GU272 Descendants Reunion

                                                      GU272 DESCENDANTS REUNION

I traveled to Iberville Parish, Louisiana, for the GU272 Descendants Reunion.

Nearly 600 descendants of 272 Jesuit slaves gathered in Rosedale, Louisiana, on June 9, 2018, to reconnect our families and to honor our ancestors. Descendants traveled to Louisiana from: Arizona, Alabama, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Korea, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Washington State, and Washington, D.C. 

Our story began in 1838, when 272 enslaved people were shipped downriver from Maryland to Louisiana. The slaves were placed on three sugar plantations in Ascension, Iberville, and Terrebonne  Parishes.

Several of the descendants gave two-minute speeches, and I was one of them. I talked about how the connection to the Jesuits was made. It was the planning of the Hicks/Estes Reunion that led to the discovery of my family's connection to the Jesuits. My ancestors, Nace and Biby Butler, and their 14 children were enslaved on the St. Inigoes Plantation in St. Mary's County in Maryland. I blogged about it, and my blog was discovered by Richard Cellini, founder of the Georgetown Memory Project, in mid-November 2015. My research revealed that we shared kinship with many descendants of GU272.

The reunion was a collaboration between the GU272 Descendants and the television show, "Finding Your Roots" by Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. The descendants were promised that a GU272 descendant would be present. The celebrity, S. Epatha Merkerson, an actress on the Law & Order TV show, was present, but she was not introduced to the audience. Many of the descendants were disappointed. I met her in the back of the hall, where she was surrounded by police, taking pictures with her.

Aside from that, the reunion was great.  Food was served. My only suggestion is to have the reunion over two days, allowing for a "meet and greet" where we can spend time talking to our new cousins.

AUGUST 25, 1619 - SLAVERY IN AMERICA

I cannot believe I didn't know about the memorial of  400 years of slavery in America when I booked a birding trip to southern Africa in 2019. Had I known, I would have added an extension to visit Ghana.

CELEBRATING JUNETEENTH!

On June 19, 1865,  enslaved people who were living in Texas got the word that they were free - two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. It is the oldest national celebration of the end of slavery in the United States. It was on this day that the Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas, with the news that the war had ended and the slaves were now free. 

General Granger read to the people in Texas General Order Number 3:

" The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation form the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and free laborer.

Today, a video was made of me talking about how our family's reunion led to the discovery of our connection to the Jesuit of Maryland Province. In 2004, our family, the Hicks/Estes family, was planning a family reunion when we discovered 272 people, including our Butler Family, had been enslaved by the Jesuits of Maryland Province. The video will be put on a website hosted by the New England Historic Genealogical Society:

http://gu272americanancestors.org/ 


If you think you descend from the 272 people enslaved by the Jesuits of Maryland, then check out this website to locate your ancestors. 

CELEBRATING JUNETEENTH NOT JULY 4TH!!!

source: Juneteeeth.com

HICKS FAMILY

     Rachel Butler Hicks (seated), James Henry Hicks, spouse (left), Beverly Hicks, son, (right)

courtesy of Katie Pool Primas, granddaughter of Beverly Hicks

After reading the New York Times article about the Jesuit slaveholdings, Katie Pool Primas sent me this photograph of my great-grandparents, Rachel and Henry Hicks, and their son, Beverly. Katy is the granddaughter of Beverly Hicks. I never thought that I would see the faces of my great-grandparents because they were deceased when I was born. With the photo, Katy included the message, "Hoping this will help you."  I was "over the moon" when I received this photograph. Beverly is the older brother of Nace Hicks, my grandfather.

Rachel Butler was born into slavery on Jesse Batey's Maringuion Plantation circa 1852. She was the daughter of two original enslaved people, James Scott, born in 1816, and Mary Butler, born in 1835. Rachel is also the granddaughter of four-enslaved people,  Bennett and Clare Scott and Nace and Biby Butler who were sold to Jesse Batey in 1838. This is a photo of Rachel, my great-grandmother, who was a child of two enslaved people and who was enslaved with them and her grandparents on Jesse Batey's plantation. Henry Hicks, my great-grandfather, was born in Virginia around 1851.  It is not known how and when he arrived in Louisiana.

Update: Beverly Hicks

William Beverly Hicks

1826-1901

I discovered more information about Beverly Hicks. I used the new Freedmen's Bureau records from Family Search which were indexed by more than 25,000 volunteers last year. There were 1,781,463 records released and they added significantly to Beverly Hicks' story.

One thing I learned from the records is Beverly had two wives. I was always conflicted about this because I have seen Beverly and Jane listed as parents in the Diocese of Baton Rouge Catholic Church records and I also have seen Beverly listed with Mary in the census records. The 1870 Federal Census enumerates Beverly with Mary Hicks. There is a marriage certificate for Beverly Hix (sic) and Mary Bird also known as Byrd. They were married on 27 Dec 1864. I have not found a marriage certificate for Beverly and Jane but there is a record that states they were married.

A letter was submitted for consideration and an opinion to Capt. McDonnell. It states:

• Beverly Hicks married a colored woman named Jane (also a slave). They lived together until 1863 when Jane was sold out of state.
• Beverly became free in 1847!!!
• After Jane was sold, Beverly obtained a marriage license in Halifax County and married a free woman named Mary Bird and they lived together since marriage.
• Jane returned to Manchester in 1866(?) where she was owned and lived with Beverly up to the present time. The letter is dated Oct 15, 1866.
• Jane and Beverly have 11 children and support was received from him.
• Mary and Beverly have one child and Mary received support from him.
• Both women claimed Beverly as their "lawfully" husband and want the Right of Possession be speedily determined.
• Beverly runs on the Danville R.R. (I assumed "runs" means work.)

Beverly and Mary were living together according to 1900 Federal Census for Midlothian, Chesterfield, Virginia. On a bank form,  Emma Jane Hicks, 15, and John Hicks, 12, and George Hicks, 10, indicated that Beverly Hicks, their father, left Jane Hicks, their mother, during the war.

The marriage certificate indicates that Beverly's parents are John and Amy Hix. A photo of a gravestone on Find a Grave is inscribed with the name of William Beverly Hicks, birth Apr 9, 1826 and death June 25, 1901. His spouse is Mary A. Byrd Hicks (1846-1927). Children: Thomas Rufus Hicks (1883-1965). Note: The 1900 Federal Census lists Thomas as 17 yrs. so I think that this is our Beverly. The other child who was listed is Alexander Hicks (1886-1950). This is the first time I have seen Alexander's name but they are the ones who buried Beverly. William Beverly Hicks is buried at First Baptist Church Cemetery in Midlothian, VA.

Our family did not know that Beverly Hicks' full name was William Beverly Hicks until I located the grave on Find a Grave.

DNA Links Adopted Child to Jesuit Slave

DNA kits were one of the Christmas gifts I gave to my husband, Jerry, and my daughter, Dana. I was in Cuba when Judy Riffel, the lead genealogist for the Georgetown Memory Project, sent me an email on April 12, 2017. I had no access to WiFi because it was scarce in Cuba. I arrived home on April 16th  , which was Easter Sunday, so needless to say, I didn't check my email until the next day.

Judy stated that a DNA kit I administered to D.J. was a match for Frank Campbell, a man who had been enslaved by the Jesuits of Georgetown and sold downriver to a plantation owner in Louisiana. She also asked me if D. J. was a GU272 descendant, which refers to the 272 slaves sold and the name of the association that the descendants formed. To say I was stunned by this news would be an understatement. 

I immediately sent Judy an email. I told her that D.J. was my daughter Dana Johnson, and I gave her the kit for Christmas. Then I dropped the bombshell: Dana is adopted!  Ordinarily, one would expect my child to be a GU272 descendant because I am a descendant. What are the odds that an adopted child who was born in California in 1971 would be a descendant of a GU272 slave??? We are both GU272 descendants, but descend from different ancestors! My ancestors are the Butlers, and Dana's are the Campbells. I learned of Dana's connection to Frank Campbell on April 17th, the same day an article by Rachel Swarms, published in the New York Times on April 17, 2016, drew worldwide attention to Jesuit slaveholdings.

Who is Frank Campbell? On March 12, 2017, Swarms wrote an article, "A Glimpse Into the Life of a Slave Sold to Save Georgetown," in the NYT. The article was about Frank Campbell, who was a part of the 1838 sale of slaves to Jesse Batey. Frank's photo was discovered in a scrapbook belonging to the Barrow family, a prominent slave-owning family. What is the significance of this photo? It is the only photo that exists of a Jesuit slave who was sold in 1838.

As soon as I learned of my daughter's connection to Frank Campbell, I asked Janette Birch, a member of the Butler Team, to assist me in researching the Campbells in California. I finally had a name to research! Janette sought assistance from Barbara Brazington, another Butler Team member, and a Campbell descendant was located in California. This Campbell is too old to be Dana's father, but he has three sons. The father does not bear the Campbell name, but his mother's maiden name is Campbell. Now all I need to do is determine which of these sons was 20 years old in 1971. 

Another article was published about Frank Campbell on May 24, 2017, "Echoes of Injustices: The image of a slave brings closure to a Terrebonne parish family." This article provided me with the names of the descendants of Frank Campbell. My first reaction was to call, but I decided a letter would be less intrusive. I chose a descendant featured in the article and on TV news, and wrote a letter about my daughter and her connection to their grandfather. I was a little anxious while I awaited a response. Finally, after an agonizing week, I received a response. The descendant agreed to assist me in the search for Dana's father, but needed more information. I looked for my copies of the adoption documents and couldn't find them. They are around here somewhere, probably in one of the boxes in the garage, where it has been since my move to Spokane 12 years ago. I asked my daughter to send her copies, and they are on their way. By the time this article is printed in the Digital Digest, I will have an answer. 

Finding Nace Butler, Jr., The Runaway Jesuit Slave

In November 1838, the Jesuits of Georgetown sold 272 slaves to two plantation owners in Louisiana.  Fifteen of my family members were sold and were shipped downriver on the Katharine Jackson of Georgetown. My great-great-great-grandparents, Nace and Biby Butler, and their 13 children were on that ship, except one, Nace Butler, Jr., who ran away.

Our connection to the Jesuit slaves has been known for approximately 12 years. It was first discovered in the spring of 2004 as the family planned a reunion in New Orleans. I continued to look for Nace, Jr.,  having found a person I suspected was my ancestor buried in the St. Ignatius Church Cemetery, St. Mary's County, Maryland, online on the church's website in 2007.  The website included photos of the church, St. Ignatius, and a list of the people buried in the cemetery.  An Ignatius Butler was listed on parchment in the church, as were Gladys Butler, Lucinda Butler, and Johnston Butler.

The search for Nace, Jr. took on a new life after the Georgetown Memory Project(GMP) was formed. In November 2015, Richard Cellini, an alumnus of Georgetown University,  founded the GMP to identify the enslaved people sold in 1838 and to locate their living descendants. As a member of that organization, a new search was launched, first by me and then by a member of the Butler Research Team. We came to the same conclusion: Ignatius Butler, buried at  St. Ignatius, is our Nace Butler, Jr., the runaway.

I thought we were on the right track when Ignatius "Nace" Butler and his family were located on the 1870 census in St. Inigoes, St. Mary's County, Maryland. His birth date was estimated to be 1818. In the Jesuit Plantation Project records, which include the profiles of the enslaved people, Nace Butler's birth- date is 1818.  

In December 2016, I was contacted by Glendon Stubbs, the great-great-great-grandson of  Ignatius Butler.  He provided me with a descendant chart for Ignatius Butler constructed by Malissa Ruffner, a professional genealogist hired by the GMP. Her research confirmed what we found: Ignatius Butler is the runaway who was born in 1818 and died



  to be continued

Honoring Sgt. Malbert Montgomery Cooper

Today I placed some flowers and a flag on Sgt. Malbert Montgomery Cooper's grave.  He did not have a headstone for his grave when he was buried on May 2, 1979. It took six years of negotiations to get an government-issued marker thanks to the efforts of Veterans Service Director Chuck Elmore, Veterans Service Officer Nadel Barrett and me, Patricia Bayonne - Johnson, President of Eastern Washington Genealogical Society in Spokane, Washington.

On May 11, 2009, I went to Spokane Memorial Gardens, Cheney-Spokane to photograph the headstone to accompany an article I had written 

about Sgt. Cooper.  My husband and I traveled to the cemetery and went to the office to get the location of the grave.  We wandered around the area where the marker should have been for an hour but couldn't find one. So we headed back to the office and the staff looked again  and gave us the bad news: Sgt. Cooper was buried without a headstone because he was buried by Public Assistance which would not pay for a headstone. They would only pay for the burial. But the good news was because Cooper had been in the military, the government would issue a headstone.  All I needed was his DD214 - his discharge papers.

I contacted Chuck Elmore by email, starting a process that would last six long years to get that government- issued headstone. I had two appointments with Elmore to discuss the documents and photos I had for Sgt. Cooper. Chuck knew all the places to be contacted, so he took over from there.

The matter was complicated because Sgt. Cooper did not have any relatives. He was married twice and the last woman had a son, but he had not been adopted by Cooper. It was difficult to find the paper work on Cooper but Chuck was successful. Then I got more bad news: I had to be the next of kin to apply for a government headstone. Well, I am not the next-of-kin; I am just an interested party trying to get the government to do the right thing. The man served his country and he deserved a headstone! That was the most ridiculous thing I ever heard  in my life! Chuck even talked to  Senator Patty Murray about it; the last response she got from the VA, was if we wanted a headstone we would have to take them to court.

Then Elmore hired Nadel Barrett, a Navy veteran in January 2015.  Nadel, a lawyer, took over Cooper's case and was successful in getting an approval from the VA without having to go to court. I received a call some time in May 2015 after the headstone was installed. My husband and I immediately drove out to see it.  A full military burial ceremony was held on  May 27, 2015. I have never attended a military burial ceremony and it was very moving - Honor Guards, Flag Folding, Taps and a gun salute.  What a Day!

Finding the Butlers - My Family Was Enslaved by the Jesuits

If you have read the newspapers, watched TV, or listened to Talk Radio in the past month, you could not miss the media coverage of the 272 people who were enslaved by the Jesuits and sold to pay the debts of Georgetown College, now Georgetown University. Although I received very little coverage in the initial article, this is my story, too.

Eastern Washington Genealogical Society appeared in an article in the New York Times on Sunday, April 17, 2016. Two hundred seventy-two people were reported to have been enslaved by the Jesuits of St. Mary's County, Maryland, and I, Patricia Bayonne-Johnson, have ancestors who were among that group.

I first learned of my ancestors who were enslaved by the Jesuits in 2004 as we were making plans for the Hicks/Estes family reunion in New Orleans. I sent the documents I had gathered to Judy Riffel, a professional genealogist in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for examination. Judy noted that Rachel Hicks, my great-grandmother's mother, was born in Maryland, according to the 1910 Federal census. She knew from prior experience that Jesse Batey, a large plantation owner, purchased a bunch of slaves from Maryland; she went to the courthouse and pulled those records. One of the documents was an inventory for the late Jesse Batey. My third great-grandparents, Nace and Biby Butler, were listed by name, age, and value, along with their 11 children of their 15 children. The most important document that she found was the bill of sales for 64 Negroes by Thomas Mulledy to Henry Johnson on behalf of Jesse Batey in 1838.

Upon receiving Ms. Riffel's report, I summarized her research and sent it to my aunt, Onita Estes-Hicks, without researching any names on the document...yet. As she began examining the documents, she Googled Thomas Mulledy. Onita learned that he was a Jesuit priest who served as president of Georgetown from 1829 until 1837. She also discovered the Butlers in the Jesuit Plantation Project. My research on the Butlers would come later, after the reunion.

The Jesuit Plantation Project consists of plantation records the students in the American Studies Department of Georgetown University digitized. They are records of White Marsh, Newtown,  St. Thomas Manor, and St. Inigoes. My Butler family was enslaved on St. Inigoes.  Those documents included an inventory, manifests, profiles of the slaves, chronology, resources, a bibliography, and the diaries of Brother Mobberly

In 1838, Georgetown University sold 272 slaves to large plantations in Louisiana. The University folklore says all 272 slaves died and left no survivors or descendants. However, many of the slaves survived the Civil War and were emancipated in 1865. There are almost 1000 descendants currently living in Maringuoin, Louisiana.

The Georgetown Memory Project was formed in mid-November 2015, a few days after Richard Cellini, an alumnus of Georgetown University, contacted me. He was seeking descendants of Nace and Biby Butler and found my blog when he searched for them.  The goals of the GMP are to identify the slaves sold in 1838, find their living descendants,  acknowledge them as members of the Georgetown family, and honor their sacrifice and legacy. I joined GMP immediately.

The Butler Team was formed in November when I returned to the library.  I asked the Tuesday library volunteers if they would assist me in the search for the members of my Butler family and they all agreed. The  Butler Team members are Carol Anderson, Pat Ayers, Barbara Brazington, Mary Holcomb, Juanita McBride, Dolly Webb, and me. Janette Birch is also a team member; she joined when she overheard us enthusiastically discussing the project.  Mary said, "I would pay you to do this research.." The team has found much information, and there is much more.

This is the first of many posts about the 272.

First Watch Night Service - Wed, 12/31/1862

I had never heard of First Watch Night Service until a few years ago. It is defined as a late-night Christian church service held on New Year's Eve and ends at midnight. According to Wikipedia, the Watchnight service "provides the opportunity for Christians to review the year that has passed and make confession, and then prepare for the year ahead by praying and resolving."  The reason that I am not of aware First Watch Night Service is,  I am Catholic and  this ceremony is known as Midnight Mass. I have never attended a  Midnight Mass although older members of my family have participated.

The Watch Night Service, also known as Freedom Eve,  is significant in the African American community. It can be traced back to New Year's eve in 1862, where slaves and free blacks gathered in churches and homes to await the news   that the Emancipation Proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln had become law. On January 1, 1863 at the stroke of midnight, all slaves in the Confederate states were declared legally free.When the slaves and free blacks learned of their freedom, they prayed, shouted, sang, and thanked God.

The First Watch Night Service has been celebrated every New Year's eve since December 31, 1862.  African Americans gather in churches to thank God for living through another year and to celebrate "how we got over."  

Source: African American Registry

Juneteenth National Freedom Day Observation - 19 June 1865

19 June 2014

Today we celebrate Juneteenth National Freedom Day. Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. It is the name given to Emancipation Day also know as Freedom Day by African Americans living in Galveston, Texas in 1865 when they first learned that all slaves were free.

Officially, the end of slavery was declared on 1 January 1863 by President Lincoln but the declaration was issued on 22 September 1962.  The people in Texas didn't learn of the decalaration until June 19, 1865.

Juneteenth is celebrated all over the United States with religious services, speakers, reading of the Emancipation Proclamation, with food, dances and games.

JOSEPH LEO BAYONNE (1895-1978)

Last week, I learned something about my great-uncle, Joseph Leo Bayonne. A shaky leaf indicated that the hint was a California marriage record for Uncle Leo. I thought, "No way could this be my relative; he has never been to California." I pulled up the information and checked out the groom's parents and there were the names of my great-grandparents, Jules Bayonne and Victorine Randall. To my knowledge, Uncle Leo had never lived in any places except Louisiana which is where he was born and Alabama where lived at the time of his death.

According to the marriage license, Leo Bayonne was 35 years old, a tailor and a resident of Oakland California when he married Sarah Blanche Broussard, 32 years, a housewife and a resident of Oakland, California on August 4, 1930. It was a second marriage for both of them - Leo was divorced and Sarah was widowed. Sarah's parents were Perry Lawson and Emily Hunter... three more surnames to add to my  family tree!

Although 1930 was before my birth, I would think that this would have come up in my research of  the Bayonne family. I had just watched a webinar on Ancestry entitled, "Forward Thinking: Tracing the Children of your Ancestors and their Children." Now I am more motivated than ever to get started tracing the children of Jules and Victorine Randall Bayonne.

Nelson Lofton's Obituary

Date: Friday, October 17, 1980  Paper: Times-Picayune(New Orleans, LA) Page: 25

Mr. Nelson Lofton, on Monday, October 11, 1980 at 10:00 a.m., at Touro Infirmary Hospital, beloved husband of Mrs. Rebecca Lofton, father of Ms. Carol Lofton.

Funeral sevice from Gertrude Geddes Willis Funeral Home on Saturday, October 18, 1980 at 10:30 a.m. followed by religious service at Mount Zion Methodist Church, on Louisiana Avenue.

Interment in Mount Olivet Cemetery. Wake serice on Friday October 17, 1980 at 9 p.m. at Gertrude Geddis Funeral Home.

Curtesy of Michael Willis

(author's note: This obituary was abbreviated because the print was blurred and difficult to read.)

15th Amendment Ratified Today

On February 3, 1870, the 15th amendment was ratified. Republicans wanted the amendment passed to obtain the the vote of the freed slaves.

The 15th Amendment ensures the right to vote to all male citizens of the United States, regardless of order or previous condition of servitude. The 15th amendment opened the door for the elections of African Americans to the US Congress and to Southern local and state offices. New Southern governments began collecting taxes for local public schools.

Women would have to wait until 1920 to get the vote, the year that my mother was born.

Source:  African American Registry 2/3/20014

Nelson & Olivia Loften Revisited

A recent discovery of obituaries for Nelson and Olivia Lofton and an notice of a marriage for Nelson by cousin, Michael Willis, have necessitated an update in the post about them.

In my first post about the Loftons, I did not have the dates of death for them, just a month and year for Nelson's death which was listed on the Social Security Death Index. Michael found obituaries and the marriage notice in the newspaper subscription, Genealogy Bank.  I subscribe to it as well, but don't use it very much.

I lived with the Loftons on and off while I attended Booker T. Washington High School in the 1950s. My folks moved to Metairie when I was in the fifth grade and I needed an address in New Orleans to be able to attend BTW. These obituaries brought back a lot of memories that I had forgotten including the address where I had once resided. I was not living with them at the time of Olivia's death so I knew of the deaths but I did not remember the details. Here are the details:

Lofton - at the late residence 2023 Jackson Ave on Wednesday, October 25, 1961 at 9:25 pm o'clock, Olivia Lofton, beloved wife of Nelson Lofton, foster mother of Dolores Ann Lugo, sister of Emily Derozan and the Florence Hyde Royal, aunt of Mrs. Marcelyn Royal Cahn; also survived by other relatives and friends of the family.  

Relatives and friends of the family, also pastor, officiers and members of Mount Zion Methodist Church , officers and members of Ladies Tammany Benevolent Association and Cement Masons Local 567 are invited to attend the funeral. Services from The Gertrude Geddes, Willis funeral Home, 2120 Jackson Ave. (parking adjoining on Saturday Oct 28, 1961 at 12:30 pm. followed by religious services at Mount Zion Methodist Church, Louisiana Ave at Magnolia St. Rev. R. F. Harrington officiating.

Interment in Mount Olivet cemetery, Wake Friday night at the funeral home. Gertrude, Geddes, Willis Funeral Home, Inc. in charge.

What this obituary failed to state, is that Olivia's sister died the next day and they were waked and buried on the same day.

New Details About The Wakefield

A couple of weeks after I returned from Audubon Pilgrimage Tour in St. Francisville, Louisiana, I sent Jolie Berry, the new owner of the Wakefield Plantation, an article about my Morgan and Weather families who were slaves on the Wakefield. All of the information that I related is on my blog and I will not rehash that information here.

I also included one question that the tour guides could not answer: "Is there a slave burial site on the Wakefield property?"  Jolie's response to that question gave me a lot of new information about the plantation. This is what I learned from her email:

• She and her husband, Dr. Eugene Berry, acquired the Wakefield Antebellum Home in 1988 and are the first owners who are not Stirling family descendants.
• They acquired 50 acres, the remainder of the original 63,000 acres after many divisions and losses through the years!
• No slave quarters or production buildings (as sugar mill, cotton gin, grist mill, granary) exists.
• At the peak of Lewis and Sarah Stirling's acquisition of land, the Wakefield Plantation comprised 62,000 acres!
• Jolie did not know of a slave burial grounds on the Wakefield. Because of the vast acreage, slaves could be buried anywhere.
• Jolie said that the land for St. Mary's Church and Burial Ground was a gift of a Stirling family descendant in 1880. (author's note: A plaque on the church indicates that the church was established in 1880.)
• More land was given by another family descendant in 1990 with a request that a fence be constructed to encompass, protect and delineate the church burial ground - the areas of the graves having exceeded the boundaries of the original gift of land.
• There are at least two Union soldiers who were buried in unmarked graves according to family speculation.
• Lilie Stirling Sinclair placed the family documents in the LSU Library in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
• Jolie asked if I and others would keep them informed about the history of the Wakefield and those whose lives were an integral part of the history of the Wakefield and the Felicianas.

AUDUBON PILGRIMAGE

In celebration of John Audubon's stay in West Feliciana, Louisiana, an annual pilgrimage has been held since 1972.  Audubon arrived in St. Francisville area in 1821 and was very excited about the lushness of the landscape and the abundant birdlife.  Audubon resided at the Oakley Plantation and tutored plantation children in that area. 

The Audubon Pilgrimage offers tours of Historic Homes and Gardens, namely Oakley, Wakefield, Beechwood, Catalpa, Evergreenzine, and Rosedown Plantations and Afton Villa Gardens.

GUIDES AT THE WAKEFIELD

On March 15, 2013, I toured the Wakefield Plantation in St. Francisville, Louisiana. Although no photography was allowed inside the plantation, we were able to photograph the exterior and the grounds. That's me on the right in the green blouse.

Nell "Nini" Figge was the guide on the verandah.  She talked about the plantation history and said that her great-grandmother, Mary Rucker Stirling, was born in 1869 at Wakefield. I almost stated that my great-grandparents were born here, too. I made a mental note to talk to her after touring the plantation. 

When I entered the parlor on the right, I saw a picture of Lewis Stirling on the wall. I asked the guide if it was a picture of Stirling, Senior or Junior. She checked and indicated that it was Stirling, Sr. Since I was not hearing anything about the slaves on the Wakefield, I decided to tell the guide that my ancestors were slaves on that plantation. She was very interested because it was a history that they knew nothing about. We talked a long time after the tour group moved on, and she told me to tell that man, her husband, who was in the dining room, what I had just told her. He, too, was very interested in my story. They gave me their cell phone numbers and invited me to stay with them the next time I was in Louisiana to research.   

Lewis Stirling's bedroom was next on the tour.  After listening to the guide, I was on a roll;  I told her that my ancestors were slaves on the Wakefield Plantation.  She said the owners of the Wakefield would want to talk to me, so we left the bedroom and went looking for the owners. Dr. Eugene Berry was not on the property, but we found Mrs. Joli Berry in a cottage getting ready to change into her period-  costume. She expressed interest in my story and asked me to send her the details via email. 

My tour of the plantation was over. I sought Nell, the guide, on the verandah and waited until she completed the talk. We talked and exchanged email addresses. She also wanted details of my family on the Wakefield. 

The guides and the owner seemed genuinely interested in the enslaved people who resided at the Wakefield Plantation.  I was received warmly, and the guides were gracious. They knew nothing of that history, just the story of the Stirling family.  My cousin Kirk had the same experience at Beechwood, home of Alexander Stirling, father of Lewis Stirling.

Wakefield Plantation

This is the picture of the Wakefield Plantation  I took while participating in the 42nd Annual Audubon Pilgrimage Tour on March 15, 2013.  The Wakefield was built by Lewis Stirling in 1834 and was where many of my Morgan, Weathers, and Sterling ancestors were enslaved. The Wakefield is private and is only open to the public during the tour. The current owners allow the Stirling descendants to hold reunions at the plantation.

The Road to the Wakefield Plantation

The road to the Wakefield Plantation is lined with Oak trees which is typical of the plantations in the area.