Brigadier General John Floyd (October 3, 1769 – June 24, 1839) was an American politician, slave-owning planter and military officer who served in the 1st Brigade of the Georgia Militia during the War of 1812. One of the largest landowners and wealthiest men in Camden County, Georgia, Floyd also served in the Georgia House of Representatives, as well as the United States House of Representatives.CongBio|F000220
Early and family life John Floyd was born October 3, 1769, at Hilton Head, South Carolina in the Beaufort District, the only child of Charles Floyd and Mary Fendin. He was reared at Walnut Hill, his father's plantation on Hilton Head.
Charles Floyd, owner and planter of Walnut Hill Plantation, had been born March 4, 1747, in Northampton County, Virginia, the son of Samuel Floyd and Susanna "Susan" Dixon. His parents both died in Northampton County when he was six.
He went to live with his Dixon relatives, but three years later his uncle indentured the 9-year-old to a sea captain as a cabin boy. Charles Floyd spent fourteen years at sea, mainly on slave vessels in the Triangular trade, sailing to ports in Europe, Africa and elsewhere. Floyd then settled at Hilton Head, where he managed an indigo plantation. He married this Floyd's mother, Mary Fendin, in 1768 at St. Helena's Church in Beaufort District. Mary Fendin had been born April 15, 1746, in St. Helena's Parish, South Carolina, the daughter of John Fendin Jr. and Elizabeth Thomas.
The Floyds settled at Walnut Hill Plantation on the north side of Fish Haul Creek. During the American Revolutionary War in South Carolina, Charles was a member of the First Council of Safety. These men who favored independence raised a volunteer militia, the St. Helena Guards, whose hats bore a silver crescent with their motto, "Liberty or Death". In 1781, Charles Floyd, along with several others, all members of a war party called the "Bloody Legion," avenged the death of Revolutionary War hero, Charles Davant, by a Tory. Charles Davant had married Elizabeth Fendin (Bland) who was sister to Mary Fendin, so he was Charles Floyd's brother-in-law. Captain Floyd distinguished himself in forays against the British and their colonial policies. In reprisal, Tories plundered and burned the Floyd family home, but teenaged John Floyd survived, as did his mother.
When John Floyd was sixteen, he was apprenticed to a house carpenter for five years. He became so proficient at his work, he was offered an early release from the contract but refused, preferring to work the entire period. At night a distant cousin, Bernard Elliott, tutored him in a variety of subjects including higher mathematics and French. In later years, Floyd spoke this language fluently with guests who dined with him at Bellevue Plantation.
While returning home one afternoon, John Floyd met Isabella Maria Hazzard on the road as she returned from school. Their relationship flourished. However, her aunt, Mrs. Sarah Hazzard Waight, had initially objected, claiming that Isabella Maria could do much better. Isabella Maria (pronounced Mariah) Hazzard had been born January 3, 1773, in St. Marys, Camden County, Georgia, the daughter of Richard Hazzard III of Beaufort District, South Carolina and Phoebe Loftin of then-British East Florida. Some believe she was born at Loftin House, just south of the St. Marys River in Nassau County, Florida. In any event, after her mother's death, Isabella was raised, educated and groomed for society by Mrs. Waight, her father's cousin, in Beaufort, South Carolina.
John Floyd married Isabella Maria Hazzard (1773–1859) on December 12, 1793, in Beaufort District, South Carolina. They had twelve children, including U.S. Army General Charles Rinaldo Floyd (1797–1845), Confederate General Richard Ferdinand Floyd (1810-1890), and Colonel Henry Hamilton Floyd (1817–1873). Charles Rinaldo Floyd predeceased his parents, as did his brothers John (1802–1830) and Henry (1808–1811) and sister Melinda (1812–1831). His brother Samuel (1814–1878) did not fight for the Confederacy, nor did he ever formally marry, but sold the remains of Bellevue to a former slave, and lived in St. Marys with a mulatto women, with whom he had six children before he was buried in an unmarked grave in a town cemetery.
Georgia plantation career In 1795, Charles Floyd (with his wife, Mary) and John Floyd (with his wife, Isabella Maria) moved from South Carolina to McIntosh County, Georgia. They settled on adjoining farms near Darien, Georgia, called "The Thickets". In 1797, after the Treaty of Colerain, Charles Floyd ended the family's formal South Carolina ties by selling Walnut Hill Plantation to a wealthy planter, William Pope Sr.
Bellevue Plantation and Fairfield Plantation
In 1800, the Floyds again moved southward, this time to Camden County, Georgia. They purchased large tracts of land located south of the Satilla River, north of the Crooked River and west of the marshes and the Cumberland River to what is now I-95. Here, in this area that became known as "Floyd's Neck," they built two large plantations a mile apart: "Fairfield" and "Bellevue".
John Floyd built Fairfield on Floyd's Creek for himself. Fairfield House was built in traditional Southern style. The house sat near a high bluff that overlooked Floyd’s Basin toward the west and Floyd’s Creek toward the east. In 1831, John Floyd gave Fairfield Plantation to his eldest son, Charles Rinaldo Floyd. Charles Rinaldo Floyd added a two-story armory in order to display his collected weapons: Swords, lances, daggers, knives, double barrel guns, dueling and long shot rifles, carbines, pistols, dueling pistols, bows and arrows. At either end of the Fairfield House stood two tall brick chimneys with large interior mantles; the floors of the house were of Georgia heart of pine. The house also had a parlor, library and a small sketching room.
John Floyd built Bellevue within view of the marshes leading to Todd's Creek for his father, Charles. Family lore claims that Floyd built Bellevue Plantation shaped as an anchor to symbolize their fortunes' link to the sea. After his father died in 1820, John moved into Bellevue, enlarging it with two upper stories made of cypress.
A blueprint of Bellevue, drawn by Hazlehurst Ross Noyes, a descendant of John Floyd, showed the three-level plantation house as a substantial dwelling. The ground floor or basement was made of tabby with walls over eight feet high and two feet thick; contained two huge fireplaces in which immense cauldrons hung on cranes, supplying hot water to the upper floor bathrooms; household storage areas; a kitchen area for last minute food preparation; the informal dining room and the curved billiard room. The first floor included a long hall, family bedrooms, dressing room, three bathrooms, children’s room, large formal dining room with double fireplaces and the drawing room. The second floor had guest rooms, fireplace and a library filled with John Floyd’s vast collection of books, some quite valuable. Raised open piazzas on two sides of the building featured heavy round columns supporting the roofs. Imposing steps lead down from the south piazza to a terrace and manicured formal lawn beyond.
Both plantations became known for their landscaping and gardens. Bellevue's curved billiard room overlooked a crescent-shaped garden, from which roses extended for a half acre. A mile-long avenue of moss-draped live oaks and cedar trees connected the two plantations, with flowering bulbs and myrtles dotted beneath.
Two hundred acres south of Bellevue were set aside as parade grounds. The land became so compressed from military drills and horse's hooves that nothing grew on it for over a hundred years.
Floyd's Neck
During the nineteenth-century plantation era, Floyd's Neck encompassed swamps, hammocks, pine barrens, forests thick with oaks, gum, cypress, as well as cleared agricultural fields. The Floyds were among the largest landowners and wealthiest families in Camden County. The family owned over 200 slaves; hosted sports club parties, balls and dinner dances at Bellevue; held hunts for wild game, and held shooting, horse and boat racing competitions; they also owned town houses in St. Mary's.
Floyd plantations used slaves to cultivate rice, indigo, and Sea Island cotton. Cotton fields stretched for miles; massive fields of potatoes were grown on Pompey's Island; both plantation houses also had views of corn fields and vegetable gardens. The Floyds also cultivated peach, orange, lemon, lime and olive trees. Fishing in Floyd’s Creek yielded an abundance of drum, whiting, blackfish, and mullet.
Wild game also fed the Floyd family and their slaves. The Camden Hunting Club built a clubhouse at Bear Hammock on Floyd property. On Independence Day July 4, 1835, after hunting for wild turkey and deer, an elegant meal was served, which included toasts. General John Floyd toasted, "The Federal Constitution – the reserved rights of the states, safeguards of the Union. We will defend them at every peril".
Graded roads, sturdy bridges over creeks, were built on Floyd's Neck. These roads led not only to other plantations but westward (inland) to the county seat, Jeffersonton (abandoned after a move back to St. Mary's in 1872), and eastward to Cabin Bluff on the Cumberland River. Bellevue was 30 miles from Jeffersonton. It took four hours on horseback from Bellevue to reach St. Marys. A horse-drawn carriage or wagon could travel from Bellevue to Cabin Bluff in about an hour. Depending on the tide and the wind, it took the Floyds four to six hours to sail in their privately owned boats from the Cabin Bluff dock to St. Marys. Eventually, steamboats could complete the journey in two hours.
Camden County, Georgia tax returns in 1809 show the combined lands owned by Charles and John Floyd as 5,825 acres. The family continued to accumulate property. In addition to Bellevue and Fairfield plantations, their holdings included: The Hermitage, Leeds Grove, Grants Tract, Jones Tract, Bryant and Grays Tract, Brookfield, Bear Hammock, Cabin Bluff, Shellbine, and Black Point; property in McIntosh County. John Floyd’s timber business prospered, and exported cotton brought in high returns.
On May 25, 1808, John and Charles Floyd purchased Little Cumberland Island from the heirs of General (Nathaniel) Nathanael Greene for $500 (~$ in ). On August 24, 1837, John Floyd sold six acres on the north end of Little Cumberland to the United States Government for a lighthouse to be erected on St. Andrews Sound: "John Floyd... hath granted, bargained, sold unto the United States of America Six acres of Land on the Island of Little Cumberland and at the north part of the same and selected as a site for the contemplated Light House to Saint Andrews inlet as the Plat thereof".
John Floyd, a civil engineer as well as a master boat builder, used his workers and his expertise to construct schooners and merchant vessels for shipping and trade.
War of 1812