Green Bottom Plantation, located on the Ohio River in Cabell County, was the home of Albert G. Jenkins, a U.S. and Confederate congressman and Confederate general.
Joshua Fry received the Green Bottom lands for his participation in the French and Indian War. Wilson Cary Nicholas, governor of Virginia (1814–16), later purchased the land and established an overseer slave plantation on the site about 1812. In 1820, 53 slaves lived and worked at Green Bottom. Next, William H. Cabell, governor of Virginia (1805–08) and for whom Cabell County was named, purchased Green Bottom. In 1825, his agents sold Green Bottom and its slaves to Capt. William Jenkins, who moved there with his family in 1826. William Jenkins, the father of Gen. Albert G. Jenkins, built Green Bottom mansion in 1835. Albert Jenkins and two brothers inherited Green Bottom at the death of Captain Jenkins.
The General Albert Gallatin Jenkins house, a two-story brick home in the federal style, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. Known today as the Jenkins Plantation Museum, it is operated by the West Virginia Division of Culture and History. Nearby lands make up the Green Bottom Wildlife Management Area. The Clover archeological site, located at Green Bottom, is a National Historic Landmark.
Jenkins Plantation Museum website
This Article was written by Karen N. Cartwright Nance
Citations
"." National Register of Historic Places Nomination, West Virginia Division of Culture & History, 1978.
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