Plantations of Yesteryear at Tolu, KY

A plantation culture equal to that in Virginia and the Deep South once existed along the Ohio River near Tolu .  Now they are only a part of our forgotten passages of time.

This era of Crittenden County history began with a grant of 6000 acres to Dr. James Wallace for services as a surgeon in the Revolution. His nephews and nieces came from Culpepper County, VA to take up this grant.

 

To the left of the road, about a mile below the town of Tolu, was the home of Ridgeway, once a lovely mansion built by Arthur Wallace family.  There were 15 rooms in the house, with matching kitchen and storerooms flanking a brick courtyard. At the top of this house was an observatory or cupalo on the roof. It was built sometime before 1843.  The above picture was painted by Rev. Alfred Bennett, a descendant of the Wallace family.

By 2003, the once beautiful old plantation home was at the end of it's days.  Sitting empty for several years about all that was left was the brick walls.  The floors had most all fallen in to the old basement below.

In 2004 a family from out of state bought Ridgeway and torn it down that summer.  They sold the bricks for $120.00 a pallet.   Someone did say the family was descended from the Wallace family that built the house.

A mile farther on the opposite side of the road from Ridgeway, is the ruins of Westwood. This great house was erected by Caroline Wallace, who came from Virginia to establish a plantation. This brick house, built in 1853 was unique in its day, for Caroline built cabinets from floor to ceiling in the pantry and kitchen, which was in the house. There were also closets and store rooms on the second floor. 

There must have been high drama in the life of this remarkable lady. Caroline never married and lived alone at Westwood until her death, while her spinster sister, Amanda Wallace, lived with Arthur at Ridgeway.

After Caroline died, William Wallace bought Westwood from the other heirs. William Wallace married Catherine Molsbee and they had a son Hugh and a daughter Mary Elizabeth. Hugh was raised by their black servants after his mother's death, while Mary Elizabeth was reared by the nuns at St. Vincent's Academy near Morganfield, Hugh was a lieutenant in the Confederate Army and will killed at Shiloh.

Mary Elizabeth married Judson Bennett from Pinckneyville, and they reared their family at Westwood William Wallace designated in his will that the Westwood Plantation be given to his daughter. In the will dated 1870 he gave the house, land and all property of the plantation to his daughter, Betty Bennett. Westwood remained in the family until the death of Mary Bennett Harris and her adopted son Tracy. 

A tornado came through Tolu in June of 1993 and destroyed most of the beautiful home of Caroline Wallace.  Today 27 years later, only partials parts of the brick walls are still standing, everything inside has rotted away with time, floor, stairway, anything that was wooden. 

 The view from Westwood's back windows.  The Ohio in the distance and farther on the hills of Southern Illinois.

Wouldn't it have been wonderful to have seen these two homes in their prime, so beautiful they must have been.  What a wonderful part of history now completely gone and with the families and memories gone, soon to be forgotten.