Estate of Daniel Ferguson and Esther Peake St. Landry Parish, Louisiana 1827 Submitted by: Bob Ferguson ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** Here is some informatuion about slaves held by my great-great-great grandfather and his wife, with some background information that may provide some clues for researchers, Daniel Ferguson and his wife Esther Peake were married in Chester County South Carolina about 1790-91. By 1810 they were living in Bayou Chicot, Louisiana, where Daniel had a sizable farm. Bayou Chicot was at that time part of St. Landry Parish. It is now in Evangeline Parish. Esther died in 1824, and on July 19, 1827, after a family committee met (as customary under Louisiana law back then) and made recommendations, there were legal documents drawn up by St. Landry Parish Probate Judge George King in Opelousas, Louisiana. The documents included an inventory of the estate of Daniel (who was still living) and Esther, his late wife. Among the inventory were the following named slaves held by Daniel in 1827 in Bayou Chicot and their approximate ages: Joe - about 35 Isham - about 40 Godfrey - about 22 Jef - about 19 (The handwriting is so curlicued that this name could conceivably be Zep of Zef, but comparing it to the writing of other words, Jef seemed most likely) Francis (male) - about 16 Isaac - about 12 Winny (female) - about 50 Dicy (female) about 25 Flora - about 20 Elisa - about 8 Rose - about 12 "little Winny" - about 9 Lewis - about 12 Comments and Notes: I do not know for sure if any of the slaves - older than 17 in 1827 - were brought to Louisiana from South Carolina, but it seems possible. Daniel Ferguson would have been 36 in 1810 when he and his already-sizable family moved to Louisiana. Daniel left Bayou Chicot in 1830, lived for a short time in Arkansas, then moved to Monroe, Louisiana and eventually died there in 1840. I do not know if he took any of the slaves with him when he left Bayou Chicot, or if any of them remained with other members of his family, such as - his sons Austin, Turner or Ransom, Turner and Austin later moved to near Monroe and operated large farms and owned slaves and Ransom remained in Bayou Chicot. The slaves owned by Turner and Austin were moved to Texas - probably somewhere near San Antonio or Seguin - in 1853 with the family of Adeline Lemarcus Fenner Ferguson, who was widowed by both Turner and Austin. The only slave who went to Texas whose name I know is Wash Lee, who according to family legend grew up with the older Ferguson boys, taught the younger ones to hunt and fish and went off to war with four of the Fergusons in the 4th Texas Cavalry (also called 4th Texas Mounted Volunteers)to cook for them and help them set up camp. After the war and Emancipation, Wash Lee stayed with the family for the rest of his life. I do not know his birth or death dates.