Photo, Print, Drawing Magnolia Plantation, 5549 Louisiana Highway 119, Derry, Natchitoches Parish, LA Cane River Creole National Historical Park Cane River National Heritage Area

Title

• Magnolia Plantation, 5549 Louisiana Highway 119, Derry, Natchitoches Parish, LA

Other Title

• Cane River Creole National Historical Park Cane River National Heritage Area

Names

• Historic American Landscapes Survey, creator
• LeComte, Jean Baptiste
• LeComte, Ambrose, II
• Hertzog, Atala LeComte
• Hertzog, Matthew
• Hertzog, Ambrose
• Hertzog, Matthew, II
• U.S. National Park Service (NPS), Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Units (CESU) Grant, sponsor
• U.S. National Park Service (NPS), National Center for Preservation Technology and Training (NCPTT), contractor
• University of Arkansas, Department of Landscape Architecture, contractor
• Erdman, Kimball, project manager
• Cook, Jordan, field team
• Crowley, Rebekah, field team
• Moore, Sydney, field team
• Church, Jason, project manager
• Reed, Megan Suzann, field team supervisor
• Erdman, Kimball, delineator
• Cook, Jordan, delineator
• Stevens, Christopher M., transmitter
• McPartland, Mary, transmitter

Created / Published

• Documentation compiled after 2000

Headings

• -  tobacco plantations
• -  tobacco
• -  cotton plantations
• -  cotton gins
• -  cotton industry
• -  allées
• -  slavery
• -  slave quarters
• -  hospitals
• -  stables
• -  mills
• -  barns
• -  agriculture
• -  agricultural land
• -  agricultural facilities
• -  war (Civil War)
• -  tenant farming
• -  stores & shops
• -  blacksmith shops
• -  French Creole architectural elements
• -  rivers
• -  cattle
• -  gasoline pumps
• -  Louisiana--Natchitoches Parish--Derry

Latitude / Longitude

• 31.552517,-92.942559

Notes

• -  For additional documentation, see also Magnolia Plantation (HABS LA-1193 series) and Magnolia Plantation, Cotton Gins & Presses (HAER LA-11)
• -  Significance: The roots of Magnolia Plantation trace to a French land grant received on the Red River by Jean Baptiste LeComte I in 1753. Initially, tobacco was the property's principal crop, but technological advances such as the cotton gin in 1793 (for seed removal) and the screw press in 1801 (for baling) soon led to a boom in cotton production in the region. Shrewd decisions by LeComte family members led to their prominence in the area's labor-intensive cotton industry, fueled by a rapidly expanding enslaved workforce. Magnolia Plantation, established in 1835, was one of several plantations owned by Ambrose LeComte II, great-grandson of Jean Baptiste. Ambrose II's unrivaled financial success came at the expense of the largest enslaved labor force in Natchitoches Parish. In 1852 Ambrose II gifted a 40% share in Magnolia to his daughter Atala and her new husband, Matthew Hertzog. A survey conducted in 1858 depicts numerous structures within Magnolia's core, including the main house with a tree-lined allée, 24 two-room slave cabins, slave hospital, smith shop, cook's house, two stables, two mills, pigeon house, gin barn, and baled cotton barn, among others. While most of Magnolia's fields were devoted to cotton, about one-third of the acreage under cultivation was planted in corn. Corn was not a market crop but, along with hay, was used to support plantation operations. Sweet potatoes, cowpeas, beans, and sugar cane likely supplemented the corn. Ambrose II also raised livestock, most notably racehorses, but also cattle and hogs, along with oxen and mules for use in plantation operations. Although the Civil War (1861-1865) ushered in the end of slavery and resulted in the destruction of the original main house, cotton farming continued at Magnolia Plantation with the aid of sharecroppers, tenant farmers, and day laborers, many of whom had formerly been enslaved. During this time the Magnolia Plantation Store was built and became a hub of social activity in the area. Following Ambrose II's death in 1883, Atala and Matthew acquired most of the rest of Magnolia's land, equipment, and livestock. In the 1890s, the couple rebuilt the main house and installed a new gin in the gin barn. Their son Ambrose Hertzog assumed ownership and operation of the plantation after Matthew's death in 1903. The 20th century brought a host of challenges and a crescendo of change to Magnolia Plantation. A brief cotton boom created by World War I was quickly offset by agricultural depression in the 1920s, compounded by a boll weevil infestation affecting all American cotton farms and followed by the Great Depression of the 1930s. Black Americans from the rural South seeking financial opportunity and relief from racial prejudice began immigrating to northern and western cities, initiating a population shift that became known as the Great Migration. Magnolia Plantation continued operations through these changing times under the direction of Ambrose until he died in 1921 and then under his son Matthew Hertzog II. Advancements in agricultural mechanization offset the shrinking labor force, and 1930s New Deal policies and programs helped Magnolia Plantation continue producing cotton, corn, hay, cattle, mules, and even racehorses. Out-migration and mechanization continued in the 1950s, resulting in the departure of most sharecropper families at Magnolia. The last family living in a former slave cabin moved out in the 1970s. Following Matthew II's death in 1973, the Hertzog family transferred the land containing the store, slave quarters, and gin barn to Museum Contents Inc. in 1976. The overseer's house, blacksmith shop, and pigeonnier were also included in the transfer, but the land they stood on was not; the museum planned to move these structures to the property they had received. This plan was not carried out, and in 1993 this land was also gifted to Museum Contents Inc. All of the museum's holdings except the parcel containing the store were transferred again in 1996 to Cane River Creole National Historical Park (CARI). The store followed in 1998. In 2018 the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development closed LA-119 at the store due to a partial collapse of the Cane River Lake embankment. In August 2020, Hurricane Laura destroyed several trees at Magnolia, emphasizing the need to document the landscape more thoroughly. The 2006 and 2021 Magnolia Cultural Landscape Reports (CLR) determined the property was nationally significant based on three criteria defined by the National Register of Historic Places, including Criterion A: Association with events that have made a significant contribution to our history; Criterion C: Embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction; and Criterion D: Has yielded or may be likely to yield information important to history or prehistory. Criterion A encompasses a broad swath of North American history, from the French and Spanish colonial periods, US antebellum slavery, the Civil War, reconstruction, tenant farming, agricultural industrialization, the Great Migration, and the struggle for Civil Rights. Criterion C addresses Magnolia Plantation as the epitome of a French Creole cotton plantation in the Red River region. Criterion D relates to the archeological potential of the former slave quarters area in particular, but also the site's former structures, features, and functions.
• -  Survey number: HALS LA-15
• -  Building/structure dates: 1753 Initial Construction
• -  Building/structure dates: ca. 1890 Subsequent Work
• -  National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 79001071

Medium

• Measured Drawing(s): 5

Call Number/Physical Location

• HALS LA-15

Source Collection

• Historic American Landscapes Survey (Library of Congress)

Repository

• Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print

Control Number

• la0795

Rights Advisory

• No known restrictions on images made by the U.S. Government; images copied from other sources may be restricted. https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/114_habs.html

Online Format

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• pdf