Minnie Moore-Willson

Born in Pennsylvania in 1859, she became closely connected with Florida after visiting Kissimmee in the early 1880s. She later married James Mallory Willson, and the couple became well known for their shared interest in nature, local history, and the lives of the Seminole people.

Her best-known work, The Seminoles of Florida, was published in 1895. She also wrote short stories and other historical pieces, and she was active in literary and civic circles, including the Florida Audubon movement and the Kissimmee Woman's Club, where she served as the club's first president.

She is also remembered for public advocacy. Accounts of her life credit her and her husband with helping build support for bird protection in Kissimmee and with efforts that contributed to land being set apart for Seminole use in Florida in the early twentieth century. She died in Kissimmee in 1937.