Pine Hill Plantation

Pine Hill Plantation was a large cotton plantation of 3270 acres (13 km²) established between 1829 and 1832 in northern Leon County, Florida, United States touching the southeast arm of Lake Iamonia established by Dr. Edward Bradford.

Location

Adjacent plantations:
*Oaklawn Plantation tn the northeast and southwest
*Horseshoe Plantation to the north.

Pine Hill's plantation house was located north of Oaklawn Plantation home on Thomasville Road. Today the developments of Killearn Lakes Plantation, large private homes, and several commercial interests are on Pine Hill. The area is known as Bradfordville.

Plantation specifics

The Leon County Florida 1860 Agricultural Census shows that Pine Hill Plantation had the following:
* Improved Land: 1500 acres (6 km²)
* Unimproved Land: 1770 acres (7 km²)
* Cash value of plantation: $28,000
* Cash value of farm implements/machinery: $1500
* Cash value of farm animals: $5000
* Number of slaves: 130
* Bushels of corn: 4000
* Bales of cotton: 225

During March of 1857 the "black measles" hit Pine Hill killing several people.

Pine Hill was situated amid rolling hills and green forests, with little streams that fed one of the nearby lakes. The plantation had a large stately mansion painted green and white and which stood in a grove of pines. The mansion was surrounded by gardens of roses and a variety of shrubbery as well as lawns. Thoroughbred Kentucky horses, cows from Alderney and Guernsey grazed on some land. To the east of the mansion were the slaves' cabins. The plantation also had a 24 foot, one room business office with several windows and a fireplace used by Dr. Bradford. This office also served as a hospital for the sick and wounded Confederate soldiers.

The owner

Dr. Edward Bradford was born August 2, 1798 and was a descendant of Oliver Cromwell. As a planter, Edward, along with his brothers, is said to have been among the more progressive agriculturalists and more sincerely paternalistic (in the best sense) slave masters. Edward Bradford took turns with his brothers, Richard, Thomas and William in hosting an annual holiday celebration, for the slave populations of Water Oak Plantation, Walnut Hill Plantation, and Edgewood Plantation every 4th of July. This included a massive barbecue and, when held at Water Oak, fishing parties on Lake Iamonia. No whites were allowed to partake of or interfere with these festivities. Records from 1840-1866 show transactions with commission merchants and New York cotton brokers evidence that a prosperous business was transacted at Pine Hill. [http://www.fsu.edu/~speccoll/bradford/bradcoll.htm]

Dr. Edward Bradford was a signee to the Southern Rights Association of Centreville District on secession from the Union for "the protection of Southern interests and the vindication of Southern rights to preserve and protect the Constitution in its purity as the basis of Federal compact, and the only foundation on which the Union of the States was made, or on which that Union should be preserved." [http://fulltext.fcla.edu/DLData/CF/FullText/fhq_4_2.txt]

Dr. Edward Bradford would go on to establish Horseshoe Plantation east of Lake Iamonia. Edward Bradford died in 1871. This area of plantations would later be known as Bradfordville.

References

* [http://www.bradfordgenealogy.org/CROWELLGENEALOGY.html Bradford Genealogy (Crowell)]
* [http://delta.ulib.org/ulib/data/moa/416/2e3/095/88d/9bd/5/data.txt Through Some Eventful Years]
* [http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/fl/leon/census/1860agri.txt Rootsweb Plantations]
* [http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~ajac/flleon.htm Largest Slaveholders from 1860 Slave Census Schedules]
*Paisley, Clifton; "From Cotton To Quail", University of Florida Press, c1968.