The Audobon and Oakley Plantation, West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana File prepared for the Archives by Jan McCoy. ------------------------------------------------------------------ ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** ------------------------------------------------------------------ From Old Louisiana Plantation Homes and Family Trees by Herman de Bachelle' Seebold, M.D. Vol. 1. THE AUDUBON, OAKLEY PLANTATION, BUILT IN 1808, WEST FELICIANA PARISH,LOUISIANA With St.Francisville as a starting point,one drives on the main highway in the direction of Baton Rouge for about three miles when a country road on the left known as the Oakley Road is reached. Turning into this gravelled byway and driving about two miles, one notes the sign on the right bearing the word OAKLEY. Entering this wooded driveway one continues on through a thickly wooded area of virgin forest until at last Oakley is reached. No place in the State of Louisiana is richer in memories of the naturalist John J. Audobon and his charming devoted wife than is this lovely old plantation as Oakley or The Matthew Place. It is now the home of Miss Lucy Matthews. It is a large plantation and there are many negroes on it which provide the usual amount of amusement and activity, besides keeping the plantation and home in good condition. Oakley plantation manor had been completed when Ruffin Gray,its owners, feeling his health falling returned with his wife to the Homochito country from whence he came in the hope of regaining his health in the hills of Mississippi. He died and later his widow, the beautiful Mrs.Lucy Alston Gray, married James Pirrie, a Scotch gentleman of means. The plantation remains in the family until the present time. Oakley is hidden away and as secluded as it was the day that Mrs.James Pirrie returned from New Oleans accompanied by John J. Audubon who was to be the teacher for her daughter. The beautiful vivacious Eliza would have the benefit of his instruction in draw- ing and painting as well as the other arts of which he was master. Mrs. Pirrie met Audubon while on a visiting and shopping tour in the Crescent City. She found the portrayer of the birds in a greatly depressed state and almost penniless. After talking with him for a few moments she discovered him to be a polished and educated gentleman, and decided that he was just the teacher she was looking for to instruct her daughter. After much persuasion Mrs. Pirrie finally induced Aubudon to accompany her to the plantation on the promise that he was to devote only half of his time to teaching her daughter and that he might have the other half of the day free to use as he wished. Mrs. Pirrie accompanied by Audubon and retinue of servants returned by boat from New Orleans. The naturalist was overjoyed to find Oakley ideal for his purpose. He could wander leisurley through the woodland countryside in search of birds. The naturalist at once realized that this was the opportunity that all his life he had been waiting for. Here in this spacious unpretentious plantation home, this man who was devoting his life to enlightening others, spent many months of unalloyed happiness. Here undisturbed he pursued his work uninterrupted and with a wealth of choicest material at his very doorstep. Situated as is quaint old Oakley in the midst of a wide tangle of both white and purple wisteria whose twining vines a hundred feet long and four inches thick, hang in graceful festoons from the branches of a grove of magnolia trees, the woods of this section of Louisiana is a Paradise that one has to see to fully appreciate. Wild honeysuckle, wild jasmine and other fragrant vine and plant that perfume the air make the woodland a truly delightful spot. Audubon's diary of these happy days, yellow with age, is replete with charming notation and none is more pleasing than the tribute to his idolized pupil "My beautiful Miss Pirrie of Oakley". This ancient plantation and home is now, and for many years, has been known as the "Matthew Place", so named after its present owners who are descendants of the original family. The name OAKLEY hangs as it has always done at the entrance to the spacious grounds. The old manor is dignified and almost stately in its unpretentiousness and the simplicity of its planning. Neverthe- less it is quite charming in its individuality of design which blends so perfectly with its woodland setting. On the way to the house through the woods one follows a narrow stream with the usual growth of plants indigenous to narrow waterways. Rushes, wild iris, and pitcher-plants are noted along the water's edge. The woodland is a veritable birds' paradise. Feathered songsters enliven the entire area- red birds, wrens, mocking birds, etc, all happy in their freedom. Long leaf pines mingle with the lighter greens of the tropical plants and create beautiful color effects. The fragrance of woodland balm pervades the place, and mocking birds mimicking the flute-like notes of the oriole and the call of the Bobwhite makes one envision the happiness of Audubon in this environment. At last, from behind thick veils of greenery the house appears statley and serene. Attractive masonry pillars support the wide gateway, with smaller gates to either side joining the fence enclosure. The entire ensemble is one of restful seclusion, charming and unique for only in spots does color really appear, so blended together are the tones of the place. Oakley is without doubt, one of the most artistic plantation houses in the entire South. With its latticed enclosed porches of great width it possesses a charm that is lacking in many of the great columed houses. These latticed verandas make the house a most intriguing one. The high basement of brick construction supports two top floors and high attic, making the house a large one and assuredly a most comfor- table country home. A wide entrance stairway leads to the floor above. Like most of the very early plantation houses Oakley has no central hall, instead a large room serves both as hall and library with a larger one adjoining it as the drawing-room. The house has only two rooms on each floor one room in depth,and a large third floor or attic. The very wide latticed porches make it quite ample. The chimney placed on either side of the building are heavy brick placed with good design. The woodwork throughout the house is well designed and carefully finished in white tones. The doorways are wide and high, and all floors are made of carefully selected wide cypress boards that now have a high polish from wear. The library hall is on the right as one enters, and throughout the house one finds the original century-old furnishings generally in beautiful condition. In this library hall we find a large mahogany book-case reaching almost to the ceiling, surmounted by a heavy cornice and occuping a rear wall panel. It is filled with old volumes, precious possessions associated with memories of Aubudon, and celebrated portrait painters who wre housed here while painting the ancestral portrait that now adorn the walls, and generations of the family. The hall contains a number of antique chairs, graceful in design of carved rosewood and mahogany; swan chairs and fiddle-backs. Signorette and Mallard examples; also roomy colonial rockers; a large mahogany sofa made by Prudence Mallard's studio; a big mahogany center table with a black marble top holding antique treasures; corner cabinet and what-nots; also a large assortment of costly, unusual bric-a-brac dating to ante-bellum days when planters brought back yearly from Europe rare and beautiful ornaments and art treasure for their home. Throughout the house the spacious walls are hung with ancestral portraits, all of them painted by notable artists, a number of them of great value, and enumerated separately in this article. The drawing- room is a large and rather long room, extremely attractive and interesting. It is a salon with its original furnishings all mellowed by time but still very beautiful. One can readily visualize those days that have immortalized this shrine to Audubon and his beauti- ful pupil, the vivacious charming Eliza Pirrie, whose portrait painted by the celebrated Amand hangs on one of the walls of this room. Above the wide mantel hangs a very large and elaborately framed mirror, the century-old real gold leaf as bright and beaut- iful, and the mirror as clear as when first put in place in the long ago when the house was new. One wonders how many distinguished personages have seen themselves reflected in it. Oakley was a lead- ing social center before "Civil War Days". A gorgeous lacquer desk, a priceless heirloom, fills a corner,and a large and very handsome mahogany Empire sofa with fire gilt hand-chased mounts in flat gold occupies the rear wall panel. Above it hangs a large portrait of a beautiful young woman. The ensemble is quite captivating,for the large mantel mirror's reflection glorify this aggregation of quaint and lovely things and their artistic arrangment. Near a front window stands an antique tea wagon on which rests the tea service waiting to dispense the hospitality for which Oakley is so famous. This splendid heavy tea-service escaped being carried away by Union soldiers at the time the house was raided after the fall of New Orleans. With other family silver and jewelry this silver service was hidden below a floor board of the attic's ancestress, thus pre- serving for her descendants these priceless jewels and heirlooms. An old piano on wich many distinguished people have played has beside it an old music rack holding many Civil War songs. There are numer- ous souvenirs of Audubon and his wife who lived at Oakley while he taught the charming daughter of the household. Among these mementos is a study of tomatoes and cucumbers painted by Audubon,and I was told that another painting of a mocking-bird by him which formerly hung on the wall was stolen many years ago. A hushed artistocratic air envelopes the place, and the cathedral like silence and coolness in the dense shady place about the grounds, remind one of old English country places. The original Oakley land grant bears the date 1770, and the large acreage is still intact. Miss Lucy Matthews, a cultivated lady of the school, a raconteur of tales of old plantation days handed down by older members of her family, tells many stories of Civil War days and the carpetbag period. In an interesting manner she makes them quite realistic in this setting with an ante-bellum atmosphere. On the division wall as you enter the library from the front veranada hangs a life-sized bust portrait in oil of the Rev. William Robert Bowman of Brownsville, Penn, who became the second husband of Audubon's pupil, Eliza Pirrie. They were married in 1828 while Rev. Bowman was rector of Grace Episcopal church at St. Francisville. She became the mother of two children, one of whom, Isabelle Bowman, married William Wilson Matthews and became the parents of six children, among them the present gracious chatelain of Oakley. Mr. Bowman's portrait is a spendidly painted one in oil from the brush of a noted Boston artist. Beside it in another panel, vividly portrayed in a very life-like manner, is a portrait of Mr. James Pirrie, who became the second husband of Lucretia Altson, painted by Aududon while he lived at Oakley as the teacher of Eliza Pirrie. In a corner panel on the same wall is very lovely portrait three- quarter length, of Miss Isabell Bowman who married Mr. William Wilson Matthews, In the beautiful aristocratic face of this portrait one sees a resemblance easy to trace in the countenance of her gracious daughter Miss Lucy Matthews. This portrait is by the noted Belgian portrait painter Amand, whose work is found in so many homes of the old aristo- crats. Amand was brought to America by a number of wealthy Louisiana planters who guaranteed him a certain number of commissions. It was the golden era of the South for many years painting family portraits for the prominent families. While in Louisiana he painted several portraits for this distinguished family, among them another charming portrait of Mrs. Matthews as she appeared before her marriage when she was about eighteen years of age. On a rear wall of this room is an attractive portrait by Amand of Eliza Pirrie, the belle of the Felicianas, who appears a few years older than in her portrait by Audubon. The Audubon portrait that now hangs on the wall in the dining-room of Rosedown Plantation manor located near St. Francisville was painted while Audobon lived at Oakley where the portrait hung until its removal to the its present location. Near by in another panel one sees a quaint and charming portrait of an ancestress of Miss Matthews beautifully painted by a Scotch or English artist. It looks like the work of the celebrated Raeburn, and picture a dainty little old lady in an antiquated lace cap with her hands folded in her lap smiling wistfully at those who pause in admiration. This jewel is unsigned but one can see at a glance it is from a master's brush. Another corner panel contains a distinguished-looking young man, rich in coloring and graceful in his easy pose. One sees at a glance the handsome features found in so many members of the Barrow family of Louisiana. He is portrayed in a Byronesque pose and shows vividly the fine heritage of both parentss, as he is distinctly patrician-looking. The portrait is that of the son of Eliza Pirrie, who eloped with the handsome and dashing young Robert H. Barrow, who was a son of the wealthy William Ruffin Barrow for whom was built magnificent Greenwood plantation manor,the finest and most perfect example of the Greek Revival period to be found in Louisiana. The portrait is another example of Amand's work. A later portrait of young Robert H. Barrow was painted by Sir Thomas Sully in Philadel- phia while young wife, who was his cousin Mary Barrow, a daughter of David Barrow who built Afton Villa plantation manor near St.Francis- ville, are reproduced here. They originally hung on the wall of beaut- ful Rosale Manor their plantation home which was given to the bride as a wedding gift by her father along with an slaves. When Rosale Manor burned many years ago these two portraits and some very fine family silver were saved- the only articles rescued from the fire. They were inherited by a talented grand-daughter Mrs. Mary Barrow Collins, one of Louisiana's poets. Quaint historic old home of interesting rooms, of lovely memories, filled to overflowing with rare art treasures of every description, a fitting environment for the present gracious chatelain who is the personification of all that was best of the Old Regime! As one rests on the wide veranda listening to the muffled drone of plantation noises alluring as music in this sylvan retreat, and is attended by unspoiled negroes with simple courteous ways of old, the old house with its charm recalls better than pen can picture, the home life of a real aristocrat on a plantation of the "Old South". Lucretia Alston, born in La Grange, Homochito, Mississippi, in 1772, and died May 13, 1833, married Ruffin Gray of Homochito first, and after his death married James Pirrie, of a distinguished Scottish ancestry, who was born in 1769, and died March 7, 1824. During the Span- ish regime, he had been an accolate. The children by her first marriage were two that died in infancy, named Edmond and Elizabeth. Another son named Ruffin, died October 12, 1817, at the age of twenty-two. Another daughter,who was named Mary Anna was born a short while previous to her father's death. From her marriage with James Pirrie three children were born, two of which died in infancy, but the daughter, born October 6, 1805 and named Eliza, was to become a famous beauty and one of the most charming and sought-after belles of the Feliciana area. She was the daughter who became the pupil of Audubon and later when her father and mother had planned that she should marry Dr. Ira Smith, the vivacious Eliza and her sweetheart cousin, young Robert H. Barrow of beautiful Greenwood plantation, eloped in the month of June 1823-going to the town of Natchez to be married. Enroute they encountered the flooded Homochito Bayou, which seemed as if it wished to prevent them carrying out their plans. Young Barrow, undauted by the high water, carried his bride-to be in his arms, as he waded up to his chest through the stream. They were finally married but from the undue exposure in crossing the Homochito Bayou he developed pneumonia and died on July 18th, just six weeks after their wedding. A posthumous child, Robert H. Barrow,Jr., was born who married Mary E. Barrow, a daughter of David Barrow of North Carolina. Their home was Rosale, and they had nine children. Eliza Pirrie was married three times. Robert H. Barrow was her first husband. Her second husband was Reverend William Bowman, born December 7th 1800, died August 30, 1835. He was a native of Brownsville, Tennessee. They were married in Grace Episcopal Chruch at St. Francisville. By this marriage there were two children. Isabella Bowman, who became the wife of William Wilson Matthews, six children were the issue of this marriage. Their son, James Pirrie Bowman, married Sarah Turnbull. Eliza Pirre Barrow Bowman's third husband was Henry E. Lyons of Philadelphia, whom she married in 1840. She died April 20,1851, and is buried beside her second husband in Feliciana Parish, Louisiana. BEECHWOOD PLANTATION CEMETERY In the little cemetery plot of this old plantation home are iron rail- ing enclosures, three in number,creating individual burial plots. It is a calm tranquil spot in the midst of a thick growth of beautiful trees in a far corner of old Beechwood Plantation, a haven for birds apparently, for one finds the trees full of them. Somehow one feels that the spirit of the great lover of birds hovers near to the grave of his vivacious pupil of whom he wrote in his diary "My beautiful Miss Pirrie of Oakley". In the grave nearest to the present home which replaces the original Beechwood Manor repose the mortal remains of Lucy Alston who married Ruffin Gray for whom Oakley Plantation laid out and manor house built, and after his death married James Pirrie. The ancient cemetery shows its age by the time stained marble slabs on the graves, the two graves beside her own in the same en- closure, are those of her two children from her frist marriage to Ruffin Gray. In the second enclosure is the grave of the daughter by her second marriage, the "beautiful vivacious Eliza", the pupil of Audubon. Beside it is the grave of her second husband, the Rev. William Robert Bowman, rector of Grace Episcopal Church at St. Francisville, La. In another enclosure in the rear of these graves is another plots and on the marble slab is cut: Ann Stirling Died Jan. 2nd, 1802, Aged 35 On another marble slab is cut: Alxander Stirling Died Jan. 8th, 1808, Aged 55 years Set into the tall marble headstone is the cirular medallion emblem placed there by the Daughters of the American Revolution. Around the central portrait of Washington, on the bronze disc one reads: Alexander Stirling 2nd Lieutenant Expedition Revolutionary War, NATIONAL SOCIETY AMERICAN REVOLUTION. History tells us that Alexander Stirling was a second lieuten- ant in the first company, third battalion of the First Regiment of Grenadiers under the command of Henry White, that smelled powder under Governor Bernado Galvez, at the time the English under Colonel Dickson met defeat at Baton Rouge and the British colors ceased to float over Louisiana. We return to the graves of Rev. William Robert Bowman and his wife. The marble monuments above these graves are handsome ones and designed with good taste. On Eliza Pirrie's grave is cut into the marble: Beneath Repose the mortal remains of Eliza B. Wife of Henry Lyons. Born October 6th, 1805 Departed April 20th, 1851 Thou shall be recompensed at Rise of the just Rise He calleth thee. On the monument adjoining in the same iron enclosure and on the surface facing Eliza's grave is carved: William Robert Bowman of Brownsville, Pennsylvania born Dec.7th, 1800. Died August 30th, 1835. Rect. of Grace Episcopal Church, St.Franicisville, La. Being the second Protestant church built in Louisiana. On the front surface of the monument is the following: Is it nothing to you all ye who pass by to behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto me where- with the Lord has afflicted me in his fierce anger. According to Mr. J. Hereford Percy who resides at Beechwood Plantation, the home of his ancestors, Rosale Plantation, origi- nally named Egypt, was the first plantation acquired by Alexander Stirling, who at his death left endless acres of valuable land to be divided between his seven children who survived him. Rosale Plantation, with its beautiful manor house was later purchased by David Barrow as a bridal gift to his daugher Mary, who married Robert H. Barrow II. Accompanying the plantation was a full quota of house and plantation slaves. Rosale manor later was destroyed by fire, the only articles saved being some family silver and the two portraits painted by Sully in Philadelphia of Robert H. Barrow and Mary Barrow while they were on their honeymoon in that city. These beautiful portraits eventually descended to Mrs. Mary Barrow Collins.