Page 88 - John Anderson

&KDSWHU:KRLV&DSWDLQ-DPHV2UPRQG,

James Ormond
Died Sept. 30th

1829
An Honest Man

The Ormond family broke up four years after his death, and James Or-
mond III went to Charleston to "learn to become a merchant." His
sister, Agnes, went with him to learn the milliners’ trade. Helen and
Russell went off to Tallahassee to learn the milliners’ trade. Poor,
demented Isabella Ormond died in Columbia, South Carolina, in
1836. Russell Ormond eventually married into the well-known Chaires
family of Tallahassee, and Agnes married a William Ware. During a
yellow fever epidemic in Tallahassee Helen and Russell were stricken
with the infectious disease and died.
Once a complex of twelve buildings, the abandoned Damietta
Plantation was completely destroyed during the Second Seminole
Indian War. A magnificent strand of live oaks, including the landmark
“Fairchild Oak,” marks the location of the former plantation

James Ormond III (May 15, 1815 - 1892)
James Ormond III (1815-1892) was born in Mayfield, Scotland to a
beautiful but anxious mother, the grey-eyed Isabella Ormond. His
mother's nervous condition led him to live for a time on the Bulow
plantation after returning from school in St. Augustine, where he
learned John Bulow's methods of plantation management. While
there, he wrote many amusing tales about Bulow's wild bachelor
ways. He admired his mother and described her as an accomplished
musician and a natural artist, but he was separated from her often.
His father and Uncle Emmanuel both died in 1829. Only one more
crop of cotton was grown before the Ormond Plantation was left to
decay. Its slaves were sold to work sugar crops on the Cruger &
Depeyster Plantation in New Smyrna Beach. James III later joined the
Mosquito Roarers militia during the Second Seminole Indian War and

76