Holly Grove after Duncan
Tignal Jones Stewart, the eldest surviving son of Duncan, was named for his maternal grandfather Tignal Jones of Wake County, North Carolina. He was born in Tennessee, April 20, 1800 and would have been age 10 when the family arrived in Mississippi in February 1811. He would grow up at Holly Grove. He was age 20 when his father died in November 1820 and would have been, no doubt, a great help in the running of the plantation for his widowed mother, although she was, assuredly, a intrepid woman having traveled first to the wilderness of Tennessee after her marriage at age 18 and then again, thirteen years later to the wilderness of the Mississippi Territory. She was sixteen years younger than Duncan and was only age 41 at his death. She continued to live on at Holly Grove and never remarried. She died at the home of her daughter, Eliza Hamilton, near Laurel Hill, West Feliciana Parish, age 64 on 23 February 1843[1] and was buried in the Holly Grove cemetery.
Penelope, Duncan’s widow did add to the land holdings of Holly Grove. In 1832 for the sum of $2,700 she purchased 550 adjoining acres, parts of sections 34 and 35 originally purchased of the US government by Jesse Harper in 1817.[2] This is land east of present highway 33. In 1838 she purchased at public auction in Mount Pleasant from a trustee for $8.78 per acre a tract of 163 acres, part of the sections 24, 25, which had been sold by Duncan Stewart to Allen Cain, 24 February 1816. Penelope again purchased in 1838 a 42 acre tract for $368 which had been purchased from Duncan Stewart 24 February 1816[3] also by Cain. These lands were being sold to clear debts. “A Deed of mortgage made by Hugh Cain and William Cain, to secure Jesse Jones and William Hall, co-administrators of the Allen Cain estate, for the sum of $4,280.25. Hugh and William Cain’s 163 acres were bounded by lands of Mrs. Penelope Stewart, James A. Ventress. Also a share of an undivided 85 acre tract on which William Cain, Sr. lived at the time of his death.”[4]
An interesting note appears in the December 26, 1835 Woodville Republican, “Dr. JN Hodgen, recently from Kentucky, informs the public that his office is at Mrs. Penelope Stewart.”
Duncan’s other children at home after his death included James Alexander, age nine, and Charles Duncan, age 5. His daughter Elizabeth (Eliza) was 22. She had married William Hamilton 11 June 1818 at Holly Grove[5] and her first child Duncan Stewart Hamilton was born in 1819 in Mississippi, most likely at Holly Grove. She and her husband lived in West Feliciana Parish. Catherine Mary, age 16, had married Harry Cage in 1820 before Duncan’s death and the couple may have lived at Holly Grove. Their daughter, Penelope, was born in 1822 but died in 1824 and was the first burial at Holly Grove. Catherine Cage had two boys in 1825 and 1827 before dying at the home of her mother in 1829. Harry Cage did not remarry and the boys may well have been raised by Penelope Stewart, their grandmother.
Tignal Jones and James Alexander married sisters: Sarah Ann and Juliana Randolph. Both families lived at Holly Grove. Tignal Jones and Sarah Ann married 16 June 1825[6]…”Married at Sligo, on Thursday evening the 16th, by the Rev. James A. Fox, Mr. Tignal Jones Stewart to Miss Sally Ann Randolph, eldest daughter of Judge Randolph.”[7] and had their first child, a daughter, also a Sarah, in 1826. Their second daughter, Penelope, was born in 1828.
Sligo Plantation belonged to the Clarks, Daniel and his nephew Daniel. They named the plantation for their home in County Sligo, Ireland. In 1811 the younger Clark sold Sligo to Revolutionary War General Wade Hampton of South Carolina. In 1817 General Hampton sold Sligo to John Sims.[8] Is this the Sligo where Tignal Jones Stewart married Sarah Ann Randolph? It is near her home Elmwood, south of Woodville.
James Alexander Stewart, age 21, married Juliana Randolph, age 18, on 27 February 1832.[9] It is believed they also lived at Holly Grove. Their first child, Penelope, was born in 1835. Seven more children followed from 1836 to 1849. Five of these were born before Penelope Stewart died in 1843. There was the death of an infant son buried at Holly Grove but no date is given.
James Alexander was educated in Nashville, Tennessee and in Troy, NY.[10] His wife was taught for a time by Lucy Audubon, the wife of the painter John James Audubon. She later was educated at the Ursaline Convent in New Oreleans.[11]
The third son, Charles Duncan, remained at home. When he left Holly Grove is not clear. He married Julia Black of Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana, just across the Mississippi River from West Feliciana Parish. He probably married in the late 1840’s and moved to Innis where his wife’s family lived. He may have moved before the marriage.
Although land was being purchased in the 1830’s by Penelope, it would seem likely that T. Jones Stewart would be helping manage the plantation. His brother James Alexander would no doubt be assisting in the 1830’s as he is in his 20’s and would be bringing his wife to live at Holly Grove as well. T. Jones did serve in the Mississippi legislature in the 1840’s and would have been away part of the year. He served as a state senator as well as in the house. He was the founder of a bill protecting the rights of married women to hold property and real estate. He was said to be fond of field sports and hunting but was also a polished gentleman.[12]
It is not clear when the house at Holly Grove was enlarged and the colonnade added and the fine plaster moldings. Mimi Miller of the Historic Natchez Foundation thought the house was enlarged prior to Duncan’s death because of the large amount of furniture in his inventory. Certainly the 1820’s and 30’s saw an enlargement of the family with both Tignal Jones and James Alexander marrying and having children. Some enlargement could have occurred at this time. Stylistically the additions were prior to the Greek Revival which in Natchez started in 1833 with the construction of the Agricultural Bank of Natchez. Four important Greek Revival houses were built in Natchez in 1836.
Cotton was doing well in the early thirties with an average of fifteen cents per pound in 1835. The Panic of 1837 ended the “flush times” and in 1839 the overproduction of cotton in the South and a glut of textiles from England’s mills began to depress cotton prices and it fell to four cents a pound by 1844.[13] Cotton prices remained low until 1848.[14] So likely the late 20’s or early 30’s would be a time Holly Grove was flourishing financially as well as growing in population and part of the enlargement and the embellishing of the decoration could well have occurred at this time.
After Penelope died in 1843, T. Jones Stewart had the estate surveyed.[15] It however was not divided at that time.
Both the older boys and their wives would be buried at Holly Grove. Tignal Jones in 1855, James Alexander in 1883, Sarah Ann in 1892 and Juliana in 1898. James and Juliana’s daughter Rosa and her husband would be buried at Holly Grove, the last of the Stewarts to live on Holly Grove. She was buried in 1928. Her husband Hiram Sharp’s death date is not given.[16] He appears to have died in 1919, looking at other papers[17] when he no longer is listed with his wife Rosa.
[1]
Woodville Republican, 25 Feb 1843.
[2] Abstract
for Charles Dudley, Vol. I, p. 119.
[3]
Abstracts for Charles Dudley, Vol. I, p 123
[4]
Woodville Republican, 24 Feb 1838.
[5] Duncan
Stewart, Saunders
[6] The
Founding and Embellishment of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Woodville, MS. An address given by Doug Lewis at the 185th
Anniversary of St. Paul’s.
[7]
Woodville Republican, June 1825.
[8] The
Plantation World….p. 258-260.
[9]
Wilkinson County marriage records.
[10] Memoirs
of Ms, Part 2, 1891.
[11] Memoirs
of Ms, Bio and Hx, part 2
[12] Memoirs
[13] Classic
Natchez, p. 28.
[14] Port
Gibson Design Guidelines, Mimi Miller, p. 17.
[15]
Woodville Republican, 25 Mar 1843.
[16] Dates
are mostly from Chuck Speed. Cemetery
tombstones at Holly Grove are used as well as those of St. Stephen’s Episcopal
Church in Innis, Louisiana.
[17]
Mortgages taken out in the conduction of the farm business at Holly Grove.
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