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By 1833, [[Zephaniah Kingsley]], a pre-Civil War agricultural baron, had become the plantation's owner. In 1842, White Oak Plantation was purchased by Abraham Bessent, a shopkeeper in nearby St. Marys, Georgia. The sale included extensive machinery and 118 slaves, 109 whose names were recorded on the deed.<ref name="History" />
Before the [[American Civil War]], White Oak had about {{convert|350| acres}} of rice paddies in cultivation. Today, the abandoned paddies are still visible, and the remnants of a building from the Kingsley era still stand in what is now a cheetah enclosure. During the Civil War, most planters left their rice plantations and permanently relocated to their summer estates. It is probable that the plantation was abandoned at this time.<ref name="History" />
[[File:Isaac and his wife - name unknown.jpg|left|thumb|Isaac Gilman stands with his wife. Her name and the date of this photo are unknown.]]The Gilman family acquired the property in the late 1930s. Isaac Gilman grew from humble beginnings, peddling in Manhattan in the 1880s after emigrating from Europe. He saved up, and in 1907, he purchased a struggling paper company in Vermont, which was renamed the [[Gilman Paper Company]] in 1921.<ref name="Forbes">{{cite news|last1=Lenzner|first1=Robert|last2=Kellner|first2= Tomas|url=https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2003/0811/068.html|title=The Fall of The House of Gilman|periodical=Forbes|access-date=23 February 2014|date=11 August 2003}}</ref>
Gilman handed off the business to his son, Charles, who in 1939 moved it to the {{convert|7,400
Charles Gilman died in 1967, leaving his sons Chris and [[Howard Gilman|Howard]] to run it as president and senior officer, respectively. Chris died in 1982, making Howard the sole owner. It was then that Howard Gilman began to spearhead additions to the White Oak property, investing $154 million to build the Baryshnikov Dance Studio, a conference center, a nine-hole golf course, and expansive enclosures and buildings to raise, breed, rehabilitate and study threatened and endangered species. (White Oak had animals, like roan antelope, before 1982, but it was that year the center officially became White Oak Conservation Center.) Outside of White Oak, Gilman also made large contributions to the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] and [[Brooklyn Academy of Music]].<ref name="Forbes" />
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