Orchard Pond Plantation

General location of Orchard Pond Plantation.

Orchard Pond Plantation was a large cotton plantation originally of 8754 acres (35½ km²) located in northwestern Leon County, Florida, USA established by Richard Keith Call.

Location

The exact boundaries of Orchard Pond Plantation are not available. What is known is that Orchard Pond lay between Lake Jackson and the Ochlockonee River to the west. The land is bisected east to west by Orchard Pond Road, a rural county dirt road.

Richard Keith Call gubernatorial portrait

Plantation specifics

The Leon County Florida 1860 Agricultural Census shows that Orchard Pond Plantation had the following:

• Improved Land: 1300 acres (5 km²)
• Unimproved Land: 2544 acres (10 km²)
• Cash value of plantation: $31,000
• Cash value of farm implements/machinery: $300
• Cash value of farm animals: $4000
• Number of slaves: 118
• Bushels of corn: 4500
• Bales of cotton: 167

Orchard Pond Plantation eventually reduced in size down to 2644 acres (11 km²) and Call turned over his other plantation, The Grove, to his daughter. Call began turning his attention to agricultural experiments such as Florida hemp and livestock improvements.

The owners

Richard Keith Call was born October 24, 1792. Call was a friend and assistant of General Andrew Jackson and accompanied him to Florida. His capital was made in the land office and he promoted land in Leon County to northerners. Call, a Democrat, was Governor from 1836 to 1839. He later became a Whig. The Grove, Richard Keith Call's home, is on the National Register.

Orchard Pond would be purchased by John H. Phipps and later become the home of John H. Phipps. Upon his death it became combined homes and interests of Colin Phipps and grandson John E. Phipps who was given 2,100 acres (8.5 km²) on Ox Bottom Road.^[1]

See: Ayavalla Plantation

Orchard Pond is currently owned by Ayavalla Land Company^[2][3] and contains some of the most diverse wetlands the Red Hills Region with flowing streams, isolated lakes, and river floodplain and swamps.

Photo gallery

Various views of Orhard Pond's plantation house, a 2-story brick home with 8 support columns, 4 for each floor.

References

1. ^ Red Hills Horse Trials
2. ^ Farm Subsidy Database
3. ^ Selected Plantations in Leon County

• Largest Slaveholders from 1860 Slave Census Schedules
• 1845 voters
• Paisley, Clifton; From Cotton To Quail, University of Florida Press, c1968.