that this Bolen Hall was the great uncle of Lynn and Nathan Hall of Hampton, since they remember having an uncle by the same name, who lived in an area east of U S 301 and south of Hampton in the vicinity of the Santa Fe Fire Tower. Since Bolen is an unusual name, they think it likely that the Bolen with sixteen children was the fater of Bolen, their uncle, who had only the average number of two or three offsprings. In an interesting letter written in 1887 to an early Starke Real Estate firm, Gardiner & Pratt, and published in an advertising booklet they distributed to prospective buyers in other states, Mr Hall attests to the healthful climate of Bradford County and the productivity of the soil. The fact that he reared 16 children "behind the plow" and lived to count 88 children and grandchildren would seem to bear out his claims. (dated March 22d, 1887 Starke, Fla) The letter was as follows: Messrs Gardiner & Pratt, Starke Florida, You wished me to tell you about my Florida experience, and now I do so. I came to Starke, Bradford County, Florida in 1861 from Georgia in an ox cart with my wife and sixteen children. I had in my possession only fifty dollars in money and provisions tht would last us about sixty days. I settled near Lake Navarre, which was then called Little Sante Fe Pond (editors note: and is now known as Hampton Lake) and set to work to make a living out of the soil. One by one my children got married, and by raising cattle and hogs, and by growing corn and sea island cotton I accumulated all that I possess today. I now have living eight-eight children and grandchildren. One of my daughters has fifteen chldren and two other have fourteen each.During the twenty-six years of my residence in this neighborhood I have never had the chills or malarial fever in my family, and my childrens families have also been free from the same diseases. Altogether I have never paid out $25 in doctors' bills. I came to this state for my health, supposing I had consumption. I hav entirely regained my health and I have not taken a dose of medicine during twenty years. I have lost only four out of my entire family of eight-eight, and these met their deaths from accidental causes. We now have twenty-three farms and orange groves, and over 1000 head of cattle. We raise our own hog meat and chickens, and frequently sell a quantity of both. WE also raise our own sugar and syrup besides sweet potatoes, vegetables of all kinds, as well as peaches, with what we receive for the surplus of our crops we are now able to save considerable money yearly. I am, respectully BOLEN HALL Carol B. Miller