Today's motorcycle adventure was a ride over to "The Gregory House," a plantation
built in 1849 by Planter Jason Gregory, that stood across the river from the park at Ocheesee Landing. The story goes that standing by the old oak tree still at Ocheesee Landing, you would be dwarfed by its size. It had once been used as an anchor for the Gregory House when the “freshots” (floods) came, and a good anchor it must have been. Its girth is nearly 28 feet. The Parks Department estimates the tree to be 500 years old.
There isn’t much left at Ocheesee Landing now, just a boat ramp (which is new) and the tree. Ocheesee Landing used to be a busy place; now it’s listed as one of Florida’s ghost towns.
In 1824 when Jason Gregory Jr. was 13, his family moved to Gadsden County from Onslow County in North Carolina. He stayed there until he was about 33. Apparently he went to Ocheesee Landing to oversee the operation of the landing. When he arrived in 1844, Jason bought several lots at Ocheesee Landing. The landing, built a short distance downstream from the old oak tree, a cotton gin, and sawmill was soon in operation. Eventually he also owned a general store and a warehouse that stored the freight that was coming in or going out. He also supplied the local farmers with seed and fertilizer. Jason Gregory was an industrious man who seldom missed an opportunity to expand his holdings. He eventually built a grist mill six miles downstream. Some of the first land he bought was owned by Gressom and Margaret Bird, who lived at Ocheesee for years. He bought other pieces of land from Seaton Grantland of Baldwin County, Ga., T.R. Betton of Leon County, and Edwin G. Booth of Notteway County, Va. All of these parcels of land were in and around Ocheesee and the landing. “Jason" owned nearly 3,000 acres in the area of Ocheesee alone,” and it is heard that he owned other properties along the river that stretched into Jackson county. Jason raised cotton and tobacco on this land with some 40 slaves furnishing the labor that made it profitable. It was said that he had the largest cotton and tobacco plantation in this part of Florida. Cotton was profitable until the Civil War ended slavery; it was then that his small empire started to crumble.
The Gregory House was started in the fall of 1847 and finished two years later in July. It was built just south of the oak tree. It faced the river and sat on 8-foot brick pillars to keep it above the water when the river got out of its banks.
The house was built in the Greek Revival style, as were many of the plantation houses of the time.
There are four bedrooms upstairs and a sitting room, parlor, library and office downstairs. The kitchen and dining room were in a separate building at the rear of the house, attached by a covered walkway. The walkway led into the main house through the sitting room.
During the Civil War, the crew of the Confederate gunboat Chattahoochee patrolled the Apalachicola River and were frequent visitors to the Gregory House.
Jason Gregory managed to keep most of his enterprises going until 1873 when he moved his family to Gainesville. He had sold much of his land to pay taxes. This was not unusual for plantation owners after the Civil War. They were also fleeing a Yellow Fever epidemic. In Gainesville, the Gregorys lived in a house that was very much like the house at Ocheesee Landing. Jason Gregory Jr. died there in 1886. Yellow Fever struck Florida again in 1888 and Jason’s wife, Ann, and the children fled Gainesville to escape the dreaded disease, but all of them perished with one exception. His daughter, Atchafalaya, shortened to “Chaffa,” survived. She was a primary school teacher in Gainesville and owned a private school.
Stay tuned tomorrow for the rest of the story...
Nana
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