Conner family

• Comment: The Conner family is somewhat irrelevant in historical archives. And, William Conner is the only person that actually has a standalone Wikipedia article. CostalCal (talk) 05:00, 14 August 2026 (UTC)

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The Conner family were a family of wealthy planters and political figures in the U.S. states of Mississippi and Louisiana. Members of the wealthy planter class in the Natchez and Adams County, Mississippi, area, the family first settled in the Natchez District in British West Florida in the late 18th century. Several Conners amassed wealth through multiple cotton plantations in the region and were some of the largest slaveowners in the Antebellum South. The family consisted of William Conner, who served as the speaker of the Mississippi Territory General Assembly, and several of his descendants. Pioneering Natchez colonist Tacitus Gaillard was also an ancestor of the family. Several Conners fought for the Confederacy during the American Civil War, although they had business ties to the Northern states like many Natchez planters. After the war, the family lost much of its fortune, but remained prominent in Natchez, with some members becoming successful businesspeople, lawyers, and politicians. Several of the historic antebellum homes in Natchez are associated with the Conner family.

William Conner

Main article: William Conner (Mississippi politician)

The American Natchez District, as pictured in a "Sketch of the Inhabited Parts of the Missisippi Territory Adjoining to the Great River", dated November 9, 1802, included an alligator and the location of the residence of W. Conner (NAID 191671882)

William Conner (c. 1771-December 19, 1814) was born in South Carolina, and was married to Mary Savage, a granddaughter of pioneering Natchez colonist Tacitus Gaillard. His ancestors were settlers in Virginia. The Conners moved to the Natchez District around 1790 or 1791, shortly after their marriage. They first resided at Oak Hill, a home located on a Spanish land grant that had been given to Gaillard, and later resided at Berkeley plantation, located west of Natchez. Conner was elected to the first Mississippi Territory General Assembly in 1803 but retired from politics shortly thereafter. Conner also owned a plantation along the Homochitto River. He also had business connections to the Northeast United States through his wife's family. The success that Conner and his descendants incurred through cotton planting was made possible by the invention of the cotton gin in 1793 and the screw press and square baling process invented by Natchez planter William Dunbar. Conner and his wife were buried in the family cemetery at Berkeley, and their tomb contained Italian marble busts of them. Today, their gravestones are located in the Natchez City Cemetery.

William Carmichael Conner

Linden was purchased by Conner's widow in 1849, and is still owned by their descendants

William Carmichael Conner (1798-1843) was the eldest son of William Conner and Mary Savage Conner. He married Jane Elizabeth Boyd Gustine (1803–1896), who was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. They had nine children, several of whom also became planters or married into planter families. Conner first resided at Overton plantation, and later moved to Clifford Plantation on Second Creek. He owned several plantations throughout Natchez and Adams County, as well as plantations in adjacent counties along the Mississippi River in both Mississippi and Louisiana, totalling several thousand acres. He also had business connections to the Northeast United States through his mother's family. Some of his other plantations included Oakhill, Berkeley, Killarney, and Spokane. He also owned large numbers of slaves. Probate records from 1843 document 43 enslaved people at the 640-acre Clifford Plantation, including adults and children, as well as skilled laborers such as a seamstress and a blacksmith. Conner died on March 12, 1843, at the age of 45 of "apoplexy" at Clifford. At the time, he was reported to be one of wealthiest planters in the country. Several of his sons also became planters. His son Henry and fellow planter Stephen Duncan were named executors of his will. After his death, many of his assets, including his land and slaves, were sold at auction. His wife purchased Linden in Natchez in 1849 to be closer to town, and some of their descendants still own the mansion. His descendants later owned several historic homes and plantations in Natchez.

Montaigne was owned by Conner's daughter Margaret and her husband, General William T. Martin

Conner's wife became known as the "Mother of the Confederacy" of the "Little War Mother", as all five of her sons and three sons-in-law fought for the Confederacy in the American Civil War. During the war, Conner lost one son, a son-in-law, a daughter-in-law, a sister-in-law, and seven grandchildren.

Henry LeGrand Conner

Henry LeGrand Conner (1803-1849) was the second son of William and Mary Savage Conner. He married Susan Evelina Baker. He inherited Berkeley Plantation and owned plantations in Adams County and Tensas Parish, Louisiana. At the time of his death, Conner was documented as owning about 109 slaves. His daughter Louisa Russell Conner inherited Berkeley, and some of his other assets were auctioned off in 1850.

William Gustine Conner

A 1936 photograph of Saragossa, owned by Conner between 1849 and 1852

William Gustine Conner (April 5, 1826-July 3, 1863) was the eldest child of William Carmichael Conner and Jane Gustine Conner. He married Eliza C. Wood in 1846, and had six children. He entered Yale University in the fall of 1842 and graduated in 1845 as salutatorian of his class, and was also a member of Skull and Bones. He also studied law shortly thereafter, but turned to cotton planting. Like his father and grandfather, he was a wealthy planter, and owned 271 slaves. Some of his plantations included Grove Plantation in Adams County and Rifle Point Plantation in Concordia Parish, Louisiana, which he inherited from his mother. In 1849, he purchased Saragossa from William St. John Elliot, and sold it back to him three years later. During the American Civil War, he served as a field officer in Company A (also known as the Natchez Cavalry) of the Jeff. Davis Legion, a cavalry regiment of the Confederate States Army. He was commissioned as a first lieutenant and promoted to captain and company commander on October 28, 1861. Conner was captured at Williamsburg in early May 1862, and held at Fort Delaware in Washington, D.C. He was exchanged and then released from custody on August 9, 1862, and returned to duty shortly before the Legion fought at the battles of Antietam and the Raid on Chambersburg. He was promoted to major on December 2, 1862. Conner requested the permission of Lt. Col. J. Fred. Waring to lead any charge once the unit traveled inside enemy territory, due to his disgust of his treatment during captivity, which Waring agreed to.

At the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863, the company was commanded by Waring, with Conner serving as an executive officer. They were in General Wade Hampton III's brigade in Major General J. E. B. Stuart's cavalry division. While leading a counterattack with Hampton against the Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac commanded by Major General George G. Meade on July 3, Conner was mortally wounded. The Mississippi Historical Society documented that Conner rode into the fray "amid the rattle of pistols and clashes of sabers, he seized a guidon of the enemy, and when ordered to surrender drew his pistol and killed two of his assailants before being killed himself". One of the most well-known events during the fight occurred when Hampton noticed a trooper surrounded by Union soldiers attempting to escape. Riding to his aid, Hampton himself was surrounded and wounded several times by gunshots and sabers before jumping his horse over a fence to safety. This event is documented and featured in a well-known Don Troiani painting. Conner was likely the soldier that Hampton was trying to rescue, but this is unknown. Stuart also mentioned Conner in his report on the battle, writing "Among the killed was Major Conner, a gallant and efficient officer of the Jeff. Davis Legion." He is buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia. Conner's brother, Richard Ellis Conner, was also severely wounded in the same engagement. In 2024, Conner's early production Colt Army Model 1860 revolver was sold at auction.

Lemuel Parker Conner Sr.

Lemuel Parker Conner Sr. (September 30, 1827-March 24, 1891) was the second child of William Carmichael Conner and Jane Gustine Conner. Along with his older brother, he also enrolled at Yale in 1842 and graduated in 1845, and became a member of Skull in Bones during his junior year. Due to an "unfortuante difficulty", Conner did not receive his diploma at commencement, and was awarded an honorary Bachelor of Arts degree in 1876 after his class appealed to the faculty in his support at their 30th class reunion. Returning to Natchez in 1845, Conner read law under Natchez lawyer John T. McMurran, but did not practice and quickly turned to cotton planting. In 1848, he married Elizabeth Francis "Fanny" Turner, daughter of Edward Turner, a prominent Natchez judge; and sister of Mary Louisa Turner, wife of McMurran. They had ten children and lived at Blithewood Plantation in Bayou Goula, Louisiana and at a suburban villa adjacent to Melrose, the home of McMurran, in Natchez. They also built Roselawn in Natchez. Conner amassed large landholdings on both sides of the Mississippi, and owned 282 slaves. In 1860, he documented an attempted slave rebellion along Second Creek. He was elected to the Louisiana Secession Convention by Madison, Concordia, and Tensas Parishes, and help draft Louisiana's Ordinance of Secession. Conner joined his brother as a private in the Jeff Davis Legion, and served under Wade Hampton III in Virginia. In the summer of 1862, he became a staff officer, a major, a Volunteer Aide-de-Camp, and a later a captain on the staff of General Braxton Bragg. He also served as a lieutenant colonel under Bragg at Tullahoma, Tennessee.

After the war, Conner and his family signed oaths of allegiance to the Union, and returned to Natchez. His fortunes were decimated by the war. He attempted to resume his career as a planter, but failed due to the emancipation of his slaves and depreciation of his land, forcing him into bankruptcy during Reconstruction era. He later turned to property management, and managed the Killarney and Rifle Point plantations. In the early 1880s, he resumed studying law and was admitted to the bar in Louisiana. He opened his law practice in Vidalia, Louisiana, in partnership with his son Lemuel Jr. Conner never regained his pre-war wealth, but ultimately recovered from financial disaster. He is buried in the Natchez City Cemetery.

Lemuel Parker Conner Jr.

Lemuel Parker Conner Jr. (1861-1943) married Mary Macrery Britton, the daughter of Natchez planter and banker Audley Clark Britton, on December 12, 1888. They had four children and lived at Clover Nook in Adams County, and were members of First Presbyterian Church of Natchez. He graduated from Louisiana State University in 1882 and studied law at Tulane University (then the University of Louisiana). He then moved to St. Joseph, Louisiana, and became the half of the legal firm Conner & Son with his father. He was admitted to the Lousiana Bar in 1884, and the Mississippi bar in 1888, but did not officially receive his law degree until 1932, however. Active in politics, Conner was a strong supporter of the Democratic Party, and participated in the campaigns of several local political figures, including James K. Vardaman, John Sharp Williams, and Percy Quin. Quin was married to his first cousin Aylete Buckner Conner. He worked to have the battleship USS Mississippi christened in Natchez as a way of demonstrating the qualifications the town as an ideal deep-water port. He also worked to plan visits by presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. He was also an strong opponent of African American civil rights, and was an originator of a movement to eliminate the black vote in Natchez after blacks had continued to participate in local elections after being disenfranchised by the Mississippi Constitution of 1890. he was a Freemason and Shriner, and was also affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Natchez Promotive League. In 1927, Conner was elected City Clerk of Natchez, and served in that role until his retirement in 1941.

Other members

Anna Conner Elliot, the wife of William St. John Elliot

Other members of the Conner family married into wealthy planter families in Natchez, connecting them to the Farars, Chotards, Turners, McMurrans, Ellises, Butlers, and others. Anna Frances Conner (1804-1876), the daughter of William Conner and Mary Savage Conner, married William St. John Elliot, who owned 290 slaves in 1850 and owned multiple plantations in Mississippi and Louisiana. Their mansion D'Evereux was built in Natchez in 1836. Elliot was her third husband, having been previously widowed twice. Jane Gustine Conner was the sister of the wife of William J. Minor. Farar Benjamin Conner (1834-1904), son of William Carmichael and Jane Gustine Conner, married Mary Louise McMurran daughter of John T. McMurran and Mary Louisa Turner. His sister Margaret Dunlop Conner married Confederate General William T. Martin, and they lived at Montaigne in Natchez. The Conners are also connected to descendants of Audley Clark Britton, the Routh family, and Haller Nutt through the descendants of Richard Ellis Conner, the second-youngest child of William Carmichael and Jane Gustine Conner. In addition to Linden, D'Evereux, and Montaigne, other historic homes in Natchez are associated with the Conner family, including Melrose.

References

This article "Conner family" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Conner family. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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