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Egypt Plantation -- First the pictures, then, the story

This is an interesting photo.  The original is barely legible.  I had a professional photography shop enhance the original as best they could and this is the best version.  My mother told me that her grandmother -- Nanny -- told her this was her father at their home, Egypt Plantation, East Feliciana Parish, LA.

 

 

Photo Updated

As of May 10, 2021, I have two more Images of Egypt Plantation.  The first is an enhanced version of the photo above that shows much greater detail.  The second is a sketch of "Old Egypt Plantation" that I found on an Ancestry.com family tree.

 

The sketch of Egypt Plantation was accompanied by this comment:

The old "Egypt" Plantation (ancestral home of the White's founded on Clear Creek by his father John White) was located in the northern part of East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, just a few miles from the Mississippi state line. For many years it was the home of "Uncle Eli and Aunt Hettie" White. They were a remarkable couple in a way. They married when Uncle Eli was eighteen and Aunt Hettie (Mahetabel Hannah Harrell - d/o Levi Harrell/Elizabeth Brian) was just thirteen. They had seventeen children and lived to see them all grown and married except three who died in early life. The wonderful energy, thrift and perserverance of these good people was commendable, a principle which was instilled in their children. They lived a quiet, moderate, Christian life and died at a ripe old age. The life they lived set a good example to coming posterity. It is like a monument that lives after them since they are gone; a monument far more to be desired than temples of stone or castles of brick that in time will crumble and mingle with the dust.

The limbs, branches and twigs of Uncle Eli and Aunt Hettie you will find in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. No matter where you find them, they are energetic, thrifty people...good law abiding citizens, helpers in building up the schools and churches, and highly respected by the community in which they live.

For many years, during the life of Uncle Eli and Aunt Hettie, it was the custom to have a family reunion at old "Egypt" once a year on the Fourth of July. It was not only to enjoy the social feature of the occasion but to celebrate their American independence and to celebrate Uncle Eli's birthday, and to wish him many more years of a good and useful life. They would make a social picnic of it and everyone would return to their homes taking many plesant memories with them. (NOTE: see "A Remarkable Family"/The Re-Union at Eli White's - 4 July 1879, published by Southern Watchman, Clinton, LA)


(Source: "Letter of Dedication", written by family friend, Ab Crawford, Centerville, MS; Rec'd August, 1995)

Egypt Plantation

One of our family stories deals with the “Egypt Plantation.”  John White, Momma Richardson’s great-great-grandfather (Annie Lee Dudding Richardson), moved from South Carolina to East Feliciana Parish around 1806, and his home place was called “Egypt.”

My mother wrote in her memory book that Momma Richardson was “born April 11, 1899 in East Feliciana Parish near Clinton, Louisiana, on ‘the old home place’ called ‘The Egypt Place’ as the original settler (John White, I think) preserved seed for crops and many people came ‘down to Egypt’ for grain seed.”

Family lore says John White and his son Eli were seed dealers.  They saved seed from their own crops and seed they obtained from other farmers.  Seed was important because there were no commercial sources of seed -- farmers had to set aside part of their harvest as seed for next year's crops. In the Bible, Egypt served as a source of seed and shelter for the nomadic tribes of the Middle East.  When the semi-settled nomadic tribes were hit with drought or crop failure, they could travel to Egypt and purchase or barter for seed.  According to our family story, farmers from around the area would come to the White family plantation if they needed seed -- hence the name Egypt Plantation.

There was a prominent and very large “Egypt Plantation” in the 1800s in West Feliciana Parish. Now known as Rosale Plantation, it has a long and storied history, but it was not our family’s home. In the document nominating the Egypt/Rosale Plantation for listing on the National Register, it says, “What would one day become Rosale Plantation began as a Spanish land grant to Alexander Stirling in 1795. Stirling called his plantation Egypt.” Over the years it was owned by the Stirling family and then the Barrow family. (If you want to know more about that Egypt Plantation and its place in history, do a Google search for the “West Florida Rebellion.”

Our White family “Egypt”was not nearly as grand as the Egypt Plantation that became Rosale. The photo on this page of my great-grandmother’s father, mother, two little girls, and a hound dog outside their home at Egypt shows that they look more like hardscrabble farmers than the wealthy land barons of the West Feliciana Parish "Egypt Plantation".

Here are four different references that describe the history and location of the White family “Egypt:”

1.      John (White) was a blacksmith from Timmonsville, S. C. He immigrated from Darlington District, S. C. to the Eighth Ward, East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana in 1806, where he founded the ancestral home of the Whites on the (headwaters) of Clear Creek. ("East Feliciana Past and Present" by H. Skipwith, 1892, Pages 53-54)

2.      The old "Egypt" Plantation was located in the northern part of East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, just a few miles from the Mississippi state line. (Source: Copy of "Dedication" written by Ab Crawford, Centerville, MS...friend of the family - Rec'd August 1995)

3.      This plantation was built on the highest hill in East Feliciana Parish in 1820. It was near Union School but burned in November, 1925. The place belongs to the Phares children of Woodland, LA., now. (Source: "Letter from Mrs. J. A. Giles", Beaumont, TX; Rec'd August, 1995) 

4.      “Records show that on 19 Nov 1895, John Alexandria White, sold to W. H. Caulfield, seventy-five acres of Eli White homestead, better known as ‘Egypt.’ On 19 Nov 1895, Mrs. Nina A. Dudding nee White, assisted by her husband, Maurice Dudding, bought the seventy five acres, being a portion of the Eli White homestead. (Source: Notes entitled ‘Egypt’, by Ida Lee Ford, Alexandria, LA - 27 July 1973; Rec'd August 1995).”

So, our family’s “Egypt Plantation” was founded by John White who came from South Carolina in 1806. Our great-grandparents, Maurice and Dolly Dudding, bought 75 acres of it (which might have been all of it) from Dolly’s parents (or an intermediary) in 1895. Momma Richardson was born there in 1899.

The people in this photo

Who are the people in this photo?  My mother told me that her grandmother -- Nanny -- told her this was her father at their home, Egypt Plantation, East Feliciana Parish, LA.

This is my attempt to determine who these people are.

  •  Nanny's father was John A. White (b. 1836, d. 1910).  Her mother was Melissa Anastacia Neyland (b. 1839, d. 1873).

  •  John A. White and Melissa Anastacia Neyland had seven children:

    •  Charlie E., b. Oct 1857

    •  Eli Matthew, b. Dec 1859

    •  John H., b. Jan 1862

    •  Cary Canuna, b. Jul 1864

    •  Antoinette, b. Aug 1866

    •  Mary Almena, b. Feb 1870

    •  Nina Anna Statia, b. Nov 1872 (my great-grandmother)

  •  Melissa Neyland White died in 1873 after which John White married Sarah Elizabeth Grundy (b. 5 Jan 1852, Amite County, MS; d. 25 Jun 1931, East Feliciana Parish, LA).  John White and Sarah Grundy had four children:

    •  Billington Grundy, b. Jul 1876

    •  Harlie Hudson, b. Feb 1878

    •  Dulo, b. Feb 1882

    •  Roy, b. Dec 1891

  •  I do not know when John White and his second wife were married, however, looking at the date his first wife died (Dec 1873) and the date the first child by his second wife was born (July 1876), I conclude that John White and his second wife were married at least by the fall of 1875.

NOW -- look at the photo.  There are five people in the photo (and one dog):

  •  The couple with two little girls -- four people.

  •  One person on the porch of the house.  Look at this cropped version of the photo.  In the center of the photo is the porch of the house.  The main section of the house is on the right, there's an open space, then the kitchen on the left.  Leaning against the wall of the kitchen is a woman in a long skirt.

  •  John White and his first wife had seven children,  three boys and four girls.

  •  John White and his second wife had four sons.

  •  The children in this photo are girls who appear to be as young as 2 years and as old as 5-6 years.

  •  This could be  John White and Melissa Neyland, his first wife, with two of their daughters.  OR -- this could be John White and his second wife with two of the daughters born to the first wife.

  •  Another interesting point is this:  The 1880 federal census lists the White household as consisting of: 
     

    Name

    Relation

    DOB

    Age

     

    White, John A.

    Father

    Not listed

    44

     

    , Sarah E.

    Mother

    Not listed

    28

    Second wife

    , Charlie E.

    Son

    Not listed

    23

     

    , E. M.

    Son

    Not listed

    20

     

    , J. H.

    Son

    Not listed

    18

     

    , Carrie B.

    Dau

    Not listed

    15

     

    , Antoinette

    Dau

    Not listed

    18

    Nettie

    , Mary A.

    Dau

    Not listed

    10

     

    , Nina A.

    Dau

    Not listed

    7

    Nanny, my great-grandmother

    , B. G????

    Son

    Not listed

    3

    Can’t read second name – could be “B. Grundy”

    , Harlie H.

    Son

    Not listed

    2

     

    Williams, Helen

    Mother

    Not listed

    30

    Servant; listed below the White’s; don’t know if she is their servant but address is the same.

    , Emma

    Her dau

    Not listed

    3

    Daughter of Helen Williams, servant.

     

  • The woman on the porch probably is Helen Williams, the family's servant.

Conclusion: 

  • I don't know when the photo was taken; here's my attempt at dating the photo.
     

    •  The two children are girls, the younger of the two (on the left)  appears to be 2-3 years old while the older of the two (on the right) appears to be 4-6 years old.
       

    •  The oldest White daughter was born in July 1864, the youngest White daughter was born in December 1872.
       

    •   If the younger child in this photo is the youngest daughter, and if she is 2-3 years old in this photo, that places the photo in 1874-1875.
       

    •  If the older child in this photo (right) is  the oldest daughter, and if she is 4-6 years old in the photo, that places the photo in 1868 - 1870.
       

    •  Of course, the two girls could be any two of the four daughters.
       

    •   Note, too, the absence of leaves on the trees in the photo, and, everyone is wearing long-sleeved clothing -- it's winter, likely November - February.
       

    •  Thus, my best guess as to the date of this photo is November -February 1868 - 1875.

 

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