1
methodically numbered before it
was loaded and brought to Vidalia,”
said Dorsey. “They stored all of the
materials that they could in the Dixie
Oil Company warehouse. What they
couldn’t find room for there was
placed on the grounds. My dad was
about sixteen-years-old at the time
and he remembers the piles of lumber
stacked all over the property prior to
construction.”
Even with the material from
the Croft-Brooks house, Jack and
Margaret were still undecided on
the exterior design for the house
they planned to build. When they
discovered Labatut Plantation on
the Mississippi River, all the pieces
finally came together. “They were
62 TOOMBS COUNTY MAGAZINE
traveling by steamboat with the
Joneses when they came up on the
Labatut Plantation,” said Dorsey.
Labatut, a French surname and
toponym meaning “reclaimed wood,”
was an old Creole-style house not far
from the banks of the river. Margaret
immediately had the captain of the
boat pull to the side so she could
disembark. She walked closer and
took a picture.
According to the genealogytrails.
com, “Labatut Plantation was built c.
1 The large
beams on the
porches are
heart pine
salvaged from
the Union
Station in
Savannah,
which was
built during
the early 1840’s
and torn down
in the 1960s.
2 Margaret
kept notes
and receipts of
the antiques
the Ladsons
purchased.
1790-1810….Built by Slave labor for
a Spanish nobleman, Don Evarist de
Barra, the plantation was acquired by
the Labatut Family when De Barra's
sister married General Jean Baptiste
Labatut. It has belonged to them
ever since. A picture of Labatut was
included in Clarence John Laughlin’s
book of photographs entitled Ghosts
Along the Mississippi. In speaking
of Labatut, Laughlin writes, "In
melancholy light it looms, trembling
upon the verge of destruction."
"...architecture and antiques were
passions both my grandparents shared."
historical details
2