The Matriarch of Melrose Plantation and it's Legacy
Melrose plantation is a historical landmark in Natchitoches, Louisiana dating back to 1796 with a rich history and an extraordinary origin.
The Matriarch
Marie Therese Coincoin was born a slave in 1742. Her owners eventually agreed to lease her to a Frenchman named Claude Thomas Pierre Metoyer. This eventually would spark a relationship that would result in the birth of ten children. Claude Thomas Pierre Metoyer would go on to fall in love with Marie Therese Coincoin and eventually purchase her and several of her children leading to their freedom. Marie Therese Coincoin would become a successful businesswoman and the matriarch of her expansive family which would soon become the leading family of a community of free people of color who would come to thrive as businesspeople, plantation owners, and slave owners.
The Founding
With a parcel of land given to her by Metoyer, Marie Therese Coincoin would begin her success mainly through raising and selling of tobacco. In 1796, Louis Metoyer, one of Marie Therese Coincoin's ten children, was deeded 911 acres of land. With this land Louis began construction on a plantation that would become known as Melrose Plantation. Louis Metoyer died in 1832 leaving his only son, Jean Baptiste Louis Metoyer, to oversee the completion of the construction. Jean Baptiste would die 6 years later. At the time of his death the estate was worth over $100, 000.
Debt
Eventually in 1843 the plantation lands came under the ownership of Theophile Louis Metoyer, just nineteen at the time. He owned two plantations and one other smaller tract of land. However, he was very inexperienced when it came to business and soon found himself in deep debt with creditors pushing down on him. BY 1847, he had nearly lost everything he owned, including Melrose plantation which was sold to Henry and Hypolite Hertzog for only $8, 340.
New Owners
In 1847, two brother Henry and Hypolite Hertzog bought Melrose Plantation. According to oral histories, the brothers farmed cotton on nearly the entire land leaving no room for gardens or anything of the sort. The widowed sister of the two brothers moved into the Big House, a two-room, raised cottage at the time, and eventually turned it into a large plantation home. However, they would soon face societal and economic hardships.
Civil War
In 1863 and 1864 the Civil War came to the Hertzog's front door. During the Red River campaign, both Confederate and Union armies had battled, advanced, and retreated in the lands surrounding Cane River, Natchitoches. During the battles and stays, the soldiers had pretty much stripped the lands of all of its goods. During the period Reconstruction, times became especially difficult for the Hertzogs as the cotton market and Louisiana's economy had become unstable. However, during the time of Reconstruction, Fanny Hertzog managed to start the Freedman school at Melrose Plantation which provided the first formal education to former slaves on the plantation. The Hertzogs would continue to farm the lands of Melrose Plantation until selling it in 1881. The plantation was bought by a New Orleans businessman for a brief period and then sold to Joseph Henry three years later.
Names Now Known
When the plantation officially came under the ownership of Joseph Henry, he gave it the of Melrose, the name it is now known as today, after Sir Walter Soctt's poem about Melrose Abbey. Jospeh Henry passed away in 1899. His son, John Hampton Henry, and daughter-in-law, Carmelite (Cammie) Garrett Henry bought the plantation, making it their home. Cammie undertook an expansion of the Big House which included adding the back portion of the home to make her bedroom, indoor kitchen, indoor pantry, and sun/quilting room. When John Hampton Henry suddenly died in 1918, Cammie was left to maintain the agricultural affairs of the plantation. However, she also turned the plantation into a haven for artists, craftsmen, and authors. Melrose plantation became a retreat for visiting artists. Cammie Henry would come to host many well-known writers and artists including that of Lyle Saxon, who wrote his best-known novel, Children of Strangers, while staying at the Plantation, William Faulkner, Rachel Field, Ada Jack Carver, Roark Bradford, and Alberta Kinsey. However, one among them stands out a little more as of today throughout the Cane River and the artist communities. One Cammie's servants was a cook named Clementine Hunter. Clementine was originally a field hand at Melrose when she was just 12. One time while she was cooking, she found some discarded paint an those paints would shape the rest of her life. Clementine became a self-taught artist. Although she never formally learned to read and write, she learned to express herself through painting. One her most famous paintings and murals, is still displayed at the Plantation today and lines the walls of the structure known as the African House. Two years before her death at the age of 101, Clementine Hunter received an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Northwestern State University of Louisiana and today is recognized as one of the most famous African American Folk Artists in the United States.
Clementine Hunter
Auction
When Cammie's son, the manager of the plantation, died in 1970, Melrose Plantation was sold by the Henry family at a public auction. Melrose was stripped as buyers bought different items and many of Clementine Hunter's murals were torn from the walls and sold. Melrose itself was sold to Southdown Land Company to continue farming the acres of pecan orchards. In 1971, Southdown Land Company donated the 6.55 acres to the Association of Natchitoches Women for the Preservation of Historic Natchitoches.
Current Day and Family Ties
The Association of Natchitoches Women for the Preservation of Historic Natchitoches has since changed its name to the “Association for the Preservation of Historic Natchitoches” (APHN) and today continues to operate Melrose Plantation as a historic house museum for the public. Melrose Plantation has become deemed a National Historic Landmark not only for its local or regional importance but also for its vitality to the National story. The story of Melrose Plantation, its founder, Marie Therese Coincoin (my Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great Grandmother), the family that founded a community of free people of color, a woman who survived the civil war and educated slaves, and of the thriving artists retreat that drove a cook to tell her story in paint will continue to live on and be told.