Mistletoe: Wedding Gift for a Son
- Jay Brothers
- Mar 15
- 2 min read
Selzertown Rd. Natchez, MS
Circa 1807 1.5 story Federal style home
John and Susannah Rucker Bisland built Mistletoe as a wedding gift for their son Peter Bisland (1789-1829) and Barbara Foster Bisland (1793-1846). His brother William Bisland constructed Mount Repose. The Bisland family was prominent in the Pine Ridge and Natchez communities and had land grants from the Spanish Crown totaling nearly 3,800 acres. John B. later purchased more. Their homes included Vendue, Mount Repose and Mount Airwell Plantations in Natchez and New Providence and Hope Farm and Richland Plantation in Louisiana. Her niece was Eliza Tannehill Foster who married Emmanuel Rogillio and built Mount Olive Plantation. The modeled a portion of their home after Mistletoe.
When their daughter Jane McClary Bisland Lambdin (1822-1894) married Samuel Hopkins Lambdin (1811-1902), they resided at the home. He had moved to Natchez in 1835 and started as a steamboat captain as well as becoming partner in a plantation supply firm Lambdin and Bennett. He was briefly president of Planters Bank of Mississippi prior to helping manage Bisland family plantations. He also served on the board of trust of Jefferson College in Natchez..The Lambdin family also owned Edgewood on part of the Mount Repose tract as part of the extended Bisland holdings.
In 1847, Bisland heirs sold the home with its nearly 137 acres to Dr. Matthew Atchison and Elizabeth R. Hawes Atchison (1837-1910). She named the home Mistletoe.
The Bisland family regained ownership in 1938 when Samuel Hopkins Lambdin (1899-1984), the great, great, grandson of John Bisland, purchased the home as a wedding gift for his wife Mary Clark Henderson Lambdin. They wed in 1923. They restored the home and replaced garden and planting of old Mistletoe. By 1940, they opened their restored home to the Natchez Pilgrimage. As of 1973, Samuel Hopkins Lambdin owner. NR 1973
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