Orchard Pond Plantation was a large

cotton plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

originally of 8754 acres, (35½ km²) developed and owned in the 19th century by

Richard Keith Call Richard Keith Call (October 24, 1792 – September 14, 1862) was an American attorney, politician, and slave owner who served as the 3rd and 5th territorial governor of Florida. Before that, he was elected to the Florida Territorial Council and a ...

, attorney, planter and future Territorial Governor, in what is now 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. In 1860 he owned 118 slaves to work the 1300 acres of improved land. It was one of two plantations which Call owned in Leon County. His descendants owned these properties into the 20th century.

Location

The exact boundaries of Orchard Pond Plantation are not available. Orchard Pond lay between Lake Jackson and the

Ochlockonee River The Ochlockonee River ( ) is a fast running river, except where it has been dammed to form Lake Talquin in Florida, originating in Georgia and flowing for before terminating in Florida. Background The name is from the Hitchiti language words ...

to the west. The land is bisected east to west by Orchard Pond Road, a rural county

dirt road A dirt road or track is a type of unpaved road not paved with asphalt, concrete, brick, or stone; made from the native material of the land surface through which it passes, known to highway engineers as subgrade material. Dirt roads are suitable ...

, that in 2016 was replaced by the

Orchard Pond Parkway The Orchard Pond Parkway, also known as County Road 0344 (CR 0344), is a privately built, two-lane toll road, covering a distance of in the northern part of Leon County, Florida, acting as a partial bypass of Tallahassee and providing the only ...

Plantation specifics

The Leon County Florida 1860 Agricultural Census shows that Orchard Pond Plantation had the following: * Improved Land: 1300 acres (5 km²) * Unimproved Land: 2544 acres (10 km²) * Cash value of plantation: $31,000 * Cash value of farm implements/machinery: $300 * Cash value of farm animals: $4000 * Number of slaves: 118 * Bushels of corn: 4500 * Bales of cotton: 167 According to data in the United States Census of 1860, Richard Keith Call was the third-largest slaveholder in Leon County. His Orchard Pond Plantation eventually was reduced in size to 2644 acres (11 km²). Call transferred his other plantation, The Grove in Tallahassee, to his daughter. Call began to concentrate on agricultural experiments such as Florida

hemp Hemp, or industrial hemp, is a botanical class of ''Cannabis sativa'' cultivars grown specifically for industrial or medicinal use. It can be used to make a wide range of products. Along with bamboo, hemp is among the fastest growing plants o ...

and livestock improvements.

The owners

Richard Keith Call was born October 24, 1792 in Tennessee. Call became a friend and assistant of General

Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, he gained fame as ...

and accompanied him to Florida. His capital was made by speculation in the land office and he promoted land in Leon County to northerners. He developed two plantations in the county, one of nearly 9,000 acres, and the other, The Grove, of one square mile. Call, a

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

, was appointed as Governor of the Florida Territory from 1836 to 1839. He later became a Whig and was appointed as governor again by the winning presidential candidate. His property later passed to Call's daughter Ellen Call Long, who owned it until 1903; that year her granddaughter Reinette Long Hunt purchased the Orchard Pond property along with The Grove. Hunt would later sell the property to Dr. Tennent Ronalds, the only surviving son of Dr.

Edmund Ronalds Dr Edmund Ronalds FCS FRSE (18 June 1819 – 9 September 1889) was an English academic and industrial chemist. He was co-author of a seminal series of books on chemical technology that helped begin university teaching of chemical applications fo ...

and an

obstetrician Obstetrics is the field of study concentrated on pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. As a medical specialty, obstetrics is combined with gynecology under the discipline known as obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN), which is a surgi ...

. A keen sportsman, he took an active interest in developing a quail hunting operation. Orchard Pond was purchased by John H. Phipps, who later used it for his residence. Upon his death it became combined homes and interests of Colin Phipps and his grandson John E. Phipps, who was given on Ox Bottom Road. :''See:''

Ayavalla Plantation Ayavalla Plantation was a quail hunting plantation located in northwest Leon County, Florida, established by John Henry Howard Phipps, son of John Shaffer Phipps of the prominent Phipps family. Ayavalla was the Indian word used by Ellen Call Long ...

Orchard Pond is currently owned by Ayavalla Land Company.Selected Plantations in Leon County
It contains some of the most diverse

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

s in the

Red Hills Region The Red Hills or Tallahassee Hills is a region of gently rolling hills in the southeastern United States. It is a geomorphic region and an ecoregion. Location The Red Hills physiographic region of northern Florida was defined in 1914 as most of ...

, with flowing

stream A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream ...

s, isolated

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

s, and river

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...

and

swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

Photo gallery

Various views of Orchard Pond's plantation house, a 2-story brick home with 8 support columns, 4 for each floor. Image:Orchard Pond Plantation pr08692.jpg, Image:Orchard Pond Plantation pr08693.jpg,

References

1845 voters
*Paisley, Clifton; ''From Cotton To Quail'', University of Florida Press, c1968. {{coord missing, Florida Plantations in Leon County, Florida Cotton plantations in Florida