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Elm Bluff is a historic former plantation and plantation house in the rural community of Elm Bluff, Dallas County, Alabama, United States. Situated on a bluff high above the Alabama River, the now near-ruinous house is considered by architectural historians to be one of the most refined and unusual Greek Revival-style houses in the state. ==History== Elm Bluff was established by John Jay Crocheron around 1840. A lifelong bachelor, Crocheron was born on August 21, 1795 in Richmondtown, Staten Island, New York. He was the son of John Crocheron and Johanna Houseman. The Crocherons were a French Huguenot family. Following the death of his father, Crocheron relocated to Alabama. He was elected as one of twelve directors for the Bank of Alabama during the 1820s, when the bank was located in Cahaba. While in Cahaba he established a successful mercantile business and engaged in various commercial enterprises in Mobile, including ownership of steamships. By 1840 John Jay Crocheron had transferred the running of the mercantile business in Cahaba to his half-brother, Richard Conner Crocheron. Richard Crocheron was one among many Crocheron relatives who had relocated to Alabama from New York.〔 His brick mansion at Cahaba burned in the early 20th century, although some of the monumental brick columns remain, known now as the "Crocheron Columns."〔 Following the transfer of the business to Richard, John Jay Crocheron then relocated to Elm Bluff, near his Crocheron and Stoutenborough relatives in Richmond, named in honor of their former home in New York. He began acquiring additional property until the plantation comprised several thousand acres. In 1845 he completed the main house.〔 His great-niece and longtime Dean of Barnard College, Virginia Crocheron Gildersleeve, described life at Elm Bluff in her memoirs, ''Many a good crusade'':
During the American Civil War, when many of his family members had returned to New York, John Jay Crocheron stayed in Alabama and helped finance a Confederate cavalry unit, named in his honor.〔 Crocheron presented over 100 Colt Dragoon Revolvers to the men of this company at the start of the war. In honor of their benefactor, they named their company after him. The Governor of Alabama, from a stockpile of 600, presented each commissioned officer of the early Alabama companies with a Colt 1851 Navy Revolver. Four officers with the Crocheron Light Dragoons were presented one of these guns from the governor. Three of the four Crocheron Light Dragoon Colt Navy’s survive. The Crocheron Light Dragoons served as the escort company to successive commanders of the Army of Tennessee following the Battle of Shiloh, continuing until the end of the Civil War. These commanders were Braxton Bragg, Joseph E. Johnston, and John Bell Hood.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.oldsouthantiques.com )〕 John Jay Crocheron died before the end of the war, on October 17, 1864.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Elm Bluff Plantation」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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