Tuscawilla Plantation was a large forced-labor farm growing cotton on located in eastern Leon County, Florida, United States established by George W. Parkhill.
Location Tuscawilla Plantation bordered the northern tip of the south tract of Chemonie Plantation. Today, the land that was Tuscawilla is now the neighborhoods east of Chaires Cross Road and the north and south sides of Buck Lake Road, much of Baum Road, north and south sides of I-10, including Heartwood Hills, Tung Grove Road, Pennewaw Trace, and Bexhill Lane.
Plantation specifics The Leon County Florida 1860 Agricultural Census shows that the William Bailey Plantation had the following: Improved Land: Unimproved Land: Cash value of plantation: $36,000 Cash value of farm implements/machinery: $1500 Cash value of farm animals: $10,000 Number of slaves: 172 Bushels of corn: 3000 Bales of cotton: 200
The owner John Parkhill was a physician by trade and a native of Ireland and left Richmond, Virginia on April 15, 1827, with his brother-in-law William Copland in a stagecoach headed south. Parkhill left his wife and 2-year-old son behind. Parkhill and Copland headed to Florida to examine and purchase land. Parkhill worked as a postmaster and banker in Tallahassee.
Parkhill joined the Confederate Army August 20, 1861 as a captain and died at the Seven Days Battle near Gaines' farm and Richmond, Virginia between June 25, 1862, and July 1, 1862.
References Rootsweb Plantations Largest Slaveholders from 1860 Slave Census Schedules Paisley, Clifton; From Cotton To Quail, University of Florida Press, c1968. UNC Library