Remember When: Cameron Plantation House

By Guest Columnist Mary Jane Boutwell

A while back, I was talking to a young man with hunting friends in Madison County. They were new owners of the older home on the Cameron Plantation. They hired people to do archeological work on the house and yard. The reason I remember the conversation was his statement. They found a swimming pool in the yard - concrete walls and all. Let me insert this before I go any further: I have not seen any of the results of all this activity.

My response to his statement was, “It was not a swimming pool.” During the time the house was built, swimming pools were not. People did not bathe often, as it was so easy to get pneumonia or other lung problems with no handy antibiotics. Everyone had a body odor, so everyone’s nose adjusted and did not send a message to the brain on how the newcomer stank. Also, there was a river close to the house, with flowing water and fish.

Several years ago, I made a comment to someone about the small pool in the side yard of the house on the southeast corner of Peace and Lyon Street. My thought was that it was a water lily or goldfish pool. I was corrected - it was where the residents put live river catfish to remove the off-flavor of the muddy river and keep them alive until time to eat.

Also, turtle pens were used. This was basically a turtle farm to raise and keep them until they were eaten. Now-a-days, folks run over them; but, back then, it was good meat. A program on PBS had a statement that turtles have seven different kinds of meat, All my growing up, it was told to me that the Cameron Plantation was a Spanish Land grant. I hope one day to trace that, right or wrong. In one of the graveyards on the property, the date goes back to the 1700s. 

Jim Lacey’s second book comments that it is unusual for a family to own land for around one hundred years. The Camerons bought the place somewhere around 1870 and sold it in the mid 1900s. That sounds like the Camerons were carpetbaggers. One of the fun things Bobby Heath has confirmed is that there was a bowling alley in the house. He bowled using the round wooden balls - no finger holes. 

Alfred Hardy Jr. told two tales of the place. One, they were re-doing the house and floors. There was a large piece of furniture they could not move or get out of the room, so the owner said, “Break it up.” Alfred told them how to place it on rollers to move it, and it was saved. 

The same owner wanted a shed cleared out. He told one of the long-time workers to do it. It was full of old horse-drawn buggies, wagons, and other stuff. When the worker asked what to do with all of it, the owner said, “Get rid of it.” It was all burned. The shed was cleaned out.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Mary Jane Boutwell is a passionate historian and is thrilled to share stories about way back when.