This plantation was established in 1895 by Will Dockery. Charley Patton (1887-1934), one of the most notable figures in the early history of Blues music, resided here from the age of 10. Another noted Blues musician Chester Arthur Bennet (a.k.a. “Howlin’ Wolf”) (1910-1976) lived here in his youth, between 1923 and 1933. The complex consists of the Dockery home (1920s?), a gin (1930s?), the ruins of the old brick comissary (circa 1895-1900), a smaller store built in the 1940s on the highway, several barns and sheds, and storage buildings, and the Dockery Baptist Church (built in 1967 on the site of an older church built in 1905). The farm lands (now operated under lease) and the tenant houses were on the north side of the Sunflower River, formerly accessed by a bridge which is no longer extant.
Dockery Plantation is included in "Buildings of Mississippi" (2020) (p.136, DR62). |
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