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George Washington had ties to Sicily Island
05/01/2004
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In December of 2003 the Baton Rouge Advocate ran an article that mentions Sicily Island.
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By MICHELLE MILLHOLLON
Advocate staff writer
For 17 years, Bill Stafford worked in retail and pursued history as a hobby. Now he has turned his part-time passion into a full-time job.
Stafford is an administrator in the research library at the State Archives.
Display cases at the archives hold more discoveries.
From the Lovelace House in Catahoula Parish, there are personal papers that include children's workbooks. The workbooks date back to the early 1800s.
The pages are vibrant with color and calligraphy. While looking through the collection, Stafford found a scrap of paper.
It was a handwritten note about George Washington, who was the cousin of the plantation owner's wife.
"It's kind of cool to think that an antebellum Louisiana plantation owner was kin to our first president," Stafford said. "If you like history, it's a great place to work."
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Addendum submitted by Barbara Peck Gilbert Haigh who grewup in Sicily Island.
The "Lovelace House" in Sicily Island, which is referenced in the above article, is Ferry Place Plantation located on Lake Lovelace (now called Lake Louie). Legend says that the Native Americans ferried across the lake at this point; hence, its name.
The house and land of the plantation are on the National Register of Historic Places, as there are several Native American mounds which are included and recognized as significant.
Built by John Lovelace (1740-1816) for his wife Anne Hughson (1742-1821), cousin of George Washington, the home became the residence of their son Richard Lovelace (1787-1826) and Louisa Holstein (d.1826), then of their son John Henry Lovelace (1821-1891) and Julia Patience Kirkland (1827-1853), who was born at Pinehill Plantation in the Sicily Island Hills. Their daughter Florence Celeste Lovelace (1845-1881) married her cousin (through the Kirkland family) William Smith Peck I (1842-1910). Their son William Smith Peck II (1873-1946), my grandfather, married Barbara Estelle Woodward (1893-1983), my grandmother, who resided in the plantation home until her death. The Lovelace House has recently been restored by the current owners, my cousins Betty Peck Shaffer, Henry Clarendon Peck II and his son "Trey" Peck.
There are other plantation homes in the Sicily Island area which are related to the Lovelace/Peck families. Pinehill Plantation, built by Zachariah Tucker Kirkland (1799- 1835) and Harriet Perry (1803-1893), who married 2nd, Dr. Richard Henry Norris (1803-1860), is near Norris Springs on Hwy. 913. Ironically, my mother Barbara Jane Peck (1922-1985) and my father Jess Carr "Sonny" Gilbert (1922 -) both descend from Harriet Perry, one through her first husband and the other through her second.
The Green-Lovelace Plantation north of Sicily Island was built by Gayoso Lemos Lovelace (1796-1846) and Eleanor Ann Harding (1808-1873). She married 2nd Henry Green, so the home is called the Green/Lovelace House; it is on the National Register of Historic Places and is owned by the heirs of A.B. "Buddy" Chisum.
Still further north of Sicily Island is Battleground Plantation, built by Dr. Henry John Peck (1803-1881) and Laminda McKinney Smith (1811-1871), a niece of Z.T. Kirkland above. On a site very near where the last battle of the French and the Natchez Indians took place, it is also on the National Register of Historic Places. The Carroll Barron family owns Battleground.
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