Pretty Dead Thing September 25, 2014

Fire ants devour a recently deceased scarlett king snake at Rocquemore plantation.

SOLD- a Cool Plantation in Talbot County, Georgia September 5, 2014

Various views

Bad, bad storm coming from the South. Not to worry!

Rita’s World

1850 Land Grant for Land Lot 56, District 17, Talbot County, which is the northern portion of the James Parker plantation.

Rocquemore view during a blizzard from the pasture facing northeast.

Rocquemore on Labor Day 2014.

Archaeologists are consumed with time and I have various wacko theories about time travel. Here I have positioned two 19th century matching mirrors in order to create a portal for time travel. Please use with caution as these were purchased at auction from an estate sale of a Talbot County town home where a double murder/suicide transpired. If that creeps you out, I will remove them prior to the sale, otherwise they go with the place. Every old house need a place to escape to another century.

So for about 5 years I wondered what variety of bush this was, then I learned it was a pomegranite. It has another crop of one this year.

Not the Nazca lines, but these flowers are trying to tell us something.

LAMAR Institute brain center from 2000-2005.

This picture is for silly, sappy people who like old houses and Currier & Ives prints. Go figure.

Rocquemore during an unusual blizzard.

Do I throw like a girl?

Commissary/smokehouse at Rocquemore during Mike Aderhold’s fabulous renovation.

Kitchen at Rocquemore.

I think this picture was posted twice. Our living room with the mystery patriarch and matriarch. This couple never lived in this house, except as portraits. They were away for about 9 years and are happy to be back now.

We’re off to see the wizard.

Brrrrr! Griffins lllikkkee warm weather.

Ebenezer in the snow at Rocquemore.

Despite the Blizzard, Rita builds a snowman on the back of our trusty dog Ebenezer.

Just grab a seat.

Master builder Michael Aderhold installs the dormer (view of Talbot and Marion County in distance).

Landscape view at Rocquemore showing ceremonial firepit, Ford tractor with bushhog and badmitton court/clothesline.

Farm livin is the life form me! My brother Tom preppin the lower forty or less.

Damsel not in distress, but looking slightly miffed and tired.

A little family history.

Should guests happen by, our guest room.

Rita’s upstairs craft nook. You must be under 5 feet to ride this ride.

Naughty, bad praying mantis, bad, bad. Somewhere I have 8 hours of videotape of this, wonder what that would fetch on Ebay?

Living room without any humans.

Replacing the plywood floor in the hallway where a repulsive bathroom once stood.

Our Indonesian monkeywood bed in the master bedroom. NEVER buy anything on Ebay after 11PM at night.

Baby gets a new roof.

Dormer under construction.

Quiet on the Set! Our house was the stage set for one a clip in one episode of a Georgia Public Television production. That show, where we talk about Ebenezer, is still airing!!

Upstairs under construction. Sorry for the Dirt Daubers and Bats who formerly called this home.

Stairway to heaven (via our upstairs). construction in progress, watch for falling objects!

Stain glass hand crafted by Debra Wells. The photo does NOT do it justice.

The Jones family plays ball at Rocquemore.

Rita and Virginia Pierce, co-conspirators at Rocquemore.

Doot, doot, doot lookin out my backdoor!

Dinner on the back porch.

Our deck after a summer shower.

Rocquemore in Springtime.

Upstairs shower, with tile seat.

Upstairs bedroom (this is our antique folding couch, originally from DeKalb County, Georgia.

Hurricane of September 2004, aftermath.

Keeping watch.

Abandon All Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here (actually the griffins, Percy and Penny, are really quite friendly once you get to know them).

After the September 2004 Hurricane.

Somewhere Under the Rainbow.

Home office wired for internet and quite cozy!

Official Wax Seal, State of Georgia, on 1850 Land Grant for Land Lot 87, 17th District, Talbot County. Document also bears signature of Georgia Governor George Towns.

Our home in Box Springs, Talbot County, Georgia, USA, World, Solar System, Milky Way Galaxy, Universe Number 1 is now advertised for sale. If I had the money, I would certainly buy it! Check out the pictures at our real estate broker’s website: johnbunnrealty.com/featured-properties/407-richardson-road-historic-home-sale-ga/

Astute historians (and our closest friends) will recognize this as the Parker-Wall/Jenkins-Richardson-Mortgage Company-Mortgage Company-Elliott House, or “Rocquemore”. Now you can add your name to the list, or simply stick with the short name we gave it. There you can rock out and rock more or simply chill and watch the [here follows a partial list of aminules we observed while living there]:

Anole
Armadillo (9 banded)
Bald Eagle
Barred Owl
Black Rat Snake
Box Turtle
Canadian Goose (eh?)
Copperhead
Corn Snake
Coyote
Dog (Canis familiaris)
Egret
Fox
Garter snake
Green Tree Frog
Hog

Indigo Bunting
King Snake

Lunar Moth

Monarch Butterfly

Nighthawk

Opossum
Painted Bunting
Pileated Woodpecker

Praying Mantis
Walking Stick

Raccoon
Red Tailed Hawk
Skink
Squirrel
Timber Rattlesnake
Scarlett Kingsnake
Toad
Vulture
White Tailed Deer
Wood Stork

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Zinjanthropus [no not really, but I needed to end with a Z animal]

Here is a short history of the place:

The Parker-Jenkins/Wall-Richardson-Mortgage Company-Elliott House
Historical Overview

By Daniel T. Elliott and Rita F. Elliott, 2014

It is likely that James Parker, Sr. was living on this property (land Lot 87) by 1830. Parker, a North Carolinian then living in Screven County, Georgia, followed the 1827 land rush of white settlers into the region that would be later designated as Talbot County. An ancient Indian trail (Moore’s New Road) ran several hundred yards north of the Parker home [near the modern red fire hydrant on Richardson Road]. This route was traveled by the Cusseta Creek Indians living in scattered settlements known as Upatoi Town. The eastern limits of that Native American town extended more than a mile east and five miles southeast of the Parker home. When relations between the State of Georgia and the Creek Nation soured in 1825, the Upatoi Creeks were pressured to move west to Alabama and Oklahoma.

A courthouse fire in Muscogee County destroyed records that would demonstrate how and when Parker acquired Land Lot 87, but U.S. Census records suggest that by 1835 Parker had completed his impressive Greek revival home. Pleased with his workmanship, Parker carved his initials into exterior clapboard. Those faint letters, “JA R P” are still visible on the northwestern corner of the house.

By 1850, the plantation had expanded to cover just over 300 acres, with the addition of Land Lot 86. It is likely that his son, John Lewis Parker was running the plantation by this time. There were four members of the Parker family here, as well as several boarders, a farm hand, and approximately ten African Americans who were enslaved workers.

In April 1865, a Union Cavalry Corps of 17,000 horsemen commanded by Major General James Harrison Wilson blazed a path from Selma, Alabama to Macon, Georgia. That raid left Columbus’ industry in ashes, as well as the bustling town of Geneva (several miles east of the Parker property). The route Wilson’s raiders took led them directly past the Box Springs community and the Parker plantation, which was spared the torch. The effects of the Civil War were devastating to the Parker family economically. The once enslaved labor force, including Henry Parker and his family, may have remained in the area, possibly working as farm hands for the Parker landowners. John Lewis Parker, son of landowner James and Eda Parker continued as a planter in Talbot County until his death in 1899.

Sometime after 1880, ownership of the Parker plantation passed from the Parker family to Rufus Hampton Jenkins and his wife, Martha A. Pate Jenkins Wall. Rufus died in 1898. Sometime between 1900 and 1910 Martha married John Solomon Wall. By 1928, Martha Wall had moved to Columbus, Georgia. At that time she deeded 80 acres of Land Lot 86 and all of Land Lot 87 to her son, Roy H. Jenkins.

Judge Roy Jenkins owned the property from 1928 until 1944 when it was sold to J.W. Lavender and P.W. Richardson, Jr. Mr. Phillip W. Richardson, Jr. was the postmaster at Box Springs and Juniper, Georgia. The Richardson family consisted of P.W. Jr., his wife Emma Hall Richardson and sons P.W. III, and Eugene. The Richardsons installed dropped ceilings in three rooms, and added an indoor toilet at the end of the central hall. Following her husband’s death, Emma Richardson lived in the house until her own death in 1993. The dwelling and about 10 acres surrounding it were inherited by P.W. Richardson, III. The following year, the house and four acres were sold by P.W. III to his son Terry Stuart Richardson. Terry used the dwelling as collateral in a business venture that failed forcing the Richardson’s to lose the home.

The property was repossessed in 1997 and sold at public auction to a mortgage company. The James Parker home was purchased by Daniel Thornton Elliott and Rita Folse Elliott in 1998, who are the current owners. From 1998-2004, the Elliotts made numerous improvements, striving for rehabilitation/sensitive restoration to the home. This included removing the dropped fiberboard ceilings throughout the house; removing the bathroom at the end of the hall; and upgrading the kitchen with cabinets, tile, and modern conveniences. The had a bank of closets and drawers constructed in the new downstairs bathroom/dressing room, and added more than 500 square feet of built-in bookcases in the hall and library/bedroom. Whenever possible, construction was done without damaging the historical fabric of the house, and installed around historic moldings.

The Elliotts enlisted renowned Columbus, Georgia architect Sia Etemadi who designed a second story room and bathroom, with dormer, stairs, and landings. This design again took the historic nature of the house into consideration and is not visible from the front view of the home. Master builder Michael Aderhold undertook construction of the second story, in addition to other upgrades throughout the house. The Elliotts also constructed a large deck on the rear of the house, the addition of three HVAC systems, the installation of a new steel roof and attic insulation, the additional wiring of the electrical system, and renovation of the dilapidated commissary and smokehouse into a rustic guest/bunkhouse.

In spite of the various owners and occupants of the Parker Home, it retains its breathtaking historical character and understated elegance. Hand-hewn adze marks, 24 inch wide planks, heart pine timbers, tall windows, 12 foot high ceilings and Greek Revival design elements grace this unique structure. The house and plantation are featured in two Talbot County histories by Jordan (1971) and Davidson (1983). The Parker home has been cherished by four families over the past 179 years and becomes an increasingly historical and unique property through time.

-The End-

For more information on the history of the Parker plantation, check out Report Number 83 at: http://thelamarinstitute.org/Reports.htm