Ellen Call Long

Ellen Call Long (1825-1905) was the daughter of Florida territorial governor Richard Keith Call and a member of the influential Call-Walker political family of Florida. She acquired The Grove from her father in 1851 and held it until 1903. She received distinction after the Civil War for her efforts in historic preservation, history, memorialization, forestry, silkworm cultivation, and the promotion of Florida. She was the author of Florida Breezes, a semi-fictional account of antebellum life primarily set in Middle Florida which is widely regarded as one of the best primary source accounts of the planter class lifestyle in Florida. She was the founder of the Florida chapters of the Mount Vernon Ladies Association and the Ladies Hermitage Association. She was also named a Florida delegate to several important expositions, including the Centennial International Exhibition in Philadelphia (1876), the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago (1893), and the Exposition Universelle in Paris, France (1889). She was the founder of the Ladies Memorial Association of Tallahassee, a group that is now known as the Anna Jackson Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Her published report made before the American Forestry Congress in 1888 titled “Notes of Some of the Forest Features of Florida”, is considered a seminal work in the field of fire ecology. She was also a tireless promoter of silk culture in Florida, representing the Ladies Silk Culture Association of Philadelphia and emerging as a local expert in cultivation.