Plantations were self-contained and self-sustaining.  If you didn't make it or grow it or raise it, you probably did without it.

Most things you will see during your visit to Poplar Grove were made, grown or raised here or near here.

Poplar Grove Plantation had a sawmill, brickyard, grist mill, salt works, turpentine still, and forge/blacksmith

During the Civil War, a plank road went from the foot of Market Street to the county line.  During the war Confederate artillery being pulled over it, damaged it beyond repair. The road was then paved with shells. The toll to use this road was 10¢.

After the war, with no slaves, many plantation fields would go unplanted. Joe Foy had salt pans and a grist mill that he kept open.  When freed, 63 of the 64 slaves remained on the plantation and worked. Many became tenant farmers.

J. T. Foy kept his home together and followed the footsteps of his grandfather, James Foy.  He married Nora Dozier who became postmaster. Nora would collect mail from the train depot and hand it out to the families. There were about a dozen or so families and sawmill workers in the Scotts Hill area who came here to pick up their mail.