It was at this time that Daniel Turnbull married Martha Barrow. Both were from socially prominent and wealthy families of West Feliciana Parish. For their honeymoon trip, they chose to go to Europe. At that time this was known as the “Grand Tour of Europe,” and while they were traveling throughout Europe and the British Isles, they got many ideas about the future construction and decoration of the
ir main house and the planting of their gardens. Returning from their honeymoon trip, Daniel made a series of several land purchases over the next few years, eventually accumulating nearly 3500 acres to make up Rosedown Plantation. The majority of this acreage was planted in cotton. Construction began on the main house in November 1834, and just six months later and at a cost of just over 13 thousand dollars, the house was finished. The reasons for this were because they were able to harvest the majority of their building materials from the Rosedown Plantation grounds—the house is built almost entirely of local cypress and cedar. They also had their own sawmill, so they could process much of their own lumber. But more important was the fact that Daniel had a huge workforce, which at its height totaled 444 slaves, and it was this labor force that was responsible for building the house so quickly and at so little expense. Over the course of Daniel and Martha’s married lives, they had 3 children at Rosedown—two sons and a daughter. They would unfortunately lose both of their sons. Their youngest son, James Daniel, died at age 7 from yellow fever. Their oldest son, William, though he did marry and have 2 sons of his own, died at age 27 in a boating accident while crossing the river. This left their daughter Sarah as their only remaining heir. In the 1850s Sarah married a local boy, James Bowman from the nearby Oakley Plantation. Since Sarah and James would be inheriting Rosedown, they moved in there following their wedding. Over the course of their married lives, they had 10 children—8 girls and 2 boys. Of these 8 daughters, 4 would never marry. Sarah and James were very concerned about the futures of their unmarried daughters, so they decided to leave Rosedown to them, to ensure that these girls would always have a home. The last of these daughters died in 1955, at which time the plantation was placed up for sale. Rosedown was purchased in the spring of 1956 by a couple from Houston, Texas—Milton Underwood and his wife Catherine Fondren. Catherine was an oil heiress and she spent the next 8 years, and approximately 10 million dollars of her own money, having the plantation fully restored. She and Milton opened Rosedown to the public in 1964 and the Underwood family maintained Rosedown as a tourist site until 1994, when it was sold by their son David, to a businessman from Georgia. The home continued to be operated as a tourist site until it was sold to the State of Louisiana in November of 2000. The State purchased the house, its contents, the 28 acres of formal gardens surrounding the main house, and 371 additional acres of the original plantation land. When visiting Rosedown you can see a plantation home, fully restored to reflect an 1850s appearance. You can walk on the original cypress floors, and see approximately 90 percent of the house’s original furnishings.
