Savage and Haile Plantation Ledgers

The Haile family, led by Thomas Evans Haile of Camden, South Carolina, moved to Alachua County in 1854. Other family members included his brother, Edward; his mother, Amelia; and his brother-in-law, Thomas Chesnut. The Haile family purchased a large amount of land from Henry Marquand, a land agent for owners of the Arredondo grant. The family brought more than 300 slaves with them to work the plantation and to grow crops of sea island cotton. Thomas Haile and his wife, Ester Serena, brought five children when they moved to Florida, and ten more children were born in their plantation home, Kanapaha. The cotton operations at Kanapaha were very successful. Thomas Haile soon became a wealthy Florida planter, and his mother, Amelia, was the richest planter in the county. His brother, Edward, established a successful mercantile business in Gainesville.

A strong supporter of secession and the Confederacy, Thomas Haile participated in the Civil War as a cavalry officer and his oldest son, John, served as a private. Following the war, Haile returned to Kanapaha to grow cotton. A disastrous harvest soon thereafter forced him to declare bankruptcy in 1868. His brother, Edward, purchased Kanapaha and some of the surrounding lands as well. In 1873 Ester Serena Haile inherited Kanapaha and the family lands.

Source: Wynne, Lewis N. and John T. Parks. Florida's Antebellum Homes (Charleston SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2004).