St. Maurice Plantation

A historic plantation near Natchitoches that was destroyed by fire in 1980. A small cemetery on the property holds the key to the ghostly activity.

St. Maurice Plantation was a grand Greek Revival mansion built in the 1840s on the banks of the Red River in Winn Parish, Louisiana. The house was distinctive for the region, featuring a pillared gallery, a five-bay central hall plan with double rooms on each side, and exterior brick chimneys that set it apart from the French colonial architecture typical of the area. In 1846, William Prothro and John Waddell purchased the plantation, which then encompassed more than fifteen hundred acres with over sixty enslaved people, for sixty-three thousand dollars. By 1850, Prothro had become the sole owner, and his holdings had grown to approximately eighty-seven thousand dollars with more than one hundred enslaved individuals. He operated the plantation alongside a trading post, a ferry, and a riverboat landing on the Red River.

Tragedy struck in 1853 when a devastating yellow fever epidemic swept through the plantation, killing William Prothro, his wife, several of their children, and many of the enslaved people who worked the land. The family cemetery on the property filled with victims of the epidemic, including young children. It is from this cemetery that the plantation's most persistent ghost is said to emerge. The spirit of a child has been reported leaving the burial ground and entering what remained of the manor home, making sudden noises or rushing past startled visitors at unexpected moments.

The child ghost was known for unsettling but seemingly playful behavior. Residents reported that the spirit would change the pages on calendars, as though confused about the passage of time or trying to communicate something through dates. The disruptions were constant enough to become part of daily life at the plantation, with occupants growing accustomed to the sounds of small feet running through the house and objects being moved without explanation. The activity was not limited to the interior. Visitors walking the grounds near the cemetery reported hearing a child's laughter or catching a glimpse of a small figure darting between the trees.

The plantation changed hands many times over the decades. During the Civil War, six Federal gunboats were stationed at St. Maurice in 1864 while Union General Banks marched north toward Shreveport, and Confederate forces under General Liddell attacked the gunboats in a battle that could be witnessed from the plantation's front steps. After the war, the property passed through various owners including Dr. David H. Boullt, who was eventually driven from the area due to alleged outlaw associations. In 1957, Luther Small, a Black man whose great-grandmother had been enslaved by the Prothro family, became the owner of the plantation house in a poignant historical turn.

The mansion's story came to a fiery end on June 5, 1981, when the house burned to the ground. According to local accounts and paranormal researchers, the child spirit is believed to have started the blaze, though no definitive cause was ever established. The grounds and cemetery remain, and visitors continue to report paranormal activity at the site. The property is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, a recognition of its architectural and historical significance even in absence of the physical structure.