Southwood 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 ...
of located in southern
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
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
and owned by
George Taliafero Ward
George Taliaferro Ward (1810 – May 5, 1862) was a major cotton planter and politician from Leon County, Florida. He served in the Confederate Army as a colonel during the American Civil War, dying near Williamsburg, Virginia.
Early life and m ...
.
Location
Southwood Plantation bordered the
Francis Eppes Plantation
The Francis Eppes Plantation was a cotton plantation of 1,920 acres (8 km2) situated in east-central Leon County, Florida, United States and established by Francis W. Eppes in 1829.
Location
The Francis Eppes Plantation bordered Evergreen ...
on the north and the
R. G. Shepard Plantation on the south.
Multiple Plantation Statistics
The Leon County Florida 1860 Agricultural Census shows that Southwood Plantation had the following:
Besides Southwood, Ward also maintained his plantations of
Clifford Place and
Waverly. Including Southwood, his holdings totaled of which were improved. Combined, Ward held 160 persons enslaved, produced 7500 bushels of corn and 500 bales of cotton.
Rootsweb Plantations
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Owner
George Taliafero Ward was born in Kentucky
Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...
in 1810 and moved to Tallahassee in 1825. In that same year Ward became Register of the Land Office, succeeding Samuel R. Overton. From 1838 to 1839 Ward served on the Legislative Council from Leon County and attended the Constitutional Convention.
George T. Ward inherited the land now known as Southwood from his father, George W. Ward.
In 1844 Ward married Sarah Jane Chaires of the wealthy Chaires family of eastern Leon County and had at least three daughters, Georgima, Anna, and Mattie as well as brothers. Sarah Jane would inherit other properties that were later incorporated into Southwood.
The original mansion built in 1865 at Southwood was destroyed by fire. In 1939, George Henderson, grandson of Colonel John and Mattie Henderson, moved the family home from downtown Tallahassee to the old foundation of the original Southwood house.
References
*Special Collections, Robert Manning Strozier Library, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida
1845 voters list
*Paisley, Clifton; ''From Cotton To Quail'', University of Florida Press, c1968.
*Florida Memory Project
FSU thesis
{{coord missing, Florida
Plantations in Leon County, Florida
Cotton plantations in Florida
Burned houses in the United States