THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 16, 1997 TAG: 9702140070
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: TRAVEL
SOURCE: BY STEPHEN HARRIMAN, TRAVEL EDITOR
DATELINE: MOUNT VERNON, VA. LENGTH: 316 lines
TODAY WE REMEMBER George Washington as the Father of His Country, the Virginia general who won America's War for Independence, not so much by his military genius as by his stubborn refusal to lose.
We remember him as the beloved citizen-soldier who invented the presidency, charted the course of the Executive Branch and kept a fledgling republic from degenerating into anarchy.
``First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen,'' is the way Light-Horse Harry Lee put it on Washington's death in December 1799.
If George Washington were alive today - he'd be 265 on Saturday - the squire of Mount
Vernon would almost certainly be most delighted if you'd think of him as the First Farmer.
He always thought farming was the ``most delectable'' of pursuits. ``It is honorable,'' he wrote, ``it is amusing, and, with superior judgment, it is profitable.''
Well, we'll see about that.
Those who study Washington's writings discover that the subject of farming appears more often than any other - particularly the daily details of managing his 8,000-acre Mount Vernon plantation.
He often wrote about the importance of farming to the future success of America. To his friend Thomas Jefferson, a kindred spirit in things agrarian, Washington wrote in 1788: ``. . . extensive speculation, a spirit of gambling or the introduction of anything which will divert our attention from Agriculture, must be extremely prejudicial if not ruinous to us all.''
From these journals emerge the story of Washington as a risk-taking and often struggling farmer, as a farmer adventurous and enlightened enough to turn his back on traditional practices and to research ways to make his Potomac River land profitable.
For instance, by 1766 he had stopped raising tobacco, the traditional Virginia cash crop, because it was extremely labor-intensive, it depleted the land of its nutrients and it left him economically vulnerable to the whims of British trade. In its place he began a seven-year diversified crop rotation on the 3,000 acres he cultivated on five adjoining farms, where he grew wheat, corn, potatoes, buckwheat, oats and rye.
In addition to making use of fallow land by planting it in clover and grasses to provide pasture for cattle, he experimented with dozens of soil amendments and fertilizers and changed his plowing practices to reduce erosion.
In hindsight, Washington's formula was flawed. It favored the land more than his pocketbook (he had to borrow money to go to his 1789 inauguration in New York), producing only three cash crops in seven years. But he was determined to break away from the one-crop system. In that he succeeded.
It was not until the last year of his life, though, that Washington realized a profit from his farming.
All these practices were radical by 18th century standards. Washington, however, was innovative as well. He designed and had built one of the most unusual and fascinating - perhaps unique - barns in the annals of farming. It was a two-story, 16-sided barn in which wheat was threshed by the treading of horses' hoofs on a circular track.
``This was pretty clearly Washington's invention,'' says Mount Vernon historian John Riley. ``We don't know of anything like it before it or afterwards.''
Washington had it built, largely through laborious correspondence, while he was in the then federal capital of Philadelphia, busy being president and keeping Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton from each other's throats. No easy task. They were ``pitted against each other every day in the cabinet like two fighting cocks,'' by Jefferson's own account.
The barn structure was 52 feet in diameter and 41 feet high. Each of the 16 side walls was about 10 feet, 3 inches long. Washington calculated that 30,820 bricks would be required for the foundation and the first-floor walls.
Today a strikingly accurate replica of this barn stands again on the shrunken Mount Vernon estate, not where it once was (now 20th century housing) but in a little four-acre valley of reclaimed swampland along the Potomac that Washington called the ``Hell hole.''
``In terms of historical reconstruction,'' says Dennis Pogue, director of restoration, ``the barn is the most authentic of its kind.'' Thanks to Washington's meticulous records and his drawings, Pogue points out, the new barn ``isn't just a reconstruction, it's a total replication of an 18th century building.''
The threshing barn is the centerpiece of the new ``George Washington: Pioneer Farmer'' exhibit, a working farm open year-round and staffed with costumed interpreters from March through November.
The barn complex includes two stables and two corn cribs as well as livestock pens, just as Washington designed them.
Visitors are invited to work side-by-side with the Mount Vernon folks in the planting, hoeing, cultivating or harvesting - whatever the season dictates - and to view rare, Colonial-era breeds of animals - Hog Island sheep, milking Devon cows, Red Devon oxen, Ossabaw Island pigs, plus chickens and turkeys . . problem - an unintended, though historically accurate, one.
But the day I visited the site all attention was focused on the barn and on Katie and Cochise, the two horses who trotted around inside the barn on the upper level, separating the wheat from the chaff.
In Washington's time, separating the grain from the straw was very laborious and traditionally performed outside in the barnyard, either by slaves with flails, a tedious, laborious work, or by animals walking on the harvested stalks. It produced a sometimes muddy, sometimes just plain nasty bag of grain.
Washington's idea of ``treading-out'' under shelter yielded a cleaner, more marketable product and significantly decreased the amount of labor required by minimizing the middle stage of manually separating the grain from the straw.
In Washington's barn, the grain falls through the 1 1/2-inch gaps between the floorboards down to the lower level, where it is collected and bagged.
Yes, but what about . . . you know, uh, ``accidents''?
I have it on good authority from a horse-handler that horses won't urinate while they're running. As for the other stuff, well, if it happens, one of the handlers scoops it up with a pitchfork and tosses it out one of the 15 windows before the horses come around again.
Washington's first attempt at a more effective threshing system was not entirely successful. In 1789, the year he became president, he built a huge, rectangular barn on his Union Farm, large enough for 30 hands to work inside with ease.
However, in a letter to Harry Lee, he noted ``. . . When I came home . . . I found a treading yard not 30 feet from the Barn door, the Wheat again brought out of the Barn and horses treading it out in an open exposure liable to the vicissitudes of weather. . . .''
Washington decided then to build the circular barn that would allow the livestock to ``tread out'' under cover, thus allowing the slave labor to be utilized elsewhere - and at the same time produce a clean, dry product.
In October 1792, Washington wrote to his new farm manager, Anthony Whiting, that he had ``resolved to build a Barn and treading floor at Dogue Run Plantation,'' one of his five adjoining farms. He enclosed the plan with ``such explanations and directions as I think Thos. Green . . . can be at no loss in the execution.''
He was wrong about that.
Green, the principal builder, was a piece of work. By February 1793 Washington concluded that ``Green will never overcome his propensity to drink; that it is this which occasions his frequent sicknesses, absences from work and poverty. I am convinced, moreover, that it answers no purpose to admonish him.'' A month later Washington called Green ``one of the worst scoundrels living. . . .'' In June he writes: ``Sorry to hear Green sawed off his finger.''
The major difficulty, of course, was that Washington was not present to supervise the operation. In his day there were no flip-phones, no e-mail, no Air Force One. In Washington's 3-miles-an-hour era, the distance from Philadelphia to Mount Vernon was far greater than we think of it today.
Finally, though, the work was done. On March 9, 1794, Washington wrote to his latest manager, William Pearce, ``I am glad to hear that Green has at length put a finish on the Barn at Dogue Run Farm.''
By February 1796, Washington discovered that the wooden floor supports were rotting. Exasperated, and in need of money, he advertised the entire 517-acre Dogue Run farm, barn and all, for sale. There were no buyers.
By the time he retired from the presidency and returned to Mount Vernon, he apparently had had a change of heart. He showed off the barn to a visitor. It had new windows to air out the replaced floor.
Washington's original polygonal barn survived well into the 19th century, long enough for it to have been photographed. Today it is only a crumbled foundation under a house in a modern Fairfax County subdivision. His plans for the barn survived as well, and they are remarkably detailed.
With those, the curators of Mount Vernon set out to replicate the structure. It proved a daunting task.
Exact replication, says Dennis Pogue, ``. . . means using the same kinds of timber Washington used . . . and the same kinds of tools to cut and saw the timber. It means making more than 17,000 nails, molding 40,000 bricks and splitting 15,000 cypress singles. All by hand.''
The massive, 12-by-12-inch timbers were hewn and squared up with a broad ax. Narrower cuts were achieved by using a 7-foot pit saw.
The original lumber specified was in short supply locally even in Washington's day. He had to ``import'' pine from the Eastern Shore, and his old-growth cypress for the shingles came from the Great Dismal Swamp.
The modern builders found elusive stands of pine and oak in North Carolina, and some of the cypress came from sinker logs - heavy heartwood cut down 100 years ago - from the bottom of a Louisiana bayou.
Eventually, what appeared impossible at first became a reality. The barn complex was opened to visitors in September. If Washington could see it now, he'd probably be delighted.
Slaves figured prominently in every aspect of life at Mount Vernon. In Black History Month, it is proper to look at that part of the plantation's operation.
Washington's diversified crop plan soon required less field labor. Moreover, his attitude toward slavery also changed, and by the end of the Revolution he had resolved not to sell or purchase slaves.
Instead, the work of his slaves began to change. Field hands often were assigned tasks such as caring for livestock, ditching to control erosion and splitting rail fences.
Others became skilled craftsmen. Washington eventually identified nearly 30 percent of his 300-plus slaves - only marginally fewer than the number of federal employees during his presidency - as experienced in trades such as carpentry, brickmasonry and coopering (barrel making).
Washington expressed the hope that slavery might be abolished by the state legislature. In theory, he could have emancipated his slaves by a stroke of his pen, but in doing so he would have destroyed his own fortune and that of his family.
There were other complications as well. Many of the slaves at Mount Vernon were the dower property of his wife, Martha, and he could not legally emancipate them. There was also the issue of intermarriage between slaves owned by the two Washingtons.
Washington freed only one slave at his death - his body servant William - ``as a testimony of my sense of his attachment to me and for his faithful services during the Revolution.'' All the other slaves were to be freed upon the death of Martha. MEMO: Another first for first president
HERE'S A BIT of trivia that will make you the envy of Cliff Claven at
the Cheers bar. Who introduced mules to the United States? Why, George
Washington.
Beginning with a male jackass named Royal Gift, a present from the
King of Spain, Washington began an intensive breeding program carried
out under the supervision of a slave named Peter Hardman.
The results are evident in two inventories of Mount Vernon livestock:
one taken in 1785 listed 130 working horses and no mules; the second,
taken in 1799, the year of Washington's death, recorded 25 horses and 58
mules.
American farmers soon found that a mule was more hard-working and
less expensive to maintain than a horse.
There are still mules at Mount Vernon, in the mule shed behind the
brick stable, south of the mansion house. ILLUSTRATION: File photo
THE OLD AND THE NEW
[Color Photo]
STEPHEN HARRIMAN
George Washington's Mount Vernon estate in Northern Virginia now
includes a replica of his two-story, 16-sided barn. Reconstruction
was based on his records and drawings and a 19th century photograph.
WASHINGTON CHRONOLOGY
1732 - Born Feb. 22 at Popes Creek Plantation in Westmoreland
Co., Va., the first child of Augustine and Mary (Ball) Washington.
1743 - Augustine Washington dies in George's 11th year. Lawrence
Washington, George's elder half brother, marries and settles at
Mount Vernon.
1748 - George Washington, 16, certified as a public surveyor;
does extensive work for Thomas, 6th Lord Fairfax.
1751 - George Washington, 19, travels to Barbados - his only trip
outside America - with his ailing half brother Lawrence. Lawrence's
tuberculosis only gets worse, and George contracts a severe case of
smallpox.
1752 - Lawrence Washington dies.
1754 - George Washington, 22, leases Mount Vernon from Lawrence's
widow. As a lieutenant colonel of the Virginia militia, Washington
ventures into the Ohio Territory, where, in May, his troops fire on
French troops and begin what becomes the French and Indian War.
1755 - As aide-de-camp to British Gen. Edward Braddock,
Washington participates in the ill-fated expedition against Fort
Duquesne during which Braddock is killed. In August, Washington is
commissioned colonel of all Virginia forces.
1758 - Washington resigns his commission and is elected to the
Virginia House of Burgesses, an office he will hold through 1774.
1759 - Washington, 27, marries the widowed Martha Dandridge
Custis; they settle at Mount Vernon with her two young children,
John Parke and Martha Parke Custis. Washington settles into a life
of farming.
1761 - Washington inherits Mount Vernon following the death of
Lawrence's widow.
1774 - Washington, 42, takes seat in First Continental Congress.
1775 - Washington, returned to Second Continental Congress, is
appointed commander in chief of the Continental forces. He will not
reside at Mount Vernon for eight years.
1781 - British forces surrender to American and French troops
under Washington's command at Yorktown on Oct. 19, ending, for all
practical purposes, America's War for Independence. During the siege
of Yorktown, stepson John Parke Custis, an aide to his stepfather,
dies; the Washingtons take in his two youngest children, Eleanor
Parke and George Washington Parke Custis.
1783 - Washington, 51, resigns his commission to Congress and
retires to Mount Vernon on Christmas Eve.
1784-86 - Final enlargement of the Mount Vernon mansion house and
landscaping are completed.
1787 - Washington, 55, presides over the Continental Convention
in Philadelphia.
1789-97 - Elected first president of the United States at age 57
and serves two terms in New York and Philadelphia. During his
presidency he visits Mount Vernon 15 times.
1799 - Washington, 67, dies Dec. 14 after a brief illness and is
entombed in the old family vault. His body and that of Martha, who
died in 1802, are removed to a new brick tomb on the Mount Vernon
grounds in 1831.
Washington succumbed to a streptococcic throat infection and to
the medical mistreatment he received. Considering his medical
history, it is remarkable that he reached the age of 67 in the 18th
century. During his life he suffered recurring attacks of malaria
and dysentery as well as smallpox, tubercular pleurisy and
influenza. He was highly susceptible to colds, and apparently had
chronic infected tonsils and severe tooth trouble.
TRAVELER'S ADVISORY: MOUNT VERNON
George Washington's home and the 500-acre estate (originally
8,000 acres) is owned and maintained by the Mount Vernon Ladies'
Association, the oldest (1853) national preservation organization in
America.
Getting there: Mount Vernon is at the southern end of the George
Washington Parkway, 8 miles south of Alexandria, 16 miles south of
downtown Washington, D.C. From South Hampton Roads it can be reached
by taking Exit 161 off Interstate 95 and following U.S. 1 north,
then Virginia Route 235 east; this route is well marked. Parking is
free. Mount Vernon is about four hours from downtown Norfolk. Boat
cruises from Washington are available from mid-March to October;
call (202) 554-8000.
Open: Every day, including holidays, as follows - November
through February, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; March, September and October, 9
a.m. to 5 p.m.; April through August, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Grounds are
cleared 30 minutes after closing. The farm site will be staffed by
interpreters from March through November. It also will be open
Monday, the federally observed holiday, and on Saturday,
Washington's actual birthday. There is a surround-sound audio
presentation in the barn when staffers are not present.
Admission fee: $8 adults, $7.50 seniors, $4 children 6-11 when
accompanied by an adult. There are discounts for groups.
Food services: A full-service snack bar serves a light breakfast
and lunch as well as snacks. The Mount Vernon Inn is open for lunch
Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and Sunday until 4 p.m.;
dinner is served Monday-Saturday, 5 to 9 p.m. Reservations are
recommended at the Inn's dining room; call (703) 780-0011. Both
dining facilities, as well as two gift shops, are just outside the
main gate.
Info: (703) 780-2000. You may visit on the Internet at
http://www.mountvernon.org.