Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 11, 1993 TAG: 9304110231
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
CHRONOLOGY
1775 Age 32. Elected delegate to second Continental Congress in Philadelphia. \ 1776 Age 33. Mother Jane Randolph Jefferson dies March 31 at the age of 56. In Philadelphia between May 17 and June 28,in a historic explosion of genius,Jefferson drafts the Declaration of Independence and a constitution for Virginia.\1777 Age 34. Introduces Virginia legislation to prevent the importation of slaves (passed in 1778).\ 1778 Age 35. Daughter Mary (called Maria)born Aug. 1. The Jeffersons would have six children in all;only Patsy and Maria were to survive infancy.\ 1779 Age 36. Elected in June for the first of two one-year terms as governor. Introduces to the General Assembly in Williamsburg the Statute for Religious Freedom (which was finally enacted in 1786 after a decadelong campaign against the Anglican establishment).\ 1780 Age 37. Virginia capital moved from Williamsburg to Richmond.\ 1781 Age 38. Late in his final term as governor (June), Jefferson narrowly averts capture by British troops at Monticello. (Among the seven General Assembly delegates who were captured in nearby Charlottesville was Daniel Boone,representing Fayette County,now Kentucky.)Revolutionary War ends,for all practical purposes,when British surrender at Yorktown,Oct. 19. Jefferson begins writing his Notes on the State of Virginia.\ 1782 Age 39. Wife,Martha,dies on Sept. 6, three weeks shy of her 34th birthday. The distraught Jefferson writes,"A single event wiped away all my plans. . . ." And later,". . . all the favors of fortune have been embittered by domestic losses. Of six children I have lost four,and finally their mother."\ 1783 Age 40. Elected to Confederation Congress,where he champions the decimal system of coinage and introduces laws leading to the Northwest Ordinance.\ 1784 Age 41. Commissioned to negotiate with foreign powers. Sails July 5 for France with daughter Patsy and servant James Hemings,who was taken along to learn French cooking.\ 1785 Age 42. Succeeds Benjamin Franklin as American Minister to France.\ 1786 Age 43. The author of the Declaration of Independence and his compatriot,John Adams,are presented to an "ungracious" King George III in London. Jefferson writes:"I saw at once that the ulcerations in the narrow mind of that mulish being left nothing to be expected on the subject of my attendance." Jefferson sends model of the Maison Carree at Nimes,France (which he had not yet seen)and plans adapting it for Virginia's capitol in Richmond. \ 1787 Age 44. Notes on the State of Virginia are published in England in a form he approves. Daughter Maria joins him in Paris. He twice visits the Maison Carree at Nimes (which he wrote Maisonquarree at Nismes).\ 1789 Age 46. Returns to Virginia,landing Nov. 23,at Norfolk,where he and daughters spend a month lodging in the proprietor's own quarters at Lindsay's hotel on Main Street. The French-educated Maria did not like Norfolk,reportedly bursting into tears at the sight of the borough and exclaiming (in French), "But this is very different from Paris."\ 1790 Age 47. Accepts,reluctantly,appointment by President George Washington as the nation's first secretary of state. Daughter Patsy marries second cousin Thomas Mann Randolph II,Feb. 23.\ 1791 Age 48. Philosophical break between Jefferson and Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton,a prelude to party division in the new republic. \ 1794 Age 51. Retires to Monticello. Designs and successfully tests a moldboard of least resistance for a plow,which draws international acclaim.\ 1796 Age 53. Begins to remodel and enlarge Monticello from eight to 21 rooms,not including cellars,and adding the dome,the first in an American dwelling. "Architecture," he wrote,"is my delight,and putting up,and pulling down,one of my favorite amusements." The finished product,the Monticello we see today,would be,he wrote,"my essay in architecture. . . ."\ 1797 Age 54. Becomes John Adams' vice president,beginning another 12 years of public service. Also elected president of American Philosophical Association. Daughter Maria marries half-cousin John "Jack" Wayles Eppes,October 13.\ 1798 Age 55. Drafts Kentucky Resolutions proclaiming states rights.\ 1801 Age 58. Elected third President of of the United States by the House of Representatives,having tied with Aaron Burr in the Electoral College vote. Inaugurated March 4.\ 1803 Age 60. Treaty for purchase of Louisiana Territory ratified. Dispatches Capts. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark,both Albemarle County natives,to explore the vast territory.\ 1804 Age 61. Re-elected president. Daughter Maria Jefferson Eppes dies April 17,at age of 25.\ 1806 Age 63. Recommends to Congress the abolition of slave trade (enacted 1807). Begins construction of Poplar Forest,his retreat near Lynchburg. Commissions Zebulon Pike's expedition to the Southwest.\ 1809 Age 66. Retires from government service,turning over presidency to friend and next-county neighbor James Madison,and returns to Monticello. Interior of Monticello completed;workmen leave.\ 1812 Age 69. Renews friendship (by voluminous exchange of letters)with oft-time political adversary John Adams.\ 1814 Age 71. Inaugurates efforts to establish an institute of higher learning. Central College would be chartered in 1816.\ 1815 Age 72. Partly to cover mounting debts,sells his personal library to the United States;it would become the nucleus of what is today the Library of Congress.\ 1817 Age 74. Creates plan for the University of Virginia. Oct. 6, cornerstone laid for first building,now Pavillion VII,with President James Monroe,a longtime friend and neighbor,officiating,and James Madison and Jefferson in attendance.\ 1819 Age 76. University of Virginia chartered. The first Board of Visitors was named,with Jefferson as the rector or presiding officer.\ 1823 Age 80. Monticello completed when porticoes are finished.\ 1824 Age 81. Lafayette visits Jefferson at Monticello.\ 1825 Age 82. University of Virginia,"the hobby of my old age," Jefferson wrote,opens for classes,March 7.\ 1826 Age 83. The Rotunda is finished,completing Jefferson's plan for an "academical village." Jefferson dies at Monticello on July 4 at 12:50 p.m. At approximately the same time 50 years earlier his Declaration of Independence had been presented to Congress. Also dying on this day was John Adams,whose last words were,"Thomas Jefferson still survives."