Slaughter Ficklin

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Slaughter W. Ficklin (ca. 1816-January 14, 1886), owned the Belle-mont Mansion and horse farm in Belmont, located in southern Charlottesville. In connection with W. P. Farish, he operated number of stage lines, which extended not only throughout Virginia, but the entire south and southwest. Belmont he made famous as a stock farm. Before the war he visited France, and later introduced into this country the first Norman Percheron horses imported into the South.

Ficklin's 551-acre horse breeding farm was later developed into Charlottesville's Belmont-Carlton neighborhood.

His brother Benjamin Franklin Ficklin was successful in the stagecoach business in the western United States. [1]

Belmont Estate

Ficklin died at the age of 70, and after his wife’s death, the property was subdivided into smaller lots that today make up the Belmont section of Charlottesville.[2] [1]

Norman-Percheron horses

Ficklin brought the first group of Percheron-Norman horses to Virginia just after the Civil War ended. In the 1800s, many owners would boast of the Norman’s ability to travel almost 40 miles a day at a steady troy. The Ficklin farm was a stock farm, and many of the Norman's eventually made their way to other farms around the country. In the 1870s, after a decade and a half of breeding and national distribution, the first two of Ficklin’s stud horses died and were buried on the estate in a grave marked with stones.

Originating in the Perche region of France, near Normandy, it is easy to see how they got their breed name. It is thought that the earliest examples of the breed were crosses between the Barbs of the Moors and the early Flemish “great horse” draft breeds of the Middle Ages. Later, Arabian horse stock was introduced into the bloodlines to add elegance and stamina. In the 1800s, the French government started to breed Percherons as cavalry horses, since they had strong muscles, intelligent minds, and adaptive personalities. The Percheron expanded across Europe and was introduced internationally. The 1870s and 1880s in particular saw countries and breeders competing to produce a commercially successful workhouse they could sell to American farmers and factories. The Percheron won that contest and by the early 1900s, the Percheron had become the most popular draft horse in America, boasting the largest number of registered horses.

Bio

Ficklin's father moved to the Crozet area in the 1800's and moved to Charlottesville in the 1820's and became a tobacco merchant and minister. [1]

Ficklin was not the original owner of the estate, but he was perhaps its most important steward. [1] Debts incurred due to his wife's mental illness led to the estate being sold to the Belmont Land Company. [1]

Ficklin was a supporter of the Confederacy during the Civil War. At one point, he was imprisoned by a Union General Schenck for ten days. [1]

According to the Alexandria gazette, Slaughter W. Ficklin, of Belmont, near Charlottesville, died on January 14, 1886. He had been suffering for two months with softening of the brain and paralysis.[3]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Web. Belmont - A History of a Neighborhood, James H. Buck Jr., Paper for James Kinard's Local History course, May 1980, retrieved June 30, 2014.
  2. Print: Gentle Giants Turned Heads After The War, David A. Maurer, Daily Progress, Lee Enterprises 9 Sept. 2012, Page C1.
  3. Web. [1], Alexandria gazette (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, retrieved Mary 5, 2023.

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