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Orchard Pond Plantation

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General location of Orchard Pond Plantation.

Orchard Pond Plantation was a large cotton plantation originally of 8754 acres (35½ km2) developed by Richard Keith Call, attorney, planter and future Territorial Governor, in what is now northwestern Leon County, Florida, USA.

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, that is to be replaced by the Orchard Pond Parkway.[1]

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

According to data in the United States Census of 1860, Call was the third-largest slaveholder in Leon County.[2] His Orchard Pond Plantation eventually was reduced in size down to 2644 acres (11 km²). Call turned over his other plantation, The Grove in Tallahassee, to his daughter. Call began to concentrate on 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. He developed two plantations in the county, one of nearly 9,000 acres, and the other, The Grove, of one square mile.

Call, a Democrat, was Governor of the Florida Territory from 1836 to 1839. He later became a Whig and was appointed as governor again by the winning presidential candidate. The property later passed to Call's daughter Ellen Call Long, who owned it until 1903 when her granddaughter Reinette Long Hunt purchased the property along with The Grove. Hunt would later sell the property to Dr. Tennent Ronalds, a wealthy Scotsman who took an active interest in developing a quail hunting operation.

Orchard Pond was purchased by John H. Phipps, who later used it for his residence. 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.[3]

See: Ayavalla Plantation

Orchard Pond is currently owned by Ayavalla Land Company.[4][5] It contains some of the most diverse wetlands in the Red Hills Region, with flowing streams, isolated lakes, and river floodplain and swamps.

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

References

  1. ^ Ensley, Gerald (March 9, 2015). "Private toll road intended to save nature, wildlife". Tallahassee Democrat. Tallahassee, FL. Archived from the original on 2015-12-04. Retrieved 2015-12-04.
  2. ^ Thomas Blake, "Largest Slaveholders from 1860 Slave Census Schedules", Free pages, Rootsweb
  3. ^ Red Hills Horse Trials [dead link‍]
  4. ^ Farm Subsidy Database
  5. ^ Selected Plantations in Leon County Archived 2007-06-12 at the Wayback Machine
  • 1845 voters
  • Paisley, Clifton; From Cotton To Quail, University of Florida Press, c1968.

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