Our choice for the first plantation that we visited supplied all my wants in these areas, both history and the Peyton Place part. It is a plantation that was started by Dr. Samuel Flowers who as he was leaving Pennsylvania, married his future bride. The ceremony was performed by the Wagon Master of the Wagon Train they took to get to Louisiana. The Flowers had eight children each of whom received a part of the original plantation when the doctor died in the early 1800s. One of the children and her husband received the plantation house and property immediately surrounding it and continued to occupy the house till their deaths.
Since then nine generations. Yep, you read right. Nine generations of the family have occupied the house. One house, that many family members who have owned and lived in this plantation home. It is one of only a handful of antebellum homes that still remains in the original family.
Our tour of the Butler Greenwood plantation was conducted by one of the members of the eighth generation Chase, who lives in the home. As she pointed out to us, since this home has remained in the family for so many years, nothing has ever been lost or sold. Nothing has ever been discarded or taken out of the home. And it was impressive to see so much history in one place.
We saw the original Spanish Land Grant that had been framed and was hanging on the wall, the doctor's original instruments & medical books which he brought with him, original furniture and even clothing. We even saw some old tintype photographs taken of the 3rd generation in New Orleans as babies with their Mammy. A very unusual occurrence in the south in pre-civil war times.
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| The music room with a grand piano from New Orleans dating back to the 1830s |
We also learned that one of the owners of the home is an author with several books to her credit including a history of the area & its homes, a story of her own life, and several cookbooks.
The book she wrote of her life details her shooting and consequent recovery. Hence the Peyton Place analogy. The story as we were told in short is as follows. Ann Butler was married to one of the wardens of Angola prison which is about 20 miles from St. Francisville. She was at home on a Sunday morning, he was out of town or so she thought. He walked into the house armed with a gun. He shot her three times in the stomach as she sat drinking her morning coffee prior to church. She didn't die nor did she lose consciousness. He was then interrupted by a maid who attends the guest cottages and home. He told her that what was going on "was none of her business" and to just get out. After that Ann saw him raise the gun again, point it at her chest and she said she knew he was aiming for her heart. She turned and the bullet entered her arm/shoulder. Her shoulder and elbow were shattered. The first maid had left, she heard the next shot and called another maid, not 911. The other maid came over and heard what the first one had to say. She then called the head of the maids, who came over and heard the story. That person then proceeded to call 911 and Ann's son. Ann's son was on his way to church, he turned around and headed back to the plantation and arrived at the same time as the sheriff and EMS. As the sheriff and Ann's son walked in Ann's husband had raised the gun again and was pointing it at her. The sheriff convinced the warden to put his gun down and he was taken into custody. Ann's husband was tried and convicted and sent back to Angola, this time as an inmate rather than a warden. He died in prison. No other details were given regarding how he died, just that he died in prison. I can only imagine.
Just one word of caution is that the book isn't available in the S.A. public library but was available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. It is titled Weep for the Living.
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| Some of the trees in the garden dripping with Spanish Moss. |
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| All of the oaks at Butler Greenwood were planted from acorns that came from a Haitian plantation brought over after the slave revolt there. |
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| All of the area around St. Francisville is a designated bird sanctuary. So bird houses are a common sight on all properties. |
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| The formal parlor at Butler Greenwood plantation. These furnishings are Victorian in style and date to just prior to the civil war. They were purchased in New Orleans and are in their original location in the home, have their original upholstery and these are the original draperies that were purchased to go with them. It is a 12 piece set. |
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| Original family baby clothes that has been used for Christening the babies of the family for close to 150 years. |
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| One of the original outbuildings of the plantation that is now used as a pool house for the guests of the plantation's B & B and is where breakfast is served to the guests. |
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| One of the B & B's cabins that faces the duckpond on the plantation. The duckpond was part of the original garden design when the house was built. |
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| Another of the guest cabins on the property. It also faces the duckpond. |
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| They were thirsty after the tour. |
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| One of the original cast iron cooking pots that are all around the outside of the plantations. These were used for making sugar, boiling clothes, dying clothes, cooking large meals, making lye soap and whatever other purpose they were needed for. |
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| This summer house or what we would now call a Gazebo was built at the same time as the house in the 1790s. It has a copper roof, and it's original colors of paint. |
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| The approach to the Butler Greenwood plantation. As you would have seen it when it was first built. You would have had to cross the Sara Bayou by bridge to get to it and when the house was first built, the Bayou had direct access to the Mississippi. |
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