The latest family tree includes Jefferson County deed and tax assessments, all transcribed! The earliest deed for a Casa Bianca freedman was Henry Clay White, who purchased a town lot in Monticello in 1866. A year later Lewis Harris purchased a Monticello town lot. Other deeds recorded the transactions between freedmen and town merchants. David Straws, Jr. signed a mortgage with J.D. Cole & Co. for all the crops he grew in exchange for provisions from Cole’s store. An 1873 deed recorded all the terms and conditions for Ned Washington’s and Isham Nelson’s families to work the old Casa Bianca plantation, at that time owned by J.D. Cole. Another deed specified that David Straws, Sr. lived on and farmed another portion of the old Casa Bianca property. It’s not until almost twenty years after emancipation that other freedmen from Casa Bianca were able to purchase small properties in Jefferson County, beginning with William McGuire purchasing one square acre in 1884.
