Andy Mc Million

  1. About Me
  2. Websites
  3. Pages I've Created
  4. Plantations/ Workplaces I'm Researching


About Me

I have been given some articles by my family about one line of my ancestors - the Hunts -who were among the largest slave holders in the Natchez, MS District. The articles usually give general information about the Hunts, but seldom much detail about the plantations or slaves. My research goal is to record detailed histories of the plantations, including information about the slaves.

Websites

Pages I've Created

Plantations/ Workplaces I'm Researching

  • Abijah Hunt's Plantations. Abijah's earliest North-American relative named Hunt was Ralph Hunt who came to Long Island, NY in 1652 probably from England to found the town of Newtown (now part of Queens in NY City). Abijah was born in NJ near Trenton shortly before the American Revolution. After the Revolution former colonists were free to settle west of the original colonies. These settlers were at odds with the original inhabitants of the land, Native Americans, who often attacked them. The new settlement of Cincinnati, OH (begun in 1788) needed protection from Native American attacks. The U.S. Army was sent to protect them, and Abijah accepted the job of providing the Army's supplies. Abijah's brothers Jesse and Jeremiah went with him to Cincinnati. He operated his supply business out of a rented building on Sycamore Street. He helped his cousin, John Wesley Hunt, set up a supply business in nearby Lexington, KY. John and Abijah worked together by each obtaining supplies for the other to sell. Abijah got a lot of his supplies in the area around Philadelphia, PA, which is near Trenton, NJ on the Delaware River. The supplies were moved by wagon to Pittsburg where they were loaded onto boats and then floated down the Ohio River to Cincinnati. Abijah made a fortune supplying the Army who was operating out of Ft. Washington at Cincinnati. In about 1800 when the Army was no longer needed in Cincinnati, Abijah moved to Mississippi to invest his fortune. According to the book "Antebellum Natchez" by D. Clayton James, page 150, Abijah was a merchant who invested in cotton plantations and who lived "in Natchez or on its outskirts." Abijah probably lived in Greenville (now extinct) in Jefferson County or on his nearby Huntley Plantation. Abijah formed the Natchez business partnership of Hunt and Smith with Elijah Smith. The business was a cotton brokerage that soon built up a chain of five dry goods stores and several public cotton gins. The five stores were located along the lower 60 miles of the Old Natchez Trace (a main road - especially for those travelling north because travel upstream on the MS River was too hard in the days before steamboats). The stores were located as follows: Natchez and Washington in Adams Co, Greenville (now extinct) in Jefferson Co, the Grind Stone Ford in Claiborne Co, and just west of Utica in Hinds Co. One of the public cotton gins was in Greenville, Jefferson Co., MS. My best estimate is that Abijah owned four plantations (about 8,000 acres) with about 60 slaves working on each (so 240 slaves). He was smart, rich and respected, so people listened to what he said. He began publicly criticizing politician George Poindexter. Poindexter would not stand for this and killed Abijah in an 1811 duel. Abijah had been one of the richest men in the Natchez District and left a $500,000 estate. ("Antebellum Natchez", D. Clayton James, LSU Press, Baton Rouge, p 157). The following is a possibly complete list of Abijah's plantations which were mostly located very near his stores along the Old Natchez Trace ("Early Settlers of Mississippi," by Walter Lowrie, Southern Historical Press, Inc., details Abijah's land purchases) (the land coordinates below can be found on-line on maps at the MS Dept of Transportation website on their county highway maps - www.gomdot.com - and also at the General Land Office Records website - www.glorecords.blm.gov).
  1. Adams Co., MS
    1. Hunt Plantation
      1. Location: possibly located along the Homochitto River at T5N-R1W, section 37 along the southern Adams County line
      2. Size: 3,645 acres
      3. Slaves: undetermined
    2. Lot number one of square number three in Natchez with a Hunt and Smith general store located on it.
  2. Jefferson Co., MS
    1. 1/2 ownership of Huntley Plantation - Abijah Hunt's residence
    2. a couple of lots in the town of Greenville with a Hunt and Smith general store located on them.
    3. 195 acres on Coles Creek with a Hunt and Smith firm public cotton gin located on it. The land coordinates for this land is at T9N-R1E, section 31.
    4. 221 acres at T9N-R3E sec 6 and T9N-R3W sec 40
    5. Abijah and partner William Forman owned several sections of land to the immediate west of the town of Fayette - at T9N-R2E, sections 22,29,32, 34 and 35.
    6. T8N-R1W, section 42. This land adjoined Abijah's business partner, William G. Forman's section 27. Section 27 (and probably section 42 as well) later became David Hunt's Oakwood Plantation.
  3. Claiborne Co., MS - It appears that Abijah bought land for three plantations and one general store, and that he sold one of the plantations and immediately bought another in 1808 in Claiborne County.
    1. Abijah bought 3,159 acres on the Bayou Pierre just north of Port Gibson in Claiborne County in about 1800. What is known of the exact locations of some of Abijah's 3,159 acres of land on the Bayou Pierre is as follows.
      1. 1,000 acres at land coordinate T11N-R2E, section 23 & 3. This land was adjacent to the town of Port Gibson (to the east of the town). Abijah's slaves had cultivated 600 acres of cotton on this land in 1811 - the year Abijah died.
      2. About 400 acres at land coordinate T12N-R3E, section 22. This is the land where Abijah had his Hunt and Smith general store on the banks of the Bayou Pierre at the Grind Stone Ford. This location was just to the north-east of Port Gibson on the Old Natchez Trace.
      3. 572 acres at land coordinate T12N-R4E, section 29. This land was just to the east of the Grind Stone Ford on the Bayou Pierre.
      4. Abijah sold an approximately 900 acre plantation on the Bayou Pierre in 1808 for $60,000 complete with 61 slaves, a cotton gin and press, and livestock. It's possible that this was one of the following three historic plantations: Woodlawn Plantation - Claiborne MS, Ashland Plantation - Claiborne MS or possibly Fairview Plantation.
    2. Abijah bought 800 acres on the Big Black River in Claiborne County in 1808 ("Federal Writers Collection," Northwest State University in Louisiana, http://www.nsula.edu/watson_library/cghrc_core/federal_writers_project.htm , retrieved 14 Jan 08). This was at about the same time that he sold a plantation on the Bayou Pierre in Claiborne County (mentioned above). Since the other land he purchased was for plantations, this land surely was for a plantation too. This 800 acres was probably on both sides of the Big Black River. The bulk of the land was on the south side of the River in Claiborne County and was located at T13N-R3E, sections 15, 16, 17, and 18 and also probably section 24. On the north side of the River in Warren County the land probably included T13N-R3E, section 19. The map at the Bureau of Land website at the following link shows this land. http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/SurveySearch/Survey_Detail.asp?dmid=73580&Index=27&QryID=81206.37
  4. Concordia Parish, LA. Abijah and Partner William Forman (Abijah's partner in Huntley Plantation) bought land at T9N-R10E, section 26. This land may have later been sold to someone else to become part of Ravenswood Plantation.
  • David Hunt's Plantations. Born in 1779, David Hunt moved to MS from his native NJ in about 1800 to work for his Uncle Abijah's Hunt and Smith firm. He started with nothing (except for his rich benevolent uncle). He got his first property free through preemption (also known as homesteading). It was 216 acres on Coles Creek, which may have been the beginnings of his Woodlawn Plantation in Jefferson Co where he lived. He worked in his Uncle Abijah's nearby Greenville (now extinct) dry goods store at a salary of $300 per year and began his cotton operation on his 216 acres - possibly Woodlawn. He married Margaret Stampley in 1800. By 1803 David's Uncle Abijah and his partner Elijah Smith had promoted David to manage the entire Hunt and Smith operation at a salary of $3,000 per year. By about 1808 David's marriage to Margaret Stampley had ended - probably she had died by then. In 1808 he married Mary Calvit who lived next to Woodlawn with her parents on Calviton Plantation. This marriage resulted in his inheritance of the entire Calvit estate in about 1820, which included Calviton Plantation, Southside Plantation, Brick Quarters Plantation, Fatlands Plantation and probably other property. Mary died in childbirth a year after her marriage to David leaving him free to marry again. David's Uncle Abijah died in 1811. Though there were other heirs to Abijah's fortune, David wound up very rich out of it with 100% ownership of the Hunt and Smith firm (a cotton brokerage, five stores, several public cotton gins) and at least Abijah's 1/2 ownership in Huntley Plantation and possibly other plantations. He made himself even richer in 1816 by next marrying Ann Ferguson - a granddaughter of wealthy planter Robert Dunbar through her mother Jane Dunbar. Ann's father, David Ferguson, had grown up with his family on the nearby Mount Locust Plantation and rest stop on the Old Natchez Trace. Through his marriage to Ann, David wound up with Homewood, Lansdowne, possibly Wilderness (one of David's Uncle Abijah's business partners had owned this land - so maybe it came to David through his Uncle), Oakley Grove and probably other property. Probably between 1816 and 1820 David got out of the merchant trade, closing the Hunt and Smith firm, selling the assets, and reinvesting the money into a plantation on the Bayou Pierre in Claiborne County. An 1820 portrait of David is at the following website. http://www.tnportraits.org/hunt-david.htm The combination of David's interest in farming, good work ethic, and humble beginnings (resulting in frugality and humility), caused David to be a good steward of all he received. His wealth multiplied while he gave to others. He made sure his slaves were well fed, housed and received good medical care; was the largest contributor to Oakland College (now Alcorn State) (http://www.rootsweb.com/~msclaib3/oakland_college.htm ) and http://www.rootsweb.com/~msclaib3/images/alcornlitbldg1.jpg ); gave heavily to the Rodney, MS Presbyterian Church (http://jeffersoncountyms.org/scrapbookRodney.htm and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InE2khiTG8w ) - even donating the land on which it was built (land he got for free from the Thomas Calvit estate); and gave to the area poor. Aside from living in a modest house for a millionaire family http://jeffersoncountyms.org/woodlawn.htm , however, the general lifestyle of the richest planter families applied to David's family as well. For many years they travelled by carriage with a separate baggage wagon to summer in Lexington, KY. This let them escape the summer heat and yellow fever threat in the Natchez area which sometimes killed whole families. Lexington was where John Wesley Hunt, David's distant millionaire cousin and former business partner of his Uncle Abijah, lived (http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/lexington/hun.htm ). Lexington was also near David's Uncle Jesse and his descendants in Cincinnati where David invested in business real estate. He occasionally travelled to the NY/NJ area where he was from as well. David was one of only 35 or so millionaires in the entire U.S. He invested in about 20 thousand of acres of Mississippi land in the Yahoo Delta area along the MS River in the counties to the north of Jefferson County with his wife Ann's Uncle Joseph Dunbar, who owned Arundo Plantation in Jefferson County and Fairchilds Plantation in Adams County (Joseph's brother William owned Dunbarton, Rustic Lawn, Mt Vernon, Oakley Grove, Wakefield and Alloway Plantations in Adams County - this is not the same Dunbar family of Sir William Dunbar who owned the Forest Plantation in Adams Co.) William Dunbar was David's main partner in his land investments, but he had other partners. Hunt's land was in the Delta - a term used to describe the rich bottom land along the MS River. The details of these land locations are on-line at the Bureau of Land Management's website. Most of the land was known as "wild land" a common term for undeveloped land at that time. In those days land was relatively plentiful and cheap (except for the rich bottom land along the rivers, which is mostly what Hunt bought because it was necessary for large plantations to remain profitable). It was the slaves, however, that were very expensive. Thus, a slave owner's wealth was judged by the number of slaves he owned rather than how much land he had. David's slave ownership probably peaked in about 1848 at between 1,000 and 1,100 (Maybe at this time in the Natchez area Stephen Duncan was the only individual richer than David). Like Stephen Duncan, David invested heavily in railroad stocks (If Hunt's investments were similar to Duncan's, Hunt may have owned around $400,000 in railroad stock). Due to gifts to his children his slave ownership was probably down to around 600 just before the Civil War (Tom Blake, "LARGE SLAVEHOLDERS OF 1860 and AFRICAN AMERICAN SURNAME MATCHES FROM 1870," http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~ajac/ 19 Nov 07). David died in 1861 at the beginning of the Civil War. He acquired the following 25 plantations, several of which he gave to his children as wedding gifts (Harnett T. Kane, "Natchez on the Mississippi," Bonanza Books, NY, p 179).
  1. 1800 - David Hunt's first Plantation
    1. Jefferson Co., MS - Woodlawn Plantation MS - David Hunt's residence. David probably "homesteaded" on unclaimed land to get some of this plantation and probably purchased the rest with money from his Uncle Abijah's estate
      1. Location: On Coles Creek, T10N-R1W, section 49 and T9N-R1W part of section 9. One source states that Woodlawn also included T10N-R1W section 50, though it is listed with a different owner (possibly James Corbit) in the original land survey. The land is a few miles south of Rodney on Frazier Road near its intersection with Rodney Road. It is also near Springfield Plantation which is open for tours.
      2. Size: about 1,500 to 1,600 acres
      3. Slaves:
        1. the 386 slaves David had in Jefferson County in the 1860 census would have been on the plantations he had not given to his children by then - Woodlawn and probably Black Creek, Fatlands, Southside, Brick Quarters and maybe others. Most of these plantations were clustered together if not adjoining from Rodney to the north down to Coles Creek directly south.
        2. Cyrus and Matilda Bellus (husband and wife - both were field hands), Annie (she spun thread and wove cloth) and Stephen Hall (parents of Matilda Bellus), John and Dinah Major (parents of Cyrus Bellus), Cyrus Bellus (son of Cyrus and Matilda Bellus, was a lumber grader in AK after the Civil War) wound up 1320 Pulaski Street in Little Rock, AK after the Civil War), a link to the Cyrus Bellus WPA slave narrative is: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/11255/11255-h/11255-h.htm#BellusCyrus
          1. Tildie (possibly short for Matilda), moved from Woodlawn Plantation to New Orleans as a house servant to Elizabeth Hunt when Elizabeth married in 1865, because her name is Tildie maybe she is a daughter of Cyrus and Matilda Bellus (this is just a guess).
        3. Jane and William Brown (husband and wife - William came from TN to MS}; they had three sets of twins - Jonas and Sofa, Peter (born 1 Mar 1852 - farmed and worked on MS River steamboats after the Civil War, moved to Helena, AK) and Alice, Isaac and Jacob; Sofa and Peter Bane (were either Jane or William Brown's parents), a link to the Peter Brown WPA slave narrative is: http://jeffersoncountyms.org/peterbrown.htm
      4. History. Woodlawn was probably David's first plantation. It was his home plantation where he lived a good deal of the time - except for in many summers when he lived in Lexington, KY to escape the heat and yellow fever threat in MS. David had a program on Woodlawn to teach his slaves trades such as carpentry, woodworking, cloth making, blacksmithing and shoemaking. Woodlawn was just to the west of David's Uncle Abijah's Huntley Plantation (probably where his Uncle lived). Calviton adjoined Woodlawn on the west side and is where David's second wife's family lived (the Thomas Calvit family).
  2. 1811 - Plantations David got from Uncle Abijah's estate
    1. Jefferson Co., MS - Huntley Plantation, Huntley, Oakwood, and others were all probably in the first big chunk of plantations David got when his Uncle died in 1811. David probably bought Black Creek with money from his Uncle's estate or the wealth generated by it soon after his Uncle's death. Huntley was given to David's son George as his residence.
      1. Location: T9N-R1E section 10 and T9N-R1W section 3 & 26, just north of the now extinct town of Greenville on Coles Creek, two miles east of Woodlawn
      2. Size: about 2,150 acres
      3. Slaves: 59
      4. History: This was David's Uncle Abijah's plantation - probably where he lived. It may have the Abijah Hunt Cemetery located on it.
    2. Jefferson Co., MS - Oakwood Plantation - given to daughter Mary Ann as a wedding gift for her residence
      1. Location: T8N-R1W, section 27 and probably also section 42
      2. Size: about 600 acres
      3. Slaves: 98, these slaves were probably split between Oakwood Plantation and Oakwood Tract which was north of the plantation in northern Jefferson County along the Old Natchez Trace
    3. Jefferson Co., MS - Black Creek Plantation, located on Black Creek which probably wasn't in the same place on maps as it is today, purchased by David probably partly with money from his Uncle Abijah's estate
      1. Location: T10N-R1W sections 26, 27, 39, 40 and 43. It was on the opposite side (the west side) of a lake from Calviton Plantation. The lake was connected to the MS River by Black Creek.
      2. Size: about 1,350 acres
  3. 1816 - Plantations that David got when he married his third wife Ann (Ferguson) Hunt - granddaughter of planter Robert Dunbar, daughter of planter David Ferguson. (It's possible that Homewood, Lansdowne (a.k.a Ivy Place) and Wilderness were all one big plantation when David and Ann got them.) Homewood, Lansdowne, Oakley Grove, Wilderness and maybe other plantations were passed on to David Hunt's wife Ann from her family. She was a descendant of planter Robert Dunbar who had lived on Lansdowne first and then on Oakley Grove. Homewood, Lansdowne and Wilderness were adjoining plantations. Oakley Grove was over to the east of these plantations. Wildernesss had been once owned by one of David Hunt's Uncle Abijah's business partners, so it was either sold to Robert Dunbar or came to David from his Uncle Abijah's estate. Lansdowne was purchased by Robert Dunbar in about 1782.

    1. Adams Co., MS - Homewood Plantation - given to daughter Catherine as a wedding gift
      1. Location: T7N-R3W, section 12; and T7N-R2W, section 55, on Pine Ridge Road/M.L. King Blvd/highway 555
      2. Size: 600 acres
      3. Slaves: undetermined
      4. History: The largest Hunt family house (the only one big enough to be called a mansion) was built on this plantation by Catherine and her husband William Balfour. It was destroyed by fire in about 1940.
    2. Adams Co., MS - Lansdowne Plantation - given to daughter Charlotte as a wedding gift
      1. Location: T7N-R3W, section 11; and T7N-R2W, sections 35 and 38; on Pine Ridge Road/M.L. King Blvd/highway 555
      2. Size: 600 acres
      3. Slaves: 22, Robert - the butler, Susan - Robert's wife
      4. History: The second most elaborate Hunt family house was built on this plantation which adjoined Homewood by Charlotte and her husband George Marshall (son of Levin R. Marshall of Richmond Plantation just south of Natchez). It is opened for tours and is laid out sort of like (not exactly) the first floor of the Homewood mansion. A second floor was planned but never built, which would have made it into a mansion.
    3. Adams Co., MS - Wilderness Plantation, on Pine Ridge Road/M.L. King Blvd/highway 555
      1. Location: T7N-R2W, sections 16, 17, 14 and the land west of the creek in section 18
      2. Size: approximately 600 acres
      3. Slaves: undetermined
    4. Adams Co., MS - Oakley Grove Plantation - 1/2 ownership inherited by David's wife Ann late in her life, 1/2 ownership possibly passed to son George's children
      1. Location: T7N-R2w, section 5; and T8N-R2W, section 53, now part of Adams Co airport
      2. Size: undetermined
      3. Slaves: undetermined
      4. History: Members of David's wife Ann's family lived on this plantation. Ann's father was David Ferguson. His family had the Mount Locust Plantation and Mount Locust Inn/Rest Stop nearby on the Old Natchez Trace. Rest stops were located about every six miles along the Trace - Mount Locust is now open as a tourist site.
  1. 1821 - Plantations that David got when his second wife's father (Thomas Calvit) died. (It's possible that Calviton, Woodlawn and Huntley were all like one big plantation before David gave Huntley to his son George and Calviton to his son Abijah.)
    1. Jefferson Co., MS - Calviton Plantation, The Thomas Calvit family residence, passed to David Hunt, given to son Abijah, passed on to a member of the Wood family who married Abijah's widow
      1. Location: T9N-R1W, and probably covered all of section 47 and parts of nearby sections such as section 46
      2. Size: undetermined
      3. Slaves: 88; From the Will of Thomas Calvit (Thomas died in 1820): Maria, Maria’s brother Jacob, boy Ruben, young Lonz, Bill, Jabez, Jabez’s wife Chanty, and Fanny the daughter of Kitty
      4. History: David got Calviton, Fatlands, Southside and Brick Quarters from the Calvit family. Including Calviton, these plantations stretched from Rodney in the north, down to Coles Creek where they adjoined Woodlawn Plantation. Calviton is where David Hunt's son Abijah's widow lived with her second husband Edgar Wood and David's son Abijha's children. Aaron Burr (Vice President under President Thomas Jefferson) was taken to the small frame house on Calviton where the Calvits lived when he was arrested (possibly for treason). The house was later moved to another part of the plantation for a share cropper to live in after the Civil War.
    2. Jefferson Co., MS - Fatlands Plantation
      1. Location: T10N-R1W, section 5 and 6, on Southside/Ashland Road, very near the MS River before the Civil War, adjoined Southside Plantation
      2. Size: Between 600 and 2000 acres depending if the adjacent land surrounding the town of Rodney was included in this plantation or just the fields on the south side of Rodney
      3. Slaves: undetermined
      4. History: Fatlands was on the southern border of the town of Rodney. Thomas Calvit gave the land where the town of Rodney was built. Thus, while Fatlands Plantation was on the south border of Rodney, parts of it may have surrounded the town as well.
    3. Jefferson Co., MS - Southside Plantation - Jefferson MS
      1. Location: T10N-R1W, section 20, on the MS River, on Southside/Ashland Road, adjoined Fatlands Plantation
      2. Size: undetermined
    4. Jefferson Co., MS - Brick Quarters Plantation
      1. Location: T10N-R1W, sections 28, 29 and 38, probably adjoined Southside and Calviton Plantations
      2. Size: undetermined
      3. History: Quarters refers to slave houses of quarters. Thus, this plantation evidently had brick slave houses.
  2. Jefferson County Plantations that David Hunt bought over the years. (It's possible that Ashland, Buena Vista and Servis Island were all like one big plantation before David Hunt began selling them off.)
    1. Jefferson Co., MS - Ashland Plantation MS - David Hunt helped make Mr. David Servis (former Woodlawn Plantation overseer) very rich by helping him buy this plantation
      1. Location: T10N-R2E,sections 13 and 14, on the MS River, on Southside/Ashland Road
      2. Size: about 1,000 acres
      3. Slaves: unknown
      4. History: Ashland, Servis Island and possibly Buena Vista were side by side.
    2. Jefferson Co., MS - Servis Island Plantation - probably on Services Island which was next to Ashland Plantation, probably named after David Servis - maybe David sold this one to Mr. Servis too
      1. Location: T9N-R2W, on an island in the MS River, accessed from Southside/Ashland Road
      2. Size: undetermined
      3. Slaves: undetermined
    3. Jefferson Co., MS - Buena Vista Plantation
      1. Location: T10N-R2W, sections 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12; ten miles below the town of Rodney on the MS River adjoining Ashland Plantation; on Southside/Ashland Road.
      2. Slaves: 86 slaves under U.S. President Taylor's ownership
      3. Size: about 2,000 acres when U.S. President Taylor purchased it in 1840
      4. History: This plantation land belonging to David Hunt was sold to John Hagan who combined it with the land of others to form Cypress Grove which was sold to U.S. President Zachary Taylor in 1840. Taylor's widow sold the plantation to Charles B. New in 1850. It was probably known as Buena Vista beginning with Mr. News ownership.
    4. Jefferson Co., MS - Waverly Plantation - Jefferson MS
      1. Location: T10N-R1E section 45, along the Old Natchez Trace just north of Huntley Plantation
  3. Louisiana Plantations that David Hunt bought - some of which may have been inherited from his Uncle Abijah
    1. Tensas Parish, LA - Arcola Plantation - given to daughter Charlotte as a wedding gift
      1. Location: In the vicinity of T9N-R10E, section 38, south of Waterproof LA, on or very near the MS River
      2. Size: undetermined
      3. Slaves: 104
      4. History: The Hunts did not live on this plantation before the Civil War, a plantation manager ran it for them. Thus, it probably had a raised "cottage" (a frame house, on a tall foundation to protect it from flooding, with a center hall and two rooms on each side, and a big front and back porch), behind the manager's "cottage" the slave cabins would have been laid out in rows with other plantation buildings possibly off to the side of the "cottage." Argyle, Belle Ella and Hole-in-the-Wall would all have been similar to Arcola as they were all on low flat land near Waterproof, LA and the MS River, and run by managers for the Hunts who did not live there. Some of these plantations may have been started by David Hunt's Uncle Abijah as Abijah and his "Hunt and Smith" firm business partners bought land in the area around Waterproof, LA where these plantations were located.
    2. Tensas Parish, LA - Argyle Plantation - given to grandchildren (children of son Abijah)
      1. Location: Probably near Waterproof, LA
      2. Size: undetermined
      3. Slaves: 139
    3. Belle Ella Plantation - probably in Tensas Parish, LA near the town of Waterproof
    4. Concordia (St John's) , LA - Hole In The Wall Plantation - given to daughter Elizabeth
      1. Location: T9N-R1E, including possibly all of sections one through 24, on the MS River on Maxwell Road, south of Waterproof, LA
      2. Size: 3,500 acres
      3. Slaves: 99, Ellen Hall - born 1851 on Hole-in-the-Wall, parents were Wash and Ann Hall, met her husband (Jacob Stewart) while working on neighboring Canebrake Plantation
      4. History: This plantation is mentioned in Mark Twain's book __Life on the Mississippi__ because of the MS River currents that were tricky for steamboat captains to navigate along this plantation's site on the River.
  4. Other Plantations David Hunt owned
    1. Fairview Plantation - probably in Claiborne Co, MS, T12N-R3E section 31 - possibly purchased soon after 1816 with the money from sale of Uncle Abijah's stores, possibly on the Bayou Pierre
    2. Issaquena Co., MS - Georgiana Plantation - given to son George
      1. Location: Sharkey County T11N-R7W, section 19 and in Issaquena County T11N-R8W, unknown sections, on the west side of Deer Creek
      2. Size: undetermined
      3. Slaves: 13 slaves in 9 houses managed by Jno Densmore and 147 slaves in 26 houses managed by G.W. Johnson
    3. Fatherland Plantation MS - nothing so far
    4. Givin Place Plantation - nothing so far
    5. Oak Burn Plantation - nothing so far
  • The plantations of David Hunt's children. Seven of David's children lived long enough to marry and have families of their own. The seven were all from David's marriage (his third) in 1816 to Ann Ferguson. Five of these children (Mary Ann, Abijah, George, Catherine and Charlotte) married before the Civil War (between 1836 and 1852). (Allen Duane Hunt, “RootsWeb:HUNT-L[HUNT-L} Mississippi Hunts – D02 (of D01 through D02),” Wed, 12 Jul 2000 11:13:10-0700, Ancestry.com,http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/HUNT/2000-07/0963425590 (retrieved 30 Nov 07). When each of the seven married, David and Ann gave them at least one plantation. The five who married before the Civil War were also given about 100 slaves each by David and Ann. Some children married into families rich enough to give them other plantations as well (Harnett T. Kane, "Natchez on the Mississippi," Bonanza Books, NY, p 180). David and Ann Hunt, their children and their spouses held about 1,700 slaves just before the beginning of the Civil War. The plantations David and Ann gave to their children are listed below with more about the children and other plantations they owned listed on the plantation pages that are marked as "residences" (Dunbar Hunt, "Sketch of David Hunt," "The Fayette Chronicle," 29 May 1908, VOL XLI. No35). Basically before the Civil War a daughter of David Hunt would marry a State Supreme Court Justice's son or a very rich planter's son, and a son of David would marry a lesser planter's daughter but be given two plantations and around 200 slaves.
  1. Daughter Mary Ann (married James Archer - lawyer son of Maryland Supreme Court Justice Stephenson Archer): Oakwood Plantation (residence)
  2. Son Abijah (married Mary Agnes Walton): Calviton Plantation (residence), Argyle Plantation.
  3. Son George (married Anna Watson - daughter of large Claiborne County planter James Watson who owned Buena Vista Plantation (with 80 slaves) in Claiborne County and others): George owned Huntley Plantation (residence), and Georgiana Plantation.
  4. Daughter Catherine (married William S. Balfour - son of large planter William L. Balfour who had several plantations: Homestead Plantation (Madison Co., MS), Woodside Plantation (Yazoo Co., MS), Eyrie Plantation - Balfour (Carroll Parish, LA), Only Plantation (Issaquena Co., MS), Balfour Family Plantation (Harrison Co., MS), John W. Balfour Plantation (Marshall Co., MS), William T. Balfour Plantation (Warren Co., MS) ): Catherine had Homewood Plantation (residence), shortly after Catherine's marriage her husband's father died. Thus, her husband soon got a large share of the family plantations - possibly he got Only Plantation with 177 slaves
  5. Daughter Charlotte (married George M. Marshall - son of Levin R. Marshall who lived on Richmond Plantation (32 slaves) south of Natchez and owned 817 slaves on several plantations - Poplar Grove in Adams Co, Hermitage and Good Hope in Concordia Parish (with 87 and 161 slaves respectively) and others), Charlotte had Lansdowne Plantation (residence), and Arcola Plantation.
  6. Daughter Elizabeth (married William F. Ogden - lawyer son of Louisiana Supreme Court Justice Abner Nash Ogden, William's brother was the New Orleans City D.A.): Hole In The Wall Plantation (residence only after the Civil War for Elizabeth's widower), and a plantation in Mississippi (name still undetermined).
  7. Son Dunbar (married Leila L. Brent): it's still undetermined which plantations he received.
  • The plantations during the Civil War. David Hunt died of natural causes in 1861 at the start of the Civil War. Hunt's slaves were probably freed in about 1863 when nearby Vicksburg fell to Union control. David's son Abijah died well before the War, and son George died during the War (I don't know his cause of death). I don't know if David's youngest son, Dunbar, fought in the War or not (Allen Duane Hunt, et al., loc. cit.). David's four son-in-laws (James Archer, Major William Balfour, George Marshall, and Captain William Ogden) all fought in the War for the South and survived. Cpt Ogden was captured and held for several months at the Johnson's Island by the Union Army. {(1898-1899 Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University, http://mssa.library.yale.edu/obituary_record/1859_1924/1898-99.pdf , retrieved 30 Nov 2007), (Harnett Kane, et al., p184), (Warren C. Ogden, "Seven Siblings," Upton Printing Co., 1971, p78)}. On most if not all of the family plantations the cotton was burned and the livestock was stolen. The plantations were raided by the Army for supplies as well. The only specific incidents I know of on and near the plantations during the War are:
  1. Northern soldiers broke into the big house on Lansdowne and robbed the Marshalls of a few things while the Marshalls were home (Harnett Kane, et al., p184).
  2. Northern soldiers raided Woodlawn in Jefferson County for supplies and set it on fire (apparently the house did not burn down because it is still there) (Irene Robertson, "Slave Narrative of Peter Brown," Federal Writer's Project, http://jeffersoncountyms.org/peterbrown.htm , rootsweb, retrieved 30 Nov 07).
  3. Newly freed slaves armed by the northern army after the fall of Vicksburg came down Deer Creek and killed George Hunt's overseer on Georgiana as they made their way down the Creek on a killing spree (Editor Dunbar Roland, "Mississippi Historical Society," 1918 Centenary Series Vol II, p198). (The previous reference always names George Short, not George Hunt. Everything else is right - the plantation name, the location, and the overseer's name. Thus, I am concluding that someone got George's last name wrong somewhere along the way. Hunt could easily look a lot like Short on an old faded manuscript.) The Hunts could not get another white man to live on the plantation and manage it for them after the War.
  4. A gunfight broke out in the Rodney Presbyterian Church when David's son-in-law's sister (Eliza Ogden) was attending the service. She was pushed out a window to safety (Warren C. Ogden, et al., p83). More about the gunfight is at: http://jeffersoncountyms.org/scrapbookRodney.htm and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6Jahr649TU .
  • The plantations just after the Civil War - The War had taken away a large chunk of the family's wealth and ability to produce more wealth (the value of the slaves). Thus, in general David Hunt's children gradually scaled back their plantations and sold off assets so that many were about broke when they died. Most of David's grandchildren probably got to go to college and move on to other vocations besides cotton farming. David's son Dunbar became a Presbyterian minister and got married. When his father's estate was divided in 1867, Dunbar moved in with his mother at Woodlawn in Jefferson County. He lived with his wife and his mother at Woodlawn until 1875 - a year after his mother Ann's death (Orville F. Howe, “Letter,” Bobs M. Tusa & Yvonne Arnold, “Collection Title: Howe (Orville F.) Letter,” June 23, 1882, The University of Southern Mississippi Libraries Special Collections, December 9, 2004, http://www.lib.usm.edu/~archives/m150text.htm , (1 Nov 2005)). I have not discovered any instances in which the War caused David Hunt's children and/or their spouses to immediately lose their homes or land. Luckily they had cash from David Hunt's Cincinnati business real estate investments to buy what they needed to set up production on their plantations after the War. Dunbar wrote that because the family had been kind to their slaves before the War, many stayed on as sharecroppers after it was over (Dunbar Hunt, et al., loc. cit.). Kindness to the slaves meant that the slaves had been spoken to respectfully; gotten decent food, housing and medical care by the standards of the day; and cruelty beyond what was necessary to keep them in bondage and productive was not tolerated by David out of his overseers ("Melrose interactive slavery environment," www.slaveryinamerica.org , retrieved 20 Nov 07). It appears that in general David's descendants lived in their same residences as before the War and hired share croppers (often former slaves and their descendants) to farm their land in return for a share of the crops they produced (This work on probably Wilderness Plantation is described at the end of the following slave narrative of Cyrus Bellus. http://www.rootsweb.com/~msgenweb/xslaves/bellus-xslave.htm ).
  • What finally became of the plantations. What happened to Hole-in-the-Wall and Lansdowne may represent the two extremes of what became of the plantations in the Hunt family. Hole-in-the-Wall was lost in one generation after the War by William Ogden (a New Orleans lawyer and son-in-law of David Hunt). After the War the plantation was losing money badly. Rather than replacing the manager with another more aggressive manager who could run it profitably, William moved to the plantation to run it himself. When it became apparent to the family that he was failing, he refused to step aside and hire someone to run it. He lost it for a debt of $3,000 - which probably means that he mortgaged it and then couldn't pay the mortgage - in about 1890. Some lawsuits were filed by his children against him for mismanagement of the family assets (family account of Elizabeth Hunt's life by one of her granddaughters). Lansdowne, on the other hand, is still in the Marshall family. George Marshall (son of one of the richest Natchez planters - Levin R. Marshall - and also a son-in-law of David Hunt) either had more money than Ogden to cushion him while he adapted to running plantations after the War or he was already good enough at it to do it successfully. It is still in the Marshall family and retains about 120 of its original 600 acres ("Lansdowne Plantation, http://www.lansdowneplantation.com/ , retrieved 30 Nov 07). The Marshalls sold most of the Lansdowne Plantation land in the 1950s to form the subdivision of Broadmore. They held the mortgages for the black families who bought the land. At that time the banks would not loan money to blacks.
  • Civil Rights Era. David Hunt's great grandson - Dunbar Hunt Ogden, Jr (my mother's Uncle) - was the main pastor who led nine high school students up to Central High in Little Rock, Arkansas in that city's first attempt at public school integration in 1957. Civil rights leader Daisy Bates asked many pastors to do this, but most turned her down. Rev. Ogden walked ahead of the black high school students (known as the Little Rock Nine) leading them up to the school through the angry mob. Ogden and the Little Rock Nine were turned away from the school by the AK National Guard who had been called up by AK Governor Orval Faubus to keep the school from being integrated in violation of U.S. law. After this things turned ugly in Little Rock for Ogden and his family. The NAACP, who was involved in the school integration attempt, was branded as a communist organization by the McCarthyism anticommunist hysteria sweeping the nation at that time. Thus, not only did Governor Orval Faubus have the Ogden's phone tapped, but the FBI tapped their phone and was in the area recording license plates of people involved with them. The family began receiving threats that their home would be bombed and that acid would be squirted in their faces. Men in the black community came forward to protect them in 1957 and 58 - hiding in the shrubbery around their house at night and sitting in cars along the street. In 1958 Ogden took Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to the graduation of the first black person (Ernest Green) from Central High School. Soon after this Rev. Ogden's congregation - upset over his public involvement with the school integration - fired him. Ogden and his family moved to a West Virginia pastorate. Then in 1960 one of Rev. Ogden's four sons - David - committed suicide possibly as a result of having lived through so much stress in Little Rock.
    • The book My Father Said Yes by Dunbar Hunt Ogden III is my source for the previous information. The book tells the story of the Little Rock school integration from the Ogden family's perspective. I believe the photos and accounts in the book would be of interest to anyone interested in black history. It was just released (2008) and has a forward written by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. It is available for purchase from www.amazon.com for $16 to $20.
  • References.
  1. *The Hunt Family of Jefferson County, by Andy-McMillion. http://jeffersoncountyms.org/hunt_family.htm


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    Karmella Haynes:I just wanted to thank you for all of the hard work you've done. Thanks so much and keep up the great work. As always, if you have any question or need any help, just send me an e-mail.
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