First-hand Account of Union Parish Louisiana Plantation Operations During the WBTS Submitted for the Union Parish Louisiana USGenWeb Archives by Shawn Martin, 12/2006 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ ================================================================================= ================================================================================== 1858 - 1868 Succession of Louisiana Lt. Governor William Wood Farmer, Dec'd., Union Parish Louisiana Union Parish Louisiana Succession Book F, pp. 615 - 638 ================================================================================== ================================================================================== BACKGROUND INFORMATION: William Wood Farmer was born on 27 April 1813 near what is now the Village of Downsville, in southern Union Parish Louisiana. At that time, this region was the Piney Hills along Bayou D'Arbonne in Ouachita Parish Louisiana. Farmer was the son of early Union Parish resident Mills Farmer and his wife, Susannah Wood. Mills Farmer was a soldier in the Louisiana militia during the War of 1812. He had moved to the Piney Hills near Bayou D'Arbonne about 1812. This makes the elder Farmer the second earliest known permanent white settler of what is now Union Parish (John Honeycutt, Sr. was the earliest one). At a relatively young age (in his early twenties), William W. Farmer entered politics. He served as a justice of the peace for Ouachita Parish prior to the creation of Union Parish in March 1839. The Union Parish citizens elected him to the Louisiana House of Representatives and the Louisiana Senate during the 1840s. He quickly became a favorite of the Democratic Party. He was the on the gubernatorial ticket of Paul O. Hebert as the candidate for Lieutenant Governor in the 1852 election, and they were elected to office. His popularity is apparent in the 1853 Louisiana Senate election for U. S. Senator. He polled the largest number of votes behind the eventual Senator, John Slidell. He was undoubtedly slated to become the next Democratic candidate for Governor of Louisiana. A surveyor, Farmer had gone to New Orleans to receive payment from the United States Land Office. He was supposed to return to Baton Rouge a week earlier, but some other duty delayed him, and then his boat broke down. The next day he caught yellow fever, then fairly common in New Orleans. Farmer's death left his plantation and other possessions tied up in the courts until 1868. Farmer lived in the southern portion of Union Parish, near Downsville. Although Farmer his land lay in both Union and Ouachita Parishes, he considered Union Parish his home and his primary plantation residence lay in Union. His plantation was one of the largest in the parish. The following history of the plantation of Lt. Gov. W. W. Farmer was made to the Union Parish court by Col. Charles H. Morrison after the war. Morrison had served as the commanding officer of the 31st Regiment Louisiana Infantry during the war. One of his subordinates was William Wood Farmer, captain of Company H of the 31st Regiment. Captain Farmer was the son of Lt. Gov. William W. Farmer. The younger Farmer and Morrison operated a legal practice in Monroe in the postwar period. In May 1875, Colonel Morrison married Captain Farmer's sister, Fannie Farmer. ================================================================================== ================================================================================== Note: the spelling of the original document has been retained ================================================================================== ================================================================================== The Petition of Charles H. Morrison, a resident of the Parish of Ouachita, State of Louisiana respectfully represents that on the 10th day of January 1858 he was dully appointed Administrator of the Estate of William Wood Farmer, a resident at the time of his death of your Parish of Union...that the deceased was largely in debt...Your petitioner retains the administration of the Plantation and slaves in the Parish of Ouachita and continued to work the same in the manor customary with the cotton planters of the State until the late War between the Northern and Southern States prevented the production of any crops from which my income could be devised. To this end the crops of corn and other forage produced on the Plantation will be limited to the amount required for the consumption of the slaves and work stock employed thereon and the remainder of the land, about 2/3 of the whole cultivation was planted in cotton, at that time and still the great staple of this section, that all crops of cotton grown on the Plantation except the crop of the year 1861 more regularly shipped to reliable cotton factors and commission merchants in the City of New Orleans by whom they were regularly sold and the next proceeds of the same accounted for to petitioner, that the cotton crops on hand at the death of Mr. Farmer and which forms and item on the inventory made in Ouachita Parish was also shipped in the same manor to New Orleans, that the cotton crops of the year 1861 the last raised on the Plantation could not be shipped and sold owing to the destruction of all business and commerce with the North States of the Union, and with foreign nations caused by the trouble was then raging and by the blockades of the ports of the Southern states enforced by the United States Navy and that there was no demand for this cotton at home except at rates so low that it was useless to sale. There being no buyers except a few speculators that consequently the cotton corps of 1861 were kept on hand on the Plantation until the latter part of the year 1863, that the State of Louisiana having attempted to secede from the Union of the United States became an active participant in the late War and her citizens genuinely acknowledged this allegiance to the Confederacy formed by the seceded States. One result of this was the imminent diffusion and circulation of a currency called Confederate money and State money being Treasury Notes issued by the De Facto Governments of the Confederate States and State of Louisiana. During the years 1862 and 1863, there was no other currency in use in this section except this Confederate money and State money which during that time possessed no value as a money to retain having only a temporary value for immediate use which declined rapidly from about 50 cents per dollar to about 7 cents in the fall of 1863. That at time the Army and Navy of the United States held control of the whole length of the Mississippi River and that large numbers of Negros were constantly make their escape from slavery and fleeing to the protection of the U. S. Forces. That in order to save the slave property of the Estate which was the largest and most valuable property belonging thereto and also the work stock mules and the crop of 1861. Petitioners sold to Mrs. Permelia A. Farmer the entire crop of cotton on hand and all its mules, ox and wagons and other personal property on hand... At the time the aforesaid agreement was made with Mrs. Farmer that is in the month of September 1863. The condition of the country rendered the ownership of slaves property exceeding by provisions if the slaves remained in Louisiana and their support burdensome. But the State of Texas adjoining was free from invasion and slave property in that State were considered safe from loss. The State abounded in cheap provisions and the labor of Slaves and the use of teams promised to be profitable. Then in the middle of the war in view of this condition of affairs therefore, Petitioner placed all the slaves belonging to the Estate in the case and charged of Mrs. Farmer to be removed to the State of Texas and kept there until the close of the War. There Residing, she was to feed and clothe the slaves and in return for this and her care and attention to them, she was allowed to use and employ them in any proper business for her own use and benefit without any charges for hire. This removal was affected without the loss of a single slave and after arriving in Texas they were comfortably and judiciously employed by Mrs. Farmer in planting and in hauling for the public for her use and benefit. Upon the summer of the fevers in May 1865 all the slaves were emancipated in common with all the other slaves in the Southern States and they are therefore a total loss for the Estate. Petitioner here recurring to his allegations on page 1 states farther that in order to carry on the planting operations of the Estate, he was compelled to purchase provisions, clothing, medicine implementations and many other articles necessary for use on a Plantation and which were consumed and used on the Plantation of this Estate. Petitioner was also compelled to hire overseers, a horse, 1 negro and he paid to supply them with provisions. On the whole, petitioner as Administrator managed the Plantation and slaves of the Estate as all prudent planters, managed this Plantation and slaves and with fully as much success as they said with. During the years in which Petitioner actually managed the business of the Estate in the amount of finances of the Estate to meet expenses, he freely used his own credit and funds in outlays for the use of the same and to such an extent as to leave due petitioner a large balance as will hereinafter appear. In proof of the success of petitioner’s management, he refers to the fact that not withstanding the emancipation of all the valuable slaves of the Estate the same will still be solvent after payment of the debts against the same. And had the slaves not been emancipated a handsome property would have remained to the heirs of the deceased. These heirs were two in number William M. Farmer (whose name has since been changed to William W. Wood) and Miss Francis A. Farmer (who now signs herself Fannie Farmer). On the 18th day of November 1856, these heirs each obtained a Judgment against the Estate of their father for the sum of Thirty three hundred and fifty six & 22/100 dollars with five per cent per annum interest thereon from the 27th day of October 1854 as will appear by reference to the copy of the aforesaid judgment of Mrs. P. A. Farmer hereto annexed. These heirs have both been given Collegiate Educations and have been educated and supported out of their own funds being payments made to them by your petitioner as administrator on their separate judgments, against the Estate separate accounts of these payments on hereafter made as a part hereof and vouchers to the same filed herewith..... Charles H. Morrison Administrator ##################################################################