Will Dockery
William Alfred Dockery (November 10, 1865 – December 29, 1936) built the Dockery Plantation, a key place in the birth of the Delta blues. He was born in Love, Mississippi to farming parents who were poor after the Civil War. He graduated from the University of Mississippi in 1885. With a $1000 gift from his grandmother, he bought land near Cleveland in the Mississippi Delta, between the Yazoo and Sunflower rivers. He started in the lumber business, built a sawmill, and later cleared the land to grow cotton.
Dockery hired workers and built a cotton gin, a post office, and a company store that printed its own money. By the 1930s the plantation covered about 28 square miles. He was known for treating workers fairly. Black laborers came to work as tenants or sharecroppers and lived on the land.
The plantation became a gathering place for itinerant blues musicians, who lived in bachelor quarters and played late into the night. The Delta blues thrived here, with musicians such as Charley Patton, Robert Johnson, Son House, Howlin’ Wolf, Willie Brown, Tommy Johnson, and Pops Staples associated with Dockery’s land.
A Mississippi Blues Trail marker now honors Dockery Plantation for its important role in blues history, and is placed in Cleveland, Mississippi. The marker notes the plantation’s influence on the Delta blues and on Mississippi music overall.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 20:15 (CET).