Casa de Laga Plantation was a moderate sized cotton

Cotton

Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....

 plantation

Plantation

A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...

 of 1228 acre (497 ha) located in west central Leon County

Leon County, Florida

Leon County is a county located in the state of Florida, named after the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León. At the 2010 Census, the population was 275,487. The county seat of Leon County is Tallahassee which also serves as the state capital. The county seat is home to two of Florida's major...

, Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

, USA established by George Alexander Croom. It was also known as the Ball and McCabe Place and later as Shidzuoka.

Location

Casa de Laga was located along the southwest shores of Lake Jackson

Lake Jackson (Tallahassee, Florida)

Lake Jackson is a shallow, prairie lake on the north side of Tallahassee in Leon County, Florida with two major depressions or sinkholes known as Porter Sink and Lime Sink....

. Today the plantation's grounds are the neighborhoods surrounding Harriet Drive, Longview Drive, Faulk Drive, Shady Oaks Drive, and slightly across N. Monroe Street or U.S. Highway 27

U.S. Route 27

U.S. Route 27 is a north–south United States highway in the southern and midwestern United States. The southern terminus is at US 1 in Miami, Florida. The northern terminus is at Interstate 69 in Fort Wayne, Indiana...

.

1860 plantation specifics

The Leon County Florida 1860 Agricultural Census shows that the Casa de Laga Plantation had the following:

• Improved Land: 800 acre (323.7 ha)
• Unimproved Land: 428 acre (173.2 ha)
• Cash value of plantation: $
  United States dollar
  The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
  
  15,000
• Cash value of farm implements/machinery: $500
• Cash value of farm animals: $5850
• Number of slaves: 70
• Bushels of corn: 3,000
• Bales of cotton: 200

Croom had 96 head of cattle, 100 sheep and 100 swine. He also produced 200 pounds of wool and slaughtered livestock valued at $3000.

Owners

George Alexander Croom was born October 7, 1821. He married Julia M. Church on February 13, 1843. He died July 5, 1890.

In 1883 Casa de Laga was sold to H. D. McColloch of Wisconsin

Wisconsin

Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...

. McColloch then sold the plantation 6 months later to Professor E. Warren Clark

E. Warren Clark

E. Warren Clark was an American educator who taught thousands of young Japanese the rudiments of modern science while employed as a teacher in Japan from 1871-75. Clark was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and graduated from what is now Rutgers University in New Jersey in 1869 with a degree in...

 of Narragansett Pier, Rhode Island

Narragansett Pier, Rhode Island

Narragansett Pier is an unincorporated village and a census-designated place in the town of Narragansett in Washington County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 3,671 at the 2000 census.-Geography:...

 and Austn M. Purvis of Philadelphia. Clark would eventually turn the plantation into a game preserve. In 1891, a Charles T. Wilson of Cincinnati opened the Lake Jackson Hunting Lodge on the property.