Previously published by Magna Carta, Baltimore. Published as a set by Genealogical Publishing with the two vols. of the Genealogies in the Library of Congress, and the two vols. of the Supplement. Set ISBN is 0806316691.

A civilian community coalesced at Fort Meade under the pressures of the Billy Bowlegs War of 1855-58. Quickly the village developed as a cattle industry center, which was important to the Confederacy until its destruction in 1864 by homegrown Union forces. In the postwar era the cattle industry revived, and the community prospered. The railroads arrived in the 1880s, bringing new settlers, and the village grew into a town. Among the new settlers were well-to-do English families who brought fox hunts, cricket matches, and lawn tennis to the frontier.

Wild and wooly recollections from the Florida frontier Cracker Times and Pioneer Lives brings together the reminiscences of two pioneers who came of age in antebellum Florida's Columbia County and the nearby Suwannee River Valley. Though they held markedly different positions in society, they shared the adventure, thrill, hardship, and tragedy that characterized Florida's pioneer era. With sensitivity, poignancy, and humor, George Gillett Keen and Sarah Pamela Williams record anecdotes and memories that touch upon important themes of frontier life and reveal the remarkable diversity of Florida's settlers. Keen's story typifies that of many "Cracker" families. Born in Georgia, he moved with his parents to the Florida Territory in 1830 in search of a better life. He grew up in a dangerous yet exciting setting, and as an old man at the turn of the twentieth century recorded his colorful memories with a verve and vernacular reminiscent of the Georgia humorist, Augustus Baldwin Longstreet. Keen writes about subsistence farming, cattle grazing, the Seminole wars, marriage customs, medical practices, politics, the abundance of wildlife, and the paucity of educational opportunities. Admittedly not a Cracker, Sarah Pamela Williams was the daughter of a nationally recognized man of letters. In 1847 she moved to Columbia County's seat of Alligator (Lake City) and later married into one of northeast Florida's prominent planter families. She recorder her recollections of a life brightened by social functions, travel, and cultural endeavors. Offering a rare glimpse into Florida's Civil War homefront, Williams tells of making clothes of homespun, tithing crops to the Confederacy, fearing hostilities just thirteen miles from her home, and surviving as a widow in the lean postwar era. Cracker Times and Pioneer Lives features biographical sketches of more than 280 persons mentioned by Keen and Williams in their writings, many of whom subsequently pioneered settlement in the Florida peninsula.

Robert Hendry (1752-1830), son of John Hendry, immigrated from the island of Arran, Scotland to New Hanover (now Pender) County, North Carolina, married Ann Lee in 1778, served in the Revolutionary War, and moved about 1796 to Liberty County, Georgia. Descendants and relatives of two of his nine children are traced herein, living in North Carolina, Georgia, Florida and elsewhere.