Woodland Plantation, Jefferson County, Mississippi

Date: 1837 [unknown]
Location: Church Hill, Jefferson, Mississippi, United States
Surnames/tags: Wood Slaves

Contents 1 Introduction 2 Owners 3 Narrative 3.1 Possible other owners 4 Slaves 5 Sources

Introduction

--Under Construction 16 May 2023---

See: Wikipedia Woodland Plantation

Owners

• James Gillam Wood (1770-1843)
• Robert Young Wood (1809-1882)

Narrative

1977: Located approximately four miles south of the community of Church Hill, Mississippi, Woodland Plantation is a 230-acre tract of which less than 100 acres is cultivable because of the hilly terrain typical of the region.

The home of a member of the locally prominent Wood family for the three decades preceding the close of the Civil War, the property was relinquished during Reconstruction and for many years thereafter was subject to conditions which typified the region's ruined plantation economy, including physical deterioration and mortgage foreclosure. Derelict by the time of the Great Depression, Woodland Plantation in 1936 became one of the early examples of a major residential restoration in the Natchez area. The plantation house itself is of intrinsic interest as a basically vernacular form incorporating dimensions and detailing normally associated with more stylistic architectural expressions. The history of the Wood family in Church Hill began in 1812 with the arrival of Colonel James G. Wood (1770-1845), his wife, and children to join the "Maryland Settlement," as the colony of emigrants from the tidewater of that state came to be known. The Wood home was Auburn Hall (nonextant), and family connections resided in the neighborhood at Oakwood (demolished ca. 1965) and The Cedars. Colonel Wood was appointed judge of probate for Jefferson County and by the time of his death had accumulated a sizable estate, one of the executors of which was his son, Robert Young Wood, born in Prince George's County, Maryland, in 1809. In 1837, for $18,000, Robert Y. Wood purchased a 224-acre tract several miles south of Church Hill from Abner E. Green (Deed Book D:37). (With the exception of six acres which were added in 1858, the purchase constituted Woodland Plantation as it exists today.) In 1839, Robert Y. Wood was married to Virginia P. Smith, born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, in 1819. Local tradition attributes the building of the Woodland Plantation residence to Robert Y. Wood in the two-year interim between the purchase of his property and his marriage, a construction date consistent with the physical evidence. Also, beginning in 1840, the couple's family Bible recorded the births of their children over the years "at Woodland." The configuration of the house is that of a cottage, with chimney shafts penetrating the side eaves of the gable roof which, on the front, shelters an incised or undercut gallery. The unpretentious form is thus an effective foil for the exterior academic features (Greek and Gothic Revival) applied to it, and also seems deceptively out of scale with the imposing spatial volumes it contains. Robert Y. Wood was forced to sell Woodland Plantation immediately after the Civil War for $10,000, less than $3500 of which was paid in cash, with the balance unsecured (Deed Book L:312). He and his wife thereafter lived at Woodbourne, also in Church Hill, until both died in 1882, but the aftermath of war continued to be felt in connection with the Woodland estate as late as 1906. In that year, Sandy Wood, son of Robert Y. Wood, petitioned the U.S. Court of Claims to award the compensation unsuccessfully sought by his father "for property destroyed and taken by the Federal army during the late Civil War." (Chancery Clerk, Jefferson County, Mississippi. Document 1215: "In Re Estate of Robert Y. Wood deceased: Petition for Letters of Administration. Filed 6/22/06.") Whether or not the claim was awarded was not indicated. In 1879, Woodland Plantation came into the possession of the trustees of Jefferson College, a preparatory school at Washington, Mississippi, which was chartered by the territorial legislature in 1802 as the first educational institution in Mississippi. During the years of Reconstruction, Jefferson College also acted as a lending institution for the surrounding region, and Woodland Plantation was conveyed to the college when its owner, Mary A. Foster Lloyd, defaulted on a loan of $2500 (Deed Book HH:588). In 1889 the college sold the property for $1800 to Mary A. Foster Lloyd's mother, Ann L. Foster (Deed Book QQ:184), who then held title for the second time, the first being in 1866 when she bought Woodland Plantation from Robert Y. Wood. After passing through a series of ownerships, the estate was in ruinous condition when purchased in 1936 by Philip Heath Marble (1890-1965), an engineer and executive with Gulf Oil Corporation in Texas. Marble and his wife undertook a complete restoration of the property, including additions to the house (which was furnished in period pieces) and the construction of a number of service buildings. Their daughter, Phyllis Marble Thomas, sold the property to the present owner in 1974. In light of accepted preservation practice, certain features of the Marble restoration of the Woodland Plantation residence now appear debatable (the loss of the earlier kitchen wing, for example, and the addition of dormer windows to the main block). Executed before the present philosophy became current, however, the project remains a valid preservation document of its own time, one which made the survival of Robert Y. Wood's Woodland Plantation possible.

Possible other owners

https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MS/78001605.pdf From Geographic data: Beginning near the red oak which is the South West corner of the Bolton tract ...to William Fauvers line, ... to said Fauvers corner... being the same tract of land sold by Samuel Dunbar and wife to James A. McPherson (?) ... Also all of that other tract of land adjoining the former, bounded ...corner of the Bolton and Fletcher tracts,... boundary line between the tract now conveyed and that portion of the Bolton tract which was assigned by Commissioners to Gabriel Dunbar as his portion of the real estate of Wm. Dunbar, deceased ... the beginning point of a tract of land sold to said McPheeters by Doyle and wife ...the Northern boundary of the Fletcher tract. The tract of land last mentioned which was assigned by Commissioners to Maria McPheeters as one of the heirs of William Dunbar out of the Bolton tract, containing 157 acres, more or less, including 3.28 acres sold and conveyed by said Doyle and wife to said McPheeters, to-wit: 154 acres assigned to Maria McPheeters and 3.28 acres conveyed by Doyle and wife. ... Also that other tract of land, being the same purchased by said McPheeters of Joseph Dunbar and wife, ... the last mentioned tract being part of the Patterson tract, purchased of said Joseph Dunbar and wife by said McPheeters, and the said tracts of land herein conveyed being the same described in deed of conveyance from J. A, McPheeters to A. Green of date January 7th., 1836. ... Also a certain other parcel of land adjoining the above mentioned tract or tracts, described more particularly in a certain deed of conveyance dated March 1st., 1858, from James Archer and wife to said Robert Y. Wood, and containing 6 acres, more or less. Note: The deed to the 6 acre tract, from Archer and wife to Wood, appears never to have been recorded.

Slaves

Sources

See Also:

• National Register of Historic places: https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MS/78001605.pdf