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White Family Photos
-- page 2 --
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:
-
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:
Back to White Family,
Page One
Back to White
Family Photos, Page One
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