THE SELMA TIMES-JOURNAL

CRUMPTONIA — In the southwest corner of Dallas County,

two miles from the Wilcox County line,

between Chilatchee and Bouge Chitto creeks lies an old plantation named Crumptonia.

Until a few years ago, the Crumptonia plantation was owned by the Weavers, a Mennonite family.

Mennonites, otherwise known as Anabaptists, are a 475-year-old religious sect in some ways similar to the Amish except that they don’t necessarily have the restrictions on technology like using electricity and driving cars.

“They are devout, honest, hardworking people and they don’t listen to radios or watch television,” Leslie Roberts said.

There are still Mennonite families near Crumptonia and in Dallas County.

The Mennonites milked their own cows and farmed soybeans. When the price of soybeans dropped in the 1980s,

fields of Crumptonia – like much of the region – were replanted with pines for harvest by the timber industry.

The Weaver family moved to Kentucky after they were bought out by Carl Ritz, a construction contractor from

Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.

He plans to eventually open the Crump house as a hunting lodge.

For the last year, the Roberts family has been managing the every day operations at Crumptonia for Ritz.

“We’re just starting out and trying to get it running again,” Bobby Roberts said. They are in the process of renovating the old Crump house and building a new house.

There are four members of the Roberts family: Leslie, Brent, Bobby and Terri. They have four dogs, about 100 chickens, 10 turkeys and four cows.

Hunters bring their deer from all over the region to the Weaver deer processing plant.

Carl Ritz and the Roberts have retained all of the Mennonite recipes for bologna, hot dogs, Keilbasa and brauts.

The processing plant will be open during hunting season after Oct. 13.

The large plantation house was built by the Crump family in 1828 as a wedding present for their daughter.

It has had some famous visitors.

There are stories about the house being haunted and a local legend about Andrew Jackson hanging a man in the front yard.