Overview

Location

Ascension Pa., LA

Date Constructed/ Founded

not determined

Associated Surnames

Kenner, Morris

Historical notes

Duncan F. Kenner built Ashland for his wife, Anne Guillemine Nanine Bringier, a member of an old and influential French family of Louisiana. Duncan F. Kenner was a sugar planter, horse breeder, lawyer and political figure during the antebellum period. When Kenner returned to Ashland at the end of the Civil War, he found his plantation in ruins and his slaves freed, the place having been raided by Union troops in 1862. At the age of 52 he had to start over again. Re-employing as laborers the slaves that had been freed, he built up an estate. When Duncan Kenner died, his plantation was even larger and more valuable than it had been before the war. In 1889, Ashland was purchased by John B. Reuss, a German immigrant who became a prosperous sugar planter. Reuss re-named the plantation "Belle Helene" in honor of his granddaughter, Helene Reuss.

Associated Slave Workplaces

Hermitage Plantation (Ascension Pa., LA)

Associated Free Persons

• Duncan Farrar Kenner (b.1813-d.1887) - plantation owner
• Anne Guillemine Nanine Bringier Kenner (b.1823-d.1911) - wife of Duncan F. Kenner; daughter of Michel Doradou Bringier (Hermitage Plantation)
• Duncan Farrar Kenner Jr. (b.1841-d.1846) - son of Duncan F. and Anne G.N.B. Kenner
• Martha Blanche Kenner (b.1846-d.1900) - daughter of Duncan F. and Anne G.N.B. Kenner
• Frances Rosella Kenner (b.1849-d.1928) - son of Duncan F. and Anne G.N.B. Kenner
• George Currie Duncan Kenner (b.1853-d.1881) - son of Duncan F. and Anne G.N.B. Kenner

Associated Enslaved Persons

1865 Freedmen who applied for land at Ashland Plantation
From Register of Applications of Freedmen for Land (Freedmens Bureau Record)

• Milton Morris - and 5 others, Freedmen: applied for land at Ashland Plantation on Sept. 27th, 1865; for "No. of men: 6. No. of women: 6. No. of children: 15."

Research Leads and Plantation Records

*none reported yet

Miscellaneous Information

• Ashland is also known as "Belle Helene Plantation"
• Ashland Manor: manor home; residence of Duncan and Anne Kenner

References

• Freedmen's Bureau Online: Register of Applications of Freedmen for Land. http://www.freedmensbureau.com/louisiana/landapps.htm
• National Register of Historic Places: Ashland Plantation. http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/louisiana/ash.htm
• Rootsweb World Connect Project - g642

Users Researching This Workplace

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