MADISON PARISH PLANTATIONS and LANDOWNERS 1875-1979
Based Upon Tax Roll Data
Richard P. Sevier June 2011

 

Recently Wylie Barrow, Tyson Hatch and Heather Baldwin of the U S Geological Survey’s National Wetlands Research Center in Lafayette supplied Madison Parish Tax Roll images for most of the years between 1875 and 1943. This data has been combined with the pre-existing tax roll data from the years 1879-1881 and 1885-1890 to form a table showing ownership of most plantations at approximate five-year intervals between 1875 and 1943. Not every plantation is listed; nor did every piece of property have a name, especially those that had little or no cultivation. Those that are listed were chosen by their size, historical significance or length of existence and unique name. The large timber holdings are listed because of their size even if they weren’t plantations.

Since the pre-existing tax roll data did not include Non-Resident ownership, the years 1879-80, 1885-86 and 1889-90 are a combination of the pre-existing 1879-81 and 1885-90 data with the new USGS data, which shows all owners.

Most of these images are of fairly high quality considering their age, but in some cases name spelling is questionable due to the quality of the original recorder and/or the quality of the images. Unfortunately the 1908 Non-Resident images were illegible as were a few others. Non-resident owners are shown with a light green background. However this seems to be inconsistent, and, starting about 1928, few owners were identified as Non-Resident. In fact in 1943 none of the owners were separately-listed as Non-Resident.

The original table was so large that it was very easy to get “lost”, because the identifying row and column headings, showing name or date, disappeared as the table was scrolled down or to the right. To somewhat alleviate this, the table has been broken into eight smaller tables by plantation name, however scrolling to the right must still be done to see the dates. More than 75 plantations are listed.

Many plantations do not show up every year. They may have been merged with other plantations, or the plantation name just may not have been listed or the image may have been illegible. In particular, Trinidad was especially difficult because the three original plantation names were Good Hope, Oak Ridge and Waterford (1875-1894), then later merged into Trinidad (1894-1924) and even later returned to their old names (1930 on.)

Interestingly enough several plantations have more that one location. There are three totally different locations for Sharkey. California and Wyoming both have two different locations. There are probably more.

 

Plantation Names, Owners, Acreage and Dates are shown below:

Algodon to Banner
Bozeman-Lum to Cottage Oaks
Crescent to Evergreen
Ex Via to Huon
India to Maryland
Montrose to Point Clear
Richland to Stockland
Talla Bena to Zululand

Plantation and Land Ownership Maps

Click on the maps below to see a detailed view of Madison Parish plantation locations, landowners, names and most property containing at least 160 contiguous acres. Maps have had the section lines along the Mississippi River restored to their circa 1830 locations. After the map downloads, click again to enlarge it. (Maps are large downloads.) Due to the small-scale maps and quality of the source material, land ownership lines in many instances are only approximate. Acreage on all three maps is plotted on a recent (post 2000) Madison Parish Highway Map base.

1800spatentees.jpg (3141811 bytes)
Early 1800's Map Showing Original Landowners (Patentees)

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1875 Plantation & Land Ownership Map


1891 Plantation and Landowner Map

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1903 Plantation & Ownership Map
NOTE: The 1903 map was made primarily to show the vast holdings (shown in  red) of the 70,000 acre Ashly Co. Ltd of Dundee, Scotland. Unfortunately, due to the many land description mistakes and omissions in the 1903 tax rolls, some property locations may be totally unreliable.

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1943 Plantation & Land Ownership Map

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1979 Land Ownership Map

Who is viewing these Madison Parish Plantation Maps?
The following two maps show the locations of those who have been interested enough to view Madison Parish Plantation data during the period July 2011 thru 2014. It is interesting to note that people from all over the world have accessed these maps. The first map is a detail of the United States, while the second map shows the entire world.


US Madison Plantation-owner Visitors Map July 2011-2014 Made Using Mapcite


World Madison Plantation-owner Visitors Map July 2011-2014 Made Using Mapcite