John Andrews (1804-1884)

He was originally from Norfolk, Virginia. In the 1830s, he established himself as a sugar planter in Louisiana, where he came to own several plantations totalling some 7,000-acres. Among those, he developed "Bellegrove"  with Dr John Phillip Read Stone, as a partner, before assuming full ownership in 1844. By the 1850s, his 150-slaves were producing over half a million pounds of sugar each year and he was taking home a staggering $96,000 a year. He married Penelope, the daughter of anothe rof his business partners, Christopher Adams (1769-1839), the original owner of "Bellegrove" where John would build the 75-room Belle Grove Plantation House. John and Penelope were the parents of two sons (Francis and John, both of whom died in childhood) and five daughters (listed above). During the Civil War, he fled with his slaves to Texas, leaving his daughters to preside over Belle Grove. Unable to afford its upkeep after the war, he sold the mansion to the Ware family in 1869 and died at New Orleans in 1880.