Watkins Plantation, Izard County, Arkansas

Date: About 1844 to about 1912
Location: Izard County, Arkansas, United States
Surnames/tags: Watkins Arkansas Black_Heritage

Contents 1 Introduction 2 Research Notes 3 Slave Owners 4 Slaves 5 Cemeteries 6 Sources

Introduction

The Watkins Plantation of Izard County had its beginnings around 1844 when three brothers, Owen, William and James Watkins, moved to the area from Franklin, Williamson County, Tennessee. They began amassing extensive land holdings in Arkansas and varied business activities including raising livestock, farming and ginning. Owen also had trained to be a physician, but he made less and less use of that training as their other investments took over. Their land holdings were not limited to Izard County and included large parts of Fulton and Sharp Counties and also parts of Independence and Crawford Counties, all in Arkansas, as well.

This close knit family didn't just live on and operate the same plantation, but often the brothers shared the same main plantation home with the extended family as a widowed sister and orphaned nieces and a nephew came to all live under the same roof.

Construction of the iconic plantation home did not begin until 1853 and was completed in 1855. Modest compared to the elaborate estates of some plantation mansions, the Watkins main house was built of bricks made of clay from a nearby quarry and formed entirely by the hand labor of their slaves. Some of their slave quarters were also built from these bricks. By the standards of Izard County, it was large and accommodating, but not ostentatious.

They would also found two new post offices for Franklin, Arkansas and Wild Haws, Arkansas. James served two terms in the Arkansas senate and was the postmaster for Wild Haws (Haus). William worked as a clerk on the steamboats traveling on the southern rivers, later running a mercantile store at Wild Haws. William took over James' postmaster duties when his health began to fail. Owen was the youngest of the three brothers and the 6th child of 8 in his family, but his long life and large family kept him firmly rooted at the plantation's headquarters, so that the activities of his siblings often seem to revolve around his more stable family.

Wild Haws underwent a name change in 1869 becoming LaCrosse. In 1883 a deadly tornado did heavy damage to the community. Sometime after the deaths of Owen in 1904 and his wife in 1912, the house was abandoned as the younger generations went off to war then returned to careers in places such as Batesville, Little Rock and Newport. By 1925 the once bustling community was down to its last store. It closed in 1988.^[1] Owen's son, O. Tom, was living with his mother in 1910, but had moved to Salem before he died in 1943. The house was long abandoned but still standing in 1960's. It was dismantled and the bricks reused to build another home on Highway 69 near Possum Trot, though that home was destroyed by fire in the last 10 years.^[2]

Research Notes

Izard County had a Wild Haws Landing that was on the White River near present-day Guion. The post office of the same name which served the plantation was miles away from the river. Its named was changed to LaCrosse in 1869. Care needs taken not to confuse the two.

Slave Owners

• Owen Thomas Watkins II (1822-1904)
• William Frederick Watkins (1817-1891)
• James Davis Watkins (1819-1857), dau. Fannie Victoria (Watkins) Hunt (1844-1918)
• Fannie Gray Watkins (1815-1855) (md. Green W. Hunt); later their son JB Hunt, dau. Fannie Green (Hunt) Puckett (1844-1925). This daughter's in-laws, Edward Roland Puckett, also eventually moved to Izard Co. with 4 slaves. See Rhoda's profile for more info.
• Christopher William Kinnard (1822-1854) (md. Elizabeth Watkins, then Martha Virginia Watkins) and later minor heirs Michael Owen Kennard (1851-1907) and Mary Frances (Kennard) Woods (1853-1931) who lived at the plantation house after their parents' deaths.
• Carter Curtis (Stevens) Stephens (1808-aft.1880) (and wife Mary Watkins)

Slaves

We are told in a back issue of the "Izard County Historian"^[3] that the Watkins brothers, Owen T. Watkins, James D. Watkins and William F. Watkins, entered into a contract on 27 September 1850 agreeing to hold most of their property together for their mutual benefit. Dr. Watkins made an exception in regards to 5 slaves he had inherited from his recently deceased wife (a Kennard by birth), which he would retain sole ownership thereof. These he named as Margaret, Lucy, Balam, Sam, and Rachel. The agreement exempted any future inheritances from a wife, of land or negroes, from being included as mutual property.

The following slaves are listed for Dr. Watkins on the 1850 Slave Schedule, Izard County, Arkansas:

1. 1 female 23
2. 1 male 21
3. 1 male 17
4. 1 female 16
5. 1 male 14 Balam?
6. 1 male 13
7. 1 female 12
8. 1 male 12
9. 1 male 11
10. 1 female 6
11. 1 female 4
12. 1 female 1

In 1850 in Williamson Co., Tennessee, C W Kinnard, owner (wife is a Watkins) has the slaves listed below. They moved to Izard Co. about 1852, presumably with all his slaves. He and his wife both died before 1860 with property passing to their two minor children who lived on the Watkins Plantation. The female slave age 39 is the right age to be Nancy Kennard, wife of Nathaniel Watkins who we see on the 1870 census and then one of the 3 year old boys could be their son, Alfred Watkins and a 1 y.o. girl dau. Liza, but where is Nathaniel, who should be over 50? Nancy is already old enough that many more of these could be her children.

1. M 45
2. M 40
3. F 39
4. F 23
5. M 20
6. F 15
7. F 17
8. F 14
9. M 8
10. F 5
11. M 3
12. M 3
13. F 3
14. F 2
15. F 1
16. F 1
17. M 0 days^[4]

Owner is transcribed as T Hunt (FS is not letting me load images). This may be Fannie Watkins Hunt. Her husband, his parents and one of his brothers are dead. Of the 2 brothers still living we see Enoch in the same co. on the slave sch, but WC is living in a different co. So theses may be the slaves that Fannie brings to Izard Co. ca. 1852. There she will die in 1855 with her son, Josephus B, listed as a slave owner in 1860 in Izard Co. Could this 50 year old male be Nathaniel?

1. M 50
2. F 38
3. F 26
4. F 19
5. F 17
6. F 14
7. F 13
8. F 12
9. M 9
10. F 8
11. M 6^[5]

Edward Roland Puckett, also eventually moved to Izard Co. from Maury Co Tenn, with 4 slaves-two are 46 y.o. males of the right age for one to be the York Puckett we see enumerated in 1870. Don't have any info. on him being engaged in business with the Watkins Plantation, but his son, Pleasant, marries Fannie Hunt Puckett. It seems probable that the grandparents of Rhoda are in this group.

1. F 50 (Hannah Puckett?)
2. M 46 (York Puckett?)
3. M 46
4. F 27^[6]

Need 1860 slave schedule enumerations for above owners. Summary: In 1860, the Watkins Plantation lay in the Conway township, which had 87 of the 382 slaves counted in Izard County. Owen had 22; his brother William also had 22; brother-in-law Curtis Stephens had 12; the estate of Wm C. Kennard (b-in-law) held 21; JB Hunt, a nephew had 14.^[7]

Balam Watkins (1836-aft.1910) Rhoda (Puckett) Hunt Watkins (1856-1916)

Cemeteries

It is believed that many plantation slaves are buried in unmarked graves at the plantation in the family cemetery, Watkins Cemetery. There was also a Watkins Black Cemetery. Is this the same as the cemetery known as the "Lost Cemetery"?

A sizable black community grew up in the aftermath of the CW at LaCrosse, in the shadow of the Watkins plantation. These families were buried at Sweet Home Cemetery. The oldest individual and earliest burial shown on Find a Grave is for Nathaniel Watkins (abt.1795-1887). Some individuals from this community are known to have married into the West Plains, Howell County, Missouri community and are buried at the Sadie Brown Cemetery there.

Sources

1. ↑ Miller, Mary Cooper, https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/lacrosse-izard-county-7389/
2. ↑ https://exploreizard.blogspot.com/2016/07/vintage-photos-watkins-plantation-house.html
3. ↑ Lindley, Helen C., The Izard County Historian, Vol. 5, No. 4, Oct. 1974, pp. 2-21. "The Watkins Brothers and Wild Haws." Mrs. Lindley noted at the beginning of this article that some of the information was coming from private family papers shared by Nell Kennard Childers, a granddaughter of Owen T. Watkins, who passed 3 years after the article appeared. Mrs. Childers also provided photos.
4. ↑ "United States Census (Slave Schedule), 1850 ", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MVHN-MMR : Wed Oct 04 19:17:50 UTC 2023), Entry for and C W Kinnard, 1850. Williamson, Tenn.
5. ↑ "United States Census (Slave Schedule), 1850 ", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MVHN-S2W : Wed Oct 04 18:46:42 UTC 2023), Entry for and T Hunt, 1850. Williamson, Tenn.
6. ↑ "United States Census (Slave Schedule), 1850 ", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MVHD-2BZ : Fri Oct 06 05:34:05 UTC 2023), Entry for and Edw R Puckett, 1850. Maury Co. Tenn.
7. ↑ Taylor, Orville W., The Izard County Historian, Vol. 10, No. 2, April 1979, pp. 8-21. "Slavery in Izard County in the Final Decade, 1850-1860."

• Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936 to 1938, WPA, https://www.loc.gov/collections/slave-narratives-from-the-federal-writers-project-1936-to-1938/about-this-collection/, collection of interviews with ex-slaves. (not from the Watkins Plantation, but for future reference)