Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Francois Mignon Papers #3889, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Alternate Form of Material

Some items available on microfilm.

Acquisitions Information

Received in 1969 and 1989.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: Lisa Tolbert, June 1989

Encoded by: Roslyn Holdzkom, April 2001

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• African American folk art--Southern States.
• African American women artists.
• Agriculture--Mississippi--History--19th century.
• Diaries.
• Dorman, Caroline.
• Field, Rachel, 1894-1942.
• Geologists--Mississippi--History--19th century.
• Henry, Carmelite Garrett, 1871-1948.
• Hunter, Clementine.
• Journalists--Louisiana--History--20th century.
• Kane, Harnett T. (Harnett Thomas), 1910-1984.
• Melrose Plantation (Natchitoches, La.)
• Metoyer family--Genealogy.
• Mignon, Francois.
• Mississippi--Description and travel.
• Natchitoches (La.)--History.
• Plantation life--Louisiana.
• Plantations--Louisiana--Natchitoches.
• Ramsey, Carolyn.
• Register, James.
• Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962.
• Saxon, Lyle, 1891-1946.
• Solomon, King.
• Wailes, Benjamin L. C. (Benjamin Leonard Covington), 1797-1862.
• Woollcott, Alexander, 1887-1943.

• Francois Mignon Collection, Northwestern State University Libraries, Natchitoches, La.

Francois Mignon (given name Frank VerNooy Mineah) was born 9 May 1899 in Cortland, N.Y., to Walter Fish Mineah and Mary Ella Mineah. He later moved to New York City. He first visited Melrose in the late 1930s, planning to stay in Louisiana for six weeks, but his growing blindness and an invitation from Cammie Henry, who owned Melrose, convinced him to stay for what turned out to be more than 30 years. At Melrose, he worked as curator of buildings, furnishings, and gardens.

Melrose was a working cotton and pecan plantation, but it was best known in the period between the two World Wars as a writers and artists colony. Cammie Henry, who bought the plantation in 1899, restored its unique collection of African-inspired buildings she called the Yucca, Ghana, and Africa houses. These structures sheltered such authors as Lyle Saxon, James Register, Harnett Kane, Alexander Woollcott, and Rachel Field. Francois Mignon began writing his own weekly column for the Natchitoches Enterprise in the 1950s. His "Plantation Memo" was named best in state by the Louisiana Press Association from 1961 to 1963. Mignon wrote on a wide range of topics that reflected his interest in everything from Louisiana flora and fauna to ancient Greece. By 1971, when he was named Louisiana Writer of the Year by the Department of English at Louisiana Tech University, Mignon had renamed his column "Cane River Memo." He received a special award from the Natchitoches Chamber of Commerce for his promotion of the Natchitoches area and was awarded the Lesche Creative Works Award by the Lesche Club of Natchitoches in 1980.

In addition to his writing, Mignon designed the gardens at Melrose and promoted the folk artist Clementine Hunter, who became the first African American woman to have a one-person show at New Orleans's Delgado Museum. Mignon himself created a series of commemorative plates depicting Natchitoches history and legend. Mignon devoted much of his professional and personal life to promoting and preserving the history of the Natchitoches area, including its unique plant life and architectural heritage.

The collection includes Francois Mignon's journal and correspondence from about 1939 to 1980. Also included are photographs, printed materials, newspapers clippings, writings and other materials collected by, written by, or relating to Mignon and his diverse interests. Mignon's journal began with his arrival at Melrose Plantation in 1939 and continued until February 1970, when the plantation was sold. Many of the ideas Mignon first expressed in his journal later appeared in his newspaper column, which dealt chiefly with Natchitoches, La., history and traditions. Persons significant in the collection include James Register; the Louisiana naturalist Caroline Dorman; the Louisiana filmmaker Caroline Ramsey; an African American soldier named King Solomon, who grew up at Melrose; Eleanor Roosevelt (2 items); Rachel Field; Harnett Thomas Kane; Lyle Saxon; and Alexander Woollcott. After 1970, the correspondence is chiefly from readers of Mignon's weekly newspaper column and his responses. In addition to these materials, the collection contains the original manuscript of B.L.C. Wailes's "Report on the Agriculture and Geology of Mississippi" (1854) and letters from Wailes's granddaughter to Mignon. Also included are 19th-century documents and genealogical information relating to the Metoyer family, which originally built the plantation later called Melrose.

• Pictures (P-3889/1-82)
• Photograph album (PA-3889/1)