Southwood Plantation

Southwood Plantation was a large cotton plantation of 5000 acres (20 km²) located in southern Leon County, Florida, United States and owned by George T. Ward.

Location

Southwood Plantation bordered the Francis Eppes Plantation 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 4200 acres (17 km²) of which 2500 (10 km²) were improved. Combined, Ward had 160 slaves, produced 7500 bushels of corn and 500 bales of cotton.

Owner

George Taliafero Ward was born in Kentucky in 1810 and moved to Tallahassee in 1825. In that same year Ward became Register of the Land Office, succeeding Samuel R. Overton. From 1838-1839 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.

In 1845, Ward voted in the First Florida Election [http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/fl/leon/xmisc/1845votr.txt]

In 1852, Ward ran an unsuccessful campaign for governor on the Whig ticket.

A duel took place between George Ward and a man named Alston just outside Tallahassee. Prince Achille Murat (Prince Murat) was Ward's second and Dr. Randolph of Tallahassee was the attending physician. Mr. Alston hit George Ward first, breaking his leg. Ward hit the ground as Alston walked toward him, still shooting. One shot broke George Ward's arm. When Alston got directly over Ward, Alston had no shots left while Ward still had one. Alston evidently then folded his arms and declared, "I believe he will kill me after all." Ward fired his last shot and missed. Ward demanded more guns and insisted that Murat prop him up so that the contest might continue, but he fainted before his instructions could be carried out. It was later agreed to continue the duel, but before Ward recovered sufficiently to fight, Alston was killed in another duel.

In April 1861 Ward ran for and was elected to the Confederate Provisional Congress. Later in the same year he was elected colonel of the Second Florida Infantry Regiment. In 1862 Ward's unit was to Virginia where Ward was shot and killed on May 5, 1862 at the Battle of Williamsburg. In 1862 the Ward family was presented the Confederate Battleflag. Fort Ward at St. Marks, Florida was named after George T. Ward. [http://pone.com/ts/rw001.htm]

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
* [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 Sschedules]
* [http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/fl/leon/xmisc/1845votr.txt 1845 voters list]
*Paisley, Clifton; "From Cotton To Quail", University of Florida Press, c1968.
*Florida Memory Project
* [http://etd.lib.fsu.edu/theses/available/etd-04092004-173344/unrestricted/02_jm_thesis.pdf FSU thesis]