The James A. Kirksey Plantation was a moderate plantation of located in northwestern Leon County,

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, United States, established by James A. Kirksey. In 1847 he served as

mayor of Tallahassee The Mayor of Tallahassee is head of the executive branch of the government of Tallahassee, Florida. For part of the city's history the office of mayor was a rotating position chosen among city commissioners. Tallahassee switched to the direct e ...

. He had a large number of slaves. The James Kirksey plantation house was prefabricated in New York and built on the site in 1832. It is a 2-story home across the front and wide with

porch A porch (from Old French ''porche'', from Latin ''porticus'' "colonnade", from ''porta'' "passage") is a room or gallery located in front of an entrance of a building. A porch is placed in front of the facade of a building it commands, and form ...

es on both floors wrapping from side to front to side. The house is supported with 16 fluted Doric columns (8 per floor). It is located at 325 N. Calhoun Street in Tallahasse

http://rs6.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/S?pp/hh:@field(TITLE+@od1(James+Kirksey+House,+325+North+Calhoun+Street,+Tallahassee,+Leon+County,+FL))] It was photographed for the

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Location

The Kirksey Plantation was bordered on the north by Frederick R. Cotten's Burgesstown Plantation and on the east by the William A. Carr Plantation. Today the first section of would be on the west side of North Meridian Road at Orchard Pond Road, including Buck Pond. The second section was north of Tallahassee on .

1860 plantation specifics

The Leon County Florida 1860 Agricultural Census shows that the James A. Kirksey Plantation had the following: *Improved Land: *Unimproved Land: *Cash value of plantation: $33,000 *Cash value of farm implements/machinery: $500 *Cash value of farm animals: $3,405 *Number of enslaved persons: 180 *Bushels of corn: 6000 *Bales of cotton: 454 Though the plantation was not extremely large, it was the 4th largest in the county.

The owners

The plantation was owned by James A. Kirksey who was born in 1804 and died in 1878. Though not a large plantation owner, James Kirksey was involved in state politics as an election inspector in 1845.Rootsweb Leon County Voters, 1845
/ref> and also a delegate to the Florida Secession Convention on January 10, 1861. Around 1915 or 1916 the James Kirksey Plantation was purchased by Dr. Tennent Ronalds of

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, who also owned Live Oak Plantation and Orchard Pond Plantation, a total personal estate of .

References

Rootsweb Plantations
*Paisley, Clifton; ''From Cotton To Quail'', University of Florida Press, c1968.

External links

Photos of home in 1962

Sources

{{reflist Plantations in Leon County, Florida Cotton plantations in Florida 1832 establishments in Florida Territory