Sunday, July 12, 2020

Charles Stewart in Pointe Coupee


The Stewart family in Pointe Coupee Parish
 
Duncan’s youngest child, Charles Duncan married probably in the late 1840’s.  When he left Holly Grove and went to Pointe Coupee Parish is not known. Persac’s map of plantations of the Mississippi River in 1858 show CD Stewart as owner of Lakeside on Old River in Pointe Coupee Parish.  A Stewart is listed as owning Hog Point slightly further north between Lake Moreau and where Old River leaves the Mississippi. D. Stewart owns another tract on Old River above Lakeside as well. One source has Charles Stewart building Lakeside in 1830.[1]  This date is not plausible since Charles was born in 1815 and would have been only 15 at the time.  The Italianate house was probably built later than 1830.  Another source suggests an 1850 date for the house which would be plausible.  Albert Batchelor married Charles Duncan Stewart’s niece Cornelia and is noted managing Lakeside among other plantations at a later date, probably in the 1870’s or 80’s.  Charles Duncan Stewart’s only son John Black Stewart lived in NY where he was a playwright.
 
 
Duncan Stewart’s son, Charles Duncan, and Duncan’s granddaughter, Cornelia, who married Albert Batchelor would live in Pointe Coupee Parish in Louisiana, across the Mississippi from West Feliciana Parish. Duncan’s granddaughter, Penelope Stewart Stirling would also at one time in her life also live in Pointe Coupee. Thomas AG Batchelor, the father of Albert Batchelor, had as his first wife, Margaret Stewart, the great niece of Duncan Stewart (the daughter of Walter Stewart, the illegimate son of Duncan’s half brother Patrick).  She was dead before TAG Batchelor and his second wife moved to Pointe Coupee.
 
Duncan and Penelope Stewart’s youngest child, Charles Duncan Stewart was born at Holly Grove in 1815.[2]  He may have been their only child born at Holly Grove.[3] He grew up at Holly Grove.  Charles Duncan was only 5 when his father died in 1820. His oldest sister Eliza had married and lived in West Feliciana Parish.  Tignal Jones, the oldest brother was age 20 and no doubt helped his mother with the plantation.  Tignal Jones married in 1825 and brought his wife to live at Holly Grove.  Charles’ sister, Catherine, married Judge Harry Cage in the early 1820’s and may have lived at Holly Grove. Charles’s brother James was four years older and went away to school in Tennessee and NY before marrying in 1832 and bringing his wife to live at Holly Grove.  The family prospered.  More land was acquired and the house was remodeled during his childhood.  When he was a teen his portrait[4] was painted and perhaps about this time the portraits of his brothers and his mother were also painted. We do not know of his education but one source noted that he “was highly educated and settled in Pointe Coupee Parish Louisiana where he became wealthy.”[5]  He married Julia Black probably in the late 1840’s.[6]  Julia was born in 1825, the daughter of Judge John Black.[7]  Judge Black (1800-1854) and his wife Sarah (1803-1876)[8] are buried in Innis, Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana in the St. Stephens churchyard.
 
The 1850 census in Pointe Coupee shows John Black, 50, a planter, b. VA. Sarah, 42, his wife, b. MS, 111 slaves and Charles Stewart, 31, planter and Julia, 24, his wife, and 28 slaves.  The 1860 census shows Charles D. Stewart, 40, planter and Julia, 30, his wife and a son John B., 4.  Their son, John Black Stewart, had been born in 1856 in New Orleans.  In the 1870 census Charles Stewart is listed as blind.  He and his son, John, and mother-in-law, Sarah Black are living with his niece, Mrs. Penelope J. Stirling,[9] in the 4th ward of Pointe Coupee.  In the 1880 census Charles Stewart is living with his nephew, DM Hamilton, in the 4th ward of West Feliciana Parish.[10]
 
The John Black, father-in-law of Charles Duncan Stewart, was buried in the cemetery of St. Stephen’s in Innis, in Pointe Coupee Parish.
 
            John Black, b. Aug 11, 1800, d. Aug 29, 1854, a member of the Episcopal Church
            Who departed this life with the hope of a blessed immortality.
 
            Sarah Black, wife of Honorable John Black and mother of Julia Black Stewart
            d. 1876, aged 75 yrs.  Them that are meek shall He guide in judgment and such as
            are gentle them shall He teach His way. Psalter XXV:8.
 
The title of St. Stephens Episcopal Church was transferred to the rector and wardens “for the sum of $1 cash” by Charles Duncan Stewart.[11]  The church was founded in 1848 so Charles Stewart may well have been married by that time.  The Black in-laws as well as Charles (1815-1885) and Julia (1825-1867) and three of their children are buried in the church graveyard.  Charles’ three daughters born in the 1850’s all died young:  Sally Jones Stewart (1851-1857), Penelope Jones Stewart (1853-1858) and Bettie Bliss Stewart (1858-1858).  They had a son John Black Stewart (b. 1856) who lived to adulthood.
 
Brian Costello gives a history of the early Episcopal services in Pointe Coupee.[12]  He states that in 1847 Episcopal services were held in the home of Mrs. Charles Allen on Bayou Fordoche and a parish organized under the title of St. Peter’s Church, Morganza.  In 1848 the mission was assigned to the Rev. Frederick Dean who in 1848 organized a congregation at Williamsport (now Innis). He also conducted divine services at the Courthouse at New Roads and served as headmaster of Poydras College on False River.  He resigned in 1852.  The Williamsport mission was originally called St. James and began in a frame building on the Hopkins plantation on Raccourci-Old River.  The only known confirmed Episcopalian lived in the vicinity: Julia Black, later Mrs. Charles Stewart.  Mrs. Stewart and Mrs. Sarah Archer were supporters of the mission from its conception.  In 1849, 26 acres were donated to the mission, and plans for the construction of a church were drawn by noted New York architect JA Wills.[13]  In 1855, the parish was organized under the name of St. Stephen’s.  In 1856, bricks were fired on the site and plans were developed for the construction of a rectory and school.  In 1859, the completed brick Gothic church was consecrated by Bishop Leonidas Polk.   The stained-glass windows were made in England, shipped via New York to New Orleans and brought up the River to Williamsport.[14] A cemetery was established adjacent but during periods of high water burial in the cemetery was impossible.
 
Taylor Plantation, home of William Taylor, a cousin of the 12th President Zachary Taylor is nearby and President Taylor is said to have visited and also attended services at St. Stephens.[15]  However Taylor died in 1850 and the church was not completed until 1859.
 
The Church today is located on the levee road near Innis.  It is surrounded by a large graveyard.  Behind the church are the Stewart and Black graves in a plot surrounded by an iron fence.
 
Besides the Black graves noted above are:
 
Charles Duncan Stewart, husband of Julia Black Stewart, d. Nov 7, 1885, aged 70
Yrs.  Into thy hands I commend my spirit for thou hast redeemed me.  O Lord
thou God of truth. Psalter XXXI:6
 
Sacred to the memory of Julia Black, wife of Charles D. Stewart, b. Sept 14, 1825
d. Nov 19, 1867.  We love the spot where thou art lain  And still doth mourn thee,
thou ‘tis in vain  O guide us dear gentle spirit, as on we move  To the realms of
him thou didst so love.
 
The above Stewart and Black graves are above ground crypts.  The children’s graves are covered by slabs:
 
            Bettie Bliss  Beloved daughter of Julia Black and Charles D. Stewart, b. 20 May
            1858, d. 24 Dec 1858
 
            Penelope Jones  Beloved daughter of Julia Black and Charles D. Stewart, b. 3
            Sept 1853, d. 2 Aug 1858
 
            Sally Jones  Beloved daughter of Julia Black and Charles D. Stewart, b. Sept 21,
            1851, d. Sept 1, 1851[16]
 
John Black Stewart, Charles and Julia Black Stewart’s only surviving child, married Elizabeth Luzby of New Jersey and lived in New York City.  He was an author and dramatist.  He wrote under the name of Archibald Clavering Gunter: Mr. Barnes of New York, Mr. Potter of Texas, That Frenchman, Miss Nobody of Nowhere, Small Boys in Big Boots, Daughter of Anne, Ten Nights in Rome and others.  Mr. Barnes of New York was dramatized and brought out under the management of Frank W. Sarges of Broadway Theater and was a successful play.  John Black Stewart died in 1896.[17]  However we note from another source John Black Stewart married about 1880, Elizabeth Lusby (b. 1862 Penn.)[18]  John Black Stewart and his wife did not apparently have children.[19]
 
Shortly after Lincoln’s victory, Judge Thomas J. Cooley chaired a mass meeting in Pointe Coupee for the purpose of petitioning Governor Thomas O. Moore to call a special session of the Legislature to address the situation.  The governor called a convention of delegates to Baton Rough.  Candidates presenting themselves to the Pointe Coupee electorate included John McKneely, Bennett Barton Simmes, Auguste Provosty, Charles D. Stewart and Jacob C. Van Wickle.  McKneely and Provosty were elected by a wide majority.  The convention opened on January 23, 1861 and three days late Louisiana seceded form the Union and on March 21, 1861 joined the Confederacy.[20]
 
Charles Duncan Stewart is said to have built Lakeside, an Italianate style raised cottage, on his plantation on Old River at Batchelor (a few miles south of Innis) in Pointe Coupee Parish, probably in the 1850’s.  Some historians such as Eugene Cizek of New Orleans think that Thomas Bachelor may have built it.  Hunt Slonem, the present owner, noted in his recent renovation/restoration that the name of Charles Stewart was on the backs of the mantles,[21] very good evidence that Stewart was the builder. Various dates are noted. An 1832 date has been given but would not fit with Charles Stewart (age 17 in 1832) as the builder.  A date of 1855 seems quite probably the correct one stylistically and in the life of Charles Stewart. There are pictures of the house in the 1930’s in the Library of Congress and measured drawings of two pigeonnieres, 1933 by the HABS (Historic American Buildings Survey). It is also noted that Stewart purchased the house property from the Marquis de Lafayette, maybe in England.[22]  The land had been given to Lafayette by the US government on the recommendation of Thomas Jefferson after the Louisiana Purchase.[23]  One source locates the land given Lafayette as near the northern tip of the parish.  Could this be Stewart’s Hog Point Landing?  The land was given in 1810 and was contested.
 
One source notes that Lafayette had 4000 acres in Point Coupée. Lafayette required funds to settle his substantial debts and decided to part with his Louisiana property. Sir John Thomas Coghill, Second Baronet (1766-1817) and Alexander Baring and Henry Seymour  purchased these lands from Lafayette in March 1812 for 60 francs per acre.[24]
 
Lakeside did not leave family hands, passing through the Batchelors and their descendants the Monks[25] until Slonem purchased it in 2004.  It is the largest house in Pointe Coupee at 12,000 square feet.  It is a raised cottage but has three fully fitted out floors with the second level being the main floor.  The brick home is entered by steep cast iron steps to the second floor gallery that spans the width of the house and returns back along each side.  The gallery railings and columns are iron but are thought to be a later addition with the wooden columns and railing on the rear gallery being the original style. The house is monumental in scale.  It sits in a park several yards back from the levee road with trees shading and partially obscuring the house.  The two pigeonniers of Anglo-American form stand at the rear of Lakeside as opposed to the front location usual in a French home.
 
In 1860, Pointe Coupee was unexcelled in point of wealth, population and value of productions.  There were 11,000 blacks in a total population of 15,500.  Of the 311,000 acres in the parish, 28,000 were in cotton, 17,000 in cane and 18,000 in corn.  Among the 63 planters who owned 50 or more slaves were James Alexander Ventress, (Charles Duncan Stewart’s 1st cousin), and three Stewarts (Charles Duncan and ?).[26] Lakeside was the largest sugar producing estate in the north part of Pointe Coupee Parish before the Civil War.  The Stewarts experimented with cotton during reconstruction.[27]
 
Charles D. Stewart was master of Hog Point (south of Red River Landing in Pointe Coupee) where he planted sugar cane.  It is noted he found his attendance at the sugar mill to be a necessity during the grinding season, never leaving the sugar house when the mill was going[28] which could be 2-3 months.
 
Charles Stewart also owned Bella Vista Plantation which still stands along the levee by Old River.  It was said to have been used as a slave hospital before the Civil War and also said to be the home of descendants of Louisiana’s first governor, William CC Claiborne.[29]
 
One source notes Charles Duncan Stewart was blind in the 1870 census.  His son John and his mother in law, Sarah Black were living with niece Penelope J. Stirling in 1870.  In 1880 Charles Duncan Stewart was widowed and living with his nephew DM Hamilton in West Feliciana Parish. It is probable that Lakeside is in the hands of the Batchelors at this time.
 
Albert Batchelor (husband of Cornelia Stewart of Holly Grove) and his brother Iverson Batchelor inherited Lakeside after the Civil War.  Iverson bought out Albert.  Iverson never married and left the house to his sister Mary Norwood Patton.[30]  Charles Stewart did not die until 1885; this transition is not exactly explained.  His blindness (1870) and the death of his wife (1867) and his 3 daughters (1850’s) might suggest a reason.
 
Hunt Slonem, a world–renowned artist from New York City and owner of Albania Plantation, purchased Lakeside in 2006.[31]
 
Cornelia Stewart, Duncan Stewart’s granddaughter and her husband Dr. Albert A. Batchelor also lived in Pointe Coupee Parish.
 
She was said to be beautiful as well as highly cultured.[32] 
 
Albert Agrippa Batchelor (1845-1905) was the son of Thomas Agrippa Gayden Batchelor (1813-1868) and Martha L. Batchelor (1821-1862) of Amite Co. Mississippi.  Martha Louisa Chandler (1821-1862) was the second wife of Thomas AG Batchelor.  AA Batchelor had several siblings: Iverson G. (1846-1900), Charles J. (1838-1878), James Madison, Thomas (1850-1868), Kate, and Mary “Mollie” Norwood (who married a Patton and lived in Baltimore).[33]  
 
Albert Batchelor attended the Kentucky Military Institute (1860-1861) and was a private in Co. E, 2nd Regiment, Louisiana Infantry, Johnson’s Division, Jackson’s Corp, Army of Northern Virginia, July 1862-July 1863; then a Drillmaster, Enterprise, Mississippi, 1864.  He attended medical school at the University of Louisiana receiving his MD in 1874 and served as a physician 1874-1881. [34]   He was a planter at Red River Landing, Pointe Coupee Parish. He managed or had an interest in Bella Vista, (along the levee by Old River on Claiborne Road), Lakeside (built by Charles Duncan Stewart), Phoenix, Normandy, and Highland (another Stewart Plantation in Pointe Coupee Parish). Other land mentioned include Torwood and New Texas Plantations and the Boyd and Mitchell places.  The smokestack for the sugar mill at Torwood Plantation still stands on LA 1 near Batchelor alone in a broad field.[35] James Alexander Stewart of Holly Grove, prior to his death in 1883 gave portions of his Highland Plantation to daughters Ida and Cornelia and son Jones in 1872.[36]  Albert Batchelor was a member of Pointe Coupee Police Jury and a school board member, 1884.[37]  He served in the Louisiana Legislature, 1888-92.[38]  He married on 2 December 1876, Cornelia Randolph Stewart[39] of Holly Grove Plantation.  They had no children.
 
He went to the Kentucky Military Institute 1860-61.  He then served as a private in Co. E, 2nd LA. Reg., Johnson’s Division, Jackson Corps, Army of Northern Virginia, July 1862-July 1863, then as Drillmaster, Enterprise, MS. 1864.  His two brothers also served.  Received his MD, Univ. LA. 1874 and worked as a physician 1874-1881.[40]  He was a planter of Red River Landing and several other plantations, Bella Vista, Lakeside, Phoenix, Highland, Normandy.  He served in the Louisiana State Legislature, 1888-1892.   He married Cornelia Randolph Stewart on 3 Dec 1876.[41]  Albert Batchelor’s grandfather Thomas Batchelor (1770-1842) helped frame the Mississippi Constitution in 1817. Thomas’ uncle, James Madison Batchelor (1811) married Elizabeth Ker Nutt, a sister of Haller Nutt of Longwood in Natchez.[42]
 
Siblings, Charles and James Batchelor served with Albert in the 2nd Louisiana and Iverson in the 1st Louisiana Cavalry.  Iverson was involved in the family plantations.  James Madison settled in Vicksburg. Mollie Batchelor married a Mr. Patton in Baltimore. Several are buried in the graveyard of St. Stephens, Innis.[43]  Dr. AA Batchelor and his wife, Cornelia Stewart, Charles J. Batchelor, Iverson G. Batchelor, Ada E. Batchelor (1852-1857), Thomas N. Batchelor, Catherine R. Batchelor, Thomas AG Batchelor and his wife, Martha L. Chandler, and Margaret S. (1872-1878), the daughter of CJ and EV Batchelor are buried at St. Stephens.
 
It is not clear when the Batchelors went to Pointe Coupee Parish.  Their father, Thomas AG Batchelor lived in Amite County, Mississippi. Thomas AG Batchelor is listed in the Pointe Coupee census of 1860. His sons are in the Louisiana army in the 1860’s. There is a letter from Thomas AG Batchelor in 1862 to Albert in the 2nd Louisiana telling of the death of Albert’s mother at Red River Landing in Pointe Coupee as well as pilferage by Federal troops on plantations from New Orleans to Baton Rouge, the health of slaves and general conditions on the plantation.  This would suggest that the father Thomas is living at Red River Landing in Louisiana at this time.  Charles in 1856 and James Madison in 1859 attended Oakland College[44] near Rodney, Jefferson County, Mississippi suggesting maybe they are still living in Mississippi at that time.  Charles like Albert attended Kentucky Military Institute in Franklin County, Kentucky: Charles in 1859-60, Albert in 1860-61.  Mollie attended the Stillman Female Collegiate Institute in Clinton, Louisiana which would be quite close to a residence in Amite County, Mississippi.  There is a child buried in Innis, Ada E. Batchelor (b. 7 June 1852, d. 21 Sept 1857).  Is this Thomas AG Batchelor’s daughter?  Is he living in Point Coupee at this time?
 
The earliest entry for AA Batchelor in the land records in Pointe Coupee is in 1868[45] when Owen Robertson, a resident, sold to AA Batchelor, a resident, NE quarter of Sect 20, Township N3, Range 8E, 158 12/100 acres, (receipt #3429, 15 Nov 1855 opened at the New Orleans US land office). Price $400. This was signed 29 Feb 1868in the presence of JB Lejeune, Jr. and Eracisto Sanchez.  Since AA Batchelor was a resident in 1868 he had arrived before that time.
 
Four of the Batchelor boys served the Confederacy.  Charles and James of the 2nd Louisiana in Camps Magruder and Pelican in Virginia wrote of the need for clothing and guns, and of deaths from typhoid fever in 1861-62. James Madison wrote from Lynchburg, Virginia of his part in the Battle of Chancellorsville. Charles wrote to his father of Lee’s Army from the Battle of Winchester, march through Maryland to Pennsylvania and the Battle of Gettysburg.  Charles also wrote to his father describing the Battle of Gettysburg and the parts he, James M. and Albert played.  Albert wrote from a hospital near Gettysburg to his father describing his wounds.  In 1863-64 James Madison wrote to Albert advising him to take a furlough or discharge from the army and go home.  Why?  A furlough was issued to Pvt. AA Batcherlor, Co. E, 2nd Louisiana Regiment, Iverson’s Brigade for 60 days.  In April 1865 James M. wrote from Officers Quarters, US Military Prison, Fort Delaware that he was being well treated.[46]
 
The development of the relationship of the Batchelors and the Stewarts is not entirely clear.  There is a letter from Albert at Sunnyside in 1865 to Miss Rosa Stewart, % Mr. James Stewart, Woodville.  There is another letter to Rosa mentioning a visit to the Yazoo River in 1865.  Rosa is Cornelia’s older sister.  Is there a relationship with Rosa before he married Cornelia? 
 
Charles D. Stewart, Lakeside Plantation, Pointe Coupee Parish, had a receipt from the Bureau of Ref. Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, Plantations Dept., New Orleans.  There is an 1866 agreement with freedmen of Bella Vista Plantation employed by CD Stewart and a contract between Albert A. Batchelor and Charles Stewart or Mrs. Sarah Black for management of Bella Vista on Old River. 
 
Albert A. purchases land in Pointe Coupee from the Sheriff in 1866.  Iverson G. Batchelor is dealing with supplies at Lafayette Plantation in 1866.  In 1866 there is a letter from TJG Batchelor (brother Thomas?) in New Orleans to Albert A. at Hog Point (a plantation of Charles Stewart) announcing that he had gone in the dry goods business in New Orleans.  There is a letter also in 1866 from Albert to a Mr. Beatty about using his influence to secure a cadetship at the Louisiana Seminary of Learning, Alexandria.  In 1867 Iverson G. is in school in New Orleans.
 
In 1866, 1870, 1876 and 1877 there is a contract between Albert and Sarah Black (the mother in law of Charles Stewart), and another in 1871.  There is a contract in 1871 with Albert and freedmen on Phoenix Plantation.
 
In 1873 there is a transfer of ownership of the Boyd Place and the Mitchell Place to Albert Batchelor. In 1875 sales of cotton and other crops to Albert Batchelor and James B. Sterling from tenants on Waverly Plantation are noted.[47]
 
We know that Albert received his MD from the University of Louisiana in 1874.  Here he writes to Pet (Cornelia Stewart) concerning his studies.  There is another letter in 1876 to Cornelia concerning their approaching marriage and Albert’s political activities.  Albert Batchelor and Cornelia Stewart married 3 December 1876.
 
We also read of problems with flooding of the homes of laborers on Normandy and Lakeside and flooding of the cotton fields in May 1884 and flooding at Bella Vista in May 1885 in the Batchelor papers.  Brian Costello notes the 1882 flood was the most severe in South Louisiana history and covered the entirety of Pointe Coupee Parish.  Crevasses occurred at Red River Landing, Hog Point and Smithland levees among others. Widespread disaster occurred again during the flood of 1884.  On 23 March the levee at Lakeside Plantation gave way resulting in a 400 foot-wide break.  As in 1882, rations were distributed to flood sufferers again in 1884.  Rations for 600 people were distributed at Old River-Lakeside Plantation among others.[48]
 
What is happening with the Stewarts at Lakeside?  There is a rental agreement for Lakeside in 1868.  There is in 1876 a suit filed against John Black Stewart charging that all his property actually belongs to his father Charles D. Stewart and he is liable for his father’s debts. Julia Black Stewart dies in 1867 and Charles D. Stewart in 1885.  Julia’s mother, Sarah Black dies in 1876.  The census data shows in 1870 Charles to be blind and living along with his son and mother-in-law with his niece Mrs. Penelope J. Stirling. And in 1880 Charles is living with his nephew in West Felicians.
 
Albert Batchelor was appointed to the school board in 1884, elected to the police jury for the 3rd ward in 1888, and to the state legislature in 1888.
 
There is a telegraph from Mrs. LW Simpson (Cornelia’s sister Ida) in 1884 accepting $7000 for her half of Bella Vista.  Was this a plantation owned by James Stewart, their father?  We do know he owned Highland in Pointe Coupee and in 1872 he had given a portion to Ida and Cornelia.  One source[49] notes that Bella Vista built in the 1830’s or 40’s was originally owned by Charles Stewart. 
 
In 1883 Cornelia is listed as living in Smithland in Pointe Coupee. Smithland post office was at Hog Point Landing.  In 1906 there is a trusteeship for Mrs. Cornelia Batchelor. And in 1923-30 the succession for Cornelia Batchelor (Jan 12 1924) is noted.[50] Dr. Batchelor died in 1905 and was buried at St. Stephens, Innis.  Cornelia died in 1923 and joined her husband at St. Stephens.  They had no children.
 
The Batchelors gave their name to the community of Batchelor in northern Pointe Coupee which is the address of Lakeside Plantation.  John Archer LeJeune (1867-1942) was born at Old Hickory Plantation in Batchelor.  Known as “the greatest of all leathernecks,” LeJeune served in the Marine Corps almost forty years, and as commandant from 1920-1929.  Camp LeJeune, near Jacksonville NC was named for him.[51]
 
There was a Stirling Plantation in Pointe Coupee.[52]  The Battle of Stirling Plantation, also known as the Battle of Fordoche Bridge, was, by far, the most extensive engagement of the Civil War in Pointe Coupee.[53]  Mary Stirling was the largest slaveholder in Pointe Coupee, counting 338 slaves on two plantations, one at the lower end of False River and the other on Bayou Fordoche.[54]  Was this Mary Stirling the Mary Bowman Stirling, mother of Jacob Bowman Stirling who married Penelope Stewart, niece of Charles Duncan Stewart with whom he lived late in life in Point Coupee? Probably not as Mary Bowman Stirling lived with her husband Henry Stirling at Deserta Plantation in West Feliciana Parish.
 
 


[1] Plantation Homes of Louisiana and Historic Buildings, Photography by Michael Musso, 2008
[2] From tombstone at Innis, La.
[3] Although James Alexander b. 1811 was probably born at Holly Grove also.
[4] It is attributed to Jacques Amans and his age is suggested as between 12-14 in Louisiana Portraits.  Amans was not painting in New Orleans at this time.  In 1975 when the book was published the portrait belonged to Virginia Bruns Marshall of New Orleans, a descendant of Duncan Stewart, though not a descendant of Charles.
[5] B&H Mem of MS, II, 835
[6] Chuck Speed says they were married in TN but this is highly unlikely.
[7]Some sources note that Judge Black was a US Senator.  There is a John Black who was a US Senator from Mississippi with the same death date but said to be interred in Mt. Hebron Cemetery, Winchester, Virginia.[7]  In Wikipedia we read that John Black was in the US Senate from 1832-38.  He was born in Massachusetts where he was a teacher.  He moved to Louisiana and practiced law: then to Mississippi where he was elected judge in 1826 of the Mississippi Supreme Court where he served until 1832.  He was appointed in 1832 by Governor Charles Lynch as a Jacksonian (forerunner of the modern Democratic Party) to fill the vacancy left by Powhatan Ellis.  He ran as an anti-Jacksonian (Whig)  and served from 1833 until 1838 when he resigned.  He was Chairman of the Senate Committee on Private Lands.  He moved to Winchester, Virginia where he practiced law until his death on August 29, 1854.[7] The John Black who was the father-in-law of Charles Stewart was born in Virginia,[7] not Massachusetts.  He died in 1854 as did the Senator John Black but is definitely buried in Pointe Coupee.
 
[8] From tombstones at Innis
[9] Penelope Stewart Stirling was the daughter of  James Alexander Stewart and Juliana Randolph.
[10] Rootsweb, Descendants in America of the Stewarts of Ledcreich
[11] Country Roads, Oct. 2008.
[12] A History of Pointe Coupee Parish, LA by Brian J. Costello, 2010, p. 95-96
[13] New Roads and Old Rivers, Louisiana’s’ Historic Pointe Coupee Parish, photographs by Richard Sexton, text by Randy Harelson, with Brian Costello.  The church here is said to be designed by Frank Willis, the official architect of the New York Ecclesiological Society.
[14] New Roads and Old Rivers, p. 134.
[15] New Roads…p. 132.
[16] I know these dates don’t work as to the day and I reread them.
[17] Memoirs of Ms. Part 2, 1891.
[18] Rootsweb, Descendants in America of the Stewarts of Ledcreich
[19] We have some NY census records listing in 1880 John Black Stewart as a retired plumber in Manhattan.  In 1910 John B. Stewart is a guest, age 54, an English Broker, and Elizabeth Stewart, guest, age 48 at the Hotel Schuyler, 59 W. 45th St. and in the 1920 census John Black Stewart, age 63, stock broker is lodged at 125 W. 85th St.  John B. Stewart of LA is highly unlikely the plumber.  The age and his wife’s name fit with the 1910 listing but this does not fit with the death date we have.
[20] A History of Pointe Coupee, p. 113.
[21] Personal communication at Lakeside, August 2013.
[22] Personal communication with Slocum, 2013.
[23] New Roads, Old River, p. 125.
[24] Neal Auction catalogue, Nov 2018, p. 19.
[25] See the Batchelor genealogy.
[26] Lynda Crist, p. 276
[27] NYTimes.com 2007.
[28] Sugar Masters, p. 107. William S. Hamilton Papers, LSU.
[29] New Roads and Old Rivers, p. 123.
[30] Familytreemarker.genalogy.com
[31] Plantation Homes of Louisiana, by Michael Musso, 2008
[32] ibid
[33] Albert A. Batchelor papers, LSU
[34] catelogue Delta Kappa Epsilon Fraternity, 1910
[35] New Roads….p. 128.
[36] Abstracts of Holly Grove Deeds, Vol II, p. 445.
[37] Albert A. Batchelor papers. LSU
[38] Youngsander.org/youngsandermanuccript.html  La State Univ. BR.
[39] Catalogue, Delta Kappa Epsilon Fraternity, 1910
[40] catelogue Delta Kappa Epsilon Fraternity, 1910
[41] youngsanders.org/youngsandermanuscript.html   La State Univ. Baton Rouge
[42] familytreemaker.genealogy.com
[43] AA Batchelor papers
[44] now Alcorn State University.
[45] #8052, research done by Ann Weller in 2013.
[46] AA Batchelor papers, LSU
[47] AA Batchelor papers.
[48] A History of Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana by Brian Costello, pp. 154-157.
[49] New Roads and Old Rivers, p. 123.
[50] Albert A. Batchelor papers. LSU.  The Highland transfer and the Smithfield location is found in the Deed Abstracts for Holly Grove.
[51] New Roads and Old Rivers, Louisiana’s Historic Pointe Coupee Parish, p. 69.
[52] Located at the junction of LA 10 and 77.
[53] A History of Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana by Brian J. Costello.
[54] A History……     

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