#cresswellsbluff

Cresswell’s Bluff. 

This is the historical family home of Auntie Jaqueline Layton. The house was originally commissioned by Samuel and Anna Cresswell, who are Jackie's ancestors. They could both read and write due to their kind and befuddled masters, and when slavery ended in the Bay they married and opened a store on the wharf that eventually made them rich.

Samuel ran the docks while Anna worked in the store. Anna, being high yella, was able to make the colonizers feel comfortable spending their money with the colored folk. The Cresswells became known for their kindness and generosity. During the Great Blizzard of 1883, the Cresswells fed the whole town from their own cellars when the ships couldn't make it through the ice to the wharf. Samuel made sure that every man that wanted to work had a job, no matter their color.

Before long, Anna became pregnant and wanted to build a home. Samuel, being a dutiful husband, went to the town fathers to ask for land to build a family home. Alas, the colonizers' true jealousy showed through. Samuel was allowed to purchase a piece of land far from town, on what was called The Bluff overlooking the Bay. The townspeople figured it was the proper place for negros to live no matter how rich they were. But Anna had the last laugh.

Side note: Samuel did purchase the 2 plots of land across the river from The Bluff. He built decent homes on them, one for his loyal foreman and the other for transient men of color looking for work along the coast. He tried to employ them all and gave many men their first true taste of being free. Working for Mr. Cresswell was no easy task, but if you could last 2 years you became known as one of Cresswell's Men and could work at top dollar ANYWHERE on the Shore. Cresswell's Men were hardworking fisherman of color and their catch is still celebrated throughout SimNation as the best in the world.

Anna commissioned the very best Negro artisans and craftsmen from around the country to build the most beautiful home in the Bay. The townsfolk grew more envious than ever, but the Cresswells bid them no ill will. In fact, they hosted a Winterfest party every year and invited all the townspeople. Actually, this was because Anna was petty af. She knew the townswomen were aching to see what had been delivered to the home over the year and would not be able to refuse the invitation.

Many a trinket disappeared during those years, but only Anna knew the true treasures were locked away in a hidden room, where she also would hide fugitives from time to time. These fugitives were women escaping physical and sexual abuse from other parts of the nation. Anna hid them away until Samuel could provide them safe passage up the coast by sea. Surprisingly, none of the treasures hidden with the fugitives ever strayed away. Only the common trinkets left out for the townspeople were ever stolen.

Samuel and Anna had 2 daughters, one died in infancy but the survivor Eliza inherited the house when Anna mysteriously disappeared in the spring of 1904. Anna’s body has never been found. It was rumored she ran away to the Selvadoradian jungle with her manservant but it was never proven. 

Eliza, a carefree gal, dropped out of college and married a louse named Henry Layton. Soon after, Eliza began to show signs she was losing her mind. Henry sold the store under the pretense of paying for Eliza's medical care. Alas, Henry had a gambling addiction and actually gambled his wife's family fortune away. Eliza was placed in a state mental institution where she later died. When the bank finally took the house from Henry, he shot himself in the widow's walk. His body was found 2 years later by a prospective buyer. Needless to say, the house still sits vacant today.

The reason it took 2 years for Henry's body to be found is that no one was looking for him. You see, Henry had actually planned to fake his own death to get out of paying his many many debts and would have gotten away clean if he would have remembered to take the bullets out of the gun during his dry run.

Before she was institutionalized, Eliza gave birth to a baby girl. Jackie was raised by the nuns in the local rectory. She cannot wait to reclaim her family's good name.

The story to follow is Jackie’s story and that of her family.