Submitted by FHMaster on Sat, 12/17/2016 - 14:09

Connection to Other Plantations[edit]

The first Shaffer to migrate to Terrebonne Parish was William Alexander Shaffer, John Dalton’s grandfather. William came to Louisiana from Camden County, South Caroline in 1828. He moved to Terrebonne Parish and built Crescent Farm Plantation just three miles south of Ardoyne Plantation. Crescent Farm Plantation is still in existence today and house the office of local attorneys St. Martin and Bourque.

After the Civil War, William Alexander’s son, John Jackson Shaffer, purchased another sugar cane plantation for himself in 1874, also on Highway 311. Magnolia Plantation (Schriever, Louisiana) was built in 1858 and is only three miles south of Schriever. Magnolia Plantation is one of six surviving Greek Revival style plantation homes in Terrebonne Parish and is currently a private residence It is located five miles north of Ardoyne and was used as a Union hospital during the Civil War. It is still in the Shaffer family and a portion of the film, 12 Years A Slave was filmed there.

Milhado Lee Shaffer married Margaret Krumbhaar, whom had grown up on the Krumbhaar Plantation, which united the two sugar families. The Krumbhaar family, through Margaret’s Grandfather, William J. Minor built the famous Southdown Plantation. This plantation home is also on Highway 311 only a few miles from Downtown Houma, Louisiana, about seven miles from Ardoyne. Today it serves as a museum of local history and gathering place for many outings, music and craft events. Margaret Krumbhaar can also trace her family lineage back to Eleanor Parke Custis Lewis maternal granddaughter of Martha Washington, the wife of President George Washington.

Ardoyne Plantation House Today[edit]

Ardoyne Plantation has been in the Shaffer family for six generations. It is currently owned by Lee and Susan Shaffer. Lee is a retired military veteran. They currently reside on the second floor of the house. They moved into the house after the passing of Lee’s grandmother, Margaret Krumbhaar Shaffer in 2007 at the age of ninety-three. The home is open for tours most every week from Tuesday through Saturday with tours at 9:30 AM, 11:30 AM, and 2:00 PM with no appointments necessary. Each room is a mini museum of fine furniture, paintings and other family and era specific heirlooms from the family’s past. Visitors can see Louisiana cypress knee dolls, 300+ antique travel spoons, plantation workers’ pay tokens, antique quilts and needlework, new bomb pottery, over two-thousand books, wood carvings, and many other sights original to the plantation. It has also been used as a set location for several motion pictures and television shows. There are also about three hundred and fifty acres of active sugar cane farming still taking place on the property.

Ardoyne Plantation.JPG

 

Location
Houma
State
GeoCoord
29°38′57″N 90°49′10″W
Founded
1894
Status
Active
NRHP Ref Number
82000469