Andy Mc Million

About Me

I have been given some articles by my family about one line of my ancestors - the David Hunt family (Hunt was my third great grandfather) -who was among the largest slave holders in the Natchez, MS District.  They had 25 plantations centering around Woodlawn in Jefferson County, MS.  The articles usually give general information about the Hunts, but seldom much detail about the plantations or slaves.  My goal is to consolidate information from everywhere to create a more complete detailed story of the Hunt plantations.  David Hunt's wife Ann Ferguson was a descendant of the Fergusons who had Mount Locust Plantation in Adams County and the Dunbars who had Oalkey Grove and many other plantations in Adams County.

David Hunt's daughter Elizabeth (my great great grandmother) married Cpt William Frederick Ogden, CSA.  Ogden's mother was Julia Smith Scott of Natchez, MS.  Her father was Dr John T. Scott who had Waverly Place (Plantation) mentioned in the book Tumult and Silence on Second Creek , and her mother was a grandaughter of Rev. Jedediah Smith.  Reverend Jedediah Smith was the first Presbyterian minister to come to the Natchez District.  He died in 1776 right after he got to Natchez.  Three of his sons had plantations on Second Creek in Adams Co, MS - Independence, Retirement and Monmouth Plantations.  I'm descended from Isreal Smith, who owned Independence Plantation.  I can only add information I find on the internet to the plantation pages concerning the Smiths, because my family didn't pass any Smith information along to me.

I am also descended from the owners of Medway Plantation in Berkley County, SC.

Websites

• Link to wikipedia page about David Hunt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hunt_(planter)  

Pages I've Created

• I created all of the pages for the Hunt plantations that I am researching except for Homewood Plantation and Woodlawn Plantation MS .  At this point I have also created several pages for the Smith plantatinons as well as pages for the plantations of families who married into the Hunt family.

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 lived in Greenville (now extinct) in Jefferson County (with a small number of slaves - three or four probably) and owned the 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 dry goods stores and public cotton gins. The 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 in Adams Co, Greenville (now extinct) in Jefferson Co, the Grind Stone Ford in Claiborne Co. One of the public cotton gins was in Greenville, Jefferson Co., MS. My best estimate is that Abijah owned two plantations with about 30 slaves working on each when he died in 1811. 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. The inventory of Aijah's estate included his slaves (just over 60), plantation equipment and livestock and the contents of his house in greenville. It was valued at $36,000 and split between his many siblings and their children. David Hunt got Abijah's share of the Hunt and Smith firm as well as all of Abijah's land - though none of this was listed in the inventory of Abijah's estate or in his will. The following is a list of probably most of Abijah's land ("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 I don't think that Abijah had a plantation in Adams County, but the Hunt plantation page is a good place to put research on the matter in case one turns up in Adams County.  I haven't found slave ownership in Adams County for Abijah.  D. Clayton James wrote in his book that Abijah had a 3,645 acre plantation in Adams County. I think that this wasn't a plantation, but just the total amount of land Abijah owned in Adams County. In those days, Franklin County, where Abijah owned land, was part of Adams County. Abijah owned a good bit of land in what is now Franklin County, so the total Adams County/Franklin County land is about 3,645 acres. Abijah did a lot of buying and selling, so the exact amount of land changed, but in general it was around 3,645. Abijah did buy and sell Gloucester Plantation in Adams County, but he only owned it briefly - about one year. Thus, this was maybe just Abijah buying it; maybe thinking he might want to live there (because it was  cheap or next to his partner Elijah Smith's Windsor Estate - which became part of Longwood; and then selling it because he could make a quick profit or he didn't want to live there after all.
1. Land located along the Homochitto River at T5N-R1W, section 37 along the southern Adams County line
2. Abijah had a lot of other land in Adams/Franklin County. I just haven't gotten around to listing it here. 
2. Lot number one of square number three in Natchez. Probably where the Natchez Hunt and Smith general store was located.
2. Jefferson Co., MS 
1. a couple of lots in the town of Greenville with probably Abijah's residence and his Greenville Hunt and Smith store.
2. 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.
3. 221 acres at T9N-R3E sec 6 and T9N-R3W sec 40
4. Abijah and partner William Forman owned several sections of land to the immediate east of the town of Fayette - at T9N-R2E, sections 22,29,32, 34 and 35.
5. 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 - Abijah bought 3,159 acres on the various branches of the Bayou Pierre in Claiborne County. What is known of the exact locations of some of Abijah's 3,159 acres of land in Claiborne County is as follows.
1. Abijah had a 1,000 acre plantation 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. This plantation seems to have had 30 slaves.
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. One author stated that 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. This plantation may have included the 572 acres at land coordinate T12N-R4E listed above. I haven't found these 61 slaves in the old census records, so maybe Abijah just quickly bought and sold this plantation to make a quick buck. More research is needed to determine just what went on here.
5. Abijah bought 700 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). There was a river crossing on this land.  This 800 acres was 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, section 14 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 . A Squire Boone had owned this land - possibly the fameous Daniel Boone's brother. One author mentioned that Abijah had a store on the Big Black River. This is the most likely spot for it, because it is at a ford on a road that goes from the Old Natchez Trace (near the Grind Stone Ford) to Vicksburg. Vicksburg is near Walnut Hills where the same author said Abijah did merchant business. There isn't any corroboration of Abijah having a store on the Big Black River or at Walnut Hills, however. Maybe evidence will turn up one day in my research. Likewise, Abijah is said to have done business with Fort Adams, south of Natchez on the Mississippi River. A theory I have is that Abijah's physical stores that he owned were just in Natchez, Greenville and at the Grindstone Ford, but that he also sold supplies at Fort Adams, the Big Black River, Walnut Hills and in Washington Mississippi in Adams County - and possibly near Utica Mississippi on Hunt Road where one old map shows a Hunt Store. 
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. Abijah's partner Elijah Smith owned land where David Hunt's Hole in the Wall Plantation was later located. Abijah also had  one parcel of land south of Vidalia on the MS River. I don't think that Abijah had any slaves or plantations in Concordia Parish.
5. Tensas Parish, LA. Abijah bought the land where David Hunt later had Belle Ella and Argyle plantations. I don't think that Abijah had any slaves or plantations on this hand though. 

• 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. USGenweb website records show that a David Hunt married a Margaret Stampley in 1800 in the Jefferson County, MS area. Was this the same David Hunt that I have researched? Hmmmm.  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 any possible marriage to Margaret Stampley had ended. In 1808 he married Mary Calvit who lived next to Woodlawn with her parents on Calviton Plantation. 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 all of Abijah's land. 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.panoramio.com/photo/11150574 (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 home Plantation
1. Jefferson Co., MS - Woodlawn Plantation MS
1. Location: On Coles Creek, T10N-R1W, section 49, 50 and T9N-R1W part of section 9. 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 or sold by then - Fatlands, Southside, Brick Quarters, Woodlawn, Waverly and Black Creek. All of these plantations were clustered together if not adjoining from Rodney to the north down to Coles Creek directly south. Calviton and Huntley were in this cluster of plantations, but Hunt had given them to his children - Calviton had 88 slaves and Huntley had 59. Oakwood was to the south and had been given to daughter Mary Ann. It along with Oakwood Tract to the north had 98 slaves. Ashland, Buena Vista and probably Servis Island, which were just to the west, had been sold by David out of the family by then.
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. David Hunt got about 216 acres on Coles Creek through preemption (which means he "homesteaded" on it). He got the title to the land in 1803; however, if his pattern is similar to other men, he actually settled the land in about 1800. This land was possibly the beginnings of Woodlawn though it could have been anywhere on Coles Creek. The original land survey of the area shows Hunt obtaining T10N - R1W, section 49 in 1817. Another author states that Woodlawn also was in section 50. It took the ownership of about 100 slaves to be rich enough to be a member of the Natchez area elite. Families with about 200 slaves were living in mansions on suburban estates, such as Melrose, before the Civil War. Hunt had around 1,000 to 1,300 slaves in about 1848. He was thought to be reclusive and humble by some because he preferred to live in his relatively modest house on Woodlawn Plantation. It was, thus, 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. Another author states that Hunt did have various residences in the town of Natchez too. 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 (possibly 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. David was one of the main heirs to his Uncle's estate, but not the only heir. Abijah had been one of the 18 richest men in the Natchez District.  David had plantations on or near land owned by Abijah and his business partners - William G. Foreman and Elijah Smith. The Oakwood Plantation and Wilderness Place land had been owned by Foreman. At least two of David's LA plantations (Hole-in-the-Wall and Arcola) were near land owned by Abijah. David is said to have sold what he got from Abijah in Adams County to concentrate his plantation operation in Jefferson County. Thus, some of the following David Hunt land (or land that had been developed into plantations) in Jefferson County surely came from Abijah's estate or was purchased with the money from the estate - Ashland, Black Creek Buena Vista, Oakwood, Servis Island, Southside Plantation, Waverly and possibly Woodlawn.  In the years shortly after his Uncle Abijah's death, David purchased a big chunk of the Woodlawn land, and the Black Creek and Southside land.   
1. 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
2. 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. Jefferson Co., MS - Waverly Plantation - Jefferson MS
1. Location: T10N-R1E section 45, along the Old Natchez Trace just north of Huntley Plantation
4. 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
3. 1816 - Plantations David got because he married his wife Ann Ferguson. Ann was a grandaughter of Robert Dunbar. Dunbar is documented as a slave owner. This made Ann a member of the very rich "country" elite plantation Dunbar clan of Adams County. (There was also another unrelated rich plantation owning Dunbar clan in Adams County - the "city" ones who owned the Forrest Plantation) Ann's grandfather bought the Ivy Place in about 1782 from Nathaniel Ivy. Dunbar probalby expanded Ivy Place to about 1,800 acres by buying adjacent land from Stephen Minor and William G. Forman (a former business partner of David Hunt's Uncle Abijah). As Dunbar grew richer and expanded, he bought another plantation Oakley Grove just to the East of Ivy Place and moved his residence there. Ann got Ivy Place Plantation from her family sometime prior to 1850 when she and her husband David split it into three suburban Natchez estate/plantations to give to three of their daughters as they married. These new adjoining plantation/estates were named Homewood, Lansdowne and Wilderness. David's daughters Catherine and Charlotte lived like very minor nobles in England at the time would have lived in their homes on Homewood and Lansdowne for about five years until the Civil War ended the slavery system that supported them. Ann also got a 1/2 interest in Oakley Grove just before the Civil War. Ann's father David Ferguson grew up on his parent's Mount Locust Rest Stop and later plantation on the Old Natchez Trace. What remains of this today is the Lansdowne Plantation house (built by one of the Hunt daughters) and the Mount Locust Plantation house. Lansdowne is open for tours during the spring Pilgrimage tours, and the Mount Locust house is a tourist stop on the Natchez Trace Parkway. The Oakley Grove Plantation site is now the Adams County Airport. Descendants restored the Oakley Grove Plantation cemetery, but it is only accessed by crossing the airport land and going through a probably locked gate - so tourists may have a hard time seeing it. Homewood was very similar to the Natchez area Melrose Plantation/ estate which is open for tours if you want to get an idea of what it was like.
1. Adams Co., MS - Homewood Plantation - given to David Hunt's daughter Catherine as a wedding gift
1. Location: T7N-R3W, section 12; on Pine Ridge Road/M.L. King Blvd/highway 555
2. Size: 600 acres
3. Slaves: probably between 30 and 40
4. History: Stephen Minor probably sold this land to Ann Hunt's grandfather - Robert Dunbar. Dunbar probably wanted the land to enlarge his Ivy Place Plantation in the late 1700s. Homewood was probably split off from David and Ann Hunt's 1,800 acre Ivy Place Plantation as a suburban Natchez estate/plantation for their newly married daughter Catherine in 1850. The Hunts also gave their daughter a set of silver and 100 slaves. Catherine married William S. Balfour. His father William L. Balfour had given his son Only Plantation in Issaquena Co, about 100 slaves and the resources to build and furnish the couple's mansion on Homewood. These gifts were enough to make the couple members of the Natchez elite. They had 177 slaves in Issaquena Co, and probably the remainder (30 or 40) on Homewood. Homewood mansion was one of the most elaborate in the Natchez area. After returning from serving as a Major in the Civil War, William S. held onto the Homewood Plantation until his death. His children sold it out of the family shortly after that (early 1900s), and the mansion burned in 1940. The Homewood Estate is described in the book In Old Natchez by Catharine Van Court. The lawn and porch scenes in the movie The Birth of a Nation by D.W. Griffith were filmed at Homewood. The book So Red the Rose describes the parlors at Homewood.
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: Lansdowne adjoined Homewood. Charlotte Hunt's parents - David and Ann Hunt - gave her 100 slaves, a set of silver and Lansdowne Plantation near Natchez for her residence when she got married. They also gave her Arcola Plantation in Tensas Parish, LA to provide her with a good income. Her husband was Geroge M. Marshall - son of Levin R. Marshall of Richmond Plantation. George's father probably gave his son the means to build his large house on Lansdowne Plantation, about 100 slaves and a plantation in LA as well. (The Lansdowne house is in the same spot as Robert Dunbar's house was on Ivy Place.) Thus, the couple would have probably had two LA plantations to generate their income and the Lansdowne plantation/estate near Natchez to live on. Lansdowne had 22 slaves, Arcola had 104 slaves, so the other LA plantation probably had about 75 slaves. One biographer mentioned this second LA plantation, but so far the name is unclear. These gifts were enough to make George and Charlotte Marshall members of the Natchez elite. The plantation was named after the Marshall's friend the Marquess of Lansdowne. Though they probably didn't have nearly as much money as the Marquess, this gives you an idea of the amount of wealth that owning about 200 slaves would bring (you could be friends with the minor nobles of Europe). The Lansdowne house was the second most elaborate Hunt family house. A second floor was planned but never built, which would have made it into a mansion. Remarkably the house stayed in the Marshall family and has most of the original decor from slavery days still intact. It is opened for tours during the Spring Pilgrimage tour program each year in Natchez.
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. History: Wilderness plantation was north of Lansdowne, adjoining it on its north side.  I received an e-mail that stated that Homewood, Lansdowne and Wilderness all came to David and Ann Hunt from Ann's grandfather Robert Dunbar. The land is shown on the original land survey as belonging to William G. Foreman (business partner of David Hunt's Uncle Abijah). In any event, some family ancestor bought it and passed it along in the Marshall family. A former David Hunt slave mentions in his WPA slave narrative that he farmed on the Hunt's "Wilderness Place" after the Civil War (probably as a share cropper); however, this was surely David Hunt's Wilderness Plantation in Issaquena County, MS.
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. The Oakley Grove Plantation site is now the site of the Adams County Airport. The Oakley Grove Plantation cemetery has been restored by descendants and may be accessed by crossing the airport property and then going through a locked gate.
4. 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, was purchased by 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 bought Calviton, Fatlands, and Brick Quarters. 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.
3. 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.
5. Jefferson County Plantations that David Hunt sold. Ashlaland and Buena Vista Plantations adjoined in Jefferson County. Servis Island Plantation was on Services Island off shore in the MS River from Ashland Plantation. The land for these plantations may have originally been purchased by David Hunt's Uncle Abijah or by David Hunt (I haven't found out yet which it was). Although these plantations were in Jefferson County on the MS River, they were separated by other people's land from David Hunt's other Jefferson County Plantations. Plantation owners often had a tendency to try to consolidate their operations in one place when they could. This may be why Hunt sold these plantations.
1. Jefferson Co., MS - Ashland Plantation MS
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: David Hunt sold Ashland to Mr. David Servis. Mr. Servis was a former overseer on Hunt's home plantation - Woodlawn Plantation MS - also in Jefferson County. The sale was probably on credit. It made Mr. Servis into a very rich man. Owning only one good sized plantation with about 100 slaves made a man a member of the rich area plantation owning elite. (Basically, the elite had at least 100 people (slaves) working full time and giving all the proceeds to the slave owner).
2. Jefferson Co., MS - Servis Island Plantation - probably on Services Island which was next to Ashland Plantation, probably named after David Servis - maybe Hunt 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
4. History: The location of David Hunt's Servis Island Plantation is still just a guess by me. Since an island is right beside Ashland Plantation now named Services Island, and since David Hunt sold Ashland to Mr. David Servis, it makes sense that Services Island was originally Servis Island and was sold to Mr. Servis too.
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: 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 General Zachary Taylor in 1840. Taylor changed the plantation's name to Buena Vista - thought to be the site of one of Taylor's military battles. Taylor is said to have received the news that he had been elected as a U.S. President while living on Buena Vista Plantation. Taylor's widow sold the plantation to Charles B. New in 1850. Thus, David Hunt didn't really ever own Buena Vista Plantation. He just owned some of the land that later became Buena Vista.
6. David Hunt's Louisiana Plantations. These plantations all seem to have been in the vicinity of Waterproof, Tensas Parish, LA, which was on the MS River about directly across the River from Hunt's Jefferson Co, MS plantations. They were in the area where David Hunt's Uncle Abijah had owned land, so either Abijah and his business partners (Elijah Smith and William G. Foreman) or David Hunt started these plantations. They were on rich, low lying, flood prone land. Thus, they weren't used as residences for David Hunt or his children during slavery times. Instead, a manager was hired to run each plantation who lived in a "raised cottage" with the slave cabins in rows in the back yard and the other plantation buildings (cotton gin, barn, etc) probably in the side yard. The LA plantations were big money makers for David Hunt. Some of his children got them to provide them with good incomes when they married - but because they were on low land, they were not intended to be residences for them.
1. Tensas Parish, LA - Arcola Plantation - given to David Hunt's 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: This plantation was given to David Hunt's daughter Charlotte as a wedding gift to provide her with a good income. Charlotte's parents also gave her 100 slaves, a set of silver and Lansdowne Plantation near Natchez for her residence. Her husband was Geroge M. Marshall - son of Levin R. Marshall. George's father gave his son the means to build his large house on Lansdowne Plantation. Lansdowne had 22 slaves, Arcola had 104 slaves. One biographer mentioned that the Marshalls had a second LA plantation, but so far this hasn't been confirmed.
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 David and Ann Hunt's 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: Hole-in-the-Wall in Louisiana and Black Creek plantation in MS were given to David and Ann Hunt's daughter Elizabeth either as her 1865 wedding gift or as her share of her parent's estate after it was split up in 1867. If the pattern of gifts was the same for Elizabeth as for her older sisters, Black Creek Plantation, MS was intended for her to eventually build a residence on, and Hole-in-the-Wall was intended to generate a good income for her. However, she never built a residence on her MS plantation, and her LA plantation mostly lost money when she owned it during the financially hard Reconstruction era after the Civil War. Her husband (William Frederick Ogden) attended law school, fought in the Civil War as a Cpt. and returned to marry her in 1865. They lived in a large corner house on Jackson Street in the upscale Garden District of New Orleans with a full staff of house servants. William was a New Orleans lawyer, his father (Abner Nash Ogden) was a Louisiana Supreme Court Justice, and his brother was a New Orleans D.A. After Elizabeth's early death at age 35 in New Orleans. William had managed to use up family assets (such as investment real estate Elizabeth had inherited) to keep his family living in a similar style as they would have in slavery days. William remarried to the children's music teacher. Financial losses forced William to move the family from New Orleans to the much less elegant manager's house on Hole-in-the-Wall. William lost the plantation shortly before his death. He and his family moved in with friends at "The Burn" in Natchez where he soon died. Hole-in-the-Wall 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.
7. 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), Fairland 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 surely got Fairland Plantation with probably 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 Black Creek Plantation in Jefferson County, Mississippi.  Independence Plantation in Adams County was owned by William F. Ogden's mother's (Julia Scott Smith) family.
7. Son Dunbar (married Leila L. Brent): He received Wilderness Plantation in Issaquena County and probably Fatlands Plantation in Jefferson County.  He and his wife went to live on Woodlawn with his widowed mother after the Civil War. 

• 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 . Photos of a Union gunboat are in the "Vicksburg" section of the following web page. http://www.seeya-downtheroad.com/2007/GreatRiverRoadPart2.html

• 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). 

• Civil Rights Era.
• After WWII the federal government put programs in place to encourage increased home ownership because they thought it would improve economic conditions in the U.S.  Apparently prior to WWII only about 2/5 of people owned their own homes.  Blacks were being excluded from this by a practice called red lining.  The banks drew red lines on maps around the black neighborhoods and charged much higher interest rates in those areas then they did in the white neighborhoods.  The practice was nationwide and led to black rioting in some of the bigger cities like Detroit, Michigan.  During this time in the 1950's the Marshall descendants, who still owned the 600 acre Lansdowne Plantation, sold off all but about 100 acres of the plantation to blacks at interest rates in line with what the banks charged to whites.  The Marshalls held the mortgages.  It was probably a win/win situation for the Marshalls and the black community because the Marshalls got the mortgage interest and the blacks got around the bank practice of red lining.
• 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 first and later to California. 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

Contact Info.

   Cam two d 2004 at yahoo.  I've spelled out my e-mail address to prevent spam-bots from detecting and using it.