Tuscawilla Plantation

Tuscawilla Plantation was a large cotton plantation of 3000 acres (12 km²) located in eastern Leon County, Florida, USA established by George W. Parkhill.

Location

Tuscawilla Plantation bordered the northern tip of the south tract of Chemonie Plantation. Today, the land that was Tuscawilla is now the neighborhoods east of Chaires Cross Road and the north and south sides of Buck Lake Road, much of Baum Road, north and south sides of I-10, including Heartwood Hills, Tung Grove Road, Pennewaw Trace, and Bexhill Lane.

Plantation specifics

The Leon County Florida 1860 Agricultural Census shows that the William Bailey Plantation had the following:
* Improved Land: 1500 acres (6 km²)
* Unimproved Land: 1500 acres (6 km²)
* Cash value of plantation: $36,000
* Cash value of farm implements/machinery: $1500
* Cash value of farm animals: $10,000
* Number of slaves: 172
* Bushels of corn: 3000
* Bales of cotton: 200

The owner

John Parkhill was a physician by trade and a native of Ireland and left Richmond, Virginia on April 15, 1827, with his brother-in-law William Copland in a stagecoach headed south. Parkhill left his wife and 2 year old son behind. Parkhill and Copland headed to Florida to examine and purchase land. Parkhill worked as a postmaster and banker in Tallahassee.

Parkhill joined the Confederate Army August 20, 1861 as a Captain and died at the Seven Days Battle near Gaines' farm and Richmond, Virginia between June 25, 1862 and July 1, 1862.

References

* [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.
* [http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/p/Parkhill,John.html UNC Library]