The H. V. Collins Family

By Mrs. Gordon Tilley

The family of Dr. Herschel V. Collins and his wife, Oliva Jane Floyd, moved to Jacksonville in the 1880s. Dr. Collins was a practicing physician and medical examiner for the New York Life Insurance Company. They made their home at the corner of South Bolton and Nacogdoches streets.

Dr. Collins was active in the Baptist Missionary Association, Baptist Church and Jacksonville Baptist College. Collins Hall, a girls' dormitory, replaced within the past few years, was named in his honor. Mrs. Collins "kept boarders." They were young men students at Baptist College and one of her more well-known boarders, as a student, was Gus S. Blankinship, for many years president of the First National Bank of Jacksonville.

The children of Dr. and Mrs. Collins were Loring (Mrs. Walter W. Newton); Ollye (Mrs. Harry P. Tilley); Frank L. who married Julia L. Longmire; and Lottie Dee (Mrs. Earle Stephens), all of whom made their homes in Jacksonville.

Frank L. Collins was associated with First National Bank as bookkeeper. Lottie Dee touched the lives of many young people, as she was a teacher of piano and speech. Her teaching studio, called the Twin Arts Studio, was located on South Main Street.

Dr. Collins has three living grandchildren: Helen Jane Tilley (Mrs. Frank Austin) of Dallas, Ruth Newton (Mrs. R. E. Foy) of Dothan, Alabama, and Leslie Collins of Bogota, Tennessee. A great-grandson is Harry Gordon Tilley, president of Crown Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Jacksonville.

Back yard of the H. V. Collins family, which was located where the present Coca-Cola bottling plant now stands.

Collins Hall, used for many years as a girls' dormitory at Jacksonville College, was named in honor of H. V. Collins. The building was replaced by a new dormitory in 1965.