Abram Bellamy surveyed Jacksonville and was a founder of the City. His son, Jack, was commissioned by the Territory to construct the St. Augustine Road from Tallahassee. His son, William, a successful planter, was the father of Elizabeth Brooks Bellamy , who with her husband, George Washington Parkhill, outfitted a company to fight in the War Between the States, and who gave his life at the Battle of Gains Mill.

Richard Johnson Mays and his wife Eliza settled in Madison County from Edgefield South Carolina , in the late 1820s, and R.J. founded the Baptist Association of Florida in 1854 around a six foot two inch round marble top table that the author still has in the family.

John Parkhill and his wife, Elizabeth Copeland, from Richmond, settled Tuscawilla in Leon County in the 1820s and engaged in a large farming operation in addition to banking.

The descendants of these families have made significant contributions to their State and Country, each in his or her own way, leaving lasting contributions.

Dannitte H. Mays, married Elizabeth Bellamy in 1880. He was a successful planter, was Speaker of the House in 1897 and served in Congress from 1908 through 1912. His grandson, Colin P. Kelly, Jr., was the first hero of World War Two, giving his life for his country, as he held his B-17 Flying Fortress steady for his men to bail out over Clark Field, after attack by Japanese Zeros.

G.W. Parkhill's son was Charles Breckinridge, who became a Florida Supreme Court Justice, and whose daughter , Genevive married James Lykes of the Lykes Brothers shipping and industrial empire.

The author traces these roots and his own life as well as those around him , to portray the life and times in which those and his generations lived.