Nathan Bryan Whitfield | |
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| Born | September 19, 1799 Lenoir County, North Carolina |
| Died | December 27, 1868 (aged 69) Marengo County, Alabama |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Service/ | North Carolina militia |
| Rank | Major General |
Nathan Bryan Whitfield (19 September 1799 in Lenoir County, North Carolina-27 December 1868 in Demopolis, Marengo County, Alabama) was a planter, architect and General of the North Carolina Militia.
Born on the Whitfield family owned Pleasant Plains plantation (built by his grandfather William Whitfield II), to General Bryan Whitfield (1754-1817), he attended school at the age of nine under a tutor and entered the University at age 12. At 17, he completed coursework at the University. Two years later, he became the Counselor of State for the State of North Carolina and was a State Senator. He was later commissioned to Major General rank to succeed his father. In 1789 he was one of the founders of the University of North Carolina and one of its first Trustees.
Gaineswood, the grandest plantation house ever built in Marengo County and one of the most significant remaining examples of Greek Revival architecture in Alabama. [1] was designed and built by Whitfield, beginning in 1843 as an open-hall log dwelling. Whitfield is known to have designed most of the house from pattern books by James Stuart, Minard Lafever, Nicholas Revett and others. [2] Much of the work on the house was executed by highly skilled artisan slaves. [3] Whitfield moved from North Carolina to Marengo County, Alabama in 1834. In 1842 Whitfield bought the 480-acre (1.9 km2) property from George Strother Gaines, younger brother of Edmund P. Gaines.
The grounds had been the site of a notable historic event while owned by George Gaines. When Gaines was serving as the US Indian Agent, he is said to have met with the famous chief Pushmataha, of the Choctaw Nation, under an old post oak tree on what would become the Gaineswood estate. They were negotiating the terms of the treaty that would lead to the Choctaw removal to Indian Territory. The tree became known as the Pushmataha Oak. [4]
Whitfield first named the estate Marlmont in 1843, he renamed it Gaineswood in 1856 in honor of Gaines. [2] The Whitfield family tradition maintained that Gaines' original log house was the nucleus around which Whitfield had the mansion built, and that it was located at the present site of the south entrance hall and office. [3] Gen. Whitfield sold the house to his son, Dr. Bryan Watkins Whitfield, in 1861. The second generation of Whitfields maintained Gaineswood as a residence. Mary Foscue Whitfield inherited the nearby Foscue-Whitfield House in 1861 upon her father's death and used that as a residence as well. [2]
Choctaw County is a county located in the southwestern portion of the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2010 census, the population was 13,859. The county seat is Butler. The county was established on December 29, 1847 and named for the Choctaw tribe of American Indians.
Marengo County is a county located in the west central portion of the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2010 census, the population was 21,027. The largest city is Demopolis and the county seat is Linden. It is named in honor of Battle of Marengo near Turin, Italy, where French leader Napoleon Bonaparte defeated the Austrians on June 14, 1800.
Demopolis is the largest city in Marengo County, Alabama, in southwest Alabama. The population was 7,483 at the time of the 2010 United States Census.
Pushmataha, the "Indian General", was one of the three regional chiefs of the major divisions of the Choctaw in the 19th century. Many historians considered him the "greatest of all Choctaw chiefs". Pushmataha was highly regarded among Native Americans, Europeans, and white Americans, for his skill and cunning in both war and diplomacy.
A plantation house is the main house of a plantation, often a substantial farmhouse, which often serves as a symbol for the plantation as a whole. Plantation houses in the Southern United States and in other areas are known as quite grand and expensive architectural works today, though most were more utilitarian, working farmhouses.
Bluff Hall is a historic residence in Demopolis, Alabama, United States. The original portion of the house is in the Federal style with later additions that altered it to the Greek Revival style. It was documented as part of the Historic American Buildings Survey in 1936, and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. It serves as a historic house museum, with the interior restored to an 1850s appearance.
Gaineswood is a plantation house in Demopolis, Alabama, United States. It is the grandest plantation house ever built in Marengo County and is one of the most significant remaining examples of Greek Revival architecture in Alabama.
Waldwic, also known as the William M. Spencer, III, House, is a historic Carpenter Gothic plantation house and historic district located on the west side of Alabama Highway 69, south of Gallion, Alabama. Built as the main residence and headquarters of a forced-labor farm worked by enslaved people, Waldwic is included in the Plantation Houses of the Alabama Canebrake and Their Associated Outbuildings Multiple Property Submission. The main house and plantation outbuildings were added to the National Register of Historic Places on July 22, 1994.
Dixons Mills is an unincorporated community in Marengo County, Alabama, United States. The community was named for a group of mills operated by Joel B. Dixon in the 19th century. Dixons Mills has a post office utilizing the 36736 ZIP code.
Cedar Grove Plantation, also known as the Charles Walker House, is a Greek Revival plantation house located near Faunsdale, Marengo County, Alabama. It is notable in having been the residence of Nicola Marschall for a brief period while the Walker family owned the property. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places on 13 July 1993 as a part of the Plantation Houses of the Alabama Canebrake and Their Associated Outbuildings Multiple Property Submission.
Faunsdale Plantation is a historic plantation near the town of Faunsdale, Alabama, United States. The town was named for it, in honor of a late owner. This plantation is in the Black Belt, which was developed for cotton plantations. During the antebellum period, planters held as many as 186 enslaved African Americans at this property as laborers to raise cotton as a commodity crop.
The Foscue–Whitfield House, best known as the Foscue House, is a historic Federal style plantation house just outside the city limits of Demopolis, Alabama, United States.
Ashe Cottage, also known as the Ely House, is a historic Carpenter Gothic house in Demopolis, Alabama. It was built in 1832 and expanded and remodeled in the Gothic Revival style in 1858 by William Cincinnatus Ashe, a physician from North Carolina. The cottage is a 1+1⁄2-story wood-frame building, the front elevation features two semi-octagonal gabled front bays with a one-story porch inset between them. The gables and porch are trimmed with bargeboards in a design taken from Samuel Sloan's plan for "An Old English Cottage" in his 1852 publication, The Model Architect. The house is one of only about twenty remaining residential examples of Gothic Revival architecture remaining in the state. Other historic Gothic Revival residences in the area include Waldwic in Gallion and Fairhope Plantation in Uniontown. Ashe Cottage was added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage on August 22, 1975, and to the National Register of Historic Places on 19 October 1978.
Cedar Crest, also known as Cedar Crest Farms, is a Greek Revival plantation house located near Faunsdale, Alabama. It was built for Kimbrough Cassels Dubose in 1850 by Albert Prince, a slave. Dubose, born in Darlington District, South Carolina was educated at the preparatory school of Prof. Stafford who later was of the faculty of the University of Alabama. His wife was Miss Elizabeth Boykin Witherspoon also of Darlington District, South Carolina, and they had seven sons and four daughters: John Witherspoon, James Henry, Jr., Eugene, Nicholas William, Francis Marion, Lemuel Benton and Edwin Dargan-the daughters Louisa, Rosalie, Augusta and Adele. The house is one-and-a-half stories with side gables, but has been simplified. It originally had side wings, with adjoining porches across the front. These were removed in 1939, leaving the small central front portico. Another historic plantation house, Altwood, was moved from a nearby location to the Cedar Crest grounds in 1988. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 5, 1993 as a part of the Plantation Houses of the Alabama Canebrake and Their Associated Outbuildings Multiple Property Submission.
Altwood is a historic plantation house located near Faunsdale, Alabama. It was built in 1836 by Richard H. Adams and began as a log dogtrot house. It was then expanded until it came to superficially resemble a Tidewater-type cottage. Brought to the early Alabama frontier by settlers from the Tidewater and Piedmont regions of Virginia, this vernacular house-type is usually a story-and-a-half in height, displays strict symmetry, and is characterized by prominent end chimneys flanking a steeply pitched longitudinal gable roof that is often pierced by dormer windows.
Cedar Haven was a historic Greek Revival plantation house located near Faunsdale, Alabama. It was built in 1850 by Phillip J. Weaver. Weaver was a prominent merchant and planter. He was born in Mifflintown, Pennsylvania in 1797 and relocated to Selma from Uniontown, Maryland in 1818. He ran a very successful store in Selma and also maintained a home there.
Roseland Plantation is a historic plantation complex site in Faunsdale, Alabama. The site is situated on a low hill at the end of a long driveway on the overgrown estate. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 20, 1994 as a part of the Plantation Houses of the Alabama Canebrake and Their Associated Outbuildings Multiple Property Submission.
The Alfred Hatch Place at Arcola, also known as the Arcola Plantation and locally as the Half-house, is a historic plantation house and historic district on the Black Warrior River several miles northwest of Gallion, Alabama.
Everhope Plantation, known throughout most of its history as the Captain Nathan Carpenter House and more recently as Twin Oaks Plantation, is a historic plantation house near Eutaw, Alabama. Completed in 1853 for Nathan Mullin Carpenter, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage due to its architectural and historical significance.
The Whitfield family was a prominent American political family of the Southern states. The Whitfields formed the American branch of the British Whitfield family - having descended from the British aristocracy, particularly the Earls of Kilmorey and having established colonial residency under Sir. Thomas Whitfield, whom headed East India Trading for the British Empire. In early days of Colonial America, the family emigrated to Virginia in the seventeenth century, particularly, Nansemond County, Virginia from Lancashire, England.
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