Ormond Plantation

Ormond Plantation has survived into the late 20th Century with its unique character and sometimes tragic history. In the early 1780's, Pierre d'Trepagnier was awarded a tract of land by the Spanish Governor Don Bernardo deGalvez, in recognition of Trepagnier's service in subduing the British at Natchez during the American Revolution. The main build... ing was completed shortly before 1790 and occupied by Mr. and Mrs. d'Trepagnier and their children. d'Trepagnier began growing indigo, and then sugar cane, and the Plantation began to prosper. The house is built in the "Louisiana Colonial" style for plantations, which is modeled after the great sugar plantations of the West Indies. The house was constructed using bricks between cypress studs ("Briquettes Entre Poteaux" - Brick Between Posts) on the front and rear walls and a type of adobe filling on the sidewalls. Round cemented brick columns sported the front porch, or gallery, with wood columns on the second floor sporting the roof. The home was often the scene for entertaining officials of the Louisiana and Spanish Governments. In 1798, the first of the mysteries occurred. Pierre d'Trepagnier was summoned from a family meal by a servant to meet a gentlemen, supposedly dressed in clothes signifying a Spanish official. After a word to his wife, Pierre d'Trepagnier left with the man and never returned. No trace of d'Trepagnier was ever found. On June 25, 1805, Col. Richard Butler, son and nephew of American Revolutionary war heroes bought the plantation home and land from Mrs. d'Trepagnier. Butler had served in the U.S. Army and had fallen in love with the South. He named his new home "Ormond", after his ancestral home, the Castle Ormonde in Ireland. On August 7, 1809, Butler became a business partner with Captain Samuel McCutchon, a merchant and sailor, originally from Pennsylvania, when he sold to McCutchon, one-third share in Ormond Plantation. On June 29, 1819, in a private pact signed at the Plantation, Richard Butler turned over all of his holdings to Samuel ...Read More