Arkansas does not have many antebellum mansions, but among the survivors is Lakeport Plantation located near Lake Village in Chicot County. Over the holidays I had the opportunity to visit the site for the first time since it was restored and opened to the public by Arkansas State University.
Lakeport was built by Lycurgus Leonidas Johnson, one of the largest and most successful cotton planters and slave owners in Arkansas. Johnson, his family, and his 19-room mansion encapsulate much of the history of the powerful elites of Arkansas before the ravages of the Civil War.
Born March 22, 1818, Lycurgus Johnson was the oldest of nine children in the family of Joel and Verlinda Offutt Johnson of Scott County, Ky. The extended Johnson family was full of prominent people, including Richard Mentor Johnson, Lycurgus' uncle who served as vice president of the United States during the administration of Martin Van Buren. Another uncle, Benjamin Johnson, was a distinguished Arkansas lawyer and a federal district judge for eastern Arkansas. The Johnsons were leading members of The Family, the political dynasty which ruled antebellum Arkansas.
Joel Johnson, Lycurgus' father, came to Territorial Arkansas in 1831 and began buying land in Chicot County south of modern Lake Village and near the Mississippi River. Within a few years Joel was owner of a prosperous cotton plantation which he named Lakeport after a nearby steamboat landing. Lycurgus, while still a teenager, joined his father in Arkansas and before long he had his own plantation just downriver from Lakeport.
Though it took a prolonged legal effort, Lycurgus acquired ownership of Lakeport Plantation in 1857 following the death of his father in June 1846. This gave Lycurgus Johnson ownership of more than 4,000 acres of prime Delta land and 183 enslaved laborers. His land produced 1,300 bales of cotton and 10,000 bushels of corn in 1860, with his taxable property exceeding $200,000. One Arkansas newspaper predicted in May 1857 that, given the high prices paid for cotton, "Arkansas planters will be as rich as cream a foot thick."
In June 1842, Lycurgus married Lydia Taylor, the daughter of another Kentuckian with large landholdings in Arkansas. They had 12 children, but five of them died before reaching adulthood. The three oldest children all died within three weeks of each other in December 1847 and January 1848.
Not long after acquiring Lakeport Plantation in 1858, Lycurgus and Lydia decided to build a home befitting their prominence. And, what a home it was!
Built in a modified Greek Revival style, the plantation house was an imposing two-story structure measuring 67 by 44 feet. Using lumber from area cypress forests, Johnson constructed a home with a two-story portico in front, topped with a triangular gable with a rose window. Large tapered columns supported the portico.
Everything about the house was grand. The front doors were 11 feet high, opening into an entry hall measuring 16 by 25 feet. The entry, which has a 14-foot-high ceiling, was lit by a chandelier hanging from an ornate rosette. The entry floor was covered with a painted cloth--some of which survives and is on exhibit.
Interestingly and somewhat unusually, the kitchen was attached to the house. It contained a huge cast iron cook stove, which survives. A large brick smokehouse, which has been reconstructed, stands at the rear of the structure.
The Johnsons had only a few years to enjoy their new home before the Civil War brought massive changes. The skilled workforce of slaves was lost, and federal foraging parties stripped the plantation of its tools, wagons, and draft animals. Thankfully, the house survived--as did the family fortune.
Arkansas Tech University historian Thomas DeBlack has written that ". . . while many of his neighbors were sinking into economic ruin and despair [following the war], Lycurgus Johnson was prospering." Using a new federal bankruptcy law, Johnson was able to escape his debts. He was also able to hire many of his former slaves to work for wages. By 1870, Johnson was the largest cotton producer in Chicot County, with 600 bales.
Lycurgus Johnson died prematurely at age 58 in 1876. Lakeport Plantation stayed in the family until 1927 when it was sold to Sam Epstein, whose family later donated the house for public use. In 2001 Lakeport Plantation House was given to Arkansas State University, which has done an outstanding job in restoring and interpreting the building.
Arkansas State has hired one of the state's outstanding historians, Dr. Blake Wintory, to be manager of Lakeport. The site is open to the public for a small fee. Be sure to visit the extensive Lakeport website prior to visiting (http://lakeport.astate.edu/).
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Tom Dillard is a historian and retired archivist living in rural Hot Spring County. Email him at Arktopia.td@gmail.com.
Editorial on 01/10/2016