Casa de Laga Plantation, Leon County, Florida

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: Leon, Florida, United States
Surnames/tags: Slavery Plantations

Plantations Index

History of Casa de Laga Plantation

George Alexander Croom (1821-1890) owned several plantations in Florida. He originally owned Rocky Comfort Plantation in Gadsden County, Florida, but later traded it for Casa de Laga Plantation, originally built by Benjamin Franklin Whitner III (1842-1913).^[1] Casa de Laga Plantation was also known as the Ball and McCabe Place and later as Shidzuoka^[2], and was located near Lake Jackson. George also owned Hilldale, near St Augustine Road in Tallahassee, Florida.

According to Wikipedia^[2], The Leon County Florida 1860 Agricultural Census shows that the Casa de Laga Plantation had the following:

• Improved Land: 800 acres (320 ha)
• Unimproved Land: 428 acres (173 ha)
• Cash value of plantation: $15,000
• Cash value of farm implements/machinery: $500
• Cash value of farm animals: $5850
• Number of slaves: 70
• Bushels of corn: 3,000
• Bales of cotton: 200

"In 1883 Casa de Laga was sold to H. D. McColloch of Wisconsin. McColloch then sold the plantation 6 months later to Professor E. Warren Clark of Narragansett Pier, Rhode Island and Austn M. Purvis of Philadelphia. Clark would eventually turn the plantation into a game preserve. In 1891, a Charles T. Wilson of Cincinnati opened the Lake Jackson Hunting Lodge on the property."^[2] Some time later it was sold again and turned into housing subdivisions, which still exist today (2022).

Under Clark's ownership, the plantation turned hunting preserve was known as Shidzuoka.

Slaves

In the 1860 US Census Slave Schedule, George A Croom was noted as owning 48 slaves in Leon, Florida, United States.^[3]:

1. UNKNOWN, M, 55
2. UNKNOWN, F, 48
3. UNKNOWN, M, 30
4. UNKNOWN, F, 30
5. UNKNOWN, M. 28
6. UNKNOWN, F, 28
7. UNKNOWN, F, 25
8. UNKNOWN, M, 25
9. UNKNOWN, F, 22
10. UNKNOWN, M, 24
11. UNKNOWN, F, 24
12. UNKNOWN, M, 20
13. UNKNOWN, F, 15
14. UNKNOWN, M, 15
15. UNKNOWN, F, 12
16. UNKNOWN, M, 7
17. UNKNOWN, M, 14
18. UNKNOWN, F, 60
19. UNKNOWN, M, 40
20. UNKNOWN, F, 35
21. UNKNOWN, M, 39
22. UNKNOWN, M, 33
23. UNKNOWN, M, 21
24. UNKNOWN, M, 60
25. UNKNOWN, F, 50
26. UNKNOWN, F, 14
27. UNKNOWN, F, 16
28. UNKNOWN, F, 26
29. UNKNOWN, F, 6
30. UNKNOWN, M, 2
31. UNKNOWN, M, 12
32. UNKNOWN, M, 7
33. UNKNOWN, F, 3
34. UNKNOWN, F, 65
35. UNKNOWN, F, 44
36. UNKNOWN, M, 3
37. UNKNOWN, M, 30
38. UNKNOWN, M, 25
39. UNKNOWN, F, 9
40. UNKNOWN, M, 43
41. UNKNOWN, F, 33
42. UNKNOWN, M, 1
43. UNKNOWN, F, 30
44. UNKNOWN, M, 8
45. UNKNOWN, M, 34
46. UNKNOWN, M, 50
47. UNKNOWN, F, 110
48. UNKNOWN, M, 41

Sources

1. ↑ The Crooms, Florida's Antebellum Plantations Part I (http://www.dejaelaine.com/abplantations.html)
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} Casa de Laga Plantation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casa_de_Laga_Plantation)
3. ↑ 1860 Census: "United States Census (Slave Schedule), 1860"
   Citing Page: 26; Line: 12; FHL microfilm: 000803110; Record number: 071659;
   FamilySearch (accessed 7 February 2022)
   FamilySearch Image Image number 00424
   George A Croom in Leon, Florida, United States.

• The Red Hills of Florida, 1528-1865 by Clifton Paisley, published by The University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa and London, copyright 1989