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In quick succession, Jackson bought the two spreads described above, and about the same
third site was less than for the others ($2,760), it was the largest at 1920 acres, fully three square miles. The seller was James Mitchell, who had married one of the daughters of Lewis Daniells and had participated in the December sale of Clifton. In addition to these three major sites,
Jackson bought two minor properties, one of 40 acres and the other of 80 acres. As in the transactions for Clifton and the Russ place, Claiborne was intimately involved. On March 17,
1857,	he receipted the draft and two notes tendered by Jackson, with the commitment that they would be handed over to Mitchell upon the completion of an agreement. (Hermitage, ADS. Thi. SM. Apr 97)
For a good description of the larger pieces, the following is excerpted from a letter of young Samuel Jackson to his mother, Sarah, wife of Andrew Jr^on March 26, 1857:
I will endeavour to give you a description of the three places, beginning with the Dannial (sic) place you know now days all the attraction in this world is money, on that account andfor that reason I am pleased with the place, I expect to make this year About SI0,00 (sic) in cotton, [the land] was filled with sedge grass, which makes it very difficult to get it to the propper (sic) state for cultivation we will not have quite two hundred acres this year, we should I think cultivate about three hundred andfifty next year, we never get less than $120.00 pr bale, so you see it is quite a money making place, but as a Residence I do not think you would like this place. Col. Claybourn ?s family is the only one you would visit unless it was at the Bay of St Louis which is eighteen miles distent (sic)and at times a wretched road The house is a very old one and in quite a delapidated (sic) state. It is about three miles distent (sic) to the gulf and between the house and the gulf is mostly marsh. The Bayou which you heard Pa speak of is little to the right of the house we can get to one place on it, that is at the landing211, we have a very nice road leading down there, on eithe (sic) side of the bayou is long grass or rather rush as I believe it is called
210
The seller is believed to have been the person known as ?Black Jim,? a turncoat during the Civil War, referred to in the Koch papers, below. The deed for this sale indicates that the site had been known previously as ?the Nancy Collins claim.? Hancock County Deed Book B, p.539.
211	This is an Indian shell midden, shown on later maps as ?Jackson Landing,? causing some to believe that General Andrew Jackson stopped here before proceeding to New Orleans in 1814
time as the purchase of the Russ place he bought the Mitchell Place.210 While the price of the