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J. F. H. Claiborne at ?Laurel Wood? Plantation, 1853-1870	3
bined into one timber district and that ?the care of the public timber therein should be confided to him, with an appropriate salary.? Pierce made the appointment, and in 1857 President Buchanan reappointed Claiborne to the post.8 Immediately following his first appointment as timber agent Claiborne moved to ?Laurel Wood.?
Fronting on the Gulf of Mexico at Mulatto Bayou, ?Laurel Wood? lay between Bay St. Louis and the Rigolets in southern Hancock County, approximately twelve miles from Fort Pike. Though isolated by a pine forest and salt marshes, it had easy access to plantations on the banks of the nearby Pearl River. Built in 1800 by slave labor, the small house with pitched tin roof was supported by high brick piers joined by iron bars to hold Negroes brought ashore from slave ships in the early days of the century. Slave quarters were located to the rear of the main structure.7
Though he had little training or experience in plantation management, Claiborne made a financial success of the plantation. His devotion to agricultural pursuits is indicated in a letter to Benjamin L. C. Wailes in 1856, in which Claiborne wrote that he contemplated the publication of a farm monthly to be called the Sea Shore Farmer,8 He became interested in experimenting with new crops, and introduced new varieties of garden peas which he procured in France, England, and Germany. His account of their cultivation was published in 1857 in the agricultural report of the Commissioner of Patents.9 Claiborne raised potatoes and other vegetables in quantity and had extensive orange
? Ibid., 232-233.
' Federal Writers? Project, Mississippi Gulf Coast: Yesterday and Today, 1699-19S9 (Gulfport, 1939), 116.
8 Charles S. Sydnor, A Gentleman of the Old Natchez Region-. Benjamin L. C. Wailes (Durham, 1938), 137.
J. F. H. Claiborne, ?Report of an Experiment of Nine Varieties of Garden Peas, by J. F. H. Claiborne of Laurel Wood Plantation, Hancock County, Mississippi,? Report of the Commissioner of Patents for the Year 1856: Agriculture (Washington, 1857), 314.