Local historical researcher and author invited to
ACCORD film festival and book signing
Author Pat Hines
-Photo: Submitted
By Tami Stevenson
Local author and historical researcher Pat Hines (Pat Hines Mitchell) was invited to attend The ACCORD Film Festival and Book Signing - Commemorating the 60th anniversary signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in St. Augustine on July 1, at the ACCORD Civil Rights Museum.
Her book titled Christmas in the South: A Proud Southern Heritage, is about her Great-great-great-grandfather Christmas Hemming, who was born a slave, wound up being freed and became a land owner in Suwannee County, 640 acres to be exact.
Local Author Pat Hines at the St. Augustine book signing event. An article, published in the former Suwannee Democrat, dated April 28, 2017, was on display, talking about the railroad ties and other artifacts found on her family farm. -Photo: Submitted
He left a legacy that still goes on today as his decedents have lived and worked his homestead for more than a century. The family still lives on 160 acres that did not get sold off through the years. Hemming bought the property from Charles T. Irvine. The county named a road after him, that today, is Irvin Avenue, (Hwy 51).
His Great-great-great-granddaughter Pat Hines currently lives on the land and is on record in Florida as having the only African-American Century Old Pioneer Farm, where she grows organic fruits and vegetables and offers her canned goods for sale.
Hines grew up listening to the rich oral history about her family and how her third-great-grandfather purchased the land they now live on - with $1,100 cash in 1885.
She often wondered if these things were true and if so, how could she find proof?
She began searching U.S. Census documents, probate records and other documents that might prove her family’s oral history was true. She found the bill of sale for the property, signed by Christmas Hemming with an ‘X’ in 1885 and began excavating her property, finding many artifacts that further give credence to the oral history passed down through the generations. Then Christmas in the South: A Proud Southern Heritage was born.
According to the oral history, Christmas Hemming was born about 1831 in Duval County on the DuPont plantation. Abraham DuPont was a slave owner in Duval County. Hines believes Christmas was one of his slaves, although this has not yet been proven.
Members of the DuPont family read her book, and because of the detail and research Hines put into writing it, they wanted to meet her.
Betsy DuPont Simpson, along with her daughter Mary, invited Hines to St. Augustine in March of this year, to the property where the old DuPont plantation was.
She said about the DuPonts, “We have been friends ever since.”
Although they have not been able to find any records about Christmas Hemming that connect him to the DuPont plantation, they are still searching.
Betsy DuPont, right, with her daughter, Mary, left, and Pat Hines, center. -Photo: Submitted
Hines said she was honored to be invited and thoroughly enjoyed attending the book signing in St. Augustine. She wanted to thank The Quaker Group for purchasing her $300 ticket to attend the 9th Annual ACCORD Freedom Trail Luncheon while there.
A local display of some of the artifacts Hines has found on her property can be found at the Suwannee County Historical Museum in Live Oak.
Hines was honored at the museum in 2021, by the Florida State Genealogical Society, for providing what Patricia Rand, chairman of the Florida Pioneer Descendent Program, called satisfactory evidence that her ancestor, Christmas Hemming, was a resident of Florida before it became a state on March 3, 1845. They also told Hines that to the best of their knowledge, Christmas Hemming was the first black person and former slave to be in the society.
She also received a second certificate from them called a Settlers and Builders of Florida Descendent Certificate because they established that Hemming settled in Florida between the time it became a state in 1845 and 1900.
Christmas in the South: A Proud Southern Heritage may be purchased on Amazon.
A sequel Hines has written is expected to publish this fall, 2024 - Who is Christmas Hemming: The Beginning. Look for it on Amazon this fall.
On display at the Suwannee County Historical Museum, along with belt buckles, spent gun cartridges, tools and an Indian head penny dated 1893, the metal box in the upper left corner of this photo shows a Prince Albert Tobacco can Christmas Hemming secured to the wall of his house, just out of sight along the rear door entrance. He used the can as a homemade wall safe. -SVT Archived Photo by Tami Stevenson
