Halcyon Plantation was a property in Coahoma County, Mississippi that was purchased in 1838 by former U.S. President Andrew Jackson as an investment property for his son Andrew Jackson Jr. The 1,100-acre property was acquired for $23,700, to be paid in four equal installments, the first due in 1839.[1] Halycon was plagued by an array of problems including inadequate management, neglect of the enslaved workforce, and a series of natural disasters including an 1843 Mississippi River flood that destroyed 60,000 pounds of cotton.[1] Jackson Jr. bought another 480 acres in Coahoma for $4,000 in 1844.[2] The former president died in 1845 heavily in debt but his political ally Francis P. Blair and his partner John C. Rives made several payments on the property such that their names appeared on deeds for the property.[2] Jackson Jr. ultimately sold 1,700 acres in Coahoma County for $25,500 in 1858.[2] After Junior relinquished the property, it quickly reverted from farmland to woodland.[3]
As a result of the Jackson Cutoff and Sunflower Cutoff in 1941 and 1942, the course of the Mississippi River shifted and the land is now on the west side of the river adjacent to the U.S. state of Arkansas.[4] Circa 1955 the property that had once been Halcyon was owned by Grief Brothers Cooperage Corp., Chicago Mills, the Coahoma County Conservation League and Burke Landing Realty Co.[2] According to the Clarksdale Register, "Chicago Mill and Lumber Co. owned the tract for a time and occasionally harvested timber there, but for the most part it has been a haven for hunters."[3] As of 1991 Jackson Point Hunting Club owned what had once been Halcyon.[3]
References
[edit]- ^ a b "Andrew Jackson's Mismanaged Mississippi Plantation". Sun Herald. January 1, 1966. p. 2. Retrieved 2025-08-19.
- ^ a b c d "Floods, Mismanagement Blamed for Failure". The Clarksdale Press Register. December 2, 1955. p. 5. Retrieved 2025-08-19.
- ^ a b c "Runnels". The Clarksdale Press Register. January 26, 1991. p. 3. Retrieved 2025-08-19.
- ^ "Jackson once owned land in bend of River by Harry Abernathy". The Clarksdale Press Register. January 26, 1991. p. 1. Retrieved 2025-08-19.
Further reading
[edit]- Galloway, Linda Bennett (1950a). "Andrew Jackson, Junior". Tennessee Historical Quarterly. 9 (3): 195–216. ISSN 0040-3261. JSTOR 42621045.
- ——— (1950b). "Andrew Jackson, Junior (Continued)". Tennessee Historical Quarterly. 9 (4): 306–343. ISSN 0040-3261. JSTOR 42621053.
- Serme, Jean-Marc (2003). "Stormy Weather at Andrew Jackson's Halcyon Plantation, in Coahoma County, Mississippi, 1838–1845". Revue française d'études américaines (98): 32–47. doi:10.3917/rfea.098.0032. ISSN 0397-7870. JSTOR 20874927.
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