onemississipp
Jr. Member
Old Frenchman's Place, The: The name given to the plantation originally established by Louis Grenier in southeastern Yoknapatawpha County, in the area later known as Frenchman's Bend. According to The Hamlet, it originally consisted of an enormous house (featuring oak floors, walnut newel posts and stair spindles), stables, slave quarters, and gardens, and local legend held that Grenier had buried his money somewhere on the property when General Grant crossed through the area during his Vicksburg campaign during the Civil War. The place was acquired by Will Varner sometime in the late nineteenth century. He gave it to Flem Snopes as a wedding gift, and Flem tricked Odum Bookwright, Henry Armstid, and V. K. Ratliff into buying the place by burying silver dollars in the garden. In 1930 Lee Goodwin was living there making bootleg whiskey. The place is the setting for parts of The Hamlet and Sanctuary and is referred to frequently elsewhere.
