South Bend Plantation

South Bend Plantation. . (side 1) , The first tracts of South Bend Plantation, originally known as the Jordan Place, were purchased in 1840 by Dr. John Augustus Jordan. In 1852, Jordan and Irene Johnson married and built a stately southern Georgian mansion on the property using slave labor at a cost of $50,000. Jordan, a financial supporter of the newly formed Confederacy, later died at the home in 1861 after contracting pneumonia upon his return from New Orleans with military supplies. Irene left the mansion in the care of overseers and moved to Little Rock. In January 1863, after the surrender of Arkansas Post, two 21st Texas Cavalry regiments occupied the slave cabins and used the mansion as headquarters. In July 1863, an Arkansas regiment (Continued on other side). (side 2) (Continued from other side). under General J.C. Pemberton also rested in the slave cabins. Irene Jordan married Dr. Charles Minor Taylor in 1868. They divided their time between Little Rock and South Bend until her death in 1878. In 1902, Taylor sold South Bend and eventually, in 1909, future Illinois Governor Frank Lowden became the owner. Lowden built the state's largest plantation store on the property. During the 1927 Flood, the levee at South Bend broke washing away the store and devastating the area. In 1943, Lowden bequeathed his Arkansas plantation holdings of 21,000 acres, including South Bend, to the National Farm Foundation. In 1949, the Lincoln County portion of 7150 acres was sold yet again and divided into smaller tracts. All but abandoned, the South Bend mansion was destroyed by fire in 1953.