Twenty two years ago in 1988 a committee met and established The Journal of Wilkinson 
      County History, the latest project of the then eighteen year old Woodville Civic Club. 
      Those members were Mrs. James V. Gross, Mrs. Andrew J. Lewis, Mrs. Best Montfort, Mrs. L. 
      Jennings Owens, Mr. John South Lewis, and Mr. Ernesto Caldeira.


      The mission of the Journals was to collect and publish primary source materials about 
      our history to aid future scholars and historians with their studies of Wilkinson County.


      Mrs.  Honey  Gross launched the project in March of 1990 with Volume I on Wilkinson County 
      Cemeteries; followed by Mrs. Lynda Gene Felter Carter's Wilkinson County Marriage Records 
      1800-1924 published in September of 1991; and then Mrs. Stella  Pitts  did her Woodville; 
      Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, with stories on each of the initial 147 sites in our new 
      National Register Woodville Historic District; and then in March of 1998 Mrs. Gross did 
      a two volume compilation of letters and service records of our soldiers who fought for 
      the Confederacy.

      The 19th Century Plantations of Wilkinson County is being assembled.Mrs. Stella 
      Pitts will be doing individual stories on the many plantation houses which have 
      completely survived and are still occupied,oftentimes by the families of the original 
      builders as well as those plantations which exist and function but without the original 
      homes. Some of those have ruins or columns or even new houses but have a presence and 
      importance. 


      An attempt will be made to identify as many other plantations as we can and to provide 
      as much information as we can about each of them.  

      The "stories" will give us a snapshot of the properties today... of who owns them and 
      of who has owned them and their connections to other families in the community... 
      both now and then. Mrs. Pitts was a News Reporter and a Feature Writer at the	
      Times Picayune in New Orleans for nearly twenty five years and is. celebrated for her 
      many articles and stories on historic sites and persons connected with them.


      She brings that expertise and those talents to this volume.

      It is a two part project with part one being a full color -coffee table" book with 
      many photographs of probably about forty or so plantations. A later Journal will 
      incorporate those plantations along with those for whom we have no photographs nor 
      any history beyond geographical locations and basic ownership details. There are an 
      estimated two hundred and fifty or so plantations which have existed.


      At this stage Mrs. Pitts has completed about twenty six stories with some of the 
      stories including more than  one  plantation. Ernesto Caldeira is the editor for 
      this project, and is photographer, as well as the collector of as many old photographs 
      as can be found. 
      
      They need your help!