Despite Oakland being under Thorne Family ownership for most of it's existence, the property was sold to and used by Mark Harwell Pettway for at least 16 years. Oakland's National Register of Historic Places "nominee form" states: "In 1836, Mrs Mary K. Williams sold to Mark Petway for $4,500 the tract: "known by the name of Oakland Plantation," save the burial ground at the end of the garden now enclosed with rock", which was retained by her as a burial ground".[2]
Mark H. Pettway (born about 1792) was a planter born in Mecklenburg County, Virginia and moved to Halifax County, NC in adulthood. The 1830 census recorded M.H. Pettway in the "2nd Regiment" of Halifax County, NC with a total of 89 enslaved persons. The 1840 census records Pettway in Halifax County, NC with a total of 36 enslaved persons. By 1846, Pettway moved to Gee's Bend, Alabama to take possession of a plantation he acquired from his relatives, who were $29,000 in debt to him. By 1852, Pettway had placed ads in a North Carolina newspaper, for his plantation known as "Oakland"[citation needed]
12Survey and Planning Unit Staff (February 1973). "Oakland"(PDF). National Register of Historic Places - Nomination and Inventory. North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office. Retrieved November 1, 2014.
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