Calvin Smith

Calvin Smith (December 25, 1768 – November 7, 1840) was an American plantation owner. He arrived in the Natchez District of British West Florida with his Loyalist parents in 1776. He received a land grant in 1791, and was one of three Smith brothers to marry one of three Cobb sisters of Wilkinson County. and he became one of richest and most important planters in the region.

One of his slaves was James Robinson, an American Revolutionary War veteran from Maryland, who later published a slave narrative about his life. Robinson wrote:

Smith was an early source on the history of Natchez, with his account of early settlements appearing in article by Mann Butler in the Western Messenger in 1838. When Smith died at his home in Mississippi in 1840 he was described in brief obituaries as "old and very respected" and as "one of the oldest and most highly respectable inhabitants" of Adams County, Mississippi. He was buried in the Ogden Cemetery on what had been Retirement Plantation, off Highway 61.

According to a 1915 history of the grand houses of Natchez, Calvin Smith's wife was Priscilla Cobb and "He owned many of the nearby plantations, and bestowed them upon his children when they married. His possessions included Woodlawn, Magnolia, and Egypt. The Calvin Smiths had three sons and seven daughters. Two of the daughters married Gillespies, two married Ferridays, and two married Bennetts. An Indian encampment was near Retirement, and their trail passed near the front gate. Mr. Smith's relations with the Indians were most friendly. Many men were attracted to this land of promise. About 1830 Edwin Ruthven Bennett and Henry Lyle Bennett came to the Natchez hills. They were sons of Caleb Bennett, first governor of Delaware after the revolution, and a member of Washington's staff...These two brothers married Mr. Smith's daughters, Louisa and Matilda. Louisa was the youngest child, and inherited Retirement from her parents. About 1845 it was planned to repair the old home. The first cabin had been added to room by room, and was at that time a large, comfortable house. The foundations of the house were found so dilapidated it was decided to rebuild on the same spot. The house was completed just before the civil war" and survived until a fire 1904 destroyed the building and all its contents.