Gaineswood's

The importance of skilled enslaved persons is demonstrated by the high monetary values attained at sale.  The majority of the skilled laborers who built Gaineswood were enslaved.  Many of the names of these craftsmen are lost to time, but a few are documented.

Dick was a mason and master builder.  Sandy was also a mason. We know from an 1847 letter that Isaac was working on columns for the house and was sent to France to learn additional woodworking skills. James in 1859 was a 24-year-old carpenter valued at $1,500 (equivalent to about $35,500 today).

Other highly skilled workers included Vinson, a plasterer hired from Philadelphia, and a Polish immigrant who was a decorative painter on the project.  Casey Long, a mulatto freedman, was hired as a carpenter and cabinet maker.  He worked in the machine shops, executing carpentry details for the majority of the decade of 1850.  It took John Verdin 18 months to create the beautiful faux graining on the trim and doors throughout the house in the late 1850s.  Near the end of the project in 1860, John Gibson created the art-glass transoms in Philadelphia.  Mr. Rhodes was the construction superintendent and was looked to by the family for the expedient finishing of certain phases of construction.  These skilled and talented artists and craftsmen played an important part in creating one of the finest Greek Revival homes in the United States.

Elizabeth (Bettie) Whitfield came to Gaineswood to help care for the children following the death of Nathan’s first wife, Betsey. Nathan Bryan Whitfield married Bettie on July 26, 1857, and together they had one daughter, Natalie Ashe. Bettie was the daughter of John Whitfield and Mary Slade. Her arrival at Gaineswood brought renewed domestic stability to the household during the final years of the mansion’s construction, as Nathan was putting the finishing touches on what would become one of the most celebrated examples of Greek Revival architecture in the United States. Bettie witnessed the completion of Gaineswood and the coming of the Civil War, sharing with Nathan the last chapter of life at the grand estate before it passed to his son, Dr. Bryan Watkins Whitfield.

Bryan Watkins Whitfield was the son of Nathan and Betsey Whitfield. He was a physician and served as a surgeon for the Confederacy during the Civil War, and after the war, he continued practicing medicine in the Demopolis area. He and his wife, Mary Alice Foscue Whitfield, purchased Gaineswood from his father in 1866, becoming the second generation of Whitfields to call the mansion home. As a young man, he is credited with constructing the tiara-like open observatory atop the main roof of Gaineswood, built shortly after his return from the University of North Carolina. Bryan Watkins Whitfield lived at Gaineswood until his sister, Edith Whitfield Dustan, purchased the property in 1896. Bryan W. Whitfield Memorial Hospital in Demopolis, Alabama, stands as an enduring tribute to his legacy and service to the community.

Margaret McLure was a Confederate sympathizer in St. Louis in 1863. The Union army accused her of smuggling Confederate mail, seized her property, imprisoned her, and eventually exiled her from the state of Missouri to Mississippi. Hearing that Missouri soldiers were paroled from the fall of Vicksburg to Demopolis, she wrote to a family friend, Lieutenant Hall, and asked for help. He went to Mississippi, picked her up, and brought her to the camp at Demopolis. Lt. Hall searched to find respectable lodging for Mrs. McLure, and a visit with Bettie Whitfield provided just that. Mrs. McLure resided with the Whitfields for the next two years. After the war ended, Mrs. McLure returned home and became the founding President of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

A portrait of one of the Whitfield daughters, Edith Winifred, hangs above the piano in the parlor. She was ten years old when she died of yellow fever, the third child that the family lost during an epidemic. General Whitfield painted her oil-based portrait ten years later from memory.

The faceplate reads: “Manufactured Expressly for Capt. A. P. French C. E. Demopolis Ala. By Stackpole & Brother New York 886”. The instrument has no springs, as found in more modern instruments. Instead, opposing brass screws are employed to obtain micrometer adjustments. The crosshairs were periodically replaced with a strand of the web of a certain species of garden spider and attached to the reticule of the instrument with tiny spots of glue.

Tradition has it that this engineer’s surveying transit was left at Gaineswood in payment of a debt, presumably about the time of the War Between the States.

The transit was used by Jesse George Whitfield, Civil Engineer, grandson of Nathan Bryan Whitfield. J G Whitfield made the official map of the City of Demopolis and did most of the land surveying and map making in this area during his long career.

The transit was loaned to Gaineswood in 1981 by N B Whitfield’s Grandson, Thomas H. Whitfield, a Civil Engineer.

In the center of the dining table at Gaineswood, there stands a beautiful epergne. The word “epergne” is derived from a French word meaning “save” or “conserve”, and an epergne is designed to be a decorative and functional piece that saves space on the dining table. It holds candles aloft to illuminate the table while serving as a lovely centerpiece. Epergnes had bowls or baskets around the central column. The bowls were meant to hold fruits, nuts, and other food items. Most epergnes also included flower vases. Some elaborate epergnes might feature a central tureen or condiment holder like salts, cruets, or spice boxes. General Whitfield designed this particularly beautiful epergne featuring Greek maidens for his home.