SEEDS OF MAGNOLIA

Bolivar, TN has a connection to Tunica County that goes back to 1847.  Judge Austin Miller, who lived in Bolivar, gave the land for the new county seat in that year, and it was named Austin in his honor.  He was an attorney and Tennessee state legislator that owned land in Tunica County. The barn he built right before the Civil War still stands across the road from the house site of the old plantation headquarters, about a mile or so from Austin.

Bill Miller has written an historical novel centered around Magnolia Manor, Austin Miller’s’ home in Bolivar built in 1849 with slave labor.  Austin Miller was his great-great grandfather and his great-great grandmother was Sophia, a slave.  His book, "Seeds Of Magnolia", tells the story of the people that  lived in that house.  It also gives an account of the time during the Civil War when Magnolia Manor was occupied by the Union Army and used as a Headquarters; Generals Logan, McPherson, Sherman and Grant lodged there.

In 1868, Austin Miller visited his Tunica County plantation without notifying the caretaker, so no one met him when the steamboat docked at Austin.  It was winter, and he walked the mile and a half to his headquarters through a couple of inches of slush and snow. He caught cold, got pneumonia, and died at his Tunica County home.

Bill Miller says the family stories handed down to him seemed important enough to capture in writing, and that is just what he has done in “Seeds Of Magnolia”. He will be the guest of the Tunica Arts Council on October 6, 2017, to talk about his book.

Here is a link that tells about the Miller home in Bolivar - and a bit of history, too:

https://sites.google.com/site/historicbolivartn/site-directory/magnolia-manor