Verdura Plantation

Benjamin Chaires Sr., Plantation Owner

Verdura was a large cotton plantation of 9,440 acres located in eastern Leon County near Tallahassee and established by Benjamin Chaires. Benjamin Chaires was born in Onslow County, North Carolina, on January 25, 1786, the son of Joseph and Mary Green Chaires. He first moved to Jefferson County, Georgia, and married Sarah Jane Powell on February 8, 1811, in Baldwin County, Georgia.

Chaires began buying land in Florida while it was still controlled by Spain, buying a one-third interest in a plantation on Amelia Island in 1818, and purchasing additional land near Jacksonville and St. Augustine. While living in northeastern Florida, Chaires was involved in a lawsuit with Zephaniah Kingsley, best known as the developer and owner of the Kingsley Plantation on Fort George Island. The lawsuit involved timber Chaires had harvested from Kingsley’s Greenfield Plantation, located at the juncture of the St. Johns and Pablo Rivers.

In May 1820, Chaires and Thomas Fitch purchased 59 slaves from George Atkinson of Camden County, Georgia, with Chaires receiving 32 slaves as his share. Fitch was also a plantation owner and slaveholder in South Georgia and East Florida. When Florida was ceded to the United States in 1821, Fitch was appointed the first Judge of the new territorial government in St. Augustine. That same year, though, the yellow fever epidemic had come to St. Augustine, and within days of his appointment as Judge, Thomas Fitch, his wife, and children died of yellow fever.

When the city of Jacksonville was founded in 1822, the survey of the first section of Jacksonville was conducted in June 1822 under the supervision of Chaires and two other commissioners. Duval County was created out of St. Johns County on August 12, 1822, and Jacksonville was designated the county seat of Duval County. Chaires was friends with William Pope Duval, the governor of the Florida Territory, who appointed Chaires County Judge for Duval County for a term in 1823 and 1824. Chaires was also a justice of the peace in Duval County.

In 1824, Chaires received a contract to provide rations to the Seminoles as provided for in the Treaty of Moultrie Creek. Although he held the contract for only a year, the profits that he made from that contract partially funded his future land purchases. Eventually, he came to own 30,000 acres in St. Johns, Duval, and Alachua counties. Under an Act of Congress on May 23, 1828, Chaires claimed part of the 20,000-acre Arredondo Grant located around Alachua and High Springs. According to Sharyn Heilman Shields, author of the book Whispers from Verdura: The Lost Legacy of Benjamin Chaires, Chaires had purchased up to 45,000 acres in Florida.

Verdura Plantation

After arriving in Tallahassee in the late 1820s, Benjamin Chaires rose to become one of Leon County’s most affluent landowners. In 1832, he established the 500-acre Verdura Plantation, located ten miles east of the city, and constructed a mansion widely considered the finest in Florida. His influence was mirrored by his brothers, Green H. and Thomas Peter Chaires, who founded the Evergreen Hills and Woodlawn plantations nearby.

These estates were built on the labor of enslaved people, who were forced to manufacture bricks by hand. These handmade materials not only formed Chaires’ own residences, Verdura and The Columns, but also provided the foundation for regional landmarks, including Florida’s second state capitol and the Apalachicola Arsenal in Chattahoochee.

According to Marc R. Matrana regarding Verdura, author of Lost Plantations of the South, “The mansion, which was built in the early 1830s, sat on a hill encircled by a stream. It was a three-story building constructed of clay and bricks, which were each handmade on the plantation by one of the estate’s sixty slaves. The front and rear entrances were approached by broad staircases. On the east and west sides of the house there were verandas supported by great Tuscan columns. The mansion contained some thirteen to fifteen rooms, and for gran parties and balls the great rooms of the lower level could be thrown open to create a flowing eighty-foot wide space. Inside, double stairways led to the upper floor, and above, in the attic, one could see the Gulf of Mexico on a clear day.”

Other Ventures

In addition to Verdura Plantation, Benjamin Chaires managed a vast real estate portfolio that spanned Leon, Duval, St. Johns, and Alachua counties. Beyond his primary holdings near Tallahassee, he also maintained significant land interests surrounding the coastal hubs of St. Marks and St. Joseph.

A notable 1836 acquisition involved an 800-acre plantation and 57 enslaved people known as the Bolton Plantation in Jefferson County. While the official deed recorded a purchase price of $25,000, Chaires secured a $50,000 mortgage for the transaction. This significant gap suggests the sale may have been intentionally undervalued on paper to reduce tax liabilities.

Beyond his extensive agricultural pursuits, Benjamin Chaires was a pivotal figure in the financial and infrastructural development of territorial Florida. While cotton remained his primary focus, he aggressively expanded into the banking sector, serving as president of the Central Bank of Florida after it absorbed the Bank of Florida in 1832. His influence spanned various financial institutions, from “merchants’ banks” to the more exclusive Union Bank of Tallahassee, a “planters’ bank” reserved for fellow landowners. Chaires also co-founded the Merchants and Planters Bank of Magnolia.

Chaires and his brother Green also helped organize the Tallahassee Railroad in 1834. Chaires’ involvement with the Lake Wimico and St. Joseph Canal and Railroad Company proved particularly significant; despite the financial devastation of the Panic of 1837, he maintained progress on vital rail lines by demanding tangible assets over depreciated company scrip. To complete his vertically integrated empire, Chaires even financed the construction of the General Samuel Parkhill, a vessel designed to bypass Northern middlemen and ship cotton directly from Florida ports like St. Marks and Magnolia to international markets in Liverpool.

Widely regarded as the wealthiest man in Florida during his time, Benjamin Chaires was often cited as the territory’s first millionaire. His immense cotton empire was built largely on the labor of 213 enslaved people, a population the 1830 US Census noted was remarkably young; nearly all the women and half of the men were under the age of 37, including 64 children. This demographic suggests that Chaires deliberately selected for their youth when purchasing or transporting enslaved individuals to his estates.

His success as a planter granted him entry into “The Nucleus,” an elite Tallahassee political faction composed of Andrew Jackson’s associates, including James Gadsden, Achille Murat, and John Bellamy. Although he was chosen as a delegate for the St. Joseph constitutional convention to help draft the framework for Florida’s statehood, he passed away before he could attend.

Death and Legacy

Benjamin Chaires died on October 4, 1838, at the age of 52. He left one-tenth of his estate to his wife, Sarah, including the Verdura mansion and 500 acres around it, the furniture in the mansion, a carriage, and its driver. Each of his ten children received a one-tenth share of the estate as well, except for his daughter Mary Ann Chaires Burgess. Seemingly having disdain for his son-in-law, Chaires left Mary Ann $10,000 to be transferred to her only after the death of her husband, William Gaither Burgess, specifically stating that “William Burgess shall not have any part of the same or enjoy any benefit whatsoever.”

Chaires left Bolton Plantation to his daughter, Martha, who eventually married Robert Howard Gamble. Robert was the cousin of Robert Emmett Gamble III, the man responsible for establishing the Gamble Plantation in Ellenton. Chaires’ daughter, Sarah Jane, had married George Taliafero Ward, and the land she inherited was incorporated into his Southwood Plantation.

In 1839, Joseph Chaires began operating his father’s Verdura plantation. Tax records that year showed Chaire’s estate to consist of 9,440 acres, 80 slaves, and “pleasure carriages” worth $800. In 1860, the US Census reported that 63 slaves at Verdura had produced 160 bales of cotton and 25,000 bushels of corn. Following the Civil War, however, Verdura suffered due to the loss of slave labor and the depression in the cotton market that followed. The main house burned in 1885, and the plantation was abandoned.

Henry, Chaires’ slave carriage driver, left to Chaires’ widow, Sarah, in his will, is buried in the family cemetery near the ruins of the mansion. Sarah died on March 12, 1846, at Verdura. The Chaires family eventually sold what was left of the plantation in 1948.

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