Myrtles Plantation

The **Myrtles Plantation** is a historic home and former antebellum plantation in St. Francisville, Louisiana, United States built in 1796 by General David Bradford.

## History

### Past

In 1794, when General David Bradford was forced to flee Pennsylvania, leaving his wife, Elizabeth, and their five children. A successful businessman and Deputy Attorney General for Washington County, he became involved in the infamous Whiskey Rebellion. George Washington had placed a price on his head for his role in the affair. He fled south to the Spanish territory of Louisiana, purchased 600 acres of land, and built a modest eight-room home. He named it Laurel Grove. Legend states the land he purchased was previously a burial ground for the Tunica tribe. Bradford dug up the bones and disposed of them by fire, setting off a chain of misfortune that would saturate the land forever. While there’s an ongoing legal dispute over the Tunica burial ground 20 miles away, there is no evidence to suggest that Bradford’s land was a burial ground at any point. In 1799, newly elected president, John Adams, granted Bradford a pardon for his role in the Whiskey Rebellion in exchange for his assistance in establishing a boundary line between Spain and the United States. With a price no longer on his head, Bradford returned to Pennsylvania to pack up his family and move them to Laurel Grove. After Bradford’s death in 1808, his son-in-law, Clark Woodruff, took a break from practicing law and managed Laurel Grove with his widowed mother-in-law. He expanded the plantation with 650 acres of cotton and indigo crops. He and Sara had three children, Cornelia, James and Mary. Life was happy, until Sara contracted yellow fever and died. Yellow fever ravaged Louisiana and Woodruff would suffer more loss before the plague was over. The same disease claimed his only son, James, and daughter, Cornelia, a year later. Despite personal loss and tragedy, Woodruff continued to successfully manage the plantation and eventually purchased it outright from his mother-in-law, Elizabeth. After Elizabeth passed in 1830, Woodruff packed up his daughter, Mary, and left Laurel Grove in the hands of a caretaker. He sold Laurel Grove to Ruffin Gray Stirling. Four years later, the Stirling’s were a very prominent, wealthy family, and immediately began vast renovations to the home, nearly doubling it in size and renaming the plantation The Myrtles. Four years after completing the project, Stirling died of tuberculosis. His wife, Mary Stirling, ran the plantation almost single-handedly for many years. However, the Stirling’s would not escape tragedy on the plantation either. Out of nine children born to Ruffin and Mary, only four lived to see adulthood. Their oldest son, Lewis, died the same year as his father. The Civil War was in no way kind to Myrtles Plantation or the Stirling family. Union soldiers looted and destroyed most of the family’s personal belongings and much of the family’s wealth they’d accumulated over the years was in Confederate currency and now worthless. In December of 1865, Mary hired her son-in-law, William Winter, to act as her agent, an attorney to help her manage the remaining plantations. As part of his compensation, Mary gave William and Sarah The Myrtles. However, Winter was unable to hold onto The Myrtles, and by December of 1867, he was completely bankrupt. Surprisingly, only two years later, Sarah repurchased The Myrtles, as heir of her late father, Ruffin Stirling. Though life appeared to look up for the Stirling family, more tragedy lay in wait. According to the “Pointe Coupee Democrat” newspaper, on January 26th, 1871, Winter was teaching a Sunday school lesson in the gentleman’s parlor of the house, when he heard someone approach the home on horseback. The rider called Winter outside, stating that he needed a lawyer. When Winter stepped out onto the porch, he was shot six times with a double-barreled shotgun, sustaining five buck shots to his chest and one to his body. He died instantly, without uttering a word. Winter’s killer was never identified. Sarah Winter never remarried and remained at The Myrtles until her death in 1878 at the age of 44. The Myrtles was then purchased by Stephen Stirling, Mary Stirling’s son. Stirling was rumored to be quite a gambler and lost the plantation due to his habits, ending the Stirling family’s ownership of The Myrtles in 1886. After a series of transfers, the plantation finally settled onto the hands of Harrison Williams. Williams kept The Myrtles going during the hard times of the Postwar South, by planting cotton. Williams and his second wife, Fannie, bore seven children and life was good despite the troubling times, until their oldest son, Harry, fell into the Mississippi River and drowned during a storm. Overcome with grief, Harrison and family turned over management of the plantation to their son, Surget Williams. By the 1950s, the plantation was divided among the Williams heirs. The house itself was sold to a widow from Oklahoma, named Marjorie Munson, and that’s when mentions of ghosts and hauntings begin to surface. While The Myrtles has certainly seen its share of tragedy, most of its legends simply do not align with historical records. Anyone familiar with The Myrtles has heard the tale of the vengeful slave, Chloe, or Cleo, as some have called her, that still haunts the property to this day. It’s said that Chloe was a young household slave of the Woodruff family. She began eavesdropping on family discussions. One night, she was caught by Judge Woodruff, and as punishment, he cut off her ear, forcing her to wear a green turbine to hide her disfigurement. Chloe baked a cake for the oldest child’s birthday and laced it with poisonous oleander, killing two of the children and their mother. Fearing what might happen to them, other slaves hung Chloe from a nearby tree, cut her down, weighted her body with rocks, and threw her into the river. In some versions, Chloe was seeking revenge, in others, she was attempting to secure her place in the household by nursing the family back to health, but things went too far. More recent versions of the tale will also go on to add that because a mirror was not covered when Sarah and the children died, they are still trapped inside the mirror. There are many theories about who haunts the plantation, but one of the oldest is that the property was actually a burial ground for the ancient native American Tunica tribe. It’s believed that a Civil War soldier died on the property. He loved to smoke cigars, and residents have complained that sometimes his room gets filled with cigar smoke. However, that is not the only supernatural occurrence that’s been experienced by the residents. There are also instances where heavy footsteps have been heard on the stairs. Some people have also seen children’s fingerprints and claw marks. Some have also heard grown women scream and cry as well. Some have reported phantom smells of French perfume. Some of the residents staying at the plantation have said that they felt like someone was tickling their toes while they were relaxing in their rooms, the haunting experiences enhanced by the handprints on the beds. If you are a fan of the famous Annabelle doll, then you might want to hear this. There are also some dolls that are said to be possessed. Residents have reported missing jewelry and losing earrings during their stay. It’s also said that William Winter’s blood stains can still be seen on the carpet. One of the scariest supernatural occurrences at the property has to be the mirrors that are haunted by faces. In 1975, the then owner of the plantation reported that they were almost killed when one of the mirrors fell 20 feet on their head. However, they luckily survived to tell the tale. The Chloe photograph. The current owner of the house, Mrs. Moss, took a photo of her house to send to the insurance company for evaluation. The insurance company rejected the photo, citing the reason, that there shouldn’t be any person in the photograph. Mrs. Moss was a little confused because she had taken the photograph herself and knew that there was no person in the photo. However, when she saw the photo again, she saw a black woman with a green turbine in the picture. She knew it was the ghost of Chloe. The only documented murder is that of Winter’s murder on the front porch.

## Legends and ghost stories

### The legend of Chloe

Possibly the most well known of the Myrtles' supposed ghosts, Chloe (or Cloe) was supposedly a slave owned by Clark and Sara Woodruff. According to one story, Clark Woodruff had pressured or forced Chloe into being his mistress. Other versions of the legend have Chloe listening in at keyholes to learn news of Clark Woodruff's business dealings or for other purposes. After being caught, either by Clark or Sara Woodruff, one of her ears was cut off, and she wore a green turban to hide it.

Chloe supposedly baked a cake for one of the two daughters containing extract of boiled and reduced oleander leaves, which are extremely poisonous. The reason she did what she did was to get work back inside the house. A maid who was getting the favor of the mistress was a suspect, with some saying she was getting revenge on the Woodruffs and some saying she was attempting to redeem her position by curing the family of the poisoning. According to the legends, her plan backfired. Only Sara and her two daughters ate the cake, and all died from the poison. Chloe was then supposedly hanged by the other slaves, and thrown into the Mississippi River, either as punishment or to escape punishment by Clark Woodruff for harboring her.

While the U.S. Federal Census confirms that the family owned 5 enslaved people in 1820 and 32 enslaved people in 1830, historical documentation does not support the legend as there are no known records of the Woodruffs owning a slave named Chloe or Cloe. The legends usually claim that Sara and her two daughters were poisoned, but Mary Octavia survived well into adulthood. Finally, Sara, James, and Cornelia Woodruff were not killed by poisoning, but instead succumbed to yellow fever. Regardless of the factual inaccuracy of the Chloe story, some believe a woman wearing a green turban haunts the plantation.

### Other legends

There are a variety of other legends surrounding the Myrtles. The house is supposedly built over an Indian burial ground, and the ghost of a young Native American woman has been reported. During the Civil War, the house was ransacked by Union soldiers, and legend claims that three were killed in the house. Supposedly, there is a blood stain in a doorway, roughly the size of a human body, that will not (or would not) come clean. Other legends say that cleaners have been unable to push their mop or broom into that space.

A mirror located in the house supposedly holds the spirits of Sara Woodruff and two of her children. According to legend, mirrors are covered after a death, but legend says that after the poisoning of the Woodruffs, this particular mirror was overlooked. The uncovered mirror supposedly trapped the spirits of Sara and her children, who are occasionally seen or leave handprints in the mirror.

The plantation is also supposedly haunted by a young girl who died in 1868, despite being treated by a local voodoo practitioner. She supposedly appears in the room in which she died, and has been reported to practice voodoo on people sleeping in the room.

There is also a ghost who supposedly walks, staggers, or crawls up the stairs and stops on the 17th step. Some have said that this is William Drew Winter, the victim of the only verified murder in the house. He was shot on the front porch of the main house and, according to legend, staggered or crawled up the stairs, but collapsed, dead, on the 17th step. Alternate versions of his murder claim he managed to crawl up the stairs, and collapsed in his wife's arms on the 17th step. However, this version of the story is contested.

## Trivia

* The Myrtles Plantation is 228 years old.