History of Magnolia Plantation

Ambrose Lecomte and his wife Julia Buard built the first Main House atMagnolia Plantation in 1850. Lecomte had been acquiring land throughout the 1820s and `30s, while at the same time shifting from food crops and small tobacco exports to large-scale cotton production. By 1860 the Lecomtes were the largest slaveholders in Natchitoches Parish; these laborers had cleared 2,240 of the Lecomtes` original 7,000 acres and were producing huge cotton crops. One of three plantations the family owned, Magnolia was the home site.

Just as this part of Magnolia Plantation belonged to the same family for two centuries, so too do many descendants of Magnolia`s workers still live in the immediate area. In the aftermath of the Civil War fraternal organizations and freedmen`s churches helped hold the community together. One African Methodist Episcopal church, St. James, stood on Magnolia itself until the 1960s, and the congregation performed burials just across the river at St. Andrew`s Baptist Church. The influence of the plantation itself continued to be an intregral part of people's everyday lives, and not just as an employer. Baseball diamonds and bush racetracks at Magnolia and other area plantations were common ground for local groups, as were activities centered around emphasizing the strength of community at Magnolia and the plantation store.